#The group is already terrible and I mean. yea. its the city. there is terrible shit everywhere

[cat-of-starlight]

tfw you are trying to Limbus Pull but the game's only Bonus Units™ are the ones that freak you out/irritate you lmao whoops

[bandgeek4life8]

Guardians - chapter two the lost city of atlantis

Chapter 1

WC: 3, 453

Season 1, Episode 2: The Lost City of Atlantis

Previously on Guardian in Jim's POV "The Nightmares have emerged once more." Pabbie told everyone.

"GREAT GRONKA MORKA!!" Blinky exclaimed.

"And they attend to assimilate an army. They already have the witch Gothel, the bogeyman Pitch Black, the dragon tamer Drago Bludvist with his mother of dragons Red Death, the prince Hans of Southern Isles and Duke of Weselton, the cursed bear Mor'du, the Pirate "Captain Hook" Killian James, and the Boggan Mandrake. And I have a list of who they want. From my visions. But only two people I wish to say it to: Vendel and... James Lake Jr. Because she wishes it."

"Who wishes for me to know?" I asked him.

"Starling."

Some people are chosen for this life and have no choice but to accept its transgressions. Others spend their life completely in the dark about this life we lead. Some, like me, choose to live this life. It is a lot of work for anybody. Not just anybody can get into this life and survive its trials and tribulations. But we were born for this. To become guardians. But I'm not a guardian yet. I'm just an apprentice.

|{[INSERT_OPENING_SEQUENCE]}|

"Welcome to the first meeting of the Druidia Order." I announced.

"Did you have to name us after a planet in your favorite Star Wars movie?" asked the raven-haired time-traveller Wilbur Robinson.

"Spaceballs is not a Star Wars movie, Wilbur." Currently undercover spy, Walter Beckett told him.

Wilbur rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

"Did your dad teach you anything about Star Wars?" asked blonde enpath/ hockey-player from Wisconsin, Riley Anderson.

"Only that he hated the sequels, he loves the originals, and respects what the prequels tried to do." Wilbur said.

"Can we please get to the topic at hand please?" I asked everyone.

Everyone in the room grumbled out a yes and we continued with the precedings. Wow. That sounds way too formal for me.

"Well what can we do? We already made allies with the Arendelle trolls via Elsa and Anna. We had Grand Pabbie alert the Trollhunter of the Nightmares." said Ted Wiggins.

"Which means a group of you have to go find the essence stones." Megamind appeared with a plate of, "who wants cookies?"

"Are you growing soft on us, Meg?" Megamind basically growled at Wilbur for the nickname he used.

"I am trying to babysit Gru's oldest daughter and her friends." Megamind told him looking the kid dead in the eye.

"What do you know of the essence stones?" I asked him, ignoring the intense staredown happening between the two makes.

Megamind turned his attention away from Wilbur only for the time-traveller to blow a raspberry at him and Megamind to turn back and glare at him I rolled my eyes. The same old stupid antics. "I know where you can find the essence stone of the ocean."

"If you tell me we have to befriend Poseidon or-."

"It's in Atlantis." Megamind said.

"Or that." I facepalmed. "And how would you know that?"

"Because I have an evil underwater lair in the city of Atlantis." Cue another facepalm from me.

"And why...? You know what? I don't want to know. So how are we getting there?" I asked.

"It's not a matter of how we, but rather how who is getting there." Megamind said.

"That makes no sense whatsoever, dude." Hiro said as he walked into the room followed by Lucy Tuchi.

"Some of us will go on the mission while the rest research the rest of the essence stones." Megamind suggested.

"You know... your ideas are normally terrible. But this one is actually a good idea." Wilbur told him.

The alien growled. "Easy now, Megamind. When we heading out? And who is coming along for the ride?"

"You, Rayla, Ezran, Callum, Sisu, Hiccup, Jack, Light Furry, Walter, and Toothless." Megamind told us. "And you will leave tomorrow. After school."

"Alright. Before we do anymore planning, I need pizza." I walked over to where Hiro plopped the pizza on.

|{[INSERT_COMMERCIAL HERE]}| "

I cannot believe he has the audacity for this! He knows we're not on the best of terms, and yet he does this." I sighed.

"I'm sure he has a reason." said Hiro.

"It's Megamind. It's a stupid-ass reason." I told him.

Hiro sighed. "But you miss hanging out with Toby and Jim. And you-."

"Don't even finish that sentence. I know what you were going to say." Hiro gapped at me. "I know what you were going to say. Only three people know it. And one betrayed me."

My phone vibrated in my hoodie's pocket and I opened it up to see a text from my grandmother, Margaret. "Is that Marge? What she said?"

"She's wondering about the you-know-what with the you-know-who." I told him. She wants to know about James Lake Jr being the Trollhunter. Grandpa would not be pleased with this anyway. But he's dead. And he doesn't matter.

"You have gym next block right?" I groaned. Of course I forgot. And why of all days did we have to do the Pacer test today!

"And we're doing the pacer test today too!" I would have banged my head on a locker if we weren't coming from History. "Kill me now! Woe is me!"

"Stop being overdramatic. And I'm off my way to Robotics." Hiro said once we got to the hall where we would part ways.

"Don't take over the world of robotics without your team first." I called out to gim.

"Yeah, yeah. Just focus on making chemistry after gym, but preferably during." the smart-ass called back.

I'm gonna kill him one of these days. Just you wait, Hiro Hamada. I grumbled and continued on my way to the ends of the earth. Also known as gym. Because I lack the athletic ability of a worm. My arms are basically noodles before submerged in H20. I got dressed in my PE clothes and walked outside to the bleachers where I plopped myself down on. Gym. The one class I don't have my safety net to catch me. The one block where I feel alone. Completely and helplessly alone.

"Hey, [Y/N]. Mind if we sit here?" asked Toby.

It was just him and Jim. What on Earth are they up to? I scooted some ways away from my spot and patted the spot beside me. Jim took the spot beside me while Toby took the bench in front of us.

"We haven't hung out just the three of us in awhile, huh?" Toby remarked.

"You both seem busy since the semester started. I can't blame you for that one."  I told them. The pair shrugged at me, but it was a lying shrug. I would know. I do the same ones. "Anyway, what are we doing for our History Project, Jamie?" I looked over at him.

"I don't know. Wanna brainstorm some ideas after school?" Jim asked me.

"Can't. I have a family thing." Lying to them has gotten harder since I found out. Hopefully they don't catch. But they're idiots. They won't catch on... I hope. "I can come over tomorrow after school if you want."

"That... Th-th-th-that'll be gr-gr-gr-great." What's with the stammer? It's weird. "Oh, don't forget about Pig Zombies on Saturday."

"Don't worry. I have it all set in my calendar. So, what time is the movie?" I asked them.

Toby and Jim shared a look. Oh that is never good. "We don't actually know."

"Then, what are we going to do about Saturday?" I asked them.

"We're more of idea men." Like they're any close to being men. "Creating a plan is someone else's problem." Of course.

"You two haven't changed at all, have you? I'll get to work on that sometime this evening. You guys still have email, righr?" I asked them.

"Who still uses e-mail anymore?" Toby inquired.

"Good point. I'll just have Lucy drive us to the theater anyway." I replied. "So, how are you and Claire going, Jamie?"

"O-o-o-oh, m-m-me and Claire?" stammered Jim. That's strange.

"Yes, you and Claire. You two are dating, aren't you?" I asked him.

"Oh, y-y-yeah. We're g-g-g-good." Hmm. Peculiar. But Jim's always been like this when pertaining to Claire. Nothing suspicious about that.

I hope.

|{[INSERT_COMMERCIAL_HERE]}|

Jim

"So, you have a study date with [Y/N] tomorrow huh?" Claire teased me while we walked to Blinky's library.

"What-. Wait! You told her!" I exclaimed to Toby who was on my left side.

"Of course, I did. Dude, you've been hopelessly obliviously in love with this girl since she stole your first kiss on the monkey bars when we were nine. And she-."

"She clearly has feelings for you, but she's not gonna act upon them since you know we're fake dating and all that jazz." Claire said.

I sighed. "You're the smart one. Couldn't you have come up with something... um... better?"

"What? Because a wuss like you was going to ask her out if I didn't say we were dating?" Claire asked him, raising an eyebrow at her friend.

I sighed once more. She clearly had a point. And Tobes seemed to catch it too. "He tried to ask her if she wanted to go see Pig Zombie 6 for her sixteenth birthday, but dragged me along with them because he wussed out of calling it a date."

Claire tapped her chin in thought. I do not understand girls. Then, she did the thing where you smack your fist against your hand in an aha! idea moment. Which is what transpired next. "I have a perfect idea for your movie date on Saturday."

"Am I going to regret this?" I asked her.

"I hope not. I'm helping you whether you want me to or not." Yea me! Internal frown.

We made it Blinky's library in which the four arm troll was talking animatedly to Vendell. About Essence Stones? What the fuzz buckets are those?

"Um, what are the Essence Stones?" I piped up.

"The Essence Stones are the only thing that can combat the Oncoming Storm." Vendel explained.

"Which is why we should be looking for them! We already know where one is! The Sea Stone!" Blinky told him.

"I already told you the Starling has this under control. This is her fight. Not ours. We shouldn't-."

"But then why have Pabbie tell us about the resurgence anyways?!" Blinky cut him off. I don't think Blinky has ever interrupted Vendel before. This is a first.

"Because to warn us of an even greater danger, Blinkous!! One that we have to face on our own! As Trolls!" the elder roared.

I never saw a look of fear as intense as the look that crossed Blinky's face when Vendel told him that. A greater danger? Even Aaarrrggghh! and Draal had the same look as Blinky. What did it all mean? Vendel left the library.

"I don't care what the goat says. We're getting the Sea Stone." Blinky told us.

"And how do we acquire it?" asked Claire.

"Hate Gyre." Aaarrrgghh! cried. Oh.

"And where would we find the Sea Stone?" Toby asked. "It's underwater right? And we can't breathe in water? So is it in an aquarium? Washed up on a beach?"

"I'll tell you where when we get to the Gyre." Claire, Toby, and I shared a look before shrugging our shoulders and following Blinky to the Gyre.

When we got there, we reached the Gyre and hopped in. "So, where are we going?"

"Under the sea. In an underwater palace where there is no water inside located in what you humans refer to as The Bermuda Triangle. Get ready for Atlantis." And before the three of us could protest, Blinky put in the coordinates and we zipped off towards... did he really say Atlantis? And the Bermuda Triangle?

But I didn't have time to question it as we arrived in a palace? And our clothes were soaking wet. But we never submerged in water? You know what? I shouldn't question it. Me and my friends huddled for warmth. It'll be awhile before we're dry. But why isn't- you know what? Never mind. I don't care.

"Okay, so where do we go first?" asked Toby.

"We head for the treasure room. The Jewel of Atlantis is the Sea Stone." Blinky told us.

"Why are we wet, but you aren't?" asked Claire.

"No clue." Blinky shrugged his shoulders.

The three of us grumbled but followed after Blinky with Aaarrrgghh! and Draal taking the rear. This is going to be a long evening. Our little group trudged, our squeaky footprints giving our location to anyone who would be here. And I think someone was here. Because a familiar ball of silver and blue was charging at us. Not us. Me. Followed by a march larger greenish-blue dragon.

"Hi, Azymondias." I said to the baby dragon when he jumped into my arms.

"I see you humans have already met the Prince. Starling's Zym seems to like you Mr Lake." the green-ish blue dragon said. Um... do dragons normally...

"YOU TALK?!?!" Thanks for that, Tobes.

"Of course, I do. I'm Sisu. Starling sent me after Little Azymondias to make sure he stayed out of trouble." Why aren't Blinky, Aarrrgghh!, and Draal freaking out about there being another dragon? And the elf being here?

"You six, now-seven, looking for the Treasure Room?" asked Sisu.

I shivered as a breeze went by. Why was there a breeze? We're in a dry castle underwater! This is just too weird.

"We were headed that way right now!" Blinky told the dragon.

Azymondias coughed. Or sneezed? I don't know. But he zapped me and I yelped and I'm... dry? Well alot dryer than before. Uh, thank you. Living dryer thay could kill me at any given moment. But you're still cute. So you're forgiven if you do.

"Well I wouldn't go that way! That's where Meg put his evil lair at." Sisu told us.

"Lair?" "Meg?"

"Meg is what the time-traveler calls Megamind. And he placed a lair here when he was going through his 'evil' phase." I did not know Dragons did air quotes.

"Time Traveler? Like the Doctor? Or Loki?" askes Toby.

"Looks like a mix of Matt Smith and Loki as a tween with too much hair gel. Alright, kids follow me." Sisu told us.

Zym appeared on my shoulder, wrapping his small body around on my shoulder and we followed the hopping dragon towards the treasure room. We had reached the treasure room, avoiding all the traps (that was on the ceiling for some strange reason). We arrived there. And Sisu peered inside before letting us enter. Strange.

But I couldn't help peering over Sisu's sboulder "Are you really angry that the Trollhunter keeps unknowingly stealing your pet?" That sounded like... no it can't be.

"Azymondias is not my pet. My pet sounds like I chose to take care of him. The bundle of zappy madness chose me to take care of him. So if anything, I'm his pet." Please tell me that's not who I think it is. But the-I'm guessing- Startouch Elf looks nothing like her. Not one bit. Well maybe except for the nose. And the eyes.

"You make absolutely no sense. And yet you love him anyway." the other voice said. A male with slick-back hair. This must be the time-traveler Wow. Sisu was spot on.

