#I ain’t an artist but eh screw it

[glasseswearingrabbitdetective]

Opens “morning newspaper/tumblr”;

Oh, right. Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it 👍🎉 12/25 🎅🎁❤️💚

I present you 3 images; 1 cursed, 1 ??? And 1 fluff. :)

[toonstarterz]

BECAUSE I’M NOT POPULAR, I’LL READ WATAMOTE: CHAPTER #160

After a long week of repeating quizzes, forging apology letters, and unexpected-but-not-really bonding, Tomoko and Yoshida are finally free to go. As the barrier separating Tomoko’s suspension and the outside world with her friends is finally lifted, we get to see just how both parties have grown from this experience. Even if Tomoko’s apology was more or less half-assed, something may have been gained after all...

Chapter 160: Because I’m Not Popular, It’s The Last Day Of Suspension

Whaddup, Tomoki? Your eye bags aren’t so heavy today. Is that artistic oversight, or has Tomoko’s suspension taken a load off your stress level?

Oh yeah, I had forgotten that Tomoki heads to school earlier than Tomoko does. He used to get really anal about avoiding his sister in the mornings, but it looks like he’s not so objectionable about it anymore... 

Is that how it works? I've never worked at a huge company with a sports club other than a fantasy football league, so I don’t have much of a reference. But if Tomoko is correct, then my assumption is that the sports clubs are used to indirectly promote “company loyalty” and get more work mileage out of their employees.  

It’s casual conversations like this that really show just much Tomoko and Tomoki’s sibling relationship has improved since way back then. Sure, they still take potshots at each other, but it’s more in the realm of affectionate brother-sister banter now. The days where they openly held the other with actual disdain have finally come to an end.

Not that they want to look particularly close when out in public, of course. 

It’s only the second page, and we’re already getting hit with the heartwarming feels? Damn, this is gonna be a tearjerker chapter, ain’t it?

As this chapter soon verifies, the last day of suspension is nothing short of formalities and kissing ass. 

Wow, it took the whole week to get full marks on those worksheets? Maybe I’m missing something here, but I’m not sure they’re really learning anything from those suspension packets if they’re just regurgitating answers.

Also, Dead-Eyes Teacher can actually smile? How about that.

Tomoko’s apathy towards her progress here leaves me wondering: Just how much do the teachers really think suspension is inspiring students to do better? My guess has always been that suspension is like a prison in principle in that it’s more about reforming them than punishment. It may work for some, though I’m inclined to believe that most of them just want to pay their dues and leave with very little actual reflection on their actions, like Yoshida’s perpetually blank face seems to suggest.   

Well, I suppose the lack of classroom distractions had to account for something, right? Though having her friends around could be seen as both a hindrance and a benefit towards her study habits.

There’snospecialmeaningforwhyMakosaidYoshida’snamefirst. 

There’snospecialmeaningforwhyMakosaidYoshida’snamefirst.

There’snospecialmeaningforwhyMakosaidYoshida’snamefirst.

There’snospecialmeaningforwhyMakosaidYoshida’snamefirst.

...darn it.

So on the Indifference Scale, she just slightly dips in favor of wanting to see them.

Oh Yuri, I know that being noncommittal is kind of your thing, but no one’s going to give you a hard time for wanting to see your friends, especially Mako. 

Do I sense a flash mob in the workings here? That’d be pretty lit.

So Katou actually does have some awareness that the idiosyncrasies of her behavior are, in fact, idiosyncrasies. I guess you don’t get to be as beloved as Katou unless you had some common sense. 

Even though we all already knew the answer, there’s something oddly relieving to hear it from Katou herself. I think it’s largely out of a sense of empathy for Fuuka, since she’s been strung along for so long, but also because it comes across as “humbling” to hear the on-top-of-the-pedestal Katou accept the truth.

That’s what happens when your expectations don’t match up with reality. You build up this impression for so long that you can’t help but feel jaded when it turns out to not be true, even if you didn’t actually want it to happen.

I call it the Ucchi Effect. 

Nooooo, Katou, you had it in the bag! You should have quit while you’re ahead!

But yeah. Katou didn’t really need to bring this up, so a part of me wants to think that she’s using the whole hair-touching moment as a consolation when the whole groping thing didn’t work out. 

Still, it’s kind of unnerving that she finds the idea of Tomoko, or anyone really wanting to touch her...there to be so humorous...

What goes around comes around. Stay strong, Fuuka. 

We get to see Yoshida’s mom?!?!

Officially the best chapter ever. 

I love how this whole time, the teachers have been pestering Yoshida to look more presentable. I’m not sure if Yoshida is being actively defiant or if she’s just clueless about these sorts of things, but I do appreciate that she complies without much fuss.

Getting those parent-teacher conference vibes right about now. The only difference is that those are some swanky couches.

I wonder if Nico Tanigawa just drew up a bunch of random old guys for this “Presidents Throughout The Years” or if they were based on real people. 

So...Yoshida’s mom. She definitely has the air of a high-powered career woman, what with the suit and all. It’s pretty ironic considering she has a delinquent like Yoshida for a daughter, but at the same time, maybe it isn’t. It’s been hinted before that Yoshida may come from a well-off family, so having a mom making a generous salary seems pretty plausible. Makes you wonder if Yoshida’s delinquent-ness is some form of rebellion...

I totally expected that Tomoko and Yoshida would have to do something like this, but still. FUUUUUUUUU–

In the immortal words of Tomoko Kuroki...

“How do I bullshit my way out of this one?”

Well, for what it’s worth, the principal looks like a nice, reasonable guy. But as Tomoko has proven time and again, you can never be too careful. Though I have to say, I’m surprised Tomoko would even consider screwing around instead of going right for the safe option. Having an active social life has really given her enough courage to take some risks, even if they end up with bad results more often than not.

So she thinks the principal is one of those perpetually smiling assassins you see in isekai series? That’s really chuuni and I love it.

So in the end, she takes the safe route. Fair enough, but her response is so stock and wooden that you just know it's gonna come to bite her in the ass.

In the midst of all the bullshitting, some of Tomoko’s honestly ends up rising to the surface. It’s the kind of unintended sincerity that really warms my heart. This whole arc has been a great opportunity for the adults in Tomoko’s life to recognize her unexpected popularity, so I’m sure Principal-san will offer some words of wisdom that Tomoko will take to heart for the rest for her li–

Nah, just kidding. Principal’s a troll.

I find it hilarious that Reina’s been put through the suspension wringer so many times, that it stopped being anything worth remembering. For all we know, suspension was just another Tuesday for her.

Of all the recurring characters, who would’ve thought the dog would be one of them? 

...

But seriously, whose dog is this?

Delinquent girls laughing at dirty jokes is ironically wholesome to me.

“Do you’re best!” you say? All the evidence points to Ucchi finally going forward with her apology to Tomoko. Of course, Lady Luck will have it be that something will get in her way. And the way this is playing out, we’re going to have the single greater encounter this series’ has ever given us.

The fact that Ucchi can accuse this dog of being gross just because it kind of resembles Tomoko is so stupidly unrealistic and stupidly hilarious at the same time. Girl needs to start majoring in gross-ology. 

Poor Emoji Girl just had a Freudian Slip that sums up her Tomoko-philia. 

Probably the most reasonable “Gross!” Ucchi has said in a long time.

I wasn’t sure if Tomopup’s appearance was just artistic license, but it turns out the dog looks just as freaky to us as it does in-universe.

Huh. So unlike Yuri, Mako gets both the first name and -chan suffix? Maybe the girl’s just that naturally personable.

I feel like calling out Katou for asserting dominance would be a drastically unsupported claim that would be built upon unreasonable shipping desires.

But that piercing gaze of hers makes that notion hard to assert.

How the tables have turned, eh? I wouldn’t say Mako was being that hypocritical; more like she gained a bit of rebellion during the week while Yuri learned to restrain herself a little bit. A push and pull you could say. 

Is this foreshadowing for integrating Yoshida’s delinquent buddies into the Class 3-5 group? Please, please please make it so!

Anna really does like to look on the bright side of things, huh? It’s a great perspective to have around, especially when you have a Reina in your group, who tends to see the world around her as a half-empty glass.  

I’ve been made aware that Mrs. Yoshida was actually apologizing for her daughter’s actions and not her own, which suggests that blaming others whenever you can is in the family blood. Even so, Yoshida’s mom is unexpectedly adorable (though given who her daughter is, it’s not that surprising). Perhaps she and Mrs. Kuroki ought to start a support group for Mothers With Troublesome Daughters. 

Speaking of which, can we get Yuri’s mom in the picture, too, Nico? You know, for reasons...

Ditching her own mom when the lady had to take time out of her schedule to represent her daughter’s suspended ass? The Yoshida household sounds like a fun ride (I say “ride” because prolonged exposure to Yoshida’s family sounds dangerous). 

Not to toot my own horn, but I always knew that if a time ever came where Tomoko had to leave her mother behind to see her explicitly named friends, her mom would encourage her without question. 

When it comes to apologies, acknowledgments, and the like, Tomoko is always late to the party. But even if it's at the very last second, she’ll get around to it. Tomoko’s relationship with her mom is probably the least we’ve seen since their familial love has always been more implicit. So seeing Tomoko outright admit that she really does appreciate her mother is incredibly heartwarming. 

Hey, hey, hey! That looks like a callback to the afterparty Tomoko told her mom she was going to at the end of her second year. Looks like it really left a positive impression on TomoMom.  

Not gonna mince words–seeing Tomoko’s mom look so proud of her daughter brings a tear to my eyes. 

She’s never really admitted it before (as far as we know), but Tomoko’s mom really was concerned about her daughter’s lack of friends at the start of high school. Some have accused her of being a bad mother for not taking a more active role in Tomoko’s social growth, but I was never in that camp. Sure, TomoMom’s not perfect, and she could’ve shown more of an interest, but I think it did Tomoko some good that her mother never judged her. Expressing her concern without badgering her daughter is peak mothering right there.

To reiterate what every fan thought at this shot: This looks like a series finale.

It rare for a chapter to end so unabashedly happy like this, but that rarity makes it all the more sweeter when it does happen. It dials it up to eleven when you realize what this means for the series going forward. One of the uncertainties Watamote has addressed is the possibility that everyone will drift apart once high school ends. Well, this single moment gives us a little test on that theory. Even if Tomoko were to disappear for a week, her friends will still be there for her. And even if it doesn’t work out as well once they go out into the “real world”, it looks like, as her mom says, Tomoko will be fine now.

