#also the bridge is right next to a playground. two children stopped to watch someone else take the video of him jumping into the river.

[sableeira]

based on a real interaction

Dazai: hey, Atsushi can you take a video of me?

Atsushi: sure what do you want me to take a video of, Dazai-san?

Dazai: I want you to take a video of me jumping off this bridge into the water.

Atsushi: HUH?!?

Dazai: don’t worry! I jumped off this bridge before!

Atsushi: how exactly is that supposed to make me worry less?

Dazai: I even tested how shallow the water is!

Atsushi: you mean, you tested out that the water isn’t too shallow, right?

Dazai: …

Atsushi: RIGHT?

[janeofcakes]

Soulmate: How John Met Sherlock...Again  Chapter 2

Hello, my friends! I come to you today knowing there is but one burning question in your minds today: What will Gracie and Olive get up to next? Okay, maybe two: When the hell will John and Sherlock meet, Jane? Tell me. Tell me now! Haha. Patience, my lovelies. You know I can't write a story without stringing you along for a while first. I am very firmly on the naughty list and like our dear friend, Martin Freeman I cannot abide being on anyone's nice list. Mwahaha.

I also wanted to say that the next few chapters are not as long as the first. There was so much to get through in that one. I hope you aren't disappointed. The good news is my typing and editing are going well so I should be able to keep my weekend schedule. Hooray!Happy reading. Jane

----

Gracie casts a side look at Olive from where she sits on the jungle gym. It is afternoon break and the two girls just climbed frantically up the poles and bars to sit at the top for a rest after running themselves ragged all over the playground pretending to be Nancy Drew and George Fayne solving a mystery. Every day since Monday has gone more or less the same way. They play together for morning break, talk at lunch and play again in the afternoon. They write notes on one another’s notebooks during lessons, but manage not to disrupt class or miss instruction. It has been a truly amazing first week of school, better than Gracie could have ever imagined.

Gracie looks at Olive again and feels her throat swell. It’s like she has known Olive forever. They seem to always understand each other and be in perfect sync. Gracie has talked about nothing else at home and has even dreamed about playing with Olive each night. Olive has told her all kinds of things about London and its history. Tower Bridge, London Bridge, the National Theatre, but what Gracie is most interested in seeing is the Tower of London. She asked her father just last night if they could go sometime to see the old castle and the crown jewels. She can’t wait to see and do everything, and it would be even better if Olive could come along for some of it. London is much more exciting than Bath ever was, hands down!

“Gracie,” Olive begins in a lazy tone, “how do you feel about bees?”

Turning to face her friend fully, Gracie furrows her brow and frowns. Olive does not react to the movement and continues looking at something in the distance, or perhaps at nothing at all. Gracie says nothing at first, wondering if Olive had been talking before and all Gracie heard was the bee question. The taller girl finally turns her head and fixes the blonde with an inquisitive gaze. Gracie frowns as she considers the question. She is not really partial to any insect, nor is she upset by them. 

“They’re all right, I guess,” Gracie shrugs. “They make honey, so there’s that.”

“Mm…” Olives hums in approval. “True.”

Gracie raises her brows, every inch of her face asking ‘What are you on about?’. Olive blinks and seems to realize she was lost in her own mind, leaving Gracie with absolutely no context for the question.

“That’s what my dad wants to do when he retires,” Olive explains. “Beekeeping. In Sussex, probably.”

Oh no. This can’t be happening. Gracie just met Olive and had the best week of her life and now she’s going to lose her to bees?!

“You’d leave London then?” Gracie chokes on the words, not even trying to hide her distress.

“Yeah,” Olive answers absently, playing with the end of her long braid. “He says they’re fascinating.”

Gracie’s whole body tenses and her stomach roils. She feels sick and a bit dizzy when she glances away from Olive to a girl laughing wildly on the swings. It’s like a bad dream spiraling out of control to the soundtrack of that girl’s mad laughter. Gracie bites her lip hard to ground herself and looks back at Olive.

“Is he close to retiring?” Gracie forces out, beads of sweat beginning to collect at her temples.

“What? No,” Olive huffs a laugh and looks at Gracie again. “He’s definitely old, but not ancient. He has too much fun working anyway. Hey, are you okay?”

“Fun?” Gracie asks incredulously, ignoring her friend’s inquiry. “At a crime scene?”

“Oh, yeah, he loves it,” Olive laughs, seeing Gracie begin to relax. “He loves a good mystery. Locked room murders are his favorite.”

“Wow,” Gracie mutters, only half understanding what that means.

“He used to have a partner, you know,” Olive adds with a grin. “He loved it even more then.”

“So he had his own Clue Crew?” excited energy vibrates through Gracie’s body as she pictures a grown up and male version of Olive with a man and woman posed behind him like on Charlie’s Angels. Gracie’s dad loves old shows and movies, so she has seen her fair share. James Bond is his favorite. She makes a note to ask Olive if she has ever seen any of them.

“Not a crew,” the brunette corrects. “Just the one partner. They solved all kinds of cases together. They were best friends.”

“Like us?”

“Yep, exactly like us,” Olive says with a flash of teeth. Gracie grins too and is about to ask about Bond when something else pops to the forefront of her mind.

“Oh! It’s like my dad’s bedtime stories!” Gracie blurts eagerly. “Sam Williams and Dean Jensen. They’re best friends and solve crimes together. That’s how I got started on Nancy Drew in the first place. Dad’s read some of the old ones to me.”

“Really?” Olive cries. “Oh! Oh! Mystery of the 99 Steps?”

“That’s my favorite!” Gracie shrieks, her hands flying to her cheeks.

“Mine too!” Olive gasps.

“Girls,” the teacher on duty calls up to them from the ground below. They look down at her, all wide eyes and smiles. “Time to go back inside.”

They climb down as the teacher walks away to tell other kids. The two girls bound towards the school, slowing to a walk as they get closer. Gracie feels something brush against her hand and glances at it just in time to see Olive’s longer fingers wrap around it. She shifts her wide eyes to her friend’s, barely able to contain her joy.

“We should get our dads to read us the same old Nancy Drew book, a chapter each night,” Olive tells her conspiratorially. “Then we can compare notes the next day and see if we can solve it before Nancy.”

“That’s the best idea!” Gracie crows. “We can figure out which one during library time.”

“And then you check it out,” Olive says decisively. “Mrs. Hudson has all of them. I can borrow it from her.”

“Ok,” Gracie agrees, already knowing so much about Olive’s godmother that she doesn’t even question the woman would have the whole series. Honestly, Gracie wants to meet her almost as much as she wants to meet Olive’s detective father.

The two girls giggle for a moment at their new plan and then skip into the school building.

***

Saturday afternoon finds Gracie hand in hand with Candace McCleary, a nanny John handpicked while Gracie was still in Bath. They met the day after Gracie arrived last week and she instantly fell in love with Candace, much to John’s relief. Candace would not be a live-in nanny, but is employed like one. John needs her to get Gracie from school and stay with her until he gets home in the evenings. He also needs her to be available at a moment’s notice for when an emergency, like the birth of a baby, arises. John had warned his daughter after Angela Taylor’s check-up on Wednesday that he thought the baby would come early and probably at a most inconvenient time. Sure enough, he received the call just as he started lunch. Gracie was disappointed that her first trip to Hanover Gate Children’s Playground in Regent’s Park would be without her father, but was still over the moon when Candace was happy to take her. She had been looking forward to it almost all week.

