#Needless to say; I cannot wait until they stop being stupid and actually talk it out in a few chapters

[astro-b-o-y-d]

"Why don't they just TALK TO EACH OTHER" I was saying this last week about the Stans, and yet here I am: saying it once again about my own writing.

[skellebonez]

Prompt 76, MK accidentally lets it slip to Pigsy that Monkey and Macaque are “seeing each other” as in not quite dating but been on a few “dates”...again. Pigsy who is on a low profile and hasn’t told MO who he really is, let’s it slip how he thinks “his eldest brother can do better” and MK is very confused.

Feel free to ignore!!!!! I’ve never asked for something like this before and if I did it wrong feel free to ignore it!

I may or may not have a soft spot for protective younger sibling type scenes in media so I had way too much fun writing this.

It could be worse. They could be dating. Wait? They are?!

"I don't understand what that damn monkey is thinking half the time," Pigsy said with a sigh, pinching the bridge of his snout with a groan. "Just... let Macaque on the ship, yeah, that totally isn't going to backfire. Not like he has ulterior motives at all, not like we just learned all the stuff he pulled over the last year including trapping three of us in a lantern to fight you and teach you some kind of lesson.”

Things had been tense on the drone ship for the last month. They’d barely begun on their journey before a certain immortal monkey managed to catch them off guard and chase them for multiple days under the White Bone Spirit’s influence.

It became apparent very quickly that she was using him to toy with them, a sort of gloating in her victory. Well, joke was on her. Sending him after them meant they were able to see just how far her influence and control actually reached and they were able to find a way to free him from that with more than a little force and some stolen artifacts.

The fact she hadn’t sent anyone else, however, was... concerning to say the least. If she wasn’t worried about losing her grip on Macaque, of all people, that did not bode well for them.

But for the moment that was neither here nor there. What mattered in the moment was that in the month since the immortal monkey had managed to be dragged onto their ship to recuperate Wukong had become far too comfortable with letting him have free reign over whatever he wanted to do on the ship (within reason).

And Pigsy didn’t like that. Aforementioned soul trapping in a lantern and trying to turn MK against his teacher and all that. Pigsy didn’t trust Six-Eared Macaque as far as he could throw him.

"It's been a month and nothing's happened yet?" MK offered not so helpfully, shrugging with an awkward nervous chuckle. “I mean... unless he’s playing a really long game he’d probably have done something by now, right?”

"Well... It could be worse," Pigsy admitted with a chuckle as he stretched out and started to cut up the ingredients for his lunch dish. "They could be dating."

MK made an awkward choking sound as he inhaled his water.

"Wait...?" Pigsy turned around slowly, leveling the young man with a half glare. He stared for a moment, watching as MK refused to meet his gaze. Looking left and right and literally anywhere not at Pigsy’s face. "THEY ARE!?"

"I didn't tell you!" MK shouted, jumping up and hiding behind the table and pointing at Pigsy dramatically. "I said nothing, you cannot pin this on me!"

"YOU KNEW AND YOU KEPT IT A SECRET!?" Pigsy yelped, tone not angry but loud enough to make MK freeze with wide worried eyes. The chef stopped, sighing again as he took in a calming breathe before continuing. "Ok... ok... MK, I ain't mad, being mad at you would be ridiculous. But exactly how long have you known?"

MK frowned, looking up at the ceiling in thought before a tentative but curious look passed over his face.

"...I can neither confirm nor deny that I caught them smooching in the med bay two weeks ago."

"TWO WEEKS!?"

“You didn’t hear it from me!” MK said, pointing at himself as he backed away with another nervous laugh. “I have plausible deniability, you figured it out on your own!”

“Of all the hard headed thick skulled bad decisions that stupid-” Pigsy mumbled to himself, burying his face in his hands as he held back a scream of frustration. “There are so many men. So many men! So many ex-enemies even! But no, he had to go and hook up with his actual ex that tried to take over his identity and kill his entire travel party!”

“To be fair he kinda seems to be changing for the be-wait...?” MK started to offer, watching at the chef paced around the kitchen. “How... do you know they used to date? I don’t think even Tang knows that.”

“He could have dated literally anyone else and he chose to get back with Macaque,” Pigsy said with another sigh, removing his hands from his face with a scowl. “I knew he was dense but elder brother can do so much better.”

“I’M. SORRY?” MK yelled, this time being the one to startle the other. “ELDER. BROTHER?”

Pigsy froze, eyes wide in horrified realization. “... you didn’t hear that.”

Pigsy ran out of the room, MK hot on his heels.

“PIGSY COME BACK YOU NEED TO EXPLAIN AND NOT MAKE RASH DECISIONS!”

Pigsy did not go back to the kitchen, instead heading straight to the rec room that he knew the two monkeys were spending most of their recent time in when not off alone who knows where (now he knows where). MK was following right behind, trying to both get an explanation out of him and to dissuade him from confronting the Monkey King and also looking generally very confused and concerned.

He didn’t succeed before the pig demon slammed the rec room door open.

"WUKONG!" Pigsy shouted from the doorway, startling the two immortal monkeys from whatever conversation they were engrossed in . "You. Me. Deck. Now."

"I-"

"NOW. ELDER BROTHER."

The facial journey through confusion to realization to horror on Sun Wukong's face was worth the delayed reaction shout of "WHAT DO YOU MEAN ELDER BROTHER!?" from the other immortal sitting next to the Monkey King.

“BAJIE!?” Wukong yelped.

“YOU’RE ZHU BAJIE!?” MK yelped in much the same tone.

“Oh fuck,” Macaque whispered under his breath.

“DECK!” Pigsy repeated.

“BAJIE WHAT THE FUCK!?” Wukong repeated himself.

“ZHU BAJIE!?” MK also repeated.

“How many other enemies did I piss off that are on this ship?” Macaque continued, seemingly resigned to his fate.

“YES I’M BAJIE STOP YELLING MY OWN NAME AT ME!”

Needless to say that conversation was the most incoherent non-productive mess they had on the ship in the last month. Until Sandy burst into the room and forced them all to talk it out peacefully.

Macaque did, in fact, learn how many old enemies he had on the ship when Sandy came clean that he was also Sha Wujing.

And Pigsy did not, in fact, manage to talk any sense into his elder brother given how much MK was yelling at him for keeping his identity a secret from him.

Wukong just sat with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands wondering what in the actual hell his life had become.

(The next day, after a night of rest and a day talking to MK and apologizing and explaining everything, Pigsy caught the two immortal monkeys asleep cuddled on the couch of the rec room and decided that his elder brother could make his own decisions. And maybe MK had a point, given Macaque hadn’t done anything. Yet.

If he pulled a blanket over the two of them while they rested and they noticed no one said anything about it. And if Macaque snuck off the ship and there were, coincidentally, some rare ingredients for some dishes Pigsy missed making and a few scrapes and bruises on the immortal when he resurfaced... well, he didn’t say anything either. But he made it a point to have more mangoes and plums on hand.

Just in case.)

[ampleappleamble]

—

Debriefing the Crucible Knights went about how Axa had expected it would. She and her companions had staggered out of Heritage Hill only to be immediately escorted back to Crucible Keep along with the little girl they'd rescued from her family crypt, the poor waif falling asleep on Edér's shoulders as they'd made their way through town. Once inside, they'd had their wounds tended to and their bellies filled as they recounted the events of their harrowing mission, repeating themselves over and over to one bewildered Knight after another. By the end of the evening, rumors, misinterpretations, and half-truths about the "end of the Curse of Heritage Hill" were all anybody in Crucible Keep could talk about– unless one preferred to gossip about the mysterious Watcher of Caed Nua instead.

Restful sleep was coming harder and harder to Axa, and the troubling trend had continued as they'd bedded down in the barracks that night. She'd woken the next morning feeling worse than she had when she'd laid down the night before, and her attitude had very much reflected it. She'd particularly let her ire show when her breakfast had been interrupted by a man who'd introduced himself as Penhelm, a name she recognized as the one belonging to the Knight that Osric had sent her after the day before, hoping she could recover his family's breastplate from the snooty little gossip.

"Is it true that you're not actually a Watcher, but merely a Cipher? Like the... others of your kind down at Hadret House?" Arrogance and curiosity mingled in his insufferable smirk as he spoke, not even having had the decency to wait until she'd finished chewing.

"That depends," she'd replied, her mouth still full of bacon. "Is it true you steal people's family heirlooms after talking shit about them and getting them kicked out of the service?"

Needless to say, she had gotten nowhere trying to convince him to do right by Osric. So on her way out, she'd passed through the scriptorium and, with a careful eye and a whispered word to Aloth, she'd left Crucible Keep that morning with Penhelm's soul lineage affidavit tucked away in her satchel.

She had been on her way to Hadret House to have the affidavit examined for authenticity, hoping to gain a bargaining chip that might pry the heirloom armor from the little bastard's hands, when a messenger had appeared at her shoulder, letting her know that her presence had been requested... at Hadret House. She'd almost laughed at the absurd coincidence– until the messenger told her exactly who had summoned her there, his tone low and reverent.

"Who is Lady Webb," she'd asked, "and what exactly does she want with me?"

The messenger had been young, with a casual, almost flippant air about him, but he had still had the good sense to lean close and keep an eye out for eavesdroppers. "You don't know her, milady? She's the directress of Dunryd Row, Defiance Bay's investigative peacekeeping force. No one's actually met her face to face, in... I don't know, a long time. But they say that despite her advanced age, her mind is a steel trap and her will is an iron fist. She and her Cipher operatives keep the city safe from threats that most kith are never even aware exist..."

Axa had listened, at first. She'd tried to listen. But as he'd spoken, as he'd thrust the wax-sealed summons into her hand, she'd found herself distracted by an all-too-familiar feeling. Something was pulling her toward Hadret House, something that had nothing to do with Dunryd Row or Ciphers or Lady Webb, and she'd turned away from the messenger in the middle of his speech to pursue it, helpless to resist.

He was there. Just outside of Hadret House, on the far side of Brackenbury. He was there, and she approached him–

–she approached him, any confidence she'd had before dissolving now in her sick stomach, trickling down her trembling limbs. She couldn't do this.

She had to do this.

He was already watching her, but the impact of his gaze was no less powerful than if he'd turned dramatically to face her. It was as though he knew what she was going to tell him already.

Of course he does, she thought. He knows all. He knows what I've done. What I–

"You look as though you've seen a ghost, dear."

Lady Webb chuckled in her throat, but her face did not laugh with her. "Although, perhaps you have. After all, you are the Watcher who wrested the ruins of Caed Nua away from poor, mad Maerwald, as well as the Watcher who ended the... 'curse' of Heritage Hill, if my reports are correct." The old, frail woman rose from her desk, crossed the room with a deceptive grace. "And they are."

Axa kept her head low, but lifted her eyes to meet Webb's gaze. "Why have you asked me here–"

"–You know why I have asked you here, child."  With anyone else, she would have felt that she was being chastised, but with him, she only felt kind, fatherly concern. "Your fellow missionaries have reported a change in your behavior recently. You neglect your duties, you are quiet and distant. What troubles you so to make you act this way?"

Tears stung her eyes. Her whole body quaked. Her breath caught in her throat. The quivering pit in her stomach broadened and her heart fell into it, and for a second she thought she might actually vomit, but instead it was her confession that flew from her mouth:

"Your Eminence, I... forgive me, but I wish... I wish to leave the order."

He folded his hands, frowning–

"You're not a stupid woman, Axa Mala. You should know why I've asked you here. Defiance Bay's concerns are my concerns, you see, and evidently, they are yours as well. But neither of us is overly fond of beating around the bush, so let's cut straight to it, shall we?" Lady Webb stopped at her bookshelf, turned to face Axa again, her keen eyes piercing the other woman's mind, her soul. "Why do you seek the Leaden Key?"

She had known, somehow, that Webb would ask her that, but it still took her by surprise. Nevertheless, Axa didn't waste time asking how she'd known. "I'm looking for someone. A man I saw in the ruins of Cliant Lîs. He... did something to me. And I need him to undo it."

The wizened old Cipher nodded at her, then, let her eyes slip shut, her face twitching–

–"You have been nothing if not an extraordinary asset to us," he said, slowly pacing as he spoke. "Your conviction in our cause has inspired your contemporaries to greatness, and together with them you have brought the light of redemption to thousands, if not more! What could possibly shake your faith in yourself like this? Your faith in us?"

Somehow, without her realizing, he had ended up crossing the room to stand directly before her. He looked into her eyes, worry and sorrow emanating from him. "What's wrong, Anthea? What happened?"

She squeezed her eyes shut but she still saw him in her mind, still saw the compassion in his eyes that a despicable sinner like her could never deserve–

Lady Webb opened her eyes, gasping softly.

"The gods are cruel," she murmured. "The man you seek is none other than the grandmaster of the Leaden Key himself: Thaos ix Arkannon."

The name echoed in Axa's head, the bearded man's masked face floating before her mind's eye. It felt like she'd always known him, or at least known of him, but only now could she put a name to the face.

"Thaos," she whispered–

"I cannot stay, Your Eminence. I'm... I'm tainted, wicked and weak." Anthea lowered her head, letting her tears fall to the floor. "I've done something terrible, something I can never undo, an unforgivable act of blasphemy. I fear– no, I– I know I am beyond redemption."

She curled in on herself, wracked with sobs, unable to continue. Shame and guilt burned her face, but she knew she deserved to burn for real, to burn forever. But even to cleanse her soul with holy flame would be too kind a mercy for a traitor of her magnitude. How could he, how could the gods ever forgive such a miserable wretch like her?

His hand fell onto her shoulder, steady and strong–

"He is a man unlike any other," Webb explained, her voice quiet and serious as she made her way back to her desk, hands folded behind her back. "The Leaden Key is an organization dedicated to obscuring, muddling, and destroying information, including any evidence pertaining to themselves or their activities. There's no way to be sure, but what little we've found suggests that they have supposedly existed for over two thousand years." She looked pointedly at Axa, one eyebrow cocked. "And it was Thaos who founded them."

"But that's impossible," Aloth blurted. "Even the longest-lived elves haven't even come close to..." He trailed off, twisting his fingers together anxiously, dropping his gaze to the floor.

"You'd think so, wouldn't you?" Webb sighed, one drooping corner of her mouth briefly lifting into a smirk. "But when it comes to the Leaden Key, little is as it seems. If what we've managed to learn about him so far is true– and there's no guarantee that it is, but it's the best explanation we've got– he is one of Woedica's Favored, an agent of the Queen Who Was who has been gifted with the blessing of eternal life. In practice, this means that every time he dies, Thaos' soul is guided by Her hand to be reborn in an almost identical vessel, and once he reaches puberty, he Awakens to all of his past lives at once, in order to continue the work of his Mistress on Eora. So strong is his soul, in fact, that he can supposedly even project it out of himself and into others, crushing the will of lesser souls and usurping their bodies for his and his Queen's own ends." She regarded Axa with pity. "He is almost certainly the most dangerous, elusive, powerful man on the face of the planet. And while I can't deny being grateful for the company, you have my deepest sympathies that your path has also crossed with his."

"Why was he in Teir Nowneth the night the machine was activated in Heritage Hill?" Axa demanded, her head spinning. "What was he doing in Cliant Lîs? How did he Awaken me–"

–"So you have sinned," Thaos proclaimed gravely. "You have erred, stumbled on your path, and now you would cast yourself into the Void. Is that it?"

Anthea wanted to cover her face with her hands, wanted to run, to hide, but she could barely even find it in herself to draw the breath to answer him. "What I've done, no god could forgive me. Now or ever."

He brought his other hand around, then, gripped both of her shoulders firmly. "My child, my dear child, if you truly believe that then I have utterly failed you, as a teacher and as a leader. There is no sin so grevious that it cannot be absolved, no path so dark the gods cannot light the way to salvation! As long as you do not turn your back on Them, They will never turn Their backs on you."

She knew it couldn't be true. It was too good to be true, and nothing in her life had ever been half so good. Not since she was a child. But... would he really lie to her like that? He never had before. At least, she didn't think he had. Anthea slowly lifted her head to look at the man who would save her from herself–

Lady Webb sat back down, letting her chin hover just above her steepled fingers. "That's what I'd like to know. There's quite a lot I'd like to know about Thaos ix Arkannon and the Leaden Key, as I rather imagine you would, too. That's why I summoned you here today– to work with you, pool our resources, compare notes. The Key has been... active as of late, and where they go, you seem to follow, righting their wrongs. As you did in Heritage Hill." She smiled, her thin, red mouth like a slit cut into her face. "I'd like you to continue to do so, and to report your successes back to me. In return, Dunryd Row's resources shall be at your disposal should you need them, and with a bit of luck– well, a lot of luck, in truth– perhaps we two can corner him and get our answers at last."

There was something behind Webb's eyes, something mysterious and passionate and unrelenting that Axa couldn't quite place, but she knew instinctively that it wasn't for her. Whatever it was that drove this woman, whether it was a thirst for vengeance or a desire for the truth or a need for justice, the ferocity behind her eyes was only for Thaos.

