#zach and parvati

[wizardingworldlibrary]

Parvati Patil Masterlist

An Unexpected Yule (ao3) - RavenclawQueen44 Draco/Parvati G, 1k

Summary: Parvati Patil has a surprising Yule Ball.

A Wedding and a World Cup (ao3) - cryptaknight, smutty_claus Parvati/Zacharias M, 6k

Summary: Zach Smith gets more than he bargained for when he makes a deal with Parvati Patil.

All of You at Once (ao3) - ZoomieZoomie324 Lavender/Padma E, 3k

Summary: Lavender and Padma have always been best friends, but tonight, they’re something more.

Beachside Conversations (ao3) - DarkAngelOfSorrowReturns Parvati/Blaise T, 877

Summary: Parvati needed a break, and the beachside was the right choice.

Fate & Jupiter (ao3) - thewakeless Parvati/Lavender, Katie/Padma T, 24k

Summary: Padma and Parvati might not agree on everything, but they know one thing for sure, they’re both ready for a change. Padma is worn out from her Ministry job, and Parvati is tired of pining after Lavender 24/7. So, they decide to open up a potion shop in Hogsmeade but of course nothing goes quite as planned because you can’t stop fate, and you certainly can’t stop Jupiter.

Or wholesome double getting together wlw with strong winter vibes

Girls Like Us (ao3) - sapphicmarauders (orphan_account) Lavender/Parvati T, 3k

Summary: The Oscars. 2011. Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown are world famous actresses up for the same award. One night leads to a major realization for Parvati.

Padma and Parvati (fanfiction.net) - Kokoro893 K, 1k

Summary: Parvati is left in charge of the family restaurant and Padma has to deal with her sister

Paradox (fanfiction.net) - KeepsAwayTheNargles T, 2k

Summary: Parvati Patil tweets off her sister’s homework quite often, but what happens when Flitwick begins to see the similarities between the twins’ essays? Will Padma continue to help her twin, and if not, how will she reconcile her sister’s lazy behavior without hurting her feelings. There Is some time travel Involved to stop something from happening!

Parvati Patil and the Chamber of Secrets (ao3) - White_Squirrel G, 26k

Summary: At the Duelling Club, Harry Potter is revealed as a Parselmouth, but he’s not the only Parselmouth in the school. A fellow Gryffindor and her sister who share his gift come to his aid, but they must still face the terror of Slytherin’s monster.

Parvati Patil and the Missing Werewolf (ao3) - Bookworm1063 Draco/Harry T, 3k

Summary: More than a year after the battle of Hogwarts, Lavender Brown is still missing. Her best friend, Parvati Patil, isn't willing to give up on her- even after Lavender's secret comes to light. (Spoiler alert: She's a werewolf)

Seventh Year - Parvati Patil (ao3) - writer_in_a_treehouse M, 2k

Summary: “We’re going to make it!” Dean awkwardly patted her shoulder. Parvati took a deep breath. “Dean?” “Yeah?” “I never thought I’d say that in this context, but thank you for being here and fighting at my side.” Dean smiled weakly and opened his mouth to say something when a few meters next to them a window burst and a person tumbled into the corridor.

or

Parvati and Dean fight together in the Battle of Hogwarts.

Sisters No Matter What (ao3) - BrianJustin4Ever Luna/Padma, mentioned Parvati/Dean G, 2k

Summary: Padma and Parvati Patil learn that sisters are there for life, no matter what.

the dead are faithful (ao3) - sapphic_terror Lavendar/Parvati G, 3k

Summary: Parvati falls in love with Lavender Brown and around them war blooms

The Hogwarts Hungry Hearts Speed-Dating Event (ao3) - GingerTodgers Luna/Ginny, Millicent/Padma, Lavender/Parvati, Hermione/Pansy T, 6k

Summary: A group of queer girls go speed-dating, it all goes horribly wrong and then wonderfully right.

The Universe Vs Parvati Patil (ao3) - BleepBloopBotz Lavender/Parvati T, 2k

Summary: It's the day before Valentine's Day, and Parvati is very single.

At least, that's what she thinks.

This Is Where (ao3) - Kicon Lavender/Parvati G, 28k

Summary: Various moments of Parvati and Lavender through their years at Hogwarts as they deal with self-identity, internalized homophobia, and a Hogwarts crueler than anybody could’ve imagined

TwentyFive (fanfiction.net) - yellow 14 T, 2k

Summary: A series of letters between Padma Patil and her sister from their twenty-fifth birthday.

We’ll All Fall After The Yule Ball (fanfiction.net) - Don E. Delivery Harry/Parvati T, 83k

Summary: Harry’s attraction to Parvati leads him to take his Yule Ball preparation much more seriously and his night is changed as a result. Includes an awesome Ron, an interesting Parvati and a drunk Katie Bell. Oh, and what’s a Yule Ball fic without a little Fleur Delacour?

[rose-of-oz]

I’m VERY interested in the regency-era murder mystery comedy & the musical queer American teen comedy 👀 👀 👀

@dancingsunflowers-ocs 💙

Thanks so much for this!! 🖤🖤🖤

ALRIGHT, let’s start off with our murder mystery:

Picture it: London, 1815, the height of the current social season. Henrietta Fitzwilliam, the third-youngest daughter of a viscount and viscountess and lovingly known to her siblings as “Henny” (faceclaim: Claudia Jessie) has been dragged to yet another ball by her determined mother, along with her twin brother Edward (faceclaim: Louis Partridge).

Henny’s older sister already found a husband two years ago, so now her mother, Lady Fitzwilliam (faceclaim: Julia Roberts) is completely determined to find Henny and Edward matches at this newest ball, held by the society-famous Duke and Duchess of Shrewsborough, Lord and Lady Brighton (faceclaims: Rupert Graves and Naomi Watts).

Everybody attending the ball (at which neither Henny nor Edward is very successful at finding a potential match) is invited to stay the night at the Brightons’ massive estate the night after, only to wake up to screams in the middle of the night and realize that a maid has found the bodies of Lord and Lady Brighton, lying in bed together with their throats cut.

The household’s head matron, Mrs. Fishe (faceclaim: Imelda Staunton) refuses to let anyone staying in the house leave to contact the authorities, insisting that neither of the Brightons would want the scandal of having the police called to their estate, instead enlisting the help of Detective Giles (faceclaim: Henry Golding), a police investigator and friend of the Brightons who had happened to be at the ball and staying at the estate.

Not trusting the detective and unable to summon proper police help, Henny and Edward, teaming up with the Brightons’ daughter Mary (faceclaim: Natalie Alyn Lind), resolve to solve the murder themselves… but considering the bizarre cast of characters in this mansion, everyone, including the detective and even the twins’ own mother, is a suspect.

Featuring Christian Bale as a violence-happy English general who’s very condescending towards women, Judi Dench as Lord Brighton’s sassy widowed mother who did not like Lady Brighton, Idris Elba as the head butler who the three young detectives discover to have been having an affair with Lady Brighton, and several other suspect characters I haven’t given enough thought to yet.

Also, did I mention Henny is a lesbian? She and Mary have a really cute romance that I am so excited to write!!

I do already have the murderer figured out, but, you know… no spoilers. 😜

And now we arrive at our queer musical comedy:

I don’t have as much figured out about this yet, but here’s what I do know:

Ben (Joe Keery), Parvati (Geraldine Viswanathan), Skye (Paris Berelc), Joey (Keiynan Lonsdale) and Vince (Mark McKenna) have all been friends since middle school.

Ben gets a crush on Zach (Ryan Potter), a classmate whose alternative band is pretty popular in their community, and one time when they’re talking Zach mentions that their city will be having its first Battle of the Bands soon and that his band will be competing.

Seeing an opportunity to impress his crush, Ben ropes his friends (who, conveniently, all have musical talents) to form a cover band called Skyrocket so that they can compete in the Battle of the Bands.

Cue a cute and funny story including a lot of friendly teasing, no one in the band except Ben actually wanting to be there, and a totally queer friend group!!

Ben is on bass, Joey’s the lead singer, Vince plays the keys/piano, Skye’s on the drums, and Parvati is lead guitar.

It’s very cute and there’s a happy ending, but that’s all I really have for now!!

(If you want to know more about any of these characters, feel free to hit me up!! 🖤🖤🖤)

[canyouhearthelight]

The Miys, Ch. 152

I’m not going to jinx it, I’m not going to jinx it, I’m not going to jinx it...

Okay, maybe I am. I managed to queue up the chapters I had in the barrel! Yay!! Which also means that I have a super duper exciting chapter coming up, which I can’t wait to write and can’t wait for y’all to read. I just need it to be perfect.

That said, thank you to @baelpenrose and @charlylimph-blog for your help with this particular chapter.  I love when we are all three in one of these sessions and just descending into chaos in the chat. Also, @mamayoda (who I can’t tag but I do want you to know I see your likes in my notes!) for love-bombing my notes recently.

“Is it just me or is everyone really jumpy?” Charly asked as I set my food down across from her.  It was our thrice-weekly lunch dates in one of the public mess halls, and she definitely had a point.  I had already noticed three people scowl distrustfully at the food consoles, hugging closely to the prepared food side of the room instead.

I sighed. “It has to have been Derek’s stress test.  It wasn’t supposed to impact systems we didn’t design, but…”

She snorted loudly. “Tell that to the week I spent taking cold showers again.  At least this time, the doors didn’t play any music when I walked through them.”

“Did your doors at least open consistently? I was stuck in my quarters for a whole day until we figured out that I could walk through if I had an escort.”  I laughed and shook my head before digging in to my food. “And, come to find out, we actually do manage the water systems, thanks to BioLab 2.”

Contrary to myself, Charly was entirely unperturbed at this revelation beyond sniffing her hoodie and shrugging. “My doors worked fine as far as I know, but Coffey and I tend to work the same hours, so… Maybe that was it.  Oo!” Her cheer of enthusiasm caught me off guard as she started bouncing in her seat. “OOOOO! I bet he activated the routine Xiomara had running when you and Jokul weren’t friends yet!”

“There was a routine!?” I asked, exasperated. “I behaved, thank you. It wasn’t necessary.”

“Meh. Just in case. What do you think her deal is?” She tilted her head to the side, at a table near us.

Sure enough, the woman at that table was darting glances around the room, her shoulders hunched, elbows close to her body, eyes wide.  I could practically feel her shaking from where I was. “I can’t tell if she looks suspicious or afraid,” I murmured, hoping the woman couldn’t hear me. “But the fact that I’ve met mice and chihuahuas who shook less, I’m going to go with afraid.”

As I watched the woman, weighing whether or not a stranger trying to comfort her would make it better or worse, Mona’s familiar face approached her instead.  She was speaking softly enough that I couldn’t make out words, but the woman clearly recognized her and only jumped slightly.

I was so focused on the sight of Mona comforting the woman that I nearly hit the ceiling when Parvati’s voice came from entirely too close to my right shoulder. “Rebecca.  She lost her family twice, first her parents, some cousins, and an uncle when the hack happened, and then her partner and children in the After.  It’s understandable that she’s terrified right now, after the stress test. Too many bad memories.”

My face flushed in humiliation. “Pranav and Zach sent a ship-wide alert that the stress test was happening - “

A perfectly manicured hand clapped over my mouth, one dark eyebrow arched in eloquent disbelief. “Sophia. You of all people know that mental scars do not heed logic.”

Charly’s hair flew around her face as she nodded enthusiastically. “After day three of cold showers, I flinched every time I went through a door in case that stupid song started playing again, no matter how many times I reminded myself that it was a stress test and I had decidedly not given Derek boba tea again.”

Both my hands flew up in surrender. “I stand corrected, I just feel awful to see people react like that.” Gazing around the room, I was suddenly much more aware of all the darting eyes, protective postures, seats turned so that backs were against walls.

Charly had obviously seen the same thing. “We may need to talk to Pranav about limiting the tests to one or two systems at a time.”

“I wish we could,” I admitted, stabbing a potato out of my pie slightly harder than necessary. “His department was passing the tests with flying colors when Derek was limited to one or two systems at a time.  But they failed this last test miserably, it turns out.  As soon as they would react to one thing, Derek would switch to another system, and they couldn’t be everywhere at once as well as they convinced themselves that they could.  And they can’t just be good at small scale attacks: the revolt that happened before the End brought everything down at once, from multiple access points. It was… kind of elegant, in a terrible way.  Very clean.”