“Oh my gosh!” Gracie exclaims as she and Candace approach the playground. There is equipment everywhere to climb and swing on and slide down. Gracie immediately decides the sandpit is first on her list. A tall tree stands in its center with wooden bridges and walkways built all around it. Rope ladders and nets offer admittance and there is even a hammock to sit on. “Candace, this is amazing! This is the best park ever!”

“Why don’t you jump right in?” the woman laughs. “I’ll just be right on this bench if you need me.”

Candace points to an empty green bench as she speaks and starts heading for it before someone else claims it. Gracie calls out her agreement and makes a b-line for the nearest rope ladder. She is up it in seconds and running across a bouncy bridge, laughing all the way. She runs the whole course, turns right back around and does it again. There are quite a few kids in this part of the park, but it’s still easy to work her way around them. After a few more laps on the equipment, a small group of kids asks Gracie to play tag. She recognizes them from school and accepts.

A good hour later, two of the kids have to go home and Gracie is exhausted. She begs off, having had her mind set on playing in the sand since she and Candace got there. Plopping down in a shady spot, she plunges her hands beneath the beige and brown grains. The sand is cool and dry and feels soft in between her fingers, not like the rough sand that is sometimes used in parks. It’s like the white sand from a beach. She has half a mind to pull her shoes off and let her feet sink into its depths. Gracie closes her eyes and wiggles her fingers, feeling the sand move around them like a favorite blanket. She opens her eyes as she curls her fingers around the tiny grains and watches them slip through when she lifts her hands. 

Gracie does this again and again until she grabs a stick and begins to drag it through the sand like a plow. At one point, she makes a short trench and plants sunflower seeds and raisins from the snack baggy in her pocket. She pats the sand with satisfaction after covering them and looks toward the bench where Candace sits. She waves and her nanny waves back. Gracie giggles and gets to her knees, but stops when a figure just sitting down on the hammock suddenly blocks her view of Candace.

“What the…” Gracie mutters, her mouth falling open in disbelief. She gets to her feet and runs straight for the rope hammock and its occupant, who hears her footfalls and looks up with blue-grey eyes.

“Gracie!” Olive cries in surprise as her friend trips in the sand and drops face-first next to the hammock. “Gracie?”

“I’m okay,” the blonde girl declares, pushing herself up and standing quickly. The two girls lock eyes and start laughing. “What are you doing here?”

“We come every weekend,” Olive replies, pulling Gracie onto the woven rope. “Our flat’s just that way.”

“Really?” Gracie gasps with a delighted squeak. She points in the opposite direction. “Mine’s that way.”

“No way!” Olive shouts with glee. “That’s amazing! I had no idea we lived so close.”

“I know right,” Gracie exclaims, beginning to rock the hammock a bit. Olive unfolds her legs to hang them down and help push. “What are the odds?”

“Well,” Olive considers, adopting her contemplative face. Gracie knows instantly that a deduction is coming. She giggles and her smile widens as she watches her best friend. “Since we go to the same school, it seems fairly likely that we would live close together because it’s usually based on geography. However, it’s a bit different with public school. Kids can come from all parts of London as long as they have the money to pay.”

“Oh my god,” Gracie can barely contain her excitement and she stamps a foot on the ground a few times. “We could play here every weekend! I’m sure I could get Dad to bring me.”

“Yes! Let’s set it up now,” Olive sits up straight, ready to jump off the netting. “Is your dad here?”

“No, he had to deliver a baby,” Gracie rolls her eyes. Olive makes a dismissive noise that sounds like she just opened an air-tight container and sinks back into the hammock “Exactly. I mean, babies are important and all, but now he has to wait another week to see all this.”

Gracie swings her arms out wide and tilts her head skyward before flopping unceremoniously onto her back. Olive lets herself tip backwards as well and they soon lie side by side, looking up at the clouds. Gracie points out one that looks like a panda and proceeds to tell her friend all sorts of facts about pandas.

“I even have a panda,” she finishes.

“You do?” Olive asks, her eyes widen with wonder. 

“Since I was three,” Gracie nods. “She’s my favorite stuffie. She’s called Pandy and I sleep with her every night.”

“I have a bee,” Olive says without hesitation. “I call him Wellington, sometimes Wellies for short.”

“Do you like bees as much as your dad does?” Gracie is curious because Wellington might have been a gift like Pandy was, but it certainly sparked her interest in pandas. 

“I don’t think anyone could like them as much as Dad,” Olive huffs a laugh, “but yeah, I definitely like them too. It’s amazing how they make honey and their whole society and all.”

“Wow. Would you tell me?” Gracie fixes her with a serious gaze and licks her lips. “I loooove honey.”

“Sure, and you can tell me more about pandas,” Olive grins and points to a medium-sized cloud. “That one looks like a catapult.”

Gracie cocks a brow and follows her finger to a cloud that, amazingly enough, does resemble a rudimentary catapult.

The afternoon passes as the two girls tell each other stories and make up new games, their favorite being pirates sailing their hammock boat across the sea to a mysterious island. They leave their spot at this point to explore sandy beaches, nearly being vanquished by a giant hippo and almost losing Olive beneath quicksand. Gracie keeps her head about her and is always within Candace’s line of sight, and it’s a good thing too because the two girls are interrupted as tea time nears.

“I knew I’d find you here,” a low rumble of a voice comes from behind Gracie where she sits facing Olive. They have just dug up a treasure of sunflowers and raisins, a very valuable find on the sea. Their eyes grow wide as a menacing laugh fills the air around them. Gracie swallows hard and turns slowly to see the towering silhouette of a man in a billowy black coat. She shields her eyes, but with the sun behind him, she cannot make out his features. He probably has an eye patch and everything.

“What are you doing on my island?” the man demands as he steps closer. Gracie gasps and pushes herself backwards toward Olive to get away from the dark figure only just coming into focus.

“Hi, girls. Is everything okay?” Candace McCleary asks from the right and Gracie glances at her gratefully. Her trusty companion must have bolted from her park bench as soon as the giant appeared. Now she stands alert as though ready to pounce and Gracie breathes a sigh of relief. She hadn’t even seen this man until it was too late. Gracie grits her teeth and silently berates herself as her father’s words about being observant come to mind.

“Uhhh…” Gracie finds her voice, but it comes out as a meek croak. Meanwhile, Olive leaps up next to her and runs for the figure with open arms. Gracie gapes, sure she is about to see her friend eaten before her very eyes.

“Daddy!” Olive cries, launching herself into the man’s arms. Gracie blinks and it is like a cloud has moved from where it had covered the sun. The giant, no longer in the shadows, transforms into a tall man wearing a nice suit with no tie and a long coat. Gracie finds herself marveling at the fact that he doesn’t appear to be hot in the slightest and momentarily wonders if he has ice in his pockets, but stops all speculation when she sees his face. Angles and cheeks like Olive, dark curls and the same grey eyes that seem to change from green to blue and back. The corners of Gracie’s mouth turn up and a sense of ease washes over her.

“Is it time to go already?” Olive is speaking at a mile a minute. “We only just started playing pirates. Can Gracie come home with us? We’re having Thai for dinner. I bet she’ll like it.”

