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ladykailitha · 2 years ago

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Royal Pain Part 8

Hello! I don’t know if it’s that it’s summer or what, but I’ve seen a sharp decline on my stories, so I just wanted to check and make sure everyone was okay. Take care of yourselves.

The hunt for the new apprentices start, they make room, and Eddie and Steve talk the design for the tattoo.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7

***

Steve got the biggest, most caffeinated drink on the menu and had downed half of it before he pulled up to Erica’s apartment complex. He put his in the cupholder and then grabbed the tray with Robin and Erica’s coffees plus breakfast.

He trotted up the stairs to Erica’s apartment and knocked on the door. Erica answered the door groggily. She spotted coffee first and grabbed it out his grasp.

Robin took her coffee gratefully from Erica as Steve pulled out their breakfast.

“Bacon, egg, and cheddar on an English muffin for Robin,” he said handing to her. “Fruit salad with whip cream for me and a sausage, egg, and Swiss on a croissant for Erica.”

Again Erica made grabby hands at Steve, who handed it to her.

Once they were fed and on their way, Erica asked, “So what’s all this about anyway?”

Steve looked at her through the rearview mirror. “I’m thinking of taking on a couple of apprentices at the shop so I can focus on doing a large back tattoo.”

“Suzie was telling the truth?” Erica gasped. “Holy shit. I thought she was making shit up. Because there was no way you are cool enough to do a back tattoo for Eddie Munson.”

Steve turned around and glared at her.

Robin smacked him. “Turn around and drive, dingus. I would rather not die today, thanks.”

Erica stuck her tongue at him and he tapped the breaks to get back at her.

“You should let me apprentice for you,” she said as they pulled up to Will’s apartment building. “I have the steadiest hands, from all those years painting tiny ass figures for D&D.”

Steve sighed. “I was hoping to find people who have already started working toward being a tattoo artist, but failing that, I guess I could teach you.”

He got out of the car and leaned back in. “I swear to god, if either of you touch my coffee, you’ll be walking home from here.”

He slammed the door.

“How serious do you think he was?” Erica asked, eyeing the caffeinated beverage with want.

“Don’t try it,” Robin warned her. “The last time someone messed with his coffee, he drove them to the complete other side of town and told them they could find their own way home.”

“Who was this?” Erica asked, rolling her eyes. “Mike?”

Robin twisted in her seat to look Erica in the eye. “Dustin.”

Erica looked at the coffee in the cup holder and then nodded. “Right. No touching the coffee.”

“Smart girl.”

Will and Steve came out moments later, so there wasn’t really time to mess with the coffee, anyway.

“Erica,” Steve said after opening the door again. “We’re going to divide and conquer. You’re going to go with Will to the colleges and shit. Robin and I are going to hit up the bars and clubs. We’ll meet at Nicki’s Diner for lunch in about three or so hours.”

Erica saluted and got out of the car to go with Will. “Roger, roger!”

Steve put his stack of fliers on the back seat and got into his car. He waved at Will and Erica and then drove off.

They had made a list Sunday night and started at one end of town and worked their way through asking if they could put up their flier. At some of the trendier bars and clubs they got turned down, but most of them let them put it up on their community boards.

They are both tired and hungry by the time they make it to Nicki’s to meet up with Will and Erica.

“We managed to put up every flier we had,” Erica said proudly.

“Yeah,” Will said, “I even had to print out ten more to hand out.”

Steve and Robin shared a glance.

“Wait, really?” Steve asked. “Robin and me barely got through our stack.”

Will nodded. “I’m so happy you’re doing this. I’ve been telling you for the last year to get more people in your shop.”

Steve sighed, pulling up the menu to look it over. “I know. I’m actually really excited about this. I probably won’t get more than a couple applicants but even if it’s just me training someone how to tattoo, they can at least do initial sessions of talking out ideas and shit for the clients that will take more than one session. Or even start offering henna that they could practice with in the mean time.”

“Me and my friends do henna all the time,” Erica said. “It’s fun trying to find colors that show up on darker skin tones.”

Steve straightened up. “Oh. Now that’s an idea. Jeff was telling me that it was hard to find a tattoo artist that could do dark skin, because a lot of artists forget that black on black doesn’t show up.” He looked at her and rubbed his lip thoughtfully.

“Would you be willing to do henna at my shop?” he asked. “I’d be able to pay you.”

Erica and Robin shared a glance.

“Does this mean you won’t teach me how to tattoo?” she asked, eyeing him sidelong.

Steve shook his head. “If you want to learn, I’ll teach you. I just don’t want this to be a fun summer thing for you and then when you go back to school in the fall, you never pick up a tattoo gun ever again.”

Erica paused. “Oh. I see what you mean.” She thought about it for a moment before she nodded. “For this summer at least, I’ll stick to the henna and if after this summer is over, I can pick whether to go back to school or stay with you and train to be tattoo artist.”

Steve stuck out his hand and she shook it.

He paid for all their lunch as thank you for helping him put up the fliers.

They spent the rest of the day clearing out the other rooms that would be used for the new artists. They got the chairs set up and them set up to take clients. Most of the stuff was already there, just waiting for Steve to make the decision to hire more people.

They took to cleaning and decorating the rooms to match the rest of the of shop.

They ended up ordering pizza and continued to work until late at night. Finally it was all done. This was the easy part. The hard part was waiting to see if anyone would answer the flier. Or their online messages.

Steve took the younger adults home and then practically crawled up the stairs to the apartment with Robin.

“You know this is entirely your fault,” she said, totally devoid of sympathy. “You didn’t have to spend all night talking to Eddie. You could have stopped at any time and actually got some sleep.”

Steve didn’t even bother rolling his eyes he was that tired. “Just let me die in peace, please.”

Robin pushed him in the direction of their bathroom. “Take a shower at least, dude. And then crash. You’ll thank me and yourself in the morning.”

Steve nodded, already swaying on his feet. He got into the shower and let the heat wash over of his tired, aching body and sighed in relief. He carefully washed his hair, but only did a perfunctory scrub down of his body.

He got out and smiled when he saw that Robin had placed his pajamas in there while he was showering. He pulled on the clothes she set out for him and padded back out to their apartment in bare feet.

“Feel better?” Robin asked from their sofa.

Steve sighed. “Yeah, yeah. It has long been established that you are smarter than me.”

“Hell, yeah,” she said with a grin. “Now go to bed before you pass out on the carpet.”

Steve nodded and went to do as he was told.

He slept deeply for the first time in a long time.

Steve tried not to let his anticipation get to him as he worked on other tattoos, waiting for Eddie to come in. He was pretty sure he failed judging from the smirk on Robin’s face when Eddie finally arrived.

“Hey, Eds!” he greeted cheerfully. “We’ll go over some ideas I had and I can start laying the ground work for those wings of yours.”

Eddie grinned. “I can’t wait to see what you have for me, big boy!”

Robin raised an eyebrow at the pet name, but wisely said nothing as Steve led Eddie back to Steve’s work station.

“I saw the other rooms were opened,” Eddie said as he took a seat. “You’re really serious about the getting more people in here to work for you, huh?”

Steve nodded. “Yeah, I’m a little nervous, but mostly? I’m hella excited.”

Eddie smiled fondly at him. “Certainly sounds like it. Show me what you got.” He made grabby hands at the drawing book Steve had picked up.

“You have any ideas of your own that you’d want to do or thoughts on what you think it should look like?” Steve asked flipping to the start of his ideas for Eddie’s tattoo.

He shook his head. “Not really, other than size. I want them all the way down my back.”

Steve nodded again. “I wasn’t sure, so there are a couple of wings that are just on the shoulder blades. You can ignore those.”

Eddie was looking at the different styles of wings and inward facing verses outward facing when a small piece of paper fluttered out of the book on the floor. He bent over to pick it and was opening it when Steve snatched it out his hand.

“Um...” Steve said. “That’s not really anything, just a stupid idea I had after listening to you talking to Dustin on Sunday.”

Eddie cocked his head to the side. “Come on, I want to see it. I promise not to laugh or poke fun.”

Steve held to his chest for a moment and then handed the paper back to Eddie, heart in hand.

Eddie opened the paper up and there was a close to accurate rendition of his back with a pair of leathery bat wings, just like a lot of the designs in the drawing book. But in the middle of the two wings along the spine was a sword. It was a one-handed sword with a wavy blade that started at the base of the spine with the hilt and went all the way up to the nape of the neck with the point. The cross guard was in the shape of a bat and it was black.

It was beautiful.

“Holy fuck, Stevie,” Eddie said, breathless. “What is this?”

Steve blushed. “It’s the sword of Kas.I was thinking on one side of the blade have it say bloody-handed crossed out and then other side have it say betrayer.”

“This.” Eddie tapped the paper. “I want this. All of this. Including what you just said about the words. I want it.”

Steve’s jaw dropped and then he gulped. “It’s going to cost an awful lot. Like more then you were probably planning on spending, though.”

Eddie threw back his head and laughed. “Sweetheart, I’ve been saving up for this tattoo for years. I have roughly four thousand saved up. I don’t think it’s going to be the problem you think it will.”

Steve gently took back the paper. “You really want to do this?”

“Yeah, I really, really do,” Eddie said, smiling up at him.

A slow, sweet smile blossomed on Steve’s face. “All right. Let me scan this so I can print out the stencils and we’ll get started.”

“I can’t hardly wait.”

***

Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 Part 18 Part 19 Part 20 Part 21 Part 22 Part 23 Part 24 Part 25 Part 26 Part 27 Part 28 Epilogue

Tag List: @spectrum-spectre @estrellami-1 @zerokrox-blog @artiststarme @swimmingbirdrunningrock @gregre369 @pyrohonk @renaissan-vvitch @goodolefashionedloverboi @chaoticlovingdreamer @maya-custodios-dionach @messrs-weasley @val-from-lawrence @plyerice27 @thedragonsaunt @chaoticlovingdreamer @sapphirecobalt-1 @a-little-unsteddie @i-must-potato @danili666 @carlyv @rozzieroos @wonderland-girl143-blog @itsall-taken @justforthedead89 @emly03 @bookworm0690 @aizawa-emma @redfreckledwolf @thesuninyaface @bookbinderbitch @yikes-a-bee @littlewildflowerkitten @scheodingers-muppet @archermightbegay @hallucinatedjosten @ellietheasexylibrarian @anne-bennett-cosplayer

#My writing #stranger things #steddie #tattoo artist steve #ladykailitha writes #trying hard not to take it personally #that i've been seeing less and less #people interacting with my stories #anxiety is a bitch

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letsspringintoaction · 2 months ago

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Fairy Patch Notes 12.73

"As Spring is moving along, This small update patch is adding in a small thing to shake up the usual grind for a while. Said thing being some Spring Hot Spots now have a chance to spawn a new elite mob called the Royal Spring Guard! They have the following abilities."

[Spring Wave]

Sends a gigantic wave of Spring Energy to damage enemies in a narrow cone. Deals 150 hp per unit hit up a total of 900 hp

[Spring Bolt]

Shoots a magical shard of Spring at a target enemy unit. Deals 100 Damage and inflicts a 3 second stun.

[Summon Springemental]

Summons a Springemental to attack enemies. Lasts until defeated or after one minute. Which ever happens first. The Springemental has a 15% chance each attack to cause an additional 25 damage and inflict a 2 second stun.

[Resistant Spring] (Passive)

Reduces the duration of debuffs and renders the unit immune to certain debuffs all together.

"And it'll be pulling from the current elite loot tables when defeated. We wish you luck in your combat against this new Spring defender! The rest of shall be a small share of the additional clean up this patch will provide!"

"First: We fixed the issue where sometimes when a fairy is attempting to clean bad food out of their storage space, they'd freeze in place till a reset is done."

"Second: Fairies will no longer walk along the bottom of a pool when attempting to view stuff that has been placed on a wall that is located on the other side of the pool.

"Third: The time required for a fairy to die from motivation failure when placed in a time out zone has been increased at base, and is now affected by the number of depression debuff stacks currently applied."

"Fourth: Fairies using the dragon disguise will no longer randomly appear to be flying backwards unless if flying backwards is an intentional act."

Fifth: readded the bugs to the Forest of Magic encounters at the request of the community."

"Sixth: Sorted out the Spirit Bear situation"

"Seventh: Magma Fairies no longer drown in Magma. Unless if they haven't breathed in the past hour and are reminded of such, then they'll still drown."

"Eighth: Kanako's Snake summons no longer kick when attacking"

"Ninth: If you pause while in Canada, the menu will now acknowledge that you are in Canada."

"Tenth: Fairy pets no longer have the ability to walk down stairs into the void!"

"Eleventh: Cherry's Bombs have been renamed to Cherry Bombs."

"And thats all I gotta say for these highlights. Full Patch Notes will be released once Violet has recovered from pollen related issues. Happy day everyone!"

#sillyness #don't mind her

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mystiika · 11 months ago

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@freezegirl asked: feelings realization - receiver realizes they have feelings for sender meme: a collection of situation prompts ( @ any & all mutuals please send more of these they're so good )

the two were tucked into a booth at the paper lantern, the table a mess of papers & textbooks with empty dishes stacked at the side for the moment. khione had her eyes turned downward towards, some lesson on costuming causing a slight furrow in her brow. warren's head rested comfortably on his hand while he had a mad science lab report in the forefront on his half of the table. he glances up at her & the faint clattering & conversations of the people nearby seemed a world away.

it wasn't easy for warren to feel close to people, but with kie it just felt... comfortable. she was the first person in years he'd invited into his home, into his room, his sanctuary ( even if it meant introducing her to his mom ). though he still wonders who it was that had spread that fact around the school.

after the whole royal pain attack during homecoming, things around seemed to have improved some now that there was something unequivocally positive he'd done. he was even getting over his hatred of will, albeit slowly. & after his "moment" with kie at the dance kick-started their.. friendship..? — if you could call it that, frankly, from the start he'd never really known what to call them. but if he was completely honest with himself, she calmed him. she helped cool him down when his hot headed behaviour acted up just as much as his presence warmed her up in its own way.

so he clears his throat, mentally shaking the thoughts of kie from his mind in an attempt to focus on his homework but it was no use. she had glanced up at the noise, flashing a small smile at their eye contact & warren felt his heart skip a beat. it scared him. he knew what it must mean, but the implications were terrifying. he'd never had a crush before, not really, not in this way. he wasn't a monk, he'd had a few dates & shared a few kisses. but the connection he had with kie was brand new. it wasn't love yet, but it could be, he thinks to himself as he response in kind with a smile of his own — so incredibly unaware of the soft hint of a tenderness in his eyes as he does, so small it was almost invisible. but it wasn't, it was there.

he doesn't really know what to do with himself at the moment, his heart not exactly settled while she still looks at him. she really is cute, he has to admit — everything about her was cute to him. her smile, her beautiful brown eyes, the way she looks so at peace when she's skating, her handwriting & how clear her notes were when he'd borrowed them, even the way she struggles with her studies when something especially difficult comes up. he just hadn't realised it all until right then, hadn't realised just how much he'd filed away about her. & how much he picked up the little things that made her so pleasant to be around. but for a boy whose heart had been so closed off for so long, it was almost overwhelming to take these thoughts in all at once. — & so,

❝ i was thinking i should probably get the dirty plates out of the way so there's a bit more room. do you want another dawet while i'm up? ❞ ( how professional of him ). the truth of the matter was that he was looking for an excuse to get away for a few minutes, to take a break from the sight of her in order to calm his heart at least so it wasn't so distracting — he does still have homework to finish after all. ❝ or i could grab you a ginger beer. ❞ a drink that wasn't actually on the menu. but he'd bought a few & convinced his manager to let him sneak them into the walk-in because he knew kie liked them, & knew the pair would be doing school work for a good while despite it being a saturday afternoon — not that kie knew he'd gone out of his way, though. she'd been told ( quite convincingly too ) that it was left behind by one of the cooks after they resigned the week prior & had said that it was available for whoever wanted it. she gives a thoughtful hum in response at first. then, after a few seconds of consideration ( & matched with a slightly bigger smile now ), ❛ i think a ginger beer sounds pretty good. ❜ ❝ got it. back in a sec. ❞ he stacks it all with ease despite the lack of his normal tray, surprisingly swift & comfortable despite how precarious it must seem to someone else.