"Kids, easy now. We wouldn't want this to get into the wrong hands. Not this close to the Cotillion." A brunette male that appeared to be the oldest of the group. Why does he look so familiar to me?

"I have a question for you, pig snout. Meg said you wouldn't be here. Why the hell are you here? And why are you even here?" the elf asked.

"I stowed away because none of you are smart." the time-traveller said.

"Says the royal dumbass." the female elf sighed. "I'm so young and yet I feel so old." she emphasized. I was half expecting her to do a dramatic fall like they always seem to do in soap operas notthatIwatchsoapoperasinthefirstplacethat'sabsurd.

"I already knew that, dumbass." time-traveler said.

"Go on, Trollhunter." Sisu used her tail to push me toward the elf's group to retrieve the essence stone. "Introduce yourself."

And suddenly I stumbled upon the room making the group's attention turn to me. "Um...hi." Cue the awkward wave. "I'm... James Lake Jr? I'm the... Trollhunter." I held out the Amulet of Merlin. I could practically sense Toby and Claire facepalming at this.

"Starling, I think this one is for you to handle." I now noticed the brunette boy that stood beside the other elf. Is that... Callum Schlott?? Um... I hope if that is him, he doesn't tell [Y/N] about this.

"I am the one they refer to as Starling as you must know. And we don't need you here. To help us." The girl's hand were running up and down a strand of her waist length periwinkle hair. [Y/N] did the same thing when she had long hair. Not the time Jim.

"I think we do. Because the Seastone is missing if you've forgotten." the other elf said. She sounds like Rayla. And sort of looks like her too.

"THE SEASTONE IS GONE!?!?!?" Blinky exclaimed.

"Unfortunately so. Now, one advantage turns out to be a setback." I didn't notice the other brunette who had a black dragon that was acting like a cat by his feet.

"Do you have any leads?" asked Claire as she stepped forward.

"Just a Roman Penny. No clue from where though." Starling told us. "Now, I think it's time you kids return to California. Don'tyouthink."

|{[INSERT_COMMERCIAL_HERE]}|

"So Atlantis was a flopp?" I had already told Draal about the whole atlantis situation.

Luckily mom had another night shift at the hospital, so Draal could walk around freely while I made dinner for myself. Elbow Pasta and Meat Sauce it appears to be.

"Yes, it was, Draal." I turned the TV on and started flipping through the channels to find the one I wanted. "At least, I met Starling. She was not what I was expecting."

"Most elves aren't. You humans expect them to be small and cute because of the Claus, but they aren't." Draal told me.

"Actually, I think," I found what I was looking for. The French food competition show the World's Greatest Chef Competiton. "she was the exact opposite of what all of you were saying. Sure she was a tad harsh to us, but I think she didn't want to involve us in the Essence Stones. Like she didn't want anymore added help. I don't know." A knock sounded on the door.

"Were you expecting anyone?" asked Draal.

"Not that I know. Toby and Claire wouldn't knock. They'll just barge on in." I told him.

And before I got to the door, the door opened to reveal a boy with white hair, incredibly pale skin wearing a blue sweatshirt and brown trousers. "Don't be such a pussy, Hiccup." That was Sisu.

"Yeah, we're only here since Zym wants the trollhunter to be his dragon rider and to train him how to combat magic." white hair said.

"Um... what are you doing at my house?" I asked them as I held my wooden spoon in my hand, ready to strike them if necessary.

"You and Punzie would be great friends, squirt." The platinum blonde ruffled my brown hair to make it messy. My hair now looks like the dragon boy's hair.

"We're here to train you. I'm Hiccup. And this is Jack. Jack Frost." Wait. What? I'm lost. "I live over in Berk Manor. And you have wandered in a den where you cannot get out of." the brunnette introduced.

"Which is why Starling didn't want you to get involved. By trying to help us with the Seastone, you and your friends have put a target on your back. Starling didn't want that. But now we have to help you. To train you. Hiccup here is a Dragon Rider. And even though Azymondias isn't big enough to be ridden. He will be. I suspect sooner than you think, so he's going to train you to ride him. And I and many others are going come here to help you train against magic. Since the people who will come after you to kill you will have magic." Jack Frost told me. Now I'm really lost.

"So let's begin."

@trollhuntersfanatic

[tigerseye46]

Following in His Father’s Footsteps (Evil Peaches Au)

Summary: Years ago the Zhu-Sun family attacked, lost in their grief. Sun Wukong faced of against his former sworn brother who led the heavenly army to apprehend him. With his magical axe, the Demon Bull King managed to seal the Monkey King under a mountain. The Demon Bull King then disappeared from the public eye, leaving his son and wife to live their lives. Princess Iron Fan and Red have reunited with the king, uncertain of rather to find him and reach out. Red might have to find his father rather he likes it or not.

Ao3 link

Jin started with, “The thing you need to understand about the legends, kid, is that the story is never finished. Heck, just look at me and Yin! People know only part of our story and centuries after that we’re still going!”

“Now… emerging from Flower Fruit Mountain after years of being protectors, Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie attacked. Heaven sent soldiers to apprehend them but none could stop them except… your dad! Using his axe, your dad managed to trap the Monkey King under a mountain. With that done, the Demon Bull King vanished, never to be seen again. Legend says his axe remains on top of the mountain, keeping our world from being destroyed. With the Monkey King sealed and Zhu Bajie in hiding, civilization was able to advance into the amazing world you see today.”

He placed a hand on Red’s back and guided him a few steps forward so he didn’t see Yin snag a bag of chips. “All thanks to the Demon Bull King,” he finished with his arm in the air.

Red narrowed his eyes. “Yes, I know. I know the story of how my father sealed the Monkey King.”

The gold demon ruffled his hair, Red growled in response and quickly waved him away. “Well, sometimes you could use a reminder. You’re too distracted by that gadget of yours.”

The younger looked at the object in his hands. “Well, it’s better than dealing with you idiots. You know mother will be mad when she catches you two.”

“And she is,” Princess Iron Fan hissed and ripped the bag away from Yin, attracting some attention from customers. “Don’t take things from my store! I’m not running a charity here, boys!”

The silver one replied, “Oh c’mon, Iron Fan! Lighten up! It’s not that big of a deal! Plus my brother was paying in wisdom!”

Iron Fan fumed, “WISDOM DOESN’T PAY FOR THIS PLACE!” She massaged her temples and turned towards her kid. “Sweetie, you’ve been slacking off all morning. Can you pick up the pace?”

“Actually, mom, I was about to take my break so…”

“Break? That’s all you've been doing. There is no break! I need you to go!”

She pushed her son out with a grocery bag. She heard a crinkle and spun around to face the two demons who had chips in their mouth. “BOYS,” she shouted and began her chase.

————

Red raised a brow as they fiddled with his invention, completely oblivious to their surroundings. The place they stumbled into was an abandoned construction site, planks of wood resting on the side, and rocks littered the area.

The demon paused when a noise reached their ears. “I’ve waited too long for this moment. Is everything ready?”

“Almost done, papa” came a response.

The demon gasped and hid behind some rocks. “Finally, after all these years, we finally have the method to lift the Demon Bull King’s axe” said the first voice.

Red peaked their head to see their father’s weapon, it shimmered in all its glory. “Father’s axe!” He hopped up onto some pipes to get a better vantage point. A purple bird squawked in surprise and gave a displeased look. Red paid them no mind.

He observed a pig demon in blue hanfu with golden cloud patterns and a crown, a monkey with a red bandanna, and a bunch of other monkeys crowded around the mountain. He clasped a hand over his mouth. It was the Monkey King’s husband, Zhu Bajie, and their son, Xiaotian.

“My love will finally return to me. Heaven has taken everythin’ from us but I’ll have him back the second we remove it. My handsome lǎogong…” Bajie paused when something caught his eye. A monkey climbed on top of the mountain and tried to pull on it when they received a bolt of electricity that sent them crashing against a wall.

Xiaotian pulled the other up. “Are you okay?” The other bobbed their head. “Good. And good job for trying but we already attempted that. It’s going to take more than that to get rid of that weapon. Only a few are capable of wielding it. But combined with my powers and the gauntlet I invented I should be able to free dad.”

“You’ve worked really hard. I’m proud of you.”

“Thanks, papa!” He presented the golden power glove and got on top of the mountain. He grasped the axe, purple and golden sparks flying as he struggled to pull it off. The weapon broke away from it. “I DID IT,” he yelled in an excited and ecstatic tone as he lifted the weapon in the air, receiving praises from his subjects.

When nothing happened Xiaotian turned back to his papa. “Why isn’t it working? Papa, are you sure this is the right place?”

“Well I don’t know of any other mountain with a magical axe trappin’ my husband,” he huffed.

The mountain rumbled and the group stepped back with Bajie placing a hand in front of his son’s chest to shield him if need be. Wukong emerged from the mountain, fur ragged, some of it torn, and soot covered his armor. Xiaotian beamed. “DAD!”

The Monkey King gazed at himself with reddish-orange eyes, a pleased chuckle slipping past. He dusted the soot off and proclaimed, “I’ve finally returned.”

Red stared at the scene. No… no way was the Monkey King free. He had no idea what to do, maybe out of sight. Yea, that’s it, if he stayed out of sight then he wouldn’t have to face the Monkey King directly and could alert people. His thought was interrupted by the bird pecking his hands. “Hey! Go away! I mean it!”

Bajie grinned at his love, taking hesitant steps forward, tears began to swell. “My lǎogong, I’ve missed you so much.”

Wukong stared at him with eyes blown wide and a gasp. “BAJIE!”

They ran towards each other and gripped the other tightly. The king examined his partner’s face, their foreheads pressed together. “You’re safe,” the king’s voice quivered. “Last I saw… oh, my Bajie, you’re safe.”

The pig nodded, he sniffled. “Yes, love, I’m safe. I missed you…”

“I missed you too. I missed you so much.” They kissed passionately before Wukong broke away and asked, “How did you manage to free me?”

“It wasn’t me, love. It was our son.”

He gestured to their child who stood there shyly, the axe placed aside. Wukong ruffled the boy’s hair. “I’m so proud of you, bud. You’ve grown so much.”

Xiaotian grinned and hugged his father. “Thanks, dad! I missed you. I tried really hard to find a way to free you!”

“And you did an excellent job!”

Xiaotian flapped his hands at his father’s praise. “Now, us, the Zhu-Sun family, can get our revenge!”

Red Son held in another gasp, this couldn’t be happening. The bird continued to peck at him and in an instant, Red fell and landed right on top of Xiaotian. “Uhhhh… someone ordered groceries.” He smiled sheepishly as he held up the plastic bag.

“HEY! GET OFF! You ruined a nice family moment,” the younger monkey growled and shoved the demon off of him.

Sun Wukong curled a brow. “If it isn’t Red Son, been a while. Seems you’ve fallen into our midst.” He sighed as if resigned to the situation. “It seems a waste to crush someone like you right off the bat but it will certainly hurt your father.” He smirked, disregarding their past battle and focusing on the present. “And that’s what I’m counting on.”

He was about to strike when his son interrupted with, “I’ll take care of it, dad. Don’t waste your energy. I want to show you how much I’ve grown!”

The king placed his arms behind his back and agreed, “Alright, my son. Do what you wish.”

Red tried to tiptoe away when Xiaotian bragged, “Now you’re very lucky, grocery boy. It’s not every day someone gets crushed by the Zhu-Sun family!” Red stared at the axe, something called to him. “Are you listening? I won’t let my family be disrespected!” He attempted to punch the demon but he blocked it… blocked it with the axe.

All hell broke loose.

————

Red panted as Yin and he landed on the ground. Yin snapped a picture and went “Wow! That was fun!”

“Yin!”

“What a workout. Almost like a game of tag!”

“It wasn’t a game of tag,” he snapped. “I kinda almost died back there.”

“You didn't, so you’re fine! We should do that more often. Maybe play at the arcade, I’m hyped! Should invite your friend too.”

“Actually he was trying to kill me.”

Yin’s face turned dark and he looked at Red with murder in his eyes. “Where does he live?”

He was about to respond when a shout of “Red! Where are you? You are in so much trouble!” Iron Fan stomped up to them. “Would you like to explain why someone gave a zero-star review regarding your grocery deliveries?”

“Well, mom, what happened with that is…”

“Congrats, Iron Fan! Zero stars are still good,” he joked.

“Quiet, Yin! Zero stars are terrible! You better explain… wait where did my son go?” She spun around as Red ran into the store.

“Sorry, mom!”

———-

Meanwhile, the Zhu-Sun family was underground planning their attack. Xiaotian adjusted the technological armor he had made for his father. “There you go, dad! That should do it!”

The ruler hummed on his throne, his fingers tucked under his chin. “Interesting. What is it supposed to do exactly?”

“Well, it needs to be powered up. It’s a combination of science and magic, meant to activate your powers when it absorbs enough energy which it can also create. The best source would be the Demon Bull King’s axe.”

“Tch. The axe you lost.”

Xiaotian shirked under that statement. “It wasn’t my fault! It was the Grocery Boy-”

Bajie walked over, pressing a kiss against his husband’s cheek, calming him down. The king squeezed his hand. “Don’t be too mad, my peach. We’ll get it back. I sent monkeys to search the city. They’ll find it.”

“Alright, if you say so, dear. Hopefully they find it fast. I didn’t mean to get mad at you, Xiaotian. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine! The furnace can also convert other things into energy.” He threw his welding mask in, it burst into flames. The Monkey King gripped the ends of the armrest as power shot through him.

