#Jazz didn’t even know she was going to get elemental powers

[painted-fanbird]

Jasmine had an ice core.

That fact took Vlad by surprise, by way of an ice encased foot trying very very hard to to connect with and break his ribs. He barely managed to twist away in time, firing a blast of ectoplasmic energy at Jasmine as he turned.

An ice core? Really? It didn’t suit her. They were for the serene and the graceful, people with personalities comparable to freshly fallen snow or frozen lake vistas. The quiet, the cold, the easily crushed.

Jasmine was many things, but serene was not one of them. Not by a long shot. She was clever, determined, ambitious. She could be described as controlled, but only when she was human. As Phantom that control slipped to reveal a… truly spirited young woman. Her personality was far more suited to an electric core, or perhaps, fire. Like his own.

That would be the single disadvantage to said lovely fire core, Vlad mused distantly as he teleported away from Jasmine, reappearing just in time to hear the tail end of her frustrated scream. He matched up much too well against ice. He wished Jasmine could have been on more equal footing against him.

~~~

As Vlad stared down at Jasmine during their next scuffle a few days later, he was keenly aware of the fact that his… concerns about Jasmine’s core had perhaps been a bit presumptuous.

She was picking herself up out of the small crater Vlad’s fiery blast had left her in, frost collecting under her palms and feet as she hauled herself upright. Vlad opened his mouth to say something snappy, only to pause as the air grew cold. The frost had spread from Jasmine’s feet, coating the entire crater in a softly glowing blanket and creeping across the ground outside of it. The wind picked up, ice and snow solidifying in a swirl, with Jasmine at its center.

A blizzard.

It was in that moment Vlad realized an ice code suited Jasmine perfectly. It was no calm and gentle thing, Jasmine had an ice core like an avalanche. A tumbling, churning wall of ice on a warpath, a raging force of nature that would not, and could not, be stopped, especially not by something as insignificant as fire.

Vlad smiled as Jasmine shot towards him. This would work out well, actually.

[five-rivers]

Home

The building that housed Fentonworks had never been normal, no matter what neighbors and real estate agents might profess.

Things had happened there. Deaths. Wild twists of fate and shocking coincidences. People who lived there heard noises, saw things, felt things. Experienced sicknesses with no cause. Were cured of sicknesses without cause. Survived things that should have killed them.

It was a thin spot between worlds. Reality was a rippling membrane, frayed enough for things to shine through.

The construction of the neighborhood itself had been… strange. It happened much faster than it should have, as if there was a whole extra shift of workers on the project.

The townhouse that would one day become Fentonworks had stood out even in that mystery. Extra rooms, a basement deep enough to cause a nasty fight with regulators, features not approved by the architect.

It was a wonder they hadn’t hit any of the water lines or the sewage systems. A wonder- and an impossibility. So, the matter was ignored and dropped.

Then the next owners expanded that impossible basement, building another, secret basement and putting things in the walls- They were criminals, of course. It was expected for them to do illegal things. (Although exactly what they had done was… oddly uncertain.)

(Drugs, perhaps.)

Then, the lunatics. Then, the tiny cult that collapsed in on itself. Then the empty years, dozens of transient ghosts trying and failing to pass through, and the ghost hunters. So many ghost hunters, none of them particularly successful.

Then, the Fentons.

Then, little Jazz.

Then, little Danny.

Danny with wide eyes that saw too much.

And all the horrors that the Fentons could dream up, from living hotdogs to weapons that burned like stars and doors to places that should not be visited.

And this was Danny Fenton’s home.

.

The Manson estate was an odd case, even for Amity Park. Save for the basement, the entire building they lived in had been transplanted, brick and beam, from Germany.

Rich people were bizarre.

Even the Mansons couldn’t explain it. The man who had done it hadn’t been a Manson. The Mansons, who were relatively new money, all things considered, had purchased it from one of the man’s children. Anything to boost their prestige.

It was fancy, and it was old, a gothic and statuesque mansion worthy of its name. Still, it wasn’t quite fancy or old enough to merit the kind of expenditure moving it had to take.

Hence the rumors, squelched by the Mansons, that the place was haunted.

It wasn’t.

The rumors, however, were enough to get one Samantha Manson interested in the occult. Especially given how hard she saw her parents working to hide the rumors from her.

No. The mansion wasn’t haunted. For all it’s oddities and quirks – which only multiplied as the Mansons added more and more features to it – the building itself was mundane.

(The land it was built on might have been another story.)

And this was Sam Manson’s home.

.

The Foleys didn’t want to know what Tucker got up to in the attic, but liked to think that, with that one exception, their home was a nice one. It was on a nice street, in a nice neighborhood, just far enough away from Fentonworks to keep both sightings of the Ghost Assault Vehicle and resultant property damage and property taxes to a minimum. Within walking distance of the high school, a supermarket, and a park.

They kept the fridge and pantry stocked. Their food might not have always been healthy – red meat was an element of almost every meal – but it was always available and filling. They made an effort for the dietary restrictions of Tucker’s friends of course.

All the rooms were kept clean and neat. Even Tucker’s, by way of bribes. Everything was organized, everything had its place. Except, perhaps, for the stray shoe or piece of schoolwork.

But that attic.

It really hadn’t been anything, before Tucker asked if he could move his computer stuff up there. Just a storage space, one too difficult for either Angela or Maurice to climb up there often. They didn’t consider themselves old, but they couldn’t call themselves young either. Not with a son Tucker’s age.

Once Tucker had realized the attic was there, he had been fascinated. And, well, once he was old enough for them to not worry about him falling off the ladder, they let him go up.

Some days, it seemed, he didn’t come down.

Better than his faintly disturbing Ancient Egypt phase, where he kept bringing pictures of mummified corpses to the table. Or, worse, the werewolf phase.

And this was Tucker Foley’s home.

.

Amity Park had claimed the distinction of ‘most haunted town in America’ long before the Fentons opened their portal. In fact, that was the reason the Fentons had set up shop there, in the first place.

No haunted town was complete without at least one haunted house. Amity Park had several. Not to mention a haunted hospital, a selection of haunted schools, a haunted museum, a haunted pool, a haunted crosswalk, a haunted mall, a haunted football field… The list went on, essentially ad nauseum.

Of course, that list mostly consisted of places that became haunted after the Fentons built their portal. But even before then, some places offered their dubious charms to tourists.

Mostly gullible ones. More than half of the claims of hauntings before the portal opened were fraudulent in their entirety. These places quickly went broke and got abandoned when real ghosts started showing up.

One of these was the ominously named Raven House, which stood in the hills on the west edge of town.

The story the tourists of years gone by had been told was that a widower had lived out here, all by himself and that one day, he stopped coming to town, or paying his bills, or even getting his mail. When the mailbox at the end of the long driveway was full, the mailman decided to go check on the widower. What he found was a flock of ravens and a skeleton, entirely picked clean of flesh.

No such death had occurred there, nor in any part of Amity. No such person had ever lived in the house, either. The last owners, before the company that decided to market the house as haunted, were a couple with two children.

It wasn’t until months after the portal started up that it became haunted in truth.

.

“This place isn’t haunted,” said Danny, panning his flashlight over cobwebbed corners on the ceiling. “I don’t think it ever was.”

“That’s what, strike five?” asked Sam.

Danny shrugged. “Yeah, I think so.”

“Four, actually,” said Tucker. “We counted the hospital as inconclusive, since we don’t know if anyone was there before Spectra.”

Danny nodded. “It’s weird, though, isn’t it? That no one lives here, I mean. It looks like a perfectly nice house.”

“Décor’s a bit… eh. Trying to hard to be haunted,” said Tucker, poking a raven decal on the wallpaper.

“I like it,” said Sam. “Needs cleaning, though.”

“Hey,” said Tucker, “you’re not thinking what I think you’re thinking, are you? Because I’m pretty sure that’d be illegal.”

“It isn’t as if anyone else is using the place,” argued Sam. “It could be a great backup hideout, if we ever had to… you know.” She glanced at Danny. “Plus, we’d be doing them a favor, really, keeping things clean and lived in.”

“I think it’s an okay idea,” said Danny.

“Yeah, but you think lots of dumb things are good ideas. Like showing up at a party hosted by people who publicly humiliate you on a regular basis.”

Danny grumbled something about trauma responses that sounded like a direct quote from Jazz and something else about that incident being ages (aka weeks) ago. Then, he brightened.

“We could get one of the little ectoplasm generators to power everything,” he said. “Remember all that stuff we lifted from Skulker and Technus? We could actually use it. Study and test things without worrying about whether our parents will walk in. I mean, your attic is great, but still.”

“Plus, we can have actual lab safety protocols. No offense, Danny.”

“I am the one that half-died in a lab accident, so… None taken.”

Tucker rubbed his chin. “Alright. I suppose I can see the appeal… But if we have stuff that can trace back to us, we could get in serious trouble."

“We’ll be careful, then,” said Sam.

“Anything I take from Mom and Dad has plausible deniability. They’ll assume ghosts stole it.”

“We also need to clean if we’re being serious about this. And get a fridge. And figure out the pluming situation.”

“Fridge is on the list. We have to be careful about the outside, too. If this place is suddenly well maintained, people will notice.”

“Sure, but that isn’t something they’d call the cops over,” said Danny. “They’ll just assume new people are moving in. If anyone sees it at all. We’re pretty far away from anything. But pluming won’t be too hard. We just need to bring our own water. Like, toilets flush using physics. If you dump more water in, they’ll go, no electricity required.”

“How do you know that?”

“I can’t even tell you how many time Mom and Dad blew out all our breakers with stuff in the lab,” said Danny. “You pick up a few things.”

“Well,” said Tucker, swinging his flashlight over to examine a discolored spot on the ceiling. “Then… Home sweet home, I suppose.”

.

There was a house in the hills in the west hills of Amity Park.

And this was the home of two and a half humans and half a ghost.

[fa-by]

Hi, Faby I'm finally free of homework. I loved your theory on all these years. I laughed at the memes. many CS say we have a version of Camila with all these years, but we don't have a similar version of Lauren but at the time that Camila and Lauren weren't together (after Camila left the group) Lauren kept thinking about Camila because she kept writing songs based on her relationship with Camila like all night. Can you make a song analysis of all night?

Hello to you, dear @camilalauren0327 👋🏼😄 I'm glad you're free from your homework 💪🏼 I'm also glad that you loved my interpretation and that you laughed at the GIFs.

So. About All Night, I can tell you it's track n° 11 of Steve Aoki's Neon Future IIIalbum. Both Laur and Steve loved the time spent together in the studio, and Steve totally loved working with her: “She’s got so many ideas and the problem is, they’re all good. She’s very meticulous. The attention to detail Lauren has is something I don’t find in many people. She’s very attentive to the detail. She’s got those ears, she’s got the sensibility and the vision, and I’m just totally inspired to be in the studio with her”.

As for the lyrics, were already there, but Laur rewrote them and wrote the bridge from scratch. Vocally speaking, she did all the backgrounds and vocally self-produced. So the vocal production? It's hers. It was her. Yeah. She's thattalented, and people still sleep on her. But anyway. Let's move on to my interpretation now, shall we?

Verse 1:

“My heart beats a little faster

When our eyes meet, in the middle of a crowded room”

Typical reaction of when we meet someone we like. You know? Heart beating fast as Laur says, along with butterflies in the stomach, cheeks blushing, palms sweating, adrenaline, dry mouth, palpitations, hot flashes, etc., etc.

“In knee deep, testing waters”

What does ‘in knee deep’ make us understand? That it wasn't an ordinary person that she just liked, but that it was a person that she really liked very much. *cough Mila*

“I've got a feeling, and I don't know what to do”

Why? Because she knew it was different and contrary to the past, she didn't know how to act.

Chorus:

“You got me paralyzed, and I think I like it”

As I think you know, ‘paralyzed’ in this case is intended as being blocked by a strong emotion (such as amazement). Mila got her paralyzed. Their situation and feelings were so strong, so deep/in knee-deep, that Laur was petrified by it. But despite this, as I said before, this was different. Unlike anything she'd ever felt before. And she liked it.

“Caught me by surprise, I'm not usually like this, no”

It caught her by surprise because she didn't expect it. And we know why she wasn't usually like that. Because she'd been in denial all her life. Because she'd always fought against these feelings.

“Got me paralyzed, don't think I can help it”

She couldn't. Even if she tried, she couldn't. She couldn't help herself.

“Why's it feel so right?”

Why did what she was taught to be wrong made her feel so good/right? Because it was. It was in general, but it was even more so with her. With Mila.

Post-Chorus:

“Let's keep this going all night

Going all night

Going all night

Going all night”

Freedom. Without thinking of tomorrow. Tomorrow's tomorrow.

Verse 2:

“The crowd fades, tunnel vision

In a daze, and the only thing I feel is you”

Because she was the only important thing. The only thing that mattered. All the rest? They were just surroundings.

“In perfect, syncopation”

Syncopation can be a rhythm, a passage, or a dance step. Syncopation in music occurs when a rhythm is unexpected and is played off-beat. It's like, an oscillation in a soft and not stiff way. It's an imbalance and prolongation of a note in the middle that creates an effect of, precisely, oscillation. Flamenco is the simplest first example that comes to mind for both musical rhythm and danced rhythm, but syncopation is used in many music styles. From the classical music of Mozart and Beethoven, to the ragtime ancestor of jazz, jazz itself, rock, metal, reggae, hip-hop, pop, house, salsa, etc.

To give you a practical example to help you understand better, count 5, 6, 7, 8 out loud three times in a row. From the fourth time, keep counting out loud and, at the same time, use the palm of your hand or the clenched fist on a surface to hear the rhythm yourself and understand how stable it is. Do this three times or even more until it’s natural for you to keep up the pace without having to keep counting 5, 6, 7, 8 out loud. Once you've done that, keep counting mentally and hit/tap 5 a little bit harder with a little pause, and then just 7, 8. It would be like: 5, no hit/tap, 7, 8.

FIIIVE, seven, eight - FIIIVE, seven, eight - FIIIVE, seven, eight.

You can slow down or speed up as you like, and this, dear @camilalauren0327 and babies, is an example of syncopation. If you guys want, to listen and understand better, I also found this for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-H6oXpF-tw.

But anyway. What's my point? Why explain all this to you? Because for many composers and producers, syncopation is a vital element because it helps them tie the rhythm and the melody of a song together. The use of syncopation in music in general, but more precisely in a song, makes the track different and even unique at times.

And now that you know this, Lauren did or didn't use a beautiful metaphor with a simple one-word to describe her and Mila? *she was so phenomenal and romantic 😍*

“Face to face, tell me do you feel it too?”

Sounds weird that Laur was wondering, right? Well, it actually isn't because this song is about the moment in the timeline they were in the Like Friends Dosituation. Laur was still in denial and therefore they didn't speak. She didn't know if Mila still wanted her or not, and most likely, it was just before Mila started her relationship with the mystery girl because it coincides with Lauren finally accepting herself and her feelings for her.

Chorus:

“You got me paralyzed, and I think I like it

Caught me by surprise, I'm not usually like this, no

Got me paralyzed, don't think I can fight this

Why's it feel so right?”

The difference between the first chorus and this, is the ‘don't think I can fight this’ here. As I said before and as we know, Laur had been in denial all her life and she’d always fought against these feelings, but this time it was different. Thiswas different because Camila was different. Hell, Lauren herself was different. The environment she was in was different. Different especially from home and from what she was used to there. Her feelings were different. More powerful. Nothing like the crushes she'd had on other girls in the past, and she knew, because she knew, that she was going to lose this fight. Here, or rather at the time at that moment, she was simply admitting it to herself.

Bridge:

“But maybe I should wait

Let it fall into place

'Cause I keep going over

The things that could come from me feeling this way (Way)”

She was having second thoughts here. Her fear took over. Fear is the most powerful tool in the world. It makes you do unimaginable things and it makes you not do what you really want.

“And I don't wanna play (I don't wanna play)

This emotional game (This emotional game)

But when you pull me closer

I cannot deny that I want you to stay”

BUT, she finally gave in. She overcame her fear by finally admitting to herself that she wanted her, and not just physically. The ‘stay’ is tricky because if it's read just like that, it only means a physical action, but for Camren? It means so much more. An example that comes to mind now is the ‘It's almost 2AM and I can't ask you to stay’ that we find in Feel It Twice. For them, the ‘stay’ is not just a physical action. It's deeper. It means staying with each other. It means staying/being together.

After the bridge, we have the post-bridge and then the chorus again (in which that raspy, mature high-note occurs on the “I cannot deny this love”, which honestly leaves me dead every time) which I've already explained, so that's it, dear @camilalauren0327. All Night is a song about Laur's acceptance of her feelings for Mila.

I hope you liked it, and, I don't know where you live, but I hope you're having a wonderful summer or a beginning of winter. Sending you a hug 🤗

For you guys, on the other hand, I hope you too are having a wonderful summer or a beginning of winter wherever you live 😊 I'll try to keep answering your asks whenever possible until I get home in September (damn places with no connection and only one wi-fi).

Always remember to be kind, to others and to yourselves. Be a good example. Be patient. Be safe and take care of yourselves. Don't let our ship sink. Keep shipping them, but please respectfully 🙏🏼 Sending you virtual love and hugs 🤗🤗🤗 I love you, babies. Always with love, F ❤️

[constellaj]

just ran into your art today and. would you like to elaborate on your gay lucky in love rewrite 👀

boy would i

as always shoutouts to @crystalfloe for pitching + workshopping w me on this, ESPECIALLY on this one since it was mostly her idea!

we open up with a shot of shadow circling through amity park, looking in the windows of various citizens. danny is face-down, fast asleep; valerie is repairing some gear; tucker is being a gamer; sam is watching a horror movie; paulina is also watching a horror movie. shadow passes by all these houses and gets more and more annoyed, until he peeks the window of a large, elaborate house:

dash has drawn the curtains, turned the lights off, turned a fan up. this is his deep dark secret. he’s sitting on his bed, face lit by the dim rose glow of his laptop. the volume is turned down so low but the viewer still sees and hears him whisper along to the movie: “but we could never be together, jessica...” “but... I love you...” he’s watching a HORRIBLY cheesy hallmark romcom.

but of course nobody can KNOW he’s into chickflicks and romcoms! he’s a tough football man and it would trash his rep if anyone knew he secretly craved those deep but silly romantic stories... the tenderness, the love...

shadow has specifically been looking for a romantic.

shadow slips in and ‘possesses’ dash. possesses in quotes, because, well, even though dash is dumb and therefore easy to possess, shadow is ultimately a glorified dog, and not a fully sentient ghost; he doesn’t have any total agency in dash, and the most he can do is mess around with his emotional and hormonal balance. shadow is DISMAYED, upon entering, that dash’s deep romanticism is so repressed, and so immediately gets to work digging it out of the recesses of his brain, putting it in the forefront.