She could respect that.

"Very well," Axa replied, "I accept–"

–"I... I want to believe that's so, Your Eminence," she stammered, "but even if it were, I don't deserve Their clemency."

"Some among the gods would see you punished, it's true," he murmured. "But the sting of the lash passes in an instant compared to the eternity afterward in which you shall enjoy the boundless mercy, the cleansing forgiveness, the all-consuming love of the gods. That is what makes one deserving– devotion. As long as you devote yourself to Them, They will return the faith you place in Them a thousand fold."

The tears fell afresh from her eyes, this time from sheer relief. Somewhere deep in her heart, she must have known he could make it all right, could show her the path to absolution. He always did. That was the real reason she had come here, wasn't it? What had she been so afraid of?

Thaos smiled warmly at her, his hands still gently clutching her shoulders. "Stay with us, Anthea. We need you. The gods need you. They have entrusted you with the truth of Their Word– will you return that trust?"

"I will," she whispered–

"Now, before you go– what was that bizarre display you put on just outside our door?" Lady Webb was already looking through another stack of documents, but she spared Axa a bemused glance. "It's not a good look, dear, standing around with your eyes glazed over and your mouth agog. You're liable to catch flies."

"I'm an Awakened Watcher," the orlan retorted curtly. "The memories from my past life tend to be a bit more vivid than the ones other Awakened kith might experience. And I don't exactly control what I see or when I see it."

The old Cipher shrugged. "I meant no offense. Only trying to warn you that you may have unwittingly broadcasted your whereabouts to someone who seems to have a bone to pick with you." She gestured vaguely toward the door to her office, and it swung open, an orlan man stepping in as though he'd been expected.

Webb looked at Axa the way a jaded teacher might at an impudent pupil. "Well? Show him the affidavit."

She blinked, and somewhat reluctantly, she reached into her satchel and produced Penhelm's affidavit, the one Aloth had pilfered for her at Crucible Keep. "Uh... Can you tell me if this is genuine?" she muttered.

The older man took it from her, looked it over briefly, and shook his head, wrinkling his nose in disgust as he handed it back. "Not at all," he pronounced. "Being perfectly honest, it's a rather shabby forgery, too."

Webb sighed, shuffling her papers. "Thank you, Kurren; you may go." The orlan gave her a respectful nod and left to return to his work downstairs as the directress of Dunryd Row grinned wryly at Axa. "Now you have your bargaining chip. Penhelm is waiting for you on the street outside. Do exercise caution, dear, and try to keep the blood off of my siding. We've only just had it repainted last month."

"Actually," the little woman smiled slyly, "I think I've got a better idea."

—

[secret-engima]

Nox keeps giving the media meltdowns. How's that, y'know, working out for him? And what's the general reaction around the Citadel crew to the media circus? Also, how do people feel when they realize exactly how /powerful/ Nox is?

Hmmm for the most part, Nox is ... ambivalent to how many times he sends the media into a tizzy. He’s got memories of 2k worth of royalty and scandals, he remembers the invention of media networks and sometimes dreams of the invention of the flipping printing press. There is literally nothing they can say about him that he doesn’t already have memories of somehow. Honestly, it’s .... alternately tiring and hilarious to him. He kinda wishes people would take a chill pill, but on the other hand, since Regis would never force him to deal with the media circus unless Nox willingly agreed to it, he doesn’t particularly care. At least until he wants to- you know- leave the Citadel and go literally anywhere in Insomnia and Then It Becomes A Problem (Nox misses the days he was just a nobody with earrings and baggy clothes. So much). Though, since he knows that nothing he can do or not do will calm them down, he does occasionally indulge in intentionally poking them with a proverbial stick.

By Citadel crew I’m uncertain to if you mean Regis and Co + Chocobros or the long-suffering Citadel press corps, so I will just do both-

-Regis feels So Very Sorry for his eldest. He knows he couldn’t keep Nox a secret forever, but he honestly had ... hoped it wouldn’t get this bad. He’s afraid for a while that the media things will depress Nox or make him afraid to leave the Citadel/angry at being Regis’s son, but Nox just rolls his eyes at everything and ignores the media hounds with catlike ease (by which I mean he spaces out into the distance with a neutral expression and occasionally does the human version of pushing things off other things to distract them).

-Clarus knew this was coming. He knew it was going to get so much worse when Axis’s existence came out (it did). He ... would feel bad about this but this is just- royal/celebrity life. This is a slightly more hysterical version of normal. Honestly it’s the noble society he’s more worried about (he realizes quickly that his fears are unfounded, for a kid who’s been unknown for years he can verbally tear nobles to shreds with the best of them. Clearly a talent inherited from the Izunia side of his heritage).

-Cor hates the media. Always has, always will. No time for it. Not after all the stuff they threw out about him becoming a Crownsguard and then alter their role in cementing his hated Immortal title. Is fully waiting and ready for Nox to get mad enough at the media to condone Cor going out and doing Something Stupid And Maybe Bloody about it. Unfortunately, Nox never does, so Cor has to just sit and seethe and occasionally laugh evilly over Nox’s latest trolling behavior.

-Noctis doesn’t even know about the media storm for   y e a r s. He’s the bby Crown Prince, you really think anyone is gonna let this kid watch the news channels and the gossip talk shows? No sir. Not on Ignis’s watch. Noctis DOES hear about it at school though, with students bugging him about it and even TEACHERS side-eyeing him like they expect something Dramatic to happen. Noctis eventually gets sick of it and punches another student in the face probably. Ignis is scandalized, Regis tries to gently explain that no, Noctis cannot throw someone in dungeon because they said nasty things about Nox and no he is not explaining what those nasty things mean.

-Ignis is ashamed to look back and realize that he once bought into about 80% of the media meltdown over Nox. Now that he knows Nox better, he knows that none of it is remotely true and the world is not going to turn Game of Thrones on him. Now he’s ... very insulted on Nox’s behalf, but understands that it is not his place to intervene (though he does give patented Frosty Looks at any reporters that come sniffing around the Citadel forever after).

-Gladio does not watch conventional TV. He watches action blockbusters that have explosions, documentaries on wildlife/camping/hunting/sword-making and Iris’s favorite show about magical girls and talking, rainbow colored Chocobo companions when she makes the puppy eyes at him. That’s it. Is ... nominally aware of news and social media having fits over Nox but Does Not Care so long as they don’t bother Nox and nobody actually tries anything against Noctis’s big brother.

-Citadel press corps kinda hates Nox’s guts. On one hand, he is a Model Prince because he doesn’t go out and get drunk, doesn’t have wild parties, doesn’t have any actual scandals that they need to cover up or spin positively. On the other ... refuses to do press conferences. Refuses to do interviews. Refuses to do anything to help them mitigate the media meltdowns that his mere existence causes (and the events of the Music Drabble I have yet to write, OH BOY do they hate him for that). Just- hides in the Citadel and only makes appearances when it’s a mandatory ball/gala/thing or when he’s accidentally unleashing another media Meltdown. Agrees to one (1) private interview when he’s 18 and even then it’s ONLY if he can talk to some random, unknown rookie who runs a gossip column. They, by turns, want to strangle him and praise his existence, but at least he isn’t as bad as Regis and Clarus were in their day.

-It- would take a long time for people to really know how powerful Nox is. Like- out in the wilds of Lucis proper? There ARE people who know he’s way stronger than he lets on (the Hunter Corps and their families that he’s saved a bunch of times, plus everybody in Hammerhead who politely pretended Cid wasn’t housing the Nif Chancellor and his LC nephew for two years). The Hunter Corps, out of everyone, have the best idea of just what Nox is capable of, because they’ve ... put together a few things over the years. Like how Nox usually crops up in the area a day or so before a Niflheim base gets shredded/blown up/otherwise Wrecked™ for seemingly no reason. But his Real Power? That ... I’m honestly not sure how that would come out.

-But hypothetically, sure, let’s say something happened that made Nox go Full Fury on some poor hapless Nif soul (or army, probably an army). I’m gonna picture ... a Incident with a Kingsglaive held area. Nox is out there for like an official inspection or something, one of the Very Few media things he ever agrees to, when there’s a full on attack. While the poor Media People who are live streaming this freak out and the glaive get ready for a slaughter, Nox just- real calmly orders the glaive to Stay In the Base and keep an eye on the media people. Calmly walks out the base gate without so much as a by your leave and starts limp-striding his way toward the Impending Invasion of Death, Axis right at his side, just as calm (Axis knows what’s coming after all). Some glaives try to follow him because Obviously only to smack face first into - a Wall. A genuine magic Wall like the one encircling Insomnia.

-The entire Lucian nation plus whatever non-Lucian channels manage to pick this up get a livestream view of Nox raising a mini Wall around the base to keep everyone safe, then casually strolling out toward the Invasion force and just-

-Decimating it.

-About halfway between the invasion force and the base, Nox stops and raises a hand to the sky, a sword appears in his grip, and everyone present can feel magical pressure suddenly build-build-build until the air turns blue (the Wall keeps everyone inside safe from the intensity of the pressure except Axis, who doesn’t need it, he is Nox’s Shield and Nox will never hurt him). The Nifs release their war Behemoths on the field, gunships are coming in for the kill, and then-

-His sword sweeps down and the world shakes under the force of the pure energy wave that rises from his blade, sweeping across the distance between him and the enemy and either breaking, scattering, or straight up disintegrating anything in its path. An imperial dreadnought splits in half and then breaks into dozens upon dozens of pieces, the war-beasts caught in the path of the wave are just- gone. So are the MT units and gunships.

-Ever seen the upgraded armiger attacks from the Royal Version of FFXV? Yeah, picture those, but cranked up to eleven. Or just picture those and then imagine being an ordinary civilian seeing that for the first time. Ghostly blades whirling around Nox’s form, defending him from bullets and debris only to lash out as literal waves of energy or a death laser.

-Needless to say, Nox destroys that invading force single-handedly in a display not unlike the legends of Ragnarok or Armageddon, all while holding a Wall around the base. He then calmly turns, walks back to the base, asks if everyone is okay, and upon getting the all clear-

-Collapses. Straight up flops over into Axis’s arms while on national live television because someone forgot to eat anything today and spent most of the previous night fretting over nightmares or something (the rest of the world assumes he pushed himself way too far with that display, but really he could have done more if he hadn't already been tired/hungry and Axis knows it).

-For once, the media meltdown isn’t punctuated by frenzy but by a very, very fragile, frightened silence.

-It’s been ... a long time since a Lucis Caelum has Truly unleashed their power on the field and Nox is no ordinary LC.

-Clips of Nox’s stunt circulate for months, are analyzed by historians and doctors and talk show hosts for precedents and health risk and just sheer What levels. Social media ranges from cheering Nox on to snidely wondering why LCs aren’t doing that more often to a huge outpouring of concern for the prince who just fought off a literal army and then collapsed like he’d been decked in the head. The Hunter Corp all pool their resources together to get this idiot kid a care package, Cid probably comes over from Hammerhead to yell at him while Cindy bear hugs and cries all over his clothes.

-In Niflheim ... a lot of people are reevaluating their stance on the war. Because if that is what just one Lucis Caelum can do, then what’s going to happen when there are two of-age princes who are not chained down by the Wall?

-A lot of nobles in Lucis are also reevaluating their stances on the illegitimate prince, because UMMMMMM that’s the kind of thing that only happens in blockbuster dramas, and Nox did it in real life. More than that, he knew he could do it, as evidenced by how calm he was when he gave the order for everyone to stay.

-Lots of internet conspiracy/theory people try to figure out just how powerful Nox is and if he’s an anomaly in the bloodline because seriously can all LCs do that????

-A lot of people, for a lot of different reasons, are very, very scared of Nox now. Either because they still believe that GoT is inbound and that just put the kibosh on a lot of their rebellion daydreams or because Nox is already a wild card and now he’s proven that he’s a supremely dangerous wildcard.

-So basically, still a meltdown, but this one much, much quieter and more reverent.

-Assuming I ever do something like this in Nox versa canon, because I’m not sure I will.

[acefrogmonarch]

Headcanons pt.4

Middle school and early high school

I know American class but also Japanese class schedules. I don’t know if I want either or a hybrid.

Based off this post (If i can find it)

Naruto-band

Shikamaru has a knack for playing the drums, but he's never serious about it. He plays the drums because the systematic rhythm helps him think of strategies for shoji.

Has been asked multiple times to join the jazz band in Spring. He refuses everytime because it cuts his time in shoji, but once he gets his own cubie in the band hall he sets up his shoji board and plays it when he has free time.

Hinata has played the violin but hates the way her fingers hurt after being forced to play for long hours.

So she seeks asylum in the band hall, and has secretly taken lessons how to play the saxophone. It's her favorite of all the wind instruments.

She has been asked to join the spring jazz band, despite not being an actual member. She easily took the first chair when they were evaluating their skills.

Choji has been following a senior that's been teaching him the guitar, he's in the brass section playing the tuba. Has been asked to replace the senior when he gets older and wants to.

Naruto is in the brass section with Kiba but only Kiba is the trumpet player. Naruto is a trombone player and tells dad jokes. He didn’t fit the mold of a trumpet player but he still loves it regardless.

But his energy is definitely on par, if not greater than the rest. He will always cheer up everyone around him and is a part of the cheerleading squad.

Hates that there aren't anyone other guys. He just wants to flip off someone's shoulders. Damnit! 

He's flipped off Sasuke's and Shikamaru's shoulders before. In Sasuke's case, it was during elementary/primary. They were on the playground and this was Naruto’s second ever attempt to land a backflip. They couldn’t do it because the teacher caught them when a group started forming and they started betting their snacks from lunch to see if Naruto failed or not.

They continued their promise after school and Naruto broke his arm, but he did do it right after. He ate like a King the next day. It was great for him.

The first time Naruto did it was completely by accident and because he was so excited that he got a trampoline.

He’s never taken gymnasium classes before and has not seen a backflip before. But he somehow did it. It still shocks his parent’s to this day. Sasuke and him are neighbors and he came over to see what Naruto was so happy about.

Sasuke came just in time to see him do it. It was the greatest moment of his life because then Naruto tried to do it again and fell flat on his face. 

In shikamaru’s case it was during middle school and they were next to the pool. They were at Sasuke’s house for the day because he had a cool deck and pool.

Naruto wanted to jump off his shoulders into the pool. Shikamaru agreed because he didn’t think Naruto could actually do it. He realized his mistake when Naruto beamed in total confidence and Sasuke moved away from the pair.

Naruto didn’t do his back flip because Shikamaru moved the second Naruto decided to jump, without warning.

Needless to say, Shikamaru didn’t support his legs enough and Naruto accidently kicked him in the chin. Naruto ended up on the pool, back first, and Shikamaru fell on his ass.

Naruto swims up to the edge of the pool and looks at Sasuke, trying so hard not to laugh.

Naruto: Did I do it?!

Sasuke, trying to reclaim his composer: No, not at all.

Shikamaru, on the ground rubbing his chin: How did you even hit me!?

Naruto: Again!

Shikamaru: No!

Sasuke, running inside to get a camera or phone to record it: Yes!

Naruto is sometimes very confused as to why he is going to a house, when he has an apartment and his milk is about to expire! Also, his stash of untouched ramen!

Kushina: Naruto, sweetie. Where are you going?

Naruto: My apartment!

Minato: Naruto, we have a house.

Naruto: What’s that? Is it edible?

Kushina: Sometimes. During winter.

Naruto: Why winter?

Kushina: There are houses made of cookies.

Naruto: Really?!

Kushina, nodding along: Yup!

Anyway after High school they sometimes played together. Naruto had to buy a new entire trumpet because he rented from the school. Hinata bought her saxophone and has kept it under maintenance.

Shikamaru’s parents bought him his drum set and he learned how to play on his own. Choji does keep up with his guitar lessons but he did save up alot to get his electric guitar and a bass.

Card games

Hinata, Sasuke, and Shikamaru cannot play competitive and strategic card/board games. Scrabble, poker, 21, War, Bullshit is off the list. A Lot of decks, mostly up to 3 at a time and they are very distinguished between all of them.

Sakura refuses to play but does rude commentary to any group she is overseeing. Usually magic, because of Sasuke.

Choji doesn’t play anything but he does place bets on who would win with his snacks.

Magic the gathering.

Sasuke, Itachi played. Black Commander Deck

Sai, again his older brother. Green and Black Commander Deck.

Tenten; She found it and didn’t want something that Lee and Neji enjoy. Standard White and Blue Deck.

Yu-gi-oh.

Hinata; only because Neji played. Silent Magician Deck

Neji; because Lee played. He didn’t want to seem stupid. Hero elemental deck

Lee, he just likes the anime. But does have Yusei’s deck

Ino, she likes the pictures on Toon town and they let her do whatever but to some extent.

Both. 

Kiba; Rarely, Magic first. Green and Red Commander. Gear deck

Naruto; Rarely, yugioh first Odd-eyes deck and Black and White Standard Deck.

