#[just gotta iron out the title and details]

[stardustedstories]

Because I am a FAN of dramatic parallels, especially when they're like this, I will be giving L.otor an AU where he's the paladin of the Black Lion, like his father was before. But instead of following in his father's footsteps and going quintessence-mad, he is genuinely working with the rest of Vo.ltron to bring peace to the universe. And what better way to do that than have the Emperor as one of the paladins?

[quitealotofsodapop]

Stone Egg theories + Luzhen

All are asks are connected to this post made about: what if Stone Monkeys could naturally reproduce asexually via converting their body into a new Stone Egg?

All images have transcripts btw.

1: Possibly. Wukong has a *lot* of immortalities. But accidentally creating a Stone Egg asexually takes a lot out of him physically and spirtually. His soul gets a permanent hit to it. The whole point of the Stone Egg is for either a monkey with a large familial group to produce an heir without a mate, or the last of a troop to fling a piece of hope into the future. Most don't survive, but some do. It helps to have a lot of magically talented friends/family around to stabilize your body once the egg-creating process has begun so you can heal. Though I bet most single monkeys prefered adoption if at all necessary - accidentally giving the Stone Monkey kind a hyper-active parental instinct towards non-related infants of similar species.

He probably gets cravings for a lot of rocks, metal and bones in the process.

2 & 3: (@soniclozdplove) Guanyin realised that she gotta put her stone monkey on birth control if they were gonna keep him underground. Her brain jumped to "He's made of rock right? rock spirits eat metal... right?? Crap, it's the only thing down here." and cue molten copper and iron pellets for dinner. The question is; was it even that painful for Wukong? Man takes out his organs a bunch of times and bathes in hot oil in Jttw without complaint. Odds are in the moment it felt like the worlds worse heartburn/spicy food burn since he really is made of earth materials. XD

He probably felt super grateful once he realized why Guanyin was feeding him molten metal. He didn't want kids in that circumstance either!

4: A furiously confused pregnant Wukong! He immediately starts yelling at Gold Star for answers, and has to be talked down from trottling the Buddha himself for this. Tripitaka is panicking, he's never been around a pregnant person before!

Wukong doesn't even need the circlet in this verse. Guanyin just gives him false labor contractions and he's behaving immediately. He probably has to lug the egg in his body around for some extra time, maybe even until the Journey is over depending on how funny the Buddha or Bixia Yuanjun (goddess of childbirth) is feeling.

Macaque sees Wukong pregnant this way and is confused, dismayed, and yelling "Who's the father!?" at every Pilgrim. It takes him a while to understand that the Stone Egg happened cus of SWK being essentially slow-cooked underground for 500 years. Even if Macaque plays nice with the Pilgrims afterwards, he's still glaring at anyone who comes near Wukong and "their" egg.

Wukong endears himself to many people simply because he's with child. Probably gets an extra godly nickname (something like "Meihou-Wangmu" a pun on his Handsome Monkey King title + Queen/King Mother) refering to him as a fertility figure - women seeking luck with having/not having children approach Wukong asking for his blessing, and odds are it works because of who his creator is. XD

But he also attracts unique threats that the pilgrims have to personally destroy to protect him - Krasues and Manananggals anyone?

The second the Journey is over, Wukong kneels over and with an literal earth-shattering scream out *pops!* a little Stone Egg. All happy and cracking open minutes later. His and Macaque's first born isn't told the details of their creation for a long time.

5 & 6: Gold Star gives Shadowpeach the Stone Monkey version of The Talk and warns them never to get buried alive unless they're 100% sure about it. Macaque and Wukong are terrifed into not having kids until Guanyin let sit slip that the "regular way" should work too.

In "The Monkey King and the Infant" au; Gold Star was a little more than shocked to hear about MK/Xiaotian's creation XD

Macaque is sadly unlikely to ever carry a "clone egg" to term or survive the full process. His body is a lot smaller/weaker than Wukong's and he was deprived of a lot of nutrients as a newborn (stuck on the moon = very few vitamins). So if he ever got triggered into parthenogenesis, his body would likely just refuse to create an egg. No gas in the tank.

Baby Luzhen is born from SWK, and he immediately takes out the roof/part of the Jade Palace with eye lazers. Giggling, he fails to notice the looks of horror on his family's faces.

Pigsy shoudl be just used to this nonsense by now. In the TMKATI Au; MK was a rogue comet Harbringer baby, the twins were freebies from Diyu, Yuebei was the reincarnation of one of their greatest enemies, the twin boys are likely reincarnated lunar node deities, and ofc now Luzhen decides to spawn in like a chicken egg.

I love the idea of Tang hearing all these gory details like;

Tang: "This is like finding a living dinosaur egg or a thylacine! Imagine if any of your children married a regular monkey demon- it could completely bring back your species!"

Wukong + all Three Realms shudder at the thought - Wukong mostly because he aint never doing that again. Gold Star of Venus and Lao Tzu hum, intrigued at the thought.

Tang starts crying when he realises that single-parent Stone Monkeys would likely be born orphans. It's so sad! :'(

6: Nah, Luzhen pops out all newborn baby. You see, being born fully-developed from a Stone Egg is a huge rarity; only occurring when the whole troop has died out and the egg is left on its own for thousands of years. If a Stone Monkey parent is "awoken" early enough (like within say 500-600 years) in the Egg's development and tended to quickly, their bodies stabilize into a long, but far less dangerous form of pregnancy. Its a safeguard for in case the pregnant survivor of an extinct group is found by a new troop, the parent survives and can live to possibly reproduce with the new unrelated group (higher chance of viable mates).

The only sacrifice being that the babies in these "soft-boiled" Stone Eggs are a lot weaker, premature even. The eggs themselves having a much higher chance of being empty or just absorbing straight back into the parent. Many who survived the process just sighed, it was the law of nature - why risk a possible baby for the parent when survival is preferred?

Luzhen is able to be born simply because Wukong has such a solid support system and healthcare available to him.

Ty for all these asks! I guess I should make a special "Stone Egg talk" tag for these ideas!

[hookshot18]

Watched Michael Mann’s Manhunter

(No, he didn’t choose the title)

So I’ve been in both a Hannibal mood and a Michael Mann mood recently, so I thought I’d take a look at the original adaptation of the original novel. And I gotta say, it’s very interesting to look at it both isolated and in the context of everything that came afterwards

First of all, it’s got a great cast. Unlike the sequels there aren’t really any names in the cast outside of Brian Cox, but everyone gives a great performance, especially William Petersen as Will Graham. Whenever he’d do the character’s signature monologues while talking to himself, it’s nothing but him talking directly to the camera in single takes, he doesn’t have the luxury of cuts or montages to fall back on. Brian Cox’s Hannibal Lecktor is the most understated version, but that doesn’t mean he’s missing the kind of fruity cattiness that makes him so fascinating to watch. The two of them have great chemistry that definitely does have hints of the homoerotic, but I just wish I was able to watch more of them. The killer who they’ve reunited over, Francis Dolarhyde, is played by Tom Noonan, is also a real treat. He’s so tall and imposing, and a great antagonist. One of the flaws of the movie is how little time is spent on him. (Ironically the book has the opposite problem, having page after page describe every single injustice Dolarhyde has faced as a child to the point of being cartoonishly tragic.) As I haven’t finished the Hannibal show, I can’t comment on its portrayal of the Red Dragon, so I have to give it to the 2002 movie for the best version of him. All of the rest of the cast, such as Dennis Farina, Kim Greist, and Joan Allen are all extremely natural and do a good job even if they aren’t as memorable as future performances in the series

From a filmmaking perspective, it’s beautiful. Michael Mann and cinematographer Dante Spinotti have beautiful imagery that they love to linger on, the score is that kind of 80s synth sound that horror and thrillers have severely lacked in the last few decades, and it all builds up to a movie that has the perfect amount of style and substance.

I’ll compare it to the other movies in the series that I’ve seen, Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon. It’s very interesting to watch compared to the former, since that one is unique in that it goes for a very naturalistic visual style, which pairs well with the more animated cast. And then Red Dragon makes the cast even more animated somehow, and has become perhaps the most stylized thing outside of the TV series, though I think it backfired into becoming style over substance, which is odd considering it has the same source material and cinematographer, but 16 years and a worse director make all the difference. Mann’s iconic level of detail may be a bit overboard, to the point where most of the crew left before wrapping and the ending is very noticeably cobbled together and short, but you won’t see Brett Ratner have people ride an elevator in a building several blocks away timed exactly to rise as Will figures out the killer’s motive, being basically a Lightbulb moment.

All in all, if you’re a fan of either Hannibal Lecter, thrillers, or just movies in general, give this a watch, it’s very much a hidden gem

[lunarriviera]

2023 ao3 wrapped

last year @programmedradly and i asked each other some questions, rather than try to field the entire thing. so we did the same thing this year! and here are my answers. i had a wild little annus mirabilis and somehow posted more work than i ever have before, so there was lots to choose from.

•

3. What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)?

tragically, one of my dead doves: the wu xie/li cu fic “you bear your scars, you've done your time.” no one reads it because it's an age-gap pairing, and it's inherently tragic (post-sha hai fucked-up wu xie). it has 17 whole kudos and it fought for every one. but like a lot of my badwrong pairings, it's honestly some of my best writing. i wrote it fast and the action scenes are solid, the dialogue is good and even funny, and the sex scenes are miserable and scorching. oh well, they can put it in my norton critical edition after i'm dead lol.

5. What work of yours got more feedback than you expected?

readers seemed to like the pingxie kissing fic, which was funny to me because it's literally just…kissing. (i wanted to put in plot and/or sex but mumble was very stern with me: “this is a KISSING fic.”) i guess we all are still battered by canon and just want wu xie dozing by the carp pool and getting kissed.

6. Favorite title you used?

“the subtle fire," with its title from the calamus poems by walt whitman; all its subheadings are from whitman too. sadly otherwise this was the year of taylor, and i exhausted midnights and all the vault tracks. new year's resolution: moratorium on fic titles from tay.

8. Pairing you wrote the most for this year?

somehow there were 18 dmbj fics. 😳 pingxie won out with 9 fics, followed by 6 heihua fics and then a smattering of rare pairs (not to say dead doves lol). there were 5 under the skin fics; at this point i post one of those like every two damm weeks because i'm down that bad.

10. What work was the quickest to write?

probably either of my drabbles—a little rpf prose poem for zhu yilong/unnamed photographer (still my most beloved pairing) or shen wei smoking a cigarette and zhao yunlan being horrified (and a little turned on).

11. What work took you the longest to write?

without a doubt, the 31k guardian fic i just posted. i got freaked out by its complexity and dropped it for a year, and then had to TOIL over all the canon details, because i didn't remember ANYTHING apparently (zhang shi who? fu you? li qian? what?). it took for fucking EVER to finish and i will NEVER write such a plotty monster again. the worst part was when ma gui randomly said, “oh there's a fifth hallow” at which point i was like “there's a WHAT NOW.” ironically that turned out to be the title. i hate characters that TALK and SAY SHIT.

15. What WIP are you taking into next year with you?

the pingxie epic 😭 i'm not sure if i even can ever finish it because it involves google searches like “recent tomb discoveries china” and “can you survive c4 explosion.” also it'll be another dead dove because it starts with wu xie divorcing bai haotian, and the iron triangle being broken up. and that's just the beginning. everyone will hate it, and instead read cute fics about liu sang being a fox, probably.

17. Your favorite character to write this year?

it's gotta be du cheng from under the skin. he embodies what is turning into my favorite character archetype, Big Dumb Hot Cop. so butch. so loyal. so stupid. just a blast to narrate. wu xie and hei xiazi have similar idiot energy but are also paradoxically very intelligent so that's more challenging. (writing xiaoge's dialogue is difficult as fuck. he can't just say "wu xie" ALL the time.)

28. Favorite work you wrote this year?

possibly, after everything, the end (for me) of the zhu yilong/unnamed photographer series. other people may keep adding to it but i needed to let them go. they exist in such a liminal unsettled never-together bittersweet place for me and i felt grateful to have spent time with them, as weird as that is to say. i'll always love unnamed photographer, and his aesthetic yearning. MY ONE RPF SHIP THAT WENT CANON. 😭

29. Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

indulging myself and submitting a few:

Even Huos had to sleep sometime, or hang upside down, or whatever it was they did to restore themselves. [x]

•

Once he has him flat on his back again, with breathtaking pragmatism Shen Yi drips lube all over him, sinks down on him and then rides him so hard Du Cheng sees not just stars but entire constellations. [x]

•

Xiaoge kissed his hair. "Hold still," he said, and Wu Xie could do that, no problem. He fell asleep that way, curled against Xiaoge’s naked skin, and dreamed he was watching Xiaoge plant moss in the moss garden, in impossible colors: turquoise, bright orange. A richly saturated luminous violet. [x]

•

Xiazi added so much condensed milk to Xie Yuchen’s coffee that he finally had to arrest his hand forcibly. “Stop trying to give me diabetes.” Xiazi’s smile was worse than the cloying milk. “It’s to match the sweetness in your soul, my little flower." “Oh my god,” said Xie Yuchen faintly, as Geya listened, to all appearances visibly entertained. “What do you want? Because I assume you want something. Money? Work? Is this a hostage situation?” Xiazi just smiled harder, but at least he put the milk down, in favor of giving Xie Yuchen another pain au chocolat. “Why does he get all the pastry?” Geya said, sounding disappointed. “It’s to build his strength,” Hei Xiazi told him, and the patently, horribly uxorious look on Xiazi’s face made Xie Yuchen want to hit someone.) [x]

•

Xiao Hua manages to bite back a tart comment about how challenging it is to keep looking younger than forty when one’s companion will never look any older. It takes more than expensive rose hip and argan oil and ceramides; it takes never skipping the gym, and always skipping dessert. It means going to bed at nine-thirty when he’d rather stay up reading, and above all it means not letting Hei Xiazi know about any of these little maneuvers, lest it not seem effortless. [x]

•

As Wu Xie started enthusiastically laying out the details—and why was he awake at this miserable hour?—Hei Xiazi pulled the pillow away from his face and started gently hitting Xie Yuchen with it. “Wu Xie, let me call you back later,” he said, arresting the pillow’s movement with one hand. “I have something I have to deal with here.” “Sure,” said Wu Xie, cheerful. Then: “I bought Pangzi an espresso machine, and he taught me how to use it! Xiaoge’s not here, I wish he’d come home. I had five cups! You should take Hei Xiazi with you, just in case things get complicated. They might. Get complicated, I mean. I'll tell you all about it. When will you call me?” Xie Yuchen fought not to laugh. “After sunrise, probably. Drink some water. And tell Pangzi I’m going to kill him.” [x]