Once he calmed down, he settled back in his throne and scrolled through the Internet to find something to strengthen his weakened powers. He stared at the screen with a smug expression. “Time to find something rare. Something to give us the power we deserve.”

————

Red glanced around the shop which thankfully contained no customers except Jin who was eating a bag of chips. “Hey, kid.”

“Jin! Remember how you were trying to distract me by telling me a story about my father?”

Jin swallowed his snack. “Yea?”

“And remember how it was specifically the story of how my father sealed the Monkey King? Well… something happened.”

“Red Son, we were not done talking, young man,” Iron Fan scolded.

“Hm? What is it?” The golden demon pondered.

“I found the mountain! The Monkey King is free! Dad’s axe has been removed! We need to find him! The world is going to be destroyed if-”

Jin pushed him back with an amused grin. “Jeez, did that story get to you? Calm down. Think you’re being delusional. The mountain is hidden and even if it wasn't, no one could just lift your dad’s weapon.”

“Delusional?!” Red’s hair burst into flames. “Is this delusional?” He revealed the axe.

Yin gasped in fake surprise. “Wow, Red. You found a stick.”

“NO! It’s father axe! Tell them, mother!”

The brothers cackled, his mom chuckled along nervously. Red stomped his foot. “Listen! We have to find him. I’ll prove it.”

“How?”

The weapon moved on its own and sliced the cashier counter, right near the golden demon. The three yelped and the golden one pounded his chest to prevent himself from choking on his chips. The second he recovered, he rasped out “Wow. You weren’t kidding. How do you have it?”

Iron Fan swallowed as she examined the weapon her husband once wielded. “That’s… that’s your father’s.” She waggled her head to snap herself out of it. “Okay. Where is the Monkey King now?”

“He’s at the shoe store,” Yin responded.

“What?!”

“I hope this is not one of those mindless prank videos you two always watch.”

“Oh there’s always time for a “mindless” prank video, Princess, but no. Look at what's trending. Hashtag Monkey King!”

Yin showed them a video of the Monkey King and his son robbing the shoe store, taking the one-of-a-kind shoe to power Xiaotian’s invention. “We have to find dad,” Red whispered.

Iron Fan crossed her arms in contemplation. “He should be in the Sky Scraping Cave but it’s been so long. Who knows if he’s even there anymore?”

“We won’t know until we try.”

“Let’s get into the car. We can find everything out on the way.”

She pushed all of them into her car, it swerved as she sped. “SLOW DOWN, IRON FAN! YOU’RE GONNA KILL US,” Jin exclaimed as he held onto the seats for dear life.

“Yea, mother, we have to get to Accumulated Thunder Mountain without getting into an accident. How do we get there?”

The silver brother announced, “The Monkey King is destroying that one mechanic part store.”

“More reason to stop him. How do we get there?” He repeated.

The golden brother shrugged. “Hm… I’m not sure. Might as well turn back.”

“What?!”

The woman shushed them. “There’s someone who can take us there. Maybe we won’t even need someone to take us there… I hope,” she muttered. “There’s a fearsome, deadly warrior on par with the Monkey King himself.” She stopped in front of a boat. The boys shivered as the door creaked open. “Liu'er mihou.”

Liu’er was not what they expected, quite the opposite of what Red’s mother described. He was a gentle human, not some fearsome warrior. “That’s a lot to process. Do you know what I do to people like that? Put on plays and music for them!” He played music on an old record player and hummed along. He placed some drinks on the table.

“You’re right, Iron Fan. He’s so deadly, heck, he might kill us with cuteness,” Yin snarked and placed a rabbit on her lap.

“Sorry, I don’t have a lot to offer but these drinks are good for stress.”

Iron Fan growled, “Liu’er, what happened to you? What happened to the vile, angry, revenge-seeking friend I used to know?”

“Well, my therapist said that years of being angry weren't doing much good so I started finding healthier outlets to manage my emotions. Music does wonders and having a bunch of therapy rabbits helped. Isn’t that right, Huìlián?” A black rabbit with red spots nuzzled him.

The princess’s eye twitched. “Whatever, never mind that. Can you help us defeat the Monkey King?”

He trembled at the suggestion of fighting the king. “Sorry, Iron Fan but I’m retired. I don’t think I can help you beat him.”

She massaged her forehead. “Aren’t we all? Okay, that’s fine.”

Red requested, “Either way, can you please take us to my dad’s mountain?”

“Of course.”

“Really?”

“Yea, anything for Iron Fan. It won’t be easy but we can certainly do it.”

The boys cheered and Liu’er continued, “Alright, time to start this up. Just to tell you again, Princess. I’m different now, I don’t go around seeking revenge or picking fights anymore.” She bobbed her head in understanding, displeased at the possibility she might have to reunite with her husband after such a long time. “Now, launch sequence, Huìlián!”

“Wait, what?”

The rabbit pushed a button and the boat launched off.

——

Red groaned as he woke up, his vision spun until he managed to blink it away. Zhu Bajie had attacked them on their way to the cave. He snatched the axe from Red’s hands and sent him flying, thankfully he managed to land on his father’s mountain.

He hoisted himself up and marched forward to find his father. He rehearsed in his head what he would say to his father about losing his once prized weapon and how happy he was to see him again.

He entered the cave and spotted a mural of his family. It flashed and the pictures began moving, showing things like his father’s friendship with the Monkey King, his parents’ wedding, him as a baby, the fight between him and the monkey, then the bull’s arrest and his reform.

During that, Red caught a glimpse of his father smiling at him before running off. “Father!”

The demon chased after him, he searched around. A bug landed on his arm. “Hello” the bug greeted and the younger waved it off. The insect floated to the ground, “It is me, my son, the Demon B-”

And Red squashed him with their foot. “Die, stupid bug!”

The insect flashed purple, shifting to various forms, it finally changed to reveal the Demon Bull King in all his glory. “Father?”

“Yes, my son, it is me. So, where’s my axe?”

His child bowed his head. “I’m sorry. I tried but Zhu Bajie managed to take it.”

The bull chuckled as if his son hadn’t dropped something so significant on him. “I know. I’ve been watching.”

Something clicked. “That was you? Father, what the fuck?!”

The bull chuckled again. “You’re perfect for the job, my son.”

“Job? What job?”

“The job of becoming my successor.”

“What? Me? Are you sure?”

“Yes. You’ve fought Sun Wukong before and you were fine. You can face him again.”

“But… but that was years ago! I’m not sure if I can do it again!”

Placing a hand on his child’s shoulder, he said, “Yes, you can. You’re my son.”

“That isn’t enough of a reason! What about the Monkey King?”

“What about him? You can defeat him.” Red huffed. “You’re strong, you just have to believe in yourself.” DBK straightened his posture. “The axe was taken from you, you can take it back!”

Red shot his father a determined look. “Alright!” He was about to jet off when he stopped and asked, “Are you sure I can do this? Are you sure you wouldn’t be better? Don’t… don’t you want to see mother?”

DBK clenched his fists and looked away. “I’m not ready to see her and you… you would be a better candidate.”

“Alright, father. Whatever you say.”

Then ran off without another word.

——

Red screeched as he crashed into Xiaotian with his transportation. The Monkey King rampaged in his three-headed, three-armed form. “Oh, my sweet baby boy! You’re alive,” Iron Fan cried.

Yin said, “We saw you blast off. We thought you died. Guess that was kinda stupid thinking.”

“You think?”

“Heh, wait, where’s the Demon Bull King? Did you find him?”

“I did.”

Iron Fan asked, “Where is he?”

“He said it’s up to me, to all of us.”

“Well, that’s anticlimactic.”

“How are we meant to fight him?” Jin pondered.

“We have to believe in ourselves. Clean up the streets and I’ll fight him as best I can.”

“Alright, Red. Be safe!”

“I’ll try.” He approached the king, taking deep breaths.

Sun Wukong hissed at him. “If it isn't Red Son, back for more.” The monkey attempted to hit him with Red using their fire to block every attack. He focused on the furnace, that was clearly where the axe was.

Without hesitation, Red leaped into it. Wukong roared with laughter at the other’s stupidity. “I’ve won.” He clawed at his chest, feeling a sharp sting and his powers waning. The red-haired demon emerged with the axe. “You! How did you?!” Wukong lunged at him, throwing hits left and right.

Red grinned and taunted him, “Sorry! Missed me! Try again!”

They pushed him down with the axe then grabbed a nearby building. He was about to trap him with it when the Monkey King yelled, “Not this again! Not a third time!” He launched him back into a building, the windows shattered under the sudden impact. “You thought you could beat me a second time, huh? I am Sun Wukong! I am the Great Sage Equal to Heaven! I will not let you take this victory! You might have his axe but you are not the Demon Bull King.

“You’re right, I’m not. I’m Red Son!” He plunged the axe to the ground and it created a mech resembling a bull. He marveled at it. “I didn’t know it could do this.”

With the mech, he made quick work of the Monkey King who went back to his normal form.

“How… how did you manage…?”

“By believing in myself and this mech!”

Xiaotian screeched, “Hey! Get out of that mech and fight!”

Red scoffed and was about to pick him up when a gust of wind prevented him from doing so. Zhu Bajie landed on the scene, his rake swung down. He took his husband’s hand, his blue eyes glowed. “We know when we’ve lost but we’ll return.” The pig laughed menacingly and disappeared with his family.

“Come back here, cowards! You can’t leave when I was about to win!”

He exited the mech to receive hugs from the brothers, he tried to push them away before relenting with a sigh. The silver one congratulated him, “Good job, kid! You won! You kicked the Monkey King’s butt again!”

“It’s not every day someone beats him twice.” The golden one threaded fingers through the youngest’s hair. “And it took all of us!”

“I must admit I couldn’t have done it on my own.”

Liu’er hugged the three. “Well, that’s exactly what you did.”

“You’re like the second bull king now.”

“We gotta come up with a cool title for you!”

Iron Fan cupped his cheeks. “Oh, my sweet child, I couldn’t be prouder.”

“Thanks, mother.”

Liu’er asked, “What’s next?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“Fight more villains!”

“Or we could eat. I’m hungry.”

“That works too.”

The group laughed as they ate. The Demon Bull King watched the interaction with hunched shoulders. He mustered up a smile then flew off.

A new legacy has begun.

[an-unknown-writers-world]

The Little Things

Day Two: Decorating the Tree

Part of @panicfob​ 25 Days of Christmas Challenge

Warnings: Angst,  

Paring:  Bucky Barnes x Reader (First Person-nameless)

Word Count: 1798

A/N: Thank you fo all the wonderful feedback on Christmas Cookies, it means so much! If you missed it you can find it here, but for now, enjoy the slow burn.

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

**Crash**

A loud thud echoed through the foyers causing me to nearly jump out of my skin. Afraid someone might have been hurt I abandoned my post decorating the dining room. This was my first Christmas at the compound, and I seemed to be the only one with any holiday spirit even after making cookies with Morgan. When I asked Sam and Bucky to pick up a tree, I couldn’t help but laugh at the childish tantrums I was met with. Rounding the corner, I was met with Sam and Bucky’s bickering and the smell of fresh pine.

“You’re going to break it,” Sam grumbled.

“You can’t break a tree.” Bucky retorted.

“Why are you such an idiot? If you ruin this tree, she’s going to ruin your face.”

I laughed breaking up the argument.

“This better be big enough. We’re not going back.” Bucky eyeballed the tree.

Bucky stood the tree up giving me a clear image of it; a beautiful noble fir tree, perfectly shaped from top to bottom and standing near seven feet tall.

“It’s perfect.” I beamed.

“Perfect, then you can help him set it up,” Bucky grumbled before storming off.

“Thank you,” I called out as he walked away.

He waived his in response but never turned back.

“He hates me,” I mumbled to Sam in disappointment.

“Don’t worry about it. He hates everyone.” Sam reassured. “Where do you want it?”

I pointed to the tree stand already set up in the sitting room. It wasn’t commonly used in group settings, let’s face it, there aren’t many group events here. But I’m determined to change that this Christmas.  “Thank you, Sam.”

“You hold and I’ll tighten?” He smiled.

I nodded,

It only took a few minutes for him to situate the tree into the stand, there were several huffs and grunts as he tried to situate it. It probably would have been a little smoother if Bucky would have stayed to help. We stepped back to admire Sam’s handy work. He may not be in the holiday spirit, but he at least wasn’t fighting me every step of the way like Bucky was. I thought Bucky might have been a little more on my side after yesterday with Morgan, but that clearly wasn’t the case. Bruce came and went as needed, but he was gone more often than not; and Wanda, she tried her hardest to be present, but she spent a lot of her time alone or with Clint on his family’s ranch.

“Thanks again, Sam.”

“Sure thing,” He hesitated for a moment, “You’re not gonna make me help decorate it, right”

I laughed shaking my head, “No, I’ll do it.”

Sam kissed my cheek and disappeared down the corridor.

It left me alone in my own thoughts, standing to look at the plain tree standing in an already decorated room. I was questioning if I was making the right decision, this time of year was hard on most people, especially someone like Bucky who has lost everything. Christmas now days was incredibly different than it was in the forties, and I imagine Christmas wasn’t exactly a top holiday in Hydra bases. I tried to rack my brain on things that might make this special for Bucky, that may try to bring the Grinch some joy in this hard time.

I leaned against the archway and pulled out my phone to utilize the best piece of technology ever created – Google. It didn’t take long to find a classic recipe for Christmas cookies, it was one I actually remembered my Grandmother making when I was a child. Looking over it I found I had all the ingredients but one. I looked at the clock and decided I had enough time that I could run to the store, eat dinner and make cookies and have plenty of time to decorate the tree tonight.