The tall man chuckles at his daughter and the sound is like a really warm blanket, soft and comfy. He glances at Candace and settles his gaze on Gracie. She bristles for a moment at those all-seeing eyes. It’s true they are like Olive’s, but much wiser. Gracie has the feeling he is learning much more from just watching her than anyone else can. She’s not entirely sure how she feels about that, but supposes it’s why Olive is so perceptive and she loves her. Besides, this is her dad. Gracie feels like she knows him already after all the stories she has heard.

“Ah, so this is the infamous Gracie,” Sherlock says surreptitiously with a look in Olive’s direction. The girl smiles broadly and nods while Gracie smiles a little timidly. His chin dips in greeting. “I’ve heard a great deal about you.”

“I know a lot about you too,” Gracie replies as she rises, finding her tenacity again.

“Of that, I have no doubt,” Sherlock answers. He turns his attention to Candace, who still looks a touch uneasy. “And this is your friend?”

“Yeah,” Gracie confirms enthusiastically. “This is Candace.”

She jumps up and grabs Olive’s hand, pulling her toward the young woman.

“And this is Olive,” she exclaims.

“Oh,” the last traces of suspicion vanish from Candace’s eyes and she gestures at the girls. “Of course. You’re Olive. Gracie has been telling me about you all week.” “And this is my dad,” Olive introduces. “Sher…”

“William,” Sherlock interrupts, offering his hand. Candace steps forward and takes it in a firm shake. “Will.”

“Nice to meet you,” Candace replies, not noticing the quizzical look on Olive’s face, but Gracie sees. She also sees Sherlock glance at his daughter and communicate something that clears the confusion from Olive’s mind in an instant. Gracie tilts her head in thought, considering this new information. She and John can do that sometimes too. It makes her that much more certain that Olive is meant to be her best friend.

“It’s quite a coincidence them meeting in the park like this,” Candace is saying when Gracie emerges from her thoughts. “Do you live around here?”

“Yes, just on Baker Street,” Sherlock answers politely, but with a tinge of the tone Olive has when she mutters that something is obvious. Gracie lets out a quick giggle.

“Oh, right,” Candace nods with a friendly smile. “That’s not far at all. Maybe we’ll see you here again.”

“I wouldn’t doubt it,” Sherlock looks down at the two girls, both of which are very excited. Olive is almost dancing in place and Gracie would swear she needed the toilet if she didn’t know better. “We’re here every Saturday just after lunch.”

“Perfect,” Candace says. “That’s about when we arrived. I’ll let her father know too. He’ll usually be the one who brings her.”

“He had a baby to deliver,” Gracie supplies. “He’s a doctor.”

“So Olive tells me,” Sherlock tells her with a certain mirth in his tone. “I would very much like to meet him, especially now that I’ve met you.”

“He’s wanted to all week,” Olive exclaims, giving Gracie’s hand a squeeze. “Ever since the first day.”

“I just can’t believe we ran into each other like this,” Candace declares, still a little dumbfounded.

Gracie doesn’t hear Sherlock’s response because Olive leans in close to whisper in her ear how great it will be when their fathers meet. The blonde nods her head vigorously and they laugh together quietly.

“Oh my, it’s nearly tea time,” Candace says to her watch. “I have to get her home. Are you ready, Gracie?”

“I guess so,” the girl pouts. She throws her arms around Olive in a huge hug. “I can’t wait to see you on Monday.”

Gracie gasps and looks at Olive with wide eyes, her hands still clamped around her arms.

“I’m going to write you a special note tomorrow and make a comic with my favorite markers,” she announces with glee. “They smell like strawberries and grapes and stuff.”

“Oh, wow!” Olive hoots. “I’ll make one of my maps for you.”

“It could be of this park!” Gracie shouts as Candace’s mobile sounds. She pulls it from her pocket and glances at its screen, pressing the surface to turn off the alarm.

“We really have to be going,” Candace says apologetically. “It was so nice to meet you both.”

“And you as well,” Sherlock dips his chin in farewell as Candace takes Gracie’s hand and leads her away.

“Bye, Gracie!” Olive calls, waving madly.

“Bye!” the blonde shouts back.

Olive waves for a good thirty seconds and then turns to face her father with her arms crossed over her chest. She raises a brow expectantly and Sherlock knows precisely why, but says nothing.

“Let’s go, shall we?” he begins walking toward home, knowing she will follow. “I believe Mrs. Hudson is making fresh biscuits.”

“What was that about, Dad?” Olive asks in disbelief, already matching his steps. “Why William?”

“You know I use aliases at times,” Sherlock replies without looking at her.

“Yeah, for cases, but these aren’t criminals,” Olive insists. “These are my friends.”

“I know, love,” he turns his head to see her earnest expression looking up at him. “I just don’t want to prejudice Gracie’s father.”

“What’s prejudice?” Olive furrows her brow as she repeats the word.

“Well, you know my profession can be dangerous,” Sherlock begins.

“Yeah…” Olive says slowly, eyeing him curiously.

“A lot of people know that because they see my name in the media,” he explains. “I don’t want Gracie’s father to hear my name and assume Gracie will be in danger. I’m concerned he will get the wrong impression and feel uncomfortable about you being friends.”

“Oh,” Olive says flatly as if she hadn’t considered that. They walk in silence for a moment until she speaks up again. He knew she would. She is too smart and inquisitive not to have follow-up questions. “So what are you going to do when we’ve been friends for months and it’s time to tell them your real name? Say ‘By the way, my name is really Sherlock Holmes.’?”

Sherlock gives her a withering look and says nothing. Her jaw drops and she shoves him lightly.

“Dad! You can’t NOT tell them,” Olive insists. She bends at the knees slightly to emphasize the word not. “It’s dishonest. Dad, it’s lying.”

“Sometimes we lie for the greater good,” Sherlock tells her curtly.

“Now you sound like Mycroft,” Olive sneers and that stops Sherlock dead in his tracks. He turns to face her, dropping into a squat and meeting her eyes.

“I would do anything for you, Olive,” he says sincerely, resting his hands on her shoulders. She curls the corner of her mouth and cocks a brow.

“Dad,” Olive begins matter-of-factly, “I know that and I would do anything for you too, but you told me I couldn’t lie.”

“Yes. Yes, I did,” Sherlock sighs and then continues resolutely. “You’re right. I’ll introduce myself properly when we meet Gracie’s father. Okay?”

“Okay,” Olive grins and they walk again, hand in hand.

“Olive?” Sherlock says, glancing her way. She looks up at him in answer. “Don’t compare me to Mycroft again.”

Olive lets out a quiet chortle and tightens her grip on his fingers. 

“Desperate measures,” she replies more than a little pleased with herself. Sherlock puffs a quick breath through his nose and smirks as they walk on. Like father, like daughter.

---

What the hell, Jane?? I know what you said at the beginning, but this is unfair. Gracie and Candace get to meet Sherlock, but not John?! I want the boys to meet again! NOW! So sorry, my friends, but you'll have to wait a bit longer. Worry not, it will happen. Eventually. (insert evil smile, cruel chuckle and holding of fingertips together like Mr. Burns) Love, Jane

@johnlock-rocks

[valhahazred]

Cryptid Mythos bonus! Everything that appears on this sheet is an entity reported by real people. Why no Mythos this time? Because these encounters are so strange in appearance or behavior that they could slip right into the Sothic multiverse with little to no alteration or alternative explanation. Good luck Investigators!