Charly squinted at me and Parvati in suspicion. “Are you supposed to know that they crashed and burned in the test.”

I rocked my hand back and forth while I chewed on a mouthful of crust.  It had way too much butter in it, but at least it was actually crust this time. A week ago it had been something pretty close to paper mache. “Technically we don’t officially know that.  Officially, all we know is that Pranav has requisitioned enough additional staff to increase his team of programmers by seventy percent.”

“Asses handed to them, got it,” Charly nodded in understanding.

“We also officially know that Pranav currently owes Hannah quite the enormous favor,” Parvati confided.

“How big?” Charly ventured slowly.

“Big enough that his grandchildren may be indebted to hers,” came the laughing response.

Charly shook her head and clucked her tongue. “He should know better than to bet against Derek.  He breaks the systems for fun, and they asked him to really go for it. What did they expect?”

“Apparently to put up a better fight at least.” I forced a smile, but guilt weighed on my heart as I studied the room again, fully seeing the microexpressions of anxiety, fear, and anger.  It felt like the entire Ark was constantly swinging between hope and fear. The random drills weren’t really helping, either.

“They aren’t,” Parvati agreed, letting me know that I had been thinking out loud. “Everyone is sleep deprived, on high alert, and then all of a sudden all the computer systems went on the fritz for a week.”

I sighed and rubbed my forehead, pushing what was left of my pot pie away from me, appetite gone. “We need to talk to Grey and Antoine about getting counselling for everyone, seeing as how Xiomara and Pranav pretty much just triggered the entire ship. I mean, everyone knows counselling is available, but I think allocating training and resources to the therapy teams is going to take priority over Pranav’s request for the moment.”

Charly tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Do we have the space for some quiet rooms, like you set up for the Food Festival a few years back? That may be a good idea.”

Snapping into work-mode, Parvati flicked her datapad open, bangles clattering as she started making notes. “The quarters left by those who relocated closer to the Archives are still uninhabited, those can be used.  We may be able to convince some people to relocate so we can spread the rooms out more evenly, but even if we can’t, just having those rooms available will help.”

“Make a note to add in the proposal for Grey: possibility of having specific vendors permitted to serve food in BioLab 2.  Encourage mental health days and picnics.”

Parvati nodded in acknowledgement of my request, before adding her own spin. “As a contingency plan, find vendors who will pre-package picnics.  Between the current distrust of the consoles and the fact it will remind everyone of the annual Festival, the good emotions will help.”

“I like it,” I confirmed. “What else?”

“Paintball tag day in the corridors,” Charly announced, without preamble or warning. “Make it a holiday, everyone is off work, limit it to one end of the Ark.”

I shook my head. “Guns, not the best idea.”

“Ew, no. No pew-pew.” She wrinkled her nose. “I was thinking more paint-soaked splash bombs.”

Finger guns deployed, dual wielding. “I am so here for a paintball tag day in that case.  The flavored paint?”

“Not the scotch bonnet please,” Parvati begged. “I just know someone will get that in the face, I don’t care how much Else likes it.”

“Got it, no more pepper spraying people,” Charly agreed seriously. “OOO! I could test the new arrows out!  With something like buttered popcorn paint, obviously. Maybe kiwi on the other team.”

“Just limit the pull on the bows, okay? I don’t want anyone getting hurt.”

“Fiiiiine…”

Parvati smiled and added to her notes. “So, we probably want someone to correlate the current date to whatever the date would be on Earth… Just in case we need to get a consultant for Holi.”

“Good point. Conor is alarmingly good at that, so I can ask him.  It would be a nice cultural event if we could do that. If not, we can totally work on celebrating Holi when it comes around.”

“Final suggestion for right now, because I have to get back to work,” I sighed happily. “This is going to be the biggest ask, and the smallest at the same time…” Both nodded at me to continue. “Care packages, for everyone. And I mean everyone on the Ark.”

“Sophia,” Parvati scolded me. “That’s almost ten thousand people and sixteen animal companions.”

“Well aware,” I forged on, “We’ll talk to Sam about the bows, I can wrap them. Commission some of those really nice chocolates, or maybe some taffy from Simon. And something salty.  I know there is someone on the Ark who makes aromatherapy candles, Tyche is bananas about them.”

Shaking her head, she added it to the list. “If you insist on that, I insist on a celebration for the drop out of FTL.  Hannah and I can use some of the plans from the Food Festival, include Charly’s paint tag - “

“And Kink Night!”

“- and Kink Night, apparently… have several events going on across the Ark, since we already discussed declaring a holiday.”

“Get Bash’s permission to use the Undine again, and I won’t object,” I surrendered before standing. “On that note, I really do have to get back to work.  Come on, Vati, we have work to do apparently.”

<< Prev  Masterlist  Next >>

[goldiisms]

hey tags! i’ve been dragged back into,,,,rp somehow and have some muse for certain hp ships, plots and dynamics!! you’ll find them below the cut. if you’re interested, please like this post or message me and we can discuss! 

about me

hi hi! i’m rae. i’ve been rping for abt?? 8 years now? generally very casual during discussions but i promise i know how to capitalize when necessary.

right now i’m looking for regular rp partners who can maybe do a reply / checkin once every two days? i’ve got a full-time job so i’m not on all the time, but i think it’d be nice to have some constants :]

in terms of my rp style, i’ve moved to preferring discord RP with faceclaims. i like the short para style (3-5 paragraphs) just bc it’s easier to develop plot that way, and am also down for text-type rping as supplementary.  

marauders-era

james / sirius - please give me these two idiot bros,,,, completely in denial that they’re IN LOVE with each other,,,i hate them so very much,,,love them so very much,,,,i think it would be fun to play james in this scenario but i’m also down to play sirius ! 

wolfstar - the og bffs plot!! just---sirius being generally a non-caring asshole except when it comes to moony. soft soft. them (plus pete n james) against the world. remus just an 80-yr-old gandalf in a young body;;; but also he’s ! he wants to be young!! he wants to live a normal life!! angsty bean. willing to play either in this scenario! 

andromeda/lucius - me and my absolute garbage self just ships these two for the angst!! like imagine if andromeda was the one initially engaged to lucius and they LOVED EACH OTHER but she couldn’t stand the pureblood bs hahahu. i’d love to play andromeda in this ship! 

mumu - i have some zany plots that i’m keeping under wraps in case i want to turn them into full-fledged rps one day, but basically i’m down to do either straight up canon, zombie apocalypse-y rp, canon-divergent, etc! 

characters i’d like to play: petunia evans, alice longbottom, kingsley shacklebolt, regulus black (lil whiny angsty baby), james potter

trio-era

flintwood - quidditch rivals! idiots! in-love but very in denial! i’m very into it! willing to play either but drawn to ollie

seamus / dean - no one can tell me they aren’t together, sorry 

lavender / parvati - v down to play lavender, lots of hurt comfort but also! giggling and friendship and gentle touches ;_; would prefer to play lavender ! 

ginny / luna - the big f/f potential of trio-era...astounding. willing to play either! haven’t done this at all but i think it’d be interesting to play out

padma / blaise - my god please let me relive the padma/blaise childhood friend rp where they’re on opposite sides of the war,,,i imagine it would be post-war, with padma/blaise as fwb but still in love with each other. :( i would like to play padma in this scenario! 

hufflesquad plot - just a slice of life where they’re all in love with each other lol. i do want to play either justin or ernie, + susan bones. susan vs zach smith: FIGHT

characters i’d like to play: cho chang, millicent bulstrode, oliver wood

founders / riddle-era

founders era rp - i’d like to play godric n helga,,,,the POTENTIAL for helga/salazar and godric/salazar!! and helga/rowena!! and godric/rowena!! PLEATHE actually all the dynamics would be really good. i had a founders rp up before but it never took flight. :c

minerva / tom riddle - very indulgent;;; wrong-side-of-the-tracks sort of ship;;; just minerva being very strait-laced n trying to convince tom to abide by the rules ;_; i just ship them ok. here i’d like to play minerva!

grindelwald / dumbles - two young, foolhardy, PROUD mfers and one’s descent into darkness!! boatloads of angst, dramatic declarations! willing to play either.

characters / plots i’d like to play: most noble house of black vs the world !!

[rainybookshop]

Ernie Macmillan and the End of the World

Fandom: Harry Potter

Pairings: Justin Finch Fletchley/Zacharias Smith, Marcus Flint/Oliver Wood, Miles Bletchley/Astoria Greengrass, Pansy Parkinson/Percy Weasley, Padma Patil/Romilda Vane, Luna Lovegood/Ginny Weasley/Blaise Zabini, Lavender Brown/Parvati Patil, Daphne Greengrass/Ernie Macmillan, Cho Chang/Theo Nott

Words: 3098

Read it on AO3 here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18738772

Ernie MacMillan is fairly certain that the world is imploding around him.

It had all started when Zacharias Smith, looking harried and determined and a little wild-eyed, had arrived late at their weekly Hufflepuff pub night (or Puff Night, as Ernie liked to call it) and proceeded to snog the life out of Justin Finch-Fletchley.

Justin, for his part, had looked shocked for a moment before melting into the kiss, clinging to Zach’s arms like a lifeline, and Ernie wondered how he’d missed the fact that his best mate was apparently mad about Zach-the-Prat Smith. (And alright, none of their friends actually called Zach that anymore, given that he generally behaved marginally less twattish than before, but Ernie still found him rather insufferable). Zach was also, as far as they knew, categorically allergic to romance and had an impressively long string of short-lived ex-girlfriends, but, Ernie thought, watching him wind his arms around Justin’s neck and urgently tug him closer, there were apparently a few things they hadn’t known.

“I love you,” Zach said breathlessly when they parted, and Ernie had watched Susan’s, Hannah’s, and Terry’s jaws drop simultaneously, which would have been funny if this weren’t also likely an omen of the apocalypse.

“I’ve been an arse,” Zach had continued, and Ernie would have snorted if he’d been capable of making any sound, “and I’m sorry, and I know it’s probably too late, but…” at which point Justin had cut him off by snogging him so thoroughly Ernie was forced to concede that he’d probably have to get over his horror about the whole thing if Zach made Justin that happy.

The two of them had promptly Disapparated, leaving a table full of shell-shocked Puffs (and various partners) in their wake. Terry’s eyebrows had risen so high they disappeared beneath his hairline, Neville was gaping like a fish and Susan looked as though she’d seen a Dementor. Even Hannah, who was normally unshakeable, looked rather stricken, although the reason for that soon appeared in the form of Graham Montague, who’d peeled himself away from the crowd of Slytherins at the bar – all of whom had been shamelessly watching the spectacle – to make his way to their table, pausing in front of Hannah and holding out his hand expectantly.

“You owe me ten Galleons,” he informed her with just a hint of smugness.

Marcus Flint brushed past them then, scowling fiercely, which seemed perfectly normal, until Oliver Wood followed a moment later and put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. “Babe,” began Wood cajolingly, and Ernie was pretty sure he was going to die of heart failure at this rate.

“Come on,” Wood continued, “we’ve barely stayed for one drink, no sense going home yet.”

“No point in staying when all our friends are late to our bloody engagement party,” Marcus grumbled back, and really, Ernie thought, he was sure there had to be a limit on how many shocks one could suffer in a single night.

As if on cue, Terrence Higgs and Adrian Pucey burst through the door, both looking rather windswept and glowing with elation. Their smiles faltered a bit when they noticed the murderous scowl on Flint’s face, but Pucey (rather bravely, Ernie thought), smiled placatingly and stepped forward.

“Sorry Marc, we got a lead on our latest case and we had to follow up on it, we got here as soon as we could.”

Flint still looked supremely unimpressed, but when Higgs added “We’ll buy you the biggest bottle of Ogden’s they’ve got,” and Wood fixed him with an earnestly hopeful expression, he relented. Before they’d even returned to their table by the bar, the door opened again and Miles Bletchley swept in, hand-in-hand with his wife Astoria.

“Sorry, sorry,” he began, barely even flinching at the truly venomous glare Flint sent him, “the baby just wouldn’t settle, and Mom would kill me if I left before I got her to sleep.”

The door had barely even shut behind him when it opened again to reveal George Weasley and Lee Jordan, grinning widely and brushing what looked like soot off of the front of their robes.

"Apologies for our lateness, lads!” called George.

“And lasses!” added Lee with a wink.