 **** A few hours later ****

It was dark outside, city lights illuminated the skyline beyond the trees outside the compound, the only sound was Christmas music that played on my phone while took the lids off all the decoration boxes, they were a surprise from Pepper; when she found out about my love for Christmas her motherly instinct kicked in and she wanted to help spread the cheer with the team. They had been delivered this afternoon while I was the grocery store, Bucky was nice enough to at least get them into the sitting room, and either he or Sam had wrapped the tree in lights already.

A soft light fell in the room from the foyer, but it was still mostly dark, lit mostly by the beautiful white lights from the tree. I grew up decorating the tree with my parents and brother so the thought of decorating it alone was a little depressing. I grabbed my Mimosa glass and took a drink from it staring at the tree. All of the balls for the tree were red, blue, gold and white – an obvious nod to those we were missing this Christmas. One box had nine hand decorated balls, cleared painted by Morgan and seemed to pay tribute to those lost and those of us still around.

“You know it won’t decorate itself,” Bucky said walking in the room.    

I jumped feeling like my heart ripped right out of my chest.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” He said coming to sit on the edge of the couch.

“It’s okay, I thought everyone was asleep.”  I shrugged.

“Tried.”

His presence was distracting, to say the least, his white V-neck clung to his chest and his black sweats hung low on his hips.

“Did I wake you?” I asked.

He shook his head no.

I put my glass down and picked up a strand of garland, “Wanna help?” I asked.

Bucky looked at me slightly unimpressed.

“Oh wait!” I exclaimed. “Stay right here.”

I ran out of the room before he could respond. Grabbing the plate of cookies from the counter I made my way back into the sitting room. It was hard to miss the smile that broke out on his face, it was a magical sight that was rarely seen.

“Are these?” He broke off.

“Nutmeg Cookie Logs.” I finished. “My grandmother used to make them when I was a kid.” I hesitated, handing him the plate. “I can only imagine how hard this time of year is for you, everything you’ve been through and lost.  These, I guess I just hope maybe remind you of some happy times in your life.”

He took the plate from me, our hands briefly overlapping.

“Thank you,” Bucky smiled at me genuinely, “This is great, really great.”

I couldn’t help the bit of pride the welled up in me, I was going to take this as a victory; a small one, but a victory none the less. Directing my attention back to the tree I started taking the Morgan painted balls out handing three of them to Bucky.

“I think you should be the one to hang these,” I said softly.

The Christmas balls had Caps Shield, Natasha’s hourglass and Bucky’s star on them. He looked down at them with a bittersweet smile, taking them from my hands.

“Pepper had to have helped with these,” Bucky said hanging them.

“Totally,”

“I saw what she did with those cookies,” He laughed, “This had to have been highly supervised.”

“Hey, we supervised.” I retorted hanging some of the plain colored balls.

To my surprise Bucky continued to hang ornaments on the tree, the colors balanced and beautifully arranged. He softly hummed along with the music that played in the background, it was a Bing Crosby Christmas album. It was sweet moments like this that reminded me why I stayed, through the terrible sleepless nights from both of our nightmares, the days that neither of us would talk, and the constant battle between him and Sam.

“Hey, Buck,” I asked moving the empty containers out of the way.

“Yeah, doll?”

I smiled at the endearment, “Did you hang these lights?”

He paused and looked at me, his hand nervously rubbing at the back of his neck, “Yea, ‘s no big deal though.”

I smiled at him, “Thank you, I never could have gotten them so even and straight.”

He smiled back at me and grabbed a cookie from the plate.

“Growing up my dad was always the one who hung the lights and then left the decorating to my brother and me.” I laughed a little, “My mom always went back in behind us kids to rearrange the ornaments. But when we were finally done decorating us kids would lay under the tree and look up through the lights.”

“Sounds like a nice tradition.”

I sighed standing back to look at the now full tree, “It was.”

Bucky looked at me, “You miss them.” It wasn’t a question.

I nodded, “I’ve never been a touchy person, but my dad used to give the best hugs in the world. They were the kind of hugs that you could feel in your soul, they’d fix any problem you had even if it was just for a few seconds.” I looked up, “Steve’s were a pretty close match.”

Bucky smiled, “He must have been a pretty great man to have a daughter like you.”

“He was,” I smiled back. “He was my hero.

We both fell silent as we looked at the tree. I knew I should say something, but I wasn’t sure what. The tree looked beautiful and the room felt Christmasy, I was afraid I’d mess it up if I did anything. Rather than risk it, I bent down to pick up my now empty glass and decided to head to bed.

“I think I’m going to head to bed,” I turned to him. “Thank you for your help tonight, Bucky.”

“Sure thing,” He smiled back.

“Goodnight,”

“Night,”

I walked to the kitchen to dispose of my glass in the sink before making it back towards the stairwell in the foyer. Just barely passing the archway of the sitting room I heard my name be called, turning back I saw Bucky step out.

“Yeah, Buck?”

“I know its not the same and I could never replace either of them, not that I’m trying to, that’s definitely not what I’m trying to do here,” He was babbling, it was cute and endearing.

“Bucky,” I said softly trying to get him to refocus.

“Sorry,” He smiled, “What I was trying to say was, anytime you need a hug I am happy to oblige.”

I smiled back at him, that was not at all what I was expecting. “That means a lot, thank you.”

“Sweet dreams,” Bucky said before turning back into the sitting room.

[c-is-for-circinate]

It occurs to me that I promised y’all I’d tell you stories from the D&D campaign I’m running, and it’s now been a week since the first session, so I should definitely do some of that!  I can already tell it’s going to be a fun-as-shit campaign.  If nothing else, my party and I are collectively five variably-queer ladies who met at knitting group and range in age from “haven’t played D&D since 2e at GenCon in the 90′s” to “too young to remember fandom before AO3 existed”.  We’re real fucking cool.  I am going to have to explain, in detail, so many textiles and other interesting crafts.

I am a WORDY-ASS MOTHERFUCKER, so the whole tale will probably get pretty long in the telling, but: welcome to the continent of Nokomoris, on a world that probably has its own name but I haven’t decided on it yet because naming things is hard, dude.

[here’s where I will probably link game session posts in the future once they exist]

Hark, a backstory!  (And, our four players)

IF YOU RECOGNIZE THIS CAMPAIGN INFO BECAUSE YOU ARE PLAYING IT, CONSIDER YOURSELF UNDER DM ORDERS TO BACK OFF AND STOP READING.  I KNOW YOU FUCKERS ARE ON TUMBLR TOO, THERE IS A REASON I DIDN’T GIVE YOU MY HANDLE.  (I love you all very much and yes, there are spoilers in here.  Go away and text me now.)

Eastern Nokomoris, where our story takes place (or at least begins) is in a prosperous age of thriving city-states and collapsed kingdoms.  Most trade, culture, and even centralized government is based among the Nine Cities, massive metropolises located around the Attiks Sea and nearby lands.  Nearly a million people live in the nine cities, which are connected to each other via well-established sea and land trade routes, and also by what many are calling the most important technological/magical development of the modern age: a network of massive permanent teleportation circles, thirty feet in diameter.

The circle network is big enough to carry large trade wagons, livestock, huge parties of people, and even troops and war machines.  Sea and land trade has dropped by half between the Nine Cities in the past fifteen years, and continues to decline.  The cities themselves are thriving and prosperous, and it’s easier than ever to get beef and leather from Karna Vi, wool from Yefira, pottery from Celkan or metalwork from Tiers no matter where you live.

Outside of the cities, it’s another story.  Dozens of once-prosperous kingdoms, and even the whole of the Trava Empire, have fallen in the past seventy years: first during the Church Wars, and then in the yeas of chaos and rebuilding once the Wars were over.  Small towns everywhere that once paid taxes to a crown, and were protected in turn by royal troops and much-needed aid in times of hardship, have been left entirely to stand or fall on their own.  Some have thrived, becoming local centers of trade for whole coalitions of abandoned towns nearby.  Others have disappeared, died out, or simply faded into the wilderness, forgotten.  The great open plains of Highnorth where the Trava Empire once ruled, the endless golden sea of the Southgrass, the peaks and valleys of the Thavine Mountains, the deep many-colored forest of the Iris Peninsula--who knows what’s out there any more?

And in the Midlands, where the worst of the Church Wars took place...well, precious few towns even survived to rebuild in the first place.  Land that once held the most fertile farms in all Nokomoris is desolate now, scarred and cursed.  Most of the battlefield has been picked over by intrepid adventurers and out-of-work soldiers in the six decades since the Wars ended, already raided for magic and treasure.  The ruins remain, and the valleys where nothing will ever grow again, and the eternal shadow over the once-Holy City, and who knows what sorts of twisted things living in places people no longer go?

But it’s been sixty years since the Church Wars ended, and for most people, life is good.  Small-town farmers may no longer have the protection of any crown, but small technological advancements in plow design and crop rotation mean that they can produce more food than they need and sell the extra in the nearest city for coin.  More and more young people, freed from heavy labor on their parents’ farms, have learned reading, writing, history, and some amount of arcane talent.  The Grand Universities in the nine cities are thriving, full of scholars of all ages eager to learn and advance the course of knowledge everywhere.

Of course, there are ten times more scholars in the Grand Universities than there are professorships or other high-ranking positions to hire them to...and that is where our story begins.

.

Our intrepid party thus far includes:

Marion, a human paladin of indeterminate gender, whose human family stands among the nobles of the great city of Karna Vi, where our story begins.  Marion is an acolyte of the Church of Lost Things, which concerns itself with every god that does not easily fit within the purview of the other seven Churches, and also with every god that has been erased or forgotten by time (for all gods deserve worship, and all gods are capable of smiting those that neglect them, sooner or later).  They’re also a math major, largely because computer science hasn’t been invented yet.

Marion’s really hoping to be able to build and program a simple computing machine, a la Babbage’s Difference Engine (or Arthur C. Clarke’s The Nine Billion Names of God), to tabulate and generate all the possible names of every god ever to exist, which seems much more efficient than just combing piecemeal broken historical records trying to find them.  It has not been going well.  In a Church system where paladins are often more concerned with protecting people from the gods than for the gods, cracking this problem will let Marion figure out who the gods even are like nobody ever before.  But there are variables missing, and theomathematical constants they can’t even identify yet, let alone calculate--and they’re not going to find here.

Three interesting facts about Marion, as per their player: 

They once spent an entire week holed up in a lab over a holiday break and were declared missing-presumed-dead.  Police searches were involved.  It was a little bit of a scandal.

They are by far the most unremarkable and constantly forgotten member of their entire family.  (This perhaps says more about their family than about them.)

Everyone on campus is fairly sure they interfered with the campus clock tower specifically to give students more time on finals last semester.  This is false.  They were trying to run a different experiment entirely, messed with the clock tower by accident, and didn’t actually notice it was finals week even after it was over.

Kevin, an elf barbarian sportsball champion, hero of the university’s sportsball team for the past ten years straight.  Kevin is a foot and a half taller than any self-respecting elf ought to be, not to mention twice as broad.  He’s finally starting to acknowledge the fact that there is, in fact, no NFElf, and you can’t be a “professional sportsballer” within the Elven Ascendancy, and his bemused parents would really like him to do something with his life beyond playing those little games with the ball and all of those...non-elf people.

Kevin is also an art history student, mostly out of desire for an easy major that’ll make his parents happy while he happily spends most of his time out on the sportsball field.  He’s got high strength, basic middle intelligence, and negative wisdom.  He’s sat through more history classes than the entire rest of the party put together.  He understands approximately none of it.  Still--he can’t do sports forever, and art history makes his parents happy, and he might as well go on a quest to uncover lost art and artifacts and maybe prove he’s an actual adult sooner than later, right?

Three interesting facts about Kevin, as per his player:

Back in his home city playing little league sportsball, there were definite (and accurate) rumors about this wild elf that could and would straight-up squish opposing players.  That’s how the college recruiters found him in the first place.  It’s definitely why they wanted him.

He has so many groupies.  So many.  They come in so many different species and genders and Kevin is on board with every single one.  (On board?  On bed?  On convenient flat surface?  Does it particularly matter?  Not to Kevin!)

Kevin is covered in tattoos, and there are all sorts of rumors about what sort of eldritch magic they hold--like, that panther is probably a real panther bound by elven magic, right?  A pretty persistent rumor suggests that the tattoos all commemorate individual opposing team members he’s...either hospitalized or fucked, or both, literally nobody is sure.  (In point of fact, none of the above are true, and Kevin just has terrible taste in tattoos and a pretty stunning lack of both impulse control and supervision--but why quash the stories?)

Kou, a halfling bard whose girlfriend just left three weeks ago on a research expedition of her own, taking with her approximately 85% of Kou’s impulse control.  In theory, Kou is an alchemy major, studying science to make her scholar parents happy.  In practice, she probably spends more time sneaking into music seminars and/or busking on the street for spare change than actually doing alchemy, but her girlfriend was a Good Responsible Influence who made sure Kou didn’t get kicked out of the department, and to be fair, alchemy can blow things up sometimes so that’s always good.

Kou doesn’t so much have plans for the future as vague, contradictory aspirations, but that doesn’t mean she’s not smart.  She’s learned enough magic to use a set of recording stones to play, loop, and modulate beats or bits of music, thereby making her Nokomoris’s very first DJ, and she really wants to be a professional musician someday.  She just hasn’t figured out how to reconcile her dreams with her parents’ wishes, the lives they’ve worked so hard to create, or a halfling cultural legacy that has more to do with riding around snowfields covered in furs waving spears than it does with brightly-colored house parties.