Kiba, dissing on Yugioh.

Naruto: Shut up, your mother buys you mega blocks instead of legos.

Hinata and Sasuke are both petty about each other’s card games. They each have respective sleeves and taunt each other, constantly.

Neji and Lee look at Tenten on the magic side and hate that she betrayed them. She’s just glad that they don't harp on her in her card game.

Pokemon.

Shikamaru, because no one knows how to fucking play.

Shino only collects the cards.

Shino showing Shikamaru his deck.

Hinata: Oh, are you playing?

Shino: You can play it?

Shikamaru has tried to teach Shino. Shino doesn’t sleeve his cards and when they take damage, he puts some non wet, non greasy food on his card.

Once the pokemon dies, Shino eats the snack. There are crumbs everywhere and Shikamaru’s pet peeve is being messy. Shikamaru appreciates Hinata’s and Sasuke’s sleeves.

Shows

Ino loves Reality TV and other things. But hates the Kardasians. Loves Rupaul drag race.

Sai is often encouraged by Ino to watch anime around her and he also finds anime that she thinks he hasn’t seen.

Sai has brought up Keeping up with the Kardasians and it was a mistake, he thought she would like it.

Ino: The Kardaisians are garbage and Kyle Jenner is a fake as hoe!

Sakura, from another room, hearing Ino rant: Did someone bring up the Kardasians?

Sai: Yeah.

Ino: Never do that again dear.

Sai: Got it sweetheart.

Ino has never actually called any other of her partners by a pet name but she does with Sai and they act like a married couple sometimes. They never talked about it. I mean they have shared stuff about each other that no one else knows. Coming out to each other, learning together because they both feel safe and comfortable with each other. Trust each other a lot.

Elementary bus crew.

Morning

Konoha 12 except Hinata

Naruto was so used to being independent that he has left his house on his own for school. It has freaked his parents more than once but they just watch over him as he goes to school.

Naruto always spots a red haired kid on the opposite of his bus stop with two older people that he holds their hands. Naruto always waves at him and waits until the day he waves back.

Gaara is very affected by his past life, like he was carving the kanji for love when his mom walked in because Temari tried to stop it but couldn’t take the blade away from him. She got slashed on her arm as a result.

Karura walks in and gasps softly.

Karura: Gaara sweetie.

Gaara: Mama, you're alive?

Karura: Of course. Please put the knife down.

Gaara: Knife?

Gaara completes carving in perfect kanji and stops once he completes it. Then the pain registrator for him

Choji is allergic to mustard, he found out in elementary and by accident. Shikamaru went to the teacher and Hinata stayed with Choji because he was rubbing his face and making his hives worse.

Afternoon

Rest of the Konoha 12 except (Hinata Neji and Shikamaru) No Sai yet.

Middle school. Bus Crew

Morning

Konoha 12 except Hinata, Ino, and Sakura

Afternoon

Konoha 12 Except Hinata, Tenten, Neji and Sasuke

High school bus crew.

Morning

Hinata was too scared to do it on her own in elementary, she tried in middle school and failed, but she succeeded in high school. She has to wake up an extra hour and walk to her stop but she doesn’t after freshman year. She got used to it

Afternoon

Everyone unless they have clubs, even then there is an after after school bus.

Hinata and Neji are on the richer side of town and everyone in middle school often joked about how they are on the west side while everyone else is on the east side.

They all meet on sports day. The other schools were pitted against each other east versus west.

Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto were in a group together and were mocking Neji from a distance.

Naruto: Ew, is that a West sider?!

Sakura: Is that a boy or girl?

Naruto: It doesn’t matter! It’s a west sider!

Hinata from behind them, joins in.

Hinata: Ew a west sider.

Naruto, turning around: You got that r-

Hinata a carbon copy of the guy they were mocking.

Naruto: AH!!! They got us from behind!

Hinata blushes: Naruto-kun 

Naruto: Oh, it’s just you Hinata.

They don’t know each other at this point, Sasuke and Sakura look bamboozled at their interaction.

Hinata is going to therapy for this because her parents are worried and she just wants a break from the whole past life stuff.

Hinata sighs to herself: Not again

Hinata walks off towards where Neji is and leaves Naruto in her wake.

Naruto’s motto: We are here to cause some ruckus, then DIP!!!

[nad-zeta]

Hi! I would like to request a match-up! Please :D

I uh… am not sure how to describe myself but I think I have the “guess I’ll die” ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ vibe, calm during chaos and too lazy to go out and socialize. I’m also an INTP-A, very shy with strangers and will not go out of my way to talk to them first. But I love pulling pranks on close friends and family, and enjoy trolling them so much. I love spicy food but also cannot live without chocolates! I’m also very awkward at romancing, and will run away if someone starts to flirt with me because I get shy easily and will become red as tomato. PDA is a no-no and I might faint if someone kiss me in public. Thank you! :D

Hello (again?)! I’m truly sorry if I had already requested a match-up before because I have a feeling that I probably forgot to mention that I wanted a match-up with ikesen warlords. So you can totally ignore this if you want to ‘cause I won’t mind. You see, I’m 22 years old, very clumsy (like always tripping on nothing, my backpack got stucked between double door or I accidentally hit my head on the same spot more than few times) and I hate that part of myself so much. But I’m not stupid though because I can memorize difficult math and chemical formula, dates of historical events and stuff that I read from books easily, and that’s why my friends call me ‘absent-minded professor’. Very shy and withdrawn with strangers but once I’m comfortable with them, be prepared to get pranked and teased by me (mostly childish pranks). Lastly, I’m a short girl (barely 155cm) and got teased with that regularly (not that I mind though I don’t really care). So, thank you and have a nice day!

Hey there, love! Thank you so much for the request! I’m sorry I took so long!  Hehe, I definitely didn’t want to ignore your second request lol, I enjoyed reading the extra info. I hope you enjoy and have a good day! <3

So I match you with……………….. Masamune

When you first arrive, you are super quiet. You are super shy, and your definitely not going to go out of your way to talk to anyone first. Although in saying that, no one suspected you of being a spy or an assassin in the first place. You were just way too smol and cute. Even Hideyoshi’s death glares didn’t last very long. Luckily for you the Oda forces are a chatty bunch, so you definitely don’t have to worry about not going out of your way to talk first. One person, in particular, seemed to take a special liking to your cute small self. And that would be non-other than our favorite pirate chef, Masamune. Masamune would pester you 24/7, chatting and joking with you. He knew you seemed like a fun lass, so he was determined to break past your shy layer

Masmuse found your clumsiness most amusing, he and Mitsuhide would often take advantage of Mitsunari’s clumsiness, but since finding out you to were just as clumsy. You had become their new target. They couldn’t help but laugh when you fall over your own two feet or if you accidentally slam your own hair into the sliding door.

 You had gotten tired of their content giggling at your expense, so you decided to confront them about it. One day after you had accidentally walked into one of the pillars, you could hear Masamune chuckle at the clumsy lass. You walked towards him to start scolding him when all of a sudden, you fell over a stick in the middle of the hallway. He caught you perfectly in his big strong arms, and to say you were as red as a tomato would be an understatement. The one-eyed dragon couldn’t help but smirk at the red lass in his arms and make some flirty comment. You swear you died from embarrassment at that moment. You covered your face with your hands still in Masa’s arms. He then gently peeled your hands off your face and gave you a kiss. You looked up at him, and you were too shocked for words. You managed to mutter out, “you can’t just go around kissing people like that.” You felt like running away or meting in a puddle from shyness. Classic Masamune just shrugged, gave you his handsome grin, and said: “You’re not some random person kitten, you’re a cute girl who fell into my arms.” And as if things couldn’t get any worse for you at that moment, sneki boi made an appearance. You were teased like mad the rest of that afternoon. Surprisingly, you didn’t die from heatstroke at how hot and red your cheeks were.

On another separate day, you hit your head against the same pillar. Darn, why is it always that same pillar. You hit it pretty bad this time and landed up, giving yourself a headache. And like clockwork Masamune appeared out of thin air. He was about to tease his clumsy kitten for walking into the same pillar twice when he saw the way you held your head. He peered into your eyes and then promptly threw you over his shoulder. The more you argued and complained, the more he enjoyed carrying you through the hallways. He set you down of your futon and peeled your hand away from your head. Jip, there was definitely a big red bump forming. He left for a brief moment coming back with some tea for the pain and inflammation as well as a cold cloth. 

He placed the towel on your head and held it there with one hand while his other twirled a strand of hair between his fingers. He loved that flushed look on your face as you blushed. After your head felt a bit better, he made the two of you some more tea. He’s never really been in your room before. He started looking around and noted that you had a big stack of books. He went to page through them when he realized they were all complex books regarding different topics. He looked back and you and asked if you couldn’t understand the concepts and topics discussed in the books. You nodded, saying you had a really good memory, and you loved to learn new things. Masa couldn’t help but give you the biggest smile. “So, you are basically just the female version of Mitsunari.” The two of you giggled, and you had told him about how your friend used to call you the absent-minded professor. The rest of the afternoon, the two of you spent chatting and getting to know each other.

You have always been too lazy to socialize, so it would always be Masamune who would drag you along on his latest fun adventures. At first, you really weren’t keen, you would much rather have lazed around the palace reading. Masa would take you everywhere, from hills and countrysides, to markets and teahouses. He found out there that you really enjoyed sweets. 

He loved to spoil his little kitten and would bring you sweet treats whenever the two of you would hang out or have tea together. You had never tasted such amazing confectionaries before, and nothing could compete with Masa homemade treats in particular. He will definitely go the extra mile to make all your favorite dishes. He even managed to make a few modern-day dishes perfectly for you just based on your descriptions of them

Masamune discover that you love pranks and trolling people. And TBH’ Trolling people’ is Masa’s middle name. The two of your loved to troll the mama bear in particular. He was such an easy target, after all. The two of you were definitely giving the poor man grey hair. You were most definitely not above pranking Masamune. You would even join in on the bets Mitsuhide and Nobunaga had going to see who could trick the One-eyed dragon into drinking alcohol first. This was your favorite game to play at banquets. But at one of the banquets, your prank backfired on you; especially, when drunk Masamune grabbed you and hugged you thinking you were a soft fluffy pillow. He held on to you with a lock grip. You pleaded the Oda forces for help, but all of them just shook their head while laughing and retiring to their own beds for the night. Hideyoshi was kind enough to set up a futon for the two of you in the banquet hall. But that’s as much as he was going to help you with. He couldn’t help but wave you goodnight with a bright smile, at divine payback for all the grey hairs the two of you had given him. The two of you spent the night in the banquet hall. 

The next morning you were so freaken embarrassment. You were as red as a tomato at the thought of spending the night in Masamune’s muscular arms. You stared at his sleeping face trying to come up with a getaway plan before he woke up. That was until his ocean blue eye open to stare directly into your eyes. Once he realized what had happened, he groaned, hiding his face in a pillow. You caught a rare glimpse of a very embarrassed Masamune. The more he told you to forget, the more you laughed and said, “NEVER’. Cue tickle fight. He ticked you telling you he would only stop if you forgot everything that you had seen. Between your laughs, you managed to tease him about his cute little blush. He knew the only way left for you to agree to forget was to kiss you. Needless to say, at this point in the game, you actually now had a massive crush on him. When the kiss didn’t work, he looked you in the eyes and asked you what would make you forget how uncool he was, and all you said in return was, “I will never forget, cause how can I forget the smallest details of the one I love.”

Masa was shook you loved him. WAIT WHAT. You blushed like crazy, you never expected that statement to slip out much less Masas reaction once he had processed what you had said. He thought that it had been a one-sided love this whole time and that you liked someone else. He gave you the biggest brightest smile and then tackled you to the ground, kissing you all over your face. He was so happy that you loved him too. He loved this clumsy kitten in his arm, and at that moment, he felt like the happiest man alive. 

Masa loved showing off his lass, and you hated being shown off. We all know Masa is a very touchy-feely person. He loves to kiss and hug you, whether its in private or out in the open. He loves to shower you with unconditional love. You had a few talks about your dislikes of PDA, and both of you decided to meet each other halfway with a compromise. He was allowed to hold your hand and only give you a small peck on the cheek cause more than that will have you melting on the market floor into a puddle. Although Masa can also be sneaky and will sometime risk a kiss on the lip just to see your beautiful blush. When he does this, you would just smack him lightly on the chest, while shaking your head, trying to recompose yourself from the sneak attack.

The two of you are the cutest couple. You guys are constantly teasing and playing pranks on all of your Oda friends. He honestly loves you so much. He loves the fact that you had seen him at his worst and yet still love you. And you love this big cat so much. You love how he has brought you out of your shell and shown you the world. Your favorite thing to do is cuddle and snuggle together in private. You love nothing more than just lazing around the house with Masa. He loves it when the two of you just lay on the futon together with your head resting on his chest while he caresses your beautiful face and gently rubs your back.

Other potential matches……………….Mitsuhide O.O

I hope you enjoyed it! @cherrydangome

[prorevenge]

Buddy, You Picked the Wrong Person to Harass

The year was 2014 (or maybe 2013? who gives a shit?), and I was a freshman in high school. On a general basis it sucked. I mean, it was an American public high school with literally thousands of kids, it's a given that it's gonna blow some major balls. One thing in particular that made it extra sucky though was gym class. Specifically, this one guy in gym class.

This dude's name was Jack A. McGee, the 'A' of course being short for 'Ass'. As the name would imply, he was a jackass.

At first, it was pretty standard "high school guy in gym class"-level of obnoxious prick. You know the type: overly loud, unreasonably aggressive during games, bossy, tossing the collective brain cell back and forth between his two equally ape-like buddies. The usual.

I don't know when, exactly, it happened, but he developed a sort of... eye for me, after the first couple of weeks or so. He started asking me bizarre questions that I now believe may have been some sort of innuendo, sitting uncomfortably close to me, resting his hand on my gym shoe- general creepy behavior.

He once blocked a doorway with his body (this dude was massive), forcing me to literally squeeze my way through and crawl over him. He then tried to grab me and pin me to him once I was almost through, but I'm very good at dodging physical contact whenever possible, and dipped on him before his giant gorilla arm could catch me. I still shudder thinking about it. I cannot emphasize enough how terrible this dude smelled.

But the true breaking point came during the peak cruelty of this school mandated sadism: gym swim.

Before anyone asks, let it be known that yes, I did try to tell someone about this. I told my gym teacher first semester, really early on, that Jack was making me incredibly uncomfortable. The gym teacher waved it off, saying he was "just playing around" and that "it's probably because he likes you". His suggestion was basically to just put up with it and wait it out, because he was sure Jack would lose interest soon anyways.

Spoiler alert: he didn't

Second semester rolls around, and the four week period of gym swim descends upon us like the bloated carcass of a catapulted whale, crushing us beneath its wet, foul smelling body. 40 some odd adolescents forced into a cold, overly chlorinated pool for 50+ minutes, adorned in swimsuits determined to crawl up into our assholes like Antman himself.

It was hell on earth, basically.

As I've mentioned in a previous post, I am autistic, so the echoing sounds, reflected fluorescent lights, pungent odors, slimy floors, and assorted BS made the situation even worse for me. I wasn't officially diagnosed yet, so my complaints were written off as me being whiny, and I was told to shut up and deal with it. So I did. I think I had more meltdowns in that four week span than I've had in the past two years combined, but whatever.

On top of the sensory overload, there was Jack.

I think something about being allowed to go shirtless and stare at the nearly bare asses of girls for an entire period emboldened him, because Jack promptly lost whatever semblance of restrain he'd had until then.

He made frequent attempts to grab me, trying to hold me against his bare skin, which was disgusting, and I spent most of the class trying to evade him. The swimsuit I was forced to wear fit a little awkwardly around my chest, which he delighted in pointing out to his buddies, staring unabashedly at my breasts. He managed to sneak up behind me and snap the strap of my swimsuit, even trying to pull it down off my shoulder, but I jerked away fast enough to prevent that. I was furious at this point, but I'm like, 5'2", maybe, whereas he was easily over 6'5", probably 300+ pounds, and I'm not stupid.

While all of this was happening, my new gym teacher, (they switched every semester), was busy trying to keep a couple of the other guys from drowning each other. She was one adult forced to watch over 40 rowdy ass kids in a swimming pool; she was a bit preoccupied.

The final straw came one Wednesday afternoon, the event that finally pushed me off the edge of the rationality I'd been clinging to and sent me plummeting into full on bloodthirst.

There I was, paddling around, minding my own business, when Jack and his two goons manage to corner me. I'm immediately suspicious, hackles raised, as they ask me fairly banal questions about how the pool is today and the like, sniggering the whole time. I give short, terse answers, trying to see if I could maybe slip past them. I spot an opening and bolt for it, but Jack was apparently expecting this.

As I swim through the narrow gap between him and one of his friends, he stretches his arm out, and actually manages to slip his hand under my suit to grab my breast. I froze for a moment, the delighted giggling of him and his friends echoing in my ears as if from a thousand miles away.