❛ so, you're finally nice enough to get a girlfriend, ah-woh ren, ❜ comes the cantonese comment from the line cook, chih-ming after he walks into the back. the two were about as close as you'd expect from warren with the other having playfully strong armed his way into what became a pretty positive relationship. & warren could handle a bit of ribbing from a friend without losing his cool. they'd gotten along even better as of late, especially after warren had begun helping out in the kitchen during a rush here & there. chih-ming was also largely the reason warren's cantonese had improved so much. ❝ shut up, ❞ comes an english response, a bit gruff maybe but he's certainly not reacting in anger — & not without a slight twinge of red that dusted the tips of his ears. he drops off the dishes in the sink ( immediately followed by him filling the dishwasher next to it out of sheer habit ). ❝ & she's not actually my girlfriend, ❞ he follows in cantonese after a code switch. ' though i sort of want her to be ' soon appears as a thought swirling through his mind. ❝ i think she could be though... —maybe. ❞

#freezegirl #asks — you have a question & i have an answer #i love them ur honour !!!!!#the first exchange between the smile and warren getting up happens within a few seconds i feel #so they're not just staring into each others eyes for 30 full silent seconds #as much as they might want to lol #about the name i couldn't think of a possible cantonese nick name they might have for warren #so i went with how i imagine warren would be pronounced but without tone indicators on that one bc i'm not at all confident in that #although for chih ming i saw the tone indicator zi3 ming4 while i was looking for possible names #and then the 'ah' prefix is quite common in both chinese and cantonese #and its like a nice informal way to call a friend #at least from what i understand #w. peace. v. 1 — superheroes were born in the minds of people desperate to be rescued #also its so sexy of me to reference that rumour ask i must say <3 #i love connecting the dots

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thecelestiallegacies · 29 days ago

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Start The First Gen Start This Gen Simmers for St. Jude

The dining room table was stacked with swatches, menus, and a comically oversized binder labeled “Royal Union Planning: Confidential.”

Cliff sat at the side of the table in a hoodie that didn’t quite disguise the muscle underneath. Across from him, Beetle looked almost human—solid, still, and uncomfortably out of place in the stiff formality of the room.

Beetle: “I want everything to be perfect.”

He said it with a quiet intensity, his pale hands folded neatly over a page of seating charts he didn’t understand.

Cliff: “No expense is too small,” Cliff replied, sipping from a coffee mug that read WORLD’S BEST FATHER that he bought for himself at the flea market one year. “I’ve got some connections that owe me a favor.”

He tapped a gold fountain pen against the table. “Outdoor wedding. Dark wood, pastel flowers, soft lights strung through the trees. Elegant. Quiet. Civilized. It’s good optics.”

Beetle: “She doesn’t really strike me as a ‘pastel flowers’ kind of—”

Cliff cut him off with a look. The kind of look that ended arguments before they began and launched a dozen off-the-books operations.

Cliff: “She’s the National Leader’s daughter,” he said coolly. “This isn’t about ‘style.’ This is about stability. Legacy. Messaging. Besides, she likes to be contrarian.”

He rifled through a folder and handed Beetle a guest list: foreign dignitaries, retired senetors, at least three undercover agents. Cliff was planning a wedding and a political summit in one.

Cliff: “And she’s lucky,” he added. “You’re a prince. I didn’t expect her to do so well after that werewolf situation.”

Beetle bristled, just slightly.

Beetle: “Peter’s not the villain you think he is.”

Cliff’s smile was thin and tired. Cliff: “If he is or isn't makes no difference now. He’s not my concern anymore.”

He closed the folder with finality. “We’ll need a bloodless menu. Photographers from SimNation Weekly are already on standby. You’ll be fitted for a suit next week, and your vows will be reviewed by my speechwriter.”

Beetle: “You’re writing our vows?”

Cliff: “No,” he said dryly. “You are. They’ll just be… edited.”

The silence that followed was heavy. Then:

Cliff: “I’ve arranged a cake tasting for tomorrow. Rhea likes lemon, doesn’t she?”

Beetle didn’t answer. He was staring at the centerpiece between them—a bowl of polished stones and wilted hydrangeas. It felt like the kind of thing you put on a grave.

Cliff saw his future son-in-laws expression and reached across the table to him. "Don't worry Devin, I planned my sisters wedding and it went perfect. There's no way this can go wrong with me in the driver seat."

Beetle swallowed and met Cliff's gaze, then slowly nodded his head.

#sims 4 #sims story #the sims #the sims 4 #simmer #my sims #nebulalegacy #ts4 #sims #simblr #simmers for st jude

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gamblingrewards · 2 months ago

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nwnpofiction · 1 year ago

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My Favorite Person P1

After his unpleasant discussion with Millie the previous night, Aldo had walked all the way back to the inn, in the rain. He got there at about 3:10 am, and only went into the penthouse long enough to grab some dry clothes. Not wanting to deal with Eva in the mood he was in, he decided to “borrow” one of the as yet under-renovation rooms that couldn’t officially be checked out yet, and there he stayed the rest of the night. It was now around 9:15 AM.

He stood at the sink in the still very much 1970’s themed bathroom of this unfinished room he had commandeered, leaning onto the salmon colored porcelain, staring at his reflection in the medicine-cabinet mirror. He looked fresher than the night before, in a white, dry, button-up dress shirt. His hair was dry, un-gelled and a little fluffy. His clothes from last night’s adventure still hanging on the shower-rod. Still wet, actually. They looked a royal mess, hanging over that green tub. The sight only served as a reminder of how far behind the renovations to the first floor had gotten. A product of his own indecisiveness, no doubt. But it was a new day. He wouldn’t have to see Millie today, lest she want to revisit the previous night’s conversation. He figured they’d both get over it in a day or two. Probably when he went to pick up the car. Eva was on errands; he wouldn’t need to see her most of the day either. He was relieved. A tad hung over. But relieved none the less.

He had a plan to get some fries or something at the Spin, then maybe try and talk Dr. Ten into helping him with these nose bleeds, without an appointment, then maybe play the rest of the day by ear. So that’s what he set off to do. Putting on a dark gray cardigan with moth holes(it was one of those days), he walked outside into the still damp and cloudy but clearing, morning air, got into the truck and left the property.

It was a nice day out. It wasn’t too sunny. The bitter, waterlogged cold of the storm last night had given way to a much more hopeful, energy. Things were good.

Meanwhile, at the diner, Jillian Metaxas was just getting her shift started. She had cleaned out the deep fryer, made coffee and restocked the whip cream in the cooler, when Hank walked in and informed that he would not be able to give her a ride home that afternoon like he’d promised. Something had come up and he needed to talk to his lawyer. This was fine. It was a small town. She was used to it. She’d walk home if she had to. She went about her day, arranging the pies Hank had ordered from her mother. It was about the time she went to set up that day’s special lunch menu that Aldo walked through the door. He was greeted by Hank, who has carrying a stack of empty crates out to the dumpster. “Hey, man!” He said. “Hey.” Aldo replied.

Hank looked out over the crates, through the window at Aldo’s beat-up pick-up truck. “Why you usin’ the truck today?” He asked. Obviously, Millie had taken the keys to the BMW the previous night because Aldo was fall-down drunk. He didn’t want to tell Hank that though. “It’s a long story.” He said. “Uh huh.” Hank replied. He was a little distracted. “I gotta take these.” He said. “Yeah.” Said Aldo. Hank continued his walk out to the trash and Aldo walked to the front counter.

The Spinstep was under-staffed and Jill was taking her good time getting to her customer. Aldo wasn’t actually annoyed, but he decided to be a mischievous jerk anyway. He started tapping his hands on the counter top, whilst calling out. “Oi, Jill! Jillidelphia!” She ignored him for a brief period. “Jill Lindemann!” Jill stopped what she was doing at the muffin case, turned around and looked at Aldo as if to say “Seriously?” “Some puns should carry a minimum sentence.” She said finally, coming over the counter. “What’s up?” She asked. “I need stringy-salty-potato things.” He said, still tapping his fingers on the counter. “You hung over?” She asked. “Are you even old enough to know wha’ tha’ means?” He responded. She gave him an annoyed look. “Hardyhar.” She said to him. “Do you want the fresh ones or the hour-olds?” She asked. “Yer a jerkface so I oughta give you the ones from yesterday morning.” She added. “Wha’…What’s wrong wit’ you?” He said, shaking his head slightly, his eyes widened into faux-horrified dinner-plates. “Ah, give ‘im the ones I threw out for the birds on Friday. That’ll teach ‘im.” Said Hank, coming back in. “Mutinous sh*ts, the lot of you!” Aldo said, again playing at feeling betrayed. “Teach me what?” He asked, looking up at Hank from the bar stool he was sitting on. “W whatever it was ya did.” Hank said awkwardly. “How do you know I’ve DONE somethin’?” Aldo responded. “You usually have.” Hank answered, with a smirk. “I’ll get you your fries.” He continued before going into the kitchen. “You might want to turn that coffee pot off soon, Jill.” He said backing his way through the swing-y door.

Jill did as Hank had asked. She then grabbed the coffee pot off the machine and walked towards the counter. Aldo watched her pull a cup out from under the counter and place it in front on him. “I didn’t order-” He tried to say. “You having coffee.” She said. “Oh. Okay.’ He replied as she poured. “I need you to take me home tonight.” She said, adding cream and sugar he also hadn’t asked for. “Uh…” He said, watching her obvious plot to give him diabetes unfold. “I uh…” He said. He shook his head and tried to blink the distraction away. “I thought that was Hank’s job.” He said. “It is. But I think some sh*t must’ve hit the fan with one of his side hustles, ’cause he has to meet Mr. Fontana tonight.” She responded. “Ah.” he said. “But that works out because I have something important to talk to you about, but…not here.” She said. Aldo was still distracted but the tiny cup of coffee that now had whip-cream on it as well… too distracted to properly respond to whatever Jill had just said. “I mean if it’s not a good time I can think of something else.” She said, taking his distraction as not wanting to help her out. She was now also reaching for the strawberry sauce. “No no. I’ll do it. That’s fine.” He finally assured. “Good!” She said.

She was just reaching for the bottle of caramel sauce when Aldo’s eyes suddenly shot open and his hands flew across the counter to the napkin dispenser. Before she could really process what was happening, she watched him shove what she could swear was at least 2 napkins up his nose. With the napkins in place, he pulled his hands slowly away from his face, the obvious look of panic still fading from his eyes. Jill and everyone else had gotten used to incidents like this. “Crisis averted?” She asked. “If these hold.” He said, tilting his head backwards for a few seconds. She continued with her work on the un-asked-for coffee project. “Ya know when me and Derek were in Philadelphia there were these things we saw in a Walgreens we stopped at to get sodas. They were like tampons but…for your…” She watched him a little more. “For your nose.” She then proceeded to squirt the caramel sauce over top of everything else in the cup. Aldo pulled his head back to a normal position. “And yer point would be wha’ exac’ly?” He asked her, his voice muffled behind the napkins.

Jill had begun sprinkling sprinkles atop the mountain of other toppings. Aldo watched for a second, in a level of disgust. Reaching over to the cup, he grabbed the handle with his right hand and hovered his left hand between the coffee and Jill’s onslaught of technicolored Jimmies. “Stop it, you…you strange…individual.” He said, pulling the cup away from her. Jill made a frustrated face at him. “Well, I just figured since you won’t go to the doctor…” She said. “Ya know you’re the second person in…” He looked at his watch. “LESS than 12 hours to make that suggestion.” Jill placed a straw that was WAY too long for the cup, into the mountain of toppings and began to make her way around the counter. “Maybe that should tell you something.” She quipped. Aldo spun the stool around to follow her as she started to mop the floor where Hank had dragged a leaking trash bag. “Well, the joke’s on YOU.” He started. “It so happens I’m gonna have Angie look at me today.”

Hank returned with Aldo’s fries and instructed Jill to go turn the heater on, and she did so. Aldo, who had since removed the napkins from his nose, had grabbed a spoon and was attempting to tackle The Coffee. As she was heading into the back room, Jill stopped and gave Aldo a look. “You’re not actually going to..consume that, are you?” She asked him. He gave her a w-t-f kind of look. She smirked and went about her business. “I’ll see ya tonight!” She said. “Yeah.” Aldo answered back. As he began shoveling wads of fries into his mouth, he stopped Hank from walking away. Hank stopped behind the counter. “What’s up?” He said , leaning over the the cookie display. As soon as Aldo swallowed the 20 fries he’d just gobbled, he began. “Are you having legal issues again, Henry?” He asked.

There were multiple reasons Aldo might be concerned with Hank’s businesses and legal well-being. Not only was Hank one of the two men NOT his father, that he held in high regard as if they were and he therefore cared for him. Hank was also a business partner of his…and he was Aldo’s dealer; not that that matters TOO much. He also didn’t want Hank dragging Luke Fontana into any terrible mess. It was bad enough that HE had to be involved in some of this.

“Cassius Metaxas is saying that my boat is on HIS property illegally.” Hank said, with frustration. “Oh so it’s just Cassie being a f*ckhead, like always?” Aldo said, with a sigh of relief. “That clown KNOWS he doesn’t own that land anymore.” Said Hank.

Aldo rubbed his eyes. “Ugh! THE MAN’S A DOOR KNOB!” Aldo said, loudly enough that Jill probably heard it from the back. Though she wouldn’t have known who he was talking about. Jill was, to Aldo and Hank’s knowledge, blissfully unaware of what her uncle was up to, or what kind of 4d chess game her boss and unofficial adoptive brother were playing against him.

“Listen. Do me a favor and DON’T make this issue worse. I know how you are,Henry.” Said Aldo, cramming another tonne of fries in his mouth. “Oh don’t worry. Fontanta will take care of it..” Hank assured. “Ya know that guy might just be a copyright lawyer, but ah… Ya know.. he scares the sh*t outta Cassie for some reason.” He added. “Ya know that movie where the the devil goes into a church and makes the holy water boil with his finger?” Aldo asked. “The Devil’s Advocate?” Hank said. “Yeah.” Aldo replied. “It’s the same concept.” Aldo added. “Don’t ruin him, Henry. He’s too good for all this.”

#creative writing #fiction #original story #original characters

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officialmains · 3 years ago

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Royal stack menu

Patterson’s presence, with 34 career starts, should help stabilize an offensive line that struggled in the second half against Ohio State. The fith-year senior missed last week’s game with a sprained right foot. The Irish also should get a boost from the return of All-American left guard Jarrett Patterson. We’re going to face a team that’s going to come in here, and they’re not going to be intimidated. “We know we’re going to face a motivated team. “We know it’s a challenge,” Freeman said. Last year, the Irish escaped with a 32-29 victory over Toledo and in 2018 they squeaked past Ball State 24-16. That’s just the way you have to prepare in order to be consistent.”įreeman understands what the Irish are up against and he can point to recent history against Group of Five teams to emphasize the point. “This game is just as important to us as Norfolk,” he said. Now, in their first season in the Sun Belt Conference, Huff's team has a chance to make a national statement. The Thundering Herd went 7-6 last season and in their 55-3 Week 1 victory the defense allowed only five first downs, 114 total yards and posted two takeaways. The oddsmakers may not recognize it, but Marshall is not just a middling Group of Five opponent. Hopefully, the focus is obviously on the game, but it’s a great representation of minority coaches in the coaching profession.” “Credit to coach Huff and where he has come from and the job he has done. “If you work hard and do things the right way, there is no cap to where you can go in this profession of coaching,” Freeman said. The former defensive coordinator knows Notre Dame (0-1) can't afford a repeat if it hopes to even its record and celebrate Freeman's first victory, especially against Huff's squad. He's been out since mid-August while he deals with an undisclosed personal issue and will not play Saturday.įreeman, meanwhile, wants to see his run defense perform better than it did while giving up 172 yards to Ohio State. Marshall (1-0) did all that without Rasheen Ali, last year's top freshman rusher in the Bowl Subdivision. Huff wants to see how his running game, which piled up 380 yards and produced two 100-yard rushers in last week's rout of FCS foe Norfolk State, stacks up against Notre Dame's usually stout defense. Instead, both coaches are focused on football. The reality of it is this game has no bearing on what our ultimate goal is.” From the historical piece of it and the place we’re going, all that’s great. “From the outside perspective, this is a huge game,” Huff said. 3-Year-Old Girl Grazed in Head by Bullet in Lawndale

#Royal stack menu

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fzzr · 2 years ago

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What Is It About Dinner Parties?