And thus the curtain falls on the Suspension Arc. We’ve still got a few hurdles to overcome, but for now, things look sunny in the world of Watamote.

[overwatchworks]

This Side of Too Much:

Jesse was sure Genji had no idea just how beautiful he was, and he definitely didn’t realize how much it affected him. Which was good.

He didn’t want to screw something up and lose Genji just because he wanted more than he already had. He was happy being there for Genji, helping him when he needed it most, didn’t mind that he was second or third on the list as long as he was on it.

Which Jesse knew was sad, but he couldn’t help it.

Jesse sighed heavily as he placed the pan of brownies into the oven, wiping his hands off on a dishtowel and grinning to himself. He hadn’t made brownies in way too long, and now he would have a whole pan all to himself. He hummed an old Johnny Cash tune to himself as he cleaned up the dishes and wiped down the counter, wondering how in the world he had gotten so much flour everywhere. 

He startled at a loud thump coming from the hallway, hearing the door slam shut and a set of keys jingling before a familiar flash of green hair showed itself from the hallway.

“Yanno, you could always knock when you come in.” Jesse called, putting the flour and sugar back into the pantry as Genji set his stuff down on the counter. 

Jesse’s place was like a home away from home for Genji, somewhere safe to go when his family was getting to him, when he needed somewhere to crash after a night out drinking and partying, or when he needed someone understanding and willing to listen to him.

“What, and ruin the surprise of seeing me?” He shot back cheekily, Jesse turning and finding that gorgeous grin flashed his way. 

Jesse was sure Genji had no idea just how beautiful he was, and he definitely didn’t realize how much it affected him. Which was good. It would be a disaster if Genji found out his best friend for a solid eight years was head over heels in love with him. They’d known each other since Genji was ten, Jesse twelve, it would be ridiculous to be anything more than friends. Terrifying actually. 

Jesse didn’t want to screw something up and lose Genji just because he wanted more than he already had. He was happy being there for Genji, helping him when he needed it most, didn’t mind that he was second or third on the list as long as he was on it. 

Which Jesse knew was sad, but he couldn’t help it.

“Guess what I just came back from?” Genji’s voice snapped him out of his musings, Jesse realizing he had been staring past Genji’s shoulder before blinking and raising his brows with a smile.

“What?”

“Appointment with my doctor. She said surgery is in three weeks!” Genji practically squealed, slamming his hands on the counter and bouncing on the balls of his feet excitedly. 

He was so goddamn adorable. 

Jesse grinned with a laugh and went over to him, wrapping Genji in a hug and rocking them side to side a bit.

“That’s awesome! It’s about time, yeah? Been lookin’ forward to that for a while now, huh?”

“Hell yeah! I’m so fucking pumped, it’s gonna feel like years but hey! It’s happening at last!”

Jesse laughed, then broke off the hug before it got a little awkward, going to his liquor cabinet. He pulled out some of his favourite whiskey and held it up for Genji to see, getting some shot glasses out as well.

“Guess this calls for a celebration. You mind whiskey, or do you want somethin’ else?” Jesse asked, Genji scoffing and crossing his arms over his chest.

“As long as it’ll give us a buzz, I could care less what it is.”

Jesse gave him a look, then quickly went back to setting out the whiskey. He knew Genji had some problems with his alcohol and drug consumption, mostly because he didn’t like thinking about the consequences of his actions and liked the feeling such things provided, a way to forget. 

But, he also knew Genji was a bit sensitive around the subject, getting defensive and guilty whenever Jesse tried to approach it. So he didn’t, knowing Genji knew his limits and how to take care of himself. For the most part.

“What’re you making? It smells amazing.” Genji asked after a moment of comfortable silence, toeing off his shoes and throwing his jacket on top of them under the bar of the counter.

“Oh! Homemade brownies! You’re gonna love ‘em, sugar.” Jesse told him with a wink, not even realizing he had added an endearment to the end of his statement until he was checking on said brownies. 

He internally cursed himself, then gathered the whiskey and set it on the coffee table in the living space.

“Here uh, wanna pick a movie? Your choice since it’s a special day.” Jesse said, tossing Genji the remote and clearing his throat. Genji raised a brow, then shrugged and sat down cross-legged on the couch.

“I mean, if you insist. You do realize we’re going to watch Twilight, right?”

“Lord, anythin’ but that.”

“Fine, Breaking Dawn because it’s got the sex.”

“Can we, like, watch somethin’ normal? Maybe an animated one or somethin’?”

“Hey, you said I get to pick!” Genji giggled, already searching for the movie he wanted. Jesse rolled his eyes fondly, checking on the brownies once more before leaning over the counter.

“Wait, what about a Ghibli? Spirited Away or something we both like.” He suggested, Genji huffing and giving him a playful side-eye.

“Are you possibly suggesting that you don’t want to watch Twilight?”

“Oh I ain’t suggestin’. I absolutely do not want to watch Twilight.”

“Fair enough. I like a man that’s straightforward. I can appreciate that.” Genji snickered, Jesse raising a brow. 

He shook off the strange comment, then jolted at the sound of the oven’s timer going off. Jesse scrambled a bit to check to see if the brownies were done, then hummed in satisfaction as he pulled the heavenly smelling tray from the oven to cool.

“Holy shit! They smell so good!” Genji exclaimed, hopping up from the couch and running over to Jesse’s side. 

He peeked over the cowboy’s shoulder to look at the treats, reaching out to perhaps snag a piece before getting whacked lightly with an oven mitt.

“Oi! Them’s hot brownies, no touchin’!”

“‘Them’s’?” Genji snorted, brows raised as Jesse shook him off his back.

“Yeah, them’s. My gran used to say that when I got handsy with the food, and it stuck. Get over it.”

“Oh my god, Jesse, I didn’t take you for that kinda guy. But we all have our kinks, I guess, I won’t judge.”

“Shut the hell up, or you get no brownies, you lil’ shit.” Jesse teased, Genji pouting at him, though the effect was lessened significantly by the shit-eating grin that followed the look.

“Go start the movie, I’ll be over in just a sec.” Jesse told him, Genji shrugging and going back to the couch. 

Jesse let the brownies cool for a bit, then cut them nicely, placing a few chocolatey squares onto a plate and going to join Genji. He set them down next to the whiskey, Genji immediately grabbing one and eating half of it in one bite.

“Jesus, Gen...Enjoy ‘em, don’t inhale ‘em!”

“Mmph!”

“Ya-huh. You sure are.” Jesse deadpanned, Genji covering his mouth and laughing. Jesse grinned, then poured some whiskey into their shot glasses. He handed one to Genji, raising it a bit for a toast.

“To perseverance, ‘cause it’s finally paying off.” Jesse announced, Genji clinking his glass to Jesse’s with a grin.

“Fuckin’ cheers to that.”

They downed their shots in unison, Jesse humming happily at the familiar burn and pouring them both another shot. He then turned his attention to the movie, grabbing a brownie and wondering if his night could possibly get much better than this. 

Genji stretched his feet out and rested them on Jesse’s thighs, staring at the screen and grabbing another brownie after the first disappeared in record time. Twenty minutes into the movie, nearly half the bottle of Jack Daniel’s was gone, and Jesse was feeling nice and buzzed, warm. 

Genji’s cheeks had a blush on them from their shared drink, and he held out his shot glass once more for Jesse to refill. His hands were just a bit unsteady as he brought the glass back to his lips and downed the amber liquid, not even batting an eye at the burn anymore.

“You know, Jess? I was thinking ‘bout getting another tattoo.” Genji suddenly spoke up, Jesse raising a brow and turning to him in a slightly drunken haze. 

Maybe a bit more than slightly.

“Oh yeah? What of?”

“‘M thinking ‘bout getting a cherry blossom branch and a sparrow. On my calf. The side.” Genji explained, his voice slurring. Jesse tilted his head in interest, then pointed at Genji’s stomach.

“Why not there?”

“What?”

“Why not there? On your stomach, or curve of your hipbone.” Jesse suggested, downing the rest of his drink and suddenly finding it very hard not to think about Genji’s hips.

“You’re a fuckin’ genius, Jess...Why aren’t you a tattoo artist?”

“‘Cause I’m already payin’...Fuckin’ too much to go to school here. Whoop dee doo.”

“Eh, fuck school. School’s bo~ring.”

“Nah, I’m gonna make the most of it. Or at least try to...I might actually make myself proud, for once...” Jesse muttered as he poured another shot. He always got sentimental when he was drunk.

“Yanno what I think?” Genji slurred, raising a brow and holding his glass with his pinky outstretched to point at Jesse.

“I think you need more whiskey. An’ I want more while you’re at it.” He finished, holding out his shot glass and making Jesse chuckle.

“Damn straight.”

It took an hour for the whiskey bottle to be almost completely empty, and by then, both Genji and Jesse had lost interest in the movie. Genji was sprawled over Jesse’s chest, the cowboy stretched out over the entirety of the couch as they sang a jumbled mess of songs as loud as they could together. 

Genji hiccuped in the middle of it, and they both burst out laughing, Jesse snorting and making their giggles worse. When they quieted down, Genji stared down at Jesse, arms crossed over his chest and leaning in close. Jesse grinned, reaching up and caressing Genji’s cheek gently.

“Yanno, you’re so gorgeous when you laugh like that. You’re so fuckin’ beautiful...” He murmured, Genji smiling and wrinkling up his nose a bit in that adorable habit of his.

“Everyone always says that to get to me, but they never really mean it. You don’t have to Jesse, I already like you.” Genji whispered, their noses brushing with how close their faces were.

“Tell me that again when we ain’t drunk as skunks, an’ maybe I’ll believe you.”

Genji didn’t reply, instead he leaned in and pressed their lips together softly, too in control with how drunk they were but also a little sloppy in a good way. Jesse let his eyes drift shut, heat coursing through him as he slowly dragged his hands up Genji’s back and up to rest on the nape of his neck. 

He moaned quietly into the kiss, Genji huffing a laugh through his nose, the breath washing over Jesse’s face with startling clarity as he tilted his head to deepen it. 

And Jesse was enjoying it way too much. 

Genji’s lips were even softer and sweeter than he ever could have imagined, insistent yet passive as they moved against Jesse’s. The cowboy’s hand moved up to curl in Genji’s hair as he opened his mouth a bit more to tease his tongue along the seam of Genji’s lips. Genji groaned in response, pressing in with more fever and letting Jesse lick into his mouth to explore. 