“We had a slight difficulty with our newest set of customisable fireworks – reckon our neighbours wouldn’t be too happy if we’d left the courtyard on fire.”

“Or the hole in the roof!” chimed in Lee.

Ernie turned to watch Flint, who looked slightly mollified by the appearance of a truly enormous bottle of Firewhiskey and the fact that Oliver Wood was practically sitting in his lap. Ernie was just taking a fortifying sip of the fresh pint that had appeared at his elbow and wondering if he could inquire exactly when the two Quidditch captains had gotten together without sounding like an oblivious idiot when the door opened once more and Percy Weasley hurried inside, one arm snugly around Pansy Parkinson’s waist.

Flint, who had been pouring a row of shots that all appeared to be smoking, just raised a sardonic eyebrow at their arrival. It took Percy a few tries to form words – Ernie noticed he looked rather more agitated than normal - but then he burst out “We’re having a baby!”

The pub descended into a sort of shocked silence, broken by an excited squeal from Daphne Greengrass and a sort of strangled exclamation from Ron Weasley, who had stood up from a corner booth in open-mouthed shock. Then George and Wood rushed forward to clap Percy on the shoulder, Montague hooted triumphantly and held out his hand expectantly to Flint for what seemed to be a substantial number of coins, and several people clapped and called their congratulations before the hum of conversation started up again.

Pansy rolled her eyes good-naturedly and looked up at Percy with an expression that Ernie could only describe as fond exasperation.

Ernie had heard about Percy and Pansy, of course, but he’d just assumed it was nothing more than a politically advantageous alliance for the Parkinsons after the war, or a necessary union given the rapidly dwindling numbers of Pureblood families, or some other product of unfathomable Slytherin scheming.

But, he realised with a sinking sense of impending doom, watching Weasley smile besottedly down at Pansy, who couldn't quite bite down on a tiny, genuine smile of her own, that’s not what it was at all.

“Oh my God,” Ernie voiced with feeling. “They’re in love with each other.”

“I said ages ago that they were a cute couple!” Susan admonished, just as Neville said, “I told you I cried at the wedding!”

“I thought you were joking!” Ernie sputtered at both of them, reaching over to pinch himself on the arm to make sure this wasn't just the product of a very, very bizarre dream. It hurt rather a lot.

Since then, he's been able to settle his nerves a bit with both the rest of his pint and a fortifying shot of the Firewhiskey Pucey and Higgs had gifted to Flint after George and Lee had decided that the whole bar needed to join in on a toast and commandeered the bottle when Flint had gone to the loo. Ernie is just wondering whether he should start paying more attention to the gossip pages of the Daily Prophet or make more small talk with his coworkers about the current "it couples" of the Wizarding World when Wood and Flint pass by their table again.

“And where are you lot off to?” Warrington asks from his position next to the rest of the Firewhiskey, which he seems to be guarding rather protectively.

“Figured we’d head up to the Quidditch pitch for old times’ sake,” Flint tells him with a shit-eating grin, and the group at the bar breaks into a chorus of groans. Several of them, Ernie notices, seem to be digging out their wallets while Montague cries joyfully, “Pay up folks! Five Galleons apiece.”

Ernie frowns slightly, wondering why anyone would want to play Quidditch this late, and if they were even allowed on the old pitch anymore – surely Hogwarts had better security now? -, when he overhears Wood whisper to Flint, “I still have my old key for the captain’s office,” and immediately wants to Obliviate himself.

Padma Patil is standing a few feet in front of MacLaggen, who is hastily trying to extricate himself from Romilda Vane behind the bar, where he had apparently volunteered to help her with the drinks as a flimsy excuse to wrap around her like the Giant Squid. Romilda’s face is darting back and forth between them in rapidly dawning comprehension, although, Ernie notes with grudging respect, she looks much more intrigued than afraid in the face of Padma’s palpable anger.

***

Ernie’s just starting to wonder if things have finally calmed down, taking a sip from a fresh pint that he doesn’t actually remember ordering, when an outraged-sounding voice cuts through the buzz of chatter and the low hum of the Weird Sisters track he swears has been on repeat. “I cannot believe you, Cormac MacLaggen!”

“You blew off dinner with my parents to come here and flirt with Romilda Vane?” she continues vehemently, silencing him with a vicious glare when MacLaggen tries to get a word in. “I can’t believe I ever thought you could change. You’re still the same arrogant, selfish, idiotic prick you were back at Hogwarts, and I’m done wasting my time with you.” MacLaggen is glancing helplessly back and forth between Padma and Romilda, who’s got her arms crossed over her chest and is wearing a scowl that’s nearly as ferocious as Padma’s. “You’d have been in for a disappointing night anyway,” she tells Romilda pointedly, not bothering to lower her voice. The pub falls completely silent for a moment before someone – Ernie thinks it might be Padma’s sister – lets out a woop, before the crowd breaks into applause.

It's difficult to hear over the chatter - several groups appear to be toasting to different variations of "And good riddance, the tosser!" but Ernie thinks he hears Montague call out, "Tell Granger she owes me 2 Galleons!"

“Word of advice mate,” Blaise Zabini says in a faux-conspiratorial tone, clapping a shell-shocked looking MacLaggen on the shoulder. “If you’re going to date two girls at the same time, it’s probably best to tell them.” And with that, he turns on his heel and strides out the bar with his arm around Ginny Weasley’s waist, who is, Ernie realizes faintly, also hand in hand with Luna Lovegood.

Ernie's just set the tray of drinks carefully back on the table when a pair of furious-sounding voices emerges from the general buzz of conversation from the back corner, and he turns to see Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil, standing on opposite ends of their table and glaring daggers at each other.

***

“I knew that he was going to cheat – Saw it this morning,” Ernie overhears Padma confiding to Romilda at the bar when he goes to get their next round of drinks. “Figured he deserved to be taken down a peg a little,” she finishes with a small smile, and Romilda grins, wordlessly sliding Padma another martini and what Ernie thinks might be her Floo address.

“I’m so tired of your – of your condescending bullshit!” bursts out Lavender. “None of my boyfriends are ever good enough – you’re always critical of something!”

“I’m just so sick of seeing you let these blokes treat you like crap, Lavender!” Parvati bites back, angrily swiping an errant strand of hair from her face. “You’re better than this” she adds, and Lavender’s cheeks flush a dark, livid red.

“No one could ever live up to these expectations, Parvati!” she cries.

“I would,” Parvati snaps, and then immediately brings her hand up to her mouth in horror, eyes wide as she and Lavender regard each other with identical expressions of shock. A rather conspicuous silence falls.

Parvati pauses for a moment, then takes a deep breath, squares her shoulders, meets Lavender’s gaze straight on, and, voice steady, repeats, “I would”.

“I’d call you after dates, and send you flowers, and never tell you you were being stupid when you were upset, and I know it’s not the same for you Lavender, and I’m sorry, I swear I’ll stop being so critical, I haven’t been fair to you and I–"

Parvati trails off in confusion as Lavender smiles. It’s hard to tell in the dim light of the pub, but Ernie thinks there might be tears in her eyes. He feels rather breathless as Lavender steps forward to interlace her fingers with Parvati’s.

Parvati glances down at their entwined hands for a moment before glancing back up at Lavender, a confused frown warring with the hopeful expression in her eyes.

“But – you don’t -” she starts, biting her lip.

“I didn’t tell you about all the dates I’ve been on,” Lavender tells her with a smile. When Parvati continues to stare at her wordlessly, Lavender adds, "You were so critical of the boys, I was just so afraid what you might say about the girls."

Parvati huffs out a slightly hysterical-sounding giggle, shaking her head and reaching up with her free hand to swipe at her eyes.

"God, I've been so stupid," Parvati bursts out, and then Lavender takes another step forward to cradle her face and pull her into a deep kiss.

This time it's Padma who leads the bar in a round of cheers, and there seems to be a lot of conspicuous sniffling from Ernie's table as Neville, Hannah, and Susan all pass around a Conjured handkerchief. Ernie nearly spills his drink all over himself when he's jostled by a rather glum-looking Seamus Finnigan, who presents a second bottle of Firewhiskey to the table of Slytherins, nodding resignedly at Montague.

"Thought for sure there'd be nudity," he mutters dejectedly as he passes by their table on his way back

Ernie glances over to the bar to see Romilda nonchalantly turning the volume on the music back up to normal, and she sends him a conspiratorial wink.

He tries hastily to wipe the tears that have trailed down his cheeks from the Brandy and hopes futilely that he isn’t the approximate colour of a tomato, but given the amount of alcohol he’s had and his complete and total ineptitude when it comes to women, he’s fairly certain it’s a lost cause.

**

“Sod it all,” Ernie thinks, and slides into a stool at the bar, nodding wearily at an entirely too pleased-looking Romilda Vane when she holds up a bottle of Brandy enquiringly. He figures he’ll just stay for a couple more drinks, and with luck, he won’t remember any of this in the morning. He’s just downed the shot, coughing violently at the unfamiliar burn in his throat, when he notices someone sliding into the seat on his right. And now, he knows that the world must be ending, because Daphne Greengrass has sat down next to him, and she’s smiling.

Because beautiful girls aren’t interested in talking to him, and they don’t smile at him like that, and even if by some miracle they do end up having a conversation, he inevitably ends up sputtering or fumbling and they move along. Because even if he’s mostly grown out of his baby fat and lost the tendency to be overly pompous when he’s nervous, he’s still awkward, proper, hopelessly Hufflepuff Ernie MacMillan.

And Daphne’s just sitting there, with her long blond hair in perfect waves, and her suntanned skin glowing faintly in the low light from the bar, with a bright smile on her impossibly soft-looking lips. “Daphne Greengrass,” she tells him with a smile – as if he would have forgotten.

“I remember,” Ernie says hastily, reaching forward to shake her hand enthusiastically before he can stop himself, but she takes his hand immediately, her smile turning slightly amused. “We were in the same year at Hogwarts, of course, and we had Herbology together in fourth year, and I think we shared a carriage to Hogsmeade in February of our sixth year,” and oh god, why can’t he stop talking? “I did see you at your sister’s wedding, you know you looked absolutely stunning in that shade of pink, and I believe we crossed paths in Diagon last summer when I was looking for a new broom with Justin..."

“Sure,” he tells her with certainty, and Daphne just smiles wider.

“Can I buy you a drink?” Daphne asks when he finally pauses for breath, and for what must be the sixth time that night, Ernie’s mouth drops open.

He is aware that sitting with his mouth agape in front of the most beautiful woman he’s seen up close is not the smoothest of responses, but really, Ernie thinks, he’s just pleased that he hasn’t fallen out of his chair. He’s seriously wondering if maybe someone spiked his drink for a laugh, or this isn’t all just the product of some very bizarre, very detailed curse. He’s broken out of his reverie when he feels a stinging hex hit him from the direction of the bar, and he swears he can see Romilda Vane slipping her wand back up her sleeve when he glances that way, rubbing his wrist, but then he turns back to the girl next to him, who is beautiful and lovely and is still waiting patiently. He takes a deep breath and thinks, why the hell not.

“Um,” begins Percy, who looks hilariously torn between his desire to provide the right answer and the need to prevent his newly-pregnant wife from going into hysterics.

**

“Did I just see Daphne leave with Ernie MacMillan?” Pansy asks in shock.

Astoria looks positively thrilled, although that might have less to do with Daphne and more to do with the fact that a scandal involving her sister might just prompt her parents to forget about the fact that she married Miles Bletchley when she rather obviously 4 months pregnant.

Behind the bar, Romilda is beaming, casually waving her wand as she dries a glass so that Theo Nott's bar stool slides just a little closer to Cho Chang, both of whom are blushing rather furiously. Only one person, in fact, looks dismayed by this recent turn of events. Rather than radiating self-satisfaction and collecting his dues on another successful bet, Graham Montague looks rather flabbergasted. He opens and closes his mouth for a few seconds before taking a fortifying sip of his drink.

"I owe McGonagall ten Galleons," says Montague in astonishment.