The next thing I knew, I was out of the pool, being held back by the gym teacher, and Jack had a bloody nose. He was shouting angrily at me, calling me a "crazy bitch!!" as his nose gushed blood into the water. There was mass confusion among the class. I was told to change quickly and sit in the hallway.

Apparently, the gym teacher had heard me screech like a banshee, followed by a number of shouts, and had looked over to see me wrestle out of Jack's grip, jump on his back, and throw him off balance enough to smash his face into the edge of the pool wall. I remembered none of this, but I did find a few chunks of greasy brown hair clenched in my fist that I'd evidently ripped from his scalp when the teacher pulled me off. I washed my hands thoroughly.

It was decided that I'd go in early to school tomorrow to have a little talk with the Dean. They would've just sent me there straight away, but gym was my last class of the day, and the Dean had already left by then for whatever reason, so it had to be postponed a little while. It was pretty heavily implied that I was going to be suspended, quite possibly even expelled, for what had happened.

I was furious. Not only had Jack made my life a living hell, but his horse shit was now going to be the cause of my expulsion?!? I wasn't about to go down without a fight, but I realized that I'd have to play this pretty smart if I wanted to weasel out of it.

The next morning, I did two things: I put on mascara, and I made a superficial, but rather painful incision on my right thigh, high enough so as to be covered by my shorts.

Normally, I hate wearing makeup, because I don't like the way it feels, but I'd worn mascara before and noticed the interesting effect it had on my appearance. Specifically, I already have pretty long, pretty dark eyelashes, so adding mascara draws a lot of attention to my eyes and makes them look huge. Like, total Bambi eyes- wide, innocent, naive, harmless.

I sat down in front of the Dean at 6:40 a.m. I didn't need to fake the fear in my expression, but I made sure to throw in something that could be interpreted as guilt, too, bowing my head and twisting my face in dismay.

Needless to say, the Dean was pretty pissed.

"Do you know why you're here, young lady?" he said

"Yes," I said softly.

"And you know that what you did is very serious?"

"Yes," I said again, making my voice tremble.

"Care to explain yourself, then?"

"I..." I began, my voice shaking. "I just wanted him to stop..."

"Stop what?" The Dean prompted, his eyebrows furrowed.

"I just wanted him to stop touching me!" I blurted. As I said this, I reached my hand under the table where he couldn't see it and dug my finger into the cut on my leg, causing me to lurch forward as if in a sob, my other hand covering my face as my eyes watered from the pain.

"Touching you?" The Dean asked, his brows now on a collision course for Mars.

I spent the next several minutes divulging all the shit that had happened to me that year, digging into my injury for some tears whenever necessary, and by the end of it the Dean looked horrified. He reaffirmed that no, I shouldn't have attacked Jack like that, but that they'd have to investigate the matter further.

I basically got off with a slap on the wrist, and after multiple testimonies from other girls, Jack got suspended for two weeks. I wasn't satisfied. They hadn't been able to expel him due to "lack of hard evidence", but I was out for blood.

He returned to school two weeks later, and I was ready.

One of his friends had a little brother in my bio class, a fairly chill dude named Owen, who I had worked out a deal with. See, Jack had been very vocal about his displeasure with me to his friends, which made its way to Owen, who, for the low low price of bailing his dumb ass out in biology, was more than willing to share that information with me. I had a direct pipeline.

Anything Jack shared with his friends made its way directly to me via Owen, and, as it turns out, this dude didn't keep a whole lot to himself.

There was a lot of shit I was tempted to nail him for. For instance, I found out he was selling drugs (mostly adderal and some occasional weed) from his locker, and had been cheating his way through most of his classes. However, I knew how suspicious it would look for me to report something like that so soon. It'd probably just look like I had a grudge, (which I did), and was trying to get even, (which I was).

He slipped up really, really bad about a week after his return, and that was when I struck.

See, he hadn't been subtle about his displeasure with my retaliation, and spent most of gym class sending really ugly looks my way. The gym teacher kept us as far away from each other as possible, but he managed to track me down in a passing period one day and rant at me about how I had screwed him over and that I was a lying little bitch, yada yada yada, and that he'd make me regret it. Funny, stole the words right out of my mouth.

I found out from Owen later that Jack had been bragging to his friends last night about the switchblade he'd stolen from one of those hunting stores downtown, and promised he'd show it off to them later that day.

I seized the opportunity.

I took a few seconds in the bathroom mirror, scratching at the scab on my leg until my eyes were teary enough to really sell the "terrified victim" look, then bolted down to the Dean's office, stuttering and shaking, crying out for help. The front desk lady was understandably startled by the sight of a seemingly panicked freshman girl bolting into the office, and called the Dean out right away. His face grew serious when he saw me.

"M-Mr. Dean, please help! He's gonna kill me!" I cried.

"Now, slow down," he said. "What happened?"

"Jack!" I said, resisting the urge to grin maniacally at the hardness that appeared in the Dean's eyes. "He, he cornered me in the hall! He called me a bitch and said he was gonna make me regret telling on him! H-he's got a knife!!"

"He what?!" The Dean barked.

Everything moved very quickly after that. The security guards were told to search the kids locker, while a couple other security officers were called down to get Jack out of his classroom and take him to the office. I was told by the front desk lady, who had heard the whole exchange, to hide with her in the copier room so Jack wouldn't see me.

They found the (stolen) knife in his backpack, and the drugs in his locker. That, combined with his previous charges, was enough to get him not only expelled, but arrested. I never saw him again, which is probably a good thing because I'm still mad and would probably try to kill him if given the opportunity.

TL;DR: Guy sexually harasses me in gym class, I give him a bloody nose, a two week suspension, an expulsion, and a criminal record, all in that order.

(source) story by (/u/FeralTaxEvader)

[diaryformytravels]

#30 Orlando (Day 4)

Morgs here. Only one week left until London, thus no more Max or Mikko!

Today we did the first of the Universal parks (the smaller one). We had a relative sleep in, but I still wanted to die upon waking. Max had a bowl of strawberries for breakfast, but after about two he decided he would get a chocolate croissant from Starbucks instead when we got to the park. This was because Jasper said this is what he was doing. I was sitting there, eating my cereal, while a family war breaks out. Max is whining, Mikko grunting something in anger, Michelle getting frustrated. After this was resolved, Mikko was checking everyone was ready, saying lets go etc, while I’m literally still sitting at the table, half-way through my cereal. It’s like I don't even exist. Last night, left out of Jasper’s poem, we were all talking in the car on the way to Disney Springs, at this moment I was speaking and midway through a sentence Mikko says “This is the Lime car park.” WTF. Max and Jasper laugh because now I’ve pointed out my invisibility and apparent muteness, they realise it happens a lot. 

Anyway, back to today. Eventually we left the apartment and stopped at Walgreens to get some insoles/shoe things for J and I, as well as some red bull. Michelle was in a bit of a mood, but we didn't know why. We got a message from Mikko saying “chop chop” followed by some similar remarks, which did not make her any happier. We all went across to Starbucks, why they didn't go while we were in the pharmacy, we’ll never know. The rest of us are in the car while Michelle is ordering, and we’re trying to figure out who angered the demon. Mikko owned up, suggesting it was because of the messages, but J and I did not agree because she was already in a state. She sent a message to the group chat reading “Not impressed with any of you. Try to remember this is also my holiday and I have taken time off work to be here.” This made me (probs J as well) a bit cranky, because we rarely get to make decisions, and are having the worst holiday ever. We found out later that she was like this because of Mikko, but actually because he was being stupid. He had been rushing her all morning and giving her more things to do (get Max’s clothes, charge his phone etc) while he did nothing. So understandable. 

Mikko dropped us at the park, and it wasn't very busy. We stopped at the Starbucks while the boys got chocolate croissants, Michelle got a coffee and the rest of us got some strawberry drink. We got through with minimal issues and began on the largest ride. I hate it. We all did it the first time. It’s pretty cool in the sense that you can choose a song before you start moving, and then it plays for the duration of the ride. There were about twenty options of different genres (I picked a Kanye West song), but at the end of the day when Max and J did it again, J discovered a secret list of over one hundred songs, so he listened to Crocodile Rock. I thought I would have time to prepare, but we basically walked straight onto the ride. The start is awful, it goes straight up, but the seats are slightly reclined and there is only a lap restraint rather than a harness, so it feels like you’re going to slip out. This goes for about thirty seconds, and then drops straight down. The rest is very fast with a few turns, at some point my vision began to dwindle, but it came back! Needless to say, I didn't do that one again. J and Max repeated while Michelle and I waited and went to the bathroom. 

Once they got off, I went to get popcorn with J but everyone insisted I get it after the next ride (even though I needed food to settle my stomach). We did the Jimmy Fallon ride, which was pretty cool. It was a 4D thing like Transformers, and made me quite motion sick and had a few jump scares (there was a shark!). After this I got my popcorn. 

Next was The Mummy. and as we were walking through the line area, J gave Max the biggest jump scare and he screamed SO loud and incredibly high pitched. J got a little scared on the ride when the mummy’s pop up on the sides (I still do too). We did it again of course, and J gave him another jump scare that worked better than the first!

Then we did Transformers, which was more motion sick inducing than I remember. Only did this one once. Next, J, Max and I did the Fast and Furious ride which is the most boring and worst thing to exist. Not to mention the fast pass ends before the line actually begun, so we still had to wait ages for it. Also encouraged motion sickness. Not loving the amount of 4D rides. We had lunch (seafood, great) where I got fish and chips. 

We then went to the Harry Potter ride, which is in Gringott’s Bank and is set in the vaults. We had to wait a long time for this because they had some technical difficulties. I had to swap spots with J in the line because Max was being such a pain and putting me in the shittiest of moods. He was complaining about how he didn't want to go to the Harry Potter shops again because we did them last time, and that he wants to go to the outlets because he “didn't buy anything” (spent all his money and J got nothing from there), was being the most spoilt and ungrateful brat I’ve ever seen and a stench of BO. Michelle says he’s self conscious about his smell, but that can't be true because he finds every excuse to not have a shower and not wear deodorant. Eventually we got on the ride and it was better than I remembered! We wanted to do it again but decided to wait until Max calmed down a bit and the line shortened. 

After having a little couple’s spat, we went to the Men in Black ride, which is a shooting thing and you earn points based on how many things you shoot. Max was determined to make it a competition. This did not end so well when he lost by a lot, him having half of my score (the second lowest at 80,000). He insisted we do it again, so we line up and get to the front, next to go on. This experienced technical difficulties as well, so after about ten minutes we leave and go back to Harry Potter. 

We get halfway through this line, only to be stuck again because of difficulties. By the time we get to the front, we have to wait again because someone chucked up on one of the carts, so they have to clean it. After this, we got some jumpers (Gryffindor and Hufflepuff of course).

We then went to get some snacks (hotdogs) and Max plays some carnival games that are very entertaining to watch because he gets really frustrated. After this we decided to head out and skip the boring rides. J and Max do the big rollercoaster again (its now he finds the secret song list), and then Mikko picks us up and we go home. 

After chilling out for a bit and me having a little nap, us and Michelle went to pick up some takeaway for dinner. We came back and feasted. We were gone for maybe half an hour to an hour, but Mikko and Max had done nothing to get ready for when we got back, so we had to set the table, find an extra chair and everything.

Tragedy struck. Jasper spilt butter chicken on his new Gryffindor jumper. Most of it has gone after vigorous attempts to remove it. He is very sad. But if it cannot be fixed, Michelle said she will purchase another for him tomorrow. 

Off to bed now, got to get an early start! Missing you guys and home on Australia Day!!

Love xx

[ghjdeacon]

The longer I put it off the more difficult it becomes, so I’m going to have to get on and write this blog if I like it or not. Please excuse all the errors, I try and correct them as I go along but it’s sometimes hard to spot them! Even though they’re obvious .

Here I am in a place called Saly which is a small resort town about an hour and a half south of Dakar. Victor has gone to Bamako for work and for a short period I considered going as well. After all I’ve never been to Mali and Nicky Fenton is there. but I can’t go anywhere as I have no passport, it’s being processed for a Visa at the Guinean embassy.

To recap, After dropping David off at leyoune airport, I spent a couple of days with Robert Powell and then sped through the rest of Western Sahara to the border with Mauritania. What a scruffy place The whole experience was pretty unpleasant but the gap between Morocco and Mauritania was as bad a road as I have driven on and literally covered in crap in plastic bags and bottles et cetera! Needless to say they were fixers there which I didn’t really need but who were actually quite useful but I find myself stuck with a fellow all the way to najinhibbou which is just over the border. I say just over the border but more like 50 km at the end of a long spit. It is a very busy port town and bustling! And very hot with millions of cars and chaotic roads. I am rescued by a fellow called Omar who claims to be a teacher but like most of The disarmingly friendly strangers who meet you (rather than the other way round,) they are after the money in my pocket nevertheless he is very friendly and we have an amusing evening together, and I cannot fault him for his friendliness.

Conscious that Mauritania isa big country but only have 10 days to get through it I don’t want to hang around especially if I get the information and meet somebody who is going to go with me to go and see inland(The customs man was only going to give me three days to transit the country and! I had to persuade him to give me more time in case I wanted to stay and see the country! As it turns out he was right and I was wrong there is nothing to see in Mauritania .

The road is pretty easy to follow but it’s broken pavement and some of the potholes are dreadful requiring very careful concentration to avoid breaking anything, but there is plenty of wide open space alongside the road to pull off and kip for the night

Nouakchott turned out to be a pleasant surprise there is money in the cashpoints more than half the time (that is cif you can find one and there are plenty around) it was not insanely hot, there was a supermarket near where I was staying in and then traffic was not too chaotic". Overall a whole lot better than that place I could never spell on the Mauritanian border, I. After a night and day resting I set off for the border with Senegal 7 hours or more further self. I camped in the most amazing place in the middle of nowhere but had rather a good journey down aiming for the crossing that was not at Rosso that is the western crossing the Western crossing point going to the Darwwing National Park which is also very impressive here the road is rough and would be impossible in the winter or when there is any rain. For some reason the journey takes forever, maybe I have taken the odd wrong route, or stopped longer than expected on the way, or simply I have just underestimated the distance but it’s quite pleasant and eventually reach the frontier barrage across the river Senegal.

It all sounds so simple in the guidebooks. the books say it cost nothing and is manageable yet everybody expected A wedge ofmy money! I don’t mind too much but it would be nice to know in advance so you are carrying the right amount of change and then prepare for it rather than eking out every coin in your pocket or door! But after about three hours im through and on my way to Saint Louis the northern town of Senegal. Yet again, I am helped by some fixer I did not want and have to get him into town to give him some cash I didn’t have, but to be honest he was still quite helpful and take him to the hotel deal with the camp for the night.

St Louis is a bustling fishing town and very charming in its way. But I can’t hang around because I only have a three day pass which I have to get extended down in Dakar before I can do anything else so again, the next evening I set off. One of the golden rules is not to drive at night in Africa for all the reasons you can imagine. I am quite uncomfortable doing so except for two things. If you leave late enough there is no traffic on the road and you can avoid the real hassle as most people are home. for me traffic and bicycles and pedestrians all mixed together is the worst thing. Secondly you can see vehicles coming along way away because nowadays they tend to have loads of work, thirdly I don’t feel too tired at night and if I do I stop i’m set up camp straight away, and you won’t be plagued by onlookers: also, if you happen to have lots of police checkpoints they will either be pleased to see you will be asleep so you can drive on and finally you end up in the right place in the right order, in the dark now before the traffic really got going. So having had a peaceful drive listening to an audible book I got to the port of data where I need to be before the traffic was up and so could find a parking place and was ready for action.

The only problem was I’ve been directed to go to the wrong place! But people are very friendly and helpful and a chap helped me get a taxi and then watched over my car in the car park and sent me on my way to the Axa building to get my pass extended. All very straightforward as it turned out and nobody wanted any backhanders. So I was quite pleased

Then it was just a question of finding out where Victor lives and heading off in that direction. Which I managed not to do getting into all the traffic! But I eventually got to Ngor and with a whole bunch of help , his house.

Since then, which I think was Tuesday last I have been staying with Victor, and Nicole and having a very peaceful time just doing the odd chore-andthere are plenty of them much to my frustration, and the amazement of some. Of note (David take note in particular) the blinking wing mirror dropped out on the journey down and I had to get it replaced. I hadn’t realised how vulnerable I feel notbeung abBeing able to seel behind me properly so I was very keen to get it done immediately. So with victors driver we set off and can you believe it, I was stopped twice by the police twice in about 200 metres and the second one fined me for having a broken wing mirror even as we were talking to the chap who is going to mend it and heconfiscated my driving license until I pay the fine! In retrospect it’s stupid and rather amusing but at the time was One of the long snakes on the board and cause me deep, deep frustration. But, I eventually Got the mirror (retro Visa) repaired and I’m good to go again. I’ve even had the van washed and cleaned out so it is neat and tidy and now it’s just a question of waiting for my visas to be approved or not.