(see, what danny and the audience will learn later is, shadow is a ghost that subsists off of love. romantic love especially. he first found a ‘host’ in johnny (before he died!) because johnny and kitty were madly, ridiculously in love, and johnny especially admired kitty beyond words. they still do love each other, of course! but like all healthy relationships, they’ve learned to take breaks, and they have a ‘break week’ once every few months.)

(this, naturally, drives shadow up a WALL; after a certain level, displays of romance become like dog treats, and shadow has been downright spoiled by the overabundance of love between the two. when they take a BREAK WEEK and aren’t constantly showering each other (and therefore him!) with affection, he needs to go find another host, because clearly they do not love him and have forsaken him. they kick miette.)

since shadow’s prime host for so long has been johnny, his understanding of a few... norms... are bleeding over. dash shows up to school with a leather jacket and a motorcycle (his family’s rich, of course he’s had one). his hair is slicked back and the cologne is overpowering. while danny and others think it’s just another asshole stage of dash, kwan (as well as the popular kids, but kwan especially) notices something’s wrong. it’s not quite... dash. 

yeah, he’s happy-- well, he’s also strangely flirty with everyone (shadow is testing the waters, trying to find out who is the best match). and kwan LOVES that he’s happy. but he’s a little too daydreamy, he laughs a little too long. he is having horrible luck all day, but he just keeps taking it in stride. dash is concerned with appearances, but this is the first time he’s put in effort like it was for other people to see. he’s a little too suave. his eyes reflect just a little too much light.

and then-- luck of luck-- shadow finds the big name repressed crush.

fenton! of course!

danny did NOT want to deal with dash towering over him and slamming him into the wall, but he didn’t KNOW how to deal with dash leaning over him and telling him he looked cute. danny’s flustered! of course he is! well, yeah, dash is an asshole, he knows that, yeah he’s a stuck up rich kid, YES SAM, he knows this (sam is not fooled by a little hair gel and some high heeled leather boots), but you can’t deny he’s, well, built. and he’s weirdly suave? and nice. he’s actually being really nice. what no of course DANNY hasn’t had a crush on DASH this whole time or anything. shut up.

the fact that dash asks him to meet him in the woods at lunch (because sam, jazz, and even tucker are increasingly concerned with dash just making moves on danny, afraid it’s some new form of abuse; and lancer keeps perceiving it as bullying since that’s their dynamic and breaking it up) and he GOES is just. well. that’s unrelated isn’t it.

they kiss and danny is starting to maybe think dash just had a homophobic middle school experience like everyone else when- his GHOST SENSE GOES OFF. RIGHT HERE? RIGHT NOW??? (gee what could be causing it?) dash cracks a joke about him using too many breath mints and danny panics, bullshits an excuse, and runs off to transform and find the ghost.

dash thinks he’s been rejected and almost shakes out shadow’s possession from the sheer dismay, but shadow doubles down. no, no, we can find another crush. somewhere.

...oh hey! the ghost boy!

time to double down on the ghost aesthetics.

danny’s just finished fighting kitty (”where’s your boyfriend” “that’s none of your BUSINESS!”) when there’s a motorcycle rev underneath him. there’s... dash, again, but.... something feels very, very wrong.

danny lands, cautious. “hey phantom... you into biker dudes?” “don’t you have... a boyfriend...” “heee sorta dumped me in the woods”. and then danny gets close enough for his ghost sense to go off. and it clicks.

“dash, you’re possessed”

this is the ONE THING that shadow can’t have. this could be the perfect romance, and THIS GHOSTCHILD thinks he knows more about ROMANCE than SHADOW??? PSH. cue fight scene! dash of course is grappling with both not wanting to hurt phantom, but wanting this ghost out of his system, because of COURSE he’s possessed geez why else would he want to kiss FENTON of all people-- but shadow REFUSES to leave, slowly building more and more monstrous elements onto dash, darker eyes and claws, erasing his legs until it’s not dash as much as it is a large shadow monstrosity with dash at the center.

danny eventually realizes he needs a new strategy and runs for it. after a decent amount of bickering with sam/tuck, they realize that the only ones who would know how to tame shadow are.... kitty and johnny.

turns out, when shadow went missing, kitty NOTICED. (johnny didn’t! he was having a fun alone time working on his bike with loud music.) this is bad. why? well, johnny is NOT a very powerful ghost. in fact, he’s sort of the opposite. he and shadow have a symbiotic relationship of sorts; it’s shadow’s residence in him that gives him any powers at all, like the basic healing factor a ghost has, or phasing, or flying. without shadow he’s essentially a zombie, who can still be hurt in the ghost zone. NATURALLY, kitty decided to run off and retrieve shadow (because this isn’t the first time he’s run away on break week, always throwing a tantrum) before anything horrible could happen to Johnny; this is what she was doing in Amity in the first place

this is the part of the story where i reveal that the ending isnt fully fleshed out yet. in the rough conversation right it ended up with kitty and johnny trying to FORCE shadow back into johnny, and they’re getting annoyed by it, and kitty goes “well this wouldn’t be a problem if YOU weren’t so LOVING AND SENSITIVE” and johnny goes “well i wouldn’t LOVE YOU so much if you weren’t BRILLIANT and BEAUTIFUL” and they have a whole argument like that. its very funny. and shadow ends up still running away and possessing dash again.

ah, in typing this out, i have figured out an ending!

the above fight and run away happens, and there’s two endings: one where shadow possesses dash, and one where shadow possesses danny. in both, of course, the other party realizes the only way to get shadow out is through making shadow feel safe enough to leave, aka... flooding the room with romance. if dash is possessed, danny and co. realize that danny’s the prime candidate to... be the suave lil boy. if DANNY is possessed, sam and tucker begrudgingly explain that, uh, yeah, phantom might have a crush on you, he’s just really controlling of his emotions. (also kwan! kwan definitely plays a part if dash is possessed, maybe even in saying “uh... he has a bigger crush on Fenton. can you guys get him instead?” and danny. explodes)

blahlbahblah luring shadow out by being gay happens and shadow gets scooped back up by the 13s. as much as the previous argument is funny it might also be very funny if johnny literally noticed none of this, and kitty shows up like ‘you lost this’ and johnny is like. ‘...shadow? when did you leave’. anywho.

that’s the concept! the MAIN difference is that johnny and kitty actually have a very healthy and sweet relationship, and the conflict, ironically, comes from the fact that they love each other TOO much. i do love ‘dash finds out’ reveals but as far as an episodic romp goes, this might not be the best ep for him to discover the secret in. however in a oneshot or something of course you could slot that in there excellently i believe.

[bitch-i-migth-be]

Chapter 10: Disturbance In The Sibling Force

Fandoms: Danny Phantom, Batman,

Summary: He swore his sister was trying to make him go into cardiac arrest - considering his halfa status that was quite the accomplishment-

But there was no other explanation to his sister’s stubbornness, and if he knew her at all there was just no talking her down from interning at goddam Arkham.

A/N: Jazz Vibing with herself. That's it.

If you can call grocery shopping vibing.

THIS IS ON AO3, IF ANYONE WOULD PREFER TO READ THERE. LOVE COMmENTs  so if u have anything to say IwillBeReallyHappyYesThankU

CHAPTERS: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8, 9, 10, 11, 12,

Jazz kept shooting a curious glance towards the corner of the store with the iced coffee machine and its weird noises and she couldn't help but think about the fact that her brother could diss out a better frappe than any machine — or person — without even trying nowadays.

If you chucked the other ingredients at him and asked — begged — nicely enough, that is.

There was only one little problem.

she snorted and kept going down the aisle to hunt down the rest of the grocery list, completely and deliberately ignoring the weird glances she had gotten for her impromptu staring match with the machine.

If she didn’t make eye contact then it didn't matter anyway.

It was kind of amusing. Back in Amity Park people getting into staring matches with appliances didn't make anyone bat an eyelash. Even less if it was her or Danny.

The other teen kept insisting he wasn't an ice dispenser but he still wouldn’t stop making random things with ice. There was just no winning with him.

The thing about ghost ice is that it gives the circle of water the middle finger as hard as it can. The thing never melts. Never.

— Can you even imagine what would happen if a human ate it? —

Jazz had experimented on some shards to the point of taking a blowtorch to them and the ice would continue completely immaculate afterward.

It was infuriating, but also amazing.

Some of her questions about why exactly her brother's core was the ice element had been partly answered after witnessing that. Danny had always been stubborn to a fault and this just seemed to reflect his inner choice of being contrary no matter what.

Not even if the things telling him 'no' were the laws of nature itself.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket. She ignored it. Way too lost in her line of thought to register it fully.

Maybe elemental ghost cores were co-related to a being’s personality traits and not to the way they died?

If that was true, Vlad's fire core would explain why the man seemed to crash and burn when he tried to achieve the things that were most important to him. To bring out the best qualities of fire it needed to be taken care of properly, after all, and while in most things Vlad tended to be extremely meticulous when it came to his ‘weak spots’ he seemed to throw all precaution out the window in favor of going all out for the metaphorical — and sometimes literal — kill.

Hm.

That was a thought.

Fire and Ice, so different and still so full of spite in their own way, she thought drily.

She would have to talk with the GhostWriter when the chance arose.

Her phone buzzed way too many times in a row to be comfortable and succeeded in startling her out of her musings.

Aghoostboi: ‘I feel a disturbance in the force’

Aghoostboi:‘I seek answers’

Aghoostboi:‘???’

Aghoostboi:‘Jazz’

Aghoostboi:‘Jazmine Coraline Fenton’

Both her eyebrows rose up and she wondered how did he always know? As far as she knew there weren’t any psychic powers in his repertoire.

...right?

Gingernaps:‘Everything is fine.’

AGhoostboi: ‘That was too quick what happened’

Who even understands him anymore? He wants quick answers but then he doesn’t think it’s normal, what?

Gingernaps: ‘What do you want, Jackson?’

Aghoostboi: ‘Adkfjsafkasdla. No.’

Gingernaps: ‘Then don’t Coraline me.’

Aghoostboi: ‘ :( ’

Aghoostboi: ‘ survival proof pls ’

She would love to say that she didn’t give in to his overprotectiveness.

That she did not end up sending him a selfie posing beside the iced coffee machine throwing a peace sign that had felt like a good idea at the time. — She could have felt tempted to throw an arm around the thing and label it as her new brother, but she figured it would be a little tacky and Danny would overreact if he gave him reasons™, as he always did. So better not. Plus, it wouldn’t help with the staring Gothamites either. —

But, well-

The totally not so hypothetical peace sign would have to do.

At least until she got back to the dorm where a little brother nearly frothing at the mouth and a little color hoping — and how did that even happen? what? — puppy awaited.

------------------

NOTES

Jazz would have included her parents in the weird staring matches that don’t bat an eyelash category, but let’s be honest if you see the Fenton parents getting intense with anything its motive of panic and fleeing urges. Nobody will be safe in the aftermath if they stay- -.-.-.-

Nobody.

-.-.-.-

I mean u Vlad.

-.-.-.-

lmao, ok, i will stop-

-.-.-.-

Some of you thought this was when Jason would come crashing into this fic, and while I can see it, I find it way too goddamned convenient whenever the characters just get thrown at each other without at least some thought put into it, and I? I can't? It kills my mood, pals. I just can’t.

-.-.-.-

Or without puppers involved in the meeting. God. So many puppers.

-.-.-.-

You will see what I mean.

-.-.-.-

In, like, 2022 if the ancients don’t bless us., Let us cry.

-.-.-.-

You wouldn’t think making frappes (among other things) would help to control ice powers better but it does, you need to create very specific shapes, patterns, temperatures, and forms of application to not mess up or contaminate everything with ecto-energy and end up in the middle of a sentient food war.

Again.

Though Danny would admit that, while mildly traumatizing, some of those were the stuff of legends.

-.-.-.-

The *Jackson* thing is kind of an ongoing joke because this was nearly Danny’s second name instead of James. This one actually bothers him more, considering the literalness of it.

Also, by using this second almost name, which is something very few people know she is sort of reassuring him at the same time that ‘Yes, it is her responding to his messages. Who else would KNOW to tease you with this name that is not even your name, u KNOW? It’s in the subtle things ;)

-.-.-.-

Also,

They are using the messaging app that connects to the Fenton Phones ‘cause Danny lose-in-battle-or-something his actual to god phone. again.

-.-.-.-

Did I tell you guys my cat died? I miss him. There is no more purr purr for me *cries*

-.-.-.- I just wanted to write something with Jazz because she is a queen and deserves my full unconditional love <3

Next chapter we will have Danny melting some brains :)

Babs will love them both, u just know it.

I am really grateful for your patience guys, I don’t have as much time to put into this as before and I think it shows. But I want to keep going, even if it’s little tidbits at a time. So I hope you like this little offering.

I will get us there even if it’s a page at a time goddamnit. <3

-.-.-.- gingers for the win -.-.-.- goddamnit weston -.-.-.-

Sending you all my love from Mexico, my pals. Hope you are doing amazing wherever in the world u are at <3

My goal while writing this is to make people feel as giddy as I feel when I write my fics. If I can achieve even a little bit I will feel accomplished.

-.-.-.-

CHAPTERS: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8, 9, 10, 11, 12,

[incorrectlumityquotes]

FULL REVIEWS: “Adventures in the Elements”

So you guys already know the whole story of how the episode aired in another country and all that jazz and I’ll be honest I’m totally one of those people who decided to watch it anyway.

It was an Amity episode! The temptation was too great. 

I’m going to do a fave five episode list after I’m done with these reviews so I don’t want to spoil it but this episode is probably going to be number one or two. I almost didn’t have to watch the episode to review. That’s how often I’ve watched this one. 

I’ve already said how much I love the cold openings for this show. Not only do they set up the start of the plot, but they also have some of the best jokes in the episode. 

“Hey, freeloaders!” If I ever have kids, that’s how I’ll greet them whenever I enter a room.

Luz is excited to start Hexside but Eda is more excited about her latest batch of human garbage. She dreaming of all the cool things she’ll get to do until she remembers that she has to meet Amity to get her Azura book back. Nice of Luz to lend her the book for four or five episodes. Big brain no count right now.

Luz meets up with Amity and we get the best kind of prize: a surprise. The twins are back! According to Amity, they’ve been trying to make up for what happened in Lost in Language. It’s good to know that the twins know the difference between humiliating your sister and almost getting her killed. Hooray for values I guess.

Another reason I really like this scene is because we get to see Amity really try her best to be friendly to Luz. She’s been antagonistic in every previous episode, so this is the first time we see her try to be friendly to Luz. We get to see Friendly Amity and Friendly Amity is more...protective than I expected her to be.

“Edric, Emira! Stop bothering her.”

Her raised brow and tone of voice also tells me that she was NOT expecting Luz to enroll in Hexside for the next semester. She’s really putting effort to be nice and helpful to Luz. I don’t think I’m wording it right, but I hope you get what I mean. Since Luz made the first move to making their relationship better Amity feels like she would do the same. Sorry, baby girl but that’s a slippery slope that you’re about to slide off in a few episodes. ;)

Amity the one who has to tell Luz that classes at her level require a placement exam and mastery of two spells and Luz remembers that we haven’t done a lot of magic learning in a show about learning magic.

Luz confronts Eda about it, but Eda doesn’t really care until Luz takes advantage of her pride. Eda decides it’s time for magic boot camp and that idea sets off King’s B-plot. Eda takes Luz to The Knee!

So powerful, it defeated John Cena. See if you were a wrestling fan you would have found that hilarious.

According to Eda, early witches came to the knee to develop their magic due to its strong natural magical energy. It’s times like this that remind you that everyone is living on a giant corpse. For kids!

But they’re not alone. The Slitherbeast also lives in the knee, but it won’t mess with you until the third act. And there’s also...

“I’m trying to beat Ed and Em’s highest score on the exam.”

We get more insight into Amity and the Twins. Even though we saw that in Lost in Language the twins were troublemakers who cut class, Amity still has to train to match their score. So Amity has to really work hard to get to the top while the twins (who before this had always given Amity a hard time) are naturally very talented. This actually explains so much about Amity’s freak-out back in Covention. I’m guessing that Amity doesn’t think that’s fair but it’s the hand she’s stuck with.

Luz continues to use the laziest plot device in all of fiction and lies about knowing powerful spells. Luz sees Amity training with a cool wand and Eda does this:

Even the twins have concerns.

Eda’s training does remind me of some philosophy I’ve been studying. What I took from the scene is that Eda does believe that magic should be wild and natural. It’s why she tells Luz to study rocks and eat snow (stay AWAY from the yellow snow). She’s trying to tell Luz that magic comes from the island. It comes from nature. Like The Force from STAR WARS. It flows freely from nature; that’s why she calls it wild magic.

Eda definitely prefers it over using Amity’s “wack training wand.” She probably sees things like that and The Emperor’s coven system as ridged, manufactured and other words that mean fake. Even the wand looks like it’s battery powered. 

Luz, however, is still an impatient kid. She wants to listen to Eda, but her lessons seem odd and Amity’s training looks more like what she was expecting. So Luz pulls another lazy plot device that I’m surprised they don’t more in a show with Eda in it: stealing.

Meanwhile in the B-plot, King wants to do his own boot camp but has no one to do it with. Except Hooty but he says nuts to that noise. King uses Eda’s potion to bring the toys to life. Unfortunately for him, King gets more Chucky than Toy Story.

Luz steals Amity’s book and training wand and can do magic! Eda catches her and they get into a little argument before Luz launches a fireball and hits the only other creature that has been introduced on The Knee. What are the odds?

The Slitherbeast gets so pissed he grabs Eda and the twins. Amity decides to try to go help them and traps Luz in a barrier. 

“You’ll only get hurt.”

Amity is angry with Luz for taking her stuff and putting her siblings in danger, but she’s still putting the effort to be nicer to Luz. Even so this is were we first see the seeds of her crush. It’s not a full blown crush yet but there is a change in her behavior. It’s starting but it’s so small even Amity hasn’t noticed yet.

The B-plot has some of my favorite Hooty moments that really made me laugh out loud.

Back to the main plot (that I don’t have shots of. Come on, Owl House wikia) Luz is stuck in the barrier Amity put up an notices that the stars make the shape of the light glyph. Luz figures out that magic in The Boiling Isles comes from nature because here magic is nature. Since magic can not come from her, it has to come from the island. Even the snowflakes are all tiny individual ice glyphs. 

Luz uses her newfound knowledge with Amity to free Eda and the twins and put the Slitherbeast to sleep. 

And the episode ending is just...just great. 

“I’ll be haunted by my actions forever. Hoot.”

FINAL SCORE: 5 - Loved it.

This is my favorite episode so far. I really want to finish watching all the other episodes before I decide if this is my favorite ever but it’s up there. Like top three. We get worldbuilding, character building, jokes, lore, Amity, Hooty, Twins. It’s fun and meaningful. The revelation that magic comes from the island is something that I know is going to mean a lot to the main plot later but we’ll have to wait and see.

The B-plot here is one of my favorites because I just love Hooty and his weirdness. Every choice they make with him is hilarious. And after this we really get into the lumity zone. Stick around.