Something very small and easily drowned out in the back of Jesse’s drunken mind was telling him to stop, that this wasn’t fair, it wasn’t right, he’s my best friend, we’re drunk--but then Genji rolled his hips and all his thoughts scattered completely. Jesse gasped against Genji’s lips, the other man staring down at him with hazy, lust-filled eyes, hips grinding down again in a deliberate message. 

If Jesse thought his interest had been peaked by their kissing, he was sorely mistaken and harder than ever. He spread his legs so Genji could fit between them better, his hands shooting down to grasp Genji’s hips and slot them against his own. Genji moaned and gripped Jesse’s shirt in his hands before crushing their lips together in a much more heated and less coordinated kiss than before. 

He rolled his hips incessantly, Jesse’s fingers digging into his thighs and ass as he groaned and bucked up into the sensation. Genji broke off the kiss to pant into the crook of Jesse’s neck and grind down harder on him, searching for more friction with increasing need.

“Fuck, Jesse, oh Jess, fuck fuck...” Genji hissed, pressing wet kisses over Jesse’s neck and jaw. 

Jesse gasped and grit his teeth, one hand sliding up under Genji’s shirt to paw at the soft skin of his lower back, breath coming too quick, body feeling too hot. Genji whimpered, then leaned back to grip at the hem of his shirt, yanking it off in one desperate movement. 

Jesse gazed at the newly revealed skin in awe, Genji already fiddling with his binder and cursing lowly under his breath when it didn’t immediately come off. His body was gorgeous, toned muscles of his abdomen flexing with each stuttering breath, his thick arms tight and tense as he tugged at his binder.

“Here, lemme help...” Jesse murmured, Genji huffing and dropping his arms, eyes boring into Jesse’s, his pupils blown. 

Jesse tugged up the front of the binder carefully, Genji finally looking away as he pulled the back of it up and over Genji’s head. He slipped his arms free, then set his hands back on Jesse’s chest, fingers curled slightly. 

Jesse couldn’t help but be reminded of the first time Genji had put on a binder, showing it to Jesse timidly and asking if he would help him. He looked about the same now, a bit apprehensive but eager at the same time.

“Gorgeous, so gorgeous, darlin’, goddamn...” Jesse heard himself whisper in awe. He didn’t know he had been saying it out loud and not just in his head.

Genji leaned in again, a smile in the press of his lips, hands sliding up the cowboy’s chest. He let Jesse touch and explore, gently grinding against him and making stars dance across Jesse’s vision. The haze over his mind was thick and warm, Genji giving and taking too much, not enough, perfect, he was so perfect. 

-

“I love you, I love you so much, Gen. God, I love you...” Jesse breathed, not really paying attention to what he was saying as he closed his eyes in absolute bliss. Panting by his ear, hot and wet and shuddering. Nothing said in return. 

-

Genji, laughing softly, his weight solid in Jesse’s arms as he picked him up and carried him, stumbling, still drunk, still high on the afterglow. Something heavy and cold was settling in his stomach, but Jesse ignored it for the time being.

-

Genji, sprawled over the sheets, eyes closed and a hand resting by his head, the other sitting on his stomach with one knee bent up. Jesse joined him in bed, hugging him to his chest. They fit together perfectly. So perfect. 

“I’m really, really happy.” Genji mumbled after a long moment, Jesse huffing a soft, dry laugh.

“Tell me that again when we ain’t drunk, an’ maybe I’ll believe you.” He whispered, closing his eyes, not looking forward to the morning or the problems it would bring. 

~~

[nexttrickanvils]

Partners

Written for Day 3 of Ryukita Week: Partners in Crime

Characters: Yusuke Kitagawa, Ryuji Sakamoto, unnamed OCs

Notes: Takes place a few years post-game.

---------

Ryuji looked around the crowd and nervously tugged the collar of his dress shirt.

What was Yusuke thinking, asking him to be here? What was Ryuji thinking, saying “yes?” It’s not that he didn’t want to support his husband. It’s just… Ryuji could feel the stares and disapproving looks from the minute they walked into the museum. God it was like his second year at Shujin all over again.

“Why would Kitagawa-San bring someone like that here?”

“Isn’t he a little too old to be dyeing his hair like some teenage punk?”

“He looks like he’s going to threaten someone any minute now.”

...Whatever. Ryuji ain’t here for these people, he’s here for Yusuke and like hell he was gonna spoil his husband’s big night.

“Not enjoying the show?”

Ryuji turned to the right and saw a young woman in a teal dress that seemed to match her long hair. He remembered seeing her picture in the event pamphlet… what was her name again? Kai- something or other?

“Nah just uh… this um… I ain’t- I mean I’m not used to this kinda event. I’m mostly here for my husband.” Ryuji responded, scratching the back of his head

The woman smiled, “Nothing wrong with that, these shows can be overwhelming for newcomers. But I’m sure that your husband is incredibly thankful for your support. Not to mention this must be an exciting chance to expand your horizons and connect with him.”

“I guess?”

She turns to the painting in front of them, “Well why don’t I give you a head start? Do you have any thoughts on this piece?”

Ryuji takes a deep breath as he looks at the painting, a portrait of a woman who looked like she was playing a large instrument in the ocean. He tries to really take in the picture and find something to say something besides “the colors are nice.”

“...It’s… it’s weird but it kinda feels calming...”

---------

From a few feet away, Yusuke smiles as he watches Ryuji and Kaioh-San discuss her latest work. He was pleased that at least one person saw his husband’s enthusiasm and earnestness…

“Hmph, they’ll let anyone in here these days.”

“Apparently he came with Kitagawa.”

“So he’s here out of pity then?”

...A shame that others refused to see what he did. Though Yusuke cannot say he didn’t expect this, having been on the receiving end of various gossip over the years. He shoots a dark glare at the older pair before attempting to join Ryuji and Kaioh-San.

He took three steps…

“...Listen to him. He sounds like a child trying to be an adult...”

“What does Kitagawa see in him?”

...and walked straight to the two “gentlemen.” Immediately upon noticing Yusuke, the two were all smiles.

“Good evening Kitagawa-kun!”

“How are you enjoying the show so-”

Yusuke’s expression further darkens, “If the two of you have a problem with my beau then say it to us directly instead of prattling behind our backs.”

He walks away and continues his original path before the two could sputter a response.

Ryuji had long since walked away but Kaioh-San still stood before her work. As Yusuke approached her, the teal-haired artist bowed in greeting.

“Evening, Kitagawa-san. I’m sorry that you’ve had to deal with such rude guests tonight.”

“Ah… you saw that? But please do not feel that you must apologize for the actions of others.”

“They won’t apologize so I might as well in their stead. Your partner deserves one as well, I can tell that he’s a good man who doesn’t deserve all the impolite talk he’s been getting.”

“Speaking of Ryuji, have you seen where he went?”

She points to the west and Yusuke sees Ryuji bashfully speaking with a small crowd.

---------

Ryuji wasn’t entirely sure how he got here. One moment he was stepping away to get something to drink, the next he got caught up in a conversation with a small group about one of Yusuke’s paintings. He couldn’t really tell them about Yusuke’s methods or anything technical (“This sh- stuff flies right over my head. You’re better off asking the artist himself.”)

But he gladly told them about the inspiration (“This was during the first snowfall of the year...”) and just how determined Yusuke was to get it right (“You should have seen the way his eyes lit up when we saw that sunset, he had to get it perfect.”) He was surprised by how genuinely interested the group was in what he had to say.

“Hahaha! Living with Kitagawa-San sounds like quite an adventure.” replied a middle aged man

“Eh, I dunno if I’d say that. But I’ve known him since high school so maybe I’m used to it and...”

“Hmph, it would explain why you heap so much praise on this mediocre piece.”

Ryuji and the others turn to see a young woman with a bored expression on her face.

“What did you say?” he asked with a glare

The woman shot one back, “You heard me. I’ve seen Kitagawa’s early works and there was a spark of creativity there. But now it seems he’s reduced himself to “charming” landscapes. Anything to pay the bills I suppose...”

“BULLSHIT!”

All eyes are on him with that shout. The woman looked at Ryuji like he personally insulted her.

“Excuse me!?”

“You heard me. You didn’t see how hard Yusuke worked on this-”

“Hard work doesn’t always equal quality. You can “work hard” on a piece of pottery but it could still be misshapen or have cracks. No one will or should give it a pass because of how hard the artist worked. But I guess someone like you wouldn’t understand.”

“Okay sure I ain’t really the artsy type but I know that art don’t gotta be perfect! And I know there sure as hell more to art than saying something’s trash just cause it’s not what you want!”

The woman narrows her eyes at Ryuji, “I will not be lectured by some vulgar imbecile!”

She sulks away and it’s only then that Ryuji realizes what he did and said.

Shit. Shit! SHIT! SHIT SHIT SHIT! He probably just burned ANY goodwill he made with the other guests. He probably just screwed up Yusuke’s night.

He freezes as he feels a hand on his shoulder. Dammit it’s probably a security guard telling him to get the hell out.

“Ryuji...”

Ryuji turns around and sees Yusuke smiling. He wishes he can return that smile.

“Sorry babe. I couldn’t keep my trap shut and...”

“You have nothing to apologize for. That woman has a reputation for being particularly harsh and bit of a contrarian.”

“...I still shouldn’t have...”

A loud laugh rang out and the two looked over to the man that Ryuji was speaking with earlier.

“I admit I wouldn’t have chosen the words you did but I can still admire the passion behind them! You should consider yourself a lucky man to have him at your side, Kitagawa-san.”

Yusuke simply nodded, “I do. Thank you.”

---------

The rest of the evening played out without much drama. A few guests continued to glare at and gossip about Ryuji but they were quickly silenced with cold glares from Yusuke.

Eventually the two found themselves ready to head home to their small apartment. They wished everyone a good night, called for a cab as they exited the museum, and waited.

Now that they were alone, Ryuji looked at Yusuke and sighed.

“I’m sorry.”

“What for?”

“I feel like I kinda ruined the night for you.”

“I already told you that you had nothing to apologize...”

“Not just for that! Kaioh-san told me about those two guys you confronted. And I noticed all the glares you kept giving people all night. Some of those people might’ve even thought of buying a painting or two until you stepped in to defend me. You don’t gotta do that for me, I’m used to this kinda shit. I know this ain’t really my scene.”

There was a brief silence then Ryuji felt Yusuke’s hand on his chin and a kiss on his lips as he turned to face his husband. Yusuke soon pulls away only to rest his forehead against Ryuji’s.