•

Su Wan seems lost in thought for a minute. “I always thought maybe one day I would like guys, but I don’t.” Li Cu elbows him. “What about Hei-ye?” Su Wan looks horrified. “Yali, no! What a thought!” “Okay, okay,” says Li Cu, and drunkenly tousles his hair. “Calm down.” Yang Hao puts out his hand for the bottle. “Hei-ye is pretty cool, though,” he says, which is high praise from him. It’s true. They sit without saying anything for a moment, in silent contemplation of Hei Xiazi’s inarguable coolness. [x]

•

The things about you that other people find unsettling, those have somehow never bothered Wu Xie. You’re spooky, Hei Xiazi told you frankly, once. I am too, but I drown it out by talking. You’re so silent, our little Yaba Zhang. People are afraid of you. Xiazi had been right, and you knew it. But Wu Xie has never been afraid of you, not even once. You think about the first time you came back from behind the gate, how furious and desperate he’d been to know why you hadn’t come straight back to him. Demanding answers, wanting to know why you went, what you saw. And you remember gazing back at him, still mute with the magnitude of it. He could never have understood, but no one could, not even Wu Xie whose intelligence shone as clearly as an aura around him, glowing, burnished—still innocent, still young enough to be passionate. Whereas even at the time you felt every single one of your hundred years lying on you like a burden, like fallen trees pressing you into the loam, the moss, the muck. [x]

•

He’s still half-asleep, is the only thing that could possibly explain why Zhao Yunlan ducks under some low-slung branches and strolls right up to the water’s edge only to see Shen Wei, stripped naked, hip-deep in a pool of still clear water, combing through his unbraided hair with his fingers. Why is this a surprise. What was he thinking. And above all, why is he still walking towards him on automatic, as if drawn toward him, as if not caring whether Shen Wei would see him or stop— Shen Wei startles and looks up, motion arrested. He’s bent at the waist, rinsing bits of dirt and bracken from his hair, skin glowing like wet marble, and Zhao Yunlan suddenly wants him so badly he couldn’t make a fist if he had to. Shen Wei smiles, and Zhao Yunlan will never get enough of that smile, artless and full-hearted. All he can do is smile back, helplessly. [x]

[hillbillyhippiemusicreview]

EMILY JAMERSON IS HERE TO STAY LIKE DRIED ON PAINT—AND WE PROMISE THAT'S A GOOD THING

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There is so much music—absolutely lovely music—seemingly released on the daily nowadays that it makes it insanely difficult to stay on top of what’s new, whether you’re a just a casual listener or have devoted your life to sharing the gospel of good tunes, like we have here at the Hillbilly Hippie Music Review. Sometimes the noise (joyful, musical noise that is) gets so loud that we have to trust the process and hope the universe carries the music to both those who need it most and to those who can help take the music far; however, every once in a while we come across an artist that we just can’t stop thinking about. Equal parts southern songbird and mountain siren, Prestonburg, Kentucky's Emily Jamerson is one of those artists and is someone we think you MUST know....so here we are, back drowning out the noise and tuning in to share the gospel via a long overdue review. I must say, it was a grave mistake of mine to be so uninformed of her musical prowess prior to her art reaching me when I needed it most, so I urge you not to make the same mistake—keep reading below:

Over the years within our music circles we’ve heard her name murmured (Jamerson is a sacred name round these parts), sometimes seen it on lineups, but admittedly we were very slow to acquaint ourselves. As I mentioned above, sometimes we’ve just gotta have faith the music reaches who needs it when they need it—ironically enough, Emily Jamerson reached me in a time where I was desperate to feel seen and validated. I was in the midst of a soul-searching, supposed-to-be healing weekend turned sour by the misguided words of someone I had torn down my walls to put trust in when I saw on the socials that she had released “Dried Paint.” Sitting oceanside down on the shore in Mississippi, with a salty breeze in my hair, hot tears in my eyes, and the words I didn't know how to say choking in my throat trying to calm a heart that broke, I felt even more out-of-place and unseen than I ever had before....so I pressed play. And so it went, in less than three minutes time, I was singing along to the earworm of a chorus while gutturally sing-screaming “GO FIND LESS”, my newfound, yet well-worn anthem. 

At first glance of the title, “Dried Paint,” is an unassuming, yet curious song name. Upon first listen of the melody, it’s seemingly a jovial tune, filled with upbeat fiddle and sunshine-filled chords galore. That is, until, Jamerson begins to sing. Almost as quickly as the tune begins, listeners find out that the song is not quite what the title begets: rather, the notion of dried paint is used as quirky symbolism of the steadfast depths of self-acceptance, and furthermore, self-love. As the first verse flows into the second and on down into the chorus, Jamerson details many of the ways others have viewed her as “too much.” When the chorus hits though, it feels as if Jamerson takes the reigns back from the negative talk of others and without the slightest air of self-efficacy twists her perceived flaws into powerful positives—and let me tell ya'll: when she hits the hook, I swear it not only made this “too much” girl feel seen, but it made me want to scream it loud from the top of Pine Mountain: “And I gotta get somethin’ off my chest, if you don’t like it, then you can go find less!” The song continues with some more lyrical professions of standing in her truth, and for listeners who need the message she’s preaching via song, I’d bargain it’s almost a spiritual release, a heavy weight of an often cold world lifted off their shoulders. I believe I can speak for many, and perhaps even Jamerson, when I say that it’s beyond difficult emulating the “too much” kind of girl people paint you as for your entire life, even if at your core you know it’s not wrong to be who you are. As the years pass by, girls—heck, anybody—like me try to find ways to blend in and make ourselves small so we don’t take up too much space. However, all that does is dampen our fires and break our spirits. People like us, as beloved or hated as we may be, need space to let our true selves shine and it’s past time we take up the space we deserve. With this song, I feel like Emily Jamerson gives all the girls both older and wiser and younger and stumbling their way through life, the permission to be who the Good Lord created them to be. Shewwee...That’s powerful stuff. To be seen, heard, and understood is truly one of the basic human needs for survival—and we’re so glad Jamerson is “here to stay like dried on paint,” creating a cathartically safe musical haven for people to be so much more than the less the world wants them to be. The anthemic properties of “Dried Paint” make it the perfect song to feel, heal, and simply EXIST to. Shine on, my people! ✨

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On an equally beautiful, yet opposite wavelength of the notion of love, this summer also saw Jamerson release a second single, “Love Song Love." It's a swoon-worthy Hallmark movie in lyrical form that melodically details the evolution of a precious love story woven poetically through time. In her dulcet tones, she sings about the sweet, simple love song kind of love many dream about. The tune is utterly romantic and deeply sentimental—the perfect recipe for a love song that will linger on for ages. Adding to the depths or the romance is a beautiful pedal steel backing up the trills of Jameson’s passionate vocals, and I believe hearing this song and her expert musicality showcased by perfectly pairing melodies with arrangements that make both her voice and the story shine made me fall even more in love with the artist she is becoming. I can't help but drift off into some forlorn daydream from my childhood when I listen to it! I don’t want to give too much of the story away, but I’d bargain this tune will not only be the soundtrack to many Hallmark moments that transpire in the quiet moments two-stepping in kitchens and loving in moonlit backyards across Appalachia and beyond, but will also find it’s home as a timeless wedding song. Rightfully so—it's that perfect! If you don't find yourself swaying along with stars in your eyes, I suggest you see a doctor to double check that your heart is beating!***

May we all learn to love ourselves as the Creator intended and find that “Love Song Love” in whatever brings us happiness during the time we have left in this world. Personally, one thing that checks off a happiness box for me is continuing to follow Emily Jamerson’s development as a songwriter and falling in love with her voice all over again each time she releases new music. If she and her music don’t sound like too much for you, be sure to check out the two singles mentioned above, as well as lend an ear to her 2022 EP, The Dead Street Sessions featuring Emily Jamerson. The songs are acoustic, stripped bare bones to nothing but her voice and message—and there’s a lot of love, light, and truth to be found in those tracks as well. “Worthy” is a good place to start…make sure to finish your deep dive into the sweet, sweet sounds of this Appalachian Angel by following all her socials and catching her at a show soon. I know I personally can’t wait to see her play in person and thank her for the comfort her music has provided me in such a soul-stirring time in my life. Give her a listen; it might just heal something in you that you didn’t know was hurtin’ either. After all, there’s healin’ in the hurtin—and the music. 

***HHMR is a music review practice, not a licensed medical practice, so do not take our words as medical advice. Your heart is probably fine, but we think it would grow a few sizes by finding love for Emily Jamerson's music!🤠

[disquietmindofmine]

The Aftershocks - Chapter 02

Even through the respirator, Nick could practically taste the iron and smoke in the air, mixed with freshly-burned butane. This miasma, alongside the cacophony of fire and hammers was so familiar to him, it felt like coming home as soon as Nick stepped foot in the workshop. He immediately set his eyes upon the first workbench in a long series, lining the eastern wall.

Approaching the patchwork steel table, Nick placed his hand on the tabletop so as to visually announce his arrival to the younger worker. Nick never enjoyed the need to shout over the uproar that persisted during the working hours, so he established a messaging system that forewent such a requirement. One finger extended onto the table meant, "See me when you can," while two meant, "See me now." He extended one finger onto the table, held for a moment to make sure it wasn't missed, and then retreated to his private workspace, separated from the rest of the shop by a long zig-zagging hallway and an extensive amount of acoustic paneling.

Getting comfortable, Nick situated himself in place atop his red leather chair, and took stock of his surroundings. Nothing out of place, it seemed, just as it was left. He picked up and examined the etched copper name plate.

Nicholas Imahra - Lead Engineer

He never was fond of the old thing. It felt a touch pretentious to declare his title so boldly in front. Although, he tried to remind himself, Michael cared more for appearances than Nicholas cared to forego them. Even so, he couldn't help but consider getting rid of it every time he saw it. With a small sigh, the plate once again found its home on the front edge of the dark oak.

Nick turned towards the drafting table to his right and picked up the pen that rested on the lip. He brushed his gaze overtop of the blueprints, trying to find his place from the previous day. On the page appeared the preliminary sketches of some form of armor. Large cylindrical tanks framed the back of the armor, with tightly-coiled tubing feeding from them into the forearms. Above and to the left of the armor was the silhouette of a hand with no defining details or labels that would indicate it being even nearly finished.

That must be it, Nick thought to himself. He couldn't help but wonder if Michael's forgetfulness was somehow rubbing off on him. He played with the idea taking notes, albeit not to the extent of his husband. With so much to keep track of, he could hardly afford it potentially leaking into something more urgent. Losing track of time to his thoughts, a knock rang out from the door before Nick was able to put ink to paper.

"It's unlocked," he called out, allowing more of his annoyance be heard than he intended.

"I'm terribly sorry," the younger worker replied, almost as a question, as she slowly opened the door, "I don't suppose I'm interrupting something, considering you called me in."

Nicholas smiled at the not-so-subtle reminder of his demeanor. "Right. My apologies, Tierra, I was caught up in my head again. You know how I can get."

Tierra returned the smile as she found one of the two chairs across from Nicholas and made herself comfortable. "I do," she began again, almost singing the second word as she extended it, "but I suppose I can forgive ya, Mr. Imahra, all things considered."

"Mr. Imahra?" Nicholas echoed questioningly as he became painfully aware of the nameplate, "Can't you just call me Nick like everyone else?" He felt the bags of his eyes grow slightly darker as the conversation veered into this unforeseen and unwanted direction.

"Mm," Tierra seemed to give the question some thought, before continuing, "Nah, I don't think I can. People think I don't respect you and the work we're doing. Gotta prove that I do, ya know?"

"Would you think that I respected you more if I referred to you as Ms. Smalls?" Nicholas returned.

"Ew, no, definitely not," Tierra retorted, practically recoiling in her chair.

"Then I suppose it's settled, first name basis it is. Now, with that out of the way," Nick hunched forward and to his left to withdraw some slightly crumpled paperwork and place it on top of the desk, facing Tierra.

"These here," he began again as he rested a finger on the center of the page, "are your notes regarding our outermost defenses. I didn't receive any other critiques when I sent out the open request, and yours were rather scathing to say the least."

"So…" Tierra stretched the syllable, alternating her gaze between the documents and Nick's eyes, inviting a response. When none was given, she continued, "What? You're upset with me because I was harsh?"

"Not at all," he replied, somewhat surprised, "Let me be more specific. I want you to elaborate, Tierra." He rotated the papers back towards himself, picked them up, and tapped them rhythmically to accentuate his last sentence, "Tell me more."

Tierra's eyes brightened a little at that, "Well, it's just like I said, really. The fences are great, ya know? They've worked for a long time. I just don't think they're going to work forever. It would be like if humanity learned to build mud huts and said, 'Good enough.' I mean, look at the stuff we're designing here every day. You mean to tell me that the best we've got are some fancy twisted wire? I don't buy it.''

"So you believe that the fences will eventually fail?"

"That's the long and short of it, boss."

"How do you know?" Nick allowed the question to come out slowly but sternly, as he narrowed his eyes slightly, intensifying his expression as if to will Tierra to conjure some fundamental truth about her claim.

Tierra shrunk slightly under Nick's emerald green eyes, running a hand up and down the opposing arm, "Well, I mean, I wouldn't exactly say I know per se, but it, ah, stands to reason-"

"No, Tierra, no. It does not stand to reason if 'it' is just a hunch. If you want to declare that our systems are, to quote your submission, 'an absolute embarrassment to the foundation of our faction,' I need you to have more concrete reasons. Are our power supplies outdated? Is the wiring an old mess of corrosion? Is the system in need of bi-weekly repairs despite the whole damn thing being designed as entirely self-sustaining?" Nick's typically even, velvet tone gave way to rasp and anger, and his volume rose immensely as he listed down the questions. By the end of his tirade, Nick wasn't even looking towards the young worker anymore, his vision lost staring a hole through the top of his desk, shoulders tensed and knuckles white.

Tierra was silent for a few long moments, merely trying to avoid Nick's glare and rage. She was still, a grayscale copy of her typical casual demeanor. As the pause came and went, Nick slowed his breathing, and regained himself. "I must apologize," Nick began in slow, measured syllables as he rubbed at his eyes with one hand, "I suppose I didn't realize how much that was bothering me. In any case, that isn't at all your fault nor problem. My point is, Tierra, you are an incredibly intelligent young woman. That's one thing, sure, but no matter how capable you are, you will need a team, and you'd better have some damn good reasons if you want to convince these engineers to redesign our entire defense system."

Tierra stirred back to life again from the cocktail of emotions spurred on by the apology, the praise, and the admonishment. "I don't think I understand, Mr. Imahra. You seem like you agree with me. So, if that's the case, why don't we just explain to them all those things you said? Or… or better yet, why do we still have the fences at all?"

"Because, Tierra," Nicholas half-sighed, half-started, "when people are comfortable, you might as well be moving mountains."