All Colours Sam In 1973, in the town of Sandown, 7 year old “Fay” and an unnamed friend encountered a very strange individual as they explored the fringes of a golf course. They first became aware of something weird going on when they heard a sound like an ambulance siren in the distance. Following the sound to a footbridge over a creek, the two children were confronted by a three fingered hand wearing a blue glove that beckoned them from beneath the bridge. Awaiting them was a seven foot humanoid figure wearing strange clownish clothing, seemingly reinforced with wooden slats that protruded from his sleeves and pant-legs. The figure had a book in his hands, which he immediately fumbled and dropped in the water. He splashed around cartoonishly before recovering his book, leaping out of the creek and away from the children. He moved to a small metal shed with a high-kneed hopping gait and disappeared inside. The children went to leave, only for the mysterious entity to exit again with a microphone that appeared to be the source of the wailing that drew the children in the first place. It spoke into the microphone in a friendly, non-threatening tone. “Are you still here?” The children were curious and unafraid, so they moved towards him. He held up his book and pointed at the words in order to introduce himself. “Hello and I am all colours, Sam”. They asked if he was human and he said no and when asked if he was a ghost he replied, “well, not really but I am in an odd sort of way.” The children asked what he was then and he simply said, “You know.” During their conversation with the entity they learned that although he went by Sam, he didn’t really have a name, he claimed that there were others like him and that he was afraid of humans and that he was a pacifist, refusing to harm others even if they should attack him. He invited them into his hut, where he shared some wildberries and showed them a magic trick, where he placed a berry into his ear and seemingly teleported it to his mask’s eyehole and then to his mouth with quick jerks of his head. They continued to converse for almost an hour before the children decided to leave. Was he an alien in a make-do disguise? An animated scarecrow? A figment of childish imaginations? Or just a strange homeless man dressed like a clown? Whatever the truth, All Colours Sam, also known as the Sandown Ghost Clown, was never seen again. The Crazy Critter of Bald Mountain This weird looking creature was sighted by three people in the week following a fiery object that passed over the Bald Mountain near Newaukum Lake in Washington. When the local Sheriff began an investigation into the sighting he was visited by heavily armed and uniformed men who claimed to be from the Air Force and forced him to give up the case. Old Saybrook Blockheads Mary Starr was awoken in the early morning on December 16, 1957 by a bright light shining into her bedroom. She looked out the window to witness a 30 foot cigar shaped craft hovering over her yard, less than 10 feet from her house! Inside the apparent spaceship she witnessed a pair of small creatures with fleshy skirts and clear cubic “heads” containing a floating red bulb. They raised their right arms and as a third entity appeared in the portholes the ship brightened before shooting off into the sky. Space Brains of Palos Verdes As John Hodges and Pete Rodriguez were leaving a party at two in the morning they were not expecting to meet anything from out of this world but as the car turned on its headlights illuminated two bizarre entities! The men panicked and drove away, ending the story for Rodriguez as he made it home with no complications. However, in Hodges case he next became aware of himself two and a half hours later in the driveway of his home, sitting in the car as if in a trance. Troubled by the missing time, he eventually went for hypnosis in an attempt to recover his memories of the night. While under regression he claimed that while he got his friend home safely, when he returned to his own residence the disembodied brains were waiting for him! He asked them what they wanted and suddenly he was elsewhere, in a dark room with entities that looked like the classic Greys but very tall and with webbed six fingered hands and yellow eyes. They explained that the brains were “merely translators” used in order for these beings to interface telepathically with humans. He claimed they warned him that Earth had “too much power” and showed him a map of the planet covered in lights that indicated places where humans might destroy themselves. They showed him images of dead planets and made several inaccurate prophecies before he suddenly found himself back in his car. Unlike many other abductees with similar experiences Hodges did not try to make excuses for their bunk predictions or feel like it made him important in any way. He simply assumed the aliens were untrustworthy and were playing with him. The Casa Blanca Entities This is one of the strangest and most confusing accounts of a Close Encounter of the Fifth kind, as eight children ranging from the ages of four to fifteen were terrorized by a parade of extraterrestrial monsters one summer day in 1955. It started with an array of UFOs, sun-like, disk-shaped and semi-transparent, appearing and disappearing with musical pings. Then came the entities. First was a ghostly being bearing a shiny belt buckle that was so brilliant it could blind someone looking straight at it. It was followed by disembodied arms in riveted armor that seemed to beckon to the children, small strange men that used dual ray guns to paralyze and finally a many limbed creature. All through this strange arrival something spoke to the children telepathically, offering to take them away. The kids they spoke to often seemed to be entranced, moving to the dancing UFOs mindlessly and required physical force or even being hosed down to snap them out. One child even fell off a roof in an attempt to reach a UFO, only to be protected by a red force field. The weirdest part of all is that not only did adults not see anything, they couldn’t. Despite being present for the event a mother of one of the children was unaware of the paranormal happenings. Does this mean it was all in the children’s heads, as they were overtaken by some kind of playground hysteria? Or is there some alien force that not only wants our children but can make themselves invisible to undesirable observers. The Garson Invaders In 1954 three of these insectoid entities appeared to Canadian miner Ennio La Sarza. Their appearance was already exceptional by the usual standards of reported alien contact but in a particularly striking detail their faces appeared to glow in colours La Sarza had never seen before! The beings asked La Sarza to do something for them but he refused, not only to do it but to even speak of it. It was so awful and “outright apocalyptic” that he even considered asking the RCMP to lock him up in case the creatures he’d met had some way to enforce his cooperation. The Poole Pyramid This multi-hued metallic pyramid appeared in 1965 to seven year old Terrence Druce of Poole in Dorset when he awoke to it hovering over the foot of his bed. He shrieked in terror, waking his younger brother in time for him to also witness it as it faded into thin air. That encounter might have never been recorded if the brothers hadn’t seen it again the very next day, lurking in a parking lot. They said it seemed aware of their presence and turned to watch them but it did not follow them when they decided to flee the scene. Delta Dogs An anonymous woman was driving through a snowstorm on route 07 through Syracuse in January 1958. She came across what at first seemed to be a downed plane but as she approached her engine slowly ran itself down and the car stopped itself. As she desperately tried to restart the car the snowstorm calmed and more details became apparent. Projecting out of the large object she’d thought was a plane crash was a 50 foot illuminated pole. Two strange beings rose up along the pole, floating by it as it started to retract. When the pole finished sinking into the object the creatures disappeared and the craft took off so fast she couldn’t make out where it went. The Electric Serpent of Tacoma This is easily the most unusual sighting of a sea creature that I’ve ever heard of. Seven men camping on the shore of Black Fish Bay in 1893 encountered a sea monster that appeared to be cybernetic, if not entirely biomechanical! Disturbed by a horrible noise and blinding lights the men left their camp to find a huge, hairy walrus-like animal with steaming horns, bands of coppery metal and a revolving propeller-like tail! One of the men approached it to get a better look, only to be struck by an electric blast from its copper bands and fell to the ground as if dead. When one of his friends tried to pull him to safety, he was likewise shocked by the impossible animal. The other men fled into the woods after seeing two of their number seemingly killed and the Electric Serpent seemed to lose interest and swam out into Puget Sound. Once they were sure it was gone the remaining men returned to the beach and were elated to find their friends burned and stunned but still very much alive! So what happened? Was it just one of the sadly common newspaper hoaxes of the time? Or did a bunch of 19th century fishermen find a literal fucking pokemon? You decide! Stickmen The Stickmen are an extremely recent phenomenon, with reports starting within the last 10 years or so. They are described as being stick thin and roughly humanoid, sometimes with bubble heads, glowing eyespots or even top hats. They range in size from human-like to towering in excess of 20 feet. What is most interesting about them is their apparent two dimensionality, sometimes appearing the same no matter what angle they are viewed at and sometimes being able to turn to the side and vanish as though they were never there. They are also frequently reported as being accompanied by a feeling like static electricity and of aggression or hostility. Despite those impressions the Stickmen do not appear to be hostile, instead seeming surprised and immediately retreating from a witness.