[hogwartspostwar-blog]

✕ — GENERAL

Full Name: Zacharias Smith Age: 18 Year: 8th House: Ravenclaw Blood Status: Half-blood Faceclaim: Cody Christian

Wand: [Up to player] Patronus: [Up to player] Boggart: [Up to player] Amortentia: [Up to player]

✕ — PERSONALITY

[Up to player]

✕ — BIOGRAPHY

[Up to player]

[Additional Information:] Zacharias Smith, also known as Zach Smith, was a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry who was sorted into Hufflepuff House. He was a Chaser on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team and a member of Dumbledore's Army, an organisation taught and led by Harry Potter. In 1998 he abandoned the D.A. instead of fighting with them during the Battle of Hogwarts. Ronald Weasley disliked him as soon as they met; mostly because of his attitude while talking to the trio and his disloyalty to Harry Potter and Hogwarts. Zacharias attempted to return back for his 8th year with an unapologetic attitude, acting as if his choice to run away was little to no big deal. But to his miscalculation, all his classmates took note of Zacharias’s true colors, and weren’t exactly welcoming him back with open arms like he expected. Instead of taking the wide notion as a means to self-reflect on his actions, Zacharias has countered against the negative feedback in his typical, obnoxious ways. He has too much pride to show remorse, or think he should be the one to apologize. With a lack of support coming from so many different directions, Zacharias has grown vindictive, and desperate to find some form of happy-medium in a new search for friends. He is currently gravitating towards those who have had a reputation of readiness to mean-spiritedness. Zacharias has gone as far as attempting to feel out the Slytherins of their year, despite knowing that they were always an isolated bunch from the other three houses since first year. Zacharias is more focused on repairing damages to his ego than growing up and focusing on the future like everyone else in his year.

✕ — RELATIONSHIPS

Ernie Macmillan, Justin Finch-Fletchley - Roommate / Estranged Wayne Hopkins - Roommate / Only former “best friend” not giving him the cold shoulder Zara Valli, Susan Bones - Former friends / somewhat still friendly Parvati Patil, Cormac Mclaggen, Romilda Vane, Andrew Kirke, Jack Sloper - trying to befriend Tracey Davis, Milli Bulstrode, Harper Travers, Alex Sykes - attempting to approach

Zach is OPEN, and ALTERNATE FC’S ARE UP FOR DISCUSSION.

[wizardingworldlibrary]

Weddings Masterlist

Links Last Checked: May 29th, 2024

part two

A Dance to Remember (ao3) - sophh hermione/viktor G, 893

Summary: What if Hermione and Viktor had gotten a chance to dance at Bill and Fleur's wedding?

A Dangerous Game (ao3) - sm_jl hermione/ron G, 595

Summary: Ron and Hermione share a dance at Bill and Fleur's wedding.

A Wedding and a World Cup (ao3) - cryptaknight, smutty_claus parvati/zacharias M, 6k

Summary: Zach Smith gets more than he bargained for when he makes a deal with Parvati Patil.

Dream A Little Dream (ao3) - TajaReyul katie/marcus T, 4k

Summary: Katie Bell is suspicious when she sees Marcus Flint at George and Angelina's wedding.

Every Little Thing She Does (Is Magic) (ao3) - monsterleadmehome hermione/draco, theodore/harry, ginny/blaise, luna/ron, hannah/neville E, 18k

Summary: “I’m sorry, Granger… you want to what?”

“Go together! To all the weddings—it’ll work out perfectly. People will stop asking about my love life, and if you happen to meet a girl you want to take home, I can be your wing woman!”

Draco agrees to be Hermione's date for wedding season. He doesn't expect to fall in love.

Five Times James Was Different, and One Time He Wasn't (ao3) - ladybirdscast james/lily G, 3k

Summary: James Potter is constantly surprising Lily. No matter what he's doing, he manages to be completely different from any boy she's ever known. At least, until their wedding.

Kissing Convenience (ao3) - EntreNous neville/viktor G, 5k

Summary: Neville finds himself pressed into helping Viktor Krum at a wedding or three.

love the way you love me back (ao3) - slyther_ing marcus/oliver M, 16k

Summary: Weddings and marriages aren't forever, his grandmother always said - but with the way Oliver is glowing across from him, Marcus is pretty sure that statement doesn't apply to them.

(In which Marcus knows he doesn't live in a fairy tale, but Oliver is better than any happy ending he could've imagined.)

Lucius and Narcissa (ao3) - thunder_kitkat lucius/narcissa M, 52k

Summary: At 22 Lucius Malfoy is about to get married. The unexpected meeting with a mysterious woman in the woods changes his life. Malfoys' life story. Headcanon, Jane Austen vibes.

Magician (ao3) - FloreatCastellum james/lily, petunia/vernon T, 6k

Summary: "Petunia did not want Lily as a bridesmaid, because she was tired of being overshadowed; Lily was hurt. Vernon refused to speak to James at the reception, but described him, within James’ earshot, as ‘some kind of amateur magician’." - Pottermore, Vernon & Petunia Dursley.

James is very aware that this wedding is going to be absolutely dire. But he did promise he would try and patch things up with the worst muggle he's ever met.

Strong Hands, Spiced Lips (ao3) - MysticKitten42 dudley/goyle, background draco/harry M, 5k

Summary: Dudley's life changes dramatically after Harry drags him to a party, and he'll never be the same again. This is the story of that night and the year (almost) that follows. Featuring Slytherins, Gryffindors, drama, soft moments, and too many baked goods to count.

The Cloakroom (ao3) - Mr_Pinniped sirius/remus, petunia/vernon, james/lily T, 3k

Summary: Remus Lupin and Sirius Black admit their feelings for each other at James and Lily's wedding reception, and are unfortunately walked in on by Petunia and Vernon Dursley.

This Must Be My Dream (ao3) - darlingkirstein cedric/fred G, 1k

Summary: The wedding between Fred Weasley and Cedric Diggory following the war.

Up you Get (ao3) - Tzaddi1 (Tzaddi) remus/tonks G, 560

Summary: Remus and Tonks dance at Bill and Fleur's wedding.

Wedding Night (ao3) - Alley_Skywalker draco/pansy M, 1k

Summary: Draco and Pansy’s wedding night.

[canyouhearthelight]

The Miys, Ch. 135

I think y’all are in for a treat with this one. I won’t spoil it, though, other than to say that @baelpenrose and @charlylimph-blog thought this chapter was hilarious.

Think about that, please. Charly and Arthur think this chapter is hilarious.

Eyeah. That’s all I’ve got to say about that. I do not take responsibility for any injuries sustained.

As always, please don’t forget to check out the podcast! I will plug it shamelessly, so you may as well.

“Where are they?” Alistair murmured while he searched our shared office thoroughly.  Had it been anyone else, I would say he was being calm, but the fact that he was searching for anything, at all, tagged it in my head as a downright frantic pace.

“Where are what?”

“Nothing,” he dismissed, despite continuing his search.

I furrowed my brows. “You haven’t even had your tea yet. Or your breakfast?”

A pale hand waved me off. “I am aware.”

Shrugging, I gave it up as a lost cause and went back to the list of evacuees that Tyche and I had drafted up. After whipping up a preliminary list of who was assigned where, we were doing a more thorough second pass to ensure no conflicts of personality.  Deep in thought, I paid Alistair no attention until Parvati and Hannah arrived fifteen minutes later.

“Alistair, they aren’t here, so you can stop looking,” Hannah grinned as she took her accustomed seat.

“I am sure I don’t know what you mean.”

“Surrrrre you don’t. Just like I’m sure you don’t know why several of the paint pens ran out of pigment,” Parvati assured him in the most sincere tone I had ever heard. My former therapist would have been proud.

I fought back a smile as he straightened and finally stopped his search, even going so far as to tug his shirt to get any wrinkles out. “I know no such thing.”  With that, he turned his back to all three of our snickering faces, requesting his usual tea and scone from the food console.

Composing my face, I tried to be serious for a minute. “You should eat fast, because our appointment with Arthur Farro is in about fi - “

My door whooshed open. Speak of the devil.

“ - ve minutes early, apparently,” I finished.

Unperturbed as usual, the subject of my previous suggestion strolled in with his usual air of confidence.  Just as he was going to take a seat beside Parvati, he leaned across the table. “Aww, no kiwi or pomegranate on your clotted cream this morning? Poor fing,” he said with a mocking pout.

“I am baffled why everyone believes such things of me,” Alistair grumbled into his tea with a scowl.

I sputtered. “You were using the pens on your breakfast?”

He didn’t even bother denying the chorus of confirmations from those around him, taking the higher road of sudden deafness. “Farro, I am still not entirely sure why a former warlord is necessary for discussions of an evacuation plan.”

“Warlords are generally just berserkers if they don’t have anyone to be ‘lord’ of.” Farro shot a dazzling smile as I supressed a groan. “But then again, being British, I’m sure you got confused, what with all the lords that were there in the last century without even land to their names.”

It really was easier sometimes to do things without either of them. Time to step in. “Gentlemen,” I purred in my most annoyingly ‘motivational’ tone possible, “the bathroom is right through that door, if you would like to continue your pissing contest.  However, some of us have actual work to do, so whether you fuck it out or fight it out, please do so on your own time.”

Both mouths shut with an audible click, and both men looked away from me. But at least they were quiet. Sophia: 1, Whatever-the-hell-this-was: 0.

I forged ahead while I had the chance. “Arthur, thank you for taking time to meet with us regarding the plans for fortifying the safety points. I’m sorry that Tyche couldn’t be here, however she scheduled her stay-cation several months ago and frankly deserves it.” By which I meant I had bribed Derek with a nauseating amount of bao to disable any communications to or from this office from going to her data pad until the start of her first shift post-vacation, and threatened my entire family within an inch of their lives to keep them from bringing up work around her for the next week. “However, I do have her concerns and suggestions ready, I assure you.”

With a scowl, he glanced at me and stood, calling up the emitter-map of the Ark. Quickly, he sketch circles around each of the ‘bunkers’ we had designated. “Xiomara had very sound judgement in the locations she chose for safe-zones, and I honestly expected it. Between her and Evania, there is a frankly terrifying amount of strategic prowess in what is theoretically our Health and Safety office.”

“You can’t be healthy or safe if you’re dead,” Hannah pointed out.

He tossed her a wink and grin. “Touche. However, none of them are perfect. This location,” he leaned to tap and zoom on a mess hall, “is fortified, has access to food and drink, even if you have to furiously call up non-perishables and potable water, and only has one entrance/egress.  A huge entry/egress, unfortunately: the door is ten meters wide.”

Parvati tapped a couple times on her datapad before chiming in. “It does close, however. And it locks.”

Arthur shook his head. “In two panels, each five meters wide. If even one is blown, the gap is indefensible. Both, everyone in there is free for the taking.”

“You are suggesting we ask Miys to narrow the aperture of the door?” I groaned when I heard Alistair leverage his overly-formal language.

It didn’t get any better when Arthur nodded. “Worst they can say is no, but the size of the door is simply for ease of access and to assuage anyone with proximity issues. Now that we all have these handy alerts - “ he tapped his temple for emphasis “ - it isn’t nearly as necessary. Noah? Bud? What do you think?”

The buzz from the ceiling was clearly amused. “I am amenable if this is a solution. As Arthur pointed out, the width of that door is no longer necessary.”

“Annnd there we go,” Arthur shrugged. “The boatwright said yes, if that’s what we want.”

My jaw nearly hit the floor when Alistair nodded firmly and stood. Swiftly, he highlighted three more areas. “These have the same potential concern. We should include those in the proposal.”

‘We’? ‘We’ whomst??? Since when were they on the same side?

“I agree,” Arthur continued enthusiastically, causing my head to start twinging in pain. “According to the engineers and the chemisists on board, the material of the Ark is remarkably fire-retardant despite it’s organic nature - let’s hear it for advanced civilizations - so there is no additional need for fire doors. There is however a possibility of concussive damage to the actual doors in any area, despite how thick the actual walls are.”

“Tyche recommended shock-absorbent material on the exteriors of each door, dropped via internal trigger and held taught by wires rather than any sort of scaffolding,” I suggested, recovering my focus. I flicked the concept at the emitter, where it was displayed alongside the schematic of the Ark. “Using wires would allow us to also store it in a roll at the top of the door, and allow pulleys to draw the wires embedded in the bulkhead down to cover the entire door.”

Hannah nodded thoughtfully. “The materials she suggests are a good idea - definitely maximizes shock absorption as much as possible. My only concern is that we can probably double the flame resistance of the materials for only a ten-percent loss of effectiveness.”

Calling up my datapad, I smiled as I quoted. “ ‘However, Hannah is a professional weaver and seamstress, and therefore I defer to her on any suggestions regarding materials used, provided there is no more than twenty-percent loss of efficacy’. Apparently she did the calculations and had Charly and Conor both check behind her - anything below twenty percent loss, and the blast would blow the doors.”