But yesterday I heard the border between Senegal and guinea may be closed and that changes things significantly. The question is is Guinea-

Victor and Nicole but they have been quite superb to me and insist upon me relaxing and enjoying myself, and I think they are right in fact I am feeling much better having been here for a few days and I’m not so achy and stiff as I was. I am inclined to write something about Parkinson ‘s soon and will do so. This is not to extract any sympathy from anybody or anything like that but just to explain to people who don’t know about Parkinson is what it does and how it feels. And putting right once and for all the curious British tradition of always asking how people are and getting the response “I’m fine thank you“ when half the time you’re feeling like death warmed up! I’m not feeling like death warmed up by the way but you know what I mean.

And it’s taken me for ever to do this much so I’m going to stop if you’ve even got this far reading it

[letstalksymphogear]

Symphogear, EP. 3 (Cont.)

“aight fellas im here for the fortnite session where we droppin boys”

Hibiki shows up, ready to participate in this four player game of sociological tension.

“hope hibiki’s doing okay. im worried about her. ryoko, stop resting your arm on my head.”

“ryoko does as ryoko pleases baby”

Vibrates angstily.

“im missing my wife for this guys please lets just do this”

“wish i had a wife too instead of this vase filled with fucking ashes” SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORP

The squad analyzes the statistics of all Noise outbreaks over the last month to see if there’s a pattern somewhere. Somehow, Hibiki is regarded as an authority on this, despite being just a normal girl.

This is not the face of someone who has a degree in Noisology, let alone even listened to a Noisia album.

“looking photogenic while this girl describes how these horrible, lovecraftian entities butcher entire populations will look great on my acting resume”

Strained sounds of holding back laughter at this absolute clownery.

*coughs quietly*

Exposition goes on about the UN acknowledging the existence of Noise, but them existing for far longer, existing in myths as demons and monsters of long ago. This makes little sense, but fuck it, just roll with it. They also say the Noise is rare, but this being Symphogear, the Noise will be here forever, until the end of time.

“its like the noise are a metaphor........................”

Hibiki, looking dead inside as the average overnight studying student would, muses whether someone is behind the noise. She also asks if you can hear the sound of one hand clapping.

Tsubasa makes a very relevant observation that the school is smack dab at the center of all these outbreaks. In retrospect, you probably should have asked her first. She points out it may be because someone wants their get their hands on the almost complete relic hidden away in the 2nd Division: Durandal. Why anyone wants an old ass french sword is beyond me.

“yeah i can do exposition too, fuck you”

Finished relics are extremely rare and as a result extremely powerful. Incomplete ones are pretty powerful, but need to be rebuilt a bit.

“i discovered all this, conveniently, as the only person left to do so! totally not suspicious at all.”

“anime plot hurting brain. bullshit levels make think no good.”

“wish i got hired for a macross anime instead, they get to go to space”

“being meguca is suf- wait, im confusing my roles”

The exposition goes on to note that America wants the relic. This is one of the few shows that depicts America in a very serious and antagonistic light. America never cooperates in any useful way except once.

“it should would suck if someone was sending us them noise monster all on purpose-like”

“yeah............! suuuuuure would suck.... mmmmmmmmmhmmmmmmm...”

Tsubasa and Ogawa quietly plan idol ruminations. This animation used to be far, far worse.

This is the moment where Tsubasa becomes sword-kin. From here on out, she will always refer to herself as a sword. This is law. Literally every single season has this same deal. She believes she is a sword. I know it’s not literal, but I like pretending it is.

Succ Intensifies

“gonna get her number later after the season is over, damn”

Hibiki muses on the nature of war.

“why we gotta fight”

“cause yall suck”

Ryoko then says some very not nice things that we’re just going to walk right around because Ryoko is a little bit of a weirdo and should probably keep her flirting to the short haired lady working on the bridge.

“i will call the cops, lady”

Hibiki starts her next day at school as she spots Tsubasa during her choir class.

“forget my nintendo switch with the latest smash bros game in the classroom goddamnit”

“hibiki please tone down the gay for five seconds while we try to get through this dumb singing class in one piece”

“i smell a homewrecker”

“THE GAY CAN NEVER BE TONED DOWN, IT CAN ONLY BE TONED”

Hibiki is then fed by multiple classmates for this statement.

The Anime Janai crew is fond of Hibiki, much like a group of Lords being fond of the royal court jester. Hibiki clowns it up by working on a report she procrastinated until the very last minute. “Your life sure is an anime!”, one of them says. Hibiki then says, “I wish!”. They smile in unison at the irony.

Look at how they mock the threads of reality. Absolute monsters.

Hibiki nails the report at the skin of her teeth, Miku’s gonna get ready for the meteor shower, everyone’s real fucking happy, the evening looks peaceful, all is well.

“i cant wait to do all these fun things we promised several times over!”

Unfortunately, the worst case scenario happens.

Her tiddies start ringing.

“no.... fuck.... my tiddies... they’re ringing...”

She knows now she cannot go.

In retrospect, she probably could’ve blown them off. I mean, what are they gonna do? Fire her? She’s practically irreplaceable. Alas, her conscience is too strong. The ringing from her tiddies too loud to ignore.

“okay im back for the thing you promised we’d do repeatedly that we planned for a good amount of weeks now”

“...”

“i got fucking ghosted didnt i”

“cannot fucking believe i got ditched on my hot date with hibiki. bet its because her tiddies rang, isnt it. always her and her... GODDAMN tiddies ringing ALL THE TIME. LET ME BE WITH HER... god...”

“bae. im sorry. the tiddies rang. i have no choice.”

Miku tries to keep it together. Neither of them are happy about this state of affairs, and rightfully so, because it’s fucking stupid. Hell, it would have made more sense of Miku knew but still got jealous anyway, because she feels her job is establishing too much distance! And they talk those problems out instead of issues that only arise if everyone’s a goddamn moron about communication!

“but thats the point of the pl-”

NO! IT’S NOT CLEVER! IT’S FRUSTRATING! THERE ARE CLEVER WAYS TO SHOW A LACK OF COMMUNICATION BESIDES A CHAIN OF OBSTACLES TOO STUPID TO EXIST!

Miku takes the whole thing with grace even though I’m absolutely certain she threw her phone at the wall in raw, gay frustration.

Hibiki, understandably, is pretty fucking pissed.

“im gay. im angry, and im gonna fuck yall up for RUINING MY DATE AFTER HAVING FINISHED MY DAMN REPORT”

Hibiki fights the Noise. She’s gotten slightly better at fighting, but for now she’s still sorta trash at it. A grape themed Noise throws bombs and crushed her under rocks from a ceiling.

You’re a student. You’re the lone survivor of a concert that you got flak about for years. You go to an institution for singing with your best friend and basically get shoved into a life of crime fighting unwittingly. Your only teammate hates you and tried to kill you. You don’t get to hang out with your best friend anymore. Your teachers hate you. And you’re losing against the abominations that may have potentially warped your life negatively, forever.

This is probably the pivotal moment where Hibiki fucking snaps and decides she ain’t taking shit anymore. She’s not at her strongest yet, but mentally? She has decided to tell the world to go fuck itself.

“MY WIFE THINKS IM CHEAAAAAATING, MY TEAMMATE THINKS I SUUUUUUUUUCK, AND I’M SICK AND TIRED OF IT”

My, Hibiki, what big fangs you have. All the more to grit your teeth and beat the shit out of things with, I assure you.

Needless to say, even without having the skill, she’s starting to understand and get more comfortable with the full extent of the power her suit provides her.

She’s gotten so mad that even the illustrators are afraid of her.

To note: this isn’t just anime drama silhouette stylization. She is actually physically turning into a red eyed shadow. You’ll know why later down the road.

“YOU WANNA FUCKIN FIGHT ME NOW TSUBASA? HUH? HUH? YOU WANNA FUCKIN’ FIGHT ME?!”

Needless to say, her rampage goes on for a while.

She manages to dispatch all the Noise except for the Grape themed one. Up in the hole it made, she sees the meteor fall from the sky...

Wait, look closer. Is it a bird?

A plane?!

No, it’s...!

“i aint gonna tell her i just did a wish on her”

Sword!

“why the fuck does SHE get jetpacks?!”

Hibiki randomly yells out she wants to protect things too, for absolutely no real reason. Who would even break the ice with that. Hibiki, please.

They sorta stare each other down in a field awkwardly, like a bad high school reunion. But, a mysterious voice breaks out of literally fucking nowhere.

“didnt know they legalized gay marriage in japan already, otherwise id be showing up to this joke of a marriage sooner, you absolute buffoons”

“did this bitch just insinuate id waste my time getting married to this complete idiot, let alone even contemplate getting married in a public park as opposed to having a customized karaoke based marriage in the FUCKING HILTON?!”

“hey time out dont say that shit im already married and my wife already feels enough like im cheating so please keep those comments to yourself okay please”

“eat my ass, nerds. id tell you to come to the park in 15 minutes for an ass kicking...

but we’re already here, now aren’t we?”

[5hfanfiction]

Under the Mistletoe (one shot)

It was cold outside when Camila and Lauren started discussing about their little project. Instead of staying at the library, which is quite full at the moment, the two decided to get situated at one of the bleachers at the corner of the field since Lauren’s softball practice is about to start within 30 minutes.

“Camz, can you be fast enough and tell me what are we going to do? I’m about to get on that field.” Lauren said exasperatedly while pointing at the said field, surely she doesn’t have time for this and she’s been tapping one of her foot aggravatingly on the floor for almost like a hundredth times already. Camila on the other hand cringed at the said nickname. She haven’t yet decided if she likes to be called like that. But her heart secretly likes it, especially if it came from Lauren’s filthy mouth.

“Lauren, shut the fuck up! Can’t you see that I’m the only one who’s been putting an effort over this damn project.” Camila rolls her eyes while saying this, and needless to say she’s pretty annoyed too.

“Okay okay, so what now?” her green eyes settled on Camila’s brown eyes. The intimidating look that she’s been showing to the brunette girl doesn’t have any effect on her anymore. Camila had enough of Lauren’s bullshit for now. Both of them are smart, but Lauren relied to her too much which makes her do most of the things.

Camila scoffed. Lauren’s attitude today is getting under her skin. “Bossy much, Jauregui? Anyways-” She was interrupted when a loud commotion startled the shit out of her. She saw her friends, Dinah, Normani and all of the other students running towards them.

Dinah is holding a mistletoe and she’s waving it at them like her life depended on it. Normani who is tailing her have this grin plastered on her face. That’s when Camila’s demeanor change, from being annoyed she instantly became nervous, she totally knows Dinah’s capabilities on pranking and never in her life likes the idea of it especially when it involves her. She’s about to get up and ran but unfortunately the other side of the road was blocked by none other than her petite friend, Ally.

“Smalls! Don’t let her pass or else you’re going to have a certain knowledge of how my poly beat down works.” Dinah being tall, held her hand and measure ally with her own pinky finger.

“Dinah Jane, you don’t have the right! I’m older than you!” Ally shouted. She doesn’t need Dinah’s threat just to let Camila pass. This is a yearly mission “Okay Allysin! You know I’m just kidding right?” Dinah smirks and laugh.

On the other hand, Camila was stunned. There’s no other way she can get away unless Lauren do something and help her with their situation. But as she looked at the raven haired girl beside her, she just smiled at her seat like it’s the most mundane thing to do.

“Lauren!! Don’t tell me you’re also a part of this stunt?!” Camila crossed her arms towards her chest. Her heart starting to palpates like she just ran a marathon. She’s too terrified to foresee what’s going to happen.

“What? It’s that time of the year Camila. You need to calm down. Plus, it’s me you’re going to get kissed. This is a win-win for you.” Lauren stood up and now they’re face to face. Her green eyes illuminates and she watched as Camila scrunched her face while Dinah held the fucking mistletoe above their heads.

“I solemnly swear Walz, if you’re not gonna do this, I’ll tell them your darkest secret.” Dinah half whispered to her friend, careful that no one hears them.

“OKAY! Let’s just get this over with.” without any hesitation, Lauren was pulled by her shirt and was startled when she felt Camila’s lips on her. It was brief but the sparks flew then and there. She didn’t even have the time to reciprocate because she was overwhelmed by the sudden act. Lauren didn’t expect for this to happen, because never in her life she thought Camila would actually do it with her. Camila is supposed to be chickening out! This is all supposed to be for a laugh. But guess who’s laughing now? The students cheer them up until Lauren felt a slap on her left cheek. Camila just slapped her. That must have sting!

“What the fuck?!” Lauren touched the left side of her face where Camila slapped her while Camila took that as an opportunity to ran away like a ninja. Lauren finally felt a pat on her back when Normani said “Merry Christmas Laur!” with an amused look on her face.

“Thank me Lauser!” a voice said, then the crowd vanished as they went hunting for other victims.

_

Practice was over when Lauren decided to go to her locker and get some of the things that she needed for their said project, after what happened she’s eager to see Camila. The kiss never left her mind, she almost got her head off when the ball almost hit her during practice.

She was busy getting off her stuff when at the corner of her eye, a certain brunette girl caught her attention. Camila has been limping on the right side of the hallway with a crutch, making sure that she gets a hold of the things that she can grasp to help herself walk in case she falls.

Lauren closed her locker hastily and went for her. Camila winced when she saw Lauren running towards her, she’s the last person she wants to see.

What’s with these people always running towards me? Camila thought.

“Hey! What happened?"Lauren said while eyeing the cast in her right foot. Camila ignored her and starts walking.

"Do you need a ride? I mean, I can give you one since your house is only 10 minutes away from ours.” Lauren’s feature shows that she really is concern with the girl but Camila’s not having it, not after what happened to them.

“Whatever Lauren, talk to my cast! This is basically all your fault!” without glancing at her, Camila keeps on walking, already on her way to the parking lot.

“Hello to you too cast!"Lauren said sarcastically.

"Now, how can you say that its my fault? Stop being a brat, I’m just here to help.” Lauren is walking in front of her and she’s basically just waiting for Camila to fall so she can actually catch her and makes her realize that she really needed her help but then fate hated her and it didn’t happen.

Camila kept her mouth shut. Truth be told, she doesn’t really know what to do because she cant drive her car, her parents are away and right now she’s mad with Dinah, Ally and Normani for what they had done and also for blackmailing her. Clearly, she doesn’t like the idea of Lauren following her around too.

Lauren kept her cool when she said “So? Are you just gonna ignore me? Because this is gonna be my last attempt to offer you a ride home.”

Yes! actually I need a ride. But as stubborn as she is Camila blurted “My boyfriends going to pick me up, so don’t bother.” instead.

Without uttering a word Lauren left her there and went to get to her car. Lauren didn’t even bother to look back and beg her.

Camila was feeling hopeless though, she was devastated per se. But most of all, her emotions are all over the place and the realization of being alone hits her real hard. Probably she deserves this after getting her anger out to Lauren, she was basically alone now in the parking lot and her non existent boyfriend might be laughing at her messy situation. Add her fucking foot that hurts like hell. She stays there while waiting for something that will never happen.

She felt liquid falling from her eyes. She’s crying now, her sobs becoming uncontrollable as she wipes every tears with her free hand. She’s a total wreck. Camila who tried to walk, stumbled on something that she cannot figure out because her bloodshot eyes were too busy weeping. She shrieked with pain until she saw a shadow in front of her and swept her off her feet.

“So, where’s that boyfriend of yours huh?” there’s a hint of frustration in Lauren’s voice when she said that. She didn’t even look at Camila’s eyes. She just put her on her car and started driving on the way to Camila’s house.

“You know what Camz. I don’t know what’s the big deal of kissing me but I don’t think that’s not a good enough reason to refuse my offer.” Lauren blurted out. Camila was caught off guard as she watched the green eyed girl who’s been focusing on the road while mumbling coherent things at her.

She opens her mouth. “Sorry, I know it’s-”

“Shut up! I’m also pissed that you’re fucking boyfriend wasn’t there when you clearly needs him. I don’t even know you had one!” Lauren continued.

“It’s-” she was cut off again.

“And what the fuck happened to your foot? It wasn’t there awhile ago!”

“LAUREN! Can you just shut up for one second?!” Camila shouted. Looks like their back and forth banter wouldn’t just end. Thankfully, they arrived at Camila’s house which also means that they wont be able to continue this stupid conversation. Lauren doesn’t deserve any of her explanation, not if she keeps on saying things that doesn’t make any sense. She’s just a nobody to her.

“Thanks for the ride.” Camila said with a vehement tone. She had enough of Lauren for today.

Camila was about to get out of the car when Lauren urgently exited her car, grabbed her by the waist and carried her forcefully.

“Lauren! Put me down!” a shock of horror went by Camila’s features.

“Stop being so stubborn!” she said back.

They were on the patio of the house when a small girl opened the door.“Kaki!!” a small girl squealed but then changed her tone to being terrified in a second when she saw Camila with a cast on her foot. “Oh, hi Sofi! Don’t worry this is nothing.” she replied and tried to point at her foot despite of her position.