Spoilers for:

Rocky Horror Picture Show

Shrek 2

A Civil Campaign (Vorkosigan Saga book 13)

The Nightmare Stacks (Laundry Files book 7)

I recommend every one of these works, with the caveat that you should really get into their respective series where applicable for the best results. Spoilers will not completely ruin the experience, but if you have the patience and opportunity to watch three movies and read several thousand pages, go do that first. (After is acceptable if you prefer.) When obtaining books remember to first check at a library or local bookstore. Do not buy from Amazon if you can avoid it. Audible is Amazon.

Content advisories: Works discussed here include depictions of sexual assault, murder, cannibalism, adultery, and various anti-LGBTQ+ phobias. (Rocky Horror is the main offender but some of the others contribute.) Additionally this explores awkward social situations in great detail, so you may want to skip if that sort of thing lives in your head.

I have noticed that fictional works often use scenes at dinner parties as key turning points in their stories. This is achieved through a combination of rising tension, humor, and tying together many plot threads at once. It's possible to do something similar without the humor (eg. the Hitchcockian suspense of a bomb under the table) but that's not what I'm looking at today.

A note on definition: when I say “dinner party” here, I mean a social event in which a group of people who do not share a household meet for the main purpose of sharing a meal. This is different from a regular party, gala, ball etc. where activities other than the meal are the focus.

In my observation, the anatomy of a dinner party is as follows:

Stage Zero: Setup

A key element will be the interactions between characters who would prefer not to deal with each other. There are a few ways to build the guest list to achieve this. You can have the simple case of someone bringing a plus one without warning in advance who (or what kind of person) they would be. It's also possible that invitations were sent before a conflict came up, or the host may be unaware of the issue. There may also be a broader social obligation on attendees, such as a holiday. Wholly uninvited guests usually don't happen in this sort of scene (those are more characteristic of less intimate social events, like a charity ball turned hostage situation).

Rocky Horror's dinner party takes place right after several less than fully consensual sexual encounters and a very bloody murder, with the characters being assembled through social force and implied threat of violence. Shrek 2 has it as the first sustained interaction between the title character and his royal in-laws after his elopement with Princess Fiona. A Civil Campaign spends about half the book just building up to this event, with protagonist Miles so focused on making it a success for his main goal that he loses control of the guest list, the menu, and even the staff. In The Nightmare Stacks, it's a family meal introducing two prospective (and unconventional) significant others to the parents at the same time.

Stage One: Civility

The scene begins with all parties acting superficially civilly. The threads of the narrative and the stressor are both on the back burner as action begins. There will be hints of the conflicts to come, especially as the principal characters become aware of the full guest list and its implications. This phase may be very brief, or even skipped if the story uses immediately previous scenes to establish sufficient tension.

The Rocky Horror party's first minute strains the definition of "civility", with awkward silence accompanying deliberately sloppy table service. Shrek 2 likewise uses silence to delay interaction as long as possible. A Civil Campaign has a very large cast to introduce, but the atmosphere is casual with just a hint of stress as Miles does his best to manage the bloated guest list. The Nightmare Stacks barely gets everyone in the door before the incompatibility of hosts and guests becomes apparent.

Stage Two: Interaction

This generally starts with the appearance of food and of necessity seating of guests. This is the point where the characters in conflict are first forced to interact rather than passively stay away from each other. It's possible for this stage to still be indirect, but proximity means that there's no way to sustain the illusion of civility.

In Rocky Horror they can't even finish singing "Happy Birthday" before things start to escalate. Shrek 2's initial interactions are wordless, using the series' signature facial expressions to show to what degree everyone is already hostile or unaware. A Civil Campaign has Miles realize his carefully arranged seating positions have been disturbed by someone with different priorities, but most of the social tension is surprise rather than hostility. The Nightmare Stacks stumbles past this step right into the next when it turns out the guests have mutually exclusive dietary preferences.

Stage Three: Conflict

Next, some minor issue arises, like one character breaking a social convention. There is almost universally some issue with the food itself as well. Depending on the number of characters and plot of the story, this can go on for some time. This is often where most of the comedy of the scene comes in. Events may become more and more absurd, allowing things to escalate without over-burdening the reader with stress. Often the issue isn't even directly related to the core conflict of the story, or starts with a lower-stakes side plot. In doing so, it can weave such plots into the main one.

Rocky Horror is already under so much stress that it takes just the smallest spark to get things burning. Shrek 2 likewise gets here quick, as Shrek's cluelessness with regard to etiquette kicks off an escalating series of indirect and then direct criticisms. In A Civil Campaign the awkward seating arrangement makes social interaction difficult, and Miles realizes that the menu has been undermined in a way that could cause an uproar and deeply offend some very senior guests. The Nightmare Stacks lays on the dramatic irony, where a conservative father is too busy learning about gender nonconformity to worry whether his son is actually dating an Unseelie Fae princess (the answer is "unclear", but only about the "dating" part).

Stage Four: Eruption

The issue that led to the tension established before the scene is exposed to all present. More often than not this is caused by something in the comedic action accidentally exposing concealed information or causing a stressful event to be discussed or even repeated. Sometimes the comedy itself is the issue, with the disruption alone being enough to expose the issue eg. if it’s due to contrasting social norms. Regardless, this is the climax of the scene where everything comes to a head at once.

Shrek 2 kicks into high gear, with characters becoming so incoherent they can only scream out each other's names. Rocky Horror and A Civil Campaign reveal the truth about the meal they've been eating. The lack of coordination in A Civil Campaign causes Miles to move forward his social plans to disastrous effect. The Nightmare Stacks has the meal collapse into such disarray that the protagonists are able to escape unscathed.

Stage Five: Tone Shift

The comedy is (usually) suspended and drama kicks in. This is often also a turning point in the larger story. It may mark an act transition (typically second to third) or just a change in the intensity of the conflict. In a romantic comedy, this is a prime opportunity to get into the things-just-got-serious phase where the core relationship is under threat.

Rocky Horror's dinner party serves to launch the climax by getting everyone in place for the final showdown. In Shrek 2, where it's the act two kickoff, it establishes the stakes that Shrek can't simply slide into place as a socially acceptable fiancé for Fiona. In both A Civil Campaign and The Nightmare Stacks, the result of the dinner party is the revelation of the true intentions of a main character, respectively openly courting another (it's complicated) and tricking her counterpart into meeting her parents (it's complicated). They both leave the protagonists with few paths open to them and even fewer good ones.

Why do they work like this?

I think the main thing that makes the dinner party so effective at progressing a story in both plot and tone is the contrast between natural and unnatural human interaction. Sharing food is one of the most basic interpersonal activities, with archeological evidence going back further than anatomically modern humans. This is in tension with the artificiality of the actual situation, where precise details of food presentation, respect for social norms, and personal behavior are under scrutiny from individuals you may not fully trust. Food in general also has a visceral impact on everyone. No one is sophisticated enough to willingly eat all of "Meatloaf", escargot, "bug butter", and vegan "pizza", so you as the consumer of the work are forced into empathy with the characters.

Given a scene where everyone is under stress by default, you add on the wider context of the story. Any plot where progress is blocked by "well what if everyone who isn't getting along just avoids each other" is immediately reinvigorated. It's often the case that not everyone is aware of other moving parts, so things can move forward by broadening the impact of ongoing issues to the rest of the cast. If it's too early in the story for things to really blow up, the dinner party can still raise the stakes or expose fault lines that were previously unseen.

If you accept either of the theories that humor is built on tension and unexpected relief or on juxtapositions between the familiar and the incongruous, the natural/artificial split in the dinner party setup also provides these. Everyone on both sides of the fourth wall expects a certain degree of decorum, but it soon goes out the window and leaves you and the characters equally off balance. Likewise, the sharing of food presupposes that everyone can actually partake in the food presented, and undercutting that is a further violation of the common vision of what a dinner party should be. The way characters react to that challenge is another easy hook for comedy.

Conclusion

Putting it all together, dinner parties really do it all. Tension and release, humor and drama, heightening and resolution - the dinner party has the tools you need. Next time you read or watch a dinner party scene, think about the role it plays in the story and the way it's constructed to fulfill it. They're some of my favorite scenes, and I bet they could be some of yours too.

Detailed Examples

Originally I planned to give each spoiler-warned work a stage-by-stage breakdown, but they needed so much context that tumblr's editor broke. Instead I will give them dedicated posts and update this one as I go.

#tropes #shrek #shrek 2 #rocky horror picture show #the laundry files #the nightmare stacks #charles stross #vorkosigan saga #a civil campaign #lois mcmaster bujold #writing #dinner party #long post #literature #original post

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ygo-is-gayer-than-i-remember · 4 years ago

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Yugioctober Day 27: Burger

(Prompt list) (Read it here on Ao3!)

Summary: The unexpected arrival of a long-lost friend makes Anzu's slow work day much more exciting.

It was a snowy Wednesday afternoon and, with nothing to do, Anzu was relaxing on her phone in the employees-only area. There were a few patrons out on the floor already enjoying their meals, so Anzu wasn’t worried about wasting time until one of them asked for their check. Despite having to cut down on her hours, she was grateful to the Burger World people for allowing her to transfer locations when she moved to New York. The extra income was a huge help when covering the cost of tuition and everyday necessities.

The bell above the door chimed, and Anzu left a quick like on a photo of Yugi and Atem’s new cat before slipping her phone back into her pocket. Snatching a menu from the top of the stack, she weaved through the tables like a practiced figure skater, her customer service smile already plastered on her face by the time she reached the new arrival.

“Hi there, welcome to Burger World!” she chirped as she set the menu down. “My name is--”

“Anzu?!”

The haze of her routine lifted, allowing her to take in the details of the person she was serving. Her eyes widened.

“Miho?”

Sure enough, Miho Nosaka was smiling up at her from the booth, but she certainly wasn’t the Miho who had moved away during their freshman year of high school. Her swooping lavender hair was cut almost as short as Honda’s, the few rebellious strands falling across her forehead a stark contrast from the bangs that once covered it completely. The bow in her hair was gone, replaced by a mint bowtie under the collar of a pale pink button-up with little white polka dots. A red trench coat was neatly folded on the bench next to her, a knit beanie and a flannel scarf resting on top of it.

Anzu’s smile shifted to one of genuine happiness as Miho shot up and yanked her into a hug. Both of them squeezed the life out of each other, their squeals and laughs muffled by the other’s clothes, and instinctually continued their conversation in Japanese.

“Miho, holy shit, how are you?! It’s been so long!”

“I know! I’m so sorry I didn’t keep in touch, my phone got stolen a couple years back and I couldn’t remember anyone’s numbers!” She gave Anzu an apologetic smile and sat back down.

“Oh my god, don’t worry about it! Trust me, there was a lot going on, you probably wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” She pulled out her notepad and pen. “You still get your usual?”

“Yep! You still remember?”

“Duh, of course I remember!” She read off the order as she scribbled it down. “A double bacon cheeseburger, medium rare, no mustard, no pickles, a chocolate milkshake, and fries with extra extra extra ketchup on the side.”

Miho laughed. Anzu had forgotten how beautiful her laugh was. “You got it! Except switch out the milkshake for a hot chocolate, it’s way too cold for a milkshake. And you know I’m a ketchup hog, they always stiff you on ketchup.”

“No they don’t, you just eat more ketchup than a normal human being.” She fixed the order and flipped her notepad closed so she could look back into Miho’s royal blue eyes. “Since it’s so slow today, I could probably ask my manager if I can take my break early. We can catch up!”

“I would love that!”

Anzu grinned and shot her a wink on her way back to the kitchen. After getting the all-clear from her manager, she added her own order to Miho’s ticket, dropped it off with the cook, and waited until it was ready. Since there was really nothing for her to do anyway, it didn’t cut into her break time. She was grateful her manager was so flexible.

She returned to Miho’s table with two trays of food, one balanced in each hand, and set them down so she could sit across from her. Miho popped the lid off her hot chocolate to blow off some of the steam.

“So how’s everyone back in Domino?” she asked.

Anzu smiled around the fry in her mouth. “They’re doing great! Everyone graduated last year, Yugi, Honda, and Ryou are at DCU, and Jou’s working on becoming a top duelist. And you remember Shizuka, Jou’s little sister? She’s been getting into fashion designing! She’s already halfway through high school, can you believe that?”

“No way!” Miho gawked at her, her cheeks puffed out from the huge bite she took out of her burger. She held up a finger while she finished chewing. “She just started junior high when I left!”

“I know! She’s even taller than me now!”

“Stop it, you’re lying!”

“I swear I’m not, see for yourself!” Whipping her phone out of her pocket, she pulled up a picture she took of her and all of their friends outside the airport before she flew to New York for the first time.

“Wow, look at how tall Yugi is too!” Miho leaned over the table to get a better look at everyone. “Who’s that?”

Anzu followed where she was pointing. “Oh, that’s Yugi’s boyfriend, Atem! He uh...moved to Domino from Egypt a few years ago.”

“And they just happen to have the same hair?”

“It’s a long story, trust me. Come on, tell me about you! How’ve you been? What’ve you been doing? When did you cut your hair?”

“I knew you were going to ask eventually!” Miho giggled into her hot chocolate. “I cut it last year, but I traded my ribbons for bowties a year before that.”

“Leave it to Miho to always work a bow into her outfit.”

She shrugged. “What can I say? Old habits die hard.”

They spent the rest of Anzu’s break catching up, chatting about fond memories and new friends they made while they were separated. Anzu had to do a bit of clever maneuvering to explain some of it without giving away the whole “Yugi was possessed by the spirit of an ancient Pharaoh” thing, but it didn’t take away from the joy she felt at finally reuniting with one of her best friends. After what was definitely not long enough, the timer on her phone went off to signal the end of her break.

Miho hastily wiped the grease off her fingers and put her palm face-up on the table. “Phone, give.”

Anzu handed her phone over, and Miho opened a new contact for her to punch in her information. Anzu waited for her to finish before swapping her phone for the check. Once everything was paid for and Miho was bundled up again, they exchanged another tight hug, and Anzu walked Miho to the door.

“You better not forget my number this time,” Anzu teased and was rewarded with another round of Miho’s musical laughter.

“Trust me, I won’t! But just in case I do…” In the blink of an eye, Miho leaned in, pecked Anzu on the cheek, and threw open the door with a blast of cold air. “I missed my chance years ago, I’m not about to miss it now! Call me!”

Then she was gone, leaving a flustered, giddy Anzu staring out at the snowy street through the glass. Her phone was still open to Miho’s contact. She smiled down at the little note below her name.

“Your all-time favorite gal pal!! <3 ;)”

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heavenfordoms · 4 years ago

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”Innocent“ Hug (Deku x fem! Reader):

Pairing(s): Deku x reader

Warning(s): 18+ minors DNI, cussing, manga spoilers, riding, death, semi-public sex, eating out

Genera: angst to fluff to smut

A/N: wait this was actually fun and easy to write for me wtf

Fandom: My hero academia (boku no hero academia)

Glossary:

Y/n = your name

Summery: Bakugou looses his life in battle and y/n goes to comfort Deku, soon Deku ends up forgetting about Bakugou as y/n rides him

You sucked in a breath, holding it for a while as you stared at the villain in front of you. You where crouched down low so you knew that he couldn’t see you. But you sure saw him. Your quirk was called memory, you could memorize anything that you wanted. The downside to this quirk is that while your mind was full of knowledge your body was weak so it was no good for battle-training, another bad thing (or more annoying then anything) is that we can’t forget it, ever, even if you wanted to. You remember every single detail of your life and every single thing that has happened to this point in grave detail. Not like you wanted to remember it, but you felt so worthless that it was almost blood to memorize everything. Like how there where five street lamps outside the bar. They where dimly lit and flickered every five second, each one after the other. The one on the very right was the first to flicker then it would go all the way to the left. Sometimes the one in the very middle would shut off at random times as the other lamps brightly shone in the night-sky.