“Ryuji, you are my partner. You are also my friend and one of my greatest inspirations. If those who judged you harshly could not see that, then perhaps it is best that they merely pass by my art.”

Ryuji stared at Yusuke for a moment before smiling and bursting into laughter.

“Geez, I still don’t get how you can say all that cheesy stuff! But… thanks babe.”

The two stood together like that until the cab arrived to take them home.

[crossxskulled]

You haven’t been participating in any unsavory situations during our collective “down time” as you say, have you?

☠

”Eh? Unsavory? I-- damn it Yusuke you’re the last person out of anyone I need to be hearing this from!” Ryuji quickly shoots back, taking full offense and none too afraid to show it. Just what in the two hells does this guy thinks he does in his down time?!

“If ya mean having me an adventure or two then there’s no avoiding that! But if you mean like going full gangster-- or some other wild crap, you’re just outta your mind!” Not for a fleeting moment did he believe take the chance to consider what the guy’s perspective what ‘too wild’ was. His nostrils flared in order to promote that stubborn defiance as he’s now stuck glaring daggers at him. Leering towards the artist, he didn’t hesitate to ease in a touch closer, intentions clear in showing off his presence.

Oh he’s lucky he’s a good friend of his by now. Otherwise this kind of free talk would’ve be happening within these streets. “But if this has somethin to do with peaches, ya keep that outta this.”

”Cause I can run around like anyyyyy other person and fight for what I believe is right. Ain’t that what our kinda band is all about? I mean, long as it ain’t hurtin’ or screwing over any other people!” And the eating of these said ‘peaches’ is by no means harmful in any shape, way or form. His spirit burns with this righteous truth and aims to let it be known to the world.

[fallen029]

Loves and Lanterns

The sound of five little dolls singing ad nauseam their nonsensical songs paired well with the accompanying smell of carved pumpkins. Not to mention the humming of a very joyful takeover mage and the determined grunts of an intent seith. From the kitchen there was more singing, but that had less to do with them and more with the fact that a certain other takeover mage was baking and, well, Mirajane couldn't bake without singing.

Seriously. She just couldn't.

"The hell are you guys doing in my house?"

Then the Thunder God had to go and come home early, ruining everything.

"What does it look like?" Lisanna retorted to Laxus' annoyed question. "We're carving pumpkins."

"I got that, you brat," Laxus grumbled as he shut the front door behind him and walked further into the room. "But why are you doing it in my living room? And you're getting pumpkin guts everywhere!"

"Oy, boss," Bickslow complained as he still stared with deep meaning at his canvas (hallowed out pumpkin). "Your woman invited us over. Said that she wanted some pumpkins to sit out on the front porch and figured I'd be the best one to get it done for her."

"And why," the slayer complained, "would she think that?"

"Because, dragon," they heard then called from the kitchen. "He makes those cute little babies."

The seith glared over at the doorway to the hall though it was actually directed at Mirajane. "They're not cute. They're ferocious."

"Mmmm," Lisanna hummed as she hacked away at her own, far less skilled (if not downright pitiful) pumpkin. "You hear that, babies? You're ferocious."

"Ferocious," they all sang as they floated around. "Ferocious."

"I don't care what they are," Laxus said. "As long as they and the two of you get the hell outta here and take your damn pumpkins-"

"Dragon," Mirajane called from the other room. "Come here for a second."

"No, I-" He stopped himself. "Do I smell cookies?"

"You do. They're for the party tomorrow night."

Narrowing his eyes first at Bickslow then at Lisanna and finally at the five floating dolls, Laxus barked out, "You win for now, losers," before heading to the kitchen. His demon called, after all.

And so did her cookies.

With Laxus gone, the dolls went back to singing, Lisanna back to carving (destroying), and Bickslow back to his deep contemplation.

"Bicks?" his girlfriend asked after giving her jack-o-lantern a wickedly devious grin.

"Hmmm?"

"You okay over there?"

He was seated on the other side of the living room, visor off. Not glancing over at her, he said simply, "I'm thinking."

"Mirajane literally bought us ten, huge pumpkins," the woman pointed out. "You can screw up on this one and then try harder on the next. Besides, it's not that big of a deal."

Not to her. But to him it was. His pumpkin would be sitting on the front porch of, fine, Mirajane, but most importantly Laxus Dreyar. His idol. The man that he aspired to be. Put above all others. Even himself. Even Lissy.

Not his babies, but he figured that the man wouldn't ask for that much anyhow.

As it was though, he had to make each and every pumpkin perfect.

"What have you done?" he complained when he saw Lisanna's. "That's horrible."

"I know," she giggled as she stared admiringly at her piece of work (junk). "Isn't it great?"

"Heh?"

"Jack-o-lanterns are supposed to be horrible, right?" She grinned at him. "You know, scary?"

"That's not scary, Lissy," he grumbled. "That's just a waste of a perfectly good pumpkin."

"Hey!"

"Hey," his dolls mimicked the woman, coming to fly around her head then. "Hey, Papa!"

"Babies, there's no time," he grumbled. "Papa's thinking."

"Unless you're thinking up ways to apologize," Lisanna said with a frown, "then you're wasting your time."

Groaning, he finally glanced over. "Lissy, I'm just saying that you should leave it to me. Huh? I'm an artist, yeah? And you're just…amazing. In every way. Other than this. Go bother your sister and the boss. Or better yet, play with the babies. They like that."

"Play," the five dolls cheered. "Play, Lissy. Play."

Pushing up and leaving her pumpkin behind, Lisanna said, "Fine, Bickslow. Be a jerk. Come on, babies. Let's leave him to it then. Since it's so much more important than us."

"Thank you," he said with a nod, not picking up on her tone. And, with another nasty look, Lisanna stomped off for the front door, his babies following as she called out to Mirajane that she'd be back later.

They were going for a walk.

"Man, you're gonna get it," Bickslow heard from the hall as Laxus, now with a plate full of cookies and a piece of cake too, all iced with black and orange frosting, came into the room. "Seriously. You should teach a class on ways to make sure you're not getting any. Ever. At all. You'd be a master at it."

"Eh?" Bickslow sat to attention at the sound of his idol's voice, glancing over. "What are you talkin' about? And hey! Mirajane said that we weren't allowed to have any cookies or cake. That they were for-"

"I," Laxus growled, "am the king of my own castle."

"That's great. Now give me a cookie."

"That means, dummy," the man continued as he went to take a seat on the couch, "that if I want a damn cookie or a piece of cake, I'm going to get one."

Bickslow only stared at him, blinking slightly. "She gave them to you to keep you from kicking us out, didn't she?"

Shrugging, the man said, "My woman drives a hard bargain."

"Yeah, well, mine doesn't," the seith said as he went back to looking over his pumpkins. "So I don't know what you came in here talking about-"

"The fact that you let her walk out all mad or whatever," the slayer said as he spoke around the cookie he'd shoved in his mouth. "It was pretty dang obvious."

"What? Lissy? Mad? No. She doesn't get mad."

"As her brother-in-law-"

"You could just say brother. She does."

Uh, no. He couldn't. Laxus was an only child for a reason. Because he was pure awesomeness and none was to be spared on another one. So saying he had a sibling might confuse people on that fact. No need for that.

"-I know when she's ticked," he finished. "And Lisanna is ticked. If you weren't so caught up in this stupid pumpkin business-"

"It's not stupid. I'm an artiste!"

"-you'd have noticed." Shaking his head as he stabbed at the cake then with his fork, the man only sighed. "I mean sheesh, Bickslow. You two are usually all over one another. What's got you so caught up in these damn pumpkins?"

Uh, trying to win the man's favor so that he could shove it in Freed and Evergreen's faces. What the hell else could it be?

"Nothin', boss," he said. "I was just, you know, trying to do a good job for your woman. She did ask me to, after all."

"Yeah, well, keepin' the demon happy is my job," Laxus told him simply. "And I got it more than under control. As someone who's tamed a Strauss-"

"Do what now?"

"-it don't take a lot for them to get their spirits crushed." The man glanced over at Lisanna's pumpkin before shrugging. "I mean, that ain't a horrible jack-o-lantern. It's not great either. But definitely not insult worthy. Sure, it's not worthy of the mastery that is Laxus' Dreyar's front porch-"

"That's what I was saying!"

"-but it also ain't worth you and Lisanna fighting over." Laxus shrugged. "I mean, I've seen worth. A lot worse. You should have seen the pumpkins that Mirajane put out last year."

"I did," the seith said slowly. "We all did."

"And now you know why she asked someone else to do them this year."

"I do. We all do." Reaching up to scratch at his Mohawk, the man said, "You think that I really hurt Lissy's feelings?"

"Yeah, I don't really no. Or care anymore. Mira!" Laxus got to his feet again. "Can I have some more cake?"

"No, dragon. It's for the-"

"I'm the king of my own castle!"

"Stop yelling. And what does that even mean?"

As they quarreled, Bickslow only looked over his last nine pumpkins before sighing.

"Maybe Lissy is more important than impressing boss," he mumbled.

More like definitely.

When she finally got back to the house, all of his dolls riding either on her head, shoulders, or arms, it was dusk out and, to her surprise, Bickslow had finished all the pumpkins and they were sitting out on the front porch.

Hers was out there, the yellow flame from the candle inside of it making it look extra creepy.

Next to it was a much better done, standard one. It had a jagged grin and triangle eyes, and, fine, she would admit it, looked way better than hers.

But it was the other eight that caught her attention, of course. Bickslow was out there, on the porch, sitting onto the steps as he waited for her to come back. At the sight of her, he got to his feet, but she didn't even glance at him.

They were lined in a row, the pumpkins were, each shining in the dimming light of night, highlighting the carvings made in them. Each one was a single letter marked into it and, even though it was a little cheesy, it still made her grin.

I-L-O-V-E-Y-O-U

"You're such a dork," she complained to Bickslow as the babies rushed to go look at the pumpkins, oohing and awing. "You know that?"

"Only for you," he said, grinning brightly as she came to hug him. Laxus and Mirajane, who were on the porch as well (her idea; she thought Bickslow was being cute and romantic while Laxus mostly wanted to appease her until she gave him more cake), watched with extremely different points of view.

"Bleh," the slayer complained as Mirajane only giggled and clapped her hands. "Total waste. I said to make up with her, dingbat. Not waste perfectly good pumpkins."

"I'll buy more," Mira told him through a giggle. "And don't call him names."