“And when did the more sensible Miss Reid learn engineering?” Alistair asked in what sounded like genuine curiosity.

“Tuesdays - I think?” I scrunched my face and searched my memory. “It was something very important when we were cosplaying.”

Arthur snorted, but gestured an apology when Alistair affixed him with a downright lethal glare.

Hannah ignored them both. “Wool… We should be able to synthesize raw wool, instead of the plant based materials here. Best of both worlds - fluffy, incredibly flame resistant, and disperses concussive force like nothing else. Line it with silk for shrapnel? We should be good.”

“Fortress defense via quilts. I like it,” Arthur grinned savagely.

“There is a reason tapestries were so important in the Middle Ages,” Alistair snarked at him. “Both flame resistant and insulating, both very good qualities when you see by torches and candles in a drafty residence that echoes like a cathedral.”

Arthur held his hands up in surrender. “Not arguing, no worries… Genuine respect, swear.”

“Better…”

“Annnnd forging on from whatever-the-fuck-that-was,” I interjected, trying to focus on the topic at hand rather than… well, whatever the fuck that was, “That’s overlarge entries and concussive force taken care of. What other concerns did you have, Arthur?”

“Frankly? Camouflage,” he told us sternly. “The best way to protect against an invading enemy is to make it so hard to find you that it isn’t worth the effort.  All these defenses are good an all, but… they’ll stick out like a sore thumb and practically scream ‘Hey! We’re in HERE!’ “ I stifled a laugh when he hopped and waved his arms furiously.

“Very dignified, Farro,” Alistair sniffed as he stood to get more tea.

“I know, right? I’m so classy…”

Rolling my eyes and still regretting having them both in my office at the same time, “We actually have the camouflage solved for.” You could have heard a pin drop, all four of them frozen, mouths open. “It came through this morning from Zach.” I swiped the fortress-quilt specs down, and popped up the plans for the camouflage. “We’re thinking on the visible spectrum, since humans are sight animals. Zach went with a ‘most common denominator’ approach - scent, infrared, acoustic, everything but electromagnetic vision.  The quilts cover the infrared and the majority of the acoustic issues: if any body-heat shows through fifteen inches of fluffed wool and a bulkhead door, we’re doomed no matter what.” I highlighted a line of data. “Scent, likewise: Zach is suggesting aeresolized, low concentration sulfur throughout the majority of the Ark, excluding the safe-zones. The safe-zones will also have one of Miys stationed in each one, acting essentially as an air scrubber. This will minimize acoustics from active air filtration, while also adhering to Miys being a non-participant: they will be present to ensure our comfort due to minimizing body odor, nothing more.  This was already planned, the fact that it will protect us from being detected by scent is just a lagniappe.”

I waited for the thoughtful nods to pass and decided I did not see the glance that Arthur and Alistair exchanged. As long as they didn’t draw blood during the meeting, I would let it slide. “Where it gets sticky is neuroelectric. Zach, it seems, took a page out of Charly’s manual-of-mischief.” I zoomed in on the specific line of the prospectus and waited.

“He wants to what?” Hannah asked, incredulous. “You can’t be serious.”

“Oh I like this,” came the ‘devil’ in ‘devil’s advocate’.

“How would it even work?” Parvati asked, genuinely curious.

I chose that one to respond to. “Just like the microfilament wires that will support the quilts, he wants to cover the walls inside several false locations with a mesh and electrify it to mimic human synaptic energy. Needle in a haystack theory.”

“Wait,” Alistair held up a hand to interrupt. “Are you also proposing that the doors to these false locations will be covered in the quilts?”

“Absolutely,” I confirmed. “Given how far from prospective entry points all of the safe-zones are located, they would run into several false locations before they encounter a real one.”

“And if they decide to tear into all the locations, even the false-positives?” Arthur poked, trying to find a hole in the idea. Which, I had to concede, was why he was even here instead of sending me messages for this.

“What if they decide to tear into every mess hall? Or every door? We can’t plan for everything.” I shook my head. “However, we can factor in a few things that seem pretty consistent despite species - Beings who don’t have legitimate work and take slaves are generally prone to laziness, despite somehow working harder to avoid work than I have ever actually worked a day in my life.  Point being, give them enough false positives on the way, they won’t actually search everything no matter what they say.”

“Speculation and hearsay, not admissible in court.”

“Au contraire, mon frère. Charly did the sociological analysis on all the species most likely to be pirates in the region of the galaxy where we will exit relativistic space, and her estimates are that the plan has a sixty-to-eighty-percent chance of success in the event that all human combatants fail. And I, personally, agree.” 

He conceded a low whistle. “Damn. If I didn’t like Evan so much, I would say Charly is being wasted with Huynh. Objection withdrawn.”

“Quite,” Alistair agreed smugly. “Miss Harper’s plan is a sound one. The Archives, however - “

I interrupted, still irritated about the topic. “You will be stationed immediately inside the doors to defend against any intruders who make it that far, while Tyche will be defending the y-junction between the speculative fiction and historical fiction categories to prevent intruders from reaching the actual people.”

“But the religious studies section - “

“Has already been scanned down to a molecular level to preserve the information, even if we can’t restore any actual artifacts,” Parvati advised in a profoundly bored tone. “You do realize that anyone who reaches that section will not be able to reach the actual people from there without doubling back, right?”

“Miss Fletcher, there is a Gutenberg Bible on this Ark, potentially the last one in existence.” The tone was icy enough to send a shiver down my spine.

“Phee,” Arthur threw out, guaranteeing my irate attention, “Is there any issue with moving the Gutenberg to the Speculative Fiction section until we meet with the Ekomari fleet?”

“Are you seri - “

“Not to placate the Monarchist, I swear. Just - that is a profoundly important historical artifact, even if I agree with nearly none of the contents. The start of the Information age! Literature in the hands of the vulgar masses! Your field of study would have never existed in the form it was without that achievement. Who cares if the first use was to print the frickin’ Bible?”

Before I could object, Parvati added her prodigious two cents. “I do not have to be Christian to appreciate the illuminations in a manuscript, any more than I have to be a Muslim to be brought to my knees by the beauty of a mosque. We can appreciate the significance of something regardless of whether we agree with it or not.”

“This is probably where Charly or Tyche would point out that I am a huge fan of laws against animal abuse, despite firmly believing that Hitler was evil incarnate,” I sighed. “Yeah, we can move the Gutenberg Bible, provided - hang on, stop cheering - PROVIDED - “ I paused to make sure they were all paying attention, “that any other works of significant cultural or historical significance are moved as well. Any first additions, significant religious texts - or in lack of ‘significant’ religious texts, just a copy of each that is agreed to be acceptable by all who follow that religion. A copy of Frankenstein, The Tale of Genji, et cetera.”

I knew my request brooked exactly zero argument from Alistair, as his eyes visibly shone when I added more books to the list. What I waited for were any objections from the other three.

Sure enough, Hannah tentatively raised her hand. When I nodded, she spoke up. “I think we should do a kind of Voyager-plate: a copy, even just digital, of all our texts around music, crafts, technology, mathematics… Art, fermentation, food preparation and the history of it. Not just for this scenario!” she insisted urgently, “For any worst-case scenario. Keep a copy, or several. And put those copies, along with all the relevant artifacts that we have on board, and keep them with the people in the Archives, in the safest part of the ship.”

“Where it would take a black hole to destroy it,” Parvati whispered.

Just as the tears were threatening my eyes, Arthur flopped back in his seat and kicked his boots up onto the table. “Jesus fuck, you guys are depressing. Right, but depressing. It’s doable, though. We just transcribe it into the most common language for each version of ‘language’ in the Galaxy…”

Alistair snorted. “You warlords and your short-sightedness. Clearly, the resolution is to transcribe it into the most common language in the Galaxy with instructions on how to translate it further down.”

“No, you limey-ass bastard,” Arthur growled. “Too much is lost in translation - there is a reason the Qur’an and the Sefer Torah should never be translated to be considered valid.”

Nope. I wasn’t dealing with it. We had covered all the necessary topics, I could message the rest. I twitch my head at both Vati and Hannah, at which point they both rose from their seats. Neither was noticed by the arguing men.

Arthur was mid-sentence when a quick strike from Vati to the top of his spinal cord rendered all his words gibberish. Rather than realizing this, he glanced down at his suddenly-tingling fingertips in confusion. Hannah simply hauled Alistair out of his seat and ignored his squawked objections, her shorter but sturdier frame more than a match for his tall, slender frame and brain that was very much against violence towards women but undecided about how to stop them from chauffeuring you out of a room.

With exactly zero ceremony, both men were deposited in the corridor, to the satisfaction of all three of us. I waggled my fingers in a farewell. “Fuck it out or fight it out, I don’t care. But not in my office. Ta!”

I could not hold back the smile anymore when both started pounding on the door for entry, not realizing I had disabled their permissions right after the first volley had been thrown.  It was almost habit, at this point, to disable their permissions to my office when they started bickering, only to restore them when they decided to act like adults.

Clearly that wasn’t the case this time. Oh well, maybe in a couple hours. I would need to ask Xiomara to do a ‘sensor test’ of the gym and med bays to be sure.

<< Prev   Masterlist  Next >>

[canyouhearthelight]

The Miys, Ch. 125

I am so sorry that this is posting late today!! I didn’t realize my queue ran out, or that I didn’t load these in there.

Thank you, every day, to everyone who helped me hang in there as long as I’ve been lucky enough to write this story.  As much fun as the weapons expo was, I swear we are working towards everything else that has changed in the time skip!  I would love to hear what y’all are most excited to find out about.

Shoutouts always go to @baelpenrose, @charlylimph-blog, and @the-raven-fae for all your encouragement, plot bunnies, and beta-reading.

The day after the weapons exhibition, the air on the Ark was still crackling with excitement. Every time I overheard people chattering over a specific performance, I smiled to myself.  That particular event had been the first that Parvati and Hannah planned without my help, and hearing the overwhelming approval for it was something I would be all too happy to convey back to them.  They really had done a great job.

Sebastian ended up bowing out after the first year, because he was unable to balance the demands of the mentorship and the Undine.  As the only one of the three who could not just change their job responsibilities, he had chosen his passion - which absolutely no one was upset about.   Parvati had even joked that we had backup Councillors, but only one Undine.

The response I received from my mentees when I shared what I heard, however, was underwhelming. Hannah gave a small smile and nodded, while Parvati waved off the praise with a scoff. “We were essentially following a template,” she pointed out.

Hannah nodded at me with a rueful expression. “Unfortunately, she’s right.  There wasn’t much of a challenge, there.”

Just as a full pout was settling into my chest, Alistair breezed in and took off his scarf - for once, I couldn’t tell myself it was just for dramatic effect, as the climate controls in public areas were phased in to mimic what was projected for seasonal changes on Von.  Currently it was the cold season, and Alistair was miserable about it. “Of course it wasn’t a challenge,” he scowled. “You both have been assisting Madam Reid since the exhibitions began. However, it is profoundly rude to ignore the feedback you received.” He glared at Parvati and Hannah, who managed to look sheepish. “One of you will be Councillor one day, and your responsibility will be things just like this. You should be pleased with a job well done, not resting on your laurels.”

I nodded and didn’t bother hiding my grin. “He’s right, you know. Besides, don’t forget that this is when the hard part starts.”

Two sets of eyes widened at me, with Hannah adding a gasp of horror. “Oh gods. The feedback…”

“Yep.” I popped the last letter as I took my seat and the coffee that Alistair offered, noticing that he did not retrieve any for my mentees. Apparently he was really miffed by their attitudes before. “And, along with coordinating the event on your own…”

“Sophia, you’re joking,” Parvati glared.

“I am most certainly not,” I shook my head. “Every event, you have to read the feedback. You can filter it all you want, narrow down the categories, whatever. But I strongly recommend that you read all of the negative feedback if nothing else.”

“But you’ve always had help,” Hannah pointed out calmly.

“I did,” I admitted, “but that doesn’t mean I ignored or delegated the important parts.  Having people who you trust to do a pulse check of what is being said unofficially is an extremely valuable tool. However, at the end of the day, the performance of the events, or the projects, or the staffing balances, comes right back to this office and only this office. I can listen to Tyche, or my partners, or other Councillors until my ears fall off. But if something went wrong, or could have been done better, I’m the one who catches fault for that. Which means, eventually, it will be one of you.”