[dani-halfa]

Danny Phantom: Arcs and build up

Okay, let's talk about character arcs, continuity and built up.

Usually when writing a story in a series, there are some episodes dedicated to exploring certain story elements that later become important for the plot. This isusually called "foreshadowing" or "built up".

Foreshadowing is when the writer gives certain clues about what is going to happen next in the story without being explicit about it.

"Build up" is when there are some episodes that set up for a important event in the story. For example: A character becoming evil. Before the character turns completely evil, they are likely to have a few episodes exploring how they are slowly getting worse until they finally decide to betray the heroes. This really helps feeling the character's arc more realistic as their development didn't feel like came of nowhere.

Now let's talk about Reign Storm, The ultimate enemy and arcs in Danny Phantom.

Danny phantom is a character driven series, so when talking about arcs i'm going to refer to them as "character arcs".

Let's start with Vlad's character arc:

Vlad Masters is first introduced in the episode 7 in season 1 "Bitter reunions". In this episode we learn about his motivations, personality, goals and backstory. We know that he wants to get his revenge on Jack, and make Maddie and Danny "join him". Another of his personal goals is stealing and becoming more powerful.

Near the end of the episode Vlad foreshadows that he is going to see Danny again some time.

In "Shades of Gray" he is the one that gives Valerie the ghost hunter equipment, he makes a small cameo spying on her to check if she got her package.

In "Maternal instincts" we get to see more about his character and "fruitloopness" as Danny would put it. "Bitter reunions" made it clear he is a "fruitloop" but "Maternal instincs" proofs this even further by showing his extreme methods to get what he wants are.

"Maternal instincts" he still wants to Maddie and Danny to be his family. He ends up ruining his relationship with Maddie ( she thought of him as a close friend) and Danny even more. He's so desperate to the point that he really believed Danny wants to be his son after everything that happened.

In "Million Dollar Ghost" he tries stealing the Skeleton Key. After escaping from the guardian, his ghost portal blews up and goes to the Amity Park to steal Fenton's portal.

In a "Million Dollar Ghost" he also tries to break the bond between Jack and Danny, however, his main goal is the ghost portal. After he is beaten by no other than Jack. He accidentally finds the Skeleton Key but the guardian eats him.

Up until this point we know that:

Vlad wants to do something with the Skeleton Key (Reign Storm).

He has ruined his relationship with Danny and Maddie, both realizing what kind of person he is.

His main goals and motivations.

He is using Valerie for his own goals.

He is the one the gave the equipment to Valerie.

Now, Valerie's arc:

Her character is really first developed in "Shades of Gray". We all already know her backstory at this point: She used to be a rich girl that used to hang out with the popular kids until one day Cujo and Danny as Phantom made her dad lose his job at Axiom Labs and that ruined her life. She lost her own social status and her friends left her.

This made her hate ghosts with a burning passion. After receiving a package from Vlad, she started to train to become a ghost hunter and hunt Phantom.

Later in "Life lessons" she teams up with Danny (Phantom) to escape and fight Skulker,who was trying to hunt them down.

Valerie and Danny in the same episode start developing feelings for each other after Danny tries to make up to Valerie by helping her with her second job. She also learns that not all ghosts are totally evil, which becomes crucial in future episodes.

So until now we know that:

Valerie hates ghosts due to an incident that ruined her life.

Has a crush on Danny but doesn't like Phantom.

Is Training to be a ghost hunter

Her relationship with Danny is very complicated.

I noticed how Valerie has only two episodes in season 1 despite being one of the most interesting characters in the show.

As for Danny's arc:

Since he is the protagonist, i'll write a short summary of his arc in season 1:

This season is mainly about him learning how to control his powers while growing up into a responsible teenager. In some episodes, he slowly grows to understand that not all ghosts are evil and don´t want to harm anyone (Like Cujo and Wulf). He also solves conflicts without his "punching first,ask questions later". He grows closer with his family, specially his sister Jazz, who finds about his secret.

Besides these character arcs "Fright Night" is an episode that introduces the Fright Night, who later serves as a secondary antagonist in "Reign Storm".

Why did i talked about all these arcs? Because they all become important for Reign Storm.

Danny's, Vlad's and Valerie's arcs were all building up for this specific episode. So, when you watch this "Reign Storm" you already know who these characters are, their personalities and development.

You know where Vlad got the key to open the ghost king's prision. You know about Danny's and Vlad's rivalry. You know why Valerie decides to team up with Phantom. You also know all the ghosts that help Danny during his battle against the Ghost King.

Reign Storm is a great episode on its own but it works so well because of all the set up and foreshadowing in season 1. It feels rewarding so see everything paying off in this episode.

Now i'm going to explain my issue with The Ultimate Enemy:

There's very little built up and foreshadowing for such an important episode.

I mean,look at this:

There are only two episode between Reign Storm and The ultimate enemy.

Identity Crisis, which establishes that halfas can be separated.

The fenton Menace that focus on Danny and Jazz relationship and is important for the special.

There is very little build up to Dan's character or his tragic origins. Or how crazy the whole episode is in comparison to the rest of the series.

You could argue that "Control Freaks" and "Memory Blank" foreshadow alternative timelines and Dan (even if Memory Blank makes no sense). But still doesn't feel enough. The series would need more a few more episodes to develop Danny´s character.

Like, why no an episode about him hurting someone with his ghost powers? Or him thinking he is turning evil? Why no an episode about Vlad showing he still has some humanity left inside him foreshadowing his alternative future self?

It doesn't help that The ultimate enemy lacks continuity: Danny having a dark side? Vlad actually showing he is capable of feeling sorry? Danny going to an alternative future caused by him and not having nightmares about it? A Fusion of two powerful ghosts? The ending hinting at Dan returning? (Which he never did because the show was cancelled)

Sure, Jazz and Danny relationship changes ,that's great, and Clockwork appears in Masters of time again.

However, The ultimate enemy introduced so many great concepts and they weren´t that well-explored in later episodes, which is a pity. The special itself is very entertaining but i think i would had worked better as a story arc finale and not airing two episodes after Reign Storm.

It´s also a bit weird since there are other episodes that have build up like Flirting with Disaster, Secret Weapons, Kindred Spirits yet this The Ultimate Enemy doesn´t.

I would have really liked for the writers of show to have more time to create an arc about Dan and not just two episodes. Or at least return in a season finale. That would have been a great idea.

[autisticshadowthehedgehog]

Sonic X Theory: the other Ultimate Lifeforms

In Sonic X’s adaptation of Sonic Adventure 2, they make an interesting claim about the Ultimate Lifeform prototypes on the ARK. When Rouge hacks into the base, she informs Shadow of one thing- he wasn’t the only prototype from Project Shadow that escaped the ARK massacre. 

[ID: screenshots from Sonic X: one of Rouge looking up Project Shadow, surprised and reading “Shadow? Secure and dispose?” Another shot of two escape pods falling towards a planet, with the caption from a GUN soldier: “Our mission ended when we sealed away the prototype of the ultimate lifeform.” End ID.] 

Rouge makes the claim that neither of these escape pods was Shadow... so in X Canon, is Shadow even who he thinks he is? And just as importantly... who are the other prototypes? 

Full theory under the cut. 

So first off. Let’s look at Rouge’s claim that Shadow isn’t who he thinks he is.

Part One: Is Shadow from the ARK?

[ID: screenshots from Sonic X of Rouge and Shadow talking, with the following dialogue:

Rouge: This is the progress report for Project Shadow, a plan to create the ultimate life form. The body they created is still held there.

Shadow: I know. That’s a prototype. I’m the Ultimate Lifeform they created afterwards- 

Rouge: Two capsules were ejected when the ARK was shut down. But neither was found. They couldn’t lock up in prison what they couldn’t find. Do you understand? I wonder who you really are.

Shadow looks troubled. End ID.] 

So two capsules were ejected and neither was found in the fifty years it’s been since the accident-- except I think Rouge is wrong about one thing. Shadow is who he thinks he is- because his capsule was sent out alone. It must have somehow not been logged. 

How do we know this? Shadow’s flashback of being sent away and the man who worked for GUN are completely different- first of all, the GUN soldier doesn’t remember her saying anything to Shadow, or Shadow even being there- it seems that she died to send away something or someone else. Second- Maria is in a different position around the lever in both flashbacks. See the GUN soldier’s first-- 

Though we don’t see the full room, we get the sense that it’s small from the other shots that I don’t have the time to screenshot. She’s around an elevated platform not attached to a wall, and either facing the pod she’s sending away or in a completely different room. 

But, both of Shadow’s alternate memories of Maria sending him away-- the first one more stylized, the second one we can assume more real-- neither looks like this. 

In both, she’s in a differing position. In the sepia flashback, she’s not facing him, and pulling a lever attached to a wall. In the second flashback, she’s already on the floor, and the lever pad we see would cause her to be facing away from Shadow. In neither of these do we see any evidence that anyone other than Shadow and Maria are in the room or even nearby. 

Shadow also has enough evidence he’s who he thinks he is- he has the right powerset, the GUN soldier says that they did, indeed, seal away an Ultimate Prototype, Gerald mentions Shadow enough in his monologues, and... honestly there’s really no evidence that he isn’t Shadow, other than the two pods. And two pods? Shadow was sent out alone, we saw no evidence of a second pod in either flashback. So he wasn’t with anyone else. 

So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is that these are two different events- one where Maria releases Shadow, and one where she releases another- or, possibly, the others, the two pods that were logged as escaping. 

Maria either freed Shadow first and then the other two, or she freed the first two, got shot, and then managed to survive long enough to send Shadow away. Either way-- these events are separate.  

So what was in the other two pods? Two other prototypes of the Ultimate Lifeform, clearly, but nothing like the Biolizard, they’re too small. 

Now let me ask you something... wouldn’t it make sense for the Ultimate Prototypes to look similar, if they were similar lifeforms? 

And who do we know who looks similar to Shadow? 

Part Two: Sonic is an Ultimate Lifeform

[ID: Shadow looking down at Sonic, and saying, “I see. We actually do look alike. It’s like looking in a mirror.” End ID.] 

Okay so like. Unless you’re very colorblind I think you’ve noticed that Shadow and Sonic are completely different colors. But let’s ignore that for now-- they do have a very similar silhouette... in fact, Shadow’s silhouette is incredibly close to SuperSonic, which is Sonic at full power. And in-universe, they look similar enough that in low lighting pretty much nobody can tell them apart. 

And not just that- Sonic has a lot of power for a seemingly “normal” mobian. [Yes, I know they don’t use the term “Mobius” in Sonic X but let me simplify this somehow.] His superspeed, ability to survive so much shit... he’s powerful enough that he presents a rival for Shadow without chaos emeralds (though Shadow is nerfed a little by the Inhibitor Rings- more on that later). 

[ID: Sonic and Shadow racing; they are keeping up with each other. Shadow says, “It seems your appearance isn’t the only thing that’s similar to me. Who are you?” Sonic responds, “I’m me.” End ID.] 

Shadow’s right- their appearance isn’t where the resemblance stops. And of course there’s probably the most damning similarity-- they are the only two characters we see go Super and have the ability to control the Chaos Emeralds.

[ID: First image is SuperSonic and SuperShadow, having absorbed the power of the chaos emeralds. Second image is from the Third Season, where a MetaRex shouts, “There are two individuals [referring to Sonic and Shadow] who can draw out the power of the Chaos Emeralds?” End ID.] 

Oh and SPEAKING OF Sonic/Shadow similarities-- there’s a scene in Season Three where Sonic is being lectured by the villain about how all life ends eventually so why bother etc. and Sonic says that life is worth the good bits, all that jazz. Here’s the scene:

And exactly 1:25 in.... guess what starts playing

This song is scarily similar to “Recollection of the Ark”... Shadow’s sad song about his memories of the ARK... while Sonic is being lectured about still having faith in humanity. You know. Like MARIA WANTED.

Interesting how we know absolutely nothing about Sonic’s past, huh-- pretty much all we have before he meets Tails is that he says he’s fifteen years old, but honestly... are we even sure about that? First of all, if Sonic was revived alone, there wouldn’t be a way to tell his age, he’d probably just accept the first age someone assigned him. 

Alternatively, we know from the end of Season Two and the beginning of Season Three that time works in a very wonky way from Earth to Mobius- in the ~2-3 days Sonic’s alone with Chris, a week passes on Mobius, despite the fact we know he can chaos control at any time. In the third season? Six years pass on Earth while six months pass on Mobius. So time doesn’t really work in a reasonable way, meaning it’s possible that Sonic is fifteen... and he lived fifteen years on Mobius after awakening, while fifty years passed on Earth. 

And we know for a fact that travel between Mobius and Earth was possible even before the events of Season One... because Eggman was born on Earth.

[ID: Eggman looking shocked and turning around in a chair, announcing, “I was born in this world!” End ID.]

Eggman was born on Earth and somehow ended up on Mobius-- but he was young enough he didn’t realize until he saw that Gerald lived on Earth. So was he in the second escape pod? It’s possible, but I don’t think so-- he’d have to have information on Gerald, and it seems he had a picture of Gerald and Maria, so it’s likely he traveled with a parent or guardian, or at least some kind of family history, which I doubt Maria would think to store in an escape pod while everyone was running for their lives. This plot element was probably just to set up that travel between the dimensions happens more than we think. 

Neither escape pod from the ARK was recovered, probably because they ended up on Mobius. 

It’s most likely that they Chaos Controlled into the other dimension-- I know I said Maria probably wouldn’t think to store anything other than the lifeform themselves in the pod, but if the lifeform needed Chaos Emeralds to practice/control their powers, or the Chaos Emeralds were already stored in an escape pod for safekeeping-- or if, possibly, GUN was attempting to capture the Chaos Emeralds as well, and the Robotniks knew that they would use them in a destructive way-- all that combined could mean that the emeralds would also be important enough to send away in a pod. 

If even one of the pods had Chaos Emeralds, it’s possible that the lifeform inside could have sensed danger and unconsciously teleported them to the most safe place from GUN-- another world where GUN didn’t exist and couldn’t reach them. And even better-- a world where mobians like them lived. 

From Sonic X lore that I don’t have the time to find and screencap, we know that the two worlds used to be the same but split at some point in history. If this was after, say, the events of Chaos destroying the Echidnas-- which, sidenote, interesting how they disappear and nobody knows where they went, so it’s possible that Chaos straight-up split the dimensions just to get rid of the Echidnas-- then enough of their lore could remain. Old cave paintings, wall carvings, etc., could show enough mobians that scientists could probably think “oh, wow, that looks like a god figure. might as well design our ultimate lifeform after that, esp since they had this god that could control chaos and the chaos emeralds came from here.” 

Wanna know what’s interesting about those ancient echidna temples? Guess who’s there-- if we go by Sonic 3 & Knuckles, a game that ofc had been released by the time X was being written...

SuperSonic. 

Both the ultimate form of Sonic, and the silhouette of Shadow. 

So let’s say they find this on the ARK studies, and they’re like “okay so our ultimate lifeform goal is a hedgehog. Got it.” There’s two options after this:

They make Sonic, but deem him a failure for reasons and cryo-freeze him until they need him or can release him. They then proceed to make Shadow, who they believe actually is their ultimate lifeform. 

They made Shadow first, but after a while kept experimenting and making more prototypes, just in case, or possibly because they decided Shadow wasn’t powerful enough. However, the prototypes weren’t ready to awaken before the ARK massacre, Shadow never met them. 

So as I’ve made clear, I’m pretty sure that one of those prototypes was Sonic-- who, of course, has no idea. Either he only entered consciousness after arriving in Mobius, or his memories of the ARK were so vague, traumatic, early, or a combo, that his mind blocked them out. Either way, it doesn’t matter, what matters is that he and Shadow are both prototypes, which is what gives Sonic his power. 

And Sonic’s power, btw, isn’t limited like Shadow’s. Because he doesn’t have inhibitor rings. 

If prototype!Sonic was sent away with inhibitor rings, he ditched them. Which would make sense, especially if he woke up with no memory of the ARK and didn’t know why these weird bracelets were on his arm. He would notice that the rings slowed him down and ditch them fast. And that’s assuming they even stuck rings on the prototype. 

But if we do assume they stuck rings on the prototypes... maybe we can find the other lifeform that was sent away along with Sonic. 

Part Three: Who is the Third Ultimate Lifeform?

Okay. Let’s do a headcount. 

Who, in Sonic X, 

Existed on Mobius at the same time as Sonic, 

Doesn’t appear to have a lot of power but has a lot of incredible strength if you pay attention, 

Sometimes shows strange abilities, such as far leaps into the air, a speed great enough that they can sometimes catch up to Sonic (though not as great, possibly because of the inhibition), even potentially the ability to summon weapons out of thin air, 

Looks similar to the Mobian Hedgehog-- or, perhaps, with influences from a Mobian Echidna, who were the ones who had the SuperSonic glyphs in the first place, and thus could potentially serve as a design point, 

Wears rings around their wrists at all times?

[ID: Amy Rose being absurdly powerful in several screencaps, often glowing; though this is normal anime expressionwork, it is something that exclusively happens to Amy in Sonic X. End iD.]

And, of course, this beauteous moment: 

[ID: A scene from the season two finale of Sonic X. Eggman’s ship, on which Amy’s hammer is stuck, is high above her, and Eggman taunts “It doesn’t matter if you’re angry because your hammer is stuck up here!” In the following image, a moving gif, Amy summons a hammer out of thin air, a puff of smoke coming from it, as she is still glowing with a fire-like energy. Eggman’s robots shout “She has another one! How many does she have?” End ID.]

That’s right! This was all an excuse to spout out my “Amy Rose could kill God” propaganda! But it’s not propaganda if I’m right!

Part Four: The Lifeforms

So. It’s been a couple months since I made this post, but I was rewatching Sonic X with my sister, and we did notice that you do see prototype lifeforms for a flash in the GUN soldier’s story.

[ID: Screenshots from Sonic X; The GUN soldier narrates his story, as we see GUN soldiers arresting scientists, while standing in front of empty tubes of bubbling green liquid. The caption reads, “There were many rumors about ARK. Such as doing research for eternal life or creating the Ultimate Life Form.” The GUN soldier steps to a tube that has something in it. End ID.]

We see a brief flash of an experimental lifeform in this memory, as seen above; we also see two more, the ones that were explicitly stated to be the ones Maria was freeing.

[ID: Screenshots from later in the same episode of Sonic X, the first showing two tubes with dark figures inside, surrounded by dark blue bubbling water. The next screenshot shows Maria preparing to free them, with the captions reading “An experimental life form? She’s planning to free it!” End ID.]

So, these silhouettes. Let’s uh. Let’s take a look at those huh

Now, the bodies are too thick to be standard mobian bodies- but we can also see wires attached to the prototypes, as well as, you know, whatever that liquid is. It’s entirely possible there’s something wrapped around their bodies, to keep them safe/asleep/etc.