"The hell you will," Laxus complained. "I'm the king of the castle! And I say to stop spending all our jewels on stupid things."

"I still don't know what that means, so-"

"Just stop spending our money!"

Lisanna and Bickslow were ignoring them as, really, at some point Mirajane and Laxus just got annoying, and focused more on one another.

"Your pumpkin ain't bad, kid," the seith was saying as the babies came back over to them, whining something about the candles. "It was just-"

"No," she sighed as she glanced over at it again. "Compared to yours, it was pretty bad."

Grinning, his tongue fell out of his mouth as he said, "Yeah, well, I am an artiste. Look at the babies stylish bodies, yeah? Perfection!"

"Perfection!" the dolls agreed as Lisanna only giggled. "Papa! Candles! Candles!"

"What's wrong, babies?" He frowned at them. "I'm havin' a moment with the kid here and-"

"What is it?" Lisanna reached up to take one of them, Pappa, out of the sky when he came close enough. "What's wrong?"

"Candle," the doll insisted. "Candle."

"Oy, you don't like 'em?" Bickslow glanced over at the glowing pumpkins. "I thought they were pretty nifty."

"Candles!" Suddenly, all five of the babies began to glow as if they were ready to attack. No beams came from them though. "Candles!"

"I think," Lisanna began as she went to get on the porch and head over to one of the jack-o-lanterns, "that I know what they want."

And so, after leaning down to blow out five of the candles, Lisanna and Bickslow let the babies, still glowing their green light, sit in the hollowed out pumpkins to illuminate them.

"Awe," Mirajane cooed at the sight. Laxus, bored, had taken to contemplating which neighborhood kid to pay to smash the pumpkins in the dead of night, as well as any others that his wife bought. "Dragon. How come you never do cute things like that?"

"Huh?"

"You've never carved me a pumpkin that showed how much you love me."

He only stared. "You do know how crazy you sound, right?"

"I want babies," she added enviously as Lisanna and Bickslow admired theirs lights, lavishly complimenting all five of them the entire time. "Dragon, give me babies!"

Growling finally, Laxus said, "Look, woman, we've discussed this. We will have one child when I decide I'm ready. And that won't be for another year. At least. I still have settling to do. A castle to build."

"Stop talking about castles!"

Out in the yard, where Bickslow and Lisanna had taken to standing, so that they could get better looks at their jack-o-lanterns, him with his arm over her shoulders, the two only grinned at one another and the sounds of his babies singing their illogical tunes.

"I think this is my favorite time of the year," the seith said as the sun only sunk lower, giving more credence to the ever glowing pumpkins. "Next to, well, my birthday. Because that's pretty great too."

"Me too," she agreed before frowning. "Except for the second one."

"Rude."

"That's not rude."

"It's pretty rude."

"Don't argue with me, Bickslow."

After just getting her back on his side? No freaking way.

[mellicose]

I would say "write, dangit! it's what Campbell would want!" but no, that's just me being greedy.

[excerpt from rough rough draft of something Campbell-y I’ve been working on forever]

Someone busted through the double doors and bumped into her. Again.

“Time for cocoa! So sad to know that this used to be my favorite time of the day, eh, Isabel?” he said, giving the nurse a wink.

“Ze new doktor, in ze flesh,” he said in passable viennese accent, his hand out. “It seems I’m destined to knock you on your-”

“Now, now, Campbell,” Isabel said. “Take a breath. Why are you sweaty?”

“I just had an arm wrestling competition with one of the chronics. He said that before his screws went loose he was the pub arm wrestling champion of all of  England. I needed to test the veracity of that statement.”

Winnie couldn’t help but laugh. She had some idea of who he was talking about. The man was at least six foot four and all muscle. “Did you win?”

He flopped his right arm dramatically.”No. Seems like he might’ve been right.” He looked at the table where a nurse’s assistant poured the drink. “Would you like some cocoa? It’s really good. Better than my mum’s, but wouldn’t tell her that.”

“I’d love some.”

He came back with two steaming cups. She blew and sipped and her face lit up. “Oh, it’s real!” She hadn’t had cocoa that good since she’d been in the Swiss Alps on holiday.

Isabel laughed. “Everyone does the same thing. The cook refuses to serve the powdered stuff. Considers it an abomination.”

“Compliments to the cook, then,” she said and sat down on a worn armchair. Campbell hung out at the table, stuffing biscuits into his mouth whenever the nurses’ assistant wasn’t looking. He was like an unfocused photo. His energy blurred his edges, made him luminous.

He sat down on the floor in front of her and handed her a couple of Jaffa cakes.

“Thanks. I love these.”

“Me too. That’s why I hoard them before they scoff the lot.”

He looked at her while she ate it. He was a tall, slim young man with a razor nicks on his chin, but his brown eyes were large and inquisitive as a child’s.

And they were inquisiting her. “New doctor,” he repeated, dipping the cake in his cocoa and popping it into his mouth. “Did you know Dr. Hollis?”

“I’ve only heard of her, I’m afraid.”

“She was very clever. Very ambitious, she was. We weren’t people to her, but mental experiments. Potential glory and riches.”

She didn’t know what to say.

“My best mate here, Fergus, he was one of her experiments.”

“The escape artist,” she said, to break the suddenly somber mood.

“Aye. They couldn’t keep him in. He helped the station loads - he got us the new mixing desk. Want to see it?”

She wiped the crumbs off her lap. “Sure.”

He led her into a small room just next door.”Tada! The country’s first loony-run radio station!”

“Ugh. Loony.”

“You don’t like the term?”

“No. It’s awful.”

“I love it.” He picked up a guitar in the corner and began to play. “I’m a singing loony, that’s what I am, cuckoo, nutty, a mental man.”

“Oh, stop it!”

“What? Is my singing as horrible as they say? Coz it doesn’t matter, I’m gonna sing anyway. Though I’m funny in the brain pan, now’t of four girls agree, God damnit there ain’t ever been another like me.”

He was distilled joy. She laughed, hard and long, like she hadn’t in a long time. He watched her, panting lightly from his energetic playing.

“Odd thing, that might be better than what I’ve been exposed to on the radio lately. God, I despise Counting Crows.”

He played the first couple of chords of Mr. Jones and Me. She put her hand over the fretboard and shook her head, her face grave. “Don’t even start, young man. I forbid it.”

He bit his lower lip, thinking her serious.

She lightly flicked his nose and laughed.“You can’t play it. Bad music turns me into a werewolf.”

He put the guitar down slowly. “Werewolf, eh?”

“A raging berserker bent on revenge for the creation and emission of shitty tunes.” she said.

“Most doctors don’t talk like you do,” he said, putting the instrument down.

“And I suppose you’re an expert on doctors?”

“Aye, like you’re an expert at loonies,” he pointed at his temple and crossed his eyes. He sat at the microphone and played with the mixing desk, fingering the buttons lovingly.

“So you help Eddie with the station?”

“Aye. More than that though - he’s training me.”

“That’s interesting,” she said, looking down at him. His energy changed -he was calmer. Now that she saw his edges, he was breathtaking.

“More than interesting - it could be my whole life.” He had gone into his head. A smile played on his lips. She walked out without a sound. She didn’t want to disturb him.

[dailydoseofdevy]

Title: Friends (Cover)

Artist: Noisescapes (Devin Townsend) Original by: Led Zeppelin

Album: Ass-Sordid Demos II

Trivia: From the back of the CD: "I loved the Led Zeppelin song 'Friends'  and wanted to do a real heavy version of it. But when I tried it out in the studio, the results were pretty retarded. Instead of abandoning it, one day at work I got all the other staff to phone my roommate's house and had them leave all sorts of messages like the ones you hear on this version. That's really my dad in the midsection by the way... The act came a bit too natural I thought!"  According to Devin’s book (Only Half There) this was also on the demo that eventually got him the job with Steve Vai, however this particular cover almost foiled that opportunity because Vai thought the phone calls were legitimate.

Transcribed lyrics below:

"Where the fuck is Devin eh? He fucking stole my car, the fucking asshole! And call me a shit! I'm killing you, you shit, fucking shit!"

"Fuck Devin you're starting to fucking piss me off now! Do you fucking get your ass down here! I'm telling you, I'm gonna kick your fucking head in. Now, I'm serious this time because you're really getting on my fucking nerves! Fucking cocksucker."

"Devin you fucking asshole, I heard what you did to my sister and I was- I'm going TO KICK YOUR FUCKING HEAD IN!"

"Devin where the fuck are you man? I know you're fucking home. You better pick up the fucking phone."

Hey! Bright lights, they're almost blindin' Black night, hey I'm telling they still is blind. Can't stop, I just keep on climbin' I'm just looking for what I used to know!

Hey I had friend, and I tell ya, she once told me; 'Buddy you gotta love, you ain't lonely.' But hey, she left me alone, and now I'm only, Looking for what I knew, man. I can tell you that, right for sure!

"Devin? I've been trying to talk to you at work. I've been chasing you around, and you just won't talk to me. It's Brenda. I really think you should give me a call, or I'm just gonna do something crazy or desperate or something, OK? Bye."

"Hiya Devin, this is Erin calling. Um, I really hate to do this over the phone, but I have some bad news for you. It's Scruffy.. He died." "Oh.."

And who, I'm telling you now, The greatest thing you ever can do now, hey! Trade a smile with someone who's blue now! It's so easy!

"I want my MONEY! DO YOU HEAR ME?!"

Met a man on the roadside cryin' Imma just afraid, there's no denyin' You're incomplete, there'll be no findin' Looking for what you knew!

So any time, somebody needs you, Don't let 'em down, although it may grieve you! Because some day you'll need someone like they do, Looking for what you knew, hey!

"Fucking asshole!"

" 'kay, you're under arrest. Where the fuck are ya?"

"Hi Michelle.. It's Seamus."

"Devin you fucking dink, I thought we had a date!"

"Hang on.. Th-the answering machine is eating all my messages again.. It's difficult it’s- AH AAHAAAUGH!"

"Devin. This is your father. Your mother is in tears, and I've just about had it. I can't handle this anymore. As far as I'm concerned, you can live the life any way you want to, but leave us out of it. Don't bother coming home. Don't bother having anything more to do with us. And don't ask for anything else because, I've had it with ya. As far as I'm concerned I don't have a son. You're finished." ("..Oh")

Ah, Ow! I say, ah, ow! I say, ah, ow! WOAH YEA-YEA-YEAH!!