[gloryofluv]

Order Up! Chapter 24

A cute little play date in the park? Oh yes!!

Previous Chapter

Alex climbed out of her car and resituated her shorts, and fixed the strap on her overalls. Her pink crop top revealed the crown just above the top of the overalls. This was actually an adorable outfit that Asmodeus assisted with today.

She shouldered her bag and walked into the cafe while shoving her sunglasses to her hair. Jess was at the register and smirked as Alex came up to the register.

“Wow, girl. You sure look different. I didn’t recognize you until you took off your sunglasses,” she laughed.

“I’m trying something new. What do you think?” Alex asked and pivoted.

“I think it’s fantastic! Whoever was your fashion coordinator, give them my number. This is fun,” Jess giggled while shaking her head.

Jordan walked out and blinked. “Oh, honey, wow. You are a bottle of bubbly sunshine in that outfit,” he laughed.

“Thanks, J. It’s part of my rebranding,” she voiced and twirled. “Good?”

“Oh, yes,” Jordan nodded. “Beyond good. I would have dressed you similarly a long time ago if you had only listened to me.”

“Legs for days, babe. I don’t even think I’ve ever seen you in shorts,” Jess noted.

Alex laughed and shifted. “Well, I’ve never owned anything above my knee line for public wear.”

“Who are you looking all cute and edible for?” Jordan questioned.

“Probably Mr. Dad about to walk in,” Jess sighed and shook her head.

Alex turned around to see Simeon and Luke approaching the cafe door. She beamed and waved as Simeon opened the door. “Good afternoon, you two,” she said.

Simeon blinked and recovered when Luke raced forward. Alex bent down and embraced the boy. “Alex! Oh, I had a trip to the dentist, and he said my brushing has become more adequate!”

She giggled and released him. “Good, I’m very proud of you.”

Simeon exhaled and held up two of his fingers. “Fillings,” he breathed.

Alex pouted and rubbed Luke’s shoulder. “Well, brushing is good, sweetheart, but you really need to stop eating sweets after so late, okay?”

Luke grimaced and twitched his nose. “Well, how did you know about that?”

“I have secret angels that do my work for me,” she smirked and glanced over at Simeon.

“Can I buy you something to drink? Maybe a pastry?” Simeon asked.

Alex beamed and nodded. “Of course. How else am I going to have a mini picnic in the park with both of you?” she asked while rubbing Luke’s shoulder.

He was beaming up at her as Simeon approached the counter. “Alex, what would you like? Ladies first.”

Jess laughed and shook her head. “She has her own creation, Simeon. Also, what will it be today for pastry? Lemon cake or chocolate toffee, babe?”

“Lemon, Jess,” Alex smiled.

Simeon touched her shoulder and allowed Luke to order before he had done so. Instead of lingering by the register and chatting after getting his tea, they moved to the hand-off station with Luke. Luke was rambling about school, and Alex was listening intently to the child.

“Look at how cute the three of you are.”

Alex turned around and waved. “Hey, Sol.”

“You look so vibrant today, Alex,” Solomon declared and stood next to them.

She grinned and played with her overall straps. “Asmo helped me today.”

Solomon’s cheeks tinted in the slightest as he nodded. “It’s very fitting.”

“We’re going to the park to have a picnic and swing today, Solomon,” Luke voiced as he rocked on his feet.

“Oh, that’s very neat,” Solomon said with a wave of his hand. “Are you going to push Alex on the swing?”

Her cheeks flushed with color as she shifted. “We haven’t talked about that at all.”

Simeon smiled and tilted his head. “I imagine it will be a very entertaining afternoon.”

Alex rubbed the side of her neck. “What are you up to today, Solomon?”

“Oh, I have a meeting to get to in a bit, and then I was going to work in the lab,” he replied with a circular wave of his hand.

“Always the busy mind,” Simeon said.

Solomon groaned with a grin. “Always, Simeon. You know, Alex is always interested in learning new things. You should have her come with you to ice cream sundae Sunday next week,” he suggested.

“Ice cream sundae Sunday?” Alex asked.

Simeon chuckled and rocked his head. “Once a month, our church does a little afternoon treat for the children. Solomon will come and do tricks and magic for them.”

Alex giggled and shook her head. “You go to church, Solomon?”

“Not as much as I used to,” Solomon hummed. “But I do enjoy making the children smile. It reminds me of innocence and positive intentions in the world.”

She reached over and pinched his cheek. “You’re such a little softy!”

He puffed and gripped her wrist in a loose hold. “Yes, yes, now stop,” he snorted.

“So that’s how you both know each other?” Alex questioned.

Simeon and Solomon nodded. “Solomon is still very much involved with the charity, but he isn’t as active with the church.”

“I prefer to dabble, and our father doesn’t mind because he forgives,” Solomon smirked.

“That he does,” Luke beamed and sighed. “I do love ice cream sundae Sundays.”

Their drinks were called out, and Luke skipped toward the counter, Alex following suit. The boy was beaming up at her and rocked his head. “Simeon likes you, you know?”

“He does?” Alex questioned with a smile.

Luke rocked his head. “You should come with us to bible study tonight and church. Maybe you can stay with us at the home too!”

Alex smiled and rubbed his shoulder. “I have a room right now, Luke.”

“It would be nice. Simeon always says that you are special, and I agree!” Luke declared as he took his cup. “Thank you, Jordan.”

“You’re welcome, Luke,” Jordan smirked before handing Alex hers and her pastry. “Have fun today. It sounds like you have a big day ahead of you.”

Alex laughed and shook her head. “Just the park. I have to be home to cook tonight.”

“Ah, long leash then,” he teased with a wink.

Alex blushed and twitched her nose. “Goodbye, babe.”

She walked over to Simeon as the men were finishing up their conversation. “And after the contract goes through, then Big Brother Wings will receive the new house,” Solomon explained.

“New house?” Alex questioned.

Simeon rocked his head. “We’re taking our mentorship out of the old standard. Group homes don’t have as much focus, and we have enough mentors to be a bit more hands-on. Solomon has volunteered to assist with our next venture as well as Diavolo.”

“Diavolo?” Alex questioned.

Solomon rocked his head. “He made a deal with my association to head a project to abolish the ten child limit and create a more suitable living circumstance. I’m going to participate out of interest in the research for child development. If it’s successful, and my research proves such, then they'll apply it country-wide.”

“Interesting! This is why he wanted me to brush up on the new contracts on Friday, I assume,” She nodded.

“Yes, actually, we’re likely going to be doing plenty of check-ins,” Solomon rocked his head.

Alex laughed and clapped. “How exciting!”

“Completely,” Simeon beamed.

“I’m going to order. Please have a great day,” Solomon smirked and winked at Alex.