But..... ok so I might be reaching here but analyzing the face silhouettes, using red lines to mark quills and green to mark potential laid-back ears, it really could be long-quilled sonic and short-quilled Amy.

As well as this, in the shot of the GUN soldier looking at a prototype, I swear I can see a mobian ear.

tl;dr this is all fascinating me and I think we should let the Sonic X crew return to making this show as if they never left so that we can get answers to this

[inkedstarlight]

I Put A Spell On You

Summary: Nesta and Cassian hated each other. Ever since freshman year of college, he'd been nothing but a pain in her ass. Their conversations always ended in screaming matches, and they couldn't agree on a single thing. So why was Nesta so angry to see him with another girl at a Halloween party one night? Cassian quickly picks up on her jealousy and teases her about it, only further infuriating Nesta. Sexual tension, unresolved feelings, and an intense game of truth or dare ensue. Warnings: explicit language, NSFW Read it here on AO3

Lana Del Ray’s “Season of the Witch” was playing quietly in the background as Nesta put on the finishing touches of her makeup. Tossing the mascara on the counter, she took a step back to assess herself in the mirror.

Her lips were a deep red, so dark it was almost black. A golden crescent moon was painted on her forehead, her daring brows arched on each side. Stormy grey eyes were heavily lined with midnight kohl, streaks of black running down her cheeks as if she’d just dragged her acrylic nails down her face. It looked like dripping blood. A golden arm cuff in the figure of a snake curved its way around her bicep, and it was quite possibly Nesta’s favorite part of the entire costume.

And her dress? Her dress was the most elegant thing she’d ever worn. Nesta didn’t even know how to describe it, the layered fabric falling down to the floor, the sleeves black and sheer. All she knew was she felt fucking powerful.

She smirked devilishly at the reflection staring back at her. It was like looking at Hecate herself.

To put it blatantly, Nesta was a whore for Halloween. She loved everything about spooky season: witches, full moons, candy, costumes, horror movies. The frightening, dark atmosphere that ensconced her throughout the entire month of October. Not to mention it was the one of the few holidays that didn’t revolve around family-oriented activities. Needless to say, Nesta was in her element.

Emerie peered her head into the bathroom where Nesta was getting ready. Her smile was wicked as she took in Nesta. “You just took fashionably late to the next level.”

Nesta laughed at her friend’s reaction. “You’re one to talk.”

Emerie was wearing a silky, burgundy robe. It was untied, leaving her tiny black slip in full view. The delicate fabric fell just inches below her waist, and she stood impossibly straight in glittery stilettos. To top it all off, bunny ears protruded from her waves of dark hair. She was a Playboy Bunny, and she looked fucking fantastic.

“How late are we?”

Emerie checked her phone. “About an hour.”

Nesta shrugged and shot her a wink. “It’s always fun to make a bit of an entrance.”

Nesta and Emerie had been close friends since freshman year. Nesta’s roommate was seldom in their room, and Emerie’s roommate was always bringing hookups to her respective room. So, when the two became aware of each other’s unfortunate (albeit convenient) situations, Emerie began staying over at Nesta’s. She would sleep over several nights a week, and it eventually became her room too. It worked perfectly.

Now, as upperclassmen, the duo lived in on-campus apartments. Just them and Minx. AKA the tiny but fierce black cat they rescued just a year prior.

“Guess who I heard is coming?”

Nesta dropped what she was doing to look at her friend. She knew that tone. That tone was always followed by a sinking feeling of dread in her stomach.

She threw Emerie a look. “I swear to the gods if you say Cass –”

“It’s Cassian!” Emerie sang smugly, jazz hands and all.

Nesta groaned. Cassian Bechalot was the bane of her existence. He was a senior, Nesta a junior, and he’d been a pain in her ass from day one. The first day of classes in her freshman year, Nesta had been sitting in her biology lab waiting for the class to begin. Ten minutes after class started, Cassian rushed through the doors in a dramatic entrance. To Nesta’s dismay, he sat next to her. The professor then proceeded to review the syllabus, mentioning the fact that they will be assigned semester-long lab partners. By “assigned,” she meant the person sitting next to you. Nesta had barely held back her groan when Casssian smirked at her and said, “I have a feeling this is going to be my favorite class.” For the next four months, he made Nesta hate biology. Purely because she now associated it with him. Cassian made it his personal mission to annoy the living hell out of her.

Skip to sophomore year. Cassian was adamant on sitting next to her in a lecture they were both enrolled in. Nesta was minding her damn business when he’d looked over her shoulder to catch her reading fanfiction on her laptop. And of course, it wasn’t some innocent story. No, with Nesta’s luck, it had been a smutty-ass fic that was basically porn without a plot. Cassian was unable to contain his laughter, the immature child he was. The professor stopped midsentence to narrow her eyes at his disruption. Nesta remembered it clear as day.

“Is there something you’d like to say, Mr. Bechalot? Since it’s clearly a matter important enough to interrupt my class.”

“Oh, I’d love to,” Cassian had grinned. He nodded his head at Nesta, the latter of whom was red in the face from both embarrassment and anger. “But I don’t think the Mrs. would be very happy with me.”

The class had whopped, some applauding Cassian’s antics.

“Enlighten me.”

He’d shrugged given Nesta a look that said, There’s nothing I can do to stop what’s about to happen.

What a fucking liar.

“Nesta was just getting in her daily dose of fanfiction. It happened to be a particularly…” Cassian paused. The bastard paused for dramatic effect. “… risqué.”

And queue the laughter.

So that was one of many reasons Nesta couldn’t stand him. After that fiasco, countless others followed. Some fiascos were of Nesta’s doing.

What? Nesta couldn’t let him win every time. She had a couple tricks up her sleeve, too. And it’s not like she was going to let him off the hook without facing the consequences.

Emerie was convinced it was some sort of star-crossed lovers shit. She dubbed them an “enemies-to-lovers” slow burn. She was the biggest (and only) advocate for a romantic relationship to blossom between them.

But Nesta? Nesta saw it for what it was.

Pure, unadulterated hatred.

And now he was crashing the party Nesta had been looking forward to all week.

The party was at their friend’s off-campus apartment. There were going to be a lot of people there, but Nesta had seriously doubted he would be invited. At Pryth U, there was an obnoxious division between athletes and the rest of the undergraduates. Nesta loathed the cliquey dynamic. But while the athletes certainly had a reputation, she had many friends who were on the college teams. It was really only the men’s lacrosse team that lived up to their reputation, and Cassian just so happened to be the captain. Who’s surprised?

Cassian had a way of getting in her head, of fueling her already hotheaded temper. Their interactions typically ended in a screaming match. He would tell her to loosen up, and Nesta would tell him to fuck off. He’d make some raunchy joke of it, and she would go off on him. They’d have a staring contest for a couple minutes before continuing to yell obscenities at each other.

Yeah… it wasn’t pretty.

But Nesta was determined to not let it bother her. Tonight was going to be great, Cassian or not.

“Is you-know-who going to be there?” Nesta turned the conversation around, stealing a glance at her roommate.

She scowled. “I don’t know. Even if she was, she doesn’t know my fucking name.”

“You don’t know that,” Nesta countered.

Emerie gave her a pointed look.

Nesta sighed. “Okay, so she doesn’t know your name. Doesn’t mean you can’t introduce yourself tonight.”

Emerie mumbled an incoherent response.

She’d had a crush on a girl named Mor for several months now. Mor had recently transferred from a different university, and she was a fellow junior. Emerie first saw her when she was working one day at the on-campus Starbucks. Whenever Mor came in for a drink, Emerie was sure to be the one to get her order. And she always made Mor’s drink (a medium mocha latte). It was quite adorable when Emerie came home from work to gush about how Mor’s hair was particularly beautiful that day. Adorable and obnoxiously frustrating.

Nesta wasn’t big on love. Sure, her guilty pleasure included romance novels and smutty fanfiction, but that was fiction. In her own life, she hated romantic gestures, declarations of love, and physical affection. She’d never been the type to have crushes or pursue a potential suitor. After watching her parent’s marriage crumble right before her eyes, Nesta didn’t put much thought into romantic relationships. To her, it was work. It took too much effort and from what she’d seen, the outcome was never worth it.

Sometimes, Nesta wasn’t sure if she knew how to love. Sure, she loved her sisters, but that was the extent of it (with the exception of Amren and Emerie). The thought terrified her just as much as it empowered her.

There were rare moments when Nesta would see Amren and Varian laughing together and something in her would ache. For what, she wasn’t sure. Affection, love, trust, acceptance, peace, comfort. All of the above.

“Okay, are we ready to go?” Emerie called to back to Nesta, shaking her from her thoughts. She took one last glance in the mirror before turning the light off.

“Let’s do it.”

The apartment was decorated perfectly. The lights were dim, the atmosphere enticing. Nesta was impressed but not at all surprised at Amren’s immaculate skills as an interior design major. They were friends from high school, and they’d remained thick as thieves since.

The place wasn’t huge, but it had enough space for dancing and drinking and that’s all that mattered. There were probably twenty people in there. The music was dark and thrilling, the bass reverberating in Nesta’s chest as she maneuvered her way through the bodies in the basement.

She recognized most of the people here, only a few unfamiliar faces in the crowd. Amren’s boyfriend, Varian, was in a mermaid costume as he walked around offering people drinks. He caught Nesta’s eye and shot her a grin, his hands gesturing to the coconut shell bra on his chest. She shook her head and chuckled before swiping… candy corn Jell-O shots?

With a grimace, Nesta tilted her head back and swallowed the damn thing.

It was disgusting.

“Nesta!” a familiar voice yelled from behind her. She didn’t even need to look to know who it was.

Rhysand approached her, his strut a little less smooth than normal thanks to the many drinks he must’ve had. But when she saw him, she could barely stop herself from laughing out loud.

He was dressed as an angel. Rhysand fucking Elvert was an angel.

 I’m not drunk enough for this.

He wore a white toga, his tanned chest bare for all the women and men to drool over. Cheap translucent wings protruded from his back, and a golden halo in the form of a headband hung over his head. He was giving her a cheeky smile as he stopped in front of her.

“Nesta, my best friend!” Well, that confirmed his inebriated state. “How are you? More importantly, where’s that sister of yours?”

Nesta rolled her eyes. She should have known he was going to ask about Feyre.

Her younger sister had visited Nesta several times since she started Pryth U a couple years back. They had the unfortunate luck of encountering Rhysand while Nesta was showing Feyre around campus. And of course, as Rhysand does with every living, breathing woman, he tried to woo her with his fuckboy ways. Feyre held her own, but that changed when Nesta brought her to a small dorm party later that night. When Nesta was returning from the bathroom, she found them dancing. Well, dancing was putting it nicely. There was a lot of hip movement to say the least.

After ripping them apart, Nesta threatened Rhys that if he got near her sister again, he was a dead man. Feyre, thoroughly embarrassed, had no other choice but to follow Nesta back to her dormitory. Once in her room, Nesta chastised Feyre for “fraternizing with the enemy.” Nesta had told Feyre stories about Cassian before, so she was up to date on that situation. Feyre didn’t seem to care, claiming that she didn’t even think Rhysand was that attractive.

And though Nesta knew that was a flat-out lie, she let it go.

So, when Feyre visited a semester later, Nesta was careful not to mention her visit to anyone, especially not Rhys. They weren’t friends per se, but her rivalry with Cassian made Rhysand a fixture in her life (one that she never asked for). They would chat during class or in passing, and their relationship was lighthearted. Nothing like the tension between her and Cassian. After the first time Feyre had visited, Rhysand always managed to find a way to bring her up in conversation.

But to Nesta’s dismay, Rhysand had miraculously found out about her visit. Ignoring Nesta’s threat, Rhys shamelessly tried to pursue Feyre for the second time. Even though Nesta was careful not to mention her visit, Rhysand had miraculously found out and pursued her. That time, he blatantly flirted with her right in front of Nesta. But it was more than flirting. Nesta could tell that Rhysand was acting differently than when he flirted with other girls. Nesta had been around him long enough to watch him flirt and seduce many women, and it was different with Feyre. This behavior continued every time Feyre visited, which was just five instances. Yet Rhysand seemed strangely attached to Feyre. Nesta never asked him about it… Gods forbid Rhysand Elvert becomes her brother-in-law.

“She’s great,” Nesta said truthfully. “Just started dating a new guy.”

His face fell for a fraction of a second, so quickly that Nesta could have imagined it. “Does he treat her well?”

“I’ve never met him, but from what she’s told me, yes.”

He seemed to consider this before merely nodding in response.

“Where’s that annoying friend of yours?” Nesta changed the subject.

Why do you care? Nesta could practically hear Emerie’s voice in her head. She ignored it.

“Cassian? That bastard’s somewhere in here.” Rhysand chuckled before he suddenly got excited. “Oh! You’ll never guess what he dressed as.”

Nesta gave him an unamused look. “Let me take a wild guess: the devil.”

Rhysand’s shoulders dropped and he pouted. “You take the fun out of everything.”

“Or perhaps you’re more predictable than you think.”

“Bet you can’t guess what Azriel is.”

Nesta didn’t even have to think twice. “Azriel dressed as Sherlock Holmes because he has a shred of self-respect. As opposed to you two buffoons.”

And because he told me a week ago, Nesta thought to herself.

Rhysand opened his mouth to retort, but he was quickly interrupted.

“Did someone say Cassian Bechalot?”

Nesta’s fists balled tightly at the mere sound of his voice. She plastered on a sickly-sweet smile and turned to face Cassian.

She did her best not waver at the sight of him. Even Nesta couldn't deny that Cassian was an objectively attractive man. She would never admit it, though.

His long hair was disheveled as always, a couple loose strands framing his annoyingly sharp jaw. He wore a deep red dress shirt, and the fabric looked soft as satin. Several buttons were popped to show off a broad chest and his signature golden chain. The sleeves were rolled up to reveal his inked forearms, the collar popped to show off the thick columns of his neck. And of course, red horns stuck out from the obnoxiously inflated head of his.

But what Nesta wasn’t expecting was the woman on his arm. She looked to be about their age, maybe a year younger. She too wore a devil costume but this time it was a small red dress and a face full of beautiful makeup.

Nesta’s fists tightened even more.

Cassian stopped a couple feet in front of her, his eyes slowly dragging up and down her body. Nesta crossed her arms impatiently until his piercing gaze finally met hers.

“So glad I ran into you, sweetheart," he purred at her. Gods, him and that insufferable nickname. She could choke him. "What do you think of my costume?"

“It suits you,” Nesta replied sarcastically. Then she added, “You guys make quite the couple.”

Cassian frowned, but Nesta paid no mind to him.

“Oh, we didn’t even come here together!” piped in the woman. She gave Cassian a seductive look. “But I certainly hope we’ll be going home together.”

Nesta didn’t bother to hide her distaste. It wasn’t directed toward the friendly woman, rather at the bastard at her side. The obnoxiously sexy bastard.

“Let me guess…” Cassian tapped a finger on his chin thoughtfully. Nesta made a show of rolling her eyes. “Hecate?”

 What?

She hadn't expected that.

Nesta did her best to contain her surprise. “You know who Hecate is?”

“Ouch, you didn’t have to say it like that. You wound me, sweetheart.”

She raised a threatening brow. He chuckled deeply and raised his hands in surrender.

"Maybe I'm not as stupid as you think I am."

Nesta snorted. “That’s highly unlikely."

He tilted his head to the side, peering closer at her. “You’re particularly feisty today, aren’t you?”

“I swear to the gods, Cassian, I will rip your head off.”

All he did was laugh her off. If he only knew how serious she was...

Nesta was just about to walk away when Cassian turned to the woman at his side. “Arlia, can you leave us alone for a second?” he grinned mischievously. “I’ll find you after.”

Arlia giggled and nodded, dragging a finger down his arm as she walked away. Leaving Cassian and Nesta alone.

 Great.

Cassian didn't waste a second, closing the distance between them. He loomed several inches above her, something Nesta detested about him. He was large, tall, purely male. Nesta got a whiff of his scent, and she hated how much she loved the smell of him. He always wore the same cologne, not enough to overwhelm but enough to leave Nesta wanting more.

Ugh. He truly was the devil incarnate.

“Is that jealousy I sense?” Cassian clicked his tongue, humor flashing in his hazel eyes.

Nesta choked at his words. "As if."

It was a weak comeback, and she knew it.

He got even closer, their bodies just inches apart now. “Why do you even care who I spend my time with, Nesta? You hate me on a good day.”

“Maybe,” Nesta countered, “that’s because you do nothing but make my life as miserable as possible.”

The temperature in the room seemed to increase several degrees as Nesta stared up at him in contempt. Something unreadable crossed his face as he raised a hand and caressed her cheek, the warmth of his fingers sending tingles to her feet.

“Why do you insist on pushing me away?" Cassian asked, searching her eyes. She was frozen, her throat constricted.

 Because you terrify me.

Nesta shoved that thought deep down before she could even comprehend it, as far as it could possibly go.

"Tell me," Cassian breathed, pushing for an answer. "Is it so hard to admit that maybe I'm not as bad as you want me to be?"

 Yes.

Nesta was nearly trembling, her mouth unable to form a single word. She could only stare up at him with wide eyes and parted lips as he pushed her limits.

"Is it so hard to admit that maybe, just maybe, you actually like me?"

 Enough.

Nesta snapped.

“Like you? Fuck that, Cassian! You walk around campus like you’re the most desirable man on earth,” Nesta fumed, just the sight of him enough to boil her blood. “You treat women like shit, you humiliate me at least once a month, and you’re only at Pryth U thanks to some athletic scholarship.”

Her voice had gotten louder and people were definitely watching them, but she didn’t give a shit.

Cassian’s eyes darkened at her words, and he got another step closer, forcing Nesta’s back against the cool edge of the table behind her. He rested both hands on each side of her body and caged her in. She didn’t dare back down, levelling his hard glare.

“Do you think I’m desirable, Nesta?” he asked menacingly, his voice low. Quiet enough for only her to hear and demanding enough to get an answer.

Nesta suddenly became hyperaware of Cassian’s body so close to hers. She could see his chest moving up and down, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed hard. His bicep brushed against her arm sending a shot of electricity through her body.

Nesta didn’t know what to say. She could only stand there and watch as Cassian huffed out a humorless laugh after a couple moments passed.

“Do you know how hypocritical you are?” Cassian asked, pulling his body away from hers and leaving Nesta with a cold feeling. He raised his voice with frustration. “No one knows who Nesta Archeron is. No, they only know you by the ‘Ice Queen.’ You sit on your damn throne and look at everyone like they’re below you. What’s so great about you, Nesta, huh? Because I’ve known you for years and still haven’t been able to find a single redeeming quality.”

He practically yelled the last sentence. She wanted to cry, throw something at him, walk away, scream until she lost her voice. But she didn't do anything. Nesta just stared at him as everything in her shut down until she just... stopped. Numbness overtook her.

Cassian was watching her, his chest heaving. Something like regret flashed over his face.

Nesta blinked, shattering the little world her and Cassian were in, looking past him and into the adjoining room.