"Devin it's Greg. They caught on to our copyrighting deal. We're screwed man!"

(Ohurgh-ohurghh..) (Aaaaah-aAAaaah..) ("Stop what you started.") (Ooooh-hoooo..)

[the-hogwarts-ultimatum]

I got tagged by @duskmeadows Thanks :D Haven’t done one of these in like several months

Rules: Answer the questions in a new post and tag blogs you would like to get to know better.

Nickname? I don’t really have a commonly used nickname, but generally if someone does want to use one they say like ‘Sath’ or ‘Sathman’ and my personal fave (which no-one actually uses) is ‘Sathmeister’

Star sign? Pisces

Height? 178cm ish. Might be a bit more now?

Time right now? 10:32am on a Sunday

Favourite music artist(s)? It varies very often but atm I’d have to say probably Carly Rae Jepsen she’s perfect. Ed Sheeran is great too, ‘Shape of You’ is sooo good.

Song stuck in your head? ’Your Welcome’ from Moana. I adore that movie and I’ve learned the song off by heart. I wanna learn ‘How Far I’ll Go’ as well

Last movie watched? uhhhh I don’t watch movies that often anymore so I think it was Moana.

Last TV show watched? Last show I saw was Critical Role. But that’s not on tv. Last tv show I saw was DC Legends of Tomorrow, but like as much as I don’t dislike Legends of Tomorrow, it’s not worthy of this list so I’m just gonna say Westworld cause hOly SHiT

What are you wearing right now? A very roomy pair of shorts ;) and a loose t-shirt

When did you create your blog? Like 3 years ago? idk It’s been a while. I can’t even remember why I made it. A friend made me I think and then I got addicted, not good.

What kind of stuff do you post? Loads of shit. Pretty much anything I enjoy. There’s lots of political stuff and world stuff cause I feel I can’t ignore it, even though if I’d like to. Then the rest is just Harry Potter, Mass Effect and Dragon ages and other things that I’m into.

Do you have any other blogs? One other. It’s a 18+ blog, that I made cause, well hey everybody’s gotta let off some steam every now and then. And I didn’t want to put that on my main cause that’s more a ‘when I’m in the mood’ type of deal ya know, while I’m always in the mood for Harry Potter or Mass Effect. Also cause kids follow this blog and that’d be irresponsible.

Do you get asks regularly? Nope. Use to get a every few days and it was awesome, but now I’m lucky to get on every 6 months.

Why did you choose your URL? I used Ultimatum (well U1timatum) is most games, but I felt that was too boring for a blog URL so I decided to incorporate it with my favourite thing which is HP. The specific incident the URL refers to is when Voldemort issues the ultimatum that they hand over Harry Potter or he will kill everyone inside Hogwarts and Harry gives himself up in the ultimate self-less act.

Gender? Male

Hogwarts house? RAVENCLAW BITCHES WOO! 

Pokemon team? TEAM INSTINCT MOTHEFCUKERS

Favourite colour? I love blue. all the shades of it. From deep sea blue to sky blue to the light blue you see just above the horizon. I like aquas and teals and purples and they’re all just great.

Average hours of sleep? Like 8 hours, I sleep like a fucking brick good luck waking me up for shit.

Lucky number?  13. idk why I just like it.

Favourite character? RON WEASLEY MY BOY NEEDS SOME MORE LOVE

How many blankets do you sleep with? 1 in Summer and 2 in Winter.

Dream job? Well I’m an studying Computer Science atm so I guess that. Working for Google sounds cool af. But like I also want to try other things. I want to fly planes, or be a vet or idk be a musician, but like that’s too many things and I know it ain’t realistic but I wanna try it all. But I also have like zero motivation for anything so idk

Following: 201. That number increases every now and then.

I don’t really know who to tag, cause I feel most people I want to know better I already know p well. Eh Screw it I’ll just tag @colourmerae, @thegreatfreckled, @slightlysanehper, @mercutihoe. You don’t gotta do it my dudes it’s all up to you, enjoy tho

[theliterateape]

Our Weekend with Michael Jackson and R. Kelly

By David Himmel

The first rule of moving into a new place is to set up, even in a temporary location, the stereo. Good music sets the beat for organizing your new digs and allows for mini-dance parties as you determine which cabinet the coffee mugs will call home. This is what I did when Katie and I moved into our first and current apartment together.

Katie came with a record player. I had planned on buying one for myself just about the time we got serious, so when we moved in together, hers became mine, and I was Don Hall-excited about it. I could finally dust off my vinyl collection and give the discs a spin. The first one I chose was my original pressing of Michael Jackson’s Thriller. At about the third track, the Paul McCartney duet “The Girl is Mine,” Katie asked, “Who is this?”

“Who is this!?” I responded, astounded and slightly confused. “It’s Michael Jackson. It’s Thriller — the second best-selling album of all time.”

“Oh, I don’t like Michael Jackson.”

I immediately questioned our entire relationship and my taste in women. “What!? How can you not like Michael Jackson?”

“He’s super creepy.”

 “Okay. But what about his music? You like his music, right?”

“Eh. It’s okay.”

Once my wave of panic broke, I realized why Katie’s opinion was what it was. She’s six years younger than me. She was born in 1986, a year before Bad was released. By the time she was old enough to purposefully consume music, MJ was well past the mercurial and eccentric pop god the majority of the world adored. Balancing the art and the artist wasn’t an issue for Katie because she never experienced Michael at his best, before the cracks in his façade began to show.

She admitted that his influence in pop music was undeniable and that she didn’t dislike his music, so I happily let the rest of the album play. As it did, I age-splained what Michael Jackson was like before the pedophilia stories broke and he dangled his child over a balcony and his face and skin looked like Vincent Price’s nightmares and he painfully French kissed Lisa Marie Presley on TV. I told her how I, like millions of children and adults, copied his dance moves as best we could, and how I listened to my Bad tape so much that I eventually wore it out and had to have my parents buy me a new one. I told her how we — the fans — let slide the strangeness of carrying Emanuel Lewis like a baby at the 1984 AMAs because, well, geniuses do strange things. Michael Jackson fandom was completely lost on her. And it makes perfect sense as to why. She was, ironically, too young to have been pulled in by the magnificence of Michael’s magnetism.

 ✶

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, I was a huge fan of hip-hop, R&B, and rap music. I sought that music out and consumed it ferociously and almost exclusively.

Throughout my pre-teen and early teenage years, I was so into the music that my bedroom walls were plastered in magazine clipping photos of my favorite artists: Bell Biv DeVoe, Boyz II Men, Father MC, En Vogue, TLC, Tony Terry, Tony! Toni! Toné!, Mary J. Blige, Postive K, R. Kelly, New Edition, 2Pac, etc. My father, standing with me in my room, once asked me, “Are you gay?”

“No. Why”

“You have all these pictures of men hanging up.”

 “I like their music.”

 “Do you want to be black?”

 “I’ve never thought of that.”

I would rush home from junior high school every day (when I didn’t have band or spring musical rehearsal, or Hebrew school) to watch BET’s half-hour music video show. It played a lot of my music and a lot of music that wasn’t being played on radio. It introduced me to artists that were under the radar compared to what the rest of my friends were listening to. I reveled in knowing about music they didn’t. One artist, early on in his career, was R. Kelly.

The video for “She’s Got That Vibe” wowed me. The song was New Jack Swing perfection. The video was early ’90s cool. I wanted that CD. I needed that CD. Since I was only twelve years old and there was no internet, I was at the mercy of my parents driving me to the mall and other record stores to find the CD. No place we knew of carried it. One desk clerk at the Lincoln mall Sam Goody almost laughed at me when I asked him if they had R. Kelly’s album.

“Never heard of it.”

Oh, you will, I thought.

Soon after, a mailer from Columbia House arrived in our mailbox. “12 CDs for a Penny!” it advertised. I flipped through the pamphlet to see what they were offering and there it was: R. Kelly and the Public Announcement’s Born Into the ‘90s. I was sold. I told my parents I wanted to do it.

“It’s a scam,” my parents told me. I didn’t care. I wanted that album, and eleven other albums Columbia House had available for my listening pleasure. After the twelve CDs for a penny, I’d be locked in to purchase another set number of CDs at their price within a certain time period. I don’t remember what that was exactly, but I told my parents that I’d assume all financial responsibility. They decided to let me go forward on it, and in what may well be my most successful moment of money management, I met my requirements with no problem. Babysitting, cutting grass and saving my allowance money afforded me the ability to score stacks of amazing CDs.

When Born Into the ’90s arrived, I devoured it. Every single track was incredible. I couldn’t get enough of it. I loved that R. Kelly was from Chicago. I loved that his voice sounded unique against everything else out there. I loved that his songs were all about girls because I was all about girls.

Not long after I memorized every lyric on the album, I discovered the first clue that R. Kelly was a little odd. It had been there, right in my ears the whole time. Toward the end of “She’s Got that Vibe,” R. Kelly starts listing all the girls who “got that vibe.”

“… Stephanie's got it And Sabrina's got it Rachelle has got it yeah Gladys got it Fontina's got it Little cute Aaliyah's got it Ooh Stacy's got it I tell ya Tita's got it I tell ya Rita's got it Oh Laurel's got it And Kim's got it, yeah”

“Little cute Aaliyah’s got it.” Harmless the first few hundred times I heard it, but once Aaliyah came onto the scene, I had to pause. Aaliyah was my age — five months older. She was a child. Why would he be singing about a child having that vibe? I knew it had to have been that Aaliyah because I knew R. Kelly wrote and produced her first hit, “Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number.” Weird, I thought. But that was the extent of it. Because what did I know? I was twelve.

When R. Kelly’s second album, 12 Play dropped, I bought it immediately. This time Sam Goody had it. The songs were a whole lot sexier. While still a great album, I didn’t really understand why he was so fixated on screwing. Where was the romance I thought I heard on Born Into the ’90s? By the time his third album, R. Kelly was released, I had lost interest. In part because I had discovered punk rock and also because I couldn’t relate to much of what he was singing about. I was fifteen years old and horny as hell, but I couldn’t understand why R. Kelly seemed to be so incredibly horny. It was extreme.

I moved on. But I still would go back to those first two albums and play them. When the accusations about more inappropriate sexual activity and molestation and predatory behavior came to the surface, I wasn’t surprised at all. R. Kelly was a dangerous pervert from the very beginning and he’d been telling us about it every step of the way.