Simeon shook his head with a smile. “Goodbye, Solomon.”

“Bye, Solomon!” Luke stopped drinking long enough to wave.

Alex touched his shoulder and nodded. “I’ll talk to you later.”

“Of course,” Solomon agreed.

Simeon escorted Alex and Luke out of the cafe, and they began to walk to the park. Luke took Alex’s hand, and she smiled down at him. “It’s nice just to enjoy the day, isn’t it?” she asked.

Luke rocked his head. “Yes, it is.”

Simeon rubbed her shoulder and sighed. “It truly is wonderful to have you with us today, Alex.”

It was a very tender venture as they reached the park. Simeon pulled off his sweater for Alex to sit on, and Luke joined her, eating his vanilla scones. It wasn’t long before the boy was off, racing around the slide with the other children.

Simeon beamed as he watched the boy. “He’s very enamored by you.”

Alex smiled over at him. “He’s a good boy, Simeon. You’ve done so well with him.”

“It does help that I had little brothers growing up that were similar. Mammon was very much like him, a little more jaded due to his previous home. However, I’m trying to emulate how Lucifer taught me to be.”

Alex sighed and touched his hand. “You’re doing just fine.”

Simeon’s cheeks darkened, and he swallowed. “Alex, you are genuinely the kindest woman I know.”

“I do try,” she nodded.

Simeon cleared his throat and gestured to the playground. “Would you like to take a turn on the swings?” he smiled.

Oh, a distraction? Alex rocked her head. “Sure.”

Simeon assisted her to her feet and plucked up his sweater, placing it on his arm. He then escorted her down to the swing set. What an interesting turn of events. Wholesome and sweet. Luke eventually came over and sat in the swing next to Alex.

“Simeon, isn’t she big enough to push herself?” Luke questioned.

“Yes, Luke. However, sometimes it’s nice to have someone do the work and let gravity do the rest,” Simeon laughed as he pushed Alex.

She laughed and leaned her head against the chain. “I haven’t swung in forever.”

Luke giggled and began his tandem enjoyment. “This is fun.”

Simeon reached over and pushed Luke a few times. However, he would always return to Alex, and his gentle fingers would push against her body. Alex competed with Luke, who could go highest, and Simeon accidentally touched her ass. She ended the competition by jumping into the sand and laughing.

Luke followed suit and broke out into a giggle fit. “Come check this out!”

Alex climbed off the dirt to see Simeon was shifting and avoided looking at her. Well, maybe she made him uncomfortable with the accident? She walked up and patted his shoulder. “Come join us? I think Luke is leading us to the bridge,” she murmured with a sweet smile.

Simeon breathed and nodded with a smile. “Okay.”

It was sweet, fun, and innocent fun. Alex even climbed through the playground with Luke and the other children playing some pretend game of pirates. Sticks for swords and colored rocks for treasure. Simeon participated in assisting her down awkward stairs and pointing out the children hiding.

Alex eventually climbed the tower and declared the island Atlantis. “Atlantians, we must stop this fighting!” she cried and held up her stick. “We cannot survive the tidal waves and crazy waves if we don’t row together.”

Oh, did the children adore her. Alex liked kids; she always had. Well, until one of them launched a mutiny! “Hey, wait, don’t push me off,” she gasped.

“Wait! Don’t hurt her!” Luke cried.

Alex lost her footing as she hung on the bar and fell backward. Into arms. Alex gasped and held tight to the toned shoulders of Simeon as he cradled her. He was smiling with a blush as she puffed. “Thank you,” she murmured.

“Good job, Simeon!” Luke cheered.

“You have a scrape from the jostling. Let me check that for you,” Simeon nodded.

“Continue, pirates, I’ll be back,” she announced.

Simeon didn’t put her down as they crossed the playground, which was so sweet. A blush built on her cheeks as he set her down on the bench, reaching for her iced tea. He ran the condensation on the scrape, and she winced.

“Are you alright?” he questioned.

Alex nodded. “Yes, just a little sting. I didn’t realize I had it on my knee.”

He was ducked down and ran his thumb over it with delicacy before nodding. “It’s just a surface scrape. You’ll live,” Simeon chuckled.

Simeon sat down with her and reached for his tea. “You get along well with the children,” he noted.

“I enjoy kids plenty. They’re so creative,” Alex smiled.

“Would you like to come next Sunday with me?” Simeon questioned.

She tilted her head and smirked. “Do I get ice cream too?”

“Of course,” Simeon laughed.

“Then let me see how my schedule looks, and I’ll put it on my list as pending,” she voiced with a nod.

Simeon touched her cheek, and his lips peeled apart. “I very much like you, Alex,” he murmured.

She broke his eye contact only momentarily to see a sleek black car in the distance. The cafe was within view of the park. She could literally see people come and go, including the owner of that particular car. Alex swallowed and kissed his cheek before pulling away. “I like you too, Simeon.”

He was blushing but looked thrilled. They sat together for a little, watching the children. However, Alex didn’t relax until the said car owner had walked out of the cafe. The car pulled out of the parking lot near the cafe and drove away. Alex breathed and enjoyed the rest of her afternoon with Simeon and Luke.

@rsmrymnt-tea @otome-scribbles

[estherwritess]

Lifetime Kisses

Genre: Akaashi Keiji x f! Reader

Words: 2.1K

Genre: fluffly fluff!

Note: written for the @/haikyuucreations monthly prompt event!

Age 3:

Your mothers had befriended each other long before the two of you, Akaashi Keiji and Y/N L/N, were born. Precessing the two of you as childhood friends; it was only natural they kept contact after they graduated, married and had children.

And so, this is where your story really began. Your mother often scheduled play dates, partly to allow you to socialize with another toddler, and partly as an excuse to be able to enjoy a meetup with her friend guilt-free. The only memories you’d have of this would later on in your life be pieced together by pictures, anecdotes and some explanations from your mother.

Both you and Akaashi had spread out over the play mat, hands curiously grabbing at the toys scattered around. It wasn’t like the two of you were able to talk to each other, but the occasional newly learnt word slipped out earning a few endearing ‘aws’ from your mother's seated on the couch facing the mat. Days like these were very common, you had basically grown up with Akaashi by your side.

Age 10:

The playground surrounded by tall school buildings was bustling during the warm summer afternoon, the teachers had decided to let the students play outside for their last hour of the day, deciding that the classrooms were too hot to possible be able to

properly teach already distracted students. You, Akaashi and a few other friends were huddled under the shade of an old oak tree, it's branches providing the much needed coolness.

The brunette in front of you, Kaoru, blew a strand of hair out of her face, a bored look displayed as she glanced around your group. Observing that mischievous sparkle in her eye, you braced yourself for what was about to spill from her mouth, your arms outstretched behind you, holding your torso upright.

“Oh I know!” she visibly pulls her posture up straight, eyes moving over the other kids with excitement, “my brother plays it sometimes! Let’s play some truth or dare!”

You audibly sigh as the other kids excitedly agree, some others still joining in and squeezing themselves under the limited shade, the chatter kept rising as girls were giggling amongst themselves as they shuffled a bit closer to each other. You curiously glance over at Akaashi, his expression is blank as you’re used to, but he doesn’t object and neither is he tugging at your sleeve to sit somewhere else. You could only assume he didn’t mind and so you stayed put, a sheepish smile on your lips as Kaoru clasped your hand.