With a deep breath, both women nodded and opened the files in question. After simply staring and scrolling for a few minutes, Parvati sat back and tapped the side of her chin. “Can we filter out all comments under five words and comments with only positive adjectives that do not contain a conditional statement?” She glanced at me and I nodded my approval.

That seemed to spark an idea in Hannah. “Prioritize comments including the words ‘dangerous’, ‘barbaric’, or synonyms of.” When her co-mentee gave her a quizzical look, she shrugged. “It’s good to have at least a count of people who object to the weapons exhibitions, and if they are just a small number at least there are guaranteed to be a few in there that are pretty funny.”

Parvati still looked like she wasn’t convinced, so Alistair spoke up. “If you do not enjoy the weapons exhibitions, why are you attending?”

“Ahhh,” she smiled. Clearly the thought had never occurred to her, which was entirely unsurprising.  Parvati hadn’t dated Xiomara as long as she did by harboring a secret grudge against self-defense and proper applications of force.

Now that they found a starting point for weeding through the feedback, it was clear they were engrossed in gathering information.  Periodically, I would hear one make a considering noise before jotting down a note to come back to later.  I quietly moved to my desk and observed how differently they handled the process - When I went through feedback with Alistair, we shared it on the table emitter so both could see.  Parvati and Hannah, however, sat across from each other, on their singular data pads, flicking particular pieces of information back and forth to each other without even glancing up.  The partnership they had developed over the last four years of working with me was astounding to watch.

“What you are feeling now is exactly what it feels like to watch you and Tyche,” Alistair murmured, startling me out of my reverie. When I glanced at him, he simply lifted an eyebrow and tilted his head. “Even after working with you both for so long, there are moments where it is clear you both are working on some sort of wavelength the rest of us are not aware of.”

“Charly is pretty tuned in to it. And Arthur, when he wants to be.”

“Miss Harper is a force unto herself.” The corner of his mouth lifted in one of his rare, fond smiles. “As for Farro, I am beginning to believe that Reidish is one of the languages he learned for historical manuscripts.” Snark dripped from his tone out of old habit - if there had ever been any animosity between the two, it was long gone.

Although, apparently the hypothetical existence of ‘Reidish’ as a language was still bopping it’s merry way around the Ark.

“Noah,” I pointed out. “They understand us perfectly well.”

“Yes, let us all congratulate you two, not only on the fact that a mind-reading alien understands your communication better than your own species, but also on the fact that you have tainted them with your mannerisms.” The sarcasm would have stung, had he not felt the need to demonstrate by tipping his index finger and thumb over his eye in imitation of an eyebrow with one hand, while making a sock-puppet nod with the other - both of which were gestures Noah used as filler for human body language. The contrast between his words, the gestures, and the absolute deadpan expression on his face sent me into hysterics.

I didn’t realize we were being watched until Hannah’s voice broke through my laughter. “Derek actually taught them the eyebrow one.  That wasn’t Sophia or Tyche.  He started doing it because he can’t just lift one eyebrow, and Miys started mimicking him when they saw how useful it was to convey tone.” When Alistair only stared at her in disbelief, she huffed and turned to her datapad before flicking a recording to the table emitter.

Sure enough, there was Derek, adjusting Miys ‘fingers’ and repeating the gesture for them to imitate. After several adjustments of where the vomu was held, Derek seemed satisfied and flashed a double thumbs-up, which was returned in triplicate.  As the recording ended, Hannah turned back with the smuggest expression I had ever seen on her gentle face.

“I’ll be damned.” Alistair’s voice was soft with surprise and a hint of admiration.

“Hannah, how do you have that?” I asked, concerned for Derek’s privacy.

She waved me off. “Zach was doing routine security sensor testing, found that in the process, and asked Derek if we could keep a copy of it. Derek said it was okay, and asked for a copy for himself.” She shrugged. “I’d never seen him voluntarily touch someone that much before, and even without that, it was adorable.”

“I’m glad he knows you have it,” I sighed in relief. “But yeah, it makes sense, honestly.” Hannah nodded in agreement, while Parvati and Alistair were clearly waiting for an explanation. I started ticking off reasons on my fingers. “Miys is very careful of personal space because they know how large they are, and Derek hates having his space invaded without permission. Miys is never ‘too loud’ for Derek, or touches without permission, or even speaks to him without Derek speaking first. There’s no pressure for eye contact, even just in Derek’s head, because Miys doesn’t have eyes.”

“Your mind is a strange and wonderful place,” Alistair stated drily before turning to Hannah and Parvati. “I hope you two have been taking notes on it. I happen to know what your next event is, and you’re going to need that level of insight.”

Arching an eyebrow at him, Parvati did not even look away to pull up her calendar, dragging it into her line of sight. Her eyes widened suddenly.

“You have three months,” I pointed out.

She reached out and shook Hannah’s arm vigorously. “Han.”

A quick glance and a second horrified expression looked at me from the table.

“Three months.”

“Sophia.”

“You’ve both helped me with it, for at least the last four years.  And you said you wanted a challenge.”

They both groaned comically, but I struggled not to smile at their antics.  I knew they weren’t really as worried as they pretended to be.

Alistair leaned over the whisper again. “I thought Tyche was the evil one.”

That did get me to smile.

<< Prev   Masterlist  Next >>

[canyouhearthelight]

The Miys, Ch. 127

Annnnd a-one, and a-two, and a queue-queue-queue!

This chapter has one of my favorite things in the world to write - Interpersonal relationships (if you are surprised, I’m going to assume you are new here....).

Specifically, one of my biggest pet-peeves is when friends or siblings are written in a way that shows that the author doesn’t actually have any friends or siblings they are close enough to that all rules of societal politeness go whizzing into some far-off dimension as soon as they are in proximity.

When I get to write a chapter with such close friends/ersatz-siblings and also have @baelpenrose cackling and egging me on, it literally makes my whole day.

P.S: If anyone has wondered about the ages of the characters, several are clearly lined out in this chapter......

EDIT: Fixed some insane formatting issues.

“The food festival, Sophia? Really?” an incredulous voice asked before the door to my office even opened all the way.

I resisted the urge to scream, but did surrender to pinching the bridge of my nose and breathing slowly. “Hello, Arthur. Do come in. Long time no see.  Of course I’m not busy…” My one day each week to have a few hours to myself - no mentees, no assistant, even Tyche was off work….

“We saw each other last night when I came over for dinner after sparring with Conor, and  you’re never busy on Saturdays, Alistair makes sure of it.” He dragged a chair in front of my desk for what I felt was the sole purpose of putting his boots on my desk instead of the conference table.

“I thought you two didn’t even like each other, how did you - “

He waved a hand dismissively. “Enemy of my best friend’s enemy is my friend, that sort of thing. Anyway - “

“Did you just call me my own worst - “

“You are, let’s not pretend otherwise. Anyway.” Arthur arched an eyebrow at me and waited for any further objections, but I couldn’t think of any. “The Food Festival. It’s my one favorite tradition on this ship until armed combat becomes a spectator sport, and you are putting Parvati and Hannah in charge of it?”

After a beat pause to make sure he was done, I glared at him. “Everyone has asked me that, and I don’t understand the issue.  They’ve both helped in the past, even before they started training to replace me.  I’ve handed more and more off to them each time, and they did great! Plus, they have three months, it will be fi - Wait, why do you even care, Arthur?”

He held up one finger with the authority of a deity who would have smited me if he could. “One, Parvati Fletcher does not like mapo tofu. You do. Specifically, you like it from that one vendor who grows her own Sichuan peppercorns and uses them like they are an infinite resource. Two, I spend entirely too much time working with Zach Khan, and he won’t shut up about how stressed Hannah is. Three - “ I was seriously starting to get concerned he actually could smite me at this point - “As much as I love you in the most platonic way possible, you are an obsessive, compulsive perfectionist who insists on doing everything herself and running herself into the ground so that everyone else has the time of their lives. So why are you trusting this, the largest and oldest event on the Ark, entirely to other people?” Dropping his boots from the desk, he leaned forward, palms down until we were nearly nose to nose.

“Sophia Reid, I swear on any god I can kill if you are dying…”

“WHAT!?” I squawked, jerking back and standing so fast I knocked my chair over. “For the love of little fish, I’m not dying! I haven’t had a near death experience in four years, thank you.”

“Three, not counting the fact that there is a reason Alistair makes you drink anything through a straw anymore.”

“How did - Nevermind.” I shook my head and tried to focus on the topic at hand. “No, I’m not dying. Nor am I injured, having a midlife crisis, rethinking my life choices any more than I ever do, or so much as in possession of a stuffy nose.” Taking a deep breath, I rolled my eyes and started counting off before I could stop myself. “Conor and Maverick and I are fine. No, I’m not arguing with Tyche again. Yes, I’m still going to therapy. Else is fine. No new sentient plagues or rogue cult leaders that I’m aware of. Nor have I become immortal, queen of the universe, savior of humanity, pregnant by Noah, or possessed.” Carefully, I picked my chair back up and sat down.

“Good...to… know?” He gave me a funny look. “Who asked the most disturbing one?”

“Immortal or Savior of Humanity?” I asked for clarification. “Those were Maverick and Derek, respectively.”

The look only got worse. “I meant ‘pregnant by Noah’, but fascinating to see where your priorities lie….?”

“Oh. That was Charly.”

“Dammit,” he swore softly. “I had her pegged for ‘possessed’.”

“I’m pretty sure she is, but the suggestion that I am came from Tyche, on no fewer than 3 occasions, by 4 different entities. She seemed pretty hopeful that Else was potentially mind-controlling me in an effort to make me take a nap,” I admitted.

“That tracks.” A nod of approval prefaced the question I had been avoiding - successfully, thus far, I might add. “Now that you’ve ruled out every possible plausible reason that you would entrust this to literally anyone other than a clone of yourself, why?”

“Why what?” My face was composed in an expression of innocence so convincing that I probably deserved an Oscar.

“I can and will convince Charly to turn all your coffee to decaf, so help me, Sophia.”

Realizing that he was, legitimately, worried about me and at the limits of his usually-impressive patience, I held up my hands in surrender. “Fine. You get the scoop.  Please record this and send me the loop, so I can just flick it at people who ask, please?” When he nodded, I exhaled slowly.  “It is no secret to anyone that I never wanted this job. I made the mistake of establishing the Food Festival, which as you point out is the largest event of the cycle on the Ark - the last three years, literally everyone attended in some capacity.” When he opened his mouth to argue, I held up a hand to stop him. “Don’t get me wrong. I love the Festival. What basically started out as a potluck because we were homesick and needed to meet - you know, the rest of humanity - is a huge, three day holiday.  It’s amazing!” I spun in my chair, arms flung wide for emphasis, before stopping to face him. 

“It also consumes my life, for months, to prepare for.  And that’s just implementing changes to make it more accessible so people don’t miss out! That doesn’t include adding things to make it more interesting or keep it from getting boring, or whatever. I literally don’t have time to do any of that!”

“So, you’re inflicting this on them instead?”

“Inflicting?” I snorted.  “Hardly. This is their final exam, their capstone project, their dissertation.  If they pull this off, I will gladly hand the entire office over to whoever is elected, cheerfully and knowing the Ark is in good hands.  But, they have to pull this off.  It’s the only major part of being Councilor of Resources and Relations that they haven’t done yet by themselves.”

He rubbed his face, looking somewhat impressed. “That’s honestly not what I was expecting.”

“I don’t think it ever is, honestly.” I shrugged at the question he glanced towards me. “For Evan, it was coordinating the weapons exhibitions.  Charly managed to pre-empt her own by designing more efficient aqueducts and filtration for when we reach Von - you know, the ones that also produce light?”

“Of course she would invent glow-in-the-dark plumbing. Who else?” Something caught up with him. “Evania Josue got away with planning an event? Seriously?”

“Oh, that’s right… you weren’t on Level One…” I murmured. When he only looked more confused, I clarified. “She was Maverick’s co-pilot when we needed people to pilot the Ark, which was not designed to pilot manually, via dead reckoning, using cameras pointed out the few viewports we have, for several weeks after the sensors were sabotaged.”

“She was whose co-pilot?”