A dog greeted them and starts barking. It is very unwelcoming but Lauren managed to stay still, not letting the girl in her arms drop off her butt.

“Lauren, go back inside. She’s a guest!” Sofi scolded and went running inside with the said dog.

FUCK! Camila thought.

Lauren raised her eyebrows and look at Camila who’s been blushing furiously at what Lauren might just have discovered. The secret was unintentionally out and she really hopes that the ground swallow her whole.

“Lauren, you can put me down now.” Lauren hesitated. “Please” that word soften her and granted Camila’s request. Lauren can see it in her brown orbs that she doesn’t want to argue and embarrassed herself more especially in front of her sister.

“Bye Camz.” and that’s the last word Lauren uttered when she turned around and walks back to her car silently.

Only did Camila know. Lauren has been smiling like an idiot while humming something on the way back.

-

Camila is currently reading “to kill a mockingbird” well not really, because she’s been stuck at a line that she read for almost the 50th time already when her phone suddenly rings. Her heartbeats start jumping up and down when she realized it was Lauren who texted her.

(10:56 PM) Lauren: Look outside.

With that, Camila helped herself to get up and opened up her window to see Lauren standing outside.

“What are you doing here?” she mouthed. Lauren couldn’t tell what she’s saying so Camila texted her instead.

Camila: I said what are you doing here?

Lauren glanced into her phone and smiled.

Lauren: I was worried and I really want to talk to you.

Camila was puzzled. She didn’t know what made Lauren to actually go to her house.

Camila: can’t it wait tomorrow? I don’t want to wake Sofi.

Lauren: nope, and don’t worry I wont wake her up. I just wanna see you badly. X

Camila: how will you do that?? I cant even walk and open the door for you.

Camila waited for an urgent response but she didn’t get any. Probably Lauren gave up and went home now. She was about to turn off her bed lamp when she heard a rustling sound outside her window. What the?

She saw Lauren’s head that’s been popping inside her window, if it wasn’t dark enough, she almost thought that she’s been seeing a ghost. Camila shifted and positioned herself on the headboard of the bed to see Lauren clearly. Again, her heart starts to race. She doesn’t know if it’s because of Lauren or it’s because she almost thought that Lauren is something supernatural.

Thankfully for Lauren she’s wearing a black ripped jeans, flat boots and a black hoodie that makes it more easier to sneak inside Camila’s bedroom. She’s no expert but she’s desperate. Camila stared at her in awe, she can’t believe Lauren’s here. IN HER BEDROOM!

“What? You seem like you’ve seen a ghost.” Lauren said taking her out of her reverie.

“Actually, I thought you were. I’m about to get my banana pillow and throw it at you.”

Lauren started laughing. “Babe, that won’t totally harm me. Choose some good weapons the next time.”

Camila blushed with the the term of endearment Lauren used. It’s the first time Lauren called her that. She became anxious. Lauren started walking in her direction and flops down in her bed.

“Next time?” Camila hesitantly asked.

“Yep.” With a popping sound, Lauren is casually checking Camila out. Her eyes were about to get out of its socket when she realized that Camila is only wearing an oversize sweater in which her long legs were beautifully expose and barely covers her Cuban ass. Lauren gulped as she tried her very best not to imagine touching the younger girl inappropriately. She just entered a lion’s den.

“I know I should’ve said this awhile ago Lo, but you kept on cutting me off. So once again, I really want to apologize for what happened. I only did that because I was terrified. My emotions get the best of me and I thought that you were just there just to toy with me or something.” Camila stated, with a hint of worry in her eyes as Lauren lowkey being thankful that Camila didn’t notice the drool in her face. She took Camila’s hand instead and squeeze it giving her reassurance that it’s okay. They definitely need to talk.

“Can we talk about what happened a while ago?” Lauren said.

Camila being confused asked “Where do you want to start?” she knows Lauren has been bugging by these thoughts so she mentally prepared herself.

“What happened to your foot?” Lauren asked incredulously. She needs to know everything.

“It was when I was running away when I tripped and broke my foot. It didn’t hurt at first but the pain started to settle in so I went to the infirmary to get it check and tada!” Camila said almost jokingly. It’s the truth though. She doesn’t have any reason to lie.

Lauren giggled at that. She knew how clumsy Camila could be. “Lauren, this not funny.” She pouted.

“Okay okay, second question would be, did you really name your Dog, Lauren?” Lauren tried her best not to stifle a laugh but she’s terrible at it. She’s red as a potato as she hide her face using the back of her hand and was shaking uncontrollably.

“NEXT QUESTION PLEASE!” Camila shouted and rolled her eyes. She’s not gonna answer an obvious question.But maybe next time…

Lauren stopped laughing halfway and became serious when she asked the most outrageous thing she had discovered with the brunette girl. She took deep breaths just for her to be able to calm down.

“Hmm..”

“So lastly,who the fuck is this boyfriend of yours?”

“Well,” Camila started.

“Oh wait, nevermind! you don’t have one!” Lauren starts cackling. Ever since Camila mentioned the boyfriend thing, she asked her very good friend Dinah to tell her if it’s true. Of course money was involved but she’s eager to know so she agreed.

She’s gay as a unicorn Lauser. Duh! Lauren remembers.

Camila gasped, she didn’t expect the vulgar retort so she smack Lauren’s arm multiple times with her banana pillow. “That’s very rude of you Lauren! How dare you!”

Lauren was still laughing hysterically that it almost makes her stomach hurts. “Camz, stop!” Camila wouldn’t stop though, so Lauren inevitably gets a hold of her hands and put it over her head. Both of them falls into the bed.

Lauren is now settled on top of her, their face almost inches apart while her knees on either side of Camila’s thighs, careful not to hit her broken foot. Both of them in a comfortable silence. Being too caught up by the moment the older girl in front of the younger girl made her want to touch her even more and in so many different ways. Camila’s oversize sweater has been teasing her, the material sort of raised up making her red underwear becomes more visible. Lauren licked her lips, unable to restrain herself. She let go of Camila’s hand and start stroking her face.

Camila brought her hand on Lauren’s left cheek where she lividly slapped her a little while ago. Lauren scrutinize her feature, her breathe becoming erratic. Camila’s eye were fully blown, it’s like the most captivating eyes that Lauren have ever seen, add the fact that her lips are slightly apart; like the idea of it is inviting her to do it even more. Lauren couldn’t resist now, she starts leaning in and finally capture Camila’s lips on her own.

Unlike the first kiss, this time it was wholly different. They were both in sync as they tasted each others mouth. Lauren let Camila’s hand wander and are now rested on her shoulders tugging her hair while Lauren’s hands gently went to Camila’s waist and the other one on Camila’s thigh grabbing her closer and trying to deepen the kiss. She bit her bottom lip to access more and Camila willingly lets her. It was breathtaking and no one was planning to let go until one of them finally gasped for air.

“Wow! That was-” Lauren said cutting the ominous tension around them. Her chest was heaving up and down as she tried to recover from their kiss.

“I know.” Camila said blushing while turning her head on the other side of the bed, avoiding Lauren’s gaze. She couldn’t watch Lauren. She’s embarrassed or more like horrified of what will happen after the shared kiss.

“Hey, Camz. Look at me.” Camila didn’t budge so Lauren tilted her head by her free hand and forced her to stare at her beautiful green eyes again.

“Lauren, I know you weren’t attracted to me. Okay? And I’m sorry if you feel obligated to kiss me. Probably you feel sorry because of my foot and that stupid project so here you are trying to spite what I feel even though I could never be mad at you because you’re just perfect and you’re fucking Lauren Jauregui who is probably the most fascinating person that everyone ever knows.” Lauren listened as Camila mumbled incoherently.

“Babe, hush. How can you say that I wasn’t attracted to you? Do you really downgrade yourself that much? Have you seen yourself?” it was a straightforward response but Lauren couldn’t care less. She’s not gonna let Camila’s insecurities get ahead of her.

“Don’t- I know you aren’t” Camila is almost sure with her response. There’s no way that Lauren would actually like a person like her which is why she never give any hints that she’s attracted to the raven haired girl.

“How?” Lauren is frustrated but she doesn’t show it. She just hope that Camila would see her true intentions and that she truly like her.

“ Because you didn’t kiss me back when we kissed during that stupid mistletoe prank!” Camila retorted.

“Camila! This is why I hate people making assumptions. That kiss was everything that I could wish for. You make me feel weak. I almost thought it was just a one time thing but you let me kissed you again and- fuck! It was the most mind boggling thing that ever happened to me.”

“I like you Camz. And you have to believe me. Stop being stubborn and just give us a chance.” Lauren said giving an emphasis on liking her. Camila smiled hearing her admission. So she replied with -

“I like you too, Laur. And if it wasn’t because of that mistletoe we’ll never know what we feel towards each other” Lauren grins. She’s about to thank her friends for doing the prank but she knows that she’ll always be attracted to Camila even without it. She’s just waiting for the right moment.

“Fuck the mistletoe; I’d kiss you all over again Cabello”

“What’s stopping you, Jauregui?” and so they did kiss again, not under the mistletoe but under the illuminating moon that has been there every night, waiting for these two to finally see through each other’s feelings.

END

A/N: @xxBananalmj on wattpad and HAPPY HOLIDAYS CS! x

[professional-anti]

Unwind, Chapter 1

Okay, I am excite!!!!! I know I asked before if ppl wanted Infernal Devices, and I know it seemed like ppl did, but ever since I read Unwind a few years ago, I’ve been dying to snark it. I’m actually floored at how many people like this book. I’ve even met ppl who hate SJM but love Neal Shusterman! And it’s confusing! For anyone who doesn’t know, Unwind takes place in a world where you can’t abort fetuses, but you can have your children “unwound” (aka organ-harvested) from ages 13 to 18.

I know. And we’re supposed to take this seriously!

The book starts with “The Bill of Life”, which lays out the rule of this new world. Basically, a second civil between pro-lifers and pro-choicers splits America, until a new bill “satisfied both the Pro-life and Pro-choice armies.” Basically, parents can “retroactively ‘abort’” their teenagers by sending them away to be dismantled for parts. A finger here, a brain stem there, etc.

This is just so mind-bogglingly stupid. Like, the stupid is SO MUCH. Imagine, right now, someone proposes this to you. It doesn’t matter whether you’re pro-life or pro-choice—you’d be horrified. If your pro-life, there’s no way you’d be okay with a child being murdered. And pro-choice people are not “child murderers” the way the right would have us believe. Soooo…this is stupid AF. And abortion isn’t about the teenage years! It’s about not being able to feed a child, not being able to take care of a child, not being able psychologically to go through pregnancy, not being able physically to go through pregnancy, etc. etc. etc. The list goes on and on. No one who wants an abortion is gonna be like, “Fine, I’ll give birth or whatever, but just wait until they turn 13!” Jesus.

Let’s dive in.

Part One: Triplicate Chapter one: Connor The book starts for real with this kid, Connor, and his girlfriend, Arina, hanging out on an overpass. They’re totes upset bc Connor’s supposed to be Unwound in one week. They decide to “kick-AWOL” together, which basically means run away. Then there’s this snippet of dialogue, which always makes me laugh (and is but a harbinger of things to come):

“AWOL…” [Ariana] says. “What does that mean, anyway?” “It’s an old military term or something,” Connor says. “It means ‘absent without leave.’”

Ooooohhhhh mmmyyyy goddd we get it, they’re in the future, look at how funny it is that they don’t know the term “AWOL”!!!! Spare me.

Connor goes home, and we learn that his parents don’t know that he knows that they signed an Unwind order. Apparently he was a bit of a misbehavor, and instead of, like, not sending their child off to die, Connor’s parents have decided the totally reasonable thing to do is Unwind him. Because of course. And these aren’t, like previously abusive parents or anything. These are just parents. Shusterman is trying to show us how commonplace Unwinding is, and instead he’s showing that he can’t write well-written characters to save his life.

We also learn that Unwind orders are irreversible, which is one of the dumbest pieces of shit in this book. What if an abusive parent signs an Unwind order, and it comes out that they’re abusive? What if a parent has a mental break and signs an Unwind order? What if a parent forges the other parent’s signature? Can anyone Uwnind their kids? And wouldn’t that be a form of abuse, to hang an Unwinding over a child’s head? This is too dumb.

Also, Neal Shusterman is sadistic. Not in a good way, in a way that inspires interesting conflict and pain. But in this needless, “look at how fucking awful like just soo fucking awful this is soo awful do you see how EDGY AND SAD AND AWFUL THIS IS look at this fucking lOOK!” is ridiculous. Basically, ever since Connor found the Unwind order, he’s been acting extra good, bringing home good grades and buying his mom flowers and talking about his future. His parents are clearly in enormous pain. Not that this is an unreasonable choice for Connor to make, but Neal has set up this situation so it has to be like this. This is one of the points I’d be willing to concede as maybe a little to Extra, but we’ll see.

Connor runs away in the middle of the night and goes to Ariana’s house. Surprise, surprise, she’s not going with him. Color me shocked. I know ppl in the Unwind fandom hate Ariana for her cold-hearted betrayel, but, um, she could quite literally be given the death penalty for running away. I’m not saying it’s not noble to run away, but come on. Anyway, Connor’s having trouble finding out how to get out of town because “Juvey-cops” are always out searching for the runaway Unwinds. Apparently there are a lot of these runaways, which begs the question, IF UNWINDING IS SO UNPOPULAR, WHY. IS. IT. LEGAL. Like, I’ve already read this book, and in it, it’s only the counterculture that’s against Unwinding. It should be, like, ninety-nine percent of the country! This is isn’t subtle “misuisng the death penalty” or “mistreating prisoners of war”. This is “we are murdering children!”

Also. Juvey Cops. I CANNOT IT’S TOO FUNNY.

Apparently, all Connor has to do is hide until he’s 18 because they won’t unwind someone that old because he’s, like, a person now. Okay. Sounds legit. Gotcha. I’m sure the whole country’s perfectly all right with teenagers being seen as subhuman. Also, I know Neal is pro-choice, and this book sure is an odd way to get that message across. Fetuses! Are! Not! Teenagers! But! You! Are! Making! It! Seem! Like! That’s! Your! Message!!!!!! Ahem.

Connor finds a rest stop but oh no! Police! Excuse me, Juvey-Cops! He hides in the back of a truck, and, luckily, the trucker is sympathetic. Like literally everyone should be, but okay. So the trucker got into an accident and had to have his arm replaced with an Unwinder’s arm, and now he’s like “my arm has muscle memory from its previous owner and I’m sad and now don’t like the Unwind policy.” He’s also like, “You’re lucky it’s me you found and not anyone else” because apparently you have to be in a traumatic accident and have your arm replaced before you can be sympathetic to a teenager who’s running from being killed.

Before they can get on the road, though, the Juice Cops surround another car and force a kid that Connor knows out of it. Andy Jameson is being Unwound too! And then there’s this moment:

Well, the [Juice Coupons] didn’t see him. But Andy does, He catches sight of Connor, holds his gaze, only for a moment . . . . . . and in that moment something remarkable happens. The look of despair on Andy’s face is suddenly replaced by a steely resolve bordering on triumph. He quickly looks away from Connor and takes a few steps before the police grab him—steps away from Connor, so that the police still have their backs to [Connor]. Andy had seen him and had not given him away! If Andy has nothing else after this day, at least he’ll have this small victory.

First of all, third-person present tense is fucking off-putting and makes it sound like Elmo is narrating. Secondly, why tf would Andy give Connor away? Thirdly, can you say Gary Stue? Andy’s whole “victory” has to do with not giving away Connor, which, btw, is not such a big victory!! Because why in the world would Andy give away Connor??? It makes no sense!!!! This whole sentence is basically Connor trying to tamp down his guilt. “I’m not really doing anything to help Andy, but at least I could help him by letting him not give me away! I’m basically saving his life, here!” Whatever, we’ll let Andy have this. I guess.

Connor and the trucker (who still has no name) finally get on the road. Connor has a stupid Symbolic dream and then his phone rings which means…Connor…didn’t turn off…his phone… I’m done. I’m actually Done. Connor, do you want to be safe??? Or no?????

It had been stupid of Connor to leave his old cell phone on—that’s how they tracked him, and he wonders how many other kids are caught by their own blind trust of technology.

Omg, is Neal trying to say something about “kids these days”?? Hate to break it to ya, Neal, but most kids aren’t so blindly trusting that they’ll leave their phones on while RUNNING AWAY. We all know that shit is trackable!

The police catch them, Connor runs across a busy highway and carjacks a Cadillac. The End.

Ugh, that was exhausting. Cathartic AF, but exhausting. I think I’ll leave it at one chapter for today.

[inkognito97]

Baby kitsune obiwan and quigon finally reconcile with lots of cuddles and fluff with mom tahl in the background?

@mostie01

“I am losing him, Tahl. And I don’t know what I can do to change that.”