Everyone was staring at them with wide eyes and open mouths. The entire apartment was silent, and it was painfully clear that every single person had just heard them fight.

 Just my fucking luck.

Nesta didn’t pay attention to anyone as she stormed off. As far away from him as possible.

She heard Varian tell everyone to mind their own business before blasting the music. The onlookers were happy to oblige and just like that, they were dancing without a care in the world.

Amren was leaning against the glass door that led to the outdoor patio when Nesta rushed outside for air. She heard her friend follow her from behind.

It was calmer out here, the loud bass of the music fading into the background. The moon was full, and that gave Nesta a small piece of solace.

She collapsed onto a plastic chair, her body sinking down. She didn't have to say a word as Amren held out a bottle of Tito's.

Nesta took it from her and didn’t even think as she took several gulps of the vodka. Her throat burned with every swallow, eyes watering. She took a final swig and gave it back to Amren, wiping her mouth and grimacing.

“So…” Amren started, glancing over at Nesta who was looking down at the ground. “Should we talk about what just happened in there?"

"No."

Amren got quiet and the two simply sat in silence. Nesta closed her eyes, relishing the cold breeze that washed over her face. She could smell the remnants of a bonfire from Amren's neighbors next door. After a few minutes, Amren straightened and held her hand out to Nesta.

“C’mon. We’re gonna dance.”

It wasn't a question. And Nesta wasn't about to say no and risk getting into an argument with Amren. Gods knew how taxing that would be. Anyway, the alcohol was already beginning to course through her blood. She would be on the dance floor in the next twenty minutes either way.

As Nesta took Amren's hand and retreated back inside, a feeling of euphoria began to enter her body. She happily invited it.

Nesta didn’t know how long they danced for. Long enough for her hair to stick to the back of her neck and her throat to be parched. Long enough for "Toxic" by Britney Spears to have played enough times and gotten stuck in her head.

But not long enough for her to forget about the events that took place just minutes prior to downing that vodka.

She signaled to Amren that she was going to get some water. Her friend only nodded her head and continued rolling her hips to the beat.

As Nesta poured herself a cup of water, she scanned the room. She scanned it until she found who she was looking for.

Nesta locked eyes with Cassian from across the room. She hadn't been thinking of him much as she and Amren danced to every song that played. He was on the outskirts of the dancing crowd. Him and Arlia. The song was loud, fast. And yet his hands were snug around Arlia’s waist, hers stroking his chest as they swayed slowly. Not an inch separated their bodies.

She couldn’t read the emotion in his eyes. His face was blank.

Nesta held his stare until he broke away.

To kiss Arlia.

And he didn’t just kiss her. It wasn’t an innocent peck. He pulled her into him, capturing her lips with his own. Nesta watched as Arlia gripped the collar of his shirt and molded her body into his, their hips grinding together.

Cassian opened his eyes even as he continued to kiss Arlia. He looked directly at Nesta as his mouth moved against another woman’s. Nesta fought the urge to go up to him and smack him across the gods-damn face.

She failed.

But before she could even take a step, someone grabbed her arm from behind. She looked behind her shoulder.

Amren.

“You don’t want to do that, Ness,” Amren told her with a hard tone.

“But – ”

“But nothing,” Amren interrupted Nesta, her words final. “How about we do something to take your mind off it?” She didn’t even wait for her answer before calling over her boyfriend. “Varian!”

Just like a loyal puppy, Varian appeared at her side in a second, the end of his mermaid tale dragging on the floor. “What’s up, love?”

“Nesta needs a good distraction,” she explained, gesturing not-so-subtly to where Cassian stood. “Thoughts?”

Varian’s eyes brightened and he didn’t even hesitate before miraculously yelling over the deafening music, “Truth or dare!”

Amren threw her hands up with a groan and gave him an exasperated look as if to say, Are we thirteen years old?

But it was too late. Everyone around them was already cheering and chanting Varian's name.

Nesta levelled a look at her best friend.

Amren raised her palms up. “Hey, it’ll keep you from strangling Cassian to death,” she pointed out the silver lining.

Nesta couldn’t argue with that, so she begrudgingly followed her friend to the couch. A big group of people followed them from behind.

Five minutes later, everyone was situated into a large circle. Some were sprawled on the furniture while others sat on the floor. All of them were happily drunk and way too enthusiastic to be playing truth or dare.

“Truth or dare?” Amren started, her question directed at Azriel who was sitting a couple people away from Nesta. He was dressed as Sherlock, just as he’d told her he would.

“Dare.”

Thus began an entertaining game of truth or dare. Azriel had to do a body shot off of Rhys. Rhys had to give Helion a lap dance. Helion was forced to let Lucien do his face makeup. Lucien had to take off Mor’s socks with his teeth. Mor had to make an obscene call to a random phone number. Emerie chose truth and was forced to reveal her wildest sex fantasy (a drunken Mor offered to make that dream a reality).

Halfway into the game, Nesta had shed herself of her gown, leaving her in only a small black dress she'd put on underneath in case she got warm. It was a combination of the body heat, alcohol, and tension between her and Cassian.

The entire game, Nesta did her best to avoid eye contact with Cassian. He was sitting directly across from her in the circle, Arlia at his side. Nesta was doing fine, enjoying their childish antics until it was Emerie’s turn to ask someone.

Nesta wasn’t completely surprised when her friend turned to her and asked, “Truth or dare?”

Nesta saw the mischievous look on Emerie’s face as she proposed the question. She had no fucking idea what she had planned, but there was no way Nesta was falling into her trap.

“Truth,” Nesta decided to play it safe.

But then Cassian had to open his fucking mouth.

“Boring,” he said loudly, faking a yawn.

Nesta turned her head to face him for the first time during the game. Her heart pounded at the sight of him. He was sitting on the edge of the sofa, holding his chin in his hands as he scrutinized her. His eyes were glossy, and he was clearly drunk like the rest of them.

“It’s in the name of the game.”

“Or maybe you’re just scared,” Cassian countered.

“I’m not,” Nesta gritted her teeth, staring him down.

Cassian merely raised a brow as if to say, Sure, you aren’t.

No one said anything.

“Fine,” Nesta snapped just to spite him. “Dare.”

Cassian smiled triumphantly and sat back as Emerie clapped with excitement.

"Give her a good one!" someone called out.

Emerie turned back to Nesta with a troubled look and mouthed, Forgive me.

Forgive her? What the fuck was she talking about –

“I dare you to kiss Cassian.”

Nesta stopped breathing.

The entire room was silent as everyone stared at Nesta, gauging her reaction. She felt Cassian's eyes on her.

Nesta broke the silence and burst out laughing, a snort leaving her nose. A very unattractive snort. “You think I’m going to kiss him?”

Others around the circle laughed nervously, unsure where this was going to go.

She looked across the circle to see Cassian staring at her. But where she was expecting a smug smile was a clenched jaw and burning eyes.

You’re not scared, huh? he mouthed at her silently. He was mocking her.

In your dreams, she snapped back.

Cassian crooked his finger to draw Nesta closer. "C'mere."

She snorted. Again. “If you want to do this dare, you’re the one coming to me.”

Only a couple feet separated them from opposite sides of the circle. It was petty, but she didn't care.

He looked at her incredulously. “Really, sweetheart?”

Nesta shrugged. Cassian narrowed his eyes in response.

“No.”

He was just as stubborn as her. A couple people around the circled groaned – they knew the beginning of a Nesta-Cassian stand-off when they saw one.

“Are you guys really fighting about who has to walk the five steps it takes to get to each other?” Emerie asked, astounded. Neither of them answered.

“Why don’t you meet in the middle of the circle?” Varian suggested meekly.

“No,” they both snapped at the same time, glaring at one another when they realized they said the same thing.

Another minute passed of them staring each other down.

Cassian was the first to speak again. “If you don’t come over here, you won’t finish the dare.”

Nesta gritted her teeth. He was right. She fucking hated when he was right.

 Just get it over with.

“Fine,” she seethed, standing up from the floor. She turned to Amren. “Give me another shot. I’m not drunk enough for this.”

The last thing Nesta wanted was the memory of kissing Cassian tomorrow morning. She shuddered at the thought.

“Make that two,” Cassian added.

Amren returned just a second later with a full shot glass in each hand. Neither Cassian nor Nesta hesitated as they downed the drink.

Nesta willed her legs to move, her stride confident despite the overwhelming feeling that she was going to fall thanks to her wobbly knees. Cassian’s feet were flat on the floor as he sat on the edge of the sofa. Nesta didn’t allow herself to falter for a second as she straddled Cassian and sat on his lap, their faces just inches away.

The crowd whooped and whistled. Nesta ignored it.

Nesta was already intoxicated by his scent, but she did her best to ignore it. Cassian gripped her hips to keep her balanced on him, his touch burning into her skin. She was eye-level with him, their faces inches away. She could feel his warm breath on her cheek, and chills went down her arms.

Something in Nesta ignited when Cassian subtly rubbed his thumb over her hip under the fabric of her dress. He seemed to sense the change in her, his nostrils flaring as he moved his thumb over her skin again, leaving a burning trail in its wake.

The world fell away. It was just them. Nesta’s lips involuntarily parted when Cassian’s other hand rested on her bare thigh. His fingers inched higher and higher, and Nesta opened her legs slightly wider. Cassian exhaled a harsh breath.

The spot between her legs was molten hot, her legs numb with pleasure. She slid her hand over his shoulder, and she traced the thick columns of his neck with her manicured nails. He tilted his head for her, and Nesta wanted nothing more than to lick and bite and suck his bare neck.

 What the fuck is he doing to me?

All of Nesta’s reservations fell away as she grinded her ass in his lap, unnoticeable to anyone watching, but enough to feel Cassian’s hardness slide under her core. His eyes flashed to hers. Nesta had never seen a man look at her the way he was.

Then, so fast that he didn’t even know what was happening, Nesta leaned in and pressed her lips against his. Cassian tried to deepen the kiss, but Nesta pulled away and was out of his lap before he could do anything to stop it.

She threw her hands up and threw a smirk over her shoulder at Cassian. “I did it!”

Everyone cheered, laughter filling the room as Nesta started walking back to her respective seat.

But she didn’t get far.

“Are fucking with me?” Cassian seethed from behind her. She turned around to face him.

His jaw was clenched with anger. His whole demeanor had changed, his presence threatening. Nesta watched as his fists clenched and unclenched, Cassian's telltale sign that he was not happy.

“Aw, were you expecting a date too?” Nesta cooed at him sarcastically.

 Point for Nesta.

People laughed, but Cassian boomed, "That's it," silencing everyone else. Including Nesta.

He walked straight toward her with purpose. Nesta gasped as he carefully but firmly grabbed her by the nape of the neck, his other hand splaying across the small of her back to bring their bodies together. Their lips brushed together, and Nesta's long golden hair provided a small curtain of privacy from the onlookers.

Cassian's breath smelled of whiskey, and it nearly consumed her. She looked up into his eyes and let out a breath of air. A growl released from his throat.

"Fuck it," he murmured before crushing his lips to hers.

Nesta's hand instinctively reached for him, her fingers curling in the soft tufts of his dark hair. Cassian moaned into her mouth, opening his lips and deepening the kiss. Nesta could barely stand, her tongue moving against his in a seductive, wet dance. She tasted the alcohol on him, and she became further drunk on him. Cassian curled his arm around her waist to hold her up, consequently pressing their bodies harder together. Nesta's nipples pebbled through the thin fabric of her dress as her breasts ground against his broad chest. He nibbled on her bottom lip, teasing her, driving her mad with need. She let out a whimper, and she felt Cassian's lips turn up in a satisfied smile as they continued to kiss roughly.

A loud cough had them pulling away from each other.

Nesta's cheeks turned bright red when she realized they were still standing in the middle of the circle, their friends looking up at them with horror and confusion and excitement and disbelief. She looked back at Cassian whose lips were swollen from their kisses. He didn't seem to care that there were people around them, his eyes locked solely on her.

"So... uh, I think it's Nesta's turn to ask," Rhysand said dumbly, staring up at her like she had two heads.

The last thing Nesta wanted to do was sit back down and play truth or dare. No, she wanted to drag Cassian upstairs and finish what they -

"No can do," Cassian said plainly, grabbing Nesta's hand and pulling her with him as he made his way to the stairs. "We have some unfinished business."

Well, at least Cassian was on the same page as her for the first time.

Nesta didn't even look behind her as she willingly followed Cassian up the stairs and into a more private room.

He opened the first door they passed by, revealing the guest bedroom. Nesta walked inside, and he closed and locked the door behind them.

Nesta's mind was racing. What did they just do? Why did she let him kiss her like that?

"Stop."

Nesta looked up from her hands to where Cassian stood. He had a determined look on his face.

"Stop what?"

"Overthinking this."

Gods, he saw right through her.

"We shouldn't have done that," Nesta said quietly.

"Why?" Cassian pushed.

"We hate each other." Why did it sound like she was trying to convince herself of that?

"Do we?"

The question hung in the air as neither one of them said anything. Nesta sat down on the edge of the bed and crossed her arms.

"Maybe not hate, but... we can't even stand each other," Nesta let out. She glanced over at him. "It's not like we have feelings for each other."

Cassian didn't say anything. She scoffed.

"You're telling me that you can honestly say you've thought of me in that sort of way?"

"Every fucking day, sweetheart."

Nesta's heart stopped. "I'm serious."

"Me too," he told her. His lips were set in a straight line, his eyes piercing into hers.

"Please, Cass," she said, using the nickname she so rarely used for him. "You fuck other women every week. You've despised me since day one. There's no way in hell."

"I don't hate you, Nesta," he said quietly. She watched as he walked over and took a seat in the rocking chair that faced her. He hesitated before continuing. "I hate how much I fucking think about you. I wake up and my first thought is, 'I wonder what Nesta's doing right now.' I go through my days hoping to run into you." He dragged his hands down his face and laughed at himself. "But you fucking infuriate me, woman. Our conversations are never pleasant. You're the most difficult person I've ever met."

 Oh Gods.

"And as for the women..." he sighed, shaking his head. "I can't believe I'm telling you this."

Nesta waited for him to continue.

Cassian raised his head from his hands and looked her straight in the eye. "I only fuck other women because I can't get you out of my damn head. Because I've never felt this passionate about anyone. Because you confuse the living hell out of me."

He had to be lying. It was Cassian. There was no way he cared for her. She'd seen him look at her all these years, and there had never once been an indicator of such feelings. And of course he was passionate about her: he hated her! Passion wasn't necessarily a good thing.

"What do you possibly think could happen between us?" she asked with an exasperated look. She didn't wait for him to answer. "The only time this," Nesta gestured between them, "could ever happen again is a year from now."

"What do you mean?"

She shrugged. "This," she moved her hand around. "Halloween. The one day you can pretend to be someone you're not."

"I don't understand what you're saying."

"You and I would never work, Cassian." The words cut through her as she choked them out.

"Why do you keep lying to yourself?" Cassian asked.

"I'm not! We know nothing about each other. We treat each other like shit. It would explode in our faces."

“We don't know anything about each other?" he echoed quietly, a small laugh leaving his lips. "How do you think I knew you were Hecate?"

Nesta didn't say anything. Where was he going with this?

"Maybe,” he started, “it’s because I’ve heard you mention her more times than I can count. Maybe I looked her up one day and read all about her. Maybe I think she's a fucking badass.

"You think we don't know anything about each other? Here are some things you don't know about me: I started that web comic you never shut up about. I finished it in a week, and I wrote down all my favorite parts in case we ever talk about it one day. You have a black cat named Minx, and you even have custom made socks with his picture on it. You want to study creative writing, but you're scared you won't make it as an author." He paused. "You try to hide everything inside, but I can tell how much you feel, Nesta. You aren't heartless, you aren't insensitive. You're just... scared. To trust."

Nesta hadn't told him any of that. Not directly, at least. But he listened. He'd always been listening. Her heart was pounding in her ears as Cassian finally met her gaze with soft eyes. She was terrified, but she held eye contact with him, refusing to look away. This man... he didn't hate her. He never had.

Nesta didn't realize tears were running down her face until her vision blurred and Cassian's face was out of focus.

Fuck. She hated crying, especially in front of people. Especially in front of him.

She dropped her face in her hands to hide her tears. She couldn't see what was happening but just a second later, she felt the bed sink down with another weight. Warm hands grasped her body, pulling her into a hard body. Cassian leaned down to brush his lips against her ear.

"Sweetheart," he whispered. Nesta didn't say anything. "Look at me."

His gentle voice melted something within her. She tried to inconspicuously wipe her tears before lifting her head up and meeting his gaze.

His lips turned up in a small smile, and he brushed a stray strand of hair behind her ear. Cassian put two fingers under her chin and lifted her face up until their lips touched in the gentlest kiss she'd ever had.

This time, Nesta didn't hesitate as she kissed Cassian back.

------------------

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[definitely-not-karen]

My unnecessary and irrelevant reviews about the transformers media I have consumed.

Please let me have this. I was doom scrolling and transformers is my comfort fandom.

G1: I have not watched all of it, I do plan on doing so but I did watch it when I was younger and does invoke nostolgia. I watched it on Teletoon Retro (does that even exist anymore?) ((just googled it, rip teletoon retro)). For some reason I really like the episode The Ultimate Weapon. I am a huge fan of First Aid and it was because of this episode and I have no idea why. Rodimus is the main character of that episode with First Aid just having a very prominent role in the side story of that episode. I really liked the Aerialbots and their storyline with the time traveling and the not knowing if they’re on the right side was really cool. Honestly the animation errors and weird inconsistent story are part of the charm I guess.

RID 2001: another show I’ve only seen tidbits of. I watched this one via random episodes illegally uploaded to YouTube in the early to mid 2010s and now all those videos are taken down. As a lover of camp, this is camp. I love it. Transformers as a concept is pretty camp (which is why I adore it) and I definitely will watch all of this one day. Though Sideburn is cool and all, I do wish he didn’t chase a red sports car every episode. Otherwise he’s one of my favourites cause himbo rights I guess.

Transformers IDW 2005: So... I read the entirety of the idw comics purely because I found out Thundercracker was a screenplay writer and I wanted to read the entire story so I got the complete context of his development from scary fighter jet to an Oscar winner. I was not disappointed, I was met with queer and trans representation of all sorts, a diverse storyline with action filled parts, comedy elements, slice of life, political drama, adventure, horror, and the best road trip through space. Honestly I was not expecting transformers of all things to have queerness represented so casually and quite well in my opinion (though technically they are guilty of bury your gays, I don’t count it cause there was a clear reason for that death) Thundercracker was marked as one of my favourites cause of this series. I did experience a wonderful story because I wanted to see how he got his happy ending. My biggest criticism of idw transformers is that I love their interpretations of characters and sadly I know I’ll probably never get to seen them like that again. But if I want to experience those characters like that, I’ll just re read it I guess.