“You really never heard this story? You practically live with seven people who were there…”

“Usually I get the bits about ‘Sophia nearly got her brains bashed out’ and ‘that traitorous bitch’, then start tuning out while I try to decide what it would take to get Charly to teach me necromancy… If Evan was the co-pilot, then why is Maverick….”

“Not in line to replace any Councilors? Arthur, we know that would be a disaster for him.”

He nodded reluctantly. “Your younger partner is a nice boy.”

“For fuck’s sake, he’s thirty seven!” I groaned.

“Nice man, whatever,” he waved off. “Which is exactly what I would like for you as a partner. You need nice partners, and blunt siblings. But I see what you mean about him being a Councilor… he’d be miserable.”

“What was yours?” I asked mischievously, dropping my chin onto my hands.

That earned me a flat stare, until he finally surrendered when I didn’t flinch. “The Twentieth/Early Twenty First History curriculum.”

“Seriously?” That had literally been the first thing he had done when Eino tapped him as a possible successor.

“I didn’t budge on points even he admitted he would have, out of fear of offending people.”

“Which is a fear you very much lack,” I pointed out.

“The truth is the truth. Coating it in sugar only makes it taste worse.” He shrugged nonchalantly before suddenly looking dangerously like he was thinking again. “There’s two of them.”

“Yes, Arthur. Hanna and Paravati are, in fact, two distinct and separate women-type-lady-people.”

“Thank you, Fee, I was well aware.” I suppressed a growl at the nickname - he knew I hated it. “I meant, only one can win the election, smartass.”

“Better to be a smartass than a dumbass,” I muttered.

“Sophia, you are forty five. Please grow up just a hair?”

“Tyche doesn’t want to be HR forever, you know.”

That brought his mind to a visibly screeching halt. “Wait, what?”

“What what?” I asked. “She does it because she is phenomenal at it, but it isn’t her passion.  She only stuck around as long as she did to make sure I didn’t trip over a chair and brain myself while I was at work.  When I’m gone, she’s gone, loser take the spoils.”

He whistled softly before shaking his head. “It’s bizarre to think of you two retiring around the same time I’m just starting the position.”

“I’ll have been a Councilor for a decade when I step down,” I pointed out.  I almost included unless I die first, but that never seemed to be as funny as I thought it was.

“But you aren’t that much older than me,” he sighed dramatically. “Anti-aging technology is frustrating.”

“Annnnd this is a natural extension of your career, with a ten year break thereabouts the middle.”  My grin was so bright it made him scowl before I finally got a begrudging smile.  “Think of it as getting elected head of the school board.”

The groan he let out probably echoed for several levels throughout the ship. I had basically just pointed out that he was becoming that which he most hated.

Or not. He seemed to recover with a gleam in his eye. “Pfft. Dean of Students, at the very least.”

<< Prev   Masterlist  Next >>

[canyouhearthelight]

The Miys, Ch. 121

Insert Winter Holiday is here, again!

I’m queuing this ahead of time, and I originally had a really cute message about the end of the year. Then, I realized what year this is and said “Yeah, nope. Not jinxing it, will not have the actual end of the world be my fault.”

I am going to leave it at this: thank you to @baelpenrose, @raven-fae, and @charlylimph-blog for all your help with this story in 2020. Thank you to every single one of you who bombed by notes this year when you found The Miys. Thank you @janeshadow for talking me into getting off my rump and making the story easier to navigate.

Standing to my feet after putting the last dish in the oven, I couldn’t help but smile as I looked around my quarters. Despite the fact that we had forgone a tree this year for Insert Winter Holiday, there was a definite festive feeling as everyone packed themselves in as much as possible. Derek had clearly found my lights again, as they circled every public space in my quarters, including the kitchen.  Furniture was pushed as far against the walls as possible, and everyone had been advised to bring their own cushion to sit on.

In the two celebrations since waking up on the Ark, dinner and gifts had largely been a smaller, more typical dinner-style affair.  However, without my noticing, my family had grown exponentially since then, and this year finger foods passed from hand to hand as everyone relaxed and chatted. Charly, Tyche, and I took turns in the kitchen, with Hannah waving us all three to sit while she checked on something in the oven so that we could rest and enjoy ourselves, too.

“Where’s Derek?” Charly asked as she approached me to take her shift watching the last batch of food bake.

“He isn’t great with crowds, so he and Sam already came for lunch and to exchange gifts,” I explained, stroking the scarf they had given me. “They already left and took Mac with them.”

“Aww, they’re hogging the Christmas Cat… No fair!” she pouted comically.

“Eh, Mac’s not a fan of crowds either. Besides, I’m pretty sure someone gave him cheese - again - so I’d rather the little gas bomb not be here tonight.”

“Fair enough,” she laughed before popping me with a tea towel. “Go! Your turn to socialize and cuddle!”

I held up my hands in defeat before carefully picking my way around people. Coffey was gracious enough to take my hand and guide me around him and over to where Conor and Maverick were guarding the astonishingly huge pile of gifts. Arthur was nearby, arguing with Conor and trying to drag Simon into it every chance he could. The topic sounded like a rehash of the one regarding fortifications, only this time it was Fortification Redux: The Plant Edition. “We’ve already confirmed there are no megafauna on Von!” Arthur exclaimed wearily. “Not even vegetarians. Why would we need fortifications?”

I could tell Conor was just provoking him when he lazily waved a hand. “It’s psychological, to make people feel safe. Besides, agriculturally, it serves as double duty.”

“He has a point,” Simon conceded, wincing when Arthur turned a playful squint his direction. “He does!”

“Whatever,” Arthur surrendered with a mock-sulk. “Sophia…”

“You know where I stand on this argument, don’t even try it,” I laughed as I dropped in between my partners.

“You wound me! I was going to offer to whip up some goulash, but now I don’t think I will since someone thinks she should accuse me of such atrocious crimes.”

I rolled my eyes at his theatrics. “Whip up whatever you want, I’m done with kitchen duty, and so is Tyche. Charly’s on her last lap.”

“I sincerely doubt that,” Maverick laughed, catching Coffey’s careful eye on his beloved bundle of energy.

Arthur practically leapt to his feet. “That decides it. I am so offended by Sophia’s accusations that I am going to share the kitchen with Miss Chaos Incarnate and leave you all to wonder what wound up in the food.”

Tyche tipped her head back to scowl at him from where she was draped across Antoine’s lap. “If I find a single eyeball…”

Muttering something suspiciously close to “Dammit”, Arthur prowled across the room as though the entire floor wasn’t draped in legs and people.

I opened my mouth to whine about how he could do that, only to be cut off when a piece of pastry was stuffed in my mouth. Grievances forgotten, my eyebrows shot up as I chewed. “Tyche! When did you make donuts!?”

“It may have involved time travel,” she waggled her fingers at me. “But no blood magic or ritual sacrifices, swear.”

I could see Antoine shake his head before responding over his shoulder. “She made them this morning.”

“Spoilsport.”

“Travelling forward through time is still time travel, mon coeur.” He tapped the tip of her nose with one finger, eliciting an expression from her that promised swift and painful retribution.

A soft rustle of fabric caught my attention, and I turned to see a pile of purple and jade-green silk land beside me before a long, dark braid came into view. “The donuts are quite delightful,” Parvati declared as she yanked Xiomara down beside her in a graceless heap. Grabbing a dark brown one from the plate, she popped it in her lover’s mouth just as Xiomara was about to complain. “That one is a Black Forest, I believe. You’ll love it.”

“Careful on those,” Conor warned. “I think they’re half booze.”

“I only soaked the cherries in kirsch,” Tyche corrected. “Not the whole thing.”

“So yeah, half booze,” I corrected.

Giving her most fearsome scowl, Xio snatched the rest of the Black Forest donuts off the plate and balanced them in one hand.

A squeal of laughter interrupted our shenanigans, and we whipped our heads around in time to see Hannah holding a plate of mini-Wellingtons over her head without even looking, while Charly struggled to get up from where she was sprawled across both the other woman’s lap and Coffey’s.  Zach stared at Hannah like he just saw his first sunset, and Maverick snorted behind me.

“He is such a goner over her,” I heard him say, followed by a light smack.

“Because I have certainly never seen you look at Conor or Sophia in such a way,” Parvati added lightly. “And obviously not when Conor is baby-talking to the plants around the ship, or when Sophia is so busy working she will eat whatever is handed to her.”

He buried his face in the back of my hair before squeaking. “Nope. Never!”

I twisted around so I could see them both. “Wait. When did this happen?”

“Three times a week, in your office,” Tyche interjected in a bored tone. “And pretty religiously.”

I felt my face heat up. “Does everyone know about this except me.”

Xiomara nodded furiously, cheeks plumped out and a suspicious number of donuts missing from the pile in her hand. Parvati shook her head at the antics and smiled gently. “Someone needs to make sure you eat… He brings you gyoza, and you don’t even notice. It’s quite adorable.”

Conor laughed. “She’s got you there, love.”

Eyes flashed as four heads snapped around to him. “Oh, don’t think you’re off the hook, mister!” Charly scolded at him. “He does the same thing to you. Those little pasties you like so much, with the potato and onion.”

Maverick groaned his embarrassment into my shoulder, while Conor’s smile faltered. “I would remember that,” he insisted.

“Not even once,” Charly confirmed.

Rather than being embarrassed, Conor just laughed again and reached to drag us both over to him. “I don’t know how someone so tall can be so sneaky, but I won’t argue.”

That moment was when Arthur decided to return, a trail of slurps in his wake as he handed out goulash. “No eyeballs,” he sighed dejectedly as he handed one to Tyche.

“You guys are no fun,” Charly muttered as she took her own bowl.

Poor Simon eyed the offering hesitantly. Arthur gently wiggled the bowl at him. “I promise, you’ll like it.”

Carefully, as though it would explode at any moment, Simon took the dish and managed a small bite.  After a few seconds - presumably to confirm there was no trick - he chewed and immediately started bolting it down at a rapid pace. “I thought it would be spicier,” he admitted as he snaked a hand out to grab another.

“That would be the paprika.  Really red, not really spicy.”

Maverick laughed as he took a bowl, but poked it with his fork before wrinkling his nose. “Sorry, Arthur, not happening.” No sooner had the words left his mouth than Simon’s hand darted out again, eliciting laughter from everyone.

Arthur shrugged, well aware of Maverick’s food aversions by this point. “It’s not for everyone. You keep your tofu, I’ll keep my goulash.”

Not long after that, the last of the food was gone and dishes were cleared. Hot drinks were handed out by Zach and Conor, and then it was finally time to exchange gifts. Baked goods from Tyche made the rounds, along with beautiful accessories from Parvati, carefully curated books from Alistair, plants from Conor and Sam, and more.

At one point, Arthur was staring at his gift from Charly like it would bite him. “It’s… a pen?”

She nodded, producing a small jar of black ink from somewhere. “A fountain pen, with black India ink. I made them both myself.”

Arching an eyebrow, he brought the pen closer to examine the engravings. “An otter… with a sword?”

“With a saber,” she corrected. “I tried to make it look like yours, but do you know how hard you make it to get a good look at that thing!?”

“It’s literally on display in my office when I’m not practicing with it.”

“And how am I supposed to get in there when you aren’t? You booby-trapped the door!”

“Wonder why….” he mused with a small smile. “This is very intricate,” he finally admitted.

“Consider it an apology for the other ones.”

“Oh!” I realized.  “Give me just a second, everyone.”  Scrambling, and with nowhere near Arthur or Tyche’s grace, I managed to make it to our bedroom to grab an armful of boxes. Once I was back at the doorway, I peeked around the stack and smiled. “These are from Derek, with a little bit of help from Hannah.”  Checking names, I distributed the boxes before making my way back to my spot.

“This is… It’s so soft!” Parvati exclaimed. “And the colors are beautiful!”

I smiled as I rubbed the scarf I wore. “He wanted to show his appreciation for how welcome he feels, even if he was overwhelmed at the idea of being here.”

Hannah nodded as she brushed her scarf against her cheek. “We worked on these for months, but I didn’t realize he found time to make one for me… All the colors and patterns are different for each person, by the way. They’re meant to show us how he thinks of us.”

Conor held up the green and orange fabric that his box revealed. “I love it, but I’m confused.”

She rolled her eyes, and tapped her own scarf. “This goldish-brown is my eyes, and this olive green are the clothes I usually wear.”

Coffey’s laughter rang through the room as he unfolded his to see a pattern like Neapolitan ice cream: Rich brown, bright pink, with white swirled throughout. “I think he nailed it.”