 ✶ 

In January, Katie and I watched the Lifetime documentary Surviving R, Kelly. It was, of course, disturbing and disgusting but it was hardly shocking. Similar to her experience with Michael Jackson, Katie never got into R. Kelly’s music, and though I told her of my love for the guy in the early ’90s, I was not inclined to promote his impact on music or make any case for separating the art from the artist because, for one, R. Kelly’s art was chock-full of his disgusting behavior and two, because while some have called R. Kelly a genius, he’s not. R. Kelly is no Michael Jackson. 

As more stories about Jackson’s alleged pedophilia came to surface, I never once denied that it was wrong. But I never thought he was a predator. I always figured — like so many of us — that he was a product of his wonky childhood and was a broken man who didn’t know appropriate social behavior. He was the proverbial man-child — a little, lonely boy stuck in the body of a grown man. I believed that he did some inappropriate things like sleeping in the same bed with his boy fans and playing odd, pervy little kid games that kids might play when they’re just figuring out what their penises are for. But I never thought he was a rapist, a pedophile, a predator. He was just a really, really weird dude. The whole thing struck me as sad, and yes, gross.

When we watched Leaving Neverland, I did so with ever-increasing discomfort as the indisputable stories of rape, manipulation, and the twisted workings of a predator unfolded. When it was over, Katie asked me, “What do you think about Michael Jackson now?”

“He’s a fucking monster,” I said.

✶

I’ll still go back to Born Into the ’90s and 12 Play because when I do, I’m brought back to where I was at the time when they were new music. At this point, I now I’ll enjoy them even more once the sonofabitch is in jail. Proper justice makes everything sweeter. But is there still enough salt in R. Kelly’s music when I think about the damage he caused all of those girls and their families? Damn right.

Michael’s music doesn’t gross me out as much. It’s too much a part of my DNA. It’s too much a part of the world’s DNA. The influence of 1980s Michael Jackson is a through line in almost every single pop song since and will likely continue to be. My son is almost a year old and Thriller gets him dancing every single time. (I haven’t played any R. Kelly for him yet, so I’m not sure how he’ll like that stuff.) And when he’s old enough, I’m sure I’ll have to have The Talk with him. I imagine it’ll go something like this:

“Harry, Michael Jackson’s music is incredible. Appreciate that. But know that Michael Jackson was a horrifying person. He hurt people while singing about healing the world. People are complicated. His music may inspire you, but please don’t let the man behind the music inspire you. Unless we’re talking about Quincy Jones. Because as far as we know, Quincy Jones is still a stand-up guy.

I loved Michael Jackson growing up. And I can’t forgive him for what he did. It’s not really my place to forgive him because he didn’t hurt me or my family, but I still feel slighted by his foul behavior. So keep on dancing, my son. Get up off the wall, shake your body down to the ground, moonwalk, if you can, but know that even the greatest artists, our heroes, can be hideous monsters.”

Like so many of us who are or were Michael Jackson fans, I’ve been pouring over my relationship with him and his music. I’m not ashamed that I wasn’t fully committed to thinking he was a pedophile rapist. I needed the facts laid out before me.

But I’ll tell you this: even at the height of my adoration for the King of Pop, I never thought Captain EO was anything but wretchedly uncomfortable. Worse than kissing Lisa Marie.

[cameiotmagazine-blog]

The Kim and Kim first volume review

First issues reviews were a bad idea and that first review was not good. There was a lot of things I wanted to say to the thing and kind of offer kind of a half-mumbled apology for only focusing on white dudes writing shit (with I ment), and I did. But for some and reading back on it it came off as embarrassingly sincere to me, and sincerity is the death of art. To appreciate anything, everything must be appreciated with a cold detachment. I wish in the future to become less of a human and more of a fugi who can appreciate stuff by just putting it on the skin.

So, let's talk about Kim & Kim. Now that I've read the first volume, which although I promised myself I'd stop spending so much money, was I think a worthwhile pick for me on this. Kim & Kim is about a bounty-hunting team comprising of ... and get this, 'cause this is a shocking connotation ... two bounty hunters both named Kim. In a future that almost would be 100% present day if there weren't stuff like spaceships and necromancy, and 12th-dimensional beings.

Kim & Kim's humor is definitely on the modern variety of humor. This is the type of thing that wouldn't exist without the reveres of internet, and specifically web comics. I can definitely tell this is a web comic, and definitely if it was posted on the web of the web comic, I wouldn't tell the difference.

That's not to be an insult. Some of the best comics right now out in the Ether are from the web indies. That's the new indie, hip, cool alternative place to really get it. What I'm saying is this is a thing that's godard - what a fancy cosmopolitan reference you're doing – godard was talking about this in Hiroshima Mi Amor, but now the influence is definitely out of the stuff ... and comic developers' been influenced by other media as much as by itself, but this is definitely something I can feel influenced by the outside.

You've got a little bit of Star Wars, you've got a little punk rock, and obviously Tank Girls is a big influence in this comic, but ... you know what I'm saying? And it's full of what I call x and y jokes, which, the world is full of oddities, and the characters are perfectly aware that the world is full of oddities. I mean, there's stuff that makes the 10-year-old in me really happy, like first the issue has cybernetic gorillas and all that fun stuff.

First arc in the thing, and then there's a second arc, but there's really only one arc, and I'll get to that. There's really only one arc in the whole thing. A 12th-dimensional octopus thing is stuck in our world, in our dimension, and is trying to get back, and the Kims help him out. They repeat this joke twice, and the first time I thought it was funny, and the second time I was irritated by it, but thinking back on it I know why they've done it.

So, that ends with the octopus dude who can morph into stuff, who they've been friends with, pointing a gun at the Kims, demanding that he take them to the 12th dimension, and then boom! Just as there's going to be a big action scene, you know what happens? They cut away and just them explaining that, and then they go out and eat with friends and stuff, and then it's like, "Okay, that's a pretty funny joke, right?" The audience demands action, they come in for the action like, "This is the climax of your whole arc" and then, "Eh, screw it, you don't want to do it." And I laughed at that. That's a funny joke. I love that stuff. I love subverting the audience's explanation.

Then the last issue of the first volume, they set up a new guy under the term Frank. Now, Frank is a big hush-hush mysterious person spammer, the scum of the universe type. And nobody knows where he is, and in the end, they find him, and it turns out Frank is a monkey-like man, and that's what the deal with was with all the robotic monkeys in the future that have been attacking them the whole time. It's like some revenge thing to a past thing. And then, bam! Big action scene. And they cut away. It ends with them having a cutaway to the bounty-hunting office, them explaining what happens. Frank apparently dies in the battle and the only thing they have is his foot.

Now at this point, they've been broke, the whole bounty-hunting thing ain't working out in the end. One of the Kims' parents has to pay for their rent, and she gets very sad about this. They hug each other in the end. So, now, this initially irritated me 'cause it's like, "Okay, you did this joke once. It's funny, but it's not super funny the second time." But I think about it further, and I'm thinking about this, and I finally glommed on and realized what this is. I mean, it's not subtle in some ways. You don't got to be. It's a funny joke, don't get me wrong. The brown-haired Kim, she was a necromancer, which was said to be a stable job, but she's complained that necromancy can kill a whole town. It happens in an earlier issue where she tries to do it. The way they talk about bounty-hunting is like they're talking about artistic people, like, "It's not a stable job, it's not a real job." which is whatever. I've heard that before in my whole life. I'm not bitter.

So here's the thing. That's compared to the relatively benign world of the artist to the stable corporate job that hurts people by doing their job. You know, the real job whatever. That's a pretty, I think, a fun parallel. Here's the reason why they're cutting away from this, and what I think is actually quite smart, is this is the classic young people's story. It's specifically a modern young people's story. Besides the spaceships, there's really nothing to differentiate from the time of what's going on right there, presumably far in the future, and now, even the spaceships look like not-spaceships, like there's the occasional alien, but really it's just people.

So, by cutting away, it's focusing less on the innate action of it and the struggles that the young people are going through, which is a relatively smart thing. The climax of the story is not the big action scene with the genetically-enhanced ape. It's the realization that brown-haired Kim, tragically, her dreams of making money as a bounty hunter really can't sustain, and she has to depend on her parents, and that's why she breaks down crying.

I mean, there's a discussion about she has rich parents that she can call to, and that's a kettle of fish I don't feel like getting into, but I think that's secretly brilliant. That's like the classic young people's story, and when I say the young people's story I don't mean the coming-of-age or teenagerism. Well, there's technically coming-of-age, but for teenagers, college-age people, the life has just begun. The new adult, I guess is the technical definition. So I think that's kind of a relatively brilliant story idea and concept, and I very much enjoyed that. It was funny. Some of the humor is not exactly my cup of tea, but I found a lot of the jokes funny. Did it gets criticisms Yeah, no work's perfect. Anybody who tells you that is a bad critic. I don't know if the cursing is all that necessary. I'm not like some prude who's like, "Ah! Cursing is the fucking worst." but I did feel that sometimes it was a crutch. Honestly, the story would be perfectly fine for 13-year-olds without that.

So, what the story is, and the first saga, is a drama about the trials and tribulations against the backdrop of an epic war in space, and where this is the trials and tribulations of the new adult, the young person, against the backdrops of a wacky, goofy comedy. I really dig that. I don't want to oversell this thing and say it's a masterpiece unquestioned but it's a fun read. You'll have a good time reading it. I would definitely recommend it for whatever you want to recommend it for. So, Kim & Kim, I give it a recommendation.

[fallen029]

Love and Lanterns

The sound of five little dolls singing ad nauseam their nonsensical songs paired well with the accompanying smell of carved pumpkins. Not to mention the humming of a very joyful takeover mage and the determined grunts of an intent seith. From the kitchen there was more singing, but that had less to do with them and more with the fact that a certain other takeover mage was baking and, well, Mirajane couldn't bake without singing.

Seriously. She just couldn't.

"The hell are you guys doing in my house?"

Then the Thunder God had to go and come home early, ruining everything.

"What does it look like?" Lisanna retorted to Laxus' annoyed question. "We're carving pumpkins."

"I got that, you brat," Laxus grumbled as he shut the front door behind him and walked further into the room. "But why are you doing it in my living room? And you're getting pumpkin guts everywhere!"

"Oy, boss," Bickslow complained as he still stared with deep meaning at his canvas (hallowed out pumpkin). "Your woman invited us over. Said that she wanted some pumpkins to sit out on the front porch and figured I'd be the best one to get it done for her."

"And why," the slayer complained, "would she think that?"