Three interesting facts about Kou, as per her player:

Kou very definitely once spent a full day dressed up in halfling traditional garb, furs and all, including a very fuzzy fur hat.  It wasn’t until that evening that somebody saw the hat move and everyone realized she’d been wearing a curled-up live fox the whole time.

She once managed to create an incredibly destructive compound in alchemy lab out of ingredients that should not have actually been able to react that way.  She found out it was corrosive when she accidentally spilled it on six months’ worth of a different professor’s lab notes.  (She got an A anyway, because her lab professor hated the other guy, but that has more to do with Professors Ayanova and M’tiersi than Kou, really.)

She absolutely goes down to counter-protest every damn time those Family First assholes try to rally downtown in favor of child-producing (read: heterosexual, single-species) families.  Rumor says she once broke her guitar over a protester’s head, which horrifies her--Kou’s guitar is the most expensive thing she owns!  She used their own protest sign, like a sensible person.

Reigenleif, a mostly-female-probably gnome rogue known around campus as “Beer Run” for her skills at somehow always having access to better and cheaper beer than anyone else, and her general willingness to deliver to parties (for a small additional fee).  Reigenleif’s parents are small-time forgers who ended up mostly working for a local crime organization after a series of bad luck and political upheavals brought them to Karna Vi a few decades ago.  They really want their kids to go clean, avoid all the uncertainties and occasional jail sentences/executions that accompany a life of crime, and maybe make a little something of themselves.  Reigenleif, who has zero interest in staying on the right side of the law, mostly does odd jobs for a different, not-technically-rival criminal organization, and carefully does not tell her parents about it, ever.

Technically she’s an engineering major, and she’s more than got the brains for it, plus the accompanying curiosity about metallurgy and arcane artificing.  Still, she spends most of her time helpfully involving herself in other peoples’ projects rather than running her own.  (Her own projects have a lot more to do with figuring out new forging techniques and criminal tricks, and don’t look very good in the end-of-year department report.)  Enjoys causing trouble, not being in it.

Three interesting facts about Reigenleif, as per her player:

She absolutely owns a copy of the provost’s signet ring, which she can and has used to create documents allowing herself access to all sorts of University resources.  Like most things, she’ll share the use of it, quietly, for a price.  (She also owns a copy of Marion’s family signet ring, which is a much longer story that I as the DM do not know yet--can’t wait for that.)

Once captured and maneuvered a live swan into somebody’s office to cause as much chaos as possible so Reigenleif could get up to something somewhere else.  Is a little bit of a legend for it.

Aside from her not-actually-that-impressive family legacy of crime, Reigenleif’s spread a quiet rumor around school that she’s descended from the famous marauding pirate, Thrand Slender-Leg.  It’s possible that Thrand Slender-Leg never actually existed.  It’s possible that nobody had ever heard of him before Reigenleif made him up.  She’s certainly not telling.

[pinkbubbles-and-bigtroubles]

Colour Me In Part 3

“Oh that is not good,” Michael cracked up and Calum just glared at him.

“Will you shut up unless you're going to help,” he grumbled fiddling with his bass. Lunch with Eliza had been amazing, and he'd really felt like he was starting to get somewhere with this girl. Kevin's sudden appearance at lunch had him worried.

“Maybe it's better to get it all out now,” Michael tried to sound reassuring.

“Get what out now?” Luke asked, entering the room trailed by Ashton.

“His new girl's best friend is gonna tattle on him before he gets a chance to get it,” Michael told them.

“Wait I thought you weren't talking to Nat?” Luke asked slightly confused.

“No, dummy, the deaf girl, Eliza.” Ashton poked Luke in the side to get him out of his way. “I thought you guys were having lunch today?”

“We did,” Calum told him, “but her closest guy friend, Kevin,” Cal made a face when he said the name, “came out of nowhere and told her I looked familiar. So when I ask her where he works she says he's a model and works the door at Emerald City.”

The guys laugh but Calum cuts them off “and The Chelsea,” the guys stopped laughing, “and Lucky's,” Calum finished.

“Ooooh that fucking sucks dude,” Luke sat down facing him.

“Of all places though, I don't think there's a girl in that bar that hasn't seen your dick at some point,” Ashton laughed.

“You're one to fucking talk,” Calum huffed, “you're worse than me. Didn't you have Cass over last weekend?”

“I did actually, she says hi by the way, keeps joking about wanting a threesome with both of us,” Ashton chuckled.

“She's not joking,” Calum shot back raising his eyebrows.

“Okay so Cass, Kimmie, Jen…” Luke started naming names.

“Hollie and Haley,” Michael chimed in.

“…Alanna, Charlotte, Jay, and most currently Natasha….so yea Calum is a straight up fuckboy.”

Kevin leaned towards Eliza, nodding his head furiously as he signed with quick dramatic gestures.

Eliza, sitting across from him on the couch, threw up her hands in exasperation at the way Kevin was so concerned for her well being over Calum. He'd insisted on her coming over after work so they could talk.

“Did you think I didn't know that? He's in a band. I work for a publicist. Laura, my co-worker even had a thing with his friend Ashton. You and Mags act like I've never encountered fuckboys before. Besides have you seen Calum? I'm trying to have some fun here.”  Eliza’s hands were tense as she signed slowly and deliberately, her face a mask of sarcasm.

Kevin laughed and rolled his eyes setting his phone down so he could look at her while they talked.

“Listen,” he signed,” I just don't want you to get hurt. None of the girls had anything bad to say about him except, the second you fall for him Calum lets you down gently, but he does not stick around.”

“KV, you know I don't have time for a boyfriend. My job is crazy. My personal project, Mr Zachary James, is a little shit who won't stay out of trouble, and my boss is terrifying. I know I'm not as experienced as you, or Calum,” Eliza smirked at him and Kevin flipped her off. “The guys I've dated have been boring or turned out to be assholes. I want an adventure, is that so wrong?”

Kevin rolled his eyes, “This is pointless, all the women in your family are stubborn as hell. Just be careful. I do think it's cute he's learning to sign. How much you wanna bet that's your sister?” He signed as both their phones buzzed.

Open Group Chat

Mags the Mighty Okay today has been insanely busy. I know you two are huddled up discussing lunch with Rock Star. What's the consensus?

Maggie sat back and waited knowing both of them were desperately trying to be first.

King KVN so you already know your sister is impossible, but I found out dog boy has been getting it with all the models, thots, and bad bitches that work at Lucky's and The Chelsea. This bitch doesn't care because she's thirsty. I'm trying to talk some sense into her.

Big EZ basically everything he said is true, but he has to be extra about it. From here on out every time you call him dog boy I will scuff one of your sneakers.

Mags the Mighty so wait you're okay with Calum fucking around like that? I mean he's hot and for a vacation hookup or weekend hookup sure. He's taking you on dates, asking about your family, and even signing… Maybe he likes you.

Big EZ  I don't have time for any of that Mags. Besides look at Patrick and Miguel it's not like I've got a great track record

King KVN those dipshits weren't your fault and I will not tolerate my best friend putting herself down. Miguel was too insecure to handle a woman as smart and beautiful as you and he cheated to compensate. That's on him not you. Patrick is a sad little man with a sad little dick who tries to slide into your DMs WEEKLY even though he's supposedly happy with his girlfriend.

Mags the Mighty You're so extra Kev. we are not here to discuss Eliza's dismal history with men. Besides that was high school and we're all trying to pretend that never happened. When do we get to hang out with rock stars?

BIG EZ I haven't heard from him since lunch. He got all weird after Kev popped up. If you messed this up for me. I swear I will maim you.

Just then Eliza's boss interrupted their conversation with a flurry of text messages. Another client, country music party girl Shelby Keeler, had just been arrested in Texas in a bar fight, and TMZ had footage. Evie already had Maria Reynolds, the only person helping her with the nightmare that was Zachary James, on a plane to Houston to do damage control.

Not only that but his ex girlfriend, model and heiress Daisy Moss, was rumored to be hanging back around. Zachary was smart enough to try and keep this from Eliza and Jeanette, his manager, as their drug fueled bust up in a hotel suite had almost destroyed his career and cost him most of his sponsors.

Zac had been a child actor and teen pop star before washing out at 17. A couple years after that he'd built a following on YouTube with a series of videos documenting his failed comeback attempt, his struggles with mental health, and life post fame. He showed how he cared for his mom who was deaf and had a bad back from a car accident. His sister was in and out of his life as she bounced between rehab and addiction.

He'd developed his YouTube channel as a launch pad for phase 2 of his career getting a reality show on E that was entering its fifth season. However, two years ago he'd met Daisy, and since then his life had been chaos.

Eliza sighed, annoyed that her weekend was now going to be spent worried at the prospect of all her hard work with Zac going to shit. She realized when she finally got home she still hadn't heard from Calum since they'd parted ways after lunch. That was unusual but it was the weekend and Calum was probably at some bar with one of his girls. Eliza was stunned how pissed off the idea of Calum hitting on another woman made her.

Calum didn't know what to do. He wanted to text Eliza and somehow explain himself, but there was nothing to say. Everything Kevin could tell her was true, and for the first time in a long time Calum felt a bit ashamed of his behavior. Not out of regret or a sense of morality, he hated how it looked and what it might cost him. He declined to go out that night, and instead huddled up in his apartment with Duke.

Calum pouted the entire weekend. He didn't leave the house or talk to anyone for two days. Instead he ordered takeout, worked on a song, or watched videos on his laptop. He checked Eliza's Twitter and Insta but there were no posts. He even checked Zachary James’ accounts to see if work was keeping her busy, but found nothing.

Eliza spent the entire weekend with Jeanette keeping an eye on Zac. Daisy was back around and had even come by the house a couple times. Luckily he was ignoring his ex, for now, but between him whining about his failed relationship, and Jeanette bitching about Zac, Eliza was irritated for 48 hours, and it gave her a headache. By Monday morning she was in a terrible mood and took part of the morning off to spend some time with Oliver. They went to Marian's because lemon bars always lifted her spirits.

She saw Calum pulling out of the parking lot as she started to turn in. Eliza thought he saw her, but then he was gone. After placing her order and settling into a table on the patio she found herself distracted, glancing at the entrance hoping to see him walk in. Finally she'd had enough, Eliza wasn't going to let Calum ghost her without calling him on his bullshit.

Haven't heard from you since Friday, makes me wonder if Kevin frightened you off. I gotta admit, I'm disappointed, didn't think you'd scare that easily. I thought you were tougher than that.

She hit send and immediately wanted to take it back. She sent Kevin a screenshot of what she'd done and to her surprise he was awake and answered back.

Yaaasssssss, tell him about himself. I will say this tho… Your boy was nowhere to be seen this weekend. All his boys came out to Lucky's Saturday night, and I know for a fact both Haley and Nat hit him up this weekend.  No one's heard anything.

He could always have girls you don't know about.

Stop that, we all know I know everything

Eliza stopped laughing when Calum’s name popped up

I'm an ass. I knew what Kevin would tell you, and it's all true, I can't deny that. I figured you'd be done so I just didn't feel like talking to anyone this weekend. I stayed home and worked on some songs.

Do you really think I was that shocked? You're in a band, you're young, and hot. You had a hickey when we met up at the dog park. I may not be very experienced, but I'm not some sheltered, naive, stupid little deaf girl.

Okay okay I'm sorry, I should have texted you. It looked bad, but I never ever thought you were naive or stupid. I think you're smart, funny, and charming. I thought a woman as classy as you could do better than someone with my history. Let me take you on a proper date. We can even be chaperoned.

What are you even talking about? Chaperoned?

Yes, let me take you out to dinner and Oliver and Duke can come along and make sure I behave like a gentleman.

You're playing the Duke card, that's completely unfair.  

Tomorrow night? I can pick you guys up.

Tomorrow is fine. Tell me the time and place and I'll meet you there. I’m not ready to have you meet my mother.

Eliza realized she was holding her breath and exhaled suddenly very nervous. Her first real date with Calum, and he was determined to treat her like a lady. She wasn't entirely sure how to feel about that. What she was sure of is that she needed to figure out what to wear. She texted Maggie and Kevin and headed to work.

Eliza glanced back at Oliver in the back seat as she put the car into park. The little dude was smiley and wagging his tail although a bit apprehensive by the unfamiliar surroundings. Eliza has been thrilled when Calum told her he wanted to try Mohawk Bend, it was her sister's favorite pizza place and very dog friendly. The hostess waved to Eliza and Oliver doing a bit of a double take.

Kevin had outdone himself with her outfit tonight. He'd put her in black leggings and her black push up bra that made her boobs look huge. He then wrapped a tan cashmere scarf around her chest, hiding her cleavage so her mom wouldn't bitch. Over that he'd layered a burgundy lightweight dress, that was actually a swimsuit cover-up, using one of his belts to turn it into a cute tunic. They'd decided on simple makeup with a dark burgundy lip, black motorcycle boots and a careful application of gold highlighter to her face, body, and hair to complete the look. Her hair was in a loose Grecian braid with gold wire wrapped throughout helping tame her curls.

Calum saw Eliza walk up to the podium and show the hostess his text message about already having a table. She looked amazing without trying too hard. He'd promised to behave like a gentleman, but as his eyes took in her curves as she walked up the table,  his thoughts turned carnal.  Oliver and Duke greeted each other like long lost friends. Eliza smiled at him and his mind went blank. He grabbed his phone.

I had this really cool plan to impress you with some new signs I learned this weekend, but I'm too nervous to remember any of them.