“Could you stop mumbling?!” Katsuki whisper-yelled at you. You slightly cringed at the blonde male’s words before nodding your head in a form of acceptance (for some reason people saw that as acceptance so you did as well).

Katsuki is a young man of average height for somebody his age, with a slim, muscular build, and a fair skin tone. He has short, spiky, ash-blond hair with choppy bangs that hang over his eyebrows. His eyes are sharp and bright red in color. His hero costume is composed of a tight, black, sleeveless tank top, with an orange "X" across the middle, forming a v-neck. There are two dots along the left line of his collar, indicating the support company that designed his costume. His costume also has a metallic neck brace worn with rectangular ends that have three holes on each side. His sleeves reach from within his large grenade-like gauntlets to his biceps. His belt, which also carries grenades, holds up his baggy pants with knee guards, below which he sports black, knee-high combat boots with orange soles and eyelets. His mask is jagged and black, and as it goes around his eyes, a large, orange-rimmed flare shape protrudes from each side.

You focused your eyes off of Kastsuki and onto Dabi, the villain who was standing guard outside the bar. Dabi is a fairly tall, pale young man of a slim, somewhat-lanky build, described to be in his early twenties. He has white hair with a few red streaks at the crown that spikes upward around his head, hanging low over his eyes, which are thin, turquoise in color, and heavily lidded. Before the reveal of his true identity, his hair was dyed black. His most striking features are undoubtedly the patches of gnarled, wrinkled, purple skin that cover much of his lower face and neck, all the way down past his collarbone, below his eyes and on his arms and legs due to him having a quirk at a early age and not knowing how to control it. These appear to be attached to the rest of his skin by multiple, crude surgical staples or hoop piercings. He has several silver cartilage piercings in both ears, and a triple nostril piercing on the right side of his nose. He also seems to be lacking earlobes on both sides of his ears upon close inspection, he wears a dark blue jacket with a high, ripped collar, and matching pants, cut off above his ankles, a pair of dark dress shoes on his feet. He also has a plain pale gray, scoop-neck shirt, below which a gray belt with a circular pattern wraps around his waist, a leather satchel attached at the back.

Nobody knew his real name, until now, Dabi had revealed himself as Touya Todoroki. Everyone now calls him Touya but it never settled right in your gut to call him that. His name was Dabi to you and it will always be Dabi. It didn’t matter if he did a big entry and say that he is part of the Todoroki’s Dabi didn’t seem like them. The Todoroki’s where a strict family with ruled set in place. Endeavor, now the number one hero, had tried to welcome his family with more open arms. You could tell that Dabi’s opening was not out of grief for his family but instead out of spite. Like saying to Endeavor that he needs to take a chill pill with this whole anime redemption arc thing that he has going on for himself (and you didn’t quiet disagree with the oriole scarred man either).

You often thought of life like a anime, it was easier to explain. If somebodies life was broken they just ended up in the wrong anime. It also helped reminded you that every villain has a backstory. You never got to see their perspective in things. You never got to see what happened to the villains after they got defeated. Nope. You never got to see that, maybe if people saw the villain’s side. Everyone would hate the hero‘s and build their own path just as villains do. They make a path that no one has ever gone on, slowly making it a dirt road and them turning it again into an actual road that everyone can go on. Villains never got the roadwork. Hero’s probably always destroy it.

“So what’s the plan?” You leaned in close to Katsuki and whispered in his ear, Kastuki tensed up next to you and sucked in a breath before looking at you through pointy eyes.

”I will distract scar-man while you go and get Deku from the bar.” Kastuki explained, you nodded your head ‘yes’ before you pointing in the direction you where going to go. Kastuki grunted to himself as he crawled slowly in the opposite direction. Sending explosion at Dabi’s face before ducking behind a large wooden tool-box that had the words ”Back Bend Inc” on it in Ariel black font. Although it had been there for so long that the black ink looked to be a dark smoky gray. You quietly padded off into the opposite direction, your head ducked and eyes darting every five seconds to catch every detail around you.

Silently, you slipped into the bar. There was a wooden plank that held up the first stand, it looked to be pretty normal from here. There was dark wine stands that had a light brown color to them. The walls where colored with a sand tan. Over by the bar there was stacks and stacks of different liquor that people could have. Above was the general black chalkboard menu, there was smeared blue chalk that said “SPECIAL: Burbon” the strong smell of liquor and whisky hung in the air. There was a cigarette hanging off the ledge, still lit and everything. It looked pretty normal, but there was a slight piece of the cigarette where it was unwrapped and that told you enough to not say ’fuck it’ and have a smoke break. Turning your head slowly you walked up to Kurogiri. Information began flooding in your head about the villains and the bar. Unluckily for you everyone noticed the smartness you had and quickly found out your quirk. They began to flood your Brian with information. Information that a kid didn’t want to hear. You heard everything when you where just in High School. Now, everyone hated your quirk, everyone fucking hated it. The people who raised you said that you where a monster and that they didn’t know you anymore. But the sad part was you didnt do anything wrong. After hours of racking through your mind you couldn’t find a single moment where you did something bad. “I need to see Tomura.” You stared blankly at the mist villain. Kurogiri's entire body is made out of a dark purple mist, save for his eyes, which are glowing yellow. He normally wears a very elegant suit with a tie and has a metal brace that goes from around his collarbone to just below his eyes. It was pretty simple description of the villain, but there wasn’t much to him.

“Now?“ The male inquired, a hint of annoyance traced his smooth and calming voice. His voice sounded a lot like a gently sea softly rippling in the waves. But in actuality he was more like a thundering storm as the large ocean waves crashed harshly against large dark-gray-almost-black rocks.

“Yes, it is important.” You answered, putting a fake smile across your face. You still heard the faint sound of explosions from Katsuki and knew that you didn’t have a lot of time. Katsuki only could hold off for fifteen minutes before he went full on battle mood. And the villains would definitely think at something is up. Kurogiri hummed thoughtfully before nodding his head in agreement and holding out his purple misted hand.

”Come on dear…” The man whispered soothingly and smiling up and down at you.

“Thanks!” You chirped getting up and going behind the bar, following the villain down the stairs that creaked underneath your feet.

“BOSS!! Somebody wanted you!!” Kurogiri called, you took a deep breath before flinching as you looked into the villains base.

It was the same red bricks that seemed to be different colors every brick that was placed down to make the wall of the bar. There was smooth fake wood counter with clean royal red plush bar stools with the smallest backs on them. There was a few hero posters scattered around the base, one medium sized All Might poster hung to the right of a small screen TV. The dull gray light picketed on and off as the headlights didn’t provide much protection against the dark loom of everything. Different types of bottles hung on narrowed shelves behind the bar. Right next to the bar was a metal door, the window had cages around it and a long shiny knob that went down the left side. To the right of the door was a old faction radio station with LED lights surrounding it. It was currently playing Take Me to Church, apparently just starting to play it seeing how the introduction was still on. You narrowed your eyes before leaning against the red brick wall and giving everyone a swept gaze. All of the villains names that where forced to memorize came to your head all of a sudden.

Himiko Toga was standing in the farthest left, spinning in the red barstools.

Himiko is a relatively petite, fair-skinned girl who is very prone to blushing and is frequently described as to having a rather pretty face. She has slightly inward-tilting bright yellow eyes with thin slits, making them somewhat resemble those of a cat, and her wide mouth is also rather feline, as both her upper and lower canines are more pointed and longer than the rest of her teeth, giving her a vampire-like appearance. Her hair is a pale, dirty ash-blonde and is styled into two messy buns, with numerous wild strands sticking out at all angles from their centers and where they’re fastened, a straight fringe and two chin-length side bangs to frame her face. Himiko’s outfit consist of a plain seifuku with a Kansai collar, both the skirt and the shirt dark blue with a double white trim, which is paired with a red scarf that she ties loosely below. Over this, she wears an oversized beige cardigan with a rather long hem and cuffs, and pockets on either side, the right one shown to hold a number of trinkets on either a keychain or a cellphone strap. She sports knee-length black socks and dark brown dress shoes with thick heels, the same as the outdoor uniform shoes students traditionally wear in Japanese schools.

Tomura was standing next to Himiko, a bored expression clouding his features.

Tomura is a slim man with deathly pale skin, tinged yellow, and wrinkled a great deal around his eyes. His lips are chapped and uneven, a small mole on the right underneath, with visible scars on his right eye and under his lip. He has messy grayish-blue hair of varying lengths, the longest clumps reaching to about his shoulders, left hanging over his face in uneven waves. His eyes are normally obscured, but when visible, they are usually stretched wide in a rather maniacal manner, their bright red irises are very small.

Interestingly, when Tenko was at the age of five, he bore a striking resemblance to Izuku Midoriya, with his blue hair originally being dark black in color, while also having dried patches of skin around his eyes, though his lips were shown to be healthy in appearance. After his Quirk manifested, his appearance changed giving him a wrinkled face and changing his hair color.

Nobody else was in the base, the rest of the villains where busy surviving customers or dealing with Bakugou.

Then you saw him

Deku…

Deku has been a classmate of yours for a while, although you guy’s rarely talked to each other you always admired his strength and wisdom. Soon he became the number one hero and you became the second, Bakugou and Todoroki following closely behind. The only real reason you where able to make it to number two was due to the popularity votes for citizens. Everyone liked you, they loo up to you. So rationally you often teamed up with Deku. He was not good with the citizens since he never got a chance to talk to them due to the fact that he broke his bones in battle often but his quirk was amazing. And you didn’t have a lot of strength so that gave you time to connect with the citizens. The two of you working together helped everyone live a better place. Now seeing him tied up and helpless, it made you pretty angry.

“I would love to sit here and chat, but I got a hero to save!” You smirked as you raced on ahead and grabbed Deku, pulling him out of the chains before the villains had any time to react. Standing next to the hero you where slightly taller (mind you he hasn’t grown since high school so that wasn’t really anything to brag about being taller then him).

”HELLPPP!!!” A scream shouted from Kastuki, your eyes widened as you sprinted off to get the number three hero. Deku closely followed you as he got his quirk ready. But by the time that you rushed out you knew it was too late. Katsuki had been crushed by the blue flames that wrapped around his body.

“KACCHAN!!!” Deku screamed, DabI whipped his head around and started at the number one hero.

”You idiot!“ You hissed as you grabbed Deku’s arm and made a run for it. Dragging him out into the open where a bunch of other hero’s where’s standing just in case something happened. You noticed that they where busy on their phones and probably didn’t even hear Katsuki screaming for help. You rushed Deku to the side of the red brick building and waited for a ambulance to come pick Deku up. Once they carried him away you narrowed your eyes at the pro-hero’s.

”I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD I AM GOING TO KILL YOU AND YOUR FAMILY IF YOU ACT LIKE THAT AGAUN!!! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH STRESS YOU PUT US THROUGH??? DYNAMIGHT COULD HAVE STILL BEEN ALIVE IF YOU HAVEN’T SAT ON YOUR ASS ALL DAY AND ACT LIKE A BUNCH OF FUCKING SLUTS!! I SWEAR TO GOD I AM GOING TO RIP ALL OF YOUR HEADS OFF, FEED THEM TO MY DOG, MAKE MY DOG SHIT OFF A BRIDGE AND SEE THE SHIT SMEERED ON THE TIRE, GET A LIGHTER AND BURN THE CAR DOWN, TAKE THE ASHES AND PUT THEM IN A GROUND, I WILL TAKE THE GROUND WHERE THE ASH IS AND MAKE IT A STRIPER CLUB, AND THEN GET A EXORCIST TO PUT YOU TO HELL!!!” You started cussing them off, the pro-hero’s shuffled uncomfortably and looked at each other with weird stares. They knew that they where in shit when they pissed you off. You weren’t very easy to piss off so when somebody pissed you off they knew they were in deep horse shit.

*** You rushed into the hospital bed where Deku was at. Your breath coming out in short puffs as you stood on the edge of the male’s bed and watched as thick tears streamed down his face. You grew soft and laid a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

“Calm down baby…I am here…” You reassured, slowly climbing on the bed and getting on him. Deku gulped thickly at the closed distance between the two of you and began sweating nervously.

“Y/n!“ You yelped, trying to scoot back. You looked up at him and gave the male a cocky smile.

“What? Are you suggesting something?” You leaned in and whispered in Deku‘s ears. Deku whined before nodding his head ‘yes‘ you rolled your eyes and began to unbutton your shirt. Popping out a few buttons in the process. Gently, you pulled down your panties and threw them to the side, lifting up your skirt and showing your ass to Deku. Deku trembled slightly and started licking at the entrance, slowly, he began eating you out. You moaned quietly before bucking Your hips backwards. Deku gasped before moaning also and continuing to do his work. Once Deku are you out for a few minutes you pulled away and Deku looked at you with large puppy dogs eyes. His Greek emerald eyes blown wide in lust.

You leaned down and took off his pants with your teeth, dragging your nails up his clothed hero uniform shirt. Deku bucked his hips up and whimpered. You smirked into the material. Once you actually got the pants down you slipped off his boxers and starting to get settled on Deku.

You and Deku had this off and on thing. You guy’s weren’t dating each other and fucked other people but it was always a delight when you got to fuck him. A smile always formed on his lips when you topped him. He always thought that everyone was going to leave him to be the top, so it was reassuring when he saw that somebody cared about him enough to dom him and show him who is in control.

You where snapped back into reality when Deku gasped in shock as you took him all in, groaning slightly at the fact that you took him with such ease because he has been in you so much. Slowly you waited for yourself to adjust (which didn’t take that long) before you started bouncing up and down. Deku threw his head back and moaned loudly as felt your walls clench around him. You kept bouncing on him up and down in a rhyme pattern.

“Come on baby, thought you liked it…” You pouted, looking down on the green haired hero and smiling cockily.

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snowdice · 4 years ago

Text

Big Bang (Sort of) Editing Story [Day 63]

I started writing this fic while editing my Big Bang story, but am going to continue doing it for other things now that Kill Dear is out. I will write and publish 100 words of the story every time I finish doing whatever task I’m doing. If you’d like to block these proceedings, please feel free to block the tag proofread stories. I will reblog this post with the parts of the story I do today. Edited chapters are linked; everything else I’ve done so far is under the cut.

My Master Post Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 Part 18 Part 19 Part 20 Part 21 Part 22 Part 23 Part 24 Part 25 Part 26 Part 27 Part 28 Part 29

Let’s do some of this tonight.

Chapter 29

Virgil finished eating the breakfast Patton’s mom had sent for him. It had been going on a week since they’d discussed making menus for him him. She sent up little cards with each meal and he was supposed to rate each thing she sent on a scale from 1-5. Logan would read it to him before he ate, and Virgil would mark the little box on the card corresponding to his opinion. Usually, he would put a 4 for everything (he had tried to do 5, but Logan had told him 5 was reserved for things like chicken alfredo). Three was for things that he was neutral on, 2 was for things he didn’t like but could tolerate, and 1 was for things he didn’t like. So far, the only 3 was the unseasoned porridge she’d sent one day. Yet, putting toppings on it like cinnamon and sugar and different fruits had increased its rating easily.

“Finished?” Logan asked.

“Yeah,” Virgil said.

“What would you like to do today?” Logan asked. “Patton is busy until after lunch, and then we thought you might like to go back to the garden again. It’s supposed to drop in temperature over the next few days, so it will be the last good day for it.”

“Sounds good,” Virgil said. “I don’t care what we do today though. What do you want to do?”

Logan made an expression, and Virgil titled his head. “I don’t have anything in particular I want to do,” he said.