Transformers Animated: I have watched the entirety of this great show twice and it still love it. Funny characters, a human character that has a purpose, and a fun change to the formula, Transformers Animated has one of my favourite Optimus and made a Bumblebee so lovably loud they had to take away his voice so he wouldn’t become too powerful. Loved all of the characters except the human villains, Headmaster did not age well and I wasn’t in love with Ratchet’s design but his personality more than made up for it. If you want more animated, I love Transformers ReAnimated the void is filled by that series and channel. While I wish it got another season, it’s ending was satisfying enough I guess.

Transformers Prime: Smokescreen is great and was underutilizes -100/10. Just kidding, kind of I really enjoyed Prime. I’ve only watched through it completely once cause when I was a child I did not like the designs since apparently as a child I was a G1 loyalist I guess. Though now Prime has one of my favourite styles that still holds up today. Dramatic story with actual character development, I can over look that the plots a tad slow. I wish Breakdown was utilized more and it also could have benefited from an extra season but the movie wrapped it up much better than animated’s ending. Knockout is an amazing character and I was spoiled while I was watching it that he turns Autobot though I didn’t realize that wasn’t until the literal end of the series. Would’ve like a completely fleshed out Breakdown and Knockout or at least Knockout redemption arc but there’s always fanfiction I guess.

Robots in Disguise 2015: I didn’t hate it? It definitely helped that I watched this before Prime for some reason. I liked the designs, Sideswipe... himbo rights. Biggest flaw is the lack of character growth. I just want nice things for Sideswipe, Strongarm and Fixit. Grimlock was fun, I like Bumblebee trying to be a good leader and Optimus should have stayed dead. The crossover and referenced to Rescue Bots was fun and Blurr and Sideswipe was the rivalry I didn’t know I needed. But the one I really needed was Smokescreen in there too. The ending arc was interesting though not executed the best and Steeljaw did a lot of the heavy lifting for the villain side to a point where they over utilized him and his character suffered as a result. Windblade was not as bad as people online said she was, splitting the group up into two was stupid cause I’m bitter and still don’t want Optimus there. Also long list of underutilization: Denny and Russel Clay, Jazz, all the characters from prime except Optimus and Bee, Jetfire and Jetstorm, More Rescue bots, and many more! Like that girl that’s Russel’s friend that I literally don’t remember because I’m pretty sure the writers forgot about her! Anyways, in retrospect the show probably wasn’t great but I liked it I guess.

Rescue Bots: This show is way better than it needed to be. I actually love the no Decelticons and war. I’m a sucker for slice of life and especially slice of life with a twist. Human villains that were actually interesting, actual character development, continuity (somewhat), great human characters all while being target for children. I’m so happy I watched this show while I was kind of the target age and rewatching it for the third time was great cause some of the science jargon actually made sense to me. Satisfying ending too and honestly it can just appeal to everyone. Love all four of the main rescue bots and constantly wish they made evergreen designs and toys for them so they could at least make cameos in other transformers media. Sometimes it’s nice to have transformers being wholesome I guess.

Rescue Bots Academy: ... I was not the age democratic for this show and I somehow still liked it? Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve been gravitating to more wholesome content due to current events but it was actually good? Love all the students, I do miss the old crew and characters like Doc Green and Frankie are under utilized and the Burns family is almost nowhere to be found :(. Once again there’s some actual character development and Hot Shot’s mentor relationship with Heatwave is super sweet. Also actually having positive post war Decepticon and Autobot relationships in this children’s show? Woah. Biggest issue is like RID 2015; the lack of continuity and characters completely disappearing. Perceptor was fun and I was not expecting him to appear. And I love me some microscope dude. It was a good send off for the aligned continuity I guess.

Cyberverse: ending too soon. I was about to be upset that bumblebee didn’t have his voice but he had his voice in his head which was great. Episodes like the velocitron one was really good and it definitely got better with each season and peaked in the Quintesson arc and then rolled to the cancellation date. Thundercracker shouldn’t have been killed off but I’m very biased. Seeing the rebuilding of Cybertron was cool. Windblade and Bumblebee had a fun relationship. I really liked this iteration of Grimlock. Perceptor was super interesting but then they did nothing with him after the Quintesson arc which was a shame and I would have liked to see better relationships between the Autobots and Decepticons after the team up. Also wholesome Whirl was fun. Honestly this needed one more season so bad. I just think it could have been great if it got one. But it’s still good I guess.

War for Cybertron: ...let’s see how I feel after Kingdom comes out but right now, meh. For me my favourite transformers characters usually end up being side characters due to me wishing they had more screen time so in this case, Red Alert is great please show me more of Red Alert. I get what all the people are saying about the voice acting and whatever but I can look past it (though please give us Peter Cullen or let the current VC make his own Optimus voice). But one thing is that all the YouTube reviewers be saying that I completely agree with is that it’s dark. Like lighting wise. I occasionally had trouble making out what was happening because it was dark. Honestly my biggest issue isn’t a fault of the show. I like development of multiple characters to be shown so I can fall in love with a multitude of characters but due to short seasons, it makes sense to focus in completely on one character at a time. Siege in my opinion at least let me see more of the background characters rather than Earthrise but I’d probably like Earthwise more if I was a bigger fan of Optimus. I’m going to watch Kingdom but I’m not expecting to be wowed I guess.

In conclusion, I should watch Beast Wars, I’m going to re read the ending of Lost Light again and revel in the melancholic ending I adore and I really like Thundercracker and First Aid. One great thing about transformers and other franchises that have been around for awhile, if you don’t like the current thing, there’s plenty of last media and you probably won’t need to wait too long for the next piece of media you’ll hopefully like.

Please be good idw 2019, I’ve read a bit of you and I have a scrap of hope. Oh please please please be good. Give some characters the Thundercracker treatment.

[rq-s]

Title: Lucid Dreams - Chapter 2

Word Count: 2962

Warnings: Mingyu is featured heavily in the first few chapters and is directly involved in significant plot events. Due to recent events, I understand if reading these chapters may make you uncomfortable, but be aware that you’d be missing core story elements by skipping them. (Details)

Notes: While this chapter is part of a larger story, it can also be read (I hope..) as a standalone Mingyu x F!Reader (Light angst & Fluff) ! 

Lucid Dreams Masterlist

Chapter 1 | 

Yn followed Mingyu’s lead as he guided her through ordering. It wasn’t too dissimilar from a regular café, but he still walked with her to and from the lockers, letting her take the pillow and put her phone and wallet inside, smiling widely when she trusted him to keep the key while she slept. Clearly that was a boost to his ego, especially after his low mood just minutes ago. Yn sat and waited at her table; it wasn't long until the drink was ready.

“Here you go,” Mingyu set the glass bottle in front of her, along with a white napkin and a glass straw. “One Sleepy Mingyu!” There was already an awkward blush on his cheeks, but his smile was wide as he clasped his hands together with pride, like this drink was his child at its first recital.

Yn couldn’t help but want to laugh at the sound of a drink being named after someone like that, and how said person was the one who served it to her. The entire situation felt absurd. And yet she didn’t feel as nervous as she had felt when she walked in. Perhaps it was Mingyu’s vulnerability earlier and knowing that she wasn’t the only one who was nervous, but now she felt unusually comfortable.

“Thank you.” Yn smiled back to him and examined the drink. It did, in fact, look as was advertised. The glass of the bottle and straw were nearly crystal clear, and the hue of the soda itself was a powerful royal purple. The way the bubbles ran up the sides and sizzled at the top made it seem especially refreshing and sophisticated, and there was a bit of condensation on the bottle from how cold it was.

Mingyu still stood by the table, hands held in front of him expectantly. She could hear his breath hitch when she finally took a drink.  

It tasted like a mix of all the familiar grape flavors Yn knew. It was a strangely fitting mix of two distinct flavors from her memory: the artificially sweet grape juice from school lunches, and the bubbly grape spritzer from family gatherings. However, this was much better than either of those, creating its own memorable taste. It was ice cold and rich in flavor, with the perfect about of fizziness to disperse it enough and make the strength of it bearable. It tingled as it went down, as if actual light sparkles were in it.

Yn moved away from the straw just enough to be able to speak, tilting her head to look Mingyu’s way.

“This is really good.” He sighed with relief, putting a hand to his chest as if his heart had been racing. He mouthed vague praises for a moment before returning to his professional state.

“That’s good to hear! Please enjoy it, we'll keep you safe while you rest.” Yn giggled and thanked him, letting him practically skip back to the register in his glee.

Yn leaned back in her chair, holding the bottle and letting the straw rest between her lips, trying to relax. Sleeping in a public place wasn’t on her list of things that were easy for her to do. She worried that if the sleep aid couldn’t make her drowsy enough to sleep now, then she’d have trouble getting back home. Would Mingyu be crushed if I don’t sleep after drinking his drink? She didn’t mean to have thoughts like that; it felt cheap, like she was pitying him. But something about this place, about how Mingyu and Junhui acted, drew her in and played on her curiosity. She wanted to understand what unique experience they were talking about. That meant giving herself to the process, as strange as it was.

Her worries were needless, as not even two minutes after setting the empty bottle aside and leaning forward to rest her head on the pillow on the table did Yn fall asleep.

There was a jazz band playing, but she couldn’t see them. Yn couldn’t see anything, actually.

It smelled like lobster, rice, and wine. She heard some distant chatter and the sound of dishes being cleaned.

“So, how did you like it?” A voice spoke clearly, as if it was right next to her. Everything around her slowly came into view with each blink.

She was at a restaurant. An expensive and modern one. The ceiling was high, with full length windows, sheer black curtains, and crystal chandeliers. Her feet clicked against the marble floor as she shifted in her seat, and she noticed she had on expensive black stiletto heels. The dress she wore was a bright purple fabric with a black lace layer over the body and sleeves. The outfit wasn’t hers, but was one she could only dream of owning, as it flattered her body perfectly and made her feel dignified and rich.

The voice Yn had heard was coming from a man in the seat across from her. His shirt was fitted and ironed, a beautiful royal purple with a black lace collar and cuffs, matching the black of his dress pants. His face looked familiar, and his name was on the tip of her tongue.

There was an empty plate in front of them both, yet she could smell what should have been there. There was still wine in the glass though, and it smelled just like the kind she had at home.

“It was really good actually.” Yn spoke without thinking; not having thought at all.

“That bracelet looks really pretty on you.” The man spoke again, gesturing to her wrist as she held the stem of the wine glass. It was a small and simple bracelet, with square cut amethyst gems laid in hefty silver. It was perfectly sized to her wrist, and looked brand new, or at least very well cared for. It wasn’t hers either.

“Thanks Mingyu.” His name slipped from her lips, and she were shocked to hear it, finally able to recognize him. He smiled to her shyly, tilting his head with a sparkle in his deep brown eyes.

Why him?

Neither of them said anything for a few moments. Mingyu's gaze lingered on Yn while she nervously observed her surroundings. There were other tables with other couples or parties of guests all enjoying their meals, but they were all faceless. Their chatter got louder when she looked at them.

What's going on?!

“Wanna go outside?” Mingyu asked suddenly, urgently, and right on cue when the chatter began to make Yn anxious. Her senses caught up with her by that point and it felt like they were in overdrive. It was begging to overwhelm her, so she was grateful for his perfectly timed offer. Yn held onto his arm when he offered it, oddly without hesitation, and followed him into the chilly night of the terrace. The chatter stopped completely, the jazz music was stifled, and the dishes were replaced with the sound of cicadas in the distance.

“Oh wow, this is beautiful Yn.” He was audibly impressed, as if the night sky was something she had handcrafted. The terrace was at the back of the restaurant, and it seemed like nothing else existed other than what she could see. There wasn’t any light pollution and not a single wisp of a cloud, only twinkling stars and planets of different colors. The moon was a warning crescent, but was bright and sharp, high above them. Yn was in awe, just as he was.

Mingyu moved his arm out from hers and to the back of her shoulders, fingertips barely touching the fabric of her dress. It wasn’t as cold outside as she'd expected it to be, but Mingyu’s presence beside her was still warming. Any encroaching anxiousness she had felt had been washed away, much quicker than she had expected, and was replaced with wonder.

“What do you see?” He asked with an incredibly soft tone and volume, making her heart flutter.

It was hard to make out any shape or figure. Even the constellations she thought she knew weren’t visible. Mingyu waited for Yn's answer, but after a glance at her confused expressions, he spoke up.

“Look up there, at that cluster of stars.” Mingyu leaned in closer, now holding onto her shoulder, and pointed up into the sky. Yn followed his finger across the stars and found the cluster he saw.

“Now trace my finger with your eyes, okay?”

“I’ll try.” Yn chuckled, but he remained focused and slowly began tracing what he saw for her.

“Oh! It’s a puppy face!” She exclaimed as he finished the second floppy ear. The cluster had been the puppy’s nose.

“Yeah! He looks like he’s having a lot of fun up there.” Mingyu commented with a smile, finishing off the picture with a goofy tongue hanging out of the puppy’s mouth.

Yn kept searching the sky for something to show to him, but all the blinking lights seemed to keep shifting. She was still grinning as her eyes scoured the sky desperately.

She could feel Mingyu’s fingers against her shoulder, the weight and size of his hand on was unfamiliar, and she felt every tiny movement acutely. It wasn’t helping her focus at all.

“It’s okay.” He said kindly, letting go of her shoulder to rub the lower center her back, trying to offer comfort. It felt like he’d given up on her drawing something for him like he had for her. The butterflies in her stomach froze at the thought of his disappointment.

“Wait! Look there, under the moon.” An airplane suddenly came into view, flying slowly in the distance, its lights slowly blinking just like the stars in the dark night sky were. Mingyu stayed silent.

“When I was a kid, I thought airplanes in the night sky were shooting stars.” Yn admitted openly. Mingyu hummed with his hand held still against her, excluding his thumb, which massaged the middle of her back carefully. The motion was almost mesmerizing, threatening to melt her heart if she focused on it long enough. A stranger should not have this kind of power over her, intentional or not. She knew that, yet she didn’t feel afraid, or put off.

“Make a wish.” Mingyu said offhandedly. It came off as a teasing joke, but that’s exactly what Yn did as a child. Wishing on stars was the kid-friendly way of asking the universe for mercy. That’s what she told herself as a teenager, finding comfort that way. At the very least it was fun, and gave her something to hope for.

Yn thought for a moment before answering, choosing to take his teasing seriously, but did not know why her response had come to her mind.

“I wish for you to not be afraid of making mistakes or being wrong.”

She felt his stare move to her suddenly, and the touch of his hand on her back was gone. Still, she continued.

“You’re doing fine, Mingyu. You have good ideas, and you work hard. The only person you should ever have to prove your worth to is yourself. You’ll be alright.” She had no basis for what she said. No reason for him to believe her.

“Thank you.” He whispered.

It felt like it was what he needed to hear.

“Yn? It's time to wake up.” Someone was shaking her shoulder. It didn’t feel like Mingyu’s hand. It wasn’t Mingyu’s voice.

“It’s been a little over two hours Yn. If we let you sleep any longer you won’t feel very good.”

Yn groaned from having slept upright in the chair and her face tingled when she lifted her head from the pillow, as if she hadn’t moved at all in her sleep. The fact that she hadn’t fallen out of the chair was a miracle in itself. She rubbed her eyes a little too roughly and blinked as they adjusted to the light.

“Junhui?” She asked, having only that option to go off of at this point. The man chuckled.

“Nope, he clocked out about an hour ago. My name's Chan.” He pointed to the name printed on his collar with pride. That smile wasn’t one Yn could forget, and it clicked in her head that she’d seen him before too. He was the one who noticed her and let her pass on the sidewalk before, and Junhui must’ve been with him.

“Oh, okay.” Was all she managed to say. He chuckled again, understanding her grogginess.

“I’ll give you a few more minutes to wake up. I’ll be right back.” Yn merely nodded, noticing that the bottle had already been cleaned up. Eager to stretch her legs, she stood up and walked around.

It was about noon now, the store was warm and the music was still as lo-fi as it was two hours ago. The two girls from earlier had also left, and there was no one else around.

Yn's eyes went to the coolers. They weren’t fully stocked, maybe three or four of each of the juices and sodas, only two of each smoothie. I guess things like that are hard to stock when you make them all yourself, and don’t get many customers.

“We make them ourselves, you know.” Chan piped up from behind her, startling her slightly. Mingyu was with him.

“I told her that.” He pouted. Chan seemed younger than Mingyu, yet talked to him like they were the same age.

“Oh, well from what Jun said, you could barely even make it through the example run.” Chan teased.

“Hey-“ Yn and Mingyu spoke at the same time. But she didn’t pause like he did.

“-he tried his best. And Junhui was really nice about it.” It sounded more defensive than she meant it to, and Chan raised an eyebrow at it, but conceded all the same.  

“Sorry, it’s his first time having a new customer. We just like to keep him humble.” Chan elbowed Mingyu’s side, and the taller boy played along, but looked at her with a look that assured her it was fine. As sincere as his smile was, Yn still noticed the redness and puffiness of his eyes.

“Let’s get you rung up, huh?” Mingyu suggested, waving her over to the register as he quickly went behind it. Chan mumbled something about coming off like the bad guy, but she was too focused on Mingyu.

“How did you sleep?” He asked softly, just loud enough for the two of them. As if anyone was around to hear. Yn instinctively leaned in a tad closer.

“Pretty well, actually. I’m still a bit fuzzy-headed but I feel more rested than I usually do when I take naps.” Yn failed at small talk, as usual. Mingyu nodded along regardless.

“How does your stomach feel?”

“Uh.. fine? I can still taste it in my mouth but it isn’t bad, and my tummy isn’t upset or anything.”

“Okay good,” He seemed happy to hear it, “We just want to gauge how each visitor handles each drink so we can change how we mix it for them if we need to.” He justified. Ah, right, just standard procedure questions.

“Are your eyes okay?” Yn's question was blatant and caught him off guard. He didn’t answer right away.

“You look like you’ve been crying.” Why does it hurt so much to see it? He’s a stranger. And yet she knew that she’d worry about it all day if she didn’t ask.

“Ah, I’m fine. Nothing to worry about.” It was a dismissive response, but it felt inappropriate to press on.

“So… oh! Since this is your first visit, we’re only gonna charge you half price of your total! So if you’d like to get anything from the cooler, or order something else, now’s the time!” The mention of the coolers made Yn glance to them and she felt embarrassed at what drink caught her eye instantly.

Yn walked to the cooler and grabbed two bottles of Mingyu’s grape soda.

She then walked back up to the counter and set them both onto it a bit too harshly. Mingyu held back a laugh, and she held her hand out.

“I need the key to get my wallet.” Yn felt her face heating up from embarrassment. Luckily, the key was just under the register, and he handed it to her quickly. She heard him scanning the two drinks with a hand scanner as she strode over to the lockers.

“Chan already got the pillow.” He said amusedly as he watched her look for it by her table. Yn tsked at him and went back to the counter, finding her card easily.

Mingyu read her the total, asked if she wanted a paper bag, put the drinks in the paper bag, took the key back from her, and handed her the receipt all in a quick and practiced flow. Yn had already put her wallet away in her back pocket, along with her phone, but it was when she reached for the paper bag that she hesitated. Mingyu did too.