Eliza wanted to scoff at the idea of Calum Hood being nervous around any woman, but despite looking insanely handsome in his all black t shirt and jeans combo, he was fidgety and sweating.

He let her decide what to order so they could share. She chose the white mushroom pizza and fish tacos to split.

They played with the dogs while they waited for the food to arrive. When it did they took turns going to wash their hands and Eliza couldn't help but notice Calum left his phone on the table when he got up.

Dinner was lovely. They went through extra napkins as they kept getting sauce everywhere. Calum fed her tacos, she wiped sauce off his chin. They kept laughing at jokes no one else got with Oliver and Duke dozing snuggled together under the table. Calum heard an older couple making comments about them being on their phones.

How do you sign mind your own business?

Eliza looked up at him and he shot a quick glance at the older fellow giving them a sour look.

She looked back at Calum signing

“Mind your own business?” he asked out loud as his hands mirrored hers. She nodded and Calum heard the guy mutter “How was I supposed to know.”

Calum insisted Eliza take the rest of the pizza home to Maggie, paid the check with a generous tip, and walked them to her car. Standing next to her car they stood there texting, neither of them quite ready to see the night end or push it further.

Until a text from Evie broke the spell and Eliza needed to go.

Calum held up a hand mouthing “wait, wait” and sent another text.

I remember one of the things I learned now

Eliza looked up and Calum raised his eyebrows and signed “Can I kiss you?”

She nodded and reached up resting her hand on the back of his neck, pulling him towards her as he lowered his lips to hers.

They both melted into the kiss, lips parting, tongues colliding and his hand gripping her hip pulling her closer. Eliza felt him get hard and she pushed her body against him. Calum broke the kiss, panting and looking at her with nothing but lust in his eyes. Eliza wanted him to keep going but he shook his head.

I don't want you to think you're just another girl.

He signed “good night, I'll text you,” before giving her another quick kiss and picking Duke up so he could say his goodbyes.

@wildhearthood @kiiiimberlyriiiicker1995 @cal-puddies @biba3434 @grittyisathot @angelbabylu @itstheholls @irwinkitten @5sos-ficssmut @cal-pal-cuddles @calumh-excess @1dthewantedlove @you-of-ghost @babygirlcashton @sublimehood @sugarcoated-pain @calteahood @the-fifth-season @kchillout @flannelpunkcalum @unabashedlymyself @5-secondsofcolor

[yestodaymvv]

soulmate!haechan

a/n: hello i’m back! i was avoiding homework and i ended up writing this. give feedback pls! thanks for reading <3

 i recommend listening to sun&moon by nct 127

word count: 2.5k

mark | renjun | jeno | jaemin | chenle | jisung

so, the soulmate marker that hyuck has is the first two initials thingy

the initials one is similar to the words written on your wrist except,, they’re initials

the initials can actually appear anytime it’s just random

like they can appear when you’re born, when you turn 16, when you drop your food

like any random time

so, hyuck is obviously a little ball of affection

and he loves loving people

so he was pretty excited when he got his initials

he was actually with renjun when it happened

they were going to the arcade because hyuck can apparently beat renjun’s high school in the pacman game

but renjun kept saying that hyuck wasn’t good enough

so as hyuck and renjun were going to the arcade

they stopped by a sandwich shop

and as they were walking in, someone was walking out

can you guess who it was?so obviously it was you

so you were the new girl in the city

you moved because your father got a new job offer that required leaving your hometown and moving into whatever city hyuck was init was the last week of summer break and you were getting lunch you, your brother and your father who was on his way from work

you were in a hurry because you and your father already on his way

so you didn’t bother looking where you were going and so you bumped into this dude

who was,, surprise surprise

hyuck

and so you just muttered a quick “i’m sorry!”and then ran your way home

or not ran, you had a bike

you biked your way home

and the minute that you and hyuck bumped into each other

was when hyuck got his initials on his wrist

as hyuck was ordering, renjun noticed it

“haechan,, look”

he pointed on hyucks wrist and there it was

your initials

in pretty cursive writing

the way you got your initials was different

it was more simple really

you got it the day you turned 17you were at home, at your birthday party, and as everyone was singing happy birthday

your brother yelled out “hey look, y/n’s wrist!”

and it was the initials L.D.  in bold letters

your family couldn’t stop teasing you about it

your brother would remind you that you weren’t allowed to date until you were 25your father would tease you about every single boy that you introduced them to

whether it was a classmate for a group projector a friend that he’s known for a long time

okay anyway so your first day of school was pretty chill

you were given the opportunity to have someone to help you around

and that was not hyuck

it was chenle

you became quick friends with chenle

you admired how sweet and outgoing he was and he never seemed to stop laughing which in turn made you laugh

chenle took a liking to you too

but not in that way because boy is taken

chenle said that you reminded him of his friend, haechan

how the both of you were easy going and funny

how you guys are just so happy

and so your were curious as to who this haechan actually was

throughout the week

chenle was the one who accompanied you

along with his friend jisung

you wanted to meet haechan but you never mentioned it to chenle

so the following week, you were in writing class

you loved to write

it was your favorite past time

you weren’t particularly the one who would read romance novels

you loved adventure

and you loved fantasy you would write about the things you never got to do

before moving into the city, you lived in a small town for your entire life

you always had adventures in the town the small town was located near a forest?? i guess you can say

you would have small adventures when you were younger with your friends

but as you got into middle school and high school

your friends decided to focus more on school

trying to pass and get away from the small town

you didn’t really care for you studies

you just wanted to be outside all the time

the imagination you had as a child, continued on as you turned into a teen

while your friends were out studying for whatever important tests or exams they had

you stayed outside,, wandering around

and you always loved the nighttime

so you were always out when it was night because you loved looking at the stars and looking at the moon

so in your writing class,, you were required to write about your favorite time of day

you were supposed to create a story using the setting time as your fav time

and you obviously chose the nighttime

so as you were writing your story

hyuck walks in the room

he switched classes into writing and the only open seat was in front of you

so he sat there

you didn’t notice that someone sat in front of you until your teacher told you to share what you wrote to someone sitting next to you

and hyuck was the only one next to you

so hyuck turns around and greats you with a big smile

“hello, would you like to share first?”

and you said “sure”

your story was about a small little boy that couldn’t go outside in the daylight

he doesn’t do it because he looked different from everyone else and he was afraid of people teasing him

it was about how at night, he would venture into the forest behind his house

and then he would go around his own little adventures

and hyuck stops you in the middle of the story

“wait, so your favorite time of day,, is nighttime?”

“well, yea?? i thought i established that when my main character can’t go out in the daytime.”

“nighttime is so sad! there’s no light! no sun!”

“that’s exactly why i like it?”

he looked hurt

 “how? could? one? not? like? the? sun?”

“i’m guessing you have a strong passionate love for the sun?”

and hyuck

 just smiles

 like

really wide

“OF COURSE I LOVE THE SUN! IM HAECHAN!”

and your like,, oh this is haechan

“wait youre haechan? youre friends with chenle?”

“yea,, little lettuce head?”

and you just laugh bc chenle is a lettuce head

but a cute lettuce head lets not attack okay chenle is adorable

“you’re the one that chenle told me about. so,, doesnt haechan like,, mean,, full sun?”

“yes!”

“is that really your actual name?”

“mhm, nope. it’s just a nickname i was given when i was younger so i sticked to it.”

“ahh” and you nodded

 “okay so back on to the topic,, how can you not like the sun?!!?!!?!?!?”

you rolled your eyes at him

“haechan, not a lot of people like the sun. i don’t like it because it hurts my skin”

“what are you, a vampire?”

“psh, no. my skin is just sensitive.”

“okay well, let’s get into my better, more sunshine loving, story”

his was about little bear

a little bear that wanted to visit the sun

he was told by his mother and friends that it was impossible to go to the sun

but he persevered and tried his best to

lol these stories i’m so dumb but just,, imagine that they’re better

and so you stop and say that his is pretty unrealistic

 “hey! i don’t want to hear your opinions you sun hating monster”

you rolled your eyes once more

“i have a name you know”

“well i would call you by it but you didn’t exactly introduce yourself and sun hating monster has a better ring to it”

“i’m y/n”

“ahh so the monster does have a name”

you took his story and smacked it on his head 

“don’t be mean! chenle said you were loving but that’s obviously not true”

“HEY I AM”

“yea,, sure.”

and so that was it

your friendship with hyuck

officially began

you guys were like

the cutest set of friends

you are both like the biggest rays of sunshine ever

even though you hate the sun

people tended to know you guys as the suns cause you were always so smiley and happy

and the both of you make friends so easily

you guys became friends really quickly

and you would spend time outside of school and hang out

it tended to be indoor activities

because you didn’t like being outside

the both of you tended to be playing video games or watching movies

hyuck occasionally cooked and you helped him

and he would just make fun of you when you couldn’t do the right things

like cutting an onion

“y/n, you’re doing it wrong you’re terrible at this”

“channie,, pls shut up”

“YOURE GOING TO BURN YOURSELF Y/N”

“NO I WONT HAECHAN LET ME BE”

and then you do burn yourself

and youre there crying

but hyuck to the rescue

he’s so cute so like imagine him helping you

so he calms you down as your crying

and he just hums a soft tone

and his voice gets all soft and goes “its okay”

and he carefully tends your burn

and hes just

so :(( cute :(( and soft :((

but hes also  a little shit

so once he finishes helping you he goes

“i told you youd burn yourself but you never listen”

OKAY FAST FORWARD

you guys are seniors now

and it’s your last few months of school

this was around the time you guys start to get to know which colleges you get accepted into

so the thing about the soulmates hyuck already knew that you were his soulmate

he knew when he was at your house one day after school

the both of you were trying to make lunch for your father and brother

you decided to give them a treat

and the both of you were fooling around

so you were both messing around that you accidentally broke a bowl

and you father hears it from the living room

and he yells

 “Y/F/N Y/M/N Y/L/N”

and hyuck just freezes

his initial tattoo had three letters

and it was of course, your middle name

if you dont have a middle name im sorry but just go with it

and he just realized

that the feeling he had whenever he was with you

the feeling have happiness whenever you were around him

the way your laugh makes him smile

how your laugh is his favorite sound

how whenever you smile at him he gets butterflies and his heart squeezes

whenever you look at him in the eyes, hyuck just sees stars and thinks you have the most beautiful eyes out there

it was because you were both soulmates

and you didn’t know that yet

he knew the initials on your wrist was his

L.D. for lee donghyuck

but you didn’t know his first name

you only knew his last name and haechan

ever since then, hyuck was trying his best to lay low on his feelings

he was happier when he found out

he was with his soulmate and it was his best friend

he didn’t bother telling you though

he wanted fate to take its path and let you find out on your own

he’s been more affectionate to you

and you never really noticed

you just figured that was how haechan was

you did, of course eventually find out that donghyuck was haechan’s real name

it was at school

and the both of you were still in writing class

you had the same teacher and the both of you asked you teacher to do college recommendations for you

if you dont know what college recs are it basically a teacher writing about how you are at school for a higher chance to get into college

so you were leaving class without hyuck because he was out sick for the day

when your teacher calls your name

she gives you back your college recs and you look at haechans

and the name “lee donghyuck” was on the top

and you were confused and somewhat angry? relieved?

so when you went to visit him after school, with a bowl of your father’s soup

when you went into his room, you greeted him by asking him

“your first name is donghyuck?”

and hyuck just looks at you and smiles

“you finally figured it out?”

you passed him his college rec

“you know, you’ve been causing me a lot of internal problems”

you said somewhat a bit mad

hyuck gets up and walks a bit closer to you

“why’s that?”

you look up at him

“because,, i have been having a crisis for weeks”

you start to pace around his room

“because i’ve been so worried about this whole soulmate thing

i’ve been worried that i would never get to meet my soulmate

and when i do i wouldnt even like them

because of you”

hyuck walks to you

“me?”

“yes you

you’re always going around with your stupid little smile

and laughing your stupid little laugh

and the small little stupid things you do

you’re always so nice to me and you’re always cooking me food

you’re jokes always make me laugh

you always make my day and im worried that i wouldnt like my soulmate

because i like you

but now, here i am

your name, lee donghyuck, intials L.D. is on my wrist”

you take a big sigh

“i really hate you chan, you know that?”

hyuck smirks at you

“that was quite a confession y/n, but we both know you don’t hate mewe’re soulmates”

he shows you his initialsyour initials, with your middle name

“y/f/n y/m/n y/l/n”

and then you two start dating okay so before i end this bulleted au let me just say a cute little thing  i thought of as i was writing this

okay it’s the week before college starts

and you and hyuck were at your old town

hyuck decided to surprise you by driving you out into your old town so you can look at the stars

you cant really do that in the city

so he did it for you

so as you were both stargazing, hyuck calls out your name

“hey y/n”

“yes hyuck?”

you sit up to look at him he pulls out a small jewelry box

you open it to find a small sun pendant necklace

“hyuck,,,”

“i know we’re going to be a few hours away because of college, and i know that you don’t like the sun but i love the sun, like how i love you. you’re my sun. and i can be your moon”

you turned the pendant over and there was an engraving of the letter HH for haechan

H for donghyuck

H for your soulmate the name of your soulmate

H for haechan

[aellesaan]

Wandering’s in Mac’Aree: Part Three

Part 1

Part 2 

Aellesaan was sitting in an exhausted heap on the cold tiled floor. Her lungs burned for life giving oxygen, and her legs were wrapped in the distance burn only running could give. Out of nowhere, she began cackling. "This construct is toying with us. Dangling death in front of our faces like a toy to a new born Draenei, and he finds it humouros to the point he makes a death riddle!" By now she is clutching at her sides with laughter as she wheezes and curls up on herself. "The answer is a coffin. Ha! How witty he is." Aellesaan smirks as she attempts to stand up once she realizes the floor is wet, and to her surprise, rising. She eyes the water with curiosity as she walks over to the three objects to peer at them in hopes one is a coffin.