“You’re lying,” Virgil said immediately.

“You would not be interested in the activity I wish to partake in,” Logan said.

Virgil squinted at him. “I’d be interested in laying on the ground and staring at the ceiling.”

Logan chuckled. “No, truly. The activity I would do if you were not present would involve reading.”

“You can read to me,” Virgil suggested.

“…In Sanskrit.”

Virgil frowned at him. “Isn’t that, like, some sort of dead language?”

“It is,” Logan said. “I taught the language to myself in order to read a specific book called the Pragilium Text. It’s an encoded book that leads to a magical location that I have been trying to decode for years.”

“That’s fine,” Virgil said. “You can do that.”

“It would be in the library,” Logan said.

“Okay.”

“But…” Logan said. “It would in no way be interesting to you.”

Virgil shrugged. “Like I said. I’m content to lie on the floor for a few hours.”

Logan frowned. “I can’t make you do that.”

“You wouldn’t be making me,” Virgil said. “I want to go. Maybe you can find me an easy book I could try to read?”

“Are you certain?” he asked.

Virgil nodded, decisively.

“Very well, get dressed and I will show you the library.”

Virgil stood to do so and a few minutes later, Logan was leading him out of the royal wing.

Both of the guards greeted him kindly, and Virgil hunched his shoulders in a bit, but said a soft “hi.”

The library didn’t end up being too far away. It was through the small dining hall and to the left where the staircase to the kitchen was to the right.

“This is not the main library,” Logan said when they entered. “It is just a smaller one. The royal librarian comes here only about once a week to organize. Some other castle residents might come in too, but it is usually mostly empty.”

Virgil could tell just by listening closely for a few seconds that the place was likely empty (unless someone was lying in wait).

“I’ll look and see if there is something simple for you in case you’d like to read. You can explore a bit if you’d like,” Logan said.

Virgil nodded and stalked off into the shelves to secure the area. There were many books, not that he could quite read any of the spines. The bookcases were mostly cramped into the space. There was the open area where they’d come in with a few comfy chairs and Virgil found a desk near one of the windows. It had stacks of books including one pretty large and old one. He looked at it curiously.

Virgil heard Logan’s footsteps approach from down an aisle. “That’s the Pragilium text,” he said.

“It’s pretty,” Virgil said, looking at the design etched into the cover.

“Yes,” Logan agreed. He reached forward to touch it and opened it carefully. The print was small and didn’t look like the letters Logan had taught him so far. There was a small map on the side that Virgil could at least guess at the meaning of.

“You can read that?” Virgil asked.

“I can,” Logan said. “Very few people can though.”

“Wow, you’re really smart.”

“Thank you,” Logan said with a smile. “Now, I found you a book. I apologize as its subject matter is for younger children, but it has many pictures that can help give you context when you don’t know something. You don’t have to read it if you do not wish to, especially as we haven’t gotten very far in our lessons, but I thought you might like the challenge.

He handed him the book and Virgil took it with a smile. “I’ll try to read it,” he said.

“Well, you have free reign of the library. Feel free to continue to explore and to interrupt me if you need to.”

Virgil nodded and took the book before deciding to finish his sweep of the library. It turned out that appearances were not deceiving, and the library truly was empty. Once he was certain about that, he looked around for a comfortable place to settle down and try to read the book Logan had handed him. He found a sturdy looking bookshelf near where Logan was reading at his desk. He scaled it quickly. It was a little bit dusty at the top, but it wasn’t a bad place. It was close to the ceiling and kept him hidden pretty well, but still gave him enough room to pop up onto his elbows. If he looked left, he could see Logan down below with his eyes trained on the book, but if he looked right, he could see the entrance to the library.

He pulled the book in front of him and looked at the cover. It was covered in drawings of different colored flowers. One simple white flower was in the center and there were three words on the cover. He squinted at it and silently tried to sound it out based on what Logan had taught him so far. He could guess that the larger word was ‘flowers’ based on context. So, he was pretty sure it read How Flowers Grow.

He flipped open the book. Logan was right, there were many hand drawn beautiful pictures. He could pretty much understand what was happening just from them even if he couldn’t read all of the words.

It was an interesting book even if he couldn’t read it and it was obviously made for small children. Judging by the pictures, it seemed to be detailing how plants, or at least, flowers grew through some kid planting and caring for a flower over the course of some amount of time.

Virgil had, of course, known flowers grew from seeds, but it was interesting to see things about how the stem would pop out of the seed in the ground and things about the roots growing.

He more looked through the pictures than read it the first time but had flipped back to the front to try to read the words when he heard the library door open.

Virgil perked up in awareness, but then settled when he recognized Patton’s footsteps. Virgil tilted his head to watch as he walked directly to Logan’s hideaway.

“Hi,” he said, gaining Logan’s attention.

“Hello, Patton,” Logan replied. He glanced at the window and must have seen that time had passed because he closed his book and shuffled his papers.

“The guards said you came here,” Patton said, glancing around. “Where’s Virgil?”

Instead of letting Logan answer that question, Virgil pulled himself forward, with the book in one hand and slid off the bookshelf to land lightly on his feet next to Patton.

Patton screamed briefly before slapping a hand over his mouth.

Logan had placed his hand over his heart. “Where on Earth did you come from?” he asked.

Virgil blinked at him and then pointed to the bookshelf he’d been on top of.

“How long were you up there?” Logan asked.

“Pretty much the whole time,” Virgil answered.

“I…” Logan said. “I didn’t even know.”

Virgil squinted at him. “You need to learn to look up.”

Patton giggled.

Virgil turned on him. “You need to learn to case the area.”

“Oh honey, your shirt is all covered in dust,” Patton said instead of responding to his very valid criticism. Virgil frowned. “Let’s get you changed and then go grab some lunch.”

“Lunch?” Virgil asked.

Patton chuckled and grabbed his hand. “Yes, sweetie, lunch. Then garden.”

“Fine,” Virgil said. “But you do need to learn to be more observant.

“Yes, yes, whatever you say,” Patton said.

Logan just rolled his eyes.

Chapter 30

After lunch, Patton and Logan took Virgil out into the garden to walk around. They let Virgil lead them around wherever he wanted to in the garden. A bunch more flowers had died since the last time they’d been out here, and Patton felt sad despite having never felt very sad about that sort of thing before. But, Virgil seemed to really like the flower he’d found last time, so Patton thought he was probably sad on the boy’s behalf.

Of course, Patton thought, perking up, eventually it would be spring, and Virgil could get to not only see flowers but see all of the flowers grow. Patton couldn’t wait to see him amongst the garden then.

Virgil took them wandering through the orchard for a while, but most of the trees had been stripped of their fruits. They ended up in the food garden after a bit, and Virgil finally seemed to decide on the direction instead of just ambling about.

A few seconds after Patton noticed Virgil seemingly decide on a destination, Patton noticed Mr. Deknis kneeling on the ground a few feet away. Had… had Virgil been looking for him? Patton wondered. That was adorable.

Mr. Deknis looked up as they approached and smiled at them.

“Hello, Mr. Deknis,” Patton said as they came closer.

“Hello you three,” Mr. Deknis said. “Getting into trouble?”

“No,” Virgil said, shaking his head.

Mr. Deknis gave him a flash of a smile. “I know, I’m joking,” he said. “Especially since there isn’t much left in my gardens for certain princes to destroy with experiments.”

“Oh, okay,” Virgil said. He tilted his head. “What are you doing?”

“I’m getting the last of the acorn squash out,” Mr. Deknis replied. “It’s the last crop to get finished. Good thing too, it’s supposed to start snowing soon.”

Virgil looked down curiously at the dark green squash.

“Would you like to help me pick a couple?” Mr. Deknis asked.

“Sure,” Virgil said, sounding interested. Mr. Deknis patted the ground beside him and Virgil knelt down to watch him.

“They’re not too difficult to harvest,” he said. “You just cut the fruit off the stem. You want to leave about a hand’s width of the stem left over which will help preserve moisture. The earlier harvests, I left in the field to cure in the sun for a couple weeks, but the frost’ll ruin them so we’ll take them inside the green house and let them sit in the sun for a bit there. We also want to keep the leaves. You’ll probably be eating those for dinner tonight since they have to be cooked up within about 24 hours after they’re picked. Patton’s mom makes a good side dish with them and she’ll be making some curry tomorrow, probably. Maybe some stew if there are some leftover.”

“Put the squash in this wheelbarrow and the leaves into this pile, okay?” Virgil nodded and Mr. Deknis handed him the extra pair of gloves and shears he carried with him in case one set broke. “These might be a bit big on your, but they should work for now.”

Mr. Deknis looked up at Patton and Logan. “Would the two of you like to help?” he asked. “I can get some more equipment.”

“I can help out if you want, but you don’t need to stop and get more equipment just for me,” Patton said.

“The same for me,” Logan said.

“Well, if you’d like to help still, you can sort the leave. Give your mother a head start.”

“Sure,” Patton said. He and Logan went to do that while Mr. Deknis and Virgil worked on cutting the squashes from the vine.

“What do you do during the winter?” Virgil asked curiously. “If this is your last crop.”

“Well, at the beginning, I mostly will be working on making sure things are stored correctly along with some of the kitchen staff. There’s some drying to do and some canning. After that’s done, I’ll spend some time organizing and planning. Then, before the spring comes, I’ll start preparing seedlings in the green house.”

“Seedlings?” he asked.

“I let seeds start to grow in the greenhouse that I replant once it gets warm enough.”

“Why don’t you just plant them where they’re going?”

“I do for some,” he said, “but giving some a head start is good for them.”

Patton watched as Virgil continued to ask questions about gardening while working on harvesting the squash. Mr. Deknis continued to answer them in a calm, soft tone that Patton didn’t think he’d ever heard from the often gruff man before.

Patton wasn’t surprised when, after finishing getting most of the squash off of the vine, Mr. Deknis asked if Virgil wanted to help him with canning some pears in a couple of days. Virgil immediately looked over at Logan and Patton as though asking permission.

“Say yes if you want to Virgil,” Logan said.

“Yes,” Virgil said as soon as he was given permission. Mr. Deknis smiled at him softly and started loading the last of the squash into the wheelbarrow. Patton offered to run the squash leaves to the kitchen while Logan and Virgil helped Mr. Deknis take the actual squash to the green house.

He dropped the leaves off to a kitchen worker since Mama was busy and headed back out to the garden. By the time he returned, Logan was already back from the green house and sitting by one of the more decorative trees near the castle.

“He’s exploring,” Logan said, nodding at the large patch of bushes.

Patton chuckled. “I see.” He sat next to Logan. Every so often he’d hear the bushes rustle, but he couldn’t tell if it was actually Virgil or an animal.

“He’s adorable,” Patton commented, keeping an ear out.

Logan hummed.

“I’m glad we kept him.”

“He isn’t a pet, Patton.”

Patton rolled his eyes. “I know, but I’m still glad. I’m glad he’s making friends with Mr. Deknis. Once he knows how to read better, we should get him a book about gardening. He seems interested.”

Logan nodded. “Having a hobby would be good for him. Clearly he has a fascination with the garden.” He nodded to the blur of dark hair that could be seen through the bushes. It seemed Virgil had stopped his exploration and was now laying down in the bushes a few feet away.

“I’m going to go see what he’s doing,” Patton said. “I’ll be right back.”

Logan nodded and Patton got to his feet. The bushes were part of a small maze that was filled with flowers during the spring and summer months but were mostly just green and brown bushes for now. Despite the fact that Patton had been able to see him only a few feet away, it took him a while to wind through the path to where he was. When he finally turned the last corner and he came into view, Patton gasped softly.

“Ghost kitty!” he said, making sure to make his voice as quiet as possible.

Despite how soft he made his voice, two pairs of eyes shot over to him. The completely black kitten was perched on Virgil’s lap like she belonged there. Ghost Kitty hissed slightly, but Virgil reached forward to pet her head gently.

“This is Ghost Kitty?” Virgil asked. “I thought you said she was hard to pet.”

“She is,” Patton said. He lowered himself onto the ground from a few feet away from them. “How did you get her to come to you?”

Virgil glanced down at the cat and shrugged, scratching one of her ears. “She just came over to me and let me pet her.”

“Wow,” Patton said softly. He looked at the cat. “Could I pet you sweetie?” he asked, holding out a hand in her direction. She hissed again.

Virgil frowned down at her. “It’s Patton,” he said as though he expected to understand his words and the exasperation in the tone he said them in.

He pet the cat’s head to soothe her and then reached over to grab Patton’s hand. He pulled and Patton carefully leaned a bit closer until his hand was within sniffing distance. Ghost Kitty sniffed his fingers contemplatively and then bumped her head against it. He barely restrained a squeal, knowing that probably wouldn’t be taken well.

He carefully turned his hand over so he could stroke the top of her head. He gently scratched her ear, not daring to go for under her chin yet since she didn’t know him well. “Hi,” he said softly. After a moment, she started to purr softly. Virgil reached over and scratched under her chin and she purred louder. “Oh, you’re a good girl,” Patton breathed, letting a hand trail gently down her back once and then again. Patton settled himself carefully into a seating position continuing to pet her. After a few more moments of soft petting, she hesitantly stepped her front paws onto Patton’s thigh so she was sitting in both of their laps. Patton laughed softly. “Hi sweetie.” He glanced over at Virgil who had a wide smile on his face as he pet the cat. This. This was adorable. They continued to pet the cat for a very long time.

Chapter 31

Logan waited for a while after Patton left to check on Virgil, but the two never resurfaced. It was odd, Patton would usually remember to come back and get Logan or at least tell them where they were. With a sigh, Logan climbed to his feet to go find them. It took him a while to weave his way through the maze of bushes to them especially because they were suspiciously quiet (Well, suspicious for Patton. Virgil was often unnervingly quiet when alone.) Luckily, he knew the bushes enough after all of these years not to get lost and managed to find the two after a few minutes.

“Ah,” he said, immediately identifying the reason for Patton disappearing.

“Logan!” Patton said, his voice excited, but also quieter than normal. “We found a kitty!”

“I can see that,” Logan responded, taking a step closer. The cat hissed at him in response. The hissing was so intense and wild that he’d suspect the thing was feral if it wasn’t happily on Virgil’s lap having had it’s head in Patton’s lap before Logan had approached.

“No,” Virgil told the animal as though it could understand words. “That’s Logan. Be nice.”

The cat still glared at him and swished it’s tail back and forth threateningly. Virgil pet the top of it’s head and it broke eye contact with Logan to purr.

Patton seemed delighted by the purring, reaching to stroke under the thing’s chin carefully. “We should give her a name!” Patton said.

Virgil frowned. “I thought her name was Ghost Kitty.”

“That is ‘Ghost Kitty’?” Logan asked skeptically. From what Patton had said about that cat, it was terrified of people and no one could ever get near it, even him. Now it was in Virgil’s lap?

“But that was a temporary name,” Patton said, “for before we officially met her. Now we have to give her a real name.”

“Do not give it a name,” Logan said. “You will get attached.”

“How do you name a cat?” Virgil asked.

“Do not name it,” Logan said.

“You give them names based on their personalities, how they look, or even just because it’s a cute name,” Patton explained. “Like, remember Mittens? I named her Mittens because she has white fur and black paws!”

Virgil looked at the cat. “She’s completely black,” he said.

Patton hummed. “So, we could give her a name based on that like Midnight or Shadow.”

“Those are fine,” Virgil said.

“No, no,” Patton said. “I’m just giving you examples. You get to name her yourself.”

“This is a bad idea,” Logan said.

“Just throw out some names,” Patton said. “Anything you can think of.”

“Uh,” Virgil said. “Knife.”

“…Just Knife?” Patton asked.

“Nightmare.” Virgil seemed to think about it. “No, that’s mean.”

“How about things you like?” Patton suggested.

“Alfredo?”

Oh no, Logan thought, he was worse than Patton at cat naming.

“Good start,” Patton said. “Logan, do you have any suggestions.”

“Cat,” Logan said.

“Real suggestions,” Patton scolded.

Logan sighed and thought for a moment. “Aphrodite.”