“Yn?” He was asking for her attention when she was already staring at him. She didn’t answer, despite feeling the urgency to.

“Do you still make wishes on shooting stars?”  

“…” Mingyu began to panic as soon as the question left his mouth. His eyes darted over Yn features, searching for any sort of answer from her. After a painfully long moment, she finally did.

“I haven’t seen one in a long time.”

“Make a wish on an airplane then. For me.” It wasn’t really a question, but not quite a demand. Mingyu regretted it even before he finished, and he felt sick at the sight of her fearful expression after her quick and unexpected response.

“I promise.”

[siriuslyshewrote]

5AM - Finn Shelby x Reader

Requested by @violetsdicaprio “Okay so, can I request a Finn Shelby fic where he uses the prompt “you’re safe, you’re safe, you’re safe.” Maybe Season 4 when Changretta is there and he has ordered an attack on the reader maybe because she found out something, like she overheard something in a bar?” Hope you enjoy it love xx

We run into a dark room, And we spasm to the sounds

You shouldn’t even have been at that bar in the first place, You should have been at a Shelby family meeting (something which you had been introduced to a few months ago, when Finn and yourself had gotten engaged,), but for the first time, you blew it off. That was what bugged you afterwards, and if you could communicate with your past self, you would scream not to agree to a night out with your sister and her husband. But you did. You were excited, not having seen your sister since she found out she was pregnant several weeks ago, due to clashed schedules, and a hell of a lot of work commitments - because working at the Shelby Company wasn’t your typical nine to five job -  you had yet to congratulate her in person. Finn was supposed to be accompanying you, but he had said he couldn’t at the last minute, saying Polly had insisted he was at the meeting (and wasn’t best pleased that you weren’t going to be there, either).

And so, that was how you had found yourself in your current situation, irritated at Finn after yet another argument,  tired from work, with the swollen ankles that came from the precariously high heels you insisted on wearing. You were nursing your second glass of a rather strong whiskey, standing and waiting for your sister, who was never on time, as scatterbrained as she was. You half had zoned out looking around at the people in the bar, laughing and dancing to jazz music. You looked at a young couple, smiling at each other, positively lost in each other’s eyes, and wondered just when Finn and you had lost that childhood sweetheart innocence.

You were half in another world, until you heard the utterance of ‘Shelby’ behind you, in a thick accent that sounded rather suspiciously Italian. 

Of a copy of Morrissey , Or the blues of the Deep South

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

You barely even moved whilst you tried to listen to what the men were saying. They probably didn’t expect for anyone associated with the Shelby’s to be here, in this bar several miles away from Watery Lane, a place that was nowhere near where the Peaky boys patrolled, with their guns that gleamed in the light of the streetlamps, that inspired fear in others, but a feeling of safety in you. They were speaking English, surely a way for them to fit in more with the scenery around you, to not arise any suspicion, but you’d know that accent anywhere. It had been drilled into you, practically, and as one of the men said Luca in a low tone, you knew it was the Changretta’s sat behind you. You should have ran then, sprinted away, never looked back. But you stayed, swirling your drink in your glass, watching the intoxicating amber liquid go round and round and round.

And the drugs will only hide it

“You are being stupid, Luca.” A man’s voice spoke harshly.

That fucking name Luca. The name of the man who had so ruthlessly and callously ordered his men to kill your future brother-in-law only weeks ago. He had had no thought about Esme, a woman who you loved like a sister, or John’s seven children, or his youngest brother who was slowly being forced to take John himself’s role, a role that distorted Finn so quickly it was like you had woke up one morning next to a completely different man. No, Luca Changretta hadn’t thought of any of this, and you would be happy to see him put to a stop.

The feeling never really goes “Attacking them in their own home? It is suicide, my boy.” The words he spoke were so filled with meaning that you half froze in your chair. You were sure that their was only one family that they could be talking about.

“I guess we will see tonight, if you are correct. But it was not so difficult to kill the last one, now was it?” A gloating voice, one that must have been Luca spoke, and it was all you could do to not turn around in your seat and punch him for his words. 

Your hand shook slightly, as you placed the glass down on the counter again, picking up your bag from where it had been, and slipping from your seat, a poor attempt to look casual, pushing through the doors into the cold early January air, your breath fogging in front of you, as your heart beat so violently and loudly that you heard it in your ears.

You had to warn them. At any moment Luca’s men could be at their door. You squeezed your eyes closed for a moment, trying not to picture it, not to think of Finn, because if you thought of Finn you would panic, and you couldn’t, not right now. You pulled off your high heels, feet hitting the frosted cobblestones, as you made to begin to run. You barely made it a few meters, before you heard the click behind you, the calm, cool voice.

And we won’t find love, at the bottom of a glassy hole. 

“Y/N Shelby! A pleasure to finally meet you.”

You turned, raising your hands slightly, to see Luca, standing alone, smoking a cigarette, his eyes calculating and humourous, locked with your own. He looked so casual, that to anyone else, it would look as if you two were just having a conversation, albeit one at gunpoint, the gun you could see now, aimed directly at your abdomen. If he shot it, it would guarantee a rather slow, horrifically painful, death for you.

“Y/N L/N, actually.” You snapped, your mind whirring, telling you to keep him talking, until you could figure out some fucking way to get out of this. You could feel the cool metal of your own gun, strapped to your thigh, but there was no way you could grab it without him realising.

And you don't know what you've got until it's gone

“Ah yes, you haven’t quite sealed the deal yet, have you?” He exhaled the smoke from his cigarette, as he walked closer to you, until he was only half a metre away, and you could smell the smoke. “When is the wedding?”

“We’re not going to have one of you keep killing off my guest list.” You spoke sardonically, trying not to seem as deathly afraid as you were. To Tommy, or Arthur, or even Finn, this wouldn’t be a big deal, you thought. They’d have plans for this sort of thing, but this was your first time being held at gun point. You wondered if it was the sort of thing you got a cake for at Shelby Limited, like normal companies did for an achievement.

He laughed, though his eyes didn’t express any emotion.

“You’re a funny girl, Miss L/N. It’s a shame, really, that I have to do this.” He gestured towards the gun. “But, needs must. You overheard my conversation, didn’t you?”

He stepped even closer, and you were almost sure you could hit him with the element of surprise, hit his gun from his hands. But your shaking hands betrayed that thought. What if it didn’t work? What then?

And you don't know who to love until you're lost

“You really do have to be fucking stupid if you don’t think that Tommy won’t have preempted any of the shit you plan to pull.” You spat, lowering your hands a tiny fraction. He didn’t notice.

“He seems rather distracted lately, doesn’t he? And anyone in Birmingham can tell you about the... ah, what should we call them? Cracks that are beginning to show in the Shelby family.”

“Perhaps he is distracted because your family murdered his fucking wife, Changretta.” Your hands were now barely raised, but he was distracted, each of your staring into the others eyes - fear and anger versus power and arrogance.

“As he killed my father.”

“This is nothing to do with me. Just let me go, okay?”

“You have already ruined my plans. Someone will have already found your boyfriend, I assume, and he and the rest of the Shelby’s will be on their way here.”

“So go. You know you can’t win against them. Not tonight.” Your heart was thrumming in your ears so loudly everything felt almost quiet in comparison.

And you don't know how to feel until the moment's passed

“But I can take something from them. Your time is up, Miss Shelby.”

“Y/N?” You heard a yell, an almost terrified one, but it was at least a street away. Finn would never get here in time.

Changretta turned his head towards the noise, and you took that moment, grabbing the gun in his hands, trying to wrestle it out of them, desperately. There was a bang and then there was silence, and the gun slipped from between your fingers, clattered to the floor. Your eyes regarded Changretta with shock, as your knees began to buckle, and you landed onto the cold hard cobbles, hands trying to find what was wrong.

“I’m sorry I had to do this.” For a second, you almost thought he sounded genuinely sad. “But your family took something from me. Now, I must take everything from them.”

“Y/N!” The voice was louder now, and you turned, to see a group of men at the top of the street - Finn amongst them. They came too late.

I wish you'd live like you're made of glass

You turned back to Changretta , but he had already gone, disappeared into the shadows.

It only felt like seconds before Finn was in front of you, and you had raised a shaky hand to point the direction where Luca Changretta had gone, directing the rest of the Blinders with him. Soon, the way it had always been, it was just the two of you. Finn and Y/N.

His eyes scanned you for injuries, before they landed on your abdomen, the dim streetlights enough to see the scarlet liquid on your dress, spreading across the cobblestones. It was too much, for such a small person, you thought. You weren’t shocked, as you saw it, you knew as soon as the gun went off you were hit, and now you could feel the metal bullet, lodged somewhere inside you, feel the pain that extended to your fingers and toes.

“No.” He said quietly, his eyes locking with yours. “No.”

“Finn-“ Your hands reaches out to cup his face, the blood on them leaving marks on his cheeks, but you didn’t care. You wanted to feel his warmth. You were so cold. So fucking cold.

“I need an ambulance.” He roared, looking towards the pub where you had been only ten minutes before, where several people were looking out at the scene. “Right fucking now!”

They weren’t ones to ignore a Shelby, and so they dissapearwd from the window. You knew it would do no good. You knew you-

And we've got work in the morning, But it's nearly 5 a.m.

“I’m going to die Finn.” Your eyes were filled with tears, as were his, as he tried to press your wound, ripping off his jacket, holding it against your abdomen.

“No you’re not. You’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay.” He repeated like a mantra, his voice shaky and cracking at every word.

Finn knew death. He had seen what felt like a hundred people die, had been the cause of several, and he knew from the look in your eyes, the paleness of your skin, that this was the end. Somewhere, deep down, he knew you were going to die, right there, on this rainy street, cold, and scared. He knew he could do nothing about it.

“It’s okay, Finny.” You said gently, hands still caressing his face. “You’re here. That’s all I need.”

“Don’t die on me now, yeah? Please.” That word, filled with so much emotion, as he almost begged you.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry we argued ... tonight. I just ...” You trailed off, your mind not really working, not letting you find the words. God, it hurt so fucking much. In the distance, you thought you heard the ambulance.

“It’s fine. It’s fine.”

You nodded, leaning up against the wall behind you, feeling the cold start to set into your bones. The world felt almost fuzzy. You looked up, into the night sky. The pollution in Birmingham never allowed for stars in the sky, but you wished you could see them, right now.

You felt your eyes become heavier, like someone was weighing them down with pennies.

Is this really what we envisioned?

“Love you.” You mumbled, looking back to Finn. He was crying freely now, and you wanted to wipe away the tears, but it felt like you had forgotten how to move.

“Come on, the ambulance is almost here. Just a few more minutes.”

You shook your head, a tiny movement. You smiled at the boy, the boy who had made the last five years of your life bearable, who was your first, and last, love. You thought about the house you were planning on buying together, and the crib that you one day were going to have, and the honey suckle in the garden.

And you closed your eyes.

We won't be 21 again

[skywitchmaja]

i haven’t seen too many posts about soul yet so i’m gonna link this article and also this earlier interview with kemp powers but i’ll put my own thoughts under the cut (spoilers)

aesthetically, i think it’s a beautiful movie. the animation is jaw droppingly gorgeous. the contrast between the textures and lighting in new york that looked soooo real it made me think of claymation at times, but keeping with intriguing and appealing stylized character designs, all to contrast the soft, abstracted art for the hypothetical “great before” dimension. one of my favorite designs were the startling black and white of the ‘great beyond’, which is so startling in fact, that we jump back along with joe whenever he’s faced with it. and with the main character, joe gardener (jamie foxx), being a jazz musician, music is a huge part of the artistic mood and the story itself. i don’t know much about music and especially jazz piano, but whenever joe played, it was easy to feel him getting lost in ‘the zone’

the first time we see into the ‘hypothetical’ is before joe dies— while he plays piano in a jazz club with one of his idols and gets into ‘the zone’ where we see deep blue streaks of light with touches of magenta, an abstraction of the night club spotlights, and joe feels like he’s floating along with the music. this reminded me of another of my favorite moments from a pixar movie— the scene in ratatouille where remmy shows emile the beauty he finds in food, taking a bite of cheese and a bite of strawberry and closing his as as the colors, flavors, textures swirl together in harmony. both moments serve to show the protagonist’s profound connection to their art, and how it appears to alienate them. emile the rat can almost slow down enough to appreciate the intricate tastes of food, but in the end, he best loves food for its life sustaining value, rather than the culinary art remmy loves. in the jazz club, joe comes out of ‘the zone’ a little embarrassed, to amazed stares from his idol and his former student. they’re musicians too, so they appreciate joes music more than emile appreciates remmy’s food, but he’s still alone in ‘the zone’. before that, we see one of his current students, a trombone player named chloe, get lost in ‘the zone’ while joe watches, inspired. we don’t follow her to the blue and magenta lights but we see how excited joe is to see another artist experiencing jazz the way he does. we later find out that ‘the zone’ is a place connected to the ‘great before’ where living people float in blue and magenta clouds of light when they get into the flow of music, sports, sign twirling, or whatever they’re passionate about. even though they go there in their own little light/cloud/bubbles, there’s a sense of connection in that everybody can achieve a similar feeling.

in abstract, the story itself is beautiful too. the dual protagonists compliment each other in interesting ways. joe’s goal is to get back to his old life where he is just about to make it as a jazz musician, while soul 22 (tina fey), who has yet to live on earth, agrees to help him, so when she “finds her spark”, the final step in getting ready for life, he can take her place on earth and she can stay in the “great before” as she has for millennia. both undergo character arcs and change their goals as they become more of themselves, but before any of that happens, there was one plot element that didn’t sit quite right with me...

when the trailer for soul was first released, people were excited for pixar’s first black protagonist, but disappointed because like the princess and the frog, the first black disney princess movie, it seemed like the black protagonist would NOT spend most of their time being a black person but instead as a floaty turquoise blob or a frog, respectively. well, that’s not what happened in soul. but what did happen might be worse. in attempt to get joe back in his body, a sign-twirling, pirate-ship-piloting hippie opens a portal over joe’s body in a hospital bed. but because that would be toooo easy, joe’s soul lands in the body of the therapy cat on his lap, and soul 22, voiced by tina fey of all fucking people, lands in joe’s human body. yes, both the black character model and the black  voice actor spend a majority of the movie on screen, buuuuuut the black voice actor is voicing a cat (which everyone but soul 22 hears as meows) while the actual black character is voiced by. tina fey. a middle aged white woman who’s sitcom 30 rock featured not one but three instances of blackface. there are still some beautiful moments with jamie foxx’s voice in joe’s body, including one towards the middle where joe, as the cat, begins to coach soul 22 in his body through a conversation with his mother, but as joe lets out his heartfelt words, we hear jamie foxx’s voice coming from joe’s body. i can’t say whether these moments make up for the egregious hi-jinx, especially so because i’m white, but all this to say it’s complicated. 

(biggest spoilers) as the story moves forward, both joe and soul 22 change their understanding of the world, and their goals become incompatible. soul 22 finds her “spark” while living joe’s life, and decides she may want to try a life on earth after all. the last act of the movie teeters between joe selfishly keeping his life, denying 22 of her spark and her own time on earth, and joe selflessly sacrificing his second chance so 22 could try out her first chance. part of the reason joe was so desperate to get back to his life was because he hadn’t yet “made it” as a jazz musician, and since he saw that as his “spark”, his “purpose” he believed his life would be meaningless until he did. but when joe does go back to play a show with his jazz idol, his “big break”, it’s beautiful, powerful, but it doesn’t automatically fulfill his “purpose” in life the way he was expecting. it isn’t until he’s back at his apartment, playing piano with the souvenirs 22 has collected while inhabiting his body lined up along the music stand, that he draws back on the wonderous little moments of his life-- the first time his dad brought him to a jazz club, teaching a student drums, but also smaller moments that have nothing to do with what he thought was his purpose-- his toes in the sand at the beach, moments of connection with his family, and some of 22′s memories-- looking up at the sky and watching a maple seed twirl into joe’s palm. joe realizes that his life has always bean meaningful, that he’s always had purpose, in every little moment that connected him to the world. he’s playing piano and he’s in “the zone” where he learns from the sign twirling hippie that 22 has become a “lost soul”, now that she’s found her spark and then lost it. now at peace with his own life and purpose, joe is ready to leave the rest of his life behind to get 22 her spark back. this is a little too self sacrificial to be a satisfying ending, even though joe has lived life with purpose, we still want to see him get back to his life with a newfound appreciation, in the tradition of other “near-afterlife-experience” movies like it’s a wonderful life. luckily, we get the best of both worlds-- the “great before” supervisors are so impressed with joe finding 22′s spark, they offer him a second chance at life on earth. we don’t see anything of what 22′s life will be like (though she appears to be hurtling towards the himalayas), and we just catch joe opening the door of his new life, but we trust them both to be alright, having found and understood their “spark” 

[peak-dumbass]

I don’t usually talk about my serious AUs cuz they’re mostly stupid , unoriginal, and are only based of songs that I like cuz I’m a music fan, but I decided to talk about this one cuz I like it

So y’all remember the flute things that can control the sneks?

So I’ve been thinking, what if there was a thing like that but for elemental masters?

Like if a elemental master died before passing on their element, they gotta have a plan B right?

So in this case if that ever happened the FSM made these things (maybe they’re weapons or flutes like sneks but different or maybe a different instrument for each element idk I haven’t thought that far yet) that when given to a person will grant them the power to use that specific element.

The reason Wu and Garmadon wanted to unite the EMs is so they can make sure that the EMs passed down their elements before they die so they will never have to use the plan B because if a person of evil got one of them they would be able to use that element against the them and they didn’t want that to happen and the best way to stop that is to make sure that the EMs passed down their elements.

Now flash forward to current Ninjago and a villain somehow finds out about them (maybe they somehow get the info from Wu, maybe they got revived Evil Garmadon to tell them, maybe they snuck into FSM’s scroll room, idk haven’t thought about that yet) then Wu has his usual “There’s something I haven’t told you” moment and tells the ninja about it.

The ninja ask what happens if a person gets the thing of an element but the EM of it is still alive and Wu doesn’t know, EM could loose their element, they could die, nothing could happen, he doesn’t know because it hasn’t happened before.

Hearing that the EM could die if the villain got the thing of that element they make the ninja of the element that the villain is gonna get stay on the bounty with Wu and Pixal cuz they don’t want them to get hurt (this is important info for later ;>)

So they chase after and try to stop the villain from getting the thing and when they see that the villain gets the thing but didn’t get the element they’re like “yeah we did it insert name here is ok!” But they stop when they hear the villain start laughing. They ask “what’s so funny? you lost.” And that just makes them laugh even louder and then they say “Don’t you know what happens when a person gets it while the EM is alive?” They shake their heads. “I never wanted this to control the element you fools, wanted it so I control the elemental master!”