“So who should we pick first?” She’s lifted her hands up to cup your ear, a giggly whisper as she proposed her question to you. Glancing around, you thought about it for a second, picking someone you hardly knew so they’d be less inclined to pick you when their turn was over.

“Go for Eiko,” the black-haired boy was in Akaashi’s class, but not yours, so you happily picked the somewhat unknown boy. His eyes widened when Kaoru exclaimed his name loudly, she leaned forward with a cheek-splitting grin as she asked him:

“Truth or dare?”

He visibly stumbled over his words, not expecting to be picked. You stiffled a giggle as akaashi subtly elbowed you; he gives you a look, eyebrows raised.

“Alright then,” you stopped giggling, your eyes looking back at your friend, “mom.”

As expected, most of the kids picked dare, chickening out of a possible scary dare. You had also picked truth to play it safe, happy you were able to just let it wash over you. The questions were those everyone had already heard before, again not that surprising. As Kaoru finished her dare; which in short meant she had made a fool of herself in front of the boy she’d developed a small crush on, her attention turned to Akaashi, the last one to be picked for a truth or a dare.

Akaashi pauses,

“Truth,” as soon as the words leave his mouth, the kids in the group get louder, whining to Kaoru, “That’s not fair! It’s been truth for so long, someone should pick dare!”

Kaoru held her hand up for a second, seemingly internally debating this visible dilemma. She then nods, turning her head into Akaashi’s direction: “he’s right, you should pick dare Akaashi!”

Akaashi nods, never being one to clash with the group, and agrees to pick dare. You fold your knees up to your chest, head resting atop as you watch the scene unfold in front of your eyes.

“Alright!” Aiko smiles, her eyes glancing at you for a second too long, assuming she’s up to no good, you brace yourself, closing your eyes in anticipation. “I dare you to..” she sticks her finger out, spinning it across the sitting students and stopping right at you, “kiss y/n!”

Your head jolts up in surprise, it’s as if a brick had just been dropped on your stomach, you can barely breathe as your looking over at akaashi in distress. It happens faster than you anticipated, his face is close to yours in less than a second. The kiss lasts less than five seconds and as soon as he pulls away, blush coating his cheeks, a loud synonymous ‘ew’ resounds. The noise is overwhelmingly loud as the voices blend together. That’s how Akaashi Keiji stole your first kiss from you.

Age 15:

Your last year of middle school, you weren’t sure how to feel about passing yet another milestone so quickly, everything felt like it was moving at an incomprehensible speed. Folding your papers and stuffing them into the binder you’d had since elementary school, scribbles coating the inside with all sorts of quotes and weird drawings your friends had filled them with. With students filing out of the classroom at a speed you hadn’t seen, you figured there must’ve been something going on were it not for the fact that there was a three day weekend calling their names.

You take your time with putting everything away and closing your bag. The halls are nearly empty when you leave the classroom, except for the rare cluster of teens grouped together excitedly discussing their weekend plans. At the end of the hallway a familiar boy is waving you down, hands securely placed on the straps of his bag.

“Let’s go,” he nods, almost unnoticeably and starts walking down the stairs.

“So, have you got any plans for this weekend?” You turn your head to him whilst shaking it from side to side.

“Not really,” you paused, “well they’re not my plans anyway; but mom wants me to go with them to visit my grandma.”

“Oh, well I hope you have fun then,” you can’t help but notice the slight hint of disappointment in his voice, deciding to ignore it, you change the topic to his plans.

The walk home is filled with light chatter, jokes and banter. You loved being able to feel the stress glide off your shoulders as you talked about your day with him. However you couldn’t help but feel bad about having to leave him behind this weekend, if it were any other weekend you two would have at least spent a day together. As you two reach your house, you slow down, quickly turning around and pressing a chaste, light kiss to his cheeks. He doesn’t have time to react before you’re already skittering off towards the front door, your voice calling out one more time.

“Thank you for walking me home today! See you on Tuesday!”

Age 21:

Making it to college along with one of your best friends for the longest while felt like a dream to you, Akaashi Keiji, the one constant in your life. You were eternally grateful for your mother on being so insistent on keeping the friendship alive with his mother, thus practically setting you up with a best friend. You couldn’t help but bring a smile to your face as you see the familiar boy waiting outside of your dormitory, a fluffy scarf wrapped around his neck as his eyes glance up at you from behind his black spectacles. He’s victoriously holding up your favourite coffee,

“Made it through the morning rush,” he hands the steaming cup over to you, happily taking it from him you clasp your hands around the warmth, “special for the princess”. You snort, lips on the lid as you taste the warm liquid.

“You’re the best!” Instantly feeling more away, you hold the cup closer to you with a big smile. With your drinks in hand you two take the usual, scenic route to class.

You part ways when you both pass by your respective buildings, your schedules lined up at the end of the day so it was convenient to go to school together as well as leave. The day passes by in an uneventful fashion, just as always the time slowly creeps along the clock as if it’s nearly taunting you.

When the classes end, it’s already dark out and you’re grateful to have someone to walk you back. Walking in the dark on campus, in the winter nonetheless, was daunting seeing that the walk was relatively long. Seeing him waiting for you was a relief, he looked just as worn out as you did, four classes a day definitely did not agree with the two of you.

You greet each other, happy to see a familiar face after a long day. And as soon as you two are next to each other, the ranting begins and you’re instantly a lot more at ease. Instinctively you two walk a bit closer, trying to preserve some more warmth as the temperature continues to drop. It doesn’t feel weird, you rather feel very happy for lack of a better word, almost as if you’re walking on a cloud as he holds out his arm for you to loop your own into. It’s quiet as your footsteps continue to crunch into the recently fallen snow, the path barely walked on. Akaashi stops you to point out the beautiful scenery behind the bridge: the lake frozen over, plants look white and delicate as they’re coated in a thin layer. The world seemed so quiet, peaceful and untouched at that moment, so you stop, your arms leaning on the railing as you look at your surroundings.

You turn your head, about to reminisce to him about your shared childhood and the many nice winter memories the two of you shared. That is, until you noticed his face being awfully close to yours; his hot breath on your face.

“Hey, what are you..” your out loud train of thought is interrupted as Akaashi presses his lips to yours, his hand reaching up to cup your cheeks to pull you in a bit closer. Deep down, this is something you’d always thought of, a thought ghosting around your mind during boring classes or during a long commute. You often wondered what it would feel like, nothing could have ever prepared you for the way it would actually feel.

His lips are softer than you could’ve ever imagined, in his enthusiasm he’s still as gentle as he’s always been. Your arms wrap themselves around this neck, desperately trying to hold on as you feel yourself get slightly lightheaded, as if it was all a dream. Except it wasn’t.

Age 31:

After having dried off your hands, you put away the last stack of dishes: satisfied that you’d gotten along so far with all of your chores. The quietness had vanished quite quickly as there was someone or something causing quite the ruckus outside. Walking over towards the backyard porch, you leaned over the railing. Your four year old had noticed your husband had pulled into the driveway, excitedly skipping over while calling out to his dad. The new pup you had adopted was also in on it, excited barking while hopping around your son’s legs. The scenario made you smile; your husband bent through his knees as your son threw himself into his arms while peanut was happily skipping around them.