“Catphrodite!”

Logan glared at him. “Helena.”

“Helenpaw.”

“Claudia.”

“Clawdia.”

“Persephone.”

Patton smiled at him, cheerfully.

“…Damnit!”

Patton turned to Virgil again. “Like that! They don’t even have to be serious. Like, uh, you could name her Madam Fluffywuffykins the Great!”

“Do not name her that,” Logan said, scrunching up his nose.

Logan sat on the ground, the cat eyeing him, but no longer hissing. Logan gently guided them towards more sensible names despite Patton trying his hardest to drag them into stupidity.

Virgil still didn’t quite get it. He mostly tried to name it after foodstuff, and often not even appropriate foodstuff such as “Corn” and “Acorn Squash” and “Sandwich” and occasionally would drop in semi violent ones such as “Razor,” “Nightshade” and “Void.” Patton suggested names like “Fluffers,” “Bobette” and “Darling” as well as some that were puns. Logan tried to direct them towards more sensible ones like “Salem” and even went so low as to suggest the contrary “Snowball.”

It quickly seemed to become less about actually naming the cat and more of a game. Patton had taught Virgil about playing with cats and had even gotten out a ball of yarn he cared around for his crafts. Both Virgil and the cat seemed to find endless entertainment with that. Logan hoped Patton had another ball of yarn that color because, he was never going to get that ball back.

The barrage of names fizzled out into naming things around them like “Leaf” and “Bush” until they stopped suggesting names altogether. Patton and Logan sat back and watched Virgil play with the cat.

Logan watched as they stopped playing suddenly and Virgil and the cat squinted at each other. “Marisol,” Virgil said, pulling the name out of nowhere. “That’s her name.” He said it with a certainty that was surprising considering how he’d treated the naming process with confusion and caution earlier. If Logan did not know better, his tone of voice would indicate that the cat, or Marisol he guessed, had gotten bored of them coming up with stupid names and decided to tell him her actual name herself.

The cat made a sound and batted at Virgil’s face without claws to grab back his attention.

He turned back to it and bopped its face with a finger in kind. It attacked his finger, but in a clearly playful matter as it still did not extend it’s claws and its teeth did not draw blood.

“That’s a great name, Virgil,” Patton said.

“Much more pleasant than any that Patton suggested all afternoon,” Logan said. He received an elbow to the side for his quip.

“A pretty name for a pretty kitty,” Patton said, scooting over to where Virgil was sat and attempting to pet Marisol’s head. Marisol, however, was too keyed up and batted at the hand.

“I love you too!” Patton said.

Logan rolled his eyes, but he had long since resigned himself to watching the two of them play with and coo over the cat for the rest of the day.

Eventually, though, it started to get darker. Even after Logan pointed this out, it still took over an hour for them to relent and leave the bush maze to go to the door. The problem was of course, that the cat had managed to grow very attached to Virgil in the last few hours and she followed them all the way to the door with manipulatively heart breaking mews.

“You’ve got to stay out here,” Virgil said, when they got to the castle door. He pet her ear softly and she shoved her head into his hand. “I’m sorry. I don’t have anywhere to put you.” He sounded horribly sad about that fact and Logan felt himself shift uncomfortably. “I basically live in a closet and Logan doesn’t like cats in his room anyway.”

Logan immediately felt unreasonably guilty, probably more so because Logan did not think Virgil was trying to make him feel guilty. “…Bring the dammed thing inside.”

Virgil blinked up at him. “What?”

“It will get cold soon anyway,” Logan said.

He frowned at Logan from where he was crouched. “But you don’t like fur in your room…”

“I will have to find a potion that works,” he said with a sigh, “and we’ll have to say it’s mine to the guards and Father since it will be staying in my room, but it is yours in every other way. That means you are going to feed it, clean it, and clean up after it.”

Virgil nodded immediately and swooped Marisol up in his arms. The cat went without complaint. “Thank you!” he said. “I love her.”

“I know you do,” Logan said, already regretting it already. Yet, he couldn’t bring himself to even consider recanting the offer considering how happy Virgil seemed to be. They had a cat now, he guessed.

Chapter 32

“What are you doing?” Helen asked a few minutes after her son walked into the kitchen and started looking around as though he were trying to find something. It was a few hours into the afternoon, and she and a few workers were already prepping for dinner.

“Uh,” Patton said. “Have you seen Virgil?”

“No,” Helen said. “Why.”

“Er… Logan and I sorta, lost him,” Patton said. He was wringing his hands anxiously. Helen put down the knife in her hand.

“What do you mean you lost him?” she asked.

“Well, see, we were trying to teach him how to play hide and seek, um, but then we didn’t think to tell him that he eventually had to come out if we didn’t find him, and now we haven’t seen him since breakfast.”

“He didn’t know what tag is?” she asked. That was just one more thing to add to the list of why Helen worried about Virgil and where he came from. Every morsel of information she’d managed to wring from Patton despite his evasions made her lists of concerns grow larger, even little things like him not knowing about simple childhood games. Actually, thinking of concerning things having to do with Virgil. “Wait, so he hasn’t eaten lunch.”

“Um, we don’t know that,” Patton’s mouth said while his eyes said ‘no.’

“He needs to be on a consistent diet, especially when he’s still taking the malnutrition potion,” she scolded.

“I know, Mama, I know,” Patton said. “I’m trying to find him. I’d kinda hoped he’d gotten hungry and snuck down here. He probably wouldn’t want to risk being caught stealing food though.”

Helen grimaced. Yet another concerning thing.

“Wait! I have an idea, I’ll be right back.” Patton turned and ran out of the room. Helen frowned at the space he’d been and finished chopping the carrot on the cutting board in front of her. If it had been any other person in the castle missing, Helen wouldn’t have worried, but she had literally never seen Virgil without Patton and/or Logan by his side. Even when he’d gone to help Jeff can some fruit, Logan had reportedly hung around to read a book.

Considering that Logan had never exactly been clingy even with Patton, she imagined that either Virgil asked, or Logan thought he should stay with him for his comfort. So, she was surprised that he was apparently hidden away somewhere in the castle where neither of the other kids could find him.

Still thinking about this, she walked over to the entrance to the cellar below the kitchen where they stored most of the vegetables, planning to grab some more carrots. She was confused for a moment when she heard movement from deeper in the pantry. She reached over and touched the panel near the door that controlled the magic lights.

The newly illuminated figure startled as the lights came on, whipping around to stare at her with wide eyes.

“Virgil?” she asked.

“Sorry,” he said immediately, taking a step back.

“It’s fine,” she said immediately, “but what are you doing here?”

He considered her for a long moment, but apparently, she passed some sort of mental test, because he relaxed, at least as much as he’d ever relaxed in her presence. “Where are we?” he asked.

Her brow knit together. “The cellar under the kitchen,” she said, “You don’t know that?”

He shook his head.

“The only entrance is from the kitchen.” Now that she thought about it, she hadn’t seen him go through the kitchen at any point.

“No, it’s not,” Virgil said. “There’s a tunnel.”

“A-a tunnel?” she asked. Actually, taking a closer look at him, he seemed a bit grimy. He had dust all over his front and dirt on his nose. She thought he might even have a couple of cobwebs in his hair.

“Yep,” he said.

“Where’s the tunnel?” she asked.

“It’s right over here,” he said. He took a couple of steps and pointed to the ground. There was an open square hole there that clearly had been made a long time ago but which she had never noticed in all of her time working here.

“How did you find this?” she asked.

“We were playing hide and seek,” Virgil explained. “Logan said I could hide anywhere inside the castle. I hid on top of a dresser upstairs in some unused sitting room. There was a hole in the wall above it, so I climbed into it. Then, I crawled a little bit and it let out into a hidden passage in the walls. I wandered around in it until I found another hole in one of the walls. I thought it was a way out, so I squeezed into it, but it took me to a different hallway where I found an old room. There was a different hole in that room that had probably been covered by something because it was in the floor but whatever it was had rotted away. I crawled though it into a tunnel and came out here.”

She couldn’t help but laugh a bit at his explanation. “Well, it sounds like you went on an adventure,” she said, “but Patton and Logan have been trying to find you. You missed lunch.”

He tilted his head at her. “I know. I was supposed to hide.”

“Yes,” she explained, “but you are supposed to come out at some point if they can’t find you for things like food.”

“Oh,” he said.

“They probably should have explained,” she said. “For now, why don’t we get you something to eat? You must be hungry.”

Virgil frowned. “But I missed lunch.”

“You can still eat even though it’s not in normal hours,” she said. “You could even if you had made it to lunch.”

“Really?” he asked, he looked tragically confused by this offer.

“Of course, sweetie,” she said. “In fact, I insist you get something good to eat right now. How about I made you a grilled ham and cheese sandwich? Maybe some cookies too!”

Virgil titled his head. “You are Patton’s mother,” he stated.

Helen laughed softly. “He gets its all from me,” she said. “We should probably go find him and tell him you’re okay. He was worried.”

“I didn’t mean to worry him,” Virgil said with a frown.

“I know,” Helen said. “It’s okay. He’ll probably laugh when he figures out where you’ve been, and Logan will interrogate you all about the secret passageways.” He seemed happy about the prospect of seeing his friends. “Come on, let’s go upstairs for a bit,” she said.

Chapter 33

Patton’s mom had already made Virgil sit down at the small table in the corner of the kitchen and had handed him a sandwich by the time Patton barreled into the kitchen, Logan coming after him at a more sedate pace.

“Virgil!” he said, sounding surprised and relieved.

“Patton,” Patton’s mom scolded. “No cats in the kitchen.” Patton had brought Marisol in with him and had let her go as soon as he’d seen Virgil. She immediately plodded over to him and hoped onto the table to sniff at his face in greeting.

“But she’s the princess!” Patton argued.

“No,” Logan said.

“Yes, she is!” Patton said.

“The stupid cat is not a princess.”

“Don’t be mean to your little sister, Logan.”

“I regret every life decision that has led me to this point.”

While Logan and Patton were distracted squabbling and Patton’s mom was distracted watching them squabble, Virgil tore off a bit of the ham in his sandwich and offered it to Marisol. Marisol gracefully took it from his grip and ate it.

“So, this is Logan’s new cat I’ve been hearing about?” Patton’s mom asked.

“Indeed,” Logan said, his lips thinned. He and Marisol were mostly amicable when alone with just them and Virgil, but Patton had a habit of cooing over the kitten and needling Logan into being irritated.

“Mmm, yeah,” Patton’s mom said. She glanced over at Virgil right as Marisol basically slammed her face into his chin in a bid to get pets. “Your cat.” She shook her head. “But Princess Kitten or not, I do not want fur in dinner,” she said.

“Sorry,” Patton said, honestly not sounding sorry at all. Virgil was always a bit surprised when the insolent shrug garnered nothing more that a scowl that did not reach Patton’s mom’s eyes. “I thought she could help me find Virgil, but you already found him.” He turned to Virgil. “Where have you been all day?”

“Found a tunnel,” Virgil said. He had to use one hand to hold Marisol back from his sandwich as he took another bite, but then gave her a bite of cheese.

“You found what?” Logan asked.

“There’s a tunnel under the cellar,” Virgil said. “It goes to an old closed up room and also to a set of secret passageways.” It was a bit of a security risk honestly, though clearly no one had used it in years by how dirty it was. He did plan to go back into it and make sure the sprawling tunnels didn’t go to anywhere more dangerous like the royal wing.

“A closed-up room?” Logan said. He could see a bit of curiosity already building in his eyes.

“Yeah,” Virgil said. “Where the door used to be seemed like it had been bricked over.”

“Really? Can you show me.”

“Sure,” Virgil answered.

“Ah, perhaps we should be a bit more cautious about climbing through random tunnels we don’t know the stability of,” Patton’s mom said.

Logan’s frown edged on a pout.

“Talk to your father,” she said. “I’m sure he can get someone who understands these things so you can safely investigate.”

“It was safe enough for Virgil,” Logan pointed out.

“No, Logan.”

He sighed but seemed to concede. That was another strange thing about living here. By all rights Logan didn’t have to obey anyone except the king, but he often listened to those around him, not just the adults but Patton as well. It was interesting though it sometimes made the hierarchy hard to figure out. Virgil did sometimes stress out about the hypothetical situation where he got conflicting orders from two people, and he wouldn’t know which one to obey. So far it hadn’t been a problem luckily. They always seemed to work it out amongst themselves in some give and take social interaction that was a bit too complex for him to understand.

Patton walked over to where Virgil was sitting. “I’m glad your safe,” he said. “We should probably put a time limit on hide and seek in the future, so you know when to come out.”

“Did I win?” Virgil asked. He’d honestly forgotten they’d been playing a game until Patton’s mom had asked how he’d found his way into the cellar.

Patton laughed. “I’d say so, yeah,” he replied. He leaned over to kiss Virgil’s forehead, but drew back immediately with a pinched expression. “You are… very dirty,” he said, rubbing his mouth.

Virgil nodded. “Your mom made me sit on a tablecloth,” he said gesturing to the fabric she’d laid over the chair.

Patton snorted out a laugh. “We’ll get you into the bath when you’re done eating and you can tell us all about your little adventure.”

“I would also like to hear about your discoveries,” Logan said. “Though you are not allowed to sit on the bed until you do not have spider webs in your hair.”

Patton’s eyes widened and he jumped away from Virgil, startling both Virgil and Marisol. The latter hopped from the table onto Virgil’s lap. “Spiders?!”

Virgil tilted his head at him in confusion.

“He isn’t a fan of spiders,” Logan informed him, his voice amused at Patton’s reaction.

Apparently deciding that she was no longer startled, but more confused by the noises Patton had just made, Marisol jumped out of Virgil’s lap to investigate, wrapping her way around Patton’s legs. He bent down to pat her back, though he still looked a bit startled.

“Your cat, huh?” Patton’s mom asked Logan once again. Virgil studied her. She had apparently missed Logan mentioning that he allowed Virgil on the bed. Or perhaps Logan was correct in his insistence that it wasn’t actually that big of a deal here. Virgil would rather not test that assumption, however, so was glad that it had been distracted from by Patton’s outburst.

“Creepy, crawly death dealers,” Patton mumbled into Marisol’s fur, having picked her back up. Virgil made a note to not inform Patton of all of the different types of spiders he’d seen skittering around in the castle walls today. Maybe he’d talk about them with Logan once Patton left. He’d probably be interested. Virgil had seen some he’d never seen before! Logan probably could even help him figure out what their names were. “You’ll protect me, won’t you kitty?” Patton asked Marisol.

She made a little ‘burrrr’ sound in response, which Patton seemed to take a confirmation.

“Aw thank you, baby! Such a good baby.”

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Virgil popped the rest of the sandwich into his mouth. Patton’s mom turned away and grabbed a plate stacked with cookies. She handed it to Logan. “Take these, and please get the health hazards out of my kitchen,” she requested.

Logan took them without complaint. “Come on, Virgil,” he said. “Let’s go get you clean.”

“We’re going to need so much soap,” Patton said.

Virgil looked down at himself. “I can go outside and get most of it off if you get me a bucket of water,” he offered.

“Virgil, it’s below freezing,” Logan said as though that had a baring on what he’d just said. Logan sighed. “No. Bathtub.” Virgil shrugged. “Honestly,” Logan said. He turned with the plate of cookies in his hand, clearly expecting to be followed. “You’re not going to catch your death pouring a bucket of water over yourself in the cold when there are literally over a hundred perfectly good bathtubs in this castle. For goodness sakes.” And well, Virgil wasn’t going to complain.

Chapter 34

Patton, to be completely honest, was not all that interested in the room that Virgil had found. Beyond just the fact that it would definitely have creepy crawly death dealers in it, he really did not understand the intrigue. If it had just been him, he probably would have just let a castle worker deal with it, but it was not just him. Logan was ecstatic with the prospect of investigating a secret in the castle. People who didn’t know him well may not believe it considering he spent most of his time with his nose in a book, but he was an adventurer at heart.