They quickly try to get the thing from the villain but they already escaped so they quickly turn back to go to the bounty only to see that it’s wrecked, it’ll only take a few days maybe a week to fix but it’s still a lot of damage. When they enter it they see that Wu is hurt and Pixal is severely damaged and is currently shutdown waiting for Nya, Jay, or Cyrus Borg to help repair her, Wu says that the bounty would have been completely destroyed and that he would be dead if Pixal wasn’t there to protect him. They ask who did this even though they already knew it was their friend (extra angst points if it was Zane who did this)

Now here’s where I’m thinking of different endings.

Ending 1:

The villain continues to collect the things taking control of more and more of the team, until it leaves only Lloyd cuz the FSM didn’t make one for his power. He gets the help of Skylor, the other EMs, and Pixal (cuz they transferered her mind into the Samurai X mech until Cyrus can fix her body up). They all attack the controlled ninja at once distracting them so Lloyd can get the things away from the villain, once Lloyd gets the things away from the villain the ninja collapse out of energy exhaustion cuz the villain made them work nonstop so they’re really tired. Lloyd and the others proceed to kick the villain’s ass and yeet them into Kryptarium prison. Yay happy ending!

Ending 2:

The villain continues to collect the things taking control of more and more of the team and, since in season 5 once Lloyd lost his powers so did the 4 OG ninja, Lloyd is slowly getting corrupted himself. Once the final of the 4 OG ninja gets controlled, Lloyd has completely lost it and , Jazz Hands, PART ONI AND DRAGON TRANSFORMATION TIME!!! Complete with the horns of an Oni, the wings and tail of a dragon, and SCREAMING CUZ THIS HURTS LIKE A B-TCH FOR LLOYD :D Unlike the ninja, who attack normally while controlled, Lloyd attacks like a ruthless animal, complete with hissing, growling, scratching, rawring, and more! Pixal, Skylor, and the other EMs use the same plan as they did in Ending 1 and after that Lloyd still has his horns, wings, and tail cuz they look cool and he doesn’t know to get rid of them in the first place. Yay happy ending!

And...ending 3...this isn’t a very happy ending:

The villain continues to collect the things taking control of more and more of the team, until it leaves only Lloyd cuz the FSM didn’t make one for his power. The controlled ninja kidnap Lloyd in his sleep and bring him to the villain’s lair. Now that the villain has Ninjago’s greatest protecters in their grasp, they have no use for them, so they make the ninja brutally kill themselves right in front of a vengestone chained Lloyd. The villain releases their control of their minds only controlling their bodies so it’s even more scary for the ninja seeing their own hands stab themselves. By the end of it everything is silent except for Lloyd’s sobs. Lloyd is crying so loud and is caught up in his own sadness that he doesn’t notice that the villain put a gun to his head. Or Lloyd does notice and he doesn’t care anymore, he lost the only family he ever had, and all he could do is watch, helpless to save the only people that never left him throughout his life. The villain pulls the trigger, ending the era of the ninja.

I’m thinking that when the ninja are under the villain’s control, their pupils change to the shape of the villain’s pupils, so for example if the villain was a snake their pupils would be snake-like!

Also the irises of the ninjas eyes would reflect their element! 

For Kai: his would be red with little flames in the corners.

For Jay: his would be sky blue with little zaps of lightning coming out of the corners and/or down words sorta looking like he’s crying electricity

For Cole: his would be orange/yellow/red like with him always crying lava.

For Zane: his is practically glowing white and/or blue (maybe each eye switches colors, that would be neat) with little cracks of ice in the corners

For Nya: hers would be deep blue with her always crying though she can blast the water out of her eyes like a Blastoise could from it’s canons

And for Lloyd: one is golden with a green pupil and the other is purple with a red pupil

So yeah this was a lot of fun to think and write about!

[shemakesmusic-uk]

Blending left field jazz elements with club tropes to forge something truly new, Emma-Jean Thackray's work is never less than riveting. New album Yellow is out on July 2, with the composer commenting: “It’s a record about togetherness, the oneness of all things in the universe, showing love and kindness, human connection. I approached the record by trying to simulate a life-changing psychedelic experience, an hour where we see behind the curtain to a hidden dimension, where the physical realm melts away and we finally see that we are all one.” Set to be released via her own Movementt imprint, the album is led by gorgeous new single 'Say Something' - opening with glimmers of Rhodes piano, it leans on that hi-hat shuffle before Emma-Jean Thackray uses her voice to elevate the song. A plea towards communication, it's a powerful introduction. [via Clash]

Philadelphia punk rockers Mannequin Pussy have released the title track to Perfect, their upcoming EP due out May 21. The new song comes with a flashy music video that’s inspired by the kitschy glamor of Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, too. Musically, 'Perfect' is a distorted blaze of rock guitars that sees vocalist-guitarist Missy eviscerating the idea that people must manicure their own social media presence. “Last year, I found myself spending more time on my phone than I ever had in my life… I realized that through years of social media training, many of us have grown this deep desire to manicure our lives to look as perfect, as aspirational as possible,” explained Missy in a statement. “We want to put ourselves out there, share our lives, our stories, our day to day — and these images and videos all shout the same thing: ‘Please look at me, please tell me I’m so perfect.’ It’s simultaneously a declaration of our confidence but edged with the desperation that seeks validation from others.” In the accompanying music video, directed by Missy, viewers get to watch as a 10-year reunion at Sugarbush High slowly unravels. It opens on three former classmates, all three of whom are pregnant, dishing some hushed gossip and talking about how they want to get plastic surgery that’s so good they mistake one another for strangers. Cue two students-turned-drag queens making a grand entrance and strutting their stuff on the dance floor (mirroring the 1997 comedy classic) while old classmates gasp, shield their eyes, and panic. Meanwhile, Mannequin Pussy can be seen tearing up the band stage while they perform live. [via Consequence]

Following the release of her debut EP I Can’t Cry For You in December, Manchester’s Phoebe Green is back with new bop ‘IDK’. “[It] explores a complete detachment from reality, observing things from a place of total apathy and feeling as though I’m witnessing my life as a bystander with little to no connection to it,” Phoebe explains. “It’s a horrible state to be in, I think it happens when I get overwhelmed.” [via DIY]

Fast-rising French-Korean artist spill tab is unveiling her latest mesmerising single ‘Anybody Else’. Accompanied by a new vid directed by friend and collaborator Jade Sadler, spill tab says, “This song is cheesy as fuck but I love it, it’s pretty straight forward, a little shameless - the lyrics are sort of a way of expressing my love without openly saying I love you. Jade Sadler (the video director) and I just wanted to have a shit ton of fun on this one. We thought about something with narrative or plot and it was just getting to be too corny. I wanted something lighthearted and playful, so we decided we would have all of our homies in this video paired with different colors and angles and set designs. I’m so excited with the way it turned out.” [via DIY]

Willow Kayne has shared her debut single 'Two Seater'. The Gen Z talent links together huge opposing forces, creating her own potent brand of rebel-pop. New single 'Two Seater' finds Willow blazing a trail, upending convention through melding together differing sounds. The lush, 90s inspired soundscape leans on nostalgic impulses, but her punk-like disregard for convention is sheer pop futurism. Produced by DANIO, it finds Willow Kayne coming into her own completely off the bat. [via Clash]

BENEE has shared a video for her single ‘Happen To Me’. It’s the latest cut from her debut album, Hey u x, which arrived last November featuring guest spots from the likes of Grimes, Lily Allen and Flo Milli. “This song is super important to me,” she says. “It’s the opening track [on the album]. It’s the first song where I’ve written about anxiety. The lyrics are pretty dark. Life is pretty crazy right now, and I think it’s important to talk about this kind of stuff.” Of the video, she adds: “Stoked to be sharing this music video with everyone! I filmed it with a bunch of mates, and it was the coolest set! Hope you love it as much as I do.” [via Dork]

Los Angeles-based art-pop artist Kit Major has shared the music video for 'When the Drugs Don't Work,' a more introspective stab at her signature dark, electropop sound. Blending driving dance beats and thumping hyperpop-influenced synths, Kit Major creates an intoxicating elixir of soundbites and grit. Taking inspiration from Charli XCX, Billie Eilish, and Charlotte Lawrence, 'When the Drugs Don't Work' dives into the overwhelming vulnerability and panic of failing to curb a depressive episode with medication. With this release, Kit Major furthers her efforts to be open and make light of her mental health struggles. On the video, Kit Major shares, "'When The Drugs Don't Work' was filmed in one weekend, directed by my best friend in my departed grandparents' now empty house. We filmed this in quarantine without a crew and worked to create a dark & twisted fairytale together. When I first started thinking about the video, I knew I wanted a more lighthearted take to balance the darker theme of my mental health in the song. I wrote the lyric, “little princess hurt locked away inside her palace,” because sometimes when I'm isolated in my room I visualize myself as a Disney princess running inside her castle, instead of being in my bed, surrounded by empty water bottles. This song was written from a mix of different perspectives including my own, my persona, and outside voices. I think we accomplished the storytelling behind WTDDW by portraying the importance of imagination and trusting yourself."  Alongside, director Noël Dombroski adds, "WDDW is a raw, introspective song from Kit that shines a light on parts of herself that at times may be hard to face. We were lucky enough to be able to shoot at Kit's late grandparents' house, an emotionally significant location that acts in the video as the inside of Kit's head. We wanted to challenge viewers to look at every facet of themselves and realize that each part is valuable, even if you may not like it. A conversation we had a lot was about the color scene, where the image of Kit is being pulled apart by color channels. You may hate one of those colors, but you still need it to create that full image. The same can sometimes be said about depression - it may be a layer of yourself that you don't care for, but without that experience, I don't know that WDDW could exist." The music video dives into the psychological turmoil at the heart of the track with a hyperstylized touch. Spotlights wander through a funhouse version of Kit's childhood home, hunting down our protagonist, who we find trapped behind bars, downing teardrops from teacups and champagne from the bottle. Simultaneously unnerving and stimulating in a Paranormal Activity-meets Alice in Wonderland aestheticism, the music video for 'When the Drugs Don't Work' dives into the floating images of a mental breakdown with a fever dream lucidity.

Number One Popstar continues to prove herself as a powerhouse, shaking up the music world with her fresh, unapologetic beats. This week, she shares another one, her new single 'Forever 21.' And no, it’s not about clothes. 'Forever 21' begins with a kicking beat, but subdued with reflective, twinkly keys. It’s a perfect mix of existential dread and dance. Carrying this vibe throughout, it breaks in between with a beaming guitar-driven bridge. Lyrically, the track makes us question why brands and media make it seem like our twenties are our prime, when we still have our whole lives ahead of us? Despite the effervescent pop sound, Hollowell got vulnerable about her past and its effect on the song, saying, "I initially started writing 'Forever 21' when I found myself looking back on my early 20’s, wanting to recapture the hopeful and dumb feelings of my youth. But the longer I spent on the song, the more it became a reflection of the loss I faced when my parents passed away in my early 20s. I started looking at my own fear of death, of dying like them. I really didn’t know where my life was headed back then. […] I eventually turned that painful experience into a motivation to go after everything I wanted in life. To be seriously less serious, recognizing everything is fleeting.” Like her other music videos, Hollowell likes to flip popular culture and societal expetations on their head. While also bringing the fear of aging to life, she also reminds audiences to stay present instead of holding on to youth. [via Earmilk]

Following in the footsteps of Prince and Lizzo, Dizzy Fae is set to become the Twin Cities’ next pop sensation. She just dropped her brand new track, 'BODY MOVE', and much like the name suggests, it will make you want to move. Self-described as alternative R&B, Fae takes a few notes from contemporary hyperpop artists like Charli XCX and Doja Cat with an industrial iciness that plays off the technicolor pop melodies. It’s an influence you can hear on 'BODY MOVE', produced by New York’s Stelios (Young Thug, SZA). The track builds itself off a snappy, rubber band bass line indebted to pop’s recent disco revival. “It’d be so cruel if I didn’t let my body move,” Fea’s voice loops through a robotic filter. A buzzing drum machines barrels in at the chorus, transforming the lightly retro groove to a futuristic club track more akin to the production styles of 100 gecs. But for all the modern influences, the Ying Yang Twins reference shows she’s a student of all types of music. [via Consequence]

Technically, 'Your Power' is not the lead single from Billie Eilish’s newly announced album Happier Than Ever. The album includes two songs she released last year: the jazzy, well received ballad 'my future' and the contemptuous multi-format radio hit 'Therefore I Am.' However, 'Your Power' is the first song Eilish has released since announcing the new album, debuting her new look, and officially commencing her LP2 era, so there’s definitely a deep sense of anticipations around the song. Eilish teased 'Your Power' this week with a brief sound snippet featuring acoustic guitar and the words “Try not to use your power” sung to a Feist-y melody. Now the full song and its Eilish-directed music video have arrived. The completed record remains as soft, pretty, and devastatingly sad as the preview audio. In the clip, a slow pan across a mountainside in the Simi Valley reveals Eilish in the clutches of a gigantic snake. (A press release specifies that it’s an 80-pound anaconda.) [via Stereogum]

[devil-baker]

What Is Due

Initially, he had found it irksome that she was so afraid of him. 

The way she scanned the room for him when she came down for meal times, then proceeded to sit between Mammon and Beel. He could feel the apprehension from her end whenever he texted her about a matter that she was a part of, especially when he requested that she come to wherever he was so they could both take care of it. When she sat and read books or did homework in a place other than her room, and he drifted near, whether out of happenstance or to talk to her, she would tense. As if she were getting ready to run.

Lucifer had found it annoying at first. But as the weeks turned into months and her skittishness lessened only marginally, he began to feel something different; pity. And perhaps something that resembled apologeticness. What for, he had no idea.

He was aware that he greatly resembled Elaine’s ex-boyfriend. The man who had taken advantage of her since her higher education days, who had abused her for years. She had never spoken about what exactly was done to her during that time, but Lucifer could see it plain as day in the image he preserved within his mind. The image of Elaine seeing him upon her arrival to the Devildom. 

Terror was something he had seen so many times in humans. Millenia of their follies (mainly comprised of petty little wars) had terrific examples of it. But it had still caught him off guard when he saw that very same look in her eyes paired right alongside something else. Recognition. Or rather, it had been recognition only for a second before she had realized that he was someone else entirely.

He had stood by and watched as she slowly but steadily formed pacts with his brothers, til only Lucifer was left. 

When Elaine had finally formed her pact with him, there was a major element of apprehension to the way she held herself. He would never admit that it stung. Being the Avatar of Pride, he always viewed himself as above such trivial emotions. However, there were times when he would wonder with a pang if she viewed him as so awful. The same level of heinousness as her ex.

He wished that they could be closer. He invited her to tea, he offered her assistance with assignments, but she would always turn them down, claiming that she had a prior engagement. Mammon or Asmo was taking her shopping. Satan was helping her with the assignment. And so, he was left to his own devices.

His lordship was not much help. The few times Lucifer had expressed to Diavolo his desire to become closer to Elaine, Diavolo had reacted with incredulousness. 

“How could she not want to be closer to you?!” he would exclaim. Diavolo would go on to list Lucifer’s qualities, such as his meticulousness, his love and caring towards his brothers, his refined tastes, his intellect, and, inevitably, his beauty.

Lucifer was not deaf to the rumors. Those surrounding Diavolo, about him harboring romantic feelings for Lucifer. He often thought there was some truth to it. After all, Diavolo, without a hint of subtlety, grabbed every opportunity to shower Lucifer with gifts and attention, much in the same fashion of that between lovers. He was flattered by such special treatment on his lordship’s part, and perhaps there was even a time when Lucifer had reciprocated such romantic feelings. But nowadays, there was far too much on his plate for him to consider pursuing a relationship of that sort.

So preoccupied with keeping tight leashes on his brothers and their antics, his academics and administrative duties, managing the nuts and bolts of the exchange program. Such nuts and bolts meant keeping an eye on the exchange students as well as maintaining friendly relationships between them. Which was hard to do when one such as Elaine was so nervous around him. Someone so very powerful, peculiar, easygoing, even alluring, and yet so easily frightened by him. 

He contemplated all of this as he drifted through the house. When his train of thought came to an end, Lucifer found himself in front of Elaine’s bedroom door. He furrowed his brow, gnawed at his lip, then rapped on the door quickly, three times.

“Come in!” Elaine called through the door.

Lucifer hesitated, then turned the door handle and entered.

Elaine was seated at her desk, scribbling away in her academic notebook and occasionally glancing at her textbook. Soft jazz was playing from her laptop. She didn’t even look up.

“Sorry, I’m kinda drowning in homework right now. It’s rather fascinating, though!” she laughed softly. “I’ll be up all night studying at this rate. Not that I mind. I like having something interesting to focus on!”

Lucifer found himself smiling. He hadn’t known that she could be this chatty.

“Sorry, I’m just goin’ on and on. Need someth-” She finally looked up. 

The change was instantaneous. Her pen scratched hard and her smile vanished. Elaine stared at Lucifer with wide eyes and didn’t move at all, but she seemed to be trying to make herself seem smaller, less noticeable.

“... Need something?” she managed, her voice exponentially quieter. 

“Not really. Elaine, I wanted to check in and make sure that you are doing alright.”

“I’m fine.”

“Are your classes going well?” 

“Yes.”

“I see.” He paused. “Is anything... troubling you of late?”

“Not really.”

This was going nowhere. The uneasiness was almost painful. 

“Elaine.”

“Yes?”

“I want you to know that I am very fond of you,” he said awkwardly. “I will do my utmost to protect you and ensure your wellbeing... Even if you yourself are afraid of me.”

Lucifer believed that was the end of it and he turned to leave.

“... Please wait.” Elaine’s chair scraped against the hardwood as she rose from it. She came around the desk and approached him.

“I... I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“I keep... I keep holding you to the same standard as I did with him. And it’s not fair to you. Y-you’re tryin’ to connect with me, I can see it. But I’m just over here pushing you away. You look just like him, you know. ‘Cept his hair was longer. And curly. And he had blue eyes. But the way you carry yourself, your build, your facial structure, even the way you speak sometimes are all so reminiscent of him. When I first arrived, I was so... so terrified that you were him, just with a haircut and colored contacts. I thought I was gonna end up back at square one and all the hurt he’d ever caused me was gonna start all over again. But livin’ here with y’all... I can see that you’re not him, and yet I still distance myself kind of as a reflex.”

“Elaine...”

“So, I’m sorry. I really am.”

“... Thank you.”

Elaine hesitated, then slowly came closer to Lucifer. She wordlessly raised her arms and wrapped them around his torso. 

Lucifer blinked in shock, then gently returned the embrace. Nothing was said, but he was pleasantly surprised at how lovely Elaine’s hug was. She held onto him tightly, her body warm and soft. Her hands slightly rubbed into his back, her touch feather-like. It was the sort of hug where the receiver could tell that the giver was so perfectly, absolutely comforting. Like a warm blanket on a cold night. 

Before he could stop himself, Lucifer melted into the hug. Elaine staggered under his weight.

“Whoa, are you okay?” she asked.

“My apologies.” He quickly stood up. “That was... You are surprisingly good at embraces.”

“Heh. Thanks.”

“... Once you are finished with your studies, would you care to join me for a cup of tea?”

A smile tugged at the corners of Elaine’s mouth. “That sounds nice. Once I’m done, if it’s not too late, then yes.”