Thank you for reading!

- DQ

Chapter 01

[minesofmoriacosplays-blog]

Goodbye Beach City

Comic Con Masquerade Contest: Moria Magre- Mines of Moria Cosplays

Costume Entry Title: Goodbye Beach City

Inspired by Steven Universe

Costume Description:So, this costume was around 400 hours of work. It was a behemoth of a costume. I genuinely don't know where to start in describing it, but I guess starting from head to toe.

WIG: So the wig is styled by me, the figure in the wig is a small little Malachite figure as in season 1 of Steven Universe Malachite pulled themselves into the sea, so the wig is styled to be like the ocean, much the same as the rest of the dress. Malachite is an old worn out sock of my partners that was stuffed and cut and painted. Wire is in the legs and arms to make them movable. Then every piece of the little figure is hand stitched with embroidery floss. The face itself is actually iron on applique (because I feel the face detail wouldn't have been able to show on such a small figure otherwise) The other side of the wig has seashells and such to stick with the ocean motif.

BODICE: The bodice part of the dress is an old 1960s pattern design I modified from an old pattern my grandma had. I took that pattern and laid it on paper and reworked it and had to do SEVERAL tests with old sheets to make the pieces work for me (her pattern wasn't designed for... plus sized girls). On the upper shoulders are hand woven beaded strings that are in the shape of the diamond authority with 2mm beads which are so dang tiny ;_; On the lower part of the bodice is hand stitched flower motifs. I made the flower appliques themselves out of salt packets (since the dress is based on a beach and beaches are salty, salt made sense! I want to transport you guys to beach city with this dress!!!) Salt packets are cut open, empties, Elmer’s glued together then sewn down together on a fabric sheet, then cut out and attached with iron on interfacing. Along each edge of the flower pieces are again 2mm beads patterned into a 3:1:3 pattern with transparent then opaque then shiny.

SHORT BEACH SKIRT:All the skirts in the piece are all patterned by me, no base pattern at all, I genuinely did trial and error for all the skirts from here on. The belt there is attached to the skirts with heavy duty embroidery floss as the two skirts combined weigh close to 30 lbs. Now the first thing from the white dress to this that you see is white smocking. The smocking was all patterned by me with a bunch of error. The idea is from basic Canadian smocking but finding a lot of patterns for smocking is hard and it’s easier to make your own. For the patterning of the smocking I made a wooden template. I made the squares (for this piece the squares are 1cm wide) on the piece of wood and then put holes where each line meets of the squares then traced the little dots on the fabric with water soluble ink. (its quicker than measuring them all out) There are 64 rows of smoking and they are about each row is 38 cm long. Each 2 rows take about 1.25 hours. (Smocking is so relaxing-- that is until you hit row 40. Then it’s just tiring. GOTTA PULL THROUGH THOUGH) After the smocking you then see the salt packet sheets, I described above. Same technique but this time sewn into larger sheets and used as a base for the beach and locations themselves. The salt packets are almost like interfacing with how much it stiffens everything. The salt is still inside for these pieces unlike the roses pieces above so if I hop around you can hear the salt moving (which is quite rhythmic). After the salt packets is the locations. Now these are where it gets intense. (yeah, I know HERE is where it gets intense-- HA!) But the locations-- the fry shack/fish stew pizza, the Mr. Universe van/Lion and the big donut are first done on bedsheets I stretch over canvas (Almost all of the fabric for this costume are bedsheets and curtains-- I gotta be cheap and economical, costume supplies do add up ;_; ) So then patterns are drawn on the canvas, I paint the designs on doing color blocking so when I stitch the fabric is a matching color. They are then hand stitched on the canvas. ( I actually made 2 more designs, one being the car-wash and the other being Mr. Smileys fun land but couldn't find a place to put them so they got scrapped) After they are sewn, I add double sided interfacing to the back to seal up the extra strings and make sure they are flat. I do iron it on to the salt packets and then hand-stitch them on again. On the back of the skirt is a diamond shape I did with my embroidery machine of the diamond authority with the parts of the giant robot they control (talk about a weird plot twist tbh) Under the locations is the sand which is attached via clear caulk and then sand is smooshed in. The beach water is underneath, so the beach water is actually rubber resin (it is a heavy duty type and isn't sold most places, its sortof uncommon) So, there were 3 trial and errors for the water, I first did it in regular resin but added less hardener and coated it in clear acrylic in order to make it still mildly malleable but not tacky. It was more malleable than normal but not as much as I needed. Moving on- I tried the first batch of rubber resin. If you don't buy the kind without the alumilite it will yellow (and this resin is sorta weird and acts strange because of it) and guess what, blue and yellow make green. And the water looked so YUCKY. Third try. So important clarification- this resin also hardens in oh idk maybe 15 minutes max on a good day. 8 minutes on a bad day. I had both. So, because of the short time I had my partner help me mix up the batches. I had to have light, dark, and white for mixing. I had the fabric shape drawn onto dollar tree clear curtains that were taped to my porch ground. I then poured the dark, then light, then white. With gloves on I mixed it to give that watery affect. (not enough time to treat it like an acrylic pour but man I wish) Once it dries it is then attached to the dress with clear caulk. On the edge of the skirt is a ribbon and then a handwoven bead string that is beaded like a braid. So, you have the main bead

bit in the center and then 3 other bead bits. I had 3 needles and braided it like that.

LONG BEACH SKIRT: So, the second skirt is built very similar to the original. The pieces on the skirt are more symbolic of the show. The villain of the first episode is Centipeedle and then the villain of the last episode (SPOILER SORRY) is Monster Steven then on the back is the giant Obsidian temple. The obsidian temple came first and took the longest racking in a whopping 60 hours. I will say these jumbo designs are a little different from the smaller counterparts because these were the ones I started when the pandemic started and TAKE A GUESS WHAT HOBBY EVERYONE TOOK UP?! Yeah needlepoint, or it seemed like it and every hobby store was SOLD OUT of almost all embroidery floss. So, all the floss is hand dyed and colored because I LITERALLY COULDN'T GET MATERIALS (IMSTILLMADABOUTIT) Which took so many hours to get the colors I needed. Especially the grey. The grey for Obsidian and Monster Steven is yarn and not floss because I could not get any more floss). The mountain underneath Obsidian is a textile manipulation piece, so multiple fabric pieces are roughly sewn down to get the texture and coloring you need. I used mostly denims and cottons to get the rough texture to match a mountainside. The little lighthouse is embroidered on my embroidery machine from a file I made.

UNDERNEATH LONG BEACH SKIRT: Underneath the big skirt is a whole other world to immerse yourself in Steven universe. So once again-Smocking. The white as we call "frosting" smocking technique is 1.25-inch squares compared to the 1 cm ones of before. I made a second wood board with the 1in squares since the smocking underneath is literally like 6 yards of fabric (I know it doesn't look like it but man does smocking go through fabric) On the underside in the photos you can really see the blue braid woven beads I mentioned in "short beach skirt". Along with that bead line you can also see little bubbles hand-sewn to the dress! the bubbles there are literal Christmas ornaments cut in half and alcohol dyed. (I used sharpies, alcohol and a spray bottle) They are then clear coated with clear spray-paint to ensure they stay colored and the color doesn't rub off. Inside the bubbles are clay gems, painted and coated with resin to ensure stability. I sanded the bottoms and used hot glue to attach them as heavy-duty adhesives tend to yellow or bleed through and since the fabric (where there isn't salt) is pretty thin and I didn't want to take the chance. Each gem is one we have seen in the show, so we have our main characters, then we have corrupted gems and then the gems with Lars on homeworld like Rutile and all them! Both sides have between 8-10 gems each. (try and guess the gems! <3)

PINK UNDERSKIRT PANELS: Once again for these pink panels I used smocking, you can see it on the outermost side. I used 1in squares for this one so I made a third board for smocking (3 boards in total- S, M, L) This part of the skirt on both sides kinda represented Stevens Pink Diamond abilities like portal making (is that even what it would be considered???) any who, since these panels are hidden until shown it seemed fitting so I put the inside of Lions's Mane on one side and Lion on the other. For Lion I once again did the textile painting technique like I did with the mountain and textured him with dozens of different pink fabrics, string and paper. (yes, I sewed through paper to get some of the pink textures). I did a bit of paint for the eyes to make them pop a bit better. The other side is an applique I did with spray adhesive for the tree base and branches, then they are hand stitched on top of to make it pop. I also machine stitched on top to ensure all pieces are well attached. For the small parts of the design like the t-shirt, and the treasure chest I used my embroidery machine to make the pieces.

MAIN WHITE SKIRT TRIM: The last part is the center white skirt! So, for starters, I can’t read sheet music. I never took music classes as a kid since I always took art (believe me, I regret it now) So I kinda had to teach myself music stuff in order to read the sheet music. So, the music notes on the bottom are from the Steven Universe intro song "we are the crystal gems!" I sewed down 5 different strings about the same distance apart to be the bars (I think that’s what they are called) then drew on the music notes with water soluble ink and started stitchin! My friend taught me what the notes meant and what parts were important on a sheet music sheet to include (like the pauses and stuff) and I can mostly understand it! (I love the music of SU and it’s such an integral part I HAD to include it) So the whole song wraps around the bottom of the white skirt. If I were to take off the over skirt I could twirl in a circle and you could read the whole thing (theoretically)

THAT WAS SO MANY WORDS AND IF YOU STUCK IT OUT TO READ TILL THE END YOU ARE THE REAL MVP. TBH I AM ALWAYS SHOCKED WHEN I MAKE SOMETHING AT THE END. I'M LIKE WOAH DUDE I MADE THAT NO WAY. SHOCK. I DONT FULLY KNOW WHY I WENT SO HARDCORE ON THIS PIECE BUT IT IS AWESOME SO OH WELL. (Tbh it may have been a coping mechanism for this whole pandemic business but haha that's just the way it is guess)

Bio: So, this dress was made originally for the HER Universe fashion show this year. I got declined before they saw the full piece. (I'm not salty, you're salty!) but I designed the dress because I wanted to say goodbye to beach city, as the show's finale was last year. The dress was going to go to San Diego comic con and be my way of ushering the show out. Showing the whole world how much I loved it. Steven Universe meant a lot in different ways to different people but for me it was a lot about pure friendship. I got to watch the show with my best friends and cosplay with them for years. The original Steven universe was just our show and was for us and I will always love it for that

But Steven Universe future was different, it was for me. I saw myself in Steven in so many heartbreaking ways. As a caretaker I saw how much Steven sacrificed and when he stopped taking care of the world, he felt he had no purpose. And I cried after so many episodes because no one talks about what happens to the hero after they hand up the cape, after they settle down. And I saw it. I saw me and it meant so much to just see myself. I love Steven universe for that reason alone, if not for the 500 amazing reasons too :))

Photo Credit:My husband Victor! :) (Photo location: Lake Hardy, Indiana)

Video Credit:My best man Lucy (she is one of those folks I mentioned above that watched this show with me from the start and I’m happy to have done this little shoot with her and man I just love her ok)

GOODBYE BEACH CITY THANKS FOR BEING MY HOME FOR ALL THESE YEARS!

Country: United States

[yutaholic]

"Then Favorite came along and they acted like she was their savior (looking at you Doyoung) when Favorite was super boring imho I still like it and listen to it but it was meh in comparison and the dance break still haunts me haha"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA THIS GOT ME ROLLING 🤣🤣🤣 Dude loves that song so much he even has a solo from it. I mean, yeah it's a good song but I also think it's boring and a far cry from what NCT 127's signature songs are. Sticker IS a masterpiece. They managed to turn that weird instrumental into something amazing with purely their vocals and rap, and if there is one group who could pull that off, it's NCT 127. I am throwing knives at the next person I see slandering Sticker. 🔪

2 Baddies MV is really good and as much as I hate to admit it, it might've been a big factor as to why I liked the song just after the first listen, which rarely happens to me with 127 title songs because I always need time to process them due to all the noise and such. I think it was the nananananananana near the end that got me hooked it was so addicting and seeing the members jamming to it was just so fun.

I know Jaehyun was originally trained to be a rapper but him getting more rap lines in new songs makes me sad too because HIS DEEP VOCALS HUHU I'm a sucker for it and I'm kinda sad I don't get to hear it as much. (tho I still wanna fight him for what he did in the Killing Voice video. Have you heard him in the opening of Lemonade there??? I WANT TO PUNCH HIS THROAT WHO TOLD HIM HE CAN LOWER HIS VOICE THAT MUCH AND MAKE ME WET)

And OOOF A MARK x Y/N x JENO FIC IN THE WORKS??? WHY DO YOU HAVE TO MAKE US SUFFER LIKE THAT (but that's okay we like suffering in the name of horniness, i guess)

Looking forward to your future works as always!!

Now I'm gonna go reread Emergency because I saw that you made some revisions to it. Have a good day!!

- Dyochi Anon

I really think sometimes that Doyoung does this shit just to annoy us lol we have that kind of relationship with him. Ironically it’s only antis I’ve seen that hate on Sticker. All the czennies I know or follow love it. She’s iconic!

“I always need time to process them due to all the noise and such.” Okay but this is EXACTLY how I feel! I love them for their noise music but sometimes I just gotta process it first haha for me the hook part was Jaehyun’s verse

Jaehyun’s vocals are so beautiful he’s the #1 member I want to have a solo album (followed very closely by Ten) because his voice is just *swoon* and the whole r&b vibes he prefers suits him so well. I saw clips from that video and I agree. Sometimes his deep ass voice makes me [redacted]

Thank you for supporting all the nonsense I write on this blog! I wasn’t totally satisfied with Emergency when I posted it even though my beta reader gave it her stamp of approval so I fleshed it out a little more (it went from 8k to 9k).

With the future chapters I will be focusing on the boys’ pov because I notice I tend to give too much insight and detail for all the characters and I need to be more limited in this series if that makes sense. I get the picture in my head and it didn’t come out how I wanted when writing so I went back and fixed it haha

Hope you’re having a good day! ❤️

[slashbitch2]

Prove Me Wrong, Darling

who doesn't love a bit of enemies to lovers? :)

You and Agatha had never gotten along. From your perspective, it was due to a conflict of interest. Whereas if you asked her, she'd likely say it was a conflict of intelligence, or something else insulting along those lines. Though the issue you had with the fellow witch wasn't her attitude, rather her underestimation of your powers. It'd started with her massacre of the Coven, when she'd attempted to end your life alongside the others. But to her surprise, you'd been strong enough to defend yourself and escape. Since then, there'd been several instances where your paths had crossed, and you hadn't let her live down the failure yet.

This particular occasion was different, however, as Agatha had asked you for help.