Thomas had been easily swayed into finding someone to help tear down part of the wall into the secret tunnel near the room (so no one would have to crawl through the kitchen cellar like Virgil). It had taken a few days, however, and Logan was practically bouncing off the walls waiting. Virgil, despite having already seen the room before, also seemed excited, though if that was because of his own curiosity or because he was just excited that Logan seemed so exited remained to be seen.

“They are silly, aren’t they,” Patton asked Princess Marisol. He was laying on his stomach on Logan’s bed and Princess Marisol had just put her little paw on his nose.

“Yes, I agree,” he said. “Don’t they know that we’re literally going to be 2 feet away from the normal hallway?”

“It is not silly,” Logan defended himself. “Any number of things could go wrong.” He sounded far too excited about the prospect of something going terribly wrong. “The tunnels could cave in and block off the exit or there could be some unknown pathogen in the air.”

Patton did not ruin his fun by mentioning that Logan’s dad had definitely basically baby proofed the tunnels for them ahead of time. Instead, he just said, “Don’t let Virgil hear you say that sort of thing. It will just stress him out.”

“Yes, yes, of course,” he said, waving off Patton’s concerns as he mulled over two different weird green planty things (potion ingredients, Patton assumed) before setting one aside and sticking the other in his bag.

“So silly,” Patton cooed at the cat. Logan let out a huff but did not choose to say anything about it this time.

Speaking of silly, Virgil came back from Logan’s bathroom then, and Patton tried not to giggle. “Is this right?” Virgil asked, sounding and looking confused. Logan, in his overexcitement about adventure had commissioned Virgil an outfit that actually fit. Said outfit, however, very much made it look more like Virgil was going on a safari instead of a two-foot detour from the normal castle hallway.

“Almost,” Logan said, “Here, let me.” Logan started straightening everything out and flattening the collar, reminding Patton of an overbearing parent on picture day. Virgil accepted the fussing without protest. It was adorable. Well, the outfit was ridiculous, but still, adorable. “There,” Logan said. “I think we’re ready to go now.”

It was about time. Patton was sure people were already waiting for them downstairs. Patton got up and patted Princess Marisol on the head. She looked up at them with interest.

“You can stay here, sweetie,” Patton told here. She seemed to consider it and then hopped down from the bed to go rub up against Virgil.

Patton guessed she was coming. It didn’t matter too much since Logan had given her a magical collar that allowed her to open most doors in the castle and everyone knew she was the royal cat now, so if she decided she wanted to come back to the room and nap, she could. (She was very aware of the power she held.)

She pranced happily by Virgil’s side all the way down the steps to the first floor of the castle. She was such a good kitty.

Well, she did hiss angrily at everyone who came too close to them, but still, a very good kitty.

Patton did lean down and pick her up so they could actually talk to the man waiting for them at the large hole in the wall. Logan went to talk to the castle worker while Virgil half hid behind Patton. He was clearly listening very intently to the conversation however, at least more intently than Patton was. Patton was busy shaking his head fondly.

“Yes, yes, Princess,” he said to the cat. “I know we do not trust the strangers, but I promise this stranger is perfectly safe.”

“How do you know?” Virgil asked.

“His name is Chester and I’ve known him since I was 9.”

This seemed to slightly alleviate Virgil’s suspicion, but Princess Marisol still seemed antsy. Patton really needed to start slowly introducing the both of them to more people.

Logan finished talking with Chester after a few moments and it was time to climb through the hole in the wall. He wished he saw in the tunnel whatever Logan with his excited eyes and bounce to his step obviously saw. Or even that was more comfortable in the dark closed in space as Virgil obviously was. As it was, Patton’s nose scrunched up at the thought off all of the spiders that could be living everywhere in the secret tunnel, but he pushed through.

The entrance to the tunnel had been made only a little bit from the room Virgil had mentioned and Chester had led them through it after only a couple of seconds. As Patton had suspected, the room was already lit up and probably cleaned a little bit by the people who had cut into the wall, not that he was complaining.

Virgil was still clinging a bit to Patton’s shirt, though it seemed to be less out of anxiety at this point and more out of a desire to stick close. He was peering around curiously at the lit-up space. He probably hadn’t seen much of it in the dark when he’d been here before.

Yet, his curiosity was nothing compared to how excited Logan seemed to be. Now Patton may have not been interested in the room itself, but he was entertained by how interested Logan was and was happy to encourage that.

“What do you think this place is?” he asked Logan.

Logan hummed contemplatively, eyes looking around. “Well,” he said. “It’s a bedroom clearly, and old. Considering the location it is in in the castle, the size, the decorations, and it’s likely age, I’d imagine it was a bedroom of a royal family member. This used to be the royal wing three royal lines ago.”

“Bearing that in mind, there are a couple of likely possibilities for the origin of the room as well as the reason it was sealed up, but we will need to investigate more in order to come to an actual conclusion.” He had already placed the bag he’d brought on the ground and was going through it, pulling out things that Patton did not recognize. He also got a piece of paper and sat on the floor to start to sketch.

“What are you doing?” Virgil asked.

“I’m sketching the floorplan of the room,” Logan said. “I will then put a grid on it so we can investigate while being sure that we aren’t missing anything.”

Virgil seemed uninterested in this part of the adventure, instead electing to go poking around by himself. Princess Marisol squirmed out of Patton’s arms to go follow him. Patton swore that he only looked away from those two for 5 seconds, but the next thing he knew he heard metal clicking against metal.

“Oh,” Patton said, eyes wide when he saw what Virgil was fiddling with. “Honey, you probably shouldn’t touch…”

The old but fancy looking chest that had been at the end of the remains of the bed creaked open. Virgil sneezed as a cloud of dust puffed out of it. “Huh,” he said studying the contents. “There’s a skull in here.”

“Oh, I don’t like this adventure anymore,” Patton commented.

Logan was on his feet within moments. “Let me see,” he said eagerly.

“What if it’s cursed?” Patton pointed out.

“Then I’ll just break the curse,” Logan waved him off. “Oh, it’s just a horse skull,” Logan said, sounding disappointed. “And also what seemed to be potion ingredients. Though they seem very fresh considering the state of the room.”

“Maybe we should get someone else to…”

Logan already had both arms inside the chest and was pulling things out of it. “This chest must have some sort of stasis effect to it.”

He started pulling things out to look at them before setting them on the floor with no caution. “Well,” he said, “that answers the question of what this room is.”

“It does?” Patton asked.

“Ah, yes, between the horse skull and the potion ingredients, this is obviously the bedroom of Princess Marianne Elicia. She was the third child of King Simon IV and was quite the fan of horses.”

“…So she kept a horse skull in a stasis chest in her bedroom?” Patton asked.

“Of course,” Logan said. “Back when her family was in power, magic was outlawed and had quite the stigma against it, but she ended up learning magic and become quite proficient.”

“It’s debated what exactly happened when her father found out about her activities. Some sources say that she was executed silently by her father, but others say she managed to escape with the head of the stables but not before putting a curse on the country of Prijaznia. That is until she or one of her bloodline sits on the throne, every royal line will end in madness and blood by the 5th seated monarch before an heir is born.”

“Isn’t that something you should be worried about?” Virgil asked.

Logan shrugged. “It’s just a myth,” he said. “Besides I’m 6th in the line, so there really isn’t any concern.”

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“There are a lot of interesting things in here,” Logan said, still focused on the chest. “Not to mention the books. We’ll have to be careful with those though since they don’t appear to be in stasis.”

Logan pulled the horse skull out and set it on the floor making Patton wince.

“Marisol no!” he said as Princess Marisol immediately went to go sniff at it. He swooped her up in his arms. “How long are we staying in this creepy room?” Patton asked.

“Patton, we just got here,” Logan said.

“We just got here and already found a skull!”

“Yes! Exactly!”

Patton groaned into Princess Marisol’s fur even as she tried wiggle away to go back and investigate the skull. This was going to be a long day.

Chapter 35

Logan was surprised when he woke up alone in bed. He’d grown to anticipate waking to a smaller body unrelentingly clinging to his in the past couple of weeks. Confused he sat up and peered around his bedroom. He wouldn’t have seen Virgil with the way he melted into the darkness if it he hadn’t heard the sound of purring coming from near the window. He could just barely make out a dark blob shifting up and down at the cat kneaded at a different blob sitting mostly hidden behind the thick curtain.

“Virgil?” Logan questioned. “What are you doing?”

“It’s snowing,” was the answer.

“That is not an answer,” Logan grumbled at the ceiling. With a sigh, he pulled himself out of bed. It was a bit chilly in here, he thought. The temperature must have dipped suddenly and intensely enough that the runes keeping the castle at a warm enough temperature hadn’t caught up yet. He pulled one of the blankets off of the top of his bed to wrap around his shoulders as he approached the window. There wasn’t much light outside, the stars and moon covered by clouds, but there were some lanterns lit for the night guard who patrolled the outside. “Oh,” he said in surprise. “It’s really snowing.”

It had been colder but not quite cold enough for snow to stick the day before, so it came as a surprise when he saw snow was piling up quite high to the point where familiar paths outside his window had disappeared.

“I don’t like it,” Virgil informed him.

“Why not?” Logan asked.

“It’s cold,” Virgil answered. It was clear in his tone that in Virgil’s opinion ‘cold’ was a horrible insult to the concept of snow. Logan quirked a half smile and his attention was drawn to the fact that it was quite cold right here close to the window.

#proofread stories #not writing

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twinkleallnight · 5 years ago

Text

12 Days of Fictmas

Thank you Erin and Alicia for this wonderful opportunity. This is my first time at fictmas and I hope you enjoy this little treat.

Thank you @txemrn for brainstorming.

Book: The Royal Romance AU

Word count: 1389

Disclaimer: All characters belong to pixelberry.

Rating: Mature

A/N: This is also my submission for sibling appreciation month hosted by @lovealexhunt.

Santa Comes to Town.

It was a cold winter morning when the tiny toddler jumped up into her elder brother’s bed. She frantically moved her tiny hands around the blankets which covered her brother in a warm slumber.

“Dekey! Dekey! Gey-Up! Up! Kishmush! Kishmush!”

The boy pulled the covers over his head. His muffled sound came out. “Not yet, Savvie. It’s still a week to go. Let me sleep.”

The little girl frowned and shouted out at the door, “Mommy! Dekey not getting up. Eeaam mama weebe anggy."

Listening to this, Bianca walked in, her hands full of neatly folded clothes that she stacked properly in the children’s cupboard. She turned around and walked to the little girl who was still sitting at the edge of the bed with pouted lips. Bianca sat down in front of her and looked into her brown eyes. “Sweetpea, you don’t say Liam’s mama. She is the queen. You address her as ‘your majesty’ or ‘madam’.”

Then she called out, “Drake, you need to get out of that bed, and prepare to host your friend.”

“Yes Mother.” The four-year-old obediently plopped up into the bed rubbing his eyes.

Bianca picked up her daughter in her arms and started walking to the washroom. “Let’s get you dressed up pretty. How would you like that?” The little girl nodded enthusiastically.

The next hour was spent in getting the kids through the morning routine.

While her husband was busy at the palace, as the head of king’s guard, Bianca spent time bringing up her kids with just a bit of the Texan touch in a foreign land.

Staying in the kingdom of Cordonia, she had carried her roots from the life back from Texas. It could be seen in her lifestyle and her home.

She had beautifully decorated a wall with some rustic crosses where her children stood praying with her, now. After offering their prayers, the kids got busy in decorating their little Christmas tree, that Jackson, their father had managed for them.

“It’s quite small.” He had sighed after placing it in the corner of their living room.

“It is perfect Jack.” Bianca had assured him as they watched Drake and Savannah jumping around it. The tree that appeared small to Jackson, was towering over the little stature of the kids. Savannah was clapping her hands in excitement.

The siblings spent each day adding a little of this and a little of that to their tree. Today it was special as Drake’s best friend, prince Liam was visiting them with his mother, Queen Eleanor.

Bianca was flabbergasted when she received the queen first time, during her stay at Cordonia, soon after her wedding to Jackson. But, over a period of time, she got accustomed to the loving nature of the Queen and her unique ways of mingling with common people. It had somehow become a tradition to host the Queen a week before the Christmas day, at the Walker’s humble quarters.

Bianca was occupied in the kitchen preparing the menu for the visit till late noon. She realised there was pin drop silence in the house. ‘What are these two up to now?’ she worried. She rushed to the bedroom but stopped in her tracks to find Savannah dressed up in her red frilly frock sitting on the floor.

Drake was holding the little girl’s hand delicately in his, as he was busy painting her tiny nails red. It looked like he had done up her brown curls in a slightly messy braid. When Savannah sensed her mother, she looked up and Bianca saw her pearly whites shining through the brightly coloured red lips.

Bianca’s heart warmed up to see the doting elder brother still engrossed into his job. “Mommy!” Savannah shrieked. Drake shook with the sudden sound and tipped the nail enamel bottle he was holding on his dress. “I am sorry mother.” He looked apologetically at his mother, worrying that she may scold him for the mess.

Her favourite nail enamel was spilled over and there was a messy shirt to clean but she ignored it all to keep up the spirit. “Don’t worry Drake. The Queen will be here any minute now, it’s time. Let’s quickly change your shirt. As she was helping him into fresh clothes, the doorbell jingled.

Eleanor walked in with Liam. Savannah was the first to run up to her. She curtsied trying to balance over her wobbly feet. Eleanor picked up the tiny tot in her arms admiring, “Look at you! You are all grown up.”

“Dake dessed me.” Savannah stuttered. Bianca rolled her eyes and Eleanor caught the gesture, understanding what must have conspired, looking at the makeup and the hairdo. Drake came ahead and bowed to Eleanor shyly.

“Here, here little guy. You did it all by yourself?” she asked him, putting Savannah back on her toes and giving Drake a warm hug. “Look at the hairstyle and the make up! You are good at this Drake. Isn’t she looking cute?” Drake blushed while Savannah twirled around with a glee . “May be some day I can have a little girl just like you!”

The last statement brought big expectant smile on Liam’s face. Bianca gave him a hug, “Bless your heart! Our little prince will love it!”

After everyone exchanged greetings, the ladies settled down for a chitchat while the brother and sister pulled Liam to show their Christmas tree.

They enjoyed playing around it for some time and then decided to move to the playroom. Drake and Liam each held one of Savannah’s hands and walked with her slow pace as Eleanor watched them go. “Aww! They are so adorable!”

Drake pulled out the wooden blocks and the three of them sat together to make a castle. “Who weebe the king?” Savannah asked.

“Liam will be, Savvie. He is the prince.” Drake told her while Liam smiled at her acknowledging.

“Ann you Dekey?”

“I will be king’s guard, just like daddy.” Drake said with a puffed-up chest.

“Ann I?” Savannah questioned again to understand her role in the pretend play.

“You can be a Duchess!” Liam added.

“Wha do duchesh do?”

“She helps the king at his work.” Liam explained patiently.

Savannah was delighted and agreed to play her role.

Their game continued till Bianca came in to take them for snacks.

“Momma, Eeaam made me duchesh!” She started telling her mother about their pretend play. Eleanor listened keenly. Liam and Drake exchanged shy looks. Being boys they preferred to keep their games to themselves.

Bianca served them her traditional chili, Frito and tortillas. They all sat together and feasted over the delicacies. After munching the kolache for dessert, some more plans were made for the coming week and Christmas party.

Soon, it was time for departure, and Savannah found it overwhelming to let go. Her big brown eyes were welled up as she hugged Liam and addressed the Queen, “Eeaam mama, I wan Eeaam play weeme!” Eleanor laughed at her sweet request.

Bianca picked up her little one and told her firmly, “Savannah Jane Walker! You do not say that. You say ‘Madam'.”

Eleanor ignored the formalities and cupped her cheeks, “Liam is going to go to the palace and set up a big Christmas tree for you. How about you visit us with your Momma and brother later?”

Savannah half-heartedly nodded. Bianca put her down next to her brother, “Drake, can you take her to her room?”