"Because, dragon," they heard then called from the kitchen. "He makes those cute little babies."

The seith glared over at the doorway to the hall though it was actually directed at Mirajane. "They're not cute. They're ferocious."

"Mmmm," Lisanna hummed as she hacked away at her own, far less skilled (if not downright pitiful) pumpkin. "You hear that, babies? You're ferocious."

"Ferocious," they all sang as they floated around. "Ferocious."

"I don't care what they are," Laxus said. "As long as they and the two of you get the hell outta here and take your damn pumpkins-"

"Dragon," Mirajane called from the other room. "Come here for a second."

"No, I-" He stopped himself. "Do I smell cookies?"

"You do. They're for the party tomorrow night."

Narrowing his eyes first at Bickslow then at Lisanna and finally at the five floating dolls, Laxus barked out, "You win for now, losers," before heading to the kitchen. His demon called, after all.

And so did her cookies.

With Laxus gone, the dolls went back to singing, Lisanna back to carving (destroying), and Bickslow back to his deep contemplation.

"Bicks?" his girlfriend asked after giving her jack-o-lantern a wickedly devious grin.

"Hmmm?"

"You okay over there?"

He was seated on the other side of the living room, visor off. Not glancing over at her, he said simply, "I'm thinking."

"Mirajane literally bought us ten, huge pumpkins," the woman pointed out. "You can screw up on this one and then try harder on the next. Besides, it's not that big of a deal."

Not to her. But to him it was. His pumpkin would be sitting on the front porch of, fine, Mirajane, but most importantly Laxus Dreyar. His idol. The man that he aspired to be. Put above all others. Even himself. Even Lissy.

Not his babies, but he figured that the man wouldn't ask for that much anyhow.

As it was though, he had to make each and every pumpkin perfect.

"What have you done?" he complained when he saw Lisanna's. "That's horrible."

"I know," she giggled as she stared admiringly at her piece of work (junk). "Isn't it great?"

"Heh?"

"Jack-o-lanterns are supposed to be horrible, right?" She grinned at him. "You know, scary?"

"That's not scary, Lissy," he grumbled. "That's just a waste of a perfectly good pumpkin."

"Hey!"

"Hey," his dolls mimicked the woman, coming to fly around her head then. "Hey, Papa!"

"Babies, there's no time," he grumbled. "Papa's thinking."

"Unless you're thinking up ways to apologize," Lisanna said with a frown, "then you're wasting your time."

Groaning, he finally glanced over. "Lissy, I'm just saying that you should leave it to me. Huh? I'm an artist, yeah? And you're just…amazing. In every way. Other than this. Go bother your sister and the boss. Or better yet, play with the babies. They like that."

"Play," the five dolls cheered. "Play, Lissy. Play."

Pushing up and leaving her pumpkin behind, Lisanna said, "Fine, Bickslow. Be a jerk. Come on, babies. Let's leave him to it then. Since it's so much more important than us."

"Thank you," he said with a nod, not picking up on her tone. And, with another nasty look, Lisanna stomped off for the front door, his babies following as she called out to Mirajane that she'd be back later.

They were going for a walk.

"Man, you're gonna get it," Bickslow heard from the hall as Laxus, now with a plate full of cookies and a piece of cake too, all iced with black and orange frosting, came into the room. "Seriously. You should teach a class on ways to make sure you're not getting any. Ever. At all. You'd be a master at it."

"Eh?" Bickslow sat to attention at the sound of his idol's voice, glancing over. "What are you talkin' about? And hey! Mirajane said that we weren't allowed to have any cookies or cake. That they were for-"

"I," Laxus growled, "am the king of my own castle."

"That's great. Now give me a cookie."

"That means, dummy," the man continued as he went to take a seat on the couch, "that if I want a damn cookie or a piece of cake, I'm going to get one."

Bickslow only stared at him, blinking slightly. "She gave them to you to keep you from kicking us out, didn't she?"

Shrugging, the man said, "My woman drives a hard bargain."

"Yeah, well, mine doesn't," the seith said as he went back to looking over his pumpkins. "So I don't know what you came in here talking about-"

"The fact that you let her walk out all mad or whatever," the slayer said as he spoke around the cookie he'd shoved in his mouth. "It was pretty dang obvious."

"What? Lissy? Mad? No. She doesn't get mad."

"As her brother-in-law-"

"You could just say brother. She does."

Uh, no. He couldn't. Laxus was an only child for a reason. Because he was pure awesomeness and none was to be spared on another one. So saying he had a sibling might confuse people on that fact. No need for that.

"-I know when she's ticked," he finished. "And Lisanna is ticked. If you weren't so caught up in this stupid pumpkin business-"

"It's not stupid. I'm an artiste!"

"-you'd have noticed." Shaking his head as he stabbed at the cake then with his fork, the man only sighed. "I mean sheesh, Bickslow. You two are usually all over one another. What's got you so caught up in these damn pumpkins?"

Uh, trying to win the man's favor so that he could shove it in Freed and Evergreen's faces. What the hell else could it be?

"Nothin', boss," he said. "I was just, you know, trying to do a good job for your woman. She did ask me to, after all."

"Yeah, well, keepin' the demon happy is my job," Laxus told him simply. "And I got it more than under control. As someone who's tamed a Strauss-"

"Do what now?"

"-it don't take a lot for them to get their spirits crushed." The man glanced over at Lisanna's pumpkin before shrugging. "I mean, that ain't a horrible jack-o-lantern. It's not great either. But definitely not insult worthy. Sure, it's not worthy of the mastery that is Laxus' Dreyar's front porch-"

"That's what I was saying!"

"-but it also ain't worth you and Lisanna fighting over." Laxus shrugged. "I mean, I've seen worth. A lot worse. You should have seen the pumpkins that Mirajane put out last year."

"I did," the seith said slowly. "We all did."

"And now you know why she asked someone else to do them this year."

"I do. We all do." Reaching up to scratch at his Mohawk, the man said, "You think that I really hurt Lissy's feelings?"

"Yeah, I don't really no. Or care anymore. Mira!" Laxus got to his feet again. "Can I have some more cake?"

"No, dragon. It's for the-"

"I'm the king of my own castle!"

"Stop yelling. And what does that even mean?"

As they quarreled, Bickslow only looked over his last nine pumpkins before sighing.

"Maybe Lissy is more important than impressing boss," he mumbled.

More like definitely.

When she finally got back to the house, all of his dolls riding either on her head, shoulders, or arms, it was dusk out and, to her surprise, Bickslow had finished all the pumpkins and they were sitting out on the front porch.

Hers was out there, the yellow flame from the candle inside of it making it look extra creepy.

Next to it was a much better done, standard one. It had a jagged grin and triangle eyes, and, fine, she would admit it, looked way better than hers.

But it was the other eight that caught her attention, of course. Bickslow was out there, on the porch, sitting onto the steps as he waited for her to come back. At the sight of her, he got to his feet, but she didn't even glance at him.

They were lined in a row, the pumpkins were, each shining in the dimming light of night, highlighting the carvings made in them. Each one was a single letter marked into it and, even though it was a little cheesy, it still made her grin.

I-L-O-V-E-Y-O-U

"You're such a dork," she complained to Bickslow as the babies rushed to go look at the pumpkins, oohing and awing. "You know that?"

"Only for you," he said, grinning brightly as she came to hug him. Laxus and Mirajane, who were on the porch as well (her idea; she thought Bickslow was being cute and romantic while Laxus mostly wanted to appease her until she gave him more cake), watched with extremely different points of view.

"Bleh," the slayer complained as Mirajane only giggled and clapped her hands. "Total waste. I said to make up with her, dingbat. Not waste perfectly good pumpkins."

"I'll buy more," Mira told him through a giggle. "And don't call him names."

"The hell you will," Laxus complained. "I'm the king of the castle! And I say to stop spending all our jewels on stupid things."

"I still don't know what that means, so-"

"Just stop spending our money!"

Lisanna and Bickslow were ignoring them as, really, at some point Mirajane and Laxus just got annoying, and focused more on one another.

"Your pumpkin ain't bad, kid," the seith was saying as the babies came back over to them, whining something about the candles. "It was just-"

"No," she sighed as she glanced over at it again. "Compared to yours, it was pretty bad."

Grinning, his tongue fell out of his mouth as he said, "Yeah, well, I am an artiste. Look at the babies stylish bodies, yeah? Perfection!"

"Perfection!" the dolls agreed as Lisanna only giggled. "Papa! Candles! Candles!"

"What's wrong, babies?" He frowned at them. "I'm havin' a moment with the kid here and-"

"What is it?" Lisanna reached up to take one of them, Pappa, out of the sky when he came close enough. "What's wrong?"

"Candle," the doll insisted. "Candle."

"Oy, you don't like 'em?" Bickslow glanced over at the glowing pumpkins. "I thought they were pretty nifty."

"Candles!" Suddenly, all five of the babies began to glow as if they were ready to attack. No beams came from them though. "Candles!"

"I think," Lisanna began as she went to get on the porch and head over to one of the jack-o-lanterns, "that I know what they want."

And so, after leaning down to blow out five of the candles, Lisanna and Bickslow let the babies, still glowing their green light, sit in the hollowed out pumpkins to illuminate them.

"Awe," Mirajane cooed at the sight. Laxus, bored, had taken to contemplating which neighborhood kid to pay to smash the pumpkins in the dead of night, as well as any others that his wife bought. "Dragon. How come you never do cute things like that?"

"Huh?"

"You've never carved me a pumpkin that showed how much you love me."

He only stared. "You do know how crazy you sound, right?"

"I want babies," she added enviously as Lisanna and Bickslow admired theirs lights, lavishly complimenting all five of them the entire time. "Dragon, give me babies!"

Growling finally, Laxus said, "Look, woman, we've discussed this. We will have one child when I decide I'm ready. And that won't be for another year. At least. I still have settling to do. A castle to build."

"Stop talking about castles!"

Out in the yard, where Bickslow and Lisanna had taken to standing, so that they could get better looks at their jack-o-lanterns, him with his arm over her shoulders, the two only grinned at one another and the sounds of his babies singing their illogical tunes.

"I think this is my favorite time of the year," the seith said as the sun only sunk lower, giving more credence to the ever glowing pumpkins. "Next to, well, my birthday. Because that's pretty great too."

"Me too," she agreed before frowning. "Except for the second one."

"Rude."

"That's not rude."

"It's pretty rude."

"Don't argue with me, Bickslow."

After just getting her back on his side? No freaking way.