It'd taken everything in you not to immediately mock her. But you knew that she'd leave without further explanation if she felt ridiculed, and you were just dying to know what had made her stoop to your level. So, you'd swallowed your pride and attentively listened to her proposal. It'd mostly featured the repeated phrases "immense power" and "huge source of energy," and even a confession that she was baffled by the cause, which only intrigued you further.

Although you weren't too interested in accumulating anymore power, the opportunity to be on level ground with Agatha was too good to pass on. You confessed this to her upon accepting the invitation, which resulted in an unimpressed eye roll. Regardless of her annoyance, you left that same day, arriving in the least expected location. A quaint town in New Jersey.

"Well," You landed behind Agatha in the middle of a road, surveying the picturesque, colourless neighbourhood. "isn't this lovely."

She pursed her lips, looking round similarly perplexed. "Lovely?" She echoed. "This is like every outdated suburban stereotype rolled into one. Like some kind of picture-perfect movie set."

Her condescending comment jogged a memory. "That's what I was thinking of!" You exclaimed, clapping your hands enthusiastically. "Did you ever watch that sitcom- from the 50s? The Dick Van Dyke Show?"

"From the title alone I'm glad I didn't."

"Seriously, it's practically the same setting." You moved to stand directly in front, forcing her to look at you.

"So, what you're saying is someone used this insane amount of power just to recreate their favourite TV show?" She quirked an eyebrow, clearly unimpressed by your theory.

"Well, wouldn't you?"

"No."

"Anyway." You glanced down at the rather eye-catching ensemble Agatha was currently wearing, then at your comparably casual yet modern clothes. "This isn't going to work." With a wave of your hand, the jeans and jumper combo was replaced by a more period accurate pencil skirt and blouse. Satisfied, you looked up at her expectantly.

Taking it as a challenge, she copied the gesture, managing to both create a new dress and fix up her hair. She smirked, enjoying the chance to show off her superior abilities.

"It's not a competition." You huffed.

She placed a hand on your arm fake comfortingly. "Of course not, dear."

The contact caused you to shiver slightly. It felt as though her touch ignited sparks, though the sensation wasn't exactly unpleasant. Quite the opposite, in fact. But indulging in it didn't feel right either, so you were grateful when Agatha removed her hand.

Her face dropped, eyebrows furrowing. Slowly, she swivelled round to point at a house. "There. Can you feel it?"

Following her outstretched finger, you tuned into the energy, focusing specifically on the house. "Mhm." Unsurprisingly, Agatha was right. An unfamiliar energy was being emitted from whoever was inside. You tried to pinpoint what kind of magic the user possessed, but found no trace of any familiar type. "Shall we go meet the neighbours, then?"

"You read my mind." She muttered, narrowing her eyes and offering an arm without so much as sparing a glance in your direction.

You hesitated, taken aback by the kind gesture. It hadn't dawned on you until then that an incredibly powerful being was residing little over 10 metres away, and that you were both about to willingly walk into their house. Looping your arm with hers created a naïve sense of safety.

Neither spoke as you approached the house with faux confidence, only pausing for Agatha to summon a potted plant. A house warming gift, you guessed. The simple gesture of goodwill brought a smile to your face.

"I didn't expect you to be such a considerate neighbour." You whispered.

"Gotta make a good first impression." She reached out to knock against the door.

---

You sighed. Barely an hour spent in this black and white world and you were already bored. Everything was so tiresomely perfect, so normal that you questioned how you'd ever suffered through those terrible old sitcoms in the first place. Sitting in Wanda's living room, the only entertainment was your partner in crime Agatha, or Agnes, as you ought to say.

She was currently flipping through a magazine, tracing the page with her index finger and reading aloud to help Wanda prepare for her anniversary.

"Any notable date you can remember? Special occasion?" She asked the redhead. "You know, to remind him of good times." She winked suggestively, briefly glancing at you with an expression that only you could decipher. She was enjoying flustering Wanda a little too much.

"Oh...I don't know." She trailed off, untrustworthy eyes darting around the room. "Do you two have any memorable date? Maybe I could steal some ideas."

Had the sitcom spell effected you, this would've been the ironic moment in which you spat out whatever drink was currently in your mouth. Fortunately though, you'd declined the offer of tea earlier, and opened your mouth to correct her.

Agatha beat you to it by nudging you with her elbow. "Oh don't we just?" She laughed deeply until you joined in with a forced chuckle.

Deciding to join in with her game, you hummed thoughtfully. "What about that picnic we had? In Salem, remember?" Judging by the way her eyes flashed dangerously, she knew you were referring to that dreadful night with the Coven, serving as revenge for the sudden change in relationship status. "Agnes decided the best time to go on a date would be at night- and in the middle of forest of all places!"

Agnes threw back her head in exaggerated laughter. "Oh hush! I thought it'd be romantic. Besides, you're the one who got us completely lost, dear." She continued, further adding depth to the altered anecdote. "And I'd say it went pretty well regardless." She turned to whisper conspiratorially to Wanda. "So I'll spare you the dirty details."

The three of you fell into easy laughter, only interrupted by the shrill ring of the telephone. "If you'll excuse me." Wanda stood up to answer. "That's probably Vis."

You took the distraction as respite from forcing such an overly hospitable smile, finding that your cheeks were already aching. For the last few minutes, you'd been aware of a pair of eyes watching you closely, and finally turned to face the witch sitting next to you.

"What?"

Agatha said nothing, her invasive eyes never leaving yours as she took a sip of her drink. You could practically see the gears turning in her head as she thought something through, and dreaded to wonder what she was about to say.

Reaching some form of a conclusion, she leant forward to place her drink down on the table. "Kiss me." She murmured through clenched teeth, momentarily glancing at Wanda, who's back was turned.

"Excuse me?" Out of all the possible things she could've said, this request seemed the least plausible in your mind.

"When Wanda turns round she should see us-" Agatha gestured her hand back and forth as if vocalising what she was implying was too sinful to put into words. Her vagueness was met by your blank stare. "Y'know?"

"No?" You shook your head, unable to comprehend why she'd ask such a thing, untrusting your interpretation of her suggestion.

"Just-" Agatha raised her hands to grasp your face. Hesitated. Then threw them back down into her lap and sighed in frustration. The fact she was struggling to initiate contact was laughable, though eventually you took pity on her.

Leaning forward, you kept your eyes open to watch for Agatha's reaction. You found it amusing that upon realising what you were trying to do, her eyes shut impossibly fast. Satisfied that she was consenting, you raised one hand to cup her cheek and continued to chase after her lips. The kiss was chaste and affectionately mundane, exactly at it should be.

In response, she grabbed your knees and pulled you closer, nipping at your bottom lip. Clearly Agatha wasn't on the same wavelength as you. Her hands shifted further up to your thighs, bringing a startling heat to the kiss. You gasped, virtually melting at her touch. You wanted this. One hand slid to rest on her shoulder. But it wasn't the time or place. You gently pushed against her.

Agatha pulled away, breathless. She scanned your face with pupils blown wide and mouth slightly agape like she'd just reached some new revelation. You were certain your expression mirrored hers.

Wanda cleared her throat somewhere in the distance.

"Gosh, Wanda I'm sorry." Agnes' cheerful voice reappeared as she addressed the redhead without breaking your intense shared eye contact. "But I think we ought to be heading home now." She said unabashedly. Like you hadn't just been caught making out on the neighbour's couch.

"Of course." You could hear the understanding smile in her voice, the slight awkwardness from intruding. "It's been lovely meeting you both."

Summoning an ounce of brainpower, you turned to Wanda. "And you. Feel free to keep the magazine." Then tugged Agatha up and began dragging her toward the front door. For once in her life she went willingly, allowing herself to be pulled along, calling out a last minute farewell to Wanda.

Upon reaching the end of the garden, Agatha wordlessly took the lead. Staying true to her fabricated story, she set a determined course for the house to the right, waltzing up as if she owned the place. A quick flourish of your fingers and the lock was rendered useless. Now the house was yours.

As soon as the door shut behind you, she turned on her heel and pushed you against it. Her mouth quickly sought out yours with a desperation only appropriate in private. Had you known Agatha was this good of a kisser, you would've done this ages ago, but elected not to vocalise the praise knowing she'd never let you live it down. You felt her smirk against your lips, and briefly wondered if she'd somehow infiltrated your mind. You wouldn't put it past her.

As she began trailing kisses down your neck, any concern about the invasion of privacy became inconsequential. You sighed. She rewarded the sound with a nip at your throat. Due to the haze of lust clouding your better judgment, you didn't register the sound of footsteps until it was too late.

"Woah!" A man called from the top of the staircase, presumably the current previous resident of the house. Agatha froze, her lips still pressed up to your neck.

"If you two beautiful ladies hadn't already broken into my house, I would've happily invited you in." The man grinned obnoxiously, slowly continuing down the stairs.

Agatha disinterestedly waved her hand, incapacitating him. The sound of the stranger tumbling down the stairs caused her to let out a short, cruel cackle, before returning to bury her face in the crook of your neck.

"Not big on roommates?" You joked, sliding a hand up and down her back soothingly.

She nipped at your flesh, a little harder this time. "Trust me, he doesn't want to be here for what I'm about to do to you."

Already impatient, you decided to tease her in hopes it would speed things up. "You're all talk and no action, Harkness."

She all but growled as she returned to your lips. Without warning her hands squeezed your hips. "I don't think you're in the position to be insulting me, love."

"Then prove me wrong, darling."

[dialovers-translations]

DIABOLIK LOVERS MORE BLOOD Vol.5: Mukami Yuma [Track 3+4]

Original title: 野蛮で乱暴 & 砂糖より甘い血

Source: Diabolik Lovers More, Blood Vol. 5: Mukami Yuma [CD not owned by me]

Audio: Here (08:29 ~ 19:00)

Seiyuu: Tatsuhisa Suzuki

Translator’s note: Yuma’s perverted nature is definitely more emphasized in this. I did chuckle a little when he calls the MC out for having kiddo panties though. There’s also a fair amount of blood-sucking in this CD which is not great news for me since I don’t particularly enjoy listening to all of the slurping but I’ll manage. It’s not as bad as Laito’s MB CD where he’s also moaning into my ear every two seconds. 

Track 1+2 ll Track 3+4 ll Track 5+6 ll Track 7+8 ll Track 9+10

→  LIKE MY TRANSLATIONS? SUPPORT ME ON KO-FI!

TRACK 3: Wild and Ferocious

“Anyway, let’s get started. I’m darn hungry ‘cause of that delicious scent of yers waftin’ through the air...”

You swiftly escape his grip and run towards the door.

“...Hey! Don’t try and run!”

You try and open the door, but to no avail.

*THUD THUD THUD*

Yuma approaches you.

*THUD THUD THUD*

“...Shut up! Argh...What a drag. Don’t cause me extra trouble, ugh!”

He drags you back.

*THUD*

[00:38] “Geez...Do ya even have a brain inside of yer head? Should be pretty obvious you’re no match for me just by lookin’, no? If I wanted to...I could easily snap yer neck with my bare hands.”

*Rustle rustle*

“Ugh.”

*Thud*

“Pinnin’ ya down ‘gainst the ground like this is child’s play...”

*Rustle rustle*

[01:10] “Geez...Ya want to be treated hard-handedly, don’t ya? That’s why you’re workin’ me up, aren’t ya? ...Oh well, whatever. No matter how much ya try and stall, ya can’t avoid the inevitable.”

*Rustle rustle*

“You’re just a prey layin’ on top of the plate, waitin’ to devoured...I’ll make sure to...”

*Sluuuurp*

“...savor ya thoroughly. Ya should be happy. Anyway...”

*Sniff*

“Ya seriously smell amazin’...Where is this scent comin’ from...?”

*Rustle*

[01:58] “From here? ...Hah! What kind of underwear is that? Ya really lack any shred of sex appeal. Can’t ya wear somethin’ with a lil’ more ‘bang’? Geez. What a turn off. Next time go for somethin’ worth showin’ off. (1) ...Well, guess that rules out this place.”

You get mad.

[02:21] “...Aah? Yeah. I flipped over yer skirt knowin’ damn well the smell wasn’t comin’ from there, so what? I won’t get turned on from yer kiddy panties so don’t worry.”

You continue protesting.

“Aah...So noisy...Shut up already!! I’m lookin’ for the source of this delicious smell...Is it comin’ from inside after all...? I can’t tell...Well, in that case, I gotta do some lookin’ ‘round, huh? Hehe...Yuma-sama will do you the honor of tastin’ this body of yers which Ruki is oh-so interested in.”

*Rustle*

[03:05] “It’s taste-testin’, ya see. When it comes to cookin’, the person preparin’ the dish has the right to have the first bite, no? In other words, since I caught ya, I deserve to take a lil’ nibble out of ya as well.”

*Rustle rustle*

“Ahー ...I can’t get enough of this scent...Honestly...is it even legal for a human to smell this good?”

*Rustle rustle*

*Sniff*

[03:45] “Aah...You’re so skinny all over...You’re severely lackin’ in curves but...Haah...Your scent is sublime...Oi. Imma turn ya into my toy right now, so ya better watch closely. ...I’ll pierce your skin with my fangs...thrusting all the way through your flesh down to the nerves in one go.”

TRACK 4: Blood Sweeter Than Sugar

*Rustle rustle*

Yuma bites you.

“Haahn...”

*Sluuuuuurp*

“Nn...Hah...”

*Sluuuuuurp*

[00:22] “Haah...Wow...What’s this...? Oi...I’ve never...”

*Sluuuuuurp*

“...had blood even tastier than sugar...”

*Sluuuuuurp*

“Haah...”

*Rustle rustle*

[00:44] “It’s fuckin’ sweet...What’s up with yer blood? Don’t ask me for the details, but I was told that there’s somethin’ special ‘bout yer heart, but is that really enough to yield these kinds of results? Nah, I doubt it.”

*Rustle*

[01:03] “Oi, ya know what’s up, don’t ya? Did they fiddle with yer body or somethin’ ...Ah...Fuck...I’m feelin’ kinda dizzy...is it ‘cause of yer blood? ...Actually, you’ve got that dazed look in yer eyes as well...Not a bad look at all. Both of us get to feel good. ...This experience is a first for me. Usually they either succumb under the intense pain or go batshit crazy, but never have I seen someone make a lewd face like you.”

Your eyes widen in surprise.

[02:02] “Hehe...Shocked to hear that? Don’t worry, honestly. Just enjoy it. If ya beg me to indulge in more of yer blood, I wouldn’t mind dotin’ (2) on ya a lil’, ya know?”

You protest again.

*Rustle*

“Che...You’re still fightin’ back? Ya really aren’t cute at all. ...What’s yer problem? God gifted ya with this special body, didn’t he?”

You shake your head.