Antoine’s head tilted until it almost met his shoulder. “Our eyes… Every single scarf has the color of our eyes in it.  That must have been so hard for him to do.” I could see what he meant - Derek did not look people in the eyes, as a rule.

“He wants us to know that he sees us, and that he likes that we see him,” Zach shrugged. When we all stared at him, he just blinked. “What? You don’t work with him as much as I do without figuring those things out.”

Without exception, everyone wrapped their gifts from Derek around themselves before the next set of gifts were handed out. “These are from me,” Arthur explained. “Hopefully I got it right.”

Like Alistair, Arthur had gifted everyone a book, but rather than a book that furthered a current interest, he had sought out historical insights into extremely niche topics for everyone. Some made pretty obvious sense - a book on the historical events leading to and the impacts of the Harlem Renaissance for me, a book on the evolution of law in various cultures for Xiomara - but some were far less obvious.

“A book on Roman law?” Charly asked, confused.

He reached over and tapped on the cover. “Specifically, this is about how much of Roman law was the result of litigation, with some pretty hysterical results. I think you’ll get a huge kick out of it.”

She cracked the book open to a random page and looked at it. “If you weren’t home when you were subpoenaed as a witness, you didn’t have to testify, but if you didn’t the person could stand outside your house and - “ she snorted before continuing in a fit of giggles. “Yell at you… for no more than three…. Three hours a day, three days a week - “ another snort “for up to a year!” She wiped a tear from her eye and surrendered to her giggles. “Oh that’s amazing! Thank you!”

Charly wasn’t the only one laughing. Even Xiomara was snickering. “That is an incredibly specific law.”

“Absurd laws are best laws,” he shrugged.

Eventually, all the gifts were distributed, but nobody was in a rush to leave. Instead, we lounged around, quietly catching up and talking about our plans for the upcoming ‘year’. At some point, Insert Winter Holiday had, unanimously and without fanfare, become the end of the year celebration on the Ark, even as far as the Council made plans. With that in mind, we were taking a chance to celebrate our continued survival for yet another cycle, and tried to look forward with optimism toward the next one.

I just let the feelings sink into me, enjoying the presence of the people who moved into my life.  Had I been asked fifteen years ago where I saw myself in the future, ‘on a spaceship, as the last of the human race, about to colonize another world’ would have been nowhere on that list.  But here I was, with a larger family than I had ever dreamed.

Despite all that we had been through, I couldn’t wait to see what the future would bring.

 (A/N: Keep your eyes out for an announcement on New Year’s Eve!)

<< Prev   Masterlist  Next >>

[canyouhearthelight]

The Miys, Ch. 94

Okay, camping trip is over for now... I plan to do another in October, though, so if your story or submission wasn’t included, don’t worry. Still hanging on to it for then.

For now, however, it’s time for Sophia to jump back into her regularly scheduled disaster, with both feet.  Thanks go out to @baelpenrose and @creakingcryptid for their beta-readership on this chapter.

Everyone else? Hang on tight.  This is a steep drop....

Despite my misgivings about Conor and Maverick’s idea to have a camping trip, I was still in a far better mood several days afterward.  The atmosphere was casual enough that I had been able to forget the fact that Grey, Simon, and I were essentially surrounded by armed guards. Instead, it was us, our friends, and respective partners: a nice, normal camping trip, minus the fire and fish. Granted, the last part had been due to a late appearance by a certain mermaid who was very strict about fishing in the artificial lake, but still. Very quiet, very dark, very relaxing… and most of all, very, very normal. 

The side effect of the camping trip was a sense of calm, which trickled into the following week. I was walking to my office, on what I was reasonably certain was Monday, chatting with Xiomara and inviting her to the next campout, when I ran squarely into someone.  My immediate thought was that I needed to really watch where I was going, until the jarring reality of the situation hit me.

I hadn’t received a proximity alert.

I had become so accustomed to them, even with the knowledge that Jokul’s acolytes were disabling them, that I developed a tendency to navigate using them. I know, I know, it was profoundly lazy of me, but after a lifetime of bad eyesight and sketchy hearing, the cranial beeping was far more reliable.  Cautiously turning my gaze to the person I had charged into, I was astonished at what I saw. Medium height and build, light brown hair, hazel eyes… check, check, and check.

“Antoine!?” I gasped in confusion. “I haven’t seen you in months! Are you okay? Crepes, work must be busy…”

“Councillor Reid.” He inclined his head slightly as he intoned his greeting.

I was so… baffled. This was, essentially, my brother in law. Who adored lemon-blueberry cake donuts, atomically spicy etouffee, and Love in the Time of Cholera. Who had investigated the quilt I gifted Tyche with sincere curiosity. Who… was staring coldly at me, right now?

“I - I’m so… sorry…” I trailed off. “Let me get out of your way. I’m sure you’ve got somewhere to be, as busy as I’m sure you’ve been…”

“Coward,” he spat, pain spiking through me like I’d been shot. “Always so subservient, so afraid.” He stood, ramrod straight, hands behind his back in an ‘at rest’ posture. “It’s no wonder you hide behind others.”

I backed up, slamming into Xiomara. “Antoine, I don - “

“Don’t what?” he accused. “Don’t walk around with your minions, expecting them to keep you safe? Expecting Tyche to keep you safe? How dare you?”

I tried to respond, but he soldiered through, ignoring me. “She is your sister. You should be protecting her, but instead you use her as your shield, hiding behind her rage.”

“Look - “

“No, you look,” he demanded. “Your partners, I understand. They are more versed in physical confrontation, no? Your friend Farro, even. But Tyche? That is sheer cowardice. Leave her out of this, you… you monster!” Antoine stepped forward to tower over me. I had never been so aware of the difference in our heights before, but I was suddenly realizing that I was a distinct disadvantage.

However, I was also remarkably angry. “How dare I!? How dare YOU!”  I shouted back. “I specifically asked that Tyche, Conor, Maverick… Grey… Charly… Zach… hell, Derek, Sam, and YOU would be left out of this.” Shoving my hand through my hair, I took a step forward. Now, I was chest-to-chest with a man I never thought I would argue with in my life. “I wanted all of you to be out of this, completely out. I almost died on Level One just for thinking out loud. As soon as I realized something was up, I went to her,” I pointed emphatically at Xiomara, almost taking her eye out by underestimating how close she was, “that none of us want any part of this. That was after Charly took a slap to the face and punch to the ribs that was meant for me. If you can convince my sister to stop putting herself in the line of fire on my behalf, I will do anything.” I took three deep breaths, trying to calm myself and failing. “But don’t you dare,” I bruised my finger stabbing him in the sternum, “Accuse” Stab and bruise. “ME” More bruising, hopefully not just my finger this time. “Of putting Tyche in danger on purpose. That woman is anger wrapped in a hurricane and strapped down with dynamite. She does what she wants, when she wants, and fuck us all if we disagree.” My voice dropped to a whisper, close enough now that there would be no misunderstanding, even with my loss of hearing. “Because do not mistake me, Tyche is never willing to back down when her moral compass points a certain way. It may not make sense in the now, it may not make sense to me, but in the end, she is incapable of backing down from what she believes is right.”

Antoine stepped back, then took half a step back again. “You are choosing to remain hiding behind someone else’s virtue,” he pronounced loudly, still standing at-rest and sneering. “He is correct, you are simply a coward, climbing out of the shadow of greater people to stand on the shoulders of others.”  His eyes bored into mine like he was trying to drill the idea into my head, but it only made me angrier. 

Before I could say anything, he spun on his heel and walked away, hands still gripped tightly behind his back “What the hell?” I asked the air, bewildered.

I turned to Xiomara, but before I could say anything, a woman ran up and grabbed my arm, her dark eyes wide and pleading, nails digging into my skin. “Sophia,” Parvati gasped, trying to catch her breath. “I saw his hands, he was typing to someone.” She stared me down, clearly asking me to understand some piece of information I was missing. When she realized this, she tried again. “While he was speaking to you. The entire time, both his hands were clearly typing, and quickly.”

Realization dawned on me. “Tyche?” I asked, hoping he was standing up for my sister and informing her of the fact rather than asking for permission I knew she wouldn’t have granted.

“I am not sure,” she replied, glancing around. “But I am confident you need to move from here and get to your office. It cannot be safe.”

A sliver of my undying curiosity wanted to glance back at Xiomara’s face, seeing her romantic interest warn me to shelter. However, Parvati dug her nails deeper into my arm, matched only by a blunter set on the other - clearly the women were of an accord on my need to get to a safe location, preventing any excuse to satiate my nosy nature. Instead, I had several yards of keeping my eyes down to prevent motion sickness. Inevitably, I focused on the swishing silks in front of me. “Silver and gold… you look like a statue, Parvati.”

“AH! You really are colorblind,” she laughed, pealing like a bell. No wonder Xiomara was so enamoured. “Turquoise and gold, I believe.”

“Same thing,” I muttered, dismayed that having one eye replaced hadn’t corrected my color-vision. Mental note to have my eyes replaced with Tyche’s in the future, I told myself. There was really no excuse for still being colorblind, especially when several people told me I was missing out on the best part.

“This sari is designed to look like the colors of the ocean, sky, and land,” Parvati continued. I restrained a groan at all I knew I was missing. “Golden sand, and the waters of the tropical seas.”

“Sophia - “ Xiomara interjected from behind me. I briefly felt fingers brush my shirt, and assumed it was her.

“Not now,” Parvati panted, still towing me behind her. “Fifty more yards.”

I glanced around, concerned. “My office is nowhere near here.  It’s on another deck…”

“I am aware,” came the reply. “But we are headed to a safe location. Safer, at least. Ah!” Parvati exclaimed as we arrived at a door I had passed a dozen times but never really looked at. “In here.”  With that, she practically stuffed me into the door, quickly repeated the action on Xiomara,  and finally yanked her sari behind her as she closed the entrance.  I did not miss how she peered through the closing portal, up to the point she could no longer see even a sliver of light through it. “We are safe now.”

“How can you - “

She held one finger to her lips, another canted overhead and to the side. After a moment, she tilted her head. “Do you hear the humming?”

I listened, but couldn’t actually hear anything. Despite that, there was a vibration working its way through my teeth and bones. “I feel it, does that count?”

She nodded once. “That is the gravity generator for this side of the ship. It distorts sound, creates an inhuman level of interference.” Pointing past me, Parvati raised her eyebrows. “If you keep walking in that direction, there should be an intersect between the grav generators, at least theoretically. It will either be the most efficient compactor known to humanity, or a zero gee area the size of a small park. But I haven’t found it yet.”

A throat cleared, calling our attention. Eyes turned to Xiomara, who stood with both hands on her hips. “Care to fill me in on why, exactly, we are here?”

I tried to plead what little I knew. “Antoine - “

“Yes, he confronted you in the hall.” A sleek hand held up to stave off Parvati’s objections. “And yes, he sent a message to someone. But why are we here?”

Parvati scoffed, wagging her head at my fellow Councillor. “Sophia is in danger. Someone very close to her just accused her of using people as protection, while reporting back to an unknown party. At least here, she can attempt to send a signal to her sister to try to understand.”  With that, she started to poke around the space, eventually locating a wire connected to gods know what. “This will let you send a signal without interference, but you will have to type on a flat surface - the motion sensor will be disrupted and will need a very firm stop to know what you are typing. Voice will not work.” I nodded, in shock and awe at her direct delivery and preparedness. As she handed me the plug, I flicked open my data pad.

Only to find a message waiting.

Sophia,

My sincerest apologies for my abrasiveness. I needed to appear real.

Meet me at the Undine at 0100 hours. Come alone. I will advise her where you will be, and you can confirm.

You are my heart’s heart.

Absently, I wiped at a tear making its way down my cheek, not even consciously aware of the action. “He isn’t angry,” I exhaled, a tightness in my chest releasing. “Xio, should I stay away?”

Dark eyes gave me an appraising look. “No. You should go. This could be important, if he’s reaching out to you like this.”

“And I should really go alone?”

“Depends,” she shrugged.  Her casual demeanor was very disconcerting. “Everyone connected to you is well-known to… essentially the whole ship. How well can Farro disguise himself? I’ll give him back his sword if he can do it.”

Glancing at my datapad, I focused on the time. “He has about twelve hours to figure that out.”

<< Prev  Masterlist  Next >>