Phaelastra stood straight with her eyes narrowed. She didn’t like these Azerothian tricks, nor the strange voices that came along with them. For a moment, she flickered her gaze to Aellesaan, and tried not to show her amusement over her statements. “Death is natural. Nothing about this place is.”

Meanwhile, Akaepi remained sloshing through the water with sodden boots and her Hydra seemed agitated at best. Riddles were really not her thing, so there was a degree of gratefulness that someone else was answering; right or not. She gave no comment, silent and watching, though the cackling Draenei garnered little more than a roll of her eyes. The Curator gleamed a short amount of her attention, though primarily she studied their surroundings and kept watch. The last thing she wanted was someone ambushing or surprising them.

As Danarshi reached the top, he stumbled over towards the nearest wall, and laid a hand against it in order to support his weight. He took this time to try and re-balance himself. Unfortunately for Danarshi, he had, as per usual, chosen to wear a robe. As water appeared to rise from the very floor itself, the lower section of the robe was immediately drenched; this would weigh him down, without a doubt. Once the image of the Curator came into existence, he trudged through the flooded floor at a slow pace, and approached the supposed hologram. "Hm." Danarshi sounded at the closing death threat; his eyes were now skirting around, specifically at the water that they were standing in. "Do we have a magus among us?" he suddenly questioned, directed towards his kin.

Aellesaan meekly raised her small, scared hand. "Does a magus in training count?" Her face is blushing a deep hue of blue. Riddles she loved, but being put to the test with magic? Her eyes were as wide as a curious baby Draenei.

Danarshi's eyes landed upon Aellesaan as she responded to his query. He looked her down. "If you are able to teleport, yes,” he responded after a few seconds of pause. "If we are unable to locate an exit from this tower, we will need a secondary means of escape. If we are lucky, and there are no magical wards in place that bar such spells." he proceeded to explain. He would then fall back to silence to allow the mage the necessary time to respond, herself.

Aellesaan nodded at Danarshi. "I can do that much." She looked around the room at the others, and the steadily rising water level. "I myself would rather not drown today. Any objections to my educated guess at the answer? We must make haste."

Danarshi returned the nod to Aellesaan. Having an alternate means of escape could prove detrimental, indeed. He reverted his attention forward, where the three ominous containers laid, and then walked towards them, he stopped only once he stood a few feet in front of them.

Danarshi rubed at his chin in thought as he carefully examined the features of each object. Did one of them resemble a coffin? That is what he was, at the most part, trying to grasp. "Opening the correct container must involve the next riddle." he audibly hypothesized before returning his attention to Aellesaan. "Sister. I noticed your observation of the Curator's words. A coffin is certainly a plausible answer," he said as he nodded at her a second time. Danarshi ultimately turned back to face the three objects. He was hoping that he could get the opinion of others, as well, on the choice.(edited)

It certainly seemed like Aellesaan didn't skip a beat, even with the eeriness of the situation they found themselves in. Despite the somewhat gloomy surroundings, and the malevolence that seemed to radiate all around them, she kept herself on the ball already thinking of the possible solutions to the puzzle they faced. Her answer of which they would find in the room they were now in, a closed coffin, but how to use it was the question if they chose it going forward. As members of the group started to move around in the liquid that seemed to be coming from below them, they would realize and notice it was thicker, gluggier, and more sticky than they would have imagined water to be. The light produced by their torches, and Aellesaan’s magic, dim though as it was, would allow any of them, if they looked close enough, to see what it was for true: a dark red substance, thick, sloshing, and quickly staining the ends of poor Danarshi's robes with what, by all accounts, seemed to be blood.

With their choice made, even though they made no moves towards it, the coffin door swung open with a loud creaking noise which echoed around the room painfully, almost as if trying to summon something forward. The coffin inside was dark, and seemed to be deeper, much deeper, than it should. Almost as if expecting them to enter inside; the space was easily large enough to accommodate the entire group within it.

Akaepi stared that coffin down for a generously long moment. Oh, this was all damn vile and now they had to hop into some poor bastards grave. A less than joyful laugh fell over her lips, nudging Aellesaan in the ribs as she passed to peer in. "Well, I am certainly not getting younger waiting and the 'door' has opened for us." If there was ever a queen for stupid and possibly dangerous decisions, then it was this particular Rangari. "If this closes on me, please get me out." Her hand lifted and rubbed her own horns for that bit of extra luck before she stepped into the coffin and the corridor beyond it. Her hydra diligently followed, and only took just a few seconds longer to ram his poor frame through it. Well, if naught else happened, at least they died in a premade coffin. How considerate.

Aellesaan cackled deeply as she saw the coffin, and noticed the liquid seeping in appeared to be blood. The humour of it all just got deeper and deeper. Oh how much that tickled her fancy. "This construct has won my friendship; he is so much fun." Just to be sure, She dipped a finger into the liquid, and gave it a lick. "Tastes like blood to me. I wonder if this is the blood of everyone who has tried to enter before-" she was interrupted by a jab in the side from Akaepi who seemed to be leering at the coffin. She giggled at her nudge and her sly joke, no they certainly would not get younger. The blood had the foul metallic taste to it that the others would have wondered how she could be so carefree and positive about tasting it. Her finger was stained red with the colour now as Aellesaan stepped up close to the cupboard. As she hoped in, Aellesaan peered in after her, her body leaning almost inside. If someone were to push her…

The magus seemed to have shaken the quiet foreign rangari. Phaelastra was once again glad to have her traditional face mask on. With a small shiver, she turned her gaze straight ahead while trying to ignore the eerie feeling this place gave her. She awaited the others, allowing them to act ahead of her, as she wanted to at least be useful and guard their backs - just in case.

Akaepi shooted a small glance to Phaelestra and offered out a thumbs up in reassurance. She would have offered a smile but, alas, her face was fully covered by her helm. Nobody had died yet, but the mage with them seemed quite keen on licking up blood. That certainly churned Akaepi's stomach something fierce. "Eugh-..." Note to self: stay away from that one. She consumes blood and laughs at blood and well, possible death scenarios. Yea, the sharp conclusion was drawn that Aellesaan was probably crazy.

As the choice was made, and the coffin opened its door for them, Danarshi was hesitant to enter. The Anchorite could only shoot a stare of sheer disturbance at Aellesaan. Laughing at the face of potential death. Humoured over standing hoof-deep in blood. Tasting the blood. The last time he had seen such behaviour was with the criminal psychopaths of Stormwind City, and the insane necromancers of the Auchenai. Without muttering a word to the woman, despite his concern for her, he passed through the coffin at a slow pace. At least, if anything, they had company who could keep their spirits lifted... hopefully.

At seeing Danarshi also pass through unharmed, Aellesaan followed right behind him. She began humming in a low, creepy tune. "I wonder if the corpses of the others before us will be on the other side? I wonder what terrible fate they suffered. You know, that blood tasted an awful lot like pigs blood, as if it was only a scare tactic,” she kept rambling on as they waiting inside the dark, deep coffin.

It certainly seemed Akaepi paid no mind or heed as she wholeheartedly stepped into the coffin with all the care and consideration of a gnat. Even cracking wise jokes while she did so as she found herself in a comfortably large space considering. Perhaps out of all of them Phael was the most considerate of the situation they found themselves in. Her own response far more reasoned than the other two in the situation. When Danarshi too entered the coffin, leaving the others standing right on the precipice, a loud shriek was elicited. The sound of crunching ensued as the center of the floor suddenly exploded showering them with debris and rubble; littering their clothing and hair. An enormous black claw thrust through the very floor. Though not just black, but darkness itself, almost as if no light could penetrate it, as if it was a void; an anomaly in their world. “Stoppppppp,” Something down below bellowed as the coffin shut hard, and flung the others inside of it with brute force, leaving them squished and trapped in darkness. That was until a light slowly shown: tracing a shape as they sought to see it before finally taking substance as a Draenic skull which began to speak to them. “Ahh new toys? Wonderful it has been too long since I feasted on fresh blood. Bone marrow only soothes the hunger so much you know. One longs for fresh meat,” It chattered at them gleefully. “But like the others, I have to give you a chance. Answer me this true, and free you shall go,” it promised them. “Now what am I? When you need me, you never have me. When you don’t want me, I never seem to go away. I who conquer kings and tyrants, even your castles fall before me. On your deathbed you may only wish for me a little more, but never do I answer,” It told them satisfied it would win.

Aellesaan screeched as she was shoved into the coffin likes sardines with her kin. Was that a blade in front of her eyes? She poked it and quickly withdrew her hand with a painful yelp. As the skull appeared, she poked that too and compared it to the skull on the end of her staff. How intriguing. It was slimmer, yet it contained bigger eye sockets. How unproportional. When it moved, and it's jaw began emitting words, she peered at it even closer. "What magic reanimates you? What were you before you became a talking skull? How did you die?" She wiped a finger against it and licked her finger. "You taste like salt. Probably in order to preserve you for longer usage." She had obviously gotten side tracked from the riddle, which she did know the answer to.

Ash was staying quiet for the most part as he followed his fellow Draenei on the search for the sceptor. He wasn't much one for riddles, and figured he'd leave that up for the others. He was quite content eating the sandwich he had packed for the trip as he followed close behind. As debri started to rain around them, he managed to cover his sandwich with his hand, making sure not to get any dust on it, and was just walking forward into the coffin as it slamed shut. Which unfortunately pushed him forward and caused him to drop his sandwich "Son of a bitch!" The first words to come out of his mouth since he started following, alerting the others of his presence. "Aright, someone's gonna pay for that. That was my lunch!" He grumbled a bit, not liking being in such an enclosed space, even if it was with some rather fine looking Draenei women. "I swear to the light, if someone farts in here...". Ash had indeed been quite lucky when he was thrown in, Akaepi's hydra had not decided to drop a fat one, him being so close to it, he would have cropped the stench that would have erupted quite badly. He looks around, hearing the voice come from somewhere, but not seeing it past all the others. He furrows his brow a bit "We don't have time for this bullshit, just show us the way through here so I can get another sandwich. I'm starving, and there isn't exactly a food vendor around here."

Akaepi's heart startled, a faint yelp given at the sudden darkness, the hand, and then this talking skull. Though panic could only last for so long when anger and stupidity arose. The rangari briskly stepped forward to yank Aellesaan back with a hiss, "Keep yourself in check, this is hardly the time for the likes of games." She snapped, "Now can you answer the riddle or not? Because I certainly do not wish to die in a pitch black hole because my current company decided to lick the damn beast holding us here!" She wouldn't even start about the Vindicator snapping over food. By the light, she was going to stress vomit.

Aellesaan blinked, and then hissed at Akaepi. Closing her eyes to calm herself, she promptly spoke, "The answer is obviously time. As our new addition to the group stated as well. If one were more curious and willing to learn and listen, perhaps you would be better at riddles, hm?" A deep, long sigh escaped between her soft, light blue lips, and her sky blue eyes looked upon the skull once more. "I wish to study you one day, however we are on a mission. The answer to your simple riddle is time. Now please let us pass. Our new addition sounds rather hungry now that you rudely made him drop his sandwich, and I would rather not have him go on a killing rampage simply because he's too hungry and could not better prepare."

"I would be careful who you are insulting." The Rangari snapped back with a bare of teeth, clearly not taking well to the blatant slander thrown her way. "We are on a mission, yes, so perhaps you should take this more seriously than it appears you are. This is no time to be licking BLOOD and acting as if we are on some leisurely stroll. This has nothing to do with learning; we have a task at hand." With such spoken, she merely stepped aside with a hard glare fixated on her face. The rest of her expression was hidden, but likely just as sour.

Aellesaan's eyes went wide at Akaepi, but she didn't say a word back to her. Quietly under her breath though, you could make out the words 'anger problems' and 'calm'. Aellesaan would definitely be staying away from that one.

Ash calmed down as the others walked forward and he realized they were not in an enclosed coffin, but in a larger room. As Aellesaan approached the skull, he finally saw where the disembodied voice was coming from before he looked down, and saw his sandwich lying on the blood soaked floor. With a frown again, he lifted up one of his hooves and inspected them, stained red from wading through the blood. "Hey, do you guys think my hooves will stay like this? This looks bad ass." He looks back up as the two start bickering, and raises a brow. "Hey now, calm your tits, this is no place to start fighting, especially amongst each other." Now that he didn't have his sandwich to occupy his mouth, he was being far more vocal, having been quiet enough that no one had noticed him until now.  He looks at the skull that Aellesaan is speaking with, and walks forward "Listen, you mouthy little paper weight, she answered your stupid riddle, now let us through, or I'll use your teeth as a butt scratcher."

As Ash approached the skull, Aellesaan tilted her head in curiosity, watching them like a predator watches its prey.

A grunt from the normally stealthy Phaelastra is quite enough to voice how displeased she is to be in this situation. But other than this, she’d been relatively quiet - until now. “... from what I understand, teeth don’t make a good butt scratcher.” Her tone is flat, with the slightest hint of amusement.