[02:34] “...Ah? Ya never asked for it? ...Hah! Well, I honestly don’t give a damn ‘bout how you feel ‘bout this. I like pleasure, simple as that. Besides, I would never turn down a delicious snack either. ...I’ll suck ya down to the very last drop.

[03:04] ...Honestly, I don’t care if ya stick to or try to change your morals. I think it’s bullshit and I have no interest in that sorta crap. The only thing that interests me...is yer blood. Besides, ya could never beat me in terms of strength. ...I mean, just take a look at our difference in height!”

*Rustle*

[03:30] “You’re a midget! Ya look like a lil’ kid next to me. Haha! Which means...All resistance is futile. Guess you’ll just have to behave if ya don’t want to be in a world of pain, huh? ...Altho’, I have to admit that when they don’t even attempt to fight back, there’s really no fun in beatin’ them up. So if ya wanna resist, be my guest.”

You try and speak up.

“ー Stop right there. Ya talk way too much. Well then...Where should I bite ya next? Maybe I should go for yer leg?”

*Sluuuuuurp*

“Haah...”

*Sniff*

[04:20] “Your scent only keeps gettin’ better...How should I describe it...? Nnh...”

Yuma bites you once more.

*Sluuuuuurp*

“Haah...”

*Rustle*

“Aah...I can’t...My body’s burnin’...and I feel unbearably hot...Haahn...”

*Sluuuuuurp*

[05:00] “Nn...I can feel it flowin’ inside of me...Somethin’ as hot as magma...right into my body...Hehe...This is the best...You’re way too delicious...”

*Rustle*

“We’re still nowhere near done yet...”

*Sluuuuuurp*

“Sick...It feels like even my senses have become numb...The fuck’s this stuff? Nnh...”

*Rustle rustle*

[05:39] “Hm...Honestly, I’m embarrassed that such a dull chick is makin’ me feel this way...You’re way too intense...What have ya been eatin’ to get yer blood to taste like this?”

You frown.

“Vegetables turn out perfect with the right amount of fertilizer and water. So what’s the secret in yer case? ...Oi, ya listenin’? Now’s not the time to space out...Hey!”

*Smack smack*

“Can ya hear me?”

*Smack smack*

[06:14] “Che...She lost consciousness. Did I scarf down too much from the very start? Should I have minded my ‘table manners’ a lil’ more? Ah...What a drag. ーー Oi!”

*Smack smack*

“Hey!”

*Smack smack*

“Wake up, ya bitch!”

*Smack smack*

“...Oi!”

*Rustle*

ーー TO BE CONTINUED ーー

Translation notes

(1) Yuma says ‘go for something where you don’t have to worry about people flipping up your skirt’, implying that a sexy pair of underwear is worth showing off, I suppose. :p

(2) While かわいがる or ‘kawaigaru’ usually means ‘to dote on’ or ‘to spoil’ in a positive sense of the word, in DL it is often use ironically and actually means ‘to treat badly’ instead.

[teddy-bear-surprise]

hi!! how are you? i seen your post about wanting to write headcannons or blurbs and i didn't know if you wanted them to be birthday related but osbddkndjdd staying up until exactly 12 am with peter and once it hits, the reader gives him a bunch of kisses & let's him now how happy she is to be with him!!!

This story is also available on AO3 and Wattpad!

Hi! Thank you so much for the request, I'm doing great today and I hope you are too <3

MASTERLIST

Title: Midnight Birthday

Word Count: ~2.4k

Warnings: None (they joke around about poop and farts, which makes me sound immature, but I promise it’s funny and not like serious)

Context needed: Y/N

I deviated slightly from the prompt on accident, but I hope you enjoy it :)

Your phone rang loudly for the third time, prompting you to finally pick up. Normally, you would ignore everyone’s phone calls, but you realized that Peter was the one calling you. You had set a special ringtone for him, just so this wouldn’t happen, yet he still had to call multiple times just to get your attention.

“Hey, Peter! Sorry I didn’t pick up before… You know how it is, right?”

Peter chuckled on the other end of the line, “Yeah, I know. We should really come up with a better system for you. I don’t even want to imagine what would happen if there was an emergency and they had to call you. I know you can’t see me right now, but just the thought gave me goosebumps.”

You heard him shudder, “I’m sure you’re very goosebumpy, Spider-Kid.”

“Hey!” He asserted jokingly, “You know that I prefer ‘Spider-Man’, you know that. And don’t be mean to me! I’m over here calling to invite you out to dinner and this is what I get? I am beyond hurt. I will never recover.” Peter emphasized each word as sarcastically as he possibly could.

“Oh, get over yourself drama queen. Spider-Boy, Spider-Kid, Spider-Man, it’s all the same thiiinnggggg. Just take the compliment, hun. In thirty years– when you’re all old, wrinkly, and a Spider-Senior –you’ll be missing the days when people called you Spider-Kid. Now, what were you saying about dinner?”

“I said I wanted to invite you out to dinner! Were you not listening?”

You rolled your eyes and wished he could see your face right now. “I got that part, genius. I meant like what kind of dinner… Y’know, Where? When? The details, Pete, the details.”

“Oohhhh, that would make sense.” He laughed quietly, shaking his head at his own stupidity. “I was thinking that we could go to that restaurant you love, you know the one you were talking about the other day… Ummmm I think it was called Sveleka? Right? So we could go there around 7…”

Peter’s voice trailed off as he tried to remember the details of his plan and you cut in. “It’s Veselka, but that would be great, Pete. I’ll see you there at 7, love you.”

You hung up the phone before Peter even got a chance to reply. Your phone skills were rudimentary, to say the least, and it always got you into trouble. Luckily, Peter understood your bizarre hatred of phones and phone calls, allowing you to talk to him without worrying too much.

You knew that his birthday was tomorrow and you had developed a plan of your own. It was supposed to be a surprise, and the last thing you were expecting was for him to ask you out to dinner the night before his own birthday. In a way, it made you appreciate him even more, knowing that he loved you enough to randomly call you and ask you out to dinner. But now, thanks to his unexpected decision, you only had two hours to rearrange everything before meeting up with him for dinner. You stared at the giant teddy bear sitting on your bed and sighed. Even though your plan was technically easier to carry out now, you felt a twinge of annoyance about having to modify your schedule.

Originally, you wanted to sneak into Peter’s apartment, along with May’s help, and surprise him with a giant teddy bear that said “I love you” when you hugged it. Ideally, you would get there right at midnight, as the night turned from August 9th to 10th, and show him that you cared. That you cared about his birthday, his happiness, and his wellbeing.

You shook away the thought and positioned the teddy bear so that it looked like it wanted to give you a hug. In between its warm, fluffy arms, you placed a small box. This box was technically Peter’s real present. It contained a small, circular locket with one half of a glass spider and a key. In the very same box, you included a long handwritten note telling Peter how much you loved him and how proud you were of him. Once you rearranged the box and bear to your liking, you began to get ready.

The closet of your apartment was minuscule, as was the whole place, and the limited space had led you to develop a very limited wardrobe. Your outfits only consisting of basic black pieces, one dark green jacket, and three pairs of shoes. Peter always joked that he loved how your closet all looked the same, claiming that it made it easier to find you if you ever got lost in a crowd. You both knew that was far from true since everyone in Manhattan loves wearing black, but you appreciated that he was so kind about your unconventional fashion decision.

You grabbed a simple, long black skirt and a silky black tank top, changing out of your pajamas. It might have been five o’clock in the afternoon, but pajamas stayed on until you left the house. That was just the rule. While you fixed your hair and makeup, you began to worry that Peter would figure out your plan. It was a slightly irrational thought, especially since he was socially inept and on multiple occasions forgot when his birthday was. Still, the thought plagued your mind until the moment you were ready to leave.

As you walked to Grand Central station, you texted Aunt May, letting her know that the plan had changed. May had been the biggest supporter of you and Peter’s relationship from the start. Honestly, she was the only one you could trust because she was the only one who could keep both your and Peter’s identities a secret. You hopped onto the Six heading downtown, hoping that she would reply before your service completely cut out.

You: Hi, May. Peter invited me out for dinner at the last minute so we might have to rearrange a bit.

May: This is why I told you to make plans with him ahead of time, so we wouldn’t run into any bumps like this.

You: I know, sorry. I wasn’t expecting him to do this.

May: I was kind of expecting it… I made a bet with myself that he would do this and it looks like I won!

You: You bet on us?? Is this like a reoccurring thing???

May: Definitely not. That would be immature. I’d never do that.

You shook your head at your phone, laughing at how obvious it was that May bet on your and Peter’s relationship. To you, May was like a second mother, or just a really cool aunt. She seemed to understand how to be just serious enough, but not stiff. Not to mention that she was ten times nicer and more supportive of you than your actual mom.

You: I’m gonna pretend that the last part of the conversation never happened. But what I wanted to tell you was that I’m going to meet Peter for dinner around 7 at Veselka so I won’t be able to go back to my apartment and then to Peter’s in time. I just left the bear at my apartment and I’m thinking of asking Peter to go home with me after we eat, what do you think?

May: Sounds like a solid plan, kiddo. Good luck, and please don’t let Peter eat too many of those sauerkraut pierogies this time, he was gassy for two days. It wasn’t fun.

You: Thanks for the gross heads-up, May. Byeeee

You got off at Astor Place and walked in silence towards the restaurant. You were looking at the ground, head hanging low, when Peter called out to you from across the street.

“Y/N, hi!”

You looked up at him and smiled at the goofy boy waving at you. “Hi, Peter!”

Jogging across the street, you made eye contact with him. He held out a hand towards you, helping you onto the sidewalk, and embraced you. Peter kissed the top of your head softly and gave you one last squeeze before letting go.

“So, I guess we’re both early then. I gotta say that I’m shocked, Parker. I wasn’t expecting you to get here before me.”

“What can I say, I’m full of surprises.” Peter winked at you.

---

The two of you merrily ate your dinner, with Peter threatening to instigate a food fight more than once. You talked about anything and everything, by the time you two were ready to pay the bill, it was almost 11 and you were stuffed.

Peter rubbed his hand on his stomach, poking at it, “I think it would be physically impossible for me to eat any more. Like I would just spchwoooo,” he mimicked an explosion with his hands, “explode.”

“I’m just glad we didn’t order any of those sauerkraut pierogies, May said they made you all gassy last time. I don’t even want to know what would have happened if you ate those and the stuffed cabbage.”

“What?! May said that? I never get gassy. Ever.” Peter lowered his voice, “I’m literally superhuman, it takes more than some sauerkraut and cabbage to mess with this iron stomach.”

“That’s not even close to being true. You had explosive diarrhea after that burrito two weeks ago, and don’t blame the food, you were the only one out of the three of us who got sick. Did you forget that May and I had to take you to the hospital? Because I don’t think that counts as an ‘iron stomach’.”

The two of you argued about stomachs, diarrhea, and food the rest of the way to your apartment, stopping every few minutes to point out airplanes flying overhead. You insisted on walking home so you could arrive almost exactly at midnight. Plus having Spider-Man by your side was basically a guarantee of safety, even in Manhattan. Peter held your hand the whole time, swinging it like a smitten teenager. After walking nearly fifty blocks, you arrived at your apartment. You noticed that Peter seemed hesitant, only lightly resting his foot on the first step leading up the building.

“C’mon, let’s watch a movie or something. I don’t want you to leave yet.” You pouted and tugged on Peter’s hand, pulling him up into the doorway.

“Well then, I guess I’m not leaving.”

---

The two of you were cuddled on your small couch watching Buzzfeed Unsolved, Peter’s favorite show, but you weren’t paying attention. Every few seconds your eyes would dart up at the clock, waiting for the hour hand to strike 12. Peter was entranced, never letting his attention deviate from the screen, and he didn’t even notice that you weren’t looking at the TV. The minutes went by slowly and you were counting down the seconds until midnight, gripping onto Peter’s arm. He thought that you were just scared by the prospect of unsolved murders, not that you were anxiously waiting for his birthday.

The last second passed and the clock struck 12, you immediately jumped out of Peter’s embrace and turned to him. Peter sat up in shock, confused by your sudden movement. You took the opportunity to straddle him and grab his face.

“Happy birthday, My Love.”

You peppered his face with sweet kisses and his eyes widened. His body softened under your touch as a feeling of love and happiness filled his heart. Peter snaked his hands up your thighs, letting them rest on your hips, and squeezed softly. You gave him one last kiss on the lips and rested your forhead against his.

“I have a surprise for you, Birthday Boy.” You lifted yourself off of his lap and held your hand out to him.

Peter took your hand and followed you obediently, curious to see what his surprise was. You opened the door to your room, revealing the large stuffed bear and its matching box. Peter let go of your hand and excitedly ran towards your bed.

Before he could say anything, you began speaking, “I know it’s not much, and I know you probably thought that I’d have like a trail of rose petals in here or something like that. But I wanted to show you that my love for you isn’t just about our physical relationship, my love for you i-is emotional and wholesome. I love you, Peter Parker. I truly love you and I’m so happy that you’re mine. I mean, every morning I wake up, I remember that I’m dating you, and that makes me the happiest person in the world.” You reached over to the box in Peter’s hands, “So, Peter Parker, will you accept this key?”

You opened the box and Peter’s cheeks glowed red. His eyes sparkled with excitement as he nodded his head.

“Yes! I love you so much too. I- Thank you,” He paused, “Oh no. Wait, I don’t have a key for yo–”

“Pete, this is your birthday present. I wouldn’t expect you to give me a gift on your birthday, silly.”

He rambled energetically, “You’re right… I’m still going to get you a copy though. Oh my gosh. I love this so much, and is this a spider because I’m Spider-Man?! Where’s the other half? This is so cool!”

You held up your matching locket, opening it to reveal the other half. “Yep, it is because you’re Spider-Boy. The best superhero in town. And, don’t throw away the little note at the bottom. Well, don’t open it now, but if you ever need a reminder of how much I love you, just read that note.”

Peter held your hands in his and pulled you down, both of you crashing into the giant teddy bear. The second you fell onto it, it blurted a freakish, distorted “I love you”, scaring both of you. You jumped up and looked at a wide-eyed Peter.

“Y’know, maybe we don’t need the bear. I don’t really want to be on the next episode of Unsolved.”

You laughed at Peter’s joke, pushing the bear onto the ground and kissed him. His soft lips tasted like the blueberry dessert you shared and his skin was as soft as butter.

You pulled away, foreheads resting together once more. Peter whispered, “Thank you for giving me the happiest midnight birthday, darling.”

[fleursowl]

illicit affairs

This is for @lumosinlove after I yelled in her asks that illicit affairs is such a perfect song for Sirius and Remus in her sweater weather fic, so I obviously had to write it myself and make myself cry over it (heartbreaking song!!