The honey skinned Jedi had never seen her friend since childhood in such an emotional state. He was lying on his bed, yet it looked like he had not sleeping at all the last night. Also, it didn’t seem, as if he was going to leave his bed anytime soon. He looked like a beaten puppy, close to tears, yet unable to shed them. She didn’t need to be a genius, to know what was bothering him though.

In a gentle voice, she said, “Qui-Gon… you are certainly not going to make things better by falling into depression or by lying all day long in your bed. Have you even tried to talk to him?”

“Of course I have,” his tone was aggressive, but he finally had sat up, “But he won’t talk with me.”

Tahl remained calm. “No, Qui-Gon. I mean, have you actually TALKED with him? I don’t mean about your unfortunate situation, but about… it doesn’t matter about what. And if he does not answer you, or say something in return, than that is fine too. Remain calm and keep talking. He… I don’t know what actually happened between you two and what made Obi-Wan do, what he did. I only know that he is traumatized and NOT by the incident. Something was bothering him way before he was hit by that speeder.”

The long haired man sighed. “What could it be though?”

The honey skinned female shrugged, where she sat on the edge of the soft mattress. “What did he say to you again ‘what would be different’? Have you ever considered… that your protectiveness of him, might go too far, or that he does not understand. Your fox boy is still young, Qui, perhaps he thinks that you are ashamed of him and that you won’t allow him out because of this.”

As much as he hated to admit it, it WAS a possibility. Another heartfelt sigh escaped the male Jedi, he ran with his hand through his face and finally nodded. “I will take him to the garden, or the Fountain Room today, if the healers allow it that is. Perhaps that will cheer him up.” In his eyes raged a storm. “I don’t want to lose him.”

“I know,” she said softly. She patted his arm reassuringly and finally stood up, leaving and therefore giving her friend enough privacy to change and to collect his thoughts. Silently, she sent a quick prayer to the Force and hoped, that her friend would find his happiness again and that soon.

“Have I ever told you about the first time that I landed in the healer’s ward?” Qui-Gon had not expected an answer from the silent boy, who was slowly following behind him. It was a great accomplishment that he had even GOT the boy to go with him. He continued, “It had been a very stupid accident. Mace - believe it or not, he was a funny guy and a real troublemaker, before he got a seat on the Council - had dared me too climb the big tree that is still standing in the middle of the Fountain Room, guarding all Jedi and all that grows here. The challenge was not that hard and I had already won the dare, but Tahl had been present… and I was a young boy, trying to impress her. I fell, of course, and broke an arm and a leg.”

He chuckled fondly at the memory, even though his younger self would probably call him insane. In hindsight, he had truly been a idiotic Padawan. He should have known that it wouldn’t impress Tahl, hell, she had not even been looking, while he had climbed higher and higher.

“Needless to say, I got the biggest scolding in my life from my Master… after I was released from the healer’s wing, he forced me to sit in a corner in our quarters, for hours. I learnt the template of his wallpaper by heart… it had not been pleasant.”

“Was he… mad?” the question was an innocent whisper and Qui-Gon had to force himself not to stop and stare at the boy. he was sure that it would have scared the boy back into his secluded self again. 

“He was furious,”  he shuddered at the memory. “I didn’t understand his ire and his punishments then, I was a reckless and mindless boy after all. But a few days later, something similar happened. Just… this time the Initiate was not as lucky as I had obviously been… and I suddenly realized that the reason for my Master’s reactions was the fact, that he cared about me, very much.” From the corner of his eyes, he saw Obi-Wan’s eyebrows furrow.

“What happened?”

He eventually DID stop walking, but just because they had reached the place he had wanted to go. They were now standing under the thick and large branches of the tree that had already been there when Yoda was a Padawan, at least that is what the green troll always said. 

“He died,” he replied slowly, his gaze was distant. “He hit his head and all the arriving healers could do, was determining his death.”

“Why did he do it? I mean… after your accident?” he seemed in a good mood today and Qui-Gon silently thanked Tahl for that. He had a feeling that his best friend had been visiting Obi-Wan before he had.

“I don’t know. Perhaps he got bullied into it, perhaps he just wanted to show everyone that he was better than I was. But those are just assumptions. I truly cannot tell you the reason for his actions.” He hesitated, “Why does a being do, what it does? Sometimes, our actions do not seem to make any sense, sometimes they appear to be more harmful than actually helpful. Sometimes, we do something rash, without seeing the consequences and then we get a big surprise. And sometimes, it would have been better to talk first.”

He looked down at the ginger haired boy, whose face was still heavily bruised and who was also still recovering from his broken bones. Obi-Wan started to fidget under his scrutinizing gaze and he did not seem to want to say anything more on this matter. That was fine by him, he would give his kitsune a little time.

Qui-Gon turned away from his young charge again and moved towards the tree roots that peeked out of the ground. He let himself drop to the floor and leaned against the hard wood, tilting his head back and closing his eyes. He was glad that he had chosen this time of the day, when most young Jedi had classes and most adults were sparing. He was distantly aware of a pair of feet, their owner was limping slightly, coming hesitantly closer. He made no move to acknowledge Obi-Wan however.

“Will you punish me too?” asked the young fox demon eventually.

Surprised, Qui-Gon reopened his midnight blue eyes and gazed upon the uncomfortable looking ginger haired boy. Awkwardly, he cleared his throat. “Why do you ask.”

Obi-Wan shrugged, his gaze turning to his feet. “Tahl said you cared about me.”

“Ah,” he nodded in understanding, before taking a deep breath, releasing it through his nose. “I think… I think you have been punished enough… by your accident, I mean.”

Obi-Wan nodded slightly. “And the muzzle?” So it WAS bothering him after all.

“The Council can go to all nine Sith hells for all I care, I am not going to make your wear that… that…. thing, like an animal.” His outrage must have shown.

A pair of blue-green eyes gazed up, confusion and a tiny glimmer of hope in them. The young boy’s mouth was partly open, as if he wanted to say something, but didn’t know how to voice it. Qui-Gon remained patient and waited.

“Why not?” something told the long haired Jedi Master that this was the core of all their problems and something told him that his next words, were crucial.

“Obi-Wan,” his voice was serious, deadly serious, “you are NOT an animal. You may be a fox demon, but this doesn’t define you and you shouldn’t let it.”

Small hands turned into fists, “And why do you treat me like one?”

Qui-Gon blinked. He had seen the glittering tears that his boy had quickly hidden, by turning away. “What?” he was taken aback by the question.

“Why do you treat me like a monster, if that is not what I am?”

“How… How can you say that?” he jumped to his feet, intending to cover the distance between him and his distraught charge, but Obi-Wan wouldn’t allow it. He always took a step back, when Qui-Gon took one towards him.

“Why else would you not allow me to go out? Why else am I not allowed to have contact with anyone else? I am dangerous, aren’t I? I am a monster, an abnormality, that’s why you keep me in your quarters… that’s why you will never really love me!” to the end of his speech, Obi-Wan had gotten louder, until he was yelling. By now, there were also tears running down his bruised cheeks.

Suddenly, as if all strength had left him, the tall Jedi Master fell to his knees, his arms hanging useless at his sides. He looked at the boy before him with disbelieving eyes. “That is…” his voice was shaking, “That is not the reason why I wouldn’t allow you to leave. Is this truly what you believed?”

Obi-Wan nodded.

“Oh child,” this explained so much. He could not believe that he had made his boy think that he was a dangerous monster that needed to be kept imprisoned. “I am so sorry,” tears were now falling from his eyes too, he had hurt his boy so much. How could he ever hope of forgiveness and trust.

Obi-Wan was taken aback by the unusual outburst of the man before him. Never before had he seen his Daddy cry, never before had he seen him so broken and defeated. But before he could say and retort something, Qui-Gon was already talking again.

“I am sorry Obi-Wan. I had not realized… I should have known… I…”

“Daddy?” he whispered, still unsure what to make out of this.

The brown haired man had to close his eyes at what he was still called. He had still a chance, but this time, he needed to take it. “I thought you understood. Of course I don’t think you are a monster. And I didn’t want you to leave our quarters alone, because of what happened. You ARE different, there is no denying that, but different doesn’t necessarily mean something bad. I think you are beautiful, you have pure heart and I know that one day, you will become the best Jedi this Order has ever seen. But… but people tend to be afraid and sceptical, when things are concerned that they do not know. This is why the Initiates attacked you… I don’t you to get hurt, I just meant to protect you.”

The young kitsune was stunned by the emotional explanation. It made sense what his Daddy was saying. He HAD felt fear and anger and jealously from the boys, who had attacked him. Could it be true, did his Daddy truly not think him a monster? He decided to test it out and carefully, he took a few steps closer, until he was standing right in front of the still kneeling man. He too got to his knees. A pair of midnight blue eyes were watching him and there was a great sadness in them.

Qui-Gon noticed the return of that small spark of hope he had seen earlier. It had grown and it gave HIM hope too. 

“Obi-Wan?”

The ginger haired fox demon leaned forward, until he was resting against the other’s chest. Then, he whispered, “I love you.” He held his breath, not daring to move and waiting for the older male’s reaction.

“I love you too, my little one,” a pair of strong arms wrapped around the kitsune. “More than anything else. I never meant to hurt you, you have to believe me?” Qui-Gon buried his nose in coppery hair. the boy smelled of healing wing, something he would change as soon as possible.

“I know,” and now, he truly did. Something between them snapped wide open in this moment and Obi-Wan was flooded, with what he identified as his Daddy’s emotions, mostly his love and his need to make it up to him.

He snuggled closer to the tall man and he allowed his tears of suppressed emotions to fall. A lot has built up the last few days and it needed to get out, it WANTED to get out, especially after such a revelation. Obi-Wan just wished he had known about his Daddy’s true intentions a lot sooner, it could have spared them both a lot of pain.

“We will be alright, my dear one, my little sunshine. We’ll be alright,” Qui-Gon was mumbling nonsense in his charge’s hair and he did not know if it was meant to assure him or his boy. It didn’t matter though, for Obi-Wan relaxed more and more against him. 

After a while, the Jedi Master maneuvered himself and his little fox boy so, that he was once more leaning against the giant tree, with Obi-Wan comfortable on his lap. The boy seemed reluctant to let go, then again, Qui-Gon could completely understand him. 

“Sleep,” he cooed, when he felt the young one’s tiredness over their bond, “I’ll be there.”

“Promise?” Obi-Wan yawned.

“I promise.” They were not completely done with talking yet, but at least the biggest misunderstanding was cleared. And finally, they were reunited again and now that they were, Qui-Gon would make sure that they would remain as such.

[cellochicita]

SO MANY QUESTIONS POSTS

OK SO I GOT TAGGED BY @bananabrianna77 @thiswebsitegavemethisusername @mtt-studios @zephyrus-gryphon @scolipendra91 AND @esmiden

SO NEEDLESS TO SAY I HAVE A LOT OF QUESTIONS TO GO THROUGH

putting it below bc it longgg

1. What’s your favorite inside joke?

This is fine

2. What’s the strangest/stupidest/most interesting way you’ve ever injured yourself?

Naruto running across the street, I tweaked my shoulder something awful

3. What’s your favorite color, and what do you find so appealing about that color?

Lilac purple *star eyes* I’ve always loved purple, it’s very feminine without being in your face, and mysterious, and lilac has the warm red undertones to it that make it feel like a hug. Plus I love the smell of the flower too

4. If you had a million dollars (or whatever currency you weird non-American peeps use) what WOULDN’T you spend it on?

Umm. I wouldn’t spend it on gambling

5. What do you usually eat for breakfast?

Whoo boy depends what I can grab as I run out the door. Toast, banana, etc.

6. Hey you now possess the ability to give people superpowers. I, your indecisive trash bag pal, just requested you give me a “random superpower”. What kinda power will you give me?

Hmm, I give you the power of flight bc flying rocks

7. If the roles were reversed, what kind of superpower would you request?

I wanna talk to animals dangit

8. What time is it for you right now?

11 am :)

9. What was the worst homework assignment you ever had to complete?

Oh gosh um, 20 page paper written in one day? That sucked major butt

10. What’s your worst pet peeve?

When people cannot stop to question their own actions.

11. Not a question, but write a short (3-5 line) poem/rap about the closest thing to your left.

Left of me there is

A wall covered in carpet

Why is that a thing

1) COKE OR PEPSI???

COKE YOU HEATHEN

2) Favourite food?

Hnngg all of them? Rice bowls.

3) If you had to choose one song to listen to over and over for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Oh geez. Um. I could listen to orchestral covers of Asgore’s theme for  hours

4) Favourite singer/band?

Owl City, Imagine Dragons, Bastille, Taylor Swift

5) Favourite subject to study in school?

History or music

6) Your favourite thing about the internet?

Heck I love the freedom it gave to me to create music and voicework. I’ve had good experiences networking too :)

7) Have you remembered to do what you need to today?

Ummm I suppose I just did. But I still don’t wanna do it, sooooo

8) What time do you usually wake up if you get to choose?

If I choose? 8 am. Out of bed by 9 (I have to catch up on notifs)

9) Favourite YouTuber?

The entire Internet Remix crew

10) Can you list 5 tumblr blogs you think I should follow right now?

@fishmum, @rileygoldsmith, @kanaking, @asgoriel-stuff, @stariousfalls

11) Who is the most underrated celebrity, in your opinion?

ALL THOSE PEOPLE WHO SAID ME SHUT THE HECK YOUR MOUTHS

Piano Guys probably, they are great dudes

12) Favourite snack?

Cheese sticks

13) Can you describe your ideal day?

The day I can finally get caught up on all of my recording, then I go and hang out with family and friends

14) Your best tumblr friend?

Riley is bae @rileygoldsmith

15) Can you say the first thing that comes to your head NOW?

Can’t wait until my bf gets home so I can smooch his face

16) Favourite music genre?

Oof. I have eclectic tastes. Alternative I suppose? Not sure. If it sounds good, I like

17) Favourite video game? (If you don’t play, favourite Let’s Play series?)

Probably Undertale duh

18) The worst time someone has betrayed you?

Ex best friend, junior year of HS. But haha jokes on her, I’m dating her ex

19) Could you describe yourself in five words?

Keep enduring to the end

20) Favourite type of weather?

Fall weatherrrrrr

21) Could you describe your favourite place, without using the name?

Absolute peace

22) Favourite inspirational quote?

“Even when you think it's time to give up, don't. Take care of you and find yourself again if you need to” - Moony

1. What makes you feel at home?

My mom usually XD

2.  Favorite soup?

Turkey and wild rice soup P:

3. Sunny or rainy?

Rainy dayssss ftw

4. Other than your family, who is one person who has shaped you?

My best friend

5. What patterns do you like on clothing that you don’t wear yourself (floral, striped, etc.)?

I wish I could pull off stripes mixed with florals

6. Quick, first word/phrase you think of!

I’ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts

7. One trait you envy about others?

The ability to not overthink things

8. What was the first online fandom you joined?

Online fandoms? Hmm, probably doctor who

9. Favorite song from the 20th century?

“The way you look tonight” Frank Sinatra

10. Which class did/do you do best in at school?

The easy ones. I got good grades in history tho

11. Would you smooch a ghost?

HECK YAS

1. Waffles, Pancakes, or french toast?

Waffles but on other days pancakes

2. Do you think spiders can be adorable?

So long as they’re not up in my space

3. Best gaming experience you have had?

Solstice ending of Oneshot. It was really the first time I played a game blind, and the ending is masterful

4. Happy song that makes you sad?

You are my sunshine BC OF THOSE DANG UNDERTALE COMICS DANGIT

5. Favorite adult cartoon?

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (I KNOW IT’S ANIME SHUSH)

2. Most adrenaline pumping thing you have done?

Bungee jumping was intense

7. Do you believe there is darkness within anyone, can anyone once good be evil?

I do believe, but I also believe the opposite. We all have dark and light in us, it all depends on what we choose

8. Favorite anime OST song, not counting openings or endings?

I dunno haha I do love the whole soundtrack to FMA Brotherhood? Not familiar with all the OST

9. Hade you dramatically lied to someone?

I have before

10. Did you notice I repeated 2 twice the first time you read this?

I JUST DID ACTUALLY I WAS GONNA FIX IT BC I THOUGHT MY COMPUTER MESSED UP XD

11. How was your day?

So far, pretty decent : )

1. How are you doing?

Pretty good thanks!

2. What leaves the worst taste in your mouth?

Figuratively or literally? Literally Orange juice after toothpaste. Figuratively, when I have to let stupid people alone to their ways

3. What is the strangest thing you’ve Googled?

Ghandi Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

4. What’s the funniest thing you’ve witnessed in public?

Me doing a perfect double take at a guy pretending to be a mannequin in a store window

5. You are given the ability to solve one unsolved mystery. Which one do you choose?

Amelia Earhart. Where she at man

6. If you could write a letter to your past self, what would you tell them?

Dude, you won’t be lonely forever. It gets so much better

7. Which video game have you played through the most?

Undertale

8. If you could instantly learn a skill, which one would you choose?

DRAWING DANGIT I WANNA BE GOOD

9. What is a song you can never get tired of?

State of Grace, Taylor Swift

10. What is your favorite combination of food?

Breakfast for dinner!