“Yes mother.” Drake quickly bid farewell to his friend and walked his little sister, who was sobbing silently, to her room. Bianca saw her guests out. When she returned to the children’s room, she was treated with yet another sweet moment. Savannah had lay down with her head in Drake’s lap, her eyelids drooping. Bianca's little son was singing to her in his baby voice, “...Santa’s coming to town…

You better watch out; you better not cry.

Better not pout, I am telling u why.

He sees when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake.

He knows when you’re bad or good so be good for goodness sake.”

She patiently waited for him to finish his verse and then walked in to hug him, “Oh punkin! I love you!”

She kissed him and then lifted almost asleep Savannah from his lap. She cuddled up with her kids humming ‘Santa comes to town'.

12 Days of Fictmas Writers: @texaskitten30 @zaffrenotes @alj4890 @burnsoslow @kat-tia801 @darley1101 @msjr0119 @annekebbphotography @god-save-the-keen @plumeriavibes @ofpixelsandscribbles @camillemontespan @ao719 @cocomaxley @cordoniansgonewild @the-soot-sprite @cordoniantrash @axwalker @innerpostmentality @lucy-268 @janezillow @katedrakeohd

Readers : @mom2000aggie @sfb123 @bbrandy2002 @debramcg1106 @desireepow-1986 @speedyoperarascalparty @hopefulmoonobject

My tags: @choicesmonthlychallenge @bebepac @charlotteg23 @choicesficwriterscreations @cordonia-gothqueen @cordonianroyalty @gkittylove99 @glaimtruelovealways @hopelessromanticmonie @iam-the-kind-and-thoughtful @jovialyouthmusic @jaxsmutsuo @kingliam2019 @lovablegranny @mrswalkers-blog @no-one-u-know @ntoraplayschoices @princessleac1 @ritachacha @shanzay44 @queenrileyrose @sanchita012 @theroyalheirshadowhunter @yourmajesty09

#12 days of fictmas 2020 #pixelberry #playchoices #the royal romance #drake walker #trr #trr fandom #twinkleallnight #choices 12 days of fictmas

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mcatra · 5 years ago

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AU where Catra works at burger king

Catra works minimum wage at burger king, Adora comes in every day as the world’s worst customer.

AO3

‘I am being HARASSED.’ Catra groans, sprawling on her side of the register. ‘I’m begging you, just kill me.’

It was another slow afternoon at Burger King, or as she likes to call it the absolute shithole she only got minimum wage for. Catra could be out there living her life as a youthful teenager, instead she was serving chicken nuggets to her worst enemy- Adora. It didn’t help that said blonde was currently sitting in the corner, laughing obnoxiously with her friends she had replaced her with.

‘Aw I’m sure Adora isn’t here to harass you, she probably just likes our food! I do cook these to perfection you know.’ Scorpia says conversationally from her spot in the kitchen as she flame broils another patty.

Catra scoffs, her eyes trained on her most hated customer.

‘There has to be some sort of law against coming to one’s workplace every day! No one likes Burger King that much! NOBODY!’

Suddenly she sees Adora sit up from her chair, that makes a horrific screeching noise on their unmopped floor.

‘Oh god she’s coming.’ Catra whispers, trying to duck into the kitchen. ‘Scorpia! Hide me!’

Her friend shoves her back to the counter, as Adora approaches. ‘You’re the only one on this shift who is allowed to use the register-’

‘Do not make me serve her I swear to god-’

‘Hi Catra.’ Adora smiles, and Catra’s eyes narrow.

‘Whatchu want, princess?’ She sneers, avoiding her piercing blue eyes that reminded her of still lakes. Or swirling oceans. Or the fluffy white cloud bath bombs from Lush. Wait, no.

‘Mmm, can I get a strawberry sundae?’ Adora chirps, looking above her at the menu.

‘Can’t.’ Catra drawls, looking at her black painted nails. ‘The machine’s broken.’

Adora’s face falls in disappointment, and Catra cheers inwardly at her small victory until Scorpia’s voice cuts through their conversation.

‘That’s not true, the soft serve machine is fine.’ Her traitor friend says, pulling down on the lever and swirling a perfect sundae into the cup. She adds the syrup before handing it to Adora.

‘That’ll be $1.50.’

‘Thanks Scorpia.’ Adora smiles, rummaging through her purse to collect her coins.

Catra rolls her eyes.

‘What a cheap ass. Little rich girl can only afford a dollar-fifty ice cream? No wonder we’re running out of business.’

Adora frowns at this. ‘Did you want a tip or something?’

‘What? FUCK no. I don’t take charity.’ Catra scoffs, snatching the coins from her old childhood-friend-to-enemies palm. She swiftly jabs in the total and throws the coins into the drawer. They’re forced into silence as the receipt slowly prints, and she tries to ignore the way Adora is staring at her.

Suddenly Adora leans in close, and she can hear her murmur close to her ear.

‘I’ll see you at student council.’

Catra flushes at the proximity, every hair standing on end. Before she can stutter out an insult, Adora rips the receipt from the machine and is sauntering back to Bow and Glimmer.

The brown haired girl deflates, her nails scratching on the old countertop. All that mental damage, for $1.50? Life was not fair.

Adora always had the perfect grades, the perfect family and friends, the most cushy and royal upbringing. After their falling out involving a scholarship to a private school, they hadn’t spoken until the merger.

It filled Catra with sick pleasure that the private school had lost their prestige to embezzled money, and now had to be government funded. However in consequence of this, they had decided to merge the public and private school so they could sell off the land to build skyrises or something.

This meant Catra lost her position of School Captain to Adora after a fierce election, and had been demoted to Vice Captain. Not to mention no matter how hard Catra tried, she could never beat her in the school rankings. She couldn’t work to support herself and study 6 hours a day, like rich privileged Adora.

So now here she was, forced to interact with the one person she could’ve gone her whole life without seeing on a daily basis.

Ever since Adora had discovered Catra had been working at Burger King during a late night drive-thru run, her ex best friend had made it her life’s mission to make her life hell.

Of course she had done her best to make the experience awful to drive her away. Catra knew Adora hated pickles, so she would threaten Kyle to slice up an entire pickle’s worth in the blonde’s Whopper before giving it to her with a sweet smile. She is filled with glee watching Adora picking them out one by one in disgust.

This doesn’t stop Adora from coming though. Not even when they had made it into some sort of competition to see how many pickles could physically be crammed into a bun. Or even when she had put every single condiment including the salt and pepper into an unholy liquid concoction and served it in a cola cup. Not even when she gave Adora food poisoning when they got too carried away trying to stack as many patties as they could to recreate Sky Burger.

No matter what she did, the girl never went away. Even though she had so easily disappeared from her life when she had needed her the most. But she didn’t need Adora, she had gotten this job herself, she had gotten a roof over her head with her own power. She had worked so hard to become independent from Shadow Weaver, and no matter what, Adora will not jeopardize it.

‘I’m doing, what exactly?’

Catra stares dumbly at her manager, a sinking feeling dawning on her.

‘Adora ordered a birthday party at Burger King.’ Lonnie drawls, ignoring the look of complete horror on Catra’s face.

‘No, you can’t do this to me! Roster me for any other day. I cannot psychologically take this.’ She begs.

‘Sorry dude, the deposit has already been paid for. We’re short staffed, and it seems like Kyle has gotten fryer oil burns from your last burger experiment with Adora.’ Lonnie whaps Catra with the birthday catering pamphlet.

‘Stupid Kyle.’ Catra hisses, clenching it in her fist. Curse this damn place that can only afford to hire teenagers.

‘Anyway, just set up the tables and decorations after school on Thursday. Should be a good day for business, with Adora and her posse being rich kids and all.’

‘Can I at least get time and a half?’

‘Are you gonna be paying Kyle’s medical bill?’

Catra pouts. ‘Not my fault you guys don’t provide gloves. This place is an OSHA violation haven.’

WE do the PLANNING, YOU have the FUN! The bold font emblazoned over the small child’s smiling face mocks her from the pamphlet. Catra clenches it in her fist.

‘Also why the fuck did she book a kid’s birthday party package when she is like 17, and not 6 years old?!’

Lonnie rolls her eyes. ‘Do you still want a job or not? Just read the rest of the form, counting on you to organize it.’

Catra squints at the crumpled paper in her hand.

GOLD PARTY PACKAGE

-Themed birthday cards!

-Party bags!

-Birthday gift for the celebrant!

-Jumbo birthday cake!

-Pinata!

-Special birthday songs!

-Dedicated hostess!

Catra can feel her soul physically leave her body. This was gonna be a long week.

It was terrible.

Adora had handed these obnoxious Burger King birthday invitations to all her friends, so now she had all these RSVP’s to the worst birthday of all of human history. In between working shifts until midnight, dealing with Adora at student council and not eating, Catra was on edge.

‘No, you can not write ‘Die Adora Die’ on her cake.’ Scorpia chides, slapping Catra’s hands away to pipe the icing.

‘It’s what she deserves.’ Catra seethes. If she couldn’t eat it, she could at least ruin it, right?

‘They’ll be here soon, so try to take that dying grimace off your face.’ Scorpia replies, and Catra rolls her eyes before adding the finishing touches to the cake.

Suddenly the door opens, interrupting her decorating. The once quiet establishment was now full of loud chatter as their classmates piled in one by one. All of Adora’s old private school friends were here, all unironically celebrating their school captain’s children’s birthday party at the worst fast food restaurant in their state.

She plasters her fakest customer service smile she can muster. Dignity at the door.

‘Hi, you must be here for the Birthday Girl’s party.’ Catra says, approaching the group. Just treat it like you don’t know them.

‘Aw you don’t have to be so formal with us, Vice Captain.’ Glimmer teases, and Catra almost snaps from her facade. Almost.

‘Let me show you to your table.’ Catra grits out.

She had chosen the ugliest poop brown balloons she could find, and had deliberately made the HAPPY BIRTHDAY banner lopsided on the wall.

‘Thanks Catra!’ Adora grins, bouncing past her to admire the decorations.

Catra imagines Adora’s face on the pinata and smashing it into a million pieces. She forces herself to take a deep breath. It was just the one shift, and she really needed this job. Plus after the party was over, she could probably nab some leftovers for her trouble.

All of the girls (plus Bow and Seahawk) sit around the table, and Catra marches over with the laminated menus.

‘Ooh, we all get hats!’ Perfuma says, placing her Burger King cardboard crown on top of her head.

Frosta squints at the menu. ‘I’ve never eaten fast food before. Looks disgusting.’

‘I think it’s fine! Adora wanted to eat here.’ Glimmer says in a sugarly sweet tone that just came off as passive aggressive. ‘Even though I had suggested my penthouse by the ocean and we go here nearly every day.’

‘I much rather would be at the ocean beach house thank you very much.’ Mermista retorts, swatting Sea Hawk off her shoulder.

Yeah me too, Catra thinks bitterly. She stomps off with their orders, cursing them inwardly the entire way to the kitchen.

Adora’s friends start playing with the so-called ‘entertainment’ they had haphazardly set up.

It was ridiculous, seeing grown teenagers lining up to try to smack the shit out of a glittery pinata. They squabble over who gets to hit it first, Catra feeling very much like a glorified babysitter to her most hated enemies.

After a while, she sees Scorpia emerge from the kitchen. ‘Happy Birthday to you,’ Scorpia sings with Adora’s birthday cake in her arms. ‘Happy Birthday to you~’

The others join in on the song, Catra only mouthing the words in silent rebellion. The cake is emblazoned with a crude doodle of Adora’s face with HAPPY BIRTHDAY written on her enormous forehead.

‘Oh my gosh, I love it!’ Adora’s sky blue eyes light up, and she’s practically sparkling. Catra huffs, she wasn’t supposed to like it. Didn’t she see the drawing was supposed to make fun of her five-head?

Adora catches Catra’s eye, beaming. ‘Did you draw this for me?’

‘She did!’ Scorpia tattles, and her enemy’s smile increased tenfold. Catra can feel her cheeks grow warm. Dammit.

‘Whatever.’ Catra bites out, unable to meet her gaze.

Luckily no one else seemed to be paying attention to the weird atmosphere between them, as they were split between eyeing the cake and pinata wrestling.

‘Get over here Sea Hawk, we can do the pinata later!’ Mermista chastises, watching Bow spin her blindfolded boyfriend.

‘Let me just get one good hit in, and I’ll join you!’ He crows, swinging the bat in random directions as Bow ducks the blows, laughing.

Just for anything to do, Catra takes it upon herself as hostess to snatch up the knife and start cutting. She cuts into the cake to start portioning out the slices, but as the knife touches the bottom Glimmer lets out a shriek.

‘What?’ Catra deadpans.

‘If you cut to the bottom of the cake, you have to kiss the person closest to you!’ Glimmer says, a demonic look in her eye. Adora elbows her, embarrassed.

‘Excuse me?’ Catra’s never heard of this tradition. Though to be fair, she had not been to many parties in her lifetime.

‘Oh, that’s right!’ Perfuma claps her hands together. ‘Adora’s closest right? Go ahead Catra!’

To her horror, Glimmer starts pushing Catra towards the blonde. She digs her heels into the linoleum, only to find that she was sliding from the newly mopped floors.

‘Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!’ The girls start chanting, like they were her friends and that she wasn’t their damn server.

‘What the hell- fuck no, let go of me!’ Catra finally snaps, wrenching herself from Glimmer’s grip.

The momentum sends her stumbling into Sea Hawk, who was still attempting to hit the pinata.

‘Ack!’ He squawks.

The bat goes flying straight out his hand and into their double doors. There’s a huge crash, and everybody winces at the noise.

The glass pane shatters, and so does Catra’s sanity. She was so fired.

Sea Hawk lifts the blindfold.

‘Did I get it?’

---

It was nearly closing time, and Catra was still sweeping up bits of glass from the floor. This had been one of the worst days of her life, and she had been beaten and homeless before. To make it worse, Adora was still grovelling when she should’ve gone hours ago like the rest of them.

‘I am so sorry Catra, I’ll pay for everything, I’ll take full responsibility so you don’t get fired-’

‘Stop it.’ She was too tired to even argue with Adora like she usually did, wishing Adora would just go away already so she could grovel over the phone to her regional manager without an audience. Catra always pretended to hate her job, but she couldn’t afford to lose it. She could barely make rent with her Burger King wage.

‘Please, let me help clean. It was my fault anyway.’

There was hardly any money left over to feed herself most days, that’s why she was skinny as a rake as opposed to the toned, buff, well fed Adora. She had only been functioning on a few nuggets that Scorpia snuck her yesterday. Did Catra still have those food coupons? How long until the bank charged overdraft fees?

‘Catra are you listening-’

‘I said stop it!’ Catra snaps.

Adora has the audacity to look stunned.

‘Why do you insist on harassing me at work everyday? Is it fun? Forcing me to play servant to you rich girls, to sing and dance for you? You already beat me in everything at school, you’re already School Captain, you have all the money and a loving family you need, so can you stop rubbing your privilege in my face just for one second so I can THINK?’

‘I...I just…I’m sorry.’ Adora starts and aborts a few sentences. Catra can’t even stand to look at her face.

‘This party at your work. It was the only way to get you to celebrate my birthday with me.’

‘.....’

‘Um, I-’

‘Whatever.’ Catra retorts, trying and failing to pick up the last shards with her too long fingernails. She hisses when the glass nicks her finger, cutting into skin. Drops of blood fall to the floor.

‘Are you okay?!’ Adora gasps, rushing to her side. Catra slaps her hand away, she needed to go find the cleaning supplies. Blood was a biohazard, there was some protocol for it but she was having trouble remembering.

She goes to stand up, but the fatigue rushes to her head and her legs give in underneath her. Instead of smacking her head against the floor, she feels herself land on something soft instead.

Adora hooks her around the waist, gently placing her into the booth. She grabs a napkin from the dispenser and wraps it around Catra’s hand. She can feel Adora’s warm hand squeezing her own.

‘I’m just applying pressure to the cut.’ Adora says quietly.

Catra just closes her eyes. It’s well past midnight and she should be locking up the store, but she can’t bring herself to move.

#she-ra #she ra #spop #catradora #catra #adora #burger king au

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