‘Make sure nobody sees you leave’

Remus whispered to Sirius, his knuckles brushing over Sirius’ cheekbone. Sirius nodded with a sad smile, turning his head to brush his lips against Remus’ hand. Remus let out a soft sigh, his eyes refusing to leave Sirius’, just drinking him in. 

“Gotta go now, Loops,” Sirius whispered, hating that he had to break the moment they had created. Remus hummed sadly, leaning forward and pressing his lips softly against Sirius’, like he was afraid that if he went any harder he’d get caught up in the feel of Sirius and not let him go home. 

“I’ll miss you,” he mumbled, ducking his head but smiling softly as Sirius reached up to press a kiss to his forehead.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, oui? At mine?” Sirius asked softly, like he was afraid Remus was going to say no. As if. 

“See you soon, Cap.” he murmured, cupping Sirius’ cheek for a moment before stepping back and letting him leave. 

Sirius gave him a last sad smile, longing look, and turned to go. 

Hood over your head, keep your eyes down

Sirius reminded himself, tilting his cap down over his eyes and pulling his hoodie over it for good measure as he clambered to his car parked in the shadows. As he swung his legs onto the driver’ seat he thought about how he’d much rather be swinging them over Remus’ lap instead, grinning down at the blushing boy circling his waist in his arms and drawing him closer. 

Tell your friends you're out for a run

You’ll be flushed when you return

“Remus, Remus, I really gotta-” Sirius cut himself off with a high whine, writhing underneath the boy looming over him on the bed, arms bracketing Sirius’ head and lips attached ferociously to his neck. 

“Merde merde merde, oh- mon dieu, do that thing with your lips again or I’ll end you.” Sirius gasped out, whining again when Remus pulled away to smirk down at him, his thumb trailing proudly over the marks he’d made up and down Sirius’ neck and around his collarbone. 

“Thought you really had to go? Potts will be waiting for you, hm?” he said smugly, letting out a small snort of laughter as Sirius groaned, reaching up to flick Remus’ cheek. 

“I absolutely despise you, Re. Getting me all riled up before I have to go and sit down and have dinner with James and Lily and his parents, for mercy’s sake-” the breath was knocked out of Sirius’ chest when Remus collapsed onto him, groaning and curling his arms around Sirius’ neck. 

“Then don’t go. Stay with me,” he mumbled into Sirius’ neck.

“Was that your plan all along, hm?” Sirius snorted, suddenly overwhelmed with a wave of affection for his boyfriend. His boyfriend.

“You know I’d get out of it if I could, but I owe Pott’s parents a lot, and-” yet again Sirius found him interrupted- could he even finish a sentence around here anymore? Jeez- by Remus’ lips pressing quickly against him to shut him up.

“Yeah yeah, I know. Was just joking, don’t worry. You’ll be back soon?” he said hopefully. Sirius huffed a laugh, burying his face in Remus, neck.

“Course I will, Loops. Nowhere I’d rather be, you know that.” 

And when James made very loud remarks about Sirius’ lateness, flushed cheeks and bruised neck, he found he was too happy to care how poor his ‘I went for a run and tripped’ excuse was. 

Take the road less travelled by

Tell yourself you can always stop

Remus sighed in happiness as Sirius kissed his hand that he was already holding as he kept his eyes on the road- and Remus was perfectly content to just stare at him. 

“‘M glad we’re doing this, Re,” Sirius said, glancing over for a quick second to smile at Remus and then settling his hand on Remus’ thigh. Remus titled his head back in the seat, a broad content smile on his lips. If only he could live in this moment forever.

“Me too, Sirius.” 

What started in beautiful rooms

Ends with meetings in parking lots

Sirius thinks about the start, the glancing at each other from across press conference rooms and the locker room but always missing the others’ gaze, as he drives through the night to meet Remus in an abandoned parking lot. They’d nearly been caught last time- and Remus was determined to not let it happen again. Sirius wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about that. 

He eventually pulled into a space, sitting in the cold waiting for Remus and watching the way his breath curled in the cool winter air.

And that's the thing about illicit affairs

And clandestine meetings and longing stares

Remus let out a relieved breath when he finally arrived on foot at the parking lot as he saw Sirius’ car in the shadows, looking around before quickly jogging up to the car and knocking on the window. Sirius jumped and turned to Remus so quickly that Remus had to take a step back, but Sirius still scrambled over to yank open the car door, tugging Remus up and into the seat.

“Hey. Re. You made it.” he said softly, his hands cupping Remus’ cheeks. Remus hummed in response, and the two simply stared at each other for a while, taking in every small detail and feature in case it was a while before they got to see it up so close and they had to memorise it by heart. 

It's born from just one single glance

But it dies and it dies and it dies

A million little times

Remus can’t stop thinking about the start, the start the start the start. He thinks about the start when he James and Sirius are all in an elevator together and Sirius won’t even meet his gaze, staring resolutely and steadily at James chattering on instead. He thinks about the start when Sirius flinches when Remus brushes his fingers across Sirius’ arm on the way to his seat on the plane, crumpling down next to the window and trying to pretend that he isn’t crumbling inside. 

And that's the thing about illicit affairs

And clandestine meetings and stolen stares

“You asked for this! You signed up for this, Remus! You knew what you were getting yourself into!” Sirius says frustratedly. It’s their third fight this week on the same topic. 

“That’s not-”

Sirius cuts him off. “I told you, I told you at the start that we wouldn’t bee able to tell anyone, no one, that we would have to be so careful, and you agreed anyway! You can’t go taking it back now that we’ve… now that I’ve… it’s not fair, Remus!” Sirius shouts, pushing Remus’ chest a little and just feeling even more irritated when it doesn’t budge Remus one iota.

“Yes, I signed up for that, but I didn’t sign up for you not even looking at me anymore, jumping away whenever I touch you- requesting a different physio? Really, Sirius?” Remus says harshly, scathingly, his arms folded over his chest as he glares at the boy in front of him- man in front of him. 

They show their truth one single time

But they lie and they lie and they lie

A million little times

“I’m just- we just have to be-” Sirius stuttered, shocked by Remus’ confession of truth.

“We have to be what? Careful?” Remus snorted ironically, rolling his eyes. “You’re just using this as an excuse to not be near me or around me, and I don’t know why, but-”

And you wanna scream

Don't call me "kid," don't call me "baby"

Remus was stopped short by angry lips pressed to his, finding himself shoved back against the counter with Sirius’ body pressing against him. 

“Remus John Lupin. Don’t ever doubt that I want you. That I want to be around you. I want to be around you, want you so much, that it feels too much sometimes. And I have to physically stop myself from just pulling you on top of me in the middle of the locker rooms in front of the whole team and all the press, okay? It scares me. So don’t tell me what I do and don’t want, Remus, I’m not a kid.” Sirius scowled. 

Look at this godforsaken mess that you made me

You showed me colours you know I can't see with anyone else

Sirius let out a short burst of laughter, curling his hand around the back of Sirius’ neck. 

“You’re such a fucking mess, Sirius Black,” he whispered, grinning at Sirius’ wounded pout. 

“But so am I, remember? So now we match,” he said, finally meeting their lips again, revelling in the colours that exploded behind his closed eyelids as their lips moved against each other slowly again. 

Don't call me "kid," don't call me "baby"

Look at this idiotic fool that you made me

They stayed in their moment of quiet bliss for a while, but eventually Sirius pulled back for breath, looking up at Remus with a gaze that took Remus’ breath away. 

“You’re idiotic with words sometimes, you know that?” he smirked, kissing Remus again before he could protest. 

You taught me a secret language I can't speak with anyone else

Remus kissed him back happily, able to tell by Sirius’ own special language that the argument was over. They’d figure out the logistics of how to move forwards after, after after he’d just kissed Sirius some more. 

And you know damn well

For you, I would ruin myself

A million little times

“I’d do anything for you,” Sirius whispered into the crook of Remus’ neck as they slow danced around Remus’ tiny kitchen to music only they could hear. 

“Same for me. Goes without saying, Captain.” Remus replied softly, if a little teasingly.

Sirius smiled.

[bearlytolerant]

Fandom: Dragon Age

Pairing: The Iron Bull/Mina Tabris (pre-relationship)

Chapter Rating: T for language

Chapter 1 Word Count: 315

AO3

Bull has always paid attention to details. Part of the training. The title— hissrad. When The Hero of Ferelden first steps through the doors of the tavern, it’s no different for him. A list of details. Every one of them nothing like the rumors he’d heard. No. She’s the equivalent of qunari gaatlok pressed inside a gem of a precious piece of jewelry slipping around the neck.

“You gonna introduce yourself?” Krem settles into a seat next to him, lifting a tankard to his lips.

“No,” Bull says. She doesn’t seem like she’s having a good day and he’s not sure he could add any value to it. Not to mention, she intimidates the hell out of him.

“Why not? I thought it was one of your dreams to meet the Hero of Ferelden. The great Archdemon slayer.”

Bull chuckles but it doesn’t meet his eyes. “I’m sure we’ll cross paths in time.”

“This isn’t one of those times?”

“No Krem.”

Krem shrugs and Maryden strums out a new tune. Bull watches as the Hero downs shot after shot.

“Come on, Chief. It’s an easy in. The Hero’s just drinking. Why not get a drink too and introduce yourself?”

“What am I supposed to say? ‘Hello, the name’s The Iron Bull. I’m your biggest fan’?”

Krem laughs. “Yeah, something like that.”

“If I introduce myself to the Hero then you gotta introduce yourself to Maryden over there.”

Krem freezes up. Then tugs at his shirt collar.

“Yeah. That’s what I thought.”

Krem shakes his head and breathes in real deep. “The things I do for you,” he says as he stands up and walks over to Maryden.

“Ah, shit,” Bull murmurs. He watches as Krem throws him a victorious smirk and then wills himself out of his chair. Five steps and he’s at the bar, sliding into a stool next to the Hero of Ferelden.

[delkios]

[fic][Star Wars: Republic Commando, Sev, OCs, G] Go Now and Finish What’s to be Done

Takes place in the nonexistent RepComm sequel where Sev ends up joining the beginnings of the rebellion.  I haven't found a detailed explanation for how the inhibitor chips work but I figure there'd be some kind of fail-safe in the event Order 66 is instituted while a clone is unable to take comms, has busted gear or is simply sleeping.  I personally imagine once chips are activated they transmit an activation code to any inactive chips nearby and the order stays dormant in the mind until a trigger (Jedi) occurs.

Title from Iron Maiden's Afraid to Shoot Strangers.

Title: Go Now and Finish What's to be Done Fandom: Star Wars: Republic Commando Rating: PG Word Count: 2988 Characters: Sev, original characters Summary: A year after the fall of the Republic, Sev brushes against Order 66.

He was never going to get used to all these people.  Even after the months spent in a Trandoshian slave ship, stuffed in a cell with so many other creatures he felt like he could scarcely breath, Sev felt uncomfortable having people constantly around him even at a distance.  It made him acutely aware of the people he was missing.

It certainly didn’t help that more people seemed to be arriving every day, making this ramshackled outpost feel claustrophobic with each new transport.  Someone was going to start paying attention if they got too much bigger but the folks in charge of this… ‘rebellion’, as they were calling it, were too busy arguing about what their goals were and how to achieve them to pay attention to that kind of detail.

If Sev didn’t owe some of those people his life, he would’ve bugged out on his own.  That and damn near none of them understood how guerrilla warfare actually worked which left him, by the some cosmic joke, the only one capable of teaching them how not to get their fool selves killed.

He rubbed at his forehead, waiting in the hangar for some pilots he was meant to turn into sharpshooters.  Another headache.  It was feeling near constant these days, probably should get it checked out but it was hardly something Sev couldn’t work through.  Couldn’t even count how many missions he’d done with a concussion, a headache was nothing.

Something in his periphery caught Sev’s attention, drawing it to the far landing pad: a child, peering about nervously and making an attempt to hide behind a much larger being- likely their guardian -in discussion with the dock master.  Even from that distance Sev could recognize the filthy, tattered robes and the object hanging from the child’s belt.  A Jedi.

Jedi needed to be executed.

Sev was halfway across the hangar, hunting knife in hand, before awareness slammed into him.  The reality of what he’d just been about to do crashed on him so heavily it pushed the air from his lungs, skin breaking out into a cold sweat.  His hands shook, his knees nearly buckled and there was a pressure in his head, urging him to kill the child.  He heard his knife clatter to the deck, faint around the sound of his blood roaring in his ears.  He stumbled out, allowing himself to think of nothing but getoutgetougetout for fear that foreign killing urge would return.

“Whoa, Sev- you okay, man?”

There were hands on him and Sev belatedly realized he was being supported by someone and that he’d somehow managed to get out of the hangar.  “Out,” he gasped, “gotta get out.”

“Out where?”

“Away.  Somewhere… out.”

“Ooookay, I’m taking you to Charla.  You look terrible and you’re kinda freaking me out.”

Sev had no choice but to trust in whoever was bodily hauling him because the light of the hall was harsh and he had to squeeze his eyes shut to try to block them out.  His head throbbed, the duel mantra of execute the Jedi and good soldiers follow orders racing through his head so fast he couldn’t think about anything else.

“What happened?”

“I dunno- he just charged outta the hangar and ran into me.”

“Get him on the table.”

Another set of hands were on him and Sev finally registered the sharp scent of disinfectant and the memory of Kamino hit him so hard that Sev crumpled over the table he’d been lead to.  Good soldiers follow orders defective product decommission defective product good soldiers follow orders execute the Jedi, “No,” he moaned, strength finally giving out on him, “not defective, don’t decommission me, I’ll be good.  Good soldiers follow orders good soldiers follow orders not defective good soldiers follow orders.”

“Dank farrik- give me that hypo.”

“What’s wrong with him?”

“I don’t know- PTSD trigger probably.”

There was a sharp prick to the side of his neck and a soft hiss.  A gradual numbness overtook Sev, forcing the tension out of his muscles and turning his thoughts sluggish.  His breathing evened out and the smears of light and color eventually resolved into recognizable shapes.  He was laying on the floor, he realized, having crawled under an examination table, half curled into a ball.  Two people were staring at him with open concern- Charla, the closest thing to a head medic they had, and one of the pilots Sev was teaching, Reever.

“Sev,” Charla asked in a carefully measured tone, “how are you feeling?”

His eyes wandered for a moment, not entirely sure how or why he was in the position he was in.  Eventually he settled on replying with, “Like osik.”

“Well, you kinda look it.”  The old Gran’s distended lips pulled back over flat teeth as she smiled at Sev.  She held out her hand.  “Can you come out?”

Honestly he kind of wanted to just fall asleep.  But he pushed himself up on his hands good soldiers follow orders and crawled out.  With a little prodding, Sev managed to sit on the examination table.

“Good lad.  Now, what happened to you?”

“There’s something wrong with my head.”