11. What is the pettiest thing you’ve ever done?

Ghosted my friend bc she wouldn’t talk to me

1. Favorite literature or movie genre

Quirky fantasy

2. Top five animated cartoons

Phineas and Ferb, Gravity Falls, Avatar the Last Airbender, Steven Universe, Over the Garden Wall

3. If you could choose a fantasy land to stay in for the rest of your life, which one would you chose? Ps. You won’t be able to get back to the real world.

Hogwarts. Gimme. Now.

4. Favorite song at the moment?

Gorgeous, Taylor Swift

5. What is good design for you?

Something simple and clean, but warm and inviting

6. What’s your favorite color scheme/combination?

Lilac, lavender, mint and silver

7. Which feelings effects you the most in litterature/music/film etc.?

I am such a sucker for sister to sister relationships, make me teary every time

8. Favorite game?

Undertale (same as above)

9. What’s most important for you in a good movie?

I need to have fun! And I need it to not drag on

10. What’s your favorite time of the day and why?

Sunset

11. Extra because I’m out of ideas, if you got a painting. What would you want on it? XD

Cats!

AND I’M NOT GONNA TAG ANYONE ELSE BC I AM SO TIRED 

[chanlyeya]

I asked empressarcana about this but i wanna hear your headcanons too! (Bless the two of you for all these TL posts!) How do you think it would go once isabella introduces ashton to her family? And isabella to ashton's family? I mean there's probably a disconnect since they come from different cultures and social standings! But I wanna know how they both deal with it!

This is such a cute ask (｡ ˃艸˂) I’m more than happy to provide posts for this fandom nonnie, I love it nearly as much as Ash loves Belle (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ✧

Before I answer, I want to make one thing clear: I am a Canadian of mixed European descent, specifically Hungarian, Finish and German, so I have absolutely no first hand experience with any of their respective cultures. I can look things up, but that’s only so accurate, so I apologize beforehand if anything seems uncharacteristic!

Since Ash’s family is smaller, and nearby, we’ll start with his, as Belle is definitely going to meet them before Ash meets hers. Since she meets his surrogate father figure in the actual game itself, I’m going to leave Professor Andrew out of this 😅

First member to be met, is Mama Frey, and Belle is nervous as all get out. She asks both Ash and Becca so many questions about her leading up to the meeting. Ash thinks it’s adorable and is enjoying watching her freak out, until the day they’re supposed to meet up and goes to pick up Belle but, she’s not at home??? And not answering her phone??? Then he starts to freak out until Becca calls him to let him know she’s with her; she showed up at half past six freaking out over her hair of all things and Becca’s been trying to calm her down since. It serves him right, enjoying his girlfriend’s freak out like that.

Anyways, once Ash stops being an ass, he goes to pick up Belle, who latches on to his hand and won’t let go until they reach his mom’s place. He can feel her nerves through the way she grips his hand, so he tries to calm her down by running his thumb over the lines of her palm, and, when that doesn’t work, flicks her forehead. That works much better, and though he mourns the loss of her hand in his, he knows she appreciates it despite the glare she sends him.

Mama Frey opens the door before they even have a chance to knock as she was watching them approach because, damnit, she’s been waiting for this day for years! Her son may be under the delusion that’s he’s cool and smooth and can keep a secret, but not from his mama! She knew this Isabella would be the one for her son ever since she received that call half a decade ago where he drunkenly ranted about some stupid girl on some stupid bridge with her stupid smile!

Mama Frey shoos them into the house where they find she made them a feast, complete with all of Isabella’s favourites. Turns out, Isabella wasn’t the only one bugging Becca about the upcoming meeting and Belle is super touched??? And, to top everything off, unlike her son, Mama Frey not only knows how to cook but??? Is actually quite good at it???? Belle immediately tells her boyfriend he better watch out, because he’s quickly losing his position as her favourite Frey ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Needless to say, Isabella and Mama Frey hit it off big time. Lots of embarrassing stories are shared, and Mama Frey thanks Isabella for putting up with her son. He may be an idiot at times, but he has his heart in the right place. Belle says not to worry, she knows, and though he tends to mess up a lot, she still loves him for it 💘

There’s nothing else to say, since Ash dies right then and there ;)

Joking! The next member to be met is Papa Frey! Just like with Mama Frey, there is a lot of talk with Becca about what to do, since Ash is biased and therefore useless whenever she asks him for help. Since her meeting with Mama Frey went so well, Belle is not nearly as nervous this time and doesn’t run off without a note to her boyfriend’s relief.

Now, I imagine Ash’s dad to be much like mine, and, very relaxed??? My dad’s a lot like Professor Andrew actually. He’s not as prepared for the meeting as Mama Frey was, since he believes in just letting things happen. To Ash’s immense relief, he does not pull out all forms of embarrassing stories, and instead they have a deep discussion about art??? He’s seen some of her paintings and is very impressed and, in fact, he owns one of them. He went to her exhibit she had done with Zach, wanting to know a bit more about this girl his boy was in love with. Once more, Isabella turns to Ash and tells him, if he doesn’t do anything, he’ll soon become her least favourite Frey 😂

As far as Ash is concerned, it’s perfect, Not embarrassing in the least, until, near the end, Papa Frey asks Belle if his son told her he loved her yet??? And Ash is all, “uh, dad, we’re dating”. And Papa Frey is shocked??? “With how you act and talk about her, I thought for sure you were still in the pining stage!” Ash takes it back—his dad is so much more embarrassing then either Professor Andrew or his mom!!!

Alright, so, that’s it for Isabella meeting Ash’s family, now for the real challenge: Ash meeting Isabella’s!

It’s a bit over two years into their relationship before the two of them can both set aside enough time to head down to meet the family for a week. Mama Santos is super looking forward to finally meeting the man who captured her daughter’s heart???? Belle had never even entertained the idea of dating before Ash, and suddenly they’ve been in a relationship for two years and from what Mama Santos has heard, this boy really loves her daughter????

Mama Santos prepared for him big time. She had the house cleaned top to bottom a week prior, and just kept cleaning it during her free time. She rearranged the furniture in the guest room, and Isabella’s old room. They would be sleeping in different rooms, which is kinda a bummer as far as Ash is concerned, but, whatever pleases her family. They come bearing gifts, which endears Ash to the younger siblings, and while Mama Santos loves him immediately, the same cannot be said about all her siblings :’( I have another ask asking about exactly that, so I’ll go into detail when I answer that one.

Mama Santos immediately treats him as part of the family, and tries to get him to help out with cooking, but Belle puts a stop to that immediately. Ash apologizes and says he’s still learning how to cook thats a lie, Isabella doesn’t let him in the kitchen even to watch but he offers to help clean instead. Mama Santos is a bit worried over the fact that he can’t cook, since she loved to cook with Papa Santos and the kids, it was a family activity, but he didn’t have any other glaring faults so she lets it slide.

They visit Bella’s father’s grave. Bella brings flowers, and Ash brings incense, a basket, and a barrel of water. He cleans the grave first, then burns a stick of incense, before sitting in front of the grave and starting to a tea ceremony where he then leaves a wooden cup full of it before the grave. He apologizes to the grave, saying he doesn’t know if he would like the matcha, but it’s all he learned how to make properly. Isabella asks what he’s doing and he explains that he doesn’t know if Filipino have a traditional way of honouring the dead, but this is what his mom taught him to do whenever visiting the grave of his grandparents, and he wants to treat Papa Santos with the same respect.

Isabella falls a bit more in love then

They stay until the incense finishes burning, the two of them just…silently standing side by side, each offering their own prayers to the man. When they finally leave, Isabella takes Ash’s hand and reassures him that Papa would’ve appreciated the thought and act behind what he did, and that he would’ve loved him.

Since this also got long, I’ll put it under a read more when I get home. On that note; do you guys like these long responses, or should I start cutting them shorter???? (｡ ˃艸˂)

[sadlittlenerdking]

to love to die chapter 2

The Magicians, Quentin x Eliot 

Chapters 2 of 3 

Summary; a little bit of the reboots on the timelines. 

You can also find it on ao3

In the twelfth loop, they try something new. Something that actually has an effect on how things turn out. It’s not a clear cut, happy ending, but it’s proof that they’re getting somewhere. They get further than ever.

They’re several months in, hell has broken loose all around them and they’re practicing battle magic by bottling up their emotions, which is so, so unhealthy, which should be the thing that bothers Eliot, but what gets him, when he swollows his emotions back down, isn’t the overwhelming self hate and angst his life seems to be built on, no. It’s what he said to Quentin three hours ago when he’d let go of all his stupid emotional inhibitions;

“I love you.”

And everyone had turned to him in shock, and Quentin, stupidly adorable little Quentin in all his loveable glory, squinted his eyes and looked at him, and said, “Yes, I believe i feel the same way.”

And it should be something that fucking warms Eliot to his very core, but they did the probability spell, they knew the outcome, and on top of everything, their feelings were only accessible when they were under the influence. Eliot was always under the influence, but this was different. Not being able to admit it until it’s taken from him, thats a bad thing, isn’t it?

And he’s on the verge of a complete full throttle break down, but Margo barges into her room and points an accusing finger at him and he can sense the full scale attack that she’s going to throw, but instead, her chin wobbles, her arms falls gracefully to her side and all she says is, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

And from there, it’s a riot fest of tears, where Eliot, in all his post bottling rawness word vomits everything on Margo as if he were some weird version of Quentin. Which in itself is enough to make him wonder if Quentin has really had so much of an affect on him, that he was starting to act like him.

Then, hours later when the effects of the bottling have worn off, Quentin finally appears. He’s sheepish, and wary, clinging onto the edges of his shirt sleeves as he moves into the room, and smiles softly at Eliot. “So,” he says, in that soft, unknowing voice, the one that can, and will, mind control Eliot into submission, “We said some stuff.”

And Margo looks between them for a few long moments, while Eliot’s heart races in his chest, because he cannot fucking take this, and then she rolls her eyes, pops up from the bed, practically peeling herself off of Eliot, and leaves the room without a single word. Eliot has half a mind to follow after her, but Quentin turns and closes the door behind him. And he stands there, careful and breathing, with his forehead leaning softly against Eliot’s bedroom door.

Eliot just wishes for him to turn around.

And then he does.

And he has no idea what he can say to make sense of any of this. Eliot isn’t a feeling kind of person, he pushes all that down, even when it’s crushing him, and Quentin - all Quentin knows how to do is feel. This shouldn’t make sense.

But then Quentin takes a few steps into the room, his hands still tugging at the edges of his sleeves. And the light from outside, hits him in a way that feels so familiar, but so strange, and it freezes Eliot, because he’s seen this caramel shine before, in this way. But he can’t remember when or how.

And Quentin, wonderfully ridiculous Quentin, is a man on a mission. He’s looking down at Eliot with wide eyes, and then he’s kneeling on the edge of the bed and saying, “I - I meant it? I know it,” He paused, swallowing air and chewing down on his bottom lip, “It didn’t sound like it. But I meant it.”

Everything moves in fast forward then. Eliot is sitting up, and pulling Quentin in close, but Quentin’s the one who closes the gap and kisses him. It’s a whole disarray of craziness, where Eliot finally, finally gets what he wants, and Quentin opens himself up in every way to him.

And that’s the last good night they have in this loop, because the next day the Beast invades and kills Penny and Alice and Kady. He screams for Quentin to appear, “Quentin! Coldwater!”

Quentin hesitates, but beneath Eliot’s gaze, he apologizes, clearly sorry to leave him behind, but so sure that this will save them all because for months the beast has called out his name. And then, before Eliot can react, can stop him, he shuts down his wards and the Beast pops him away to Fillory, leaving Eliot, Janet, Kady and Julia in the wake of the chaos.

There’s a week where nobody knows what happened to Quentin. Eliot’s searching frantically, desperately finding a way to get to him, to save him, but then they find a way into Fillory. The librarians exchange information on traveling for non travelers for Kady’s vow to work for the Library. There’s no hesitation when she signs the papers. And less than three days later, they’re there.

Fillory is nothing like the world Quentin’s spent months telling Eliot it is. It’s rotting, and brown and empty.

They search for days, until they come upon the wellspring.

Eliot is drunk, with his unending flask at his side, when they meet the Beast again, who smiles cruelly and with nothing but malice. He welcomes them into the wellspring, where Quentin still is.

He’s alive.

Eliot rushes to him, but there’s a ward keeping him from reaching him. And the beast laughs, and waves his hands, because it’s an illusion, and Eliot’s wrong, because Quentin is very much dead.

And then so is Eliot.

*

In the fifteenth loop, Quentin fails the exam. Eliot, still entranced, follows him after he gets wiped. Gets to know him as a mortal. Allows himself to become attached to him. Gets to know every little bit about him through conversation. Through chance encounters, that aren’t chance at all.

He still loves Fillory and all that the books offer. Believes in them in the way only a fan can, but he doesn’t know it’s real. He doesn’t know he’s magical, doesn’t even know magic exists. And he doesn’t seek out the hedge witches. Still he has nightmares; taunted by the young Jane, urging him help her.

He calls Eliot nearly every night a few months later, once they’ve grown closer, and tells him about the dreams. How real they feel, how he knows it’s ridiculous. And Eliot keeps it to himself, lets this be their secret.

Until the beast appears, with only one name on his lips.

Eliot doesn’t even know he’s dead, until he gets to his apartment, breathless and afraid, desperate to protect him. But Quentin doesn’t come to the door, and there’s no sound inside the room. He magicks the door open, and without even realizing it, a sob tears out of him as he rushes in. A loud, agony infused breath that aches as it shreds his vocal chords at the sight before him:

Quentin is lying in a pool of his own blood.

Eliot kneels next to him, blaming himself, because this has to be his fault. He knew about Fillory, and magic, and could have protected him, but chose his education over this innocent, caring man that he’s somehow become attached to.

*

There’s no shock when Quentin tumbles onto the Brakebills property. Eliot watches him, carefully. He feels something pulling them closer together, but he doesn’t let it affect him. Quentin makes his way towards him, unassuming and amazed. Something rushes at Eliot’s heart, but he pulls out a cigarette and lights it while he waits.

When Quentin finally reaches him, he says, “Am I dreaming?”

And Eliot, shoving down the same feeling responds, “Yes. Let’s go.” Because this small, beautiful man is going to fail the test, Eliot could feel it in his bones, and he doesn’t want to waste any more time than he absolutely has to.

But then, on the walk to the exam room, Quentin babbles nonsensically, and Eliot feels this odd sort of adoration bubbling it’s way through him, and he really just wants to punch something. Because Quentin, he feels, will be the death of him.

And though, through everything, he fights it - his feelings, his care, everything - it doesn’t stop him from being right.

His feelings for Quentin, as unwanted as they are, are what get him killed, when he jumps in front of a battle magic blast to save him.

*

In the twenty third loop, it’s raining when Quentin appears. It’s too late. Somebodies made a dire mistake in the reset, and Eliot is at the entrance of the building, but so is the beast.

And it’s Quentin’s turn to watch Eliot die as a stranger.

*

In the thirtieth loop, Janet is his best friend. But it doesn’t feel right at times. When she sits too close, or looks at him like she knows him. Something’s off.

So he spends his time with Alice, and her new boyfriend, Quentin. Quentin is strange, and geeky, and surprisingly exhilarating in a way that he can’t quite explain. What starts as getting to know Alice, mysterious and intriguing Alice, turns into - Alice Who? Because Quentin takes over the room when he enters, despite curling in on himself.

Every part of Eliot is aware of every part of Quentin.

Stupid, straight Quentin.

He hides behind alcohol, but Quentin, stupid, stupid Quentin always appears, and talks to him so he forgets about his drink. Talks him sober. And Eliot won’t admit it, but he thinks he’s falling in love.

But then Alice goes and gets him expelled with her fucking spell.

Eliot doesn’t see him again until they’re in Fillory. He wants to ask how he got there, but there’s a brunette with hedge witch marks all up her arm, and Quentin is hiding his own arm, and he has a vague idea. He wants to admonish him, but Quentin doesn’t actually remember him.

And that’s how they die for the thirtieth time, familiar strangers.

*

It takes thirty one tries for something to really strike Eliot as familiar about Quentin when he comes falling in through the trees like the absolute klutz that he is. Because Eliot’s first thought upon seeing him is, “God, Q, can’t you do anything without embarrassing yourself?”

Needless to say, that strikes him as odd.

*

Quentin’s a niffin five months into their thirty second reboot. He tried to stop the beast by himself, because his name was the only name the beast thought to speak, to remember, apparently, and idiot, brave, Quentin, thinks it meant he can be the hero and save everyone.

Instead, he not only kills himself, but dooms everyone else.

Most devastatingly, Eliot when he’s the one who has to box him. Quentin fights him, hurts him, threatens him. But Eliot is strong enough to push his feelings aside and do what needs to be done.

It doesn’t mean he’s okay after the fact.

*