With Phael's comment one would only be bound to question how and why she might know this as fact. Being as obscure as it was, it certainly wasn’t the kind of knowledge you simply learned at school as a kid. She may indeed have quite some explaining to do if anyone questioned her on that sort of activity. The skull was surprised and infuriated at the woman before him's actions, never having felt so disrespected and attacked in his life, the way she manhandled, poked, and even licked him made him splutter and chatter his teeth angrily. "What.. ahh.. ugh.. damn... You.. stupid... HOW DARE YOU LICK THE GREAT AND POWERFUL UZI'REKT! I should be worshiped as a god, not treated as some curiosity or interest!" He responded back furiously. "I am the great Archimonde's personal conjurer.. I who serve him in all things, for all eternity..." He told them, seemingly he didn't realize he was not alive any longer.

The skull peered forward out of the door, seeming to stretch and elongate. "Is that your answer?" It asked excitedly trying to throw them off with his comment before snapping back as it groaned. "How did you get it....fine.  You win. You get to live." It complained before disappearing, and plunging them into complete darkness. They would feel themselves fall forwards, likely ending up all over one anothers business before feeling a rush and pressure as the coffin started to slide along, and slide along fast, whizzing forwards as it seemed to be moving along  a track, circular and climbing, as if going up. The trip as they tumbled, rolled and fell around inside, took near four minutes before it popped free, coming upright as what they had thought to be a back wall slide open, sliding down into the floor, to reveal a brightly lit room. It was a few hundred metres long, with a pedastool at the end of it, and perhaps that was their prize, they were certainly away from the monster that had been below at any rate.

[cheswirls]

a quick sum-up of che’s future career plans, bc reasons

im halfway through the dive!! anime show that came out this summer season, and i’m having a lot of thoughts, and plus i finished going through all the footage i missed today of skate america while i was at a bball game, and it’s made me realize different things i guess? 

it might be mid-long length so its going under a cut, but to gain intereststart off, this is all about my desire to be an athletic trainer for the usa olympic center at colorado springs, co !

ive been an at(now when you see that abb. you know what it means hah!! not assistant teacher hmm) student since my freshman year of high school, and i’ve loved it a whole bunch. back then i was set on going to columbia U for their writing program, and i wanted to major in graphic design afterwards/during/it wasnt super planned out i was a fr. i didnt know what bfa or mfa stood for yet. it wasnt until end of sophomore year than i thought about being an at for realsies.

but i also still loved gd. so there was a confliction there.

junior year i took a break from working volleyball in the fall and did my one and only year of football and it was terrible primarily bc the team i worked with didnt know how to function as a group and half the group were selfless bitch whores but like thats another storyyy, secondly bc i jus really discovered i didnt care abt football at all. it was mostly for the experience and i gained it and i liked it bc i hung out w a lot of people from helping out w varsity (i was one of two our of the five juniors that had been there since my fr year and was only on jv bc it was my first year w football, but one of the seniors had to work a bunch so when they needed an extra person i was the one w the most experience so i was w them a lot,) point was it was fun!!! and you have fun w ppl you like that you dont work w all the time and i shouldnt say fun bc lots of times it was awful,

basically! it was fun being w the varsity trainers which were the seniors and the other junior that had been around since fr year. volleyball was fun but it had always been a one-at-student-per-team sport , so it was different jus being w other ats that shared the same team and not the same sport(which in the us is made up of at least three different teams, a fr,jv,and varsity). it was a more open environment and so it inspired a lot of talk with the at grad students we had that semester (we got 3-4 every semester in a partnership w the D1 uni in town, it was always cool to hear stories from them!) and anyway i remember talking w a couple of the grads one practice and we were discussing all the different occupations athletic trainers could have, and what they wanted to work with in the future, and the topic veered towards professional sports and the olympics.

i thought it was really cool when we were talking about it, and then we got busy and it flew out of my mind. i dont remember when it came back and became a focus, but sometime before my senior year, i had decided i wanted to work at the olympic level.

real quick i mentioned gd and the struggle, so to bring that into focus, my junior year i took a whole bunch of different tech classes (gd&i, compsci, webtech) and in one of those, i had the opportunity to go to a ... i cant remember what the term was for it, but it was kinda an event for gd students and it had a little competition and stuff, and it was really fun! nd you got a lot of info abt the community college hosting it and i learned their program was really good, so the gd versus at internal struggle continued, and i remember talking to my sponsor teacher (she actually taught all three of my tech classes that year aaa i loved her) about how i didnt know what to do and shit and i dunno what she told me but like, i think she was trying to be encouraging but she basically said it was up to me, like she didnt try and nod me into a direction, that i can recall.

so SOMEHOW bc i honestly cannot remember, by senior year i’ve decided that im gonna jus fuck it and pick BOTH and double major in gd and athletic training. AND i had it all planned out, where i was gonna get a degree in gd and open up an online business, and then go into a masters program for at and then enter into the olympic field. 

by this point creative writing is still cool and a great hobby but i couldnt possibly double major AND have a minor that’d be too much. id still love to take a cw course tho one day.

basically a buncha crazy stuff happened that first semester but by winter break i had an acceptance letter to a uni a couple hours north of home with a good accredited undergrad program (accredited basically means you graduate w a masters in four years so its fasttracked which woulda been great but uh..) and by the time i found out that next semester that they were doing away with the accredited program i was already too emotionally invested to consider panic-switching(panic bc it was february and id already been admitted hah...) but i decided it’d be okay. basically if you dont remember/werent around one of my school’s head ats died in a car crash died around early october ‘16. she went to undergrad where i go now, and i’d talked to her about it september that semester wondering if she knew anything abt their program and uh surprise, she’d done the same program small world. after the funeral in november and a ton of thought i applied there. (november was.. crazy in general last year. rly crazy)

may was when i started adding on sports to the future olympics job, bc i started thinking about it and after finally getting a friend to watch yuri on ice, he started making his was through all of sochi’s figure skating stuff, and then the 2010 vancouver olympics, and i decided i wanted to recap a bit on that too.

the 2010 olympics was really my first experience with figure skating. i’m a west texas gal and so theres not a lot out here to get exposed to, so seeing these best-of-the-best class sports was fun, and the earliest experience i can remember of such. i was in fifth grade so i dont remember a ton, but i do remember being captivated by korea’s yuna kim, who won gold that year in fs. shes an fs legend at this point, so if you’re into figure skating and don’t know who she is, go look her up. you wont be disappointed.

in 2012 was the london olympics. i remember a lot from it, like watching the opening ceremony with my parents and seeing the queen jump out of a helicoptor(which is like,, still cool to this day wow) and being fascinated my michael phelps and all the swimming he did so grandly. it was also my first real exposure to diving. the oldest i could recall anything abt the sport was at a pizza hut somewhere.. in town i think, and i was w my best friend at the time and my mom was there so i think maybe we were on the way back from the lake??? sounds right, i think. and we were talking abt how i always held my nose when i went underwater bc i didnt know how to not get water all up my nostrils and be underwter(and i still dont to this day aha) and she mentioned like, joining a diving team would be cool! would help me get over it and all! and i like recalling it dunno what she was talking abt bc we lived in dirt city nothing so i highly doubt there was or is any sort of diving sport happening. swimming, yeah maybe, there were lessons at pools and bodyworks areas around town, competitive teams im not sure tho, but not diving like at all so??? dunno.

so my next and technically first real experience with it was watching the london olympics. and i thought, wow, this is so neat!! i watched from that one day like the opening events, and i think i was old enough to search online like yea i had a laptop by then so i looked up the schedule for the things i wanted to see most of, and i ended up watching i think most of the diving events (i missed a couple for.. archery, i think? maybe?) and absolutely loving it. iunno what it was, maybe something i never thought i could do?(bc not hold my nose?? while i dove???????? scaryy) but i enjoyed it a bunch.

i was older when sochi was a thing, my 8th grade year. i was able to appreciate things a lot more. when i tuned into events, tony hawk and snowboarding were the main focus, but figure skating was on a lot as well. i had a tv in my room by that point, so if i didnt like what was playing on the main tv, i could go watch another event. i learned a lot of names and faces through that, and so while my bff was watching it our senior year if i was with him id point out skaters and their nationalities and stuff, like yuzuru hanyus always been a modern day household name w figure skating, but i leanred abt him BECAUSE of the sochi olympics, and he was one of the ones i’ve never forgotten. i really really liked it, so much that i watched worlds after, and around the same time my fr year, i tuned in to just the worlds championship again. i didn’t pick up trying to watch grand prix(which is their regular season, for those unaware) season until my junior year, and most of it was day-or-two-late videos from youtube, since the ice channel i think it a paid-for thing (i still dont know much abt it hah) and nothing was on tv otherwise, aside from the skate america event. but since that first time after sochi, ive always been around watching worlds fs near the beg of each year. i’d familiarized myself by senior year with the fs world, and actually,

early (i think march?) of my junior year, i searched up trying to find a figure skating anime at the time. and what did i find?? ginban, the only figure skating anime at the time. i watched like maybe all of one episode, it was abt a girl who shared her body w the ghost of a former figure skater while she was competing in events, and it was.. okay? lackluster, in the animation dept, but it was a 2005 show so.. yeah.

so after that i was like kk that wasnt good lets find another. and i didnt. not yet, anyway. instead, i found an announcement for violet evergarden’s animated adaptation, and yuri on ice, a realistic adaptation of the sport of figure skating. thats bolded bc its important. i found that shit abt yoi before it even had a promo poster, certainly before the pv came around that got everyone hyped up. i found it bc i was looking for figure skating in the first place. in fact, i think when the pv came out and got popular, i didnt even relate it to the upcoming fs anime i’d read about previously. it took me a bit to connect the dots. 

watching yuri on ice at the same time as the gp 2016 season was surreal, but really interesting. i got my bff into it before the second to last episode came out, and i only remember that bc he finally showed any interest when he found something on twitter abt it being gay (newsflash/// hes gay, and before yoi his fav show was no6 bc that was as close as it got. he still rly likes it, we both do, but his solid favc is now definitely yoi. representation matters and all) and was like well now i HAVE to watch it and i was all yes it ends soon so pls. and he watched it twice in a weekend, and thrice before the finale came out, and then a few more times after that, iunno how many times but certainly more thn i have(i went back after the .. maybe ep 10? w/e ending had the after party reveal that changed everything, so i went back to analyze everything before the next ep) and between the week of 11 and finale 12, he started watching the sochi fs competition, and then the 2010 after the show ended w ep 12. 

seeing this great fs show and getting a friend into the world of figure skating really renewed my love for it all. before the semester went out i went back and watched the reruns of the sochi fs stuff. and by may i’d decided i wanted to cosider that to be the sport i worked with.

with diving, it took a similar twist. in the form of the rio 16 olympics. i was all over that shit, i downloaded an nbc app on my phone so i could watch events live while i traveled with volleyball to a tournament in dallas and while i was at practice w them at home and generally jus away from the house and a tv. i planned that shit out had a schedule and everything for what i was watching live, and a lot of it was swimming, but a whoooole lot of live stuff was the diving. 

in the hotel room in dallas the tv would always be on to w/e olympics events were airing at the time, either track or diving tho, one or the other, or recaps. quite a few girls ended up in the room in the evening and we’d all do stuff and watch in passing at the same time, and it was suuuuuper fun. watching the chinese women perform flawlessly and walk away w all the gold was fun, but finding a good commentator to actually say such was a disheartening challenge( one of the most memorable moments w live commentary that year was hearing a woman say of one of the chinese ladies that she’d done better before, after they revealed her personal best score ever like rly cmon be unbiased and jus passionate abt the sport youre covering pls.

ive always been super fond of the diving scene. it may not be as much as fs, but honestly, i wish i grew up in an area w a diving team now, or wish i could try it out now, bc thats how much fun it seems. i still wanna go up to the big city like 30min away from uni and learn to ice skate in the civic center there, but hands down if i had to pick a sport to join tomorrow or die i’d pick diving. 

so also by may, and throughout the culmination of senior year, diving was the second sport on the olympic to-train-for list. you get a five-year contract w the olympics, now i think it’s usa as a whole and i think its by center so say, if i get a job in colorado springs i cant apply in another five years to chula vista or even like lake placid, but iunno for sure. the five-year thing is involved somehow bc i’ve heard it from a physical therapist and trainer-that-works-in-a-sports-med-clinic duo in one body named sarah, who’s been contracted out from the clinic by my high school since junior year also, bc she knows people who’ve worked w the olympics, and then another from church that worked w olympics that knows my family uh iunno how well but i know of him, i think he also works in the clinic as some sort of on-hand surgeon but a diff person than who sarah knew. so its five years somehow and then i’ll take my bfa in gd and open my online business and do that from a studio at home and look after my owl/cat pet combo.

since may, it had been ‘olympics, with either figure skating or diving’. and it stayed that for a long time. now, since a couple weeks ago, and this is again while gp season is happening for fs, its diving. i wanna work w the usa olympic diving team as their team athletic trainer, and i cant do it this summer bc i have to have completed two years of uni, instead of a certain standing, like be a junior, but so NEXT summer, before my senior year of uni, (i came in a sopho so 6 sem only ah) i’m applying for an internship at the center in colorado springs, and that’s the team i hope i work with. 

now i tell people, diving, but if i get offered figure skating, i’ll take it, but diving is the goal now. if i love it and wanna continue professionally, great, i can do that and have an online gd shop. and if i decide i want something different? i’ll work olympics and then join w a professional-level figure skating i actually dunno how it works. coach, and their skater in turn. coach, with multiple skaters under them. a culmination of diff usa skaters. w/e, something in the professional fs world.

and thats uh, thats it! dive has been so much fun to watch, and i realize i talk a lot on here about working w basketball and being an at student in general and the vast majority have no idea what i mean, so hopefully this clarifies. thank you!!