Charla hummed, pulling a tray of examination tools nearby.  “How so?”

“I wanted to kill someone.”

Reever snorted, making themself comfortable on a nearby chair.  “How is that different from how you normally are?”

Sev turned to glare at the human but Charla’s hold on his chin was too strong.  “I know what bloodlust feels like.  I know what killing intent feels like.  I’ve killed out of anger and hate and fear and panic.  I’ve killed because I had to and I’ve killed without caring about it.  This wasn’t like any of that.”

Reever grimaced but Charla didn’t bat any of her three eyes.  “What was it like?”

Sev forced back a wince as she shone a light into his eyes.  “Involuntary.  It wasn’t like an impulse, my body just moved on its own.”

“Disassociating?”

“No.  It didn’t feel like that.  It was like… something had taken over.  I started having thoughts that didn’t make any sense.”

“Like what?”

His jaw twitched as the words came back to him, faint in the thick fog of medication but it still made him want to throw up.  “ ‘Good soldiers follow orders’,” he repeated, “ ‘execute the Jedi’.”

Reever stiffened, sitting up straighter.  “That can’t be a coincidence, right?  That you started thinking about killing Jedi at the same time one’s supposed to come here?”

Charla hummed, tapping a finger to her mouth.  “They say the clone army turned on the Jedi.  Does it have something to do with that?”

Sev shook his head.  “I don’t see how.  I was MIA before that happened.”

“Wait- you’re a clone?”

As one, both Sev and Charla turned to Reever with a slow look.  “Did you not catch on to the fact his name is Seven?”

“Hey, I fly with Porkins.  I don’t judge people’s names.”

Turning back to her patient, Charla continued as if she hadn’t been sidetracked.  “How does your head feel right now?”

“Hurts.  Felt like it was splitting before the hypo.”

“How long has it felt like that?”

The moment flashed in his mind and Sev shut his eyes as another fresh stab went through his head.  “Right after I realized I was gonna kill the Jedi.  Been having headaches for a while before, don’t know if that’s related.”

“How long before?”

“Dunno.  Maybe… three weeks ago?  About the time of my last mission.”

Charla looked through Sev’s file she had pulled up on a tablet.  “I don’t see any mentions of injuries from then.”

“Wasn’t injured.  Just raiding an Imperial cache.  Simple snatch-and-grab.  We only ran into a couple troopers, took care of ‘em easily.”

She hummed, then gently pushed Sev down onto his back.  “Well, lets get you scanned, see if that will reveal anything.”  She pushed a couple buttons on the table’s control panel, unlocking it from the dock so it could float freely, then moving it to hook to the medical imager’s railing.

The machine turned on and Sev closed his eyes to the light, focusing on his centering practices as the imager whirred around him.  He was finally feeling calm and much more like himself when the process ended and Charla made an unhappy sound.  “I’m not seeing anything on the scan.  No abnormalities, no swelling, no unnatural spikes in chemistry.  Everything matches with your last scan.”

And there went his calm.  He’d never been great at centering himself when not on mission.  “There has to be something,” Sev growled around gritted teeth.  He made a distressed sound in the back of his throat, resisting the urge to clutch at his aching head.  “I don’t blank out like that.  There has to be- I can feel it eating away at my thoughts!”  Eating away at his sense of self, at his control.  For all that Vau had beaten aggression and stubbornness and ruthlessness into his clones, he hated berserkers.  The moment you lose yourself on the battlefield is the moment you get you and your squad killed.  You will never lose control, you will never need to- you will be better than that.

“Hmm… let me try a deeper scan.”  Charla put a hand on Sev’s shoulder, startling him out of the memory.  “This may hurt a little.”

He merely nodded.  Pain was fine.  He could deal with pain.  The machine whirred on again and Sev couldn’t help the initial wince.  It was a cross between pressure and pinpoint pricks moving through his brain.  But it was a simple thing to endure and it helped him focus on regaining his calm.

Charla made a sound, buttons beeping as the traveling pain halted and reversed.  It halted again, feeling like all the little pins were centered on one section of his head, edging on the far side of uncomfortable.  “There’s something odd…”

“The bacata processing implant?”

“I already know about that,” she chided lightly, “and unless it somehow migrated inside your skull, no.”

Sev’s blood flushed cold.  “What do you mean it’s in my skull?”

“It’s either the very beginnings of a tumor or someone put something in your brain that they didn’t want anyone to find.”

Neither option was especially appealing to Sev but, knowing the Kaminoans, he’d place his bets on the latter.  “Can you get it out?”

“I don’t know what it is.”

“If it’s not supposed to be there, then it’s safe to take out, right?”  Sev was trying not to sound like he wasn’t trying to keep from panicking but those thrice-damned kaminii put something in his brain.  “So get it out.”

Charla gave him a measured look.  She put her hand back on Sev’s shoulder and gave him a grounding squeeze.  Sev had heard others refer to her as matronly, grandmotherly, and Sev had no idea what that meant but something about her always seemed comforting, even when she was ordering people around.  “I’ll have to put you under for the procedure.  From what I can tell it shouldn’t take long but you’ll be in the medbay when you wake up, alright?”

“Alright.”

“Reever-” Stang, Sev completely forgot they were there, “let someone know Sev will be in medical for the time being.”

“What should I tell them?”

“That he’ll be under observation until I release him.”

“Got it.”  Reever came just into Sev’s view, patting his ankle gently.  “Good luck, bud.  Place won’t be the same without you skulking around.”

Sev growled in response and laughter trailed Reever’s retreat.  The table moved away from the imager and towards one of the surgery bays.  When Charla came back into view, she was holding a set of clippers.  “I’m afraid I’m going to have to shave off some of your hair.”  She pressed the back of a thick nail to the right side of his head a little above the ear, right before the curve of the skull.  “In this area.”

There was no way around it, of course, but that information still gave Sev pause.  His hair was well beyond unruly these days, using hair ties and headbands to keep the curls from falling into his face.  But he’d yet to get it cut since his abandonment on Kashyyk.  Fixer had been the only one to cut his hair since training- kept all of Delta’s hair in regulation length during their downtime.  Sev couldn’t stand the thought of someone else doing it.

Sev took a deep breath and said, “Alright.”  It was quick- just a buzzing and a slight vibration to the side of his head, cool air rushing against the newly exposed skin.  It barely took a minute but it left Sev shaken afterward.

He heard Charla set the clippers down and move away to prep for the surgery, leaving Sev to focus on his breathing and forcing himself not to reach up and touch the spot.  Hopefully he’d be able to cover the bald patch up somehow.  He didn’t think he could stand to have someone messing with his hair long enough to make it look less blatant.  He was mildly amazed that this was shaping up to be the hardest part in the whole ordeal.  When the Gran came back, she had a mask over her face and a hypo in a gloved hand.  “Ready?”

“Yeah.”  He shut his eyes.  “Let’s do this.”

---

When Sev woke up again the pressure in his head was gone and he breathed deeply for the first time in what felt like years.  His eyes roamed along the ceiling of the medbay with a sudden clarity before they found Charla leaning over him and Reever hovering in the background.  “How are you feeling, Sev?”  Charla asked softly.

“Better.  The normal kind of murdery.”  His mouth felt thick and he accepted the glass of water passed his way.  “What was it?”

Charla reached to the side as Sev pushed himself to a seated position.  She held up a clear case with a fleshy colored, amoeba-looking thing pressed inside.  “This.  An initial biopsy shows it’s structure is too consistent to be purely organic.  I’m going to take it to the tech lab and see what they think.”

“Why are they here?”  He asked, pointing to Reever.

“Dodonna wanted me to keep him updated on your condition.  Also you’re, like, my friend so I also wanted to keep updated on your condition.  Synda found your knife in the hangar, by the way."

“You're not getting it back until I clear you from medical," Charla said promptly.  "I did a number of scans while you were out.  I found no other anomalies, your brain seems stable and the surgery went well.  You really are feeling better?”

“My head doesn’t hurt anymore.  Guess I won’t really know until I see that Jedi again.”

“Yeah, about that,” Reever looked disturbed, “I found out that that Jedi is a kid.  Were you really gonna kill a kid?”

“That’s what my body wanted to do, so yeah.”

Reever gaped in horror.  “Sev- that’s supremely karked up.”

Sev rolled his eyes.  “I’m fourteen, I’m well aware how karked up everything about me is.”

Their mouth flapped, not sure if they believed Sev or not.  Charla frowned thoughtfully.  “Well.  I suppose that explains why some of your brain scans so different than other humans of your… presumed age.”

“You’re very tall for a fourteen year old,” Reever said weakly.

“Accelerated aging.  I get to live twice the speed of a human in half the time.”  The clone snorted.  “Not like any of us expected to live that long anyway.”

Reever rubbed a hand over their face.  “Sev, man- I’m learning so much about you today and absolutely all of it is horrifying.  Stang, no wonder you’re the way you are.”

Sev just scoffed.  They didn’t know the half of it.

“Well, I suppose that leaves us two very big questions to answer.”  Charla held up fingers as she counted.  “One- what exactly this thing is and what does it do to you, and two- were you a special case that got it implanted or does every clone have one.”

For a painful eternity, Sev’s heart froze.  His fingers curled over the edge of the table and he could feel his breath rattling in his lungs.  “I need to get my brothers.  I need to get them out of the Empire and that,” he spat, pointing an accusatory finger at whatever had been taken out of his brain, “out of their heads.”

“Assuming that was actually the problem,” said Reever.

“And if it is,” Charla cradled the case in her hands, face uncharacteristically grim, “we may have found something extremely important for the Rebellion.”

If the chip was the problem than it would mean, to some degree, this entire thing had been planned from the beginning.  “I need to see Dodonna.”  Sev felt that old, familiar fire raging up inside of him as well as a rare clarity.  First, he was going to save his brothers.  Then he was going to dismantle this Empire, built on the lives and subjugation of his fellow clones.  Then he was going hunt down every kaminii that took part in the program and break every bone in their skinny little necks.

[dakotacrisis]

Cherry Blossoms (4)

And I am back in time for another update right at the end of pride month. Plan was to get this whole story posted during the month but that did not happen. Oh well, people are still gay in July. Just a whole lot less corporate pandering.

As far as things with Kagami and Marinette are going...well...plans go awry fast.

Read on AO3

---

Adrien was not joking around with what he called Operation Cherry Blossoms. A.K.A. Operation Get-Marinette-To-Fall-In-Love-With-Kagami. He had even called in reinforcements. When Kagami showed up at his house as he requested Alya was also there with a full slideshow presentation prepared. They went over Marinette’s likes and dislikes. Her favorite things and places to go.

There was even a theory discussion about Marinette’s sexuality and why she never seems to fall in love with anyone. The long standing belief was that she was possibly somewhere on the Ace spectrum but that was a whole other thing to get into. Right now they were working with the hope that Marinette did want to experience romantic love and hopefully that romantic love spread to girls. They all knew Marinette wasn’t straight but she never gave them a definite title so the mass consensus was that she was at least bi.

“Guys,” Kagami stopped them, “This is all very thoughtful of you but isn’t this a little weird?”

Alya paused her presentation to turn to her. “What about this is weird?”

“You are literally showing me a presentation on what Marinette is like. I know what she’s like. I don’t need to know that her third favorite ice cream flavor is Very Cherry Chocolate Swirl. I need advice on how to get closer to her so that I’m not stumbling over myself trying to talk to her. The fact that I am nervous enough to stammer around her is baffling to me. I never hesitate to go for stuff that I want but with Marinette...I…”

Adrien sighed. “We know and you’re right. We need a different approach. Giving her a Marinette quiz isn’t gonna help her win her over.”

“Fair enough,” Alya closed out of the powerpoint with a small frown. “What should we do then?”

“Well we can go over the different tactics we used to try and woo Marinette.” Adrien shrugged, “They didn’t work obviously but there was stuff that we did that she liked. Ironically enough she really liked getting flowers in my experience.”

“Yeah, doing little stuff like buying her favorite candy or sending her pictures of cute hamsters worked when I was trying to flirt with her.” Alya said.

“Okay, this is good, tell me more about this kind of stuff.” Kagami started taking notes on her phone.

“She appreciates when you plan something.” Adrien said, “I planned this big day together where we went to a bunch of places I knew she loved to shop, got lunch at her favorite cafe, and topped it off with seeing a movie she had been raving about. She really seemed to love it. Of course while I was trying to flirt and stuff she was only seeing it as a nice day out with a friend.”

“That is a dangerous line to walk,” Alya sighed, “You could plan the most romantic date ever and she would only be able to see it as a friendly gesture if you aren’t straight up with her about your intentions. I love her to death but the girl is so oblivious it actually hurts.”

“So how am I supposed to flirt with her without making it obvious that I am in love with her?”

“You can’t really. That’s the problem.” Alya said.

“Then why are we even here? If she’s too oblivious to notice someone is flirting with her and she gets spooked when someone is upfront with their feelings then how am I supposed to get anywhere with her?” Kagami asked, flabbergasted by this never ending cycle of pining and failure that was the pursuit of Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

“Schemes. Romantic schemes. Like they do in romantic comedy movies.” Adrien said proudly.

Kagami turned to Alya, deadpanned, “Is he serious?”

“I think you two are underestimating how well this can work.” Adrien pulled up his own powerpoint presentation titled, Romantic Comedy Schemes and Why They Worked.

“Oh sweet baby swiss cheese,” Alya sighed, “Adrien, I told you this wasn’t a viable plan.”

“Hear me out!” Adrien pleaded.

“Fine!”

“Seriously?” Alya gaped at Kagami, “You want to actually hear this boy list off how the note cards from Love Actually was the ultimate romantic gesture or some crap like that?”

“It’s not like I have a whole lot of options.” Kagami threw her hands up, “It’s either romantic comedy shenanigans or trying to flirt with Marinette on my own. Neither seem viable but at least this one is less likely to make me puke up flowers. Go ahead, Agreste. Let’s hear your attack strategy.”

“All right!” Adrien beamed as he clicked to the next slide, “Let’s start with the proper setting.”

---

Kagami could not believe that she was doing this. She had agreed to it but it still seemed ridiculous. No. It didn’t ‘seem’ ridiculous, it ‘was’ ridiculous! This whole plot Adrien concocted with the help of Alya and a watchmojo top ten list of most romantic movie dates was utterly insane. If Kagami wasn’t desperate she would have said no. But she was. She was desperate and in love and desperately in love with the most wonderful yet naive girl in the world.

Adrien was walking with Kagami towards the Dupain-Cheng bakery. Right into the belly of the beast. Adrien kept a reassuring hand on her shoulder as they got closer. Kagami balled her hands in the fabric of her jacket. She can do this. They stopped outside the bakery and Adrien turned to her.

“You okay? You got this?”

“I’m okay. I can do this.” Kagami nodded, “And you’re sure this will work?”

“Only one way to find out.” Adrien said, “Quick cough, make sure there’s no loose flower petals that are gonna come popping out.”

Kagami grabbed her handkerchief and coughed into it a few times but no petals came up. They were good for now at least. She stuffed the hanky back in her pocket and followed Adrien into the bakery. It was fairly slow at this time and Marinette was standing by herself at the counter and flipping through a magazine. Kagami’s stomach flipped upon seeing her and she could swear she felt that tickle in her throat again.

Adrien ushered her forward with a hand on the small of her back. “Hey Marinette,” Adrien greeted her cheerfully, “Working hard as usual I see.”

“Oh hey guys,” Marinette smiled at them. She slid her magazine away. “What brings you by?”

“Well Kagami here wanted to order a custom cake for an upcoming special event and you know more about this stuff than me so I figured you could help us out.”

“Of course, I love assembling custom cakes,” Marinette pulled out a large binder from behind the counter. “First thing is first, how many people does this need to feed and what is your budget?”

“Budget is unlimited,” Adrien handed her his credit card, “and you can get all of the rest of the details from Kagami. Unfortunately I cannot stick around. I have a photoshoot I gotta run to but you two have fun. Kagami, get my card back to me after alright?”

What? This wasn’t part of the plan! Adrien was supposed to stay! He wasn’t supposed to leave her alone. Was this his plan all along? Oh she was going to kill him later! That hopeless romantic airheaded jerk was gonna have Kagami’s foot so far up his butt her foot would stick out of his mouth by the time she’s through with him.

Adrien patted Kagami on the top of her head and whispered into her ear, “Relax, you’ll be fine.” He bid the girls goodbye and left without another look back.

“Okay then,” Marinette was completely unperturbed by Adrien sudden departure, “Let’s get started on that cake.” She turned around to shout to the back of the bakery, “Mama! Can you come run register? I gotta help take a cake order.”

“Sure thing sweetie,” Mrs. Cheng came up to the front, “Oh Kagami, how nice to see you again. Are you ordering the cake? We’ll be sure to put it at the top of our list just for you.”

“Thank you,” Kagami said. She followed Marinette back through the bakery and into the apartment stairwell.

“We’ll have more privacy here,” Marinette sat down on the step, “Now how many people was this going to serve?”

“Uh…” Kagami racked her brain. She really didn’t need an actual cake. She wasn’t even that big into sweets. Adrien was paying for it too so she didn’t want to go overboard. Since Adrien was paying for it she supposed she could just assemble something she thought he would like and give it to him and Alya as a sort of thanks for helping her out. “Two people.”

“Smaller cake then, alright,” Marinette jotted down the information, “Did you want something like a tart or a cake?”

“Cake.”

“One or two layers?”

“One.”

“And specific shape? We can do a circle, rectangle, square, we can even do a heart if this is for something or someone special.” Marinette giggled. “Or maybe you just think little heart shaped cakes are cool.”

“Circle is fine.” Kagami choked back the petals in her throat trying to escape.

“And what kind of flavor were you thinking for the cake? We have lots of different options.”

“Uh...vanilla?”

“Simple, classic, love it.” Marinette continued on. “And what about filling? We have a lovely cherry filling that I think you would adore. I know how much you like cherry and we do use real chopped cherries in the filling.”

“Sure,”

“Great. I gotta know, what is this cake for? Adrien said it was for a very special event you were planning. What’s going on?”

“Oh it’s nothing really.”

“Come on, tell me, I’m curious,” Marinette scooted closer with her chin resting in her hands, “You said it was for two people. Is this maybe for a romantic date you have planned?”

“What? No! That’s not--” Kagami tried to back away but her back was already pressed into the stair railing, “Definitely not a date. This was--this was um--” Quick Kagami! Think of something! Anything! “Actually,” she said, “This was supposed to be a present for Adrien but then he offered to pay and I couldn’t tell him that it was for him cause it was supposed to be a surprise so now I’m kind of in a box about it.”

“A present for Adrien?” Marinette asked, “That’s sweet. Why are you getting him a present? Is there some sort of anniversary coming up?”

“No. I just thought it would be a nice gesture since we’re good friends and all.” It wasn’t a complete lie.

“Well that is just wonderful.” Marinette said, “If this is for Adrien then maybe we want to change the filling to passionfruit. I know that’s his favorite. Did you want to do that instead?”

“Yeah. Sounds good.” Kagami breathed out in relief. Dodged that bullet.

The girls spent the rest of the time constructing the perfect cake that they thought Adrien would like. It wasn’t the most romantic setting but it did give them ample time alone. Kagami hadn’t even noticed how fast the time was flying by as their conversation kept drifting from the cake form to other topics. At some point they had started leaning on one another with tears in their eyes as they laughed about a croissant eating contest Marinette’s school had put on and the disastrous results that ensued.

“I am telling you,” Marinette took a moment to breathe, “We had no idea where she was putting them all. Alix just kept downing croissant after croissant like she was pac-man. For someone so small she has a huge stomach.”

“I bet that angered Kim to no end.” Kagami laughed.

“Oh you have no idea. Poor guy was trying so hard to keep up but just couldn’t do it.” Marinette shook her head. She laid down so her head was resting in Kagami’s lap. “I need a minute. I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. I can scarcely breathe.”

“Me either.” Kagami’s hand automatically went to Marinette’s hair and started running her hands through it. “How did we even get to this point? I’m fairly certain we were trying to create a cake for Adrien before this.”

“We were,” Marinette closed her eyes under Kagami’s attentions, “I’m just using you as an excuse to not have to wait on customers. That’s why I keep prolonging this.”

“And here I thought you just enjoyed my company.”

“I do. I love hanging out with you.” Marinette sighed, “I love it even more when you play with my hair. I feel like a little kitten getting lovies and pets.”

“You would make an adorable kitten.” Kagami said. The urge to cough came upon Kagami and she tried to swallow it back. It was a miracle she hadn’t dissolved into a coughing fit while she was laughing earlier. Marinette’s eyes were closed so hopefully she wouldn’t notice.

Kagami gave a quick cough to clear the petals but they were stuck and weren’t coming loose from such meager means. Crap. She tried a few more tiny coughs but it was only aggravating her more.

“You okay?” Marinette sat up, “Allergies again? Or do you just have a tickle in your throat.”

“I’m fine,” she turned away as her coughing got more violent. Stupid flower petals! Stupid disease! Marinette ran a hand up and down her back to ease the ache.

“Are you sure you don’t want a glass of water?”

“Water would be good,” Kagami answered in a hoarse voice. At least with Marinette gone she could get these petals out without her noticing. Marinette ran off to get her some water and Kagami started coughing hard hoping to dislodge the petals quickly before Marinette got back. What Kagami did not count on was Marinette being so darn fast and racing back to their spot with a water bottle in hand just as Kagami got the petals out. She had a hand clamped over her mouth with the petals settled in her palm.

She closed her fist around the petals and stuffed her hand in her pocket to hide the petals. “Thanks Marinette,” Kagami took the water.

“No problem, oops, you got a little something there.” Marinette reached a hand out and plucked something from Kagami’s chin. Double crap! One of the petals must have gotten stuck to her chin.

Marinette turned the petal over in the light. The recognition of what it was hitting her and the realization settling in as she put the pieces together. The cough. The petal. There was only one explanation.

“Oh dear,” Marinette frowned with worry, “Kagami? Are you alright? Please be honest with me, do you have Hanahaki disease?”

There was no point lying now. Marinette already knew. Might as well get it over with and end the suffering now.

“Yes,” Kagami pulled the petals out of her pocket, “I have for a while now.”

“Oh I am so sorry!” Marinette cried out, “I know how much that sucks. It’s such an unfair disease.”

“I am painfully aware,” Kagami scoffed, “At least they’re small.”

“Pretty too,” Marinette handed her the petal back. “So you have an unrequited love?”

“Big time.”

“Have you confessed?”

“No. That’s why I’m here. This, ordering the cake, it was supposed to help in some way. It seems silly now. I’m usually so upfront with people about what I want and what I feel but this whole ordeal has thrown me for a loop.” Kagami kept her head down. She didn’t want to see Marinette’s face when she rejected her.

“I see,” Marinette pulled her in for a hug. “It’s okay, Kagami. I don’t think it was stupid at all.”

“You don’t?”

“No.” Marinette pulled back  far enough to look in Kagami’s eyes, “I think telling someone how you feel over a delicious cake is a swell way to go about it. The fact that you are going to all this trouble for Adrien is so heartwarming.”

“Adrien?” Kagami looked at her confused. Why was she talking about Adrien… “Oh sweet baby swiss cheese,”

“Was this Alya’s idea?” Marinette asked, “She says that a lot so I figured that’s where you picked it up. Alya is great, always prepared for everything. Might go a little overboard but she’s a good person to go to for stuff like this.”

“Marinette, about Adrien--”

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell him anything.” Marinette hugged her again, “This will stay just between us. And do not worry about the cake. This one is on us. We will make sure it is perfect for your confession date, whenever you have that planned. Adrien would have to be insane not to fall in love with you.”

“Uh huh, this whole thing is so insane.” Kagami muttered. Operation Cherry Blossoms just got a whole lot more complicated.

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[ladyloveandjustice]

The Westing Game Chapter 23

Strange Answers

This chapter starts off with an extremely sweet moment, where Flora shows Alice a picture of her late daughter. Rather than make any snide comments out of jealousy like usual, Alice finally seems to grasp the whole situation, saying, “I think I would have liked her, Baba. Rosalie looks like a very happy person. I think she would have been fun to have around.” My heart MELTED.

Another  sweet and kind of sad note is that we do get confirmation Angela knows what Alice did for her and that Alice had to convince her not to confess. Alice thinks to herself, “now Angela would have to love her forever”. She would have loved you forever even without this, Al! God, this poor child.

I also like the moment of Judge Ford deciding to come out wearing awesome African fashion, possibly intended as a “screw you” to Westing- wherever he’s watching from. Sandy’s micro-aggression-ridden response just makes me more suspicious of him. Ford generously gives him all of the 10-thou they both receive to help him in his fired state.

(oh, also, I guess it WAS a wax dummy that was at the previous will reading, not Westing’s actual corpse? Somehow I missed that. Whoops. Reading comprehension.)

Meanwhile, the Wexlers have been rekindling their love for each other, which for them apparently means GETTING SMASHED. The tragic fittingness of Grace flat out being unable to recognize Alice …you know, I do hope Grace gets better, for her and her family’s sake, but I also just... want Flora to adopt Alice and Angela (if she wants), that would be the superior ending.

Doc Douchebag seems to have gotten a lot more subdued and generally has been helpful to others lately? It’s weird? I wonder if it’s entirely thanks to Angela ignoring him now, or if something happened we’re not privy to. Anyway, he’s checked out if there are records for plastic surgery on any of the heirs or Otis for Ford, and there are none. He also brings up that Sandy’s face is kind of beat up, which is a detail I forgot. What if Westing didn’t get plastic surgery and HE’S Sandy and Sandy’s face is a result of the accident? I can’t find a description of Sandy’s face even doing a Kindle namesearch to confirm if that’s possible, though…

But lets get to the meat of things. Everyone reveals their guess for Westing’s killer and as well as their new ideas for  what their positions in life are, gotta note those!

Jake accidentally put bookie, so I guess he’s being MORE HONEST whether he likes it or not, Sun is still “cook” but she’s actually here this time, at least!, And since these two haven’t really been working on the case, they don’t give an answer other than Sun trying out one of her fave English words, “boom”.

Alice has changed her status to “financier” and her answer is ‘HECK YEAH I PLAYED THE STOCK MARKET AND AM INCREASING MY CAPITAL”, good for you, girl.

Chris is now “ornithologist” courtesy of his brother giving him a fancy title. Denton (since he’s not acting like one right now for the most part, I’ll skip calling him Douchebag) simply put “intern” rather than giving the name of the hospital, does this indicate he’s more humble now and feels less of a need to brag? Or is just that everyone knows by now?

Sweet kid that he is, Chris decides not to accuse anyone despite all previous suspicions. He notes that he’s been given medicine and good things have happened to him since this started (his stammer has gotten noticeably better!) and decides based on that “Westing is a good man” for his answer. I wouldn’t go THAT far, but it seems Chris shares my theory this whole thing might be an attempt at atonement. Denton goes along with it.

Chris also notes Sandy is limping, why?

This time, Ford has simply put down “judge” rather than her fancy complete title. I wonder if she was simply tired of writing the whole thing down, or it this is an indication she no longer feels the need to prove herself to these people. Poor(?) Sandy puts “fired”. Ford chooses not to answer, as part of her “plan”. Mysterious!

Grace has changed from heiress to “restaurateur”, ironically taking on Hoo’s title. Probably also a good sign, she’s happy with the work she’s doing right now and isn’t depending on Westing giving her a windfall. This is reinforced when she drunkenly announces the reopening of the restaurant rather than giving an answer. Hoo has put “inventor” now, showing he gaining confidence in his creations (which seems to be his real passion) again.  He says the answer they’ve worked out, “Ed Plum”, rather hilariously making the lawyer put down his own name on the murder suspects list.

Otis didn’t change his answer, but Crow’s is now “mother”, even though she doesn’t remember putting it down. Otis  specifically remembers her putting down something different too, so this is definitely Westing manipulating shit (and this confirms Otis isn’t Westing or in on that nasty little trick). Crow decides her answer to the 'who’s the murderer” question is “mother”, showing she now feels responsible for Westing’s death, or just feels the sin of her botched motherhood means she should take the fall regardless.

Doug puts “champ” for his position, aw, he’s so proud, Theo put “writer” this time, showing he’s no longer defining himself as his brother’s caretaker. Theo, despite previously suspecting Otis, chooses not to sell him out after having seen him working at the soup kitchen.

Sydelle and Angela (I already discussed their changes), on the other hand, have no problem fingering Otis for it. They think it’s him based on “purple” being in their clues rather than “amber” waves of grain, buuuut I think this is down to them not having all the clues. After all, “purple” DOES appear in “America the Beautiful”, and I think we’ve gotten only one purple among all the clues that have been revealed, rather than two. Then again, there is that thing of “purple waves” being repeated...

After the clue reveal, Westing’s will specifies that Crow must get the refreshments, which is incredibly suspicious, why her? Alice and Angela do follow her, but I wonder if something happens to them while they’re out that will be important later...or if she’s being set up for something.

But hey, Theo wins the chess game with the invisible opponent that might be Westing! That means…something, I’m sure. Maybe that Westing will be caught, since he made a “careless” move?

At the end of the chapter, the will says “Go directly to the Library, do not pass Go” just so Westing can make it super clear to everyone he’s playing Monopoly like the ultimate capitalist. WHAT WILL THEY FIND THERE?