Akaashi walks over to you, Hayato proudly waved at you from his dads arm. You gave the both of them a soft wave back, feeling yourself nearly melt at the image before you. Five years into the marriage and ten into the relationship and he was still able to make you feel all sorts of intense emotions.

-tag

@dorkyama (thankies for sprinting with mee)

He sets Hayato down what runs off the play with the pup some more, you smile as he walks closer to you, arms spread.

“Welcome home,” you lean in, letting yourself be engulfed in his embrace. As he presses a kiss to your lips, you feel complete. You’d accomplished so much in your life; great friends, a good job, a nice husband. This kiss only further cemented that you’d made the right decisions throughout your life, it was a nice reminder of everything

[janaikam]

This is my fic for the @kagamizine! I really enjoyed writing this and I absolutely love Kagami. This zine was just amazing as a whole and I’m so glad I got to participate! Thank you @masilvi for organizing! Summary: Kagami's trip with her mother took an unexpected turn when she decided to ditch her tutor and have fun with an interesting pair of siblings.

Seven-year-old Kagami stared out the window, watching as the Parisian landscape passed by in a blur. Kagami wasn’t very happy about her mother’s sudden decision to take a trip to Paris. Especially not so soon after losing her dad.

It had only been two months, but it felt like an eternity to Kagami. Her father had been her best friend. He hadn’t been a typical father, but that’s what she loved about him. While her mother started her own successful business, her father took care of her, and they created so many special memories together.

Her mother, not willing to stay in the same town where her husband passed, moved them to Tokyo. It was quite a culture shock because her home town of Nagoya had been quiet compared to Tokyo’s bustling energy. Kagami personally believed that her mother’s decision to move was more business motivated rather than grief, but she wasn’t about to accuse her of doing something so insensitive.

Honestly, everything was happening so fast that Kagami could hardly comprehend it all. Like this trip to Paris; she knew it was one of her mother’s ploys to cheer her up. So far, it wasn’t working. Despite claiming the trip was for both of them, her mother had been in meetings most of the week.

This left Kagami with her French tutor throughout the whole trip. Kagami thought that the woman was nice enough, but she’d rather hang out with someone she was friends with.

“Kagami, we’re here,” her tutor, Yama-sensei, said as the car came to a stop in front of the Trocadero.

Sighing, Kagami dragged herself out of the car to trail after the tutor around the plaza. She hoped that this trip wouldn’t be as boring as the other excursions they had been on previously.

--------

Kagami was proven wrong. Apparently, Yama-sensei knew a lot about the plaza that they were in.

As Yama-sensei was droning on about when the plaza had been built, Kagami noticed two children running around playing a version of tag by zig-zagging through the columns of the Trocadero.

There were a boy and a girl. The boy had dark brown hair with some bright green highlights. He was wearing dark wash jeans and a dark shirt with some band name on it that she couldn’t make out from where she was standing. The girl had straight dark brown hair and was wearing a dark purple dress with black polka dots all over.

While the girl looked to be about Kagami’s age, the boy seemed to be a bit older. If she had to guess, probably by two years.

Watching the two of them play in the Trocadero made her want to join them and have fun. Even if she didn’t know them, it would be so much better than staying here and listening to her tutor recite facts about some battles from long ago.

As if a light switch were flicked, Kagami thought of an idea to get her tutor off her back and to have some fun of her own.

“Hey, Yama-sensei, what’s the history of that pond?” Kagami pointed towards the little pond area in the opposite direction from the two kids.

As expected, her tutor started walking over spouting off some facts that Kagami didn’t care for. Instead of following her, Kagami snuck off to where the two kids were playing.

“Uh, hi,” Kagami said, shyly walking up to the two kids. The girl noticed her first and waved shyly back at Kagami. The boy, who had still been running around, noticed that his friend wasn’t behind him and turned around and saw Kagami standing there.

“Hi!” he greeted brightly, waving along with the girl. “I’m Luka and this is my sister, Juleka. What’s your name?”

“Kagami! Where did you go?” It seemed that her tutor noticed her absence, and that wasn’t a good thing.

“Could you hide me from her?”

The siblings nodded and gently urged Kagami behind one of the many pillars surrounding the plaza. She ducked down a bit and the siblings covered her body so other people wouldn’t be able to see her.

From her position, she watched as Yama-sensei’s black flats hurriedly walked away from the plaza.

Kagami let out the breath she didn’t know that she was holding. “Thank you, I really appreciate you doing this for me.”

“No problem. So why are you hiding from that woman?” Luka asked, reaching down to help Kagami up.

“She’s my tutor. She’s supposed to be taking me to all the places I wanted to see in Paris, but all we’ve done is gone to all these boring places,” Kagami explained. “I just wanted a little break is all.”

“Well, Jules and I don’t have to be home for another three hours, so we could show you around our little Paris.”

Kagami’s eyes lit up at the prospect. She had been planning on just asking to hang out with the siblings at the Trocadero, but having them show her around the city was something completely unexpected and surprisingly welcome.

“I would love to join you!”

--------

Their first stop was the Pont des Arts. There was a surprisingly large amount of people at the bridge, but Kagami assumed it was just that popular.

On the walk over, Kagami learned that Juleka was very shy and often mumbled her words when she wanted to say something. Luka was able to perfectly understand his sister, but Kagami was still having trouble trying to understand her.

Juleka mumbled something and pointed over to a crowd of people.

“Oh, you’re right, that is Andre!” Luka translated for Kagami.

“Who’s Andre?” Kagami knew a few things about Paris, but Andre was an unfamiliar name.

“He sells the best ice cream in Paris. He’s really famous for his lover’s ice cream. If two people share it together then they’re supposed to be together forever,” Luka explained. “He’s a really nice dude and he sometimes gives us free ice cream just ’cause.”

Luka walked over to the crowd and right up to the front of the cart. Kagami was somewhat surprised at Luka’s forwardness, but when he walked back a minute later with three small ice cream cups, Kagami couldn’t complain.

“Let’s go sit over there.” Luka pointed towards a bench in the middle of the bridge, away from the crowd at Andre’s.

Kagami nodded and followed as Luka led the way.

When they got to the bench, Luka held out the ice creams he had gotten. From what she could tell, her choices were vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. Kagami picked up the ice cream that looked like vanilla and Luka passed the strawberry one to Juleka.

Taking the little spoon from the cone, Kagami took a small bit of the ice cream. The sweet flavors of the vanilla filled her mouth and caused her to hum in satisfaction. She noticed that there was a slight orange aftertaste, which made everything all the better.

“This is the best ice cream ever,” Kagami said, quicking grabbing another spoonful to put in her mouth.

“Yup! Andre’s ice cream never fails to amaze.” Luka grinned, taking a bite of his cone.

--------

“Welcome to Place des Vosges Park!” Luka announced as their little party walked through the gates.

“This is where Luka comes to lie in the grass and cry,” Juleka whispered, coming up beside Kagami.

Kagami couldn’t help but giggle at Juleka’s statement as Luka tried to defend himself, but it was too late. She could already imagine the dark-haired boy lying in the grass with tears streaming down his face.

“ANYWAYS, is there anything you would like to do here? There’s a lot that goes on in the park. Sometimes there's a show, and then there's also the playground and the merry-go-round.”

Kagami’s eyes lit up at the mention of the merry-go-round. She had heard so many fun stories from people back home about how the rides were fun and magical. Merry-go-rounds weren’t very popular in Japan, so she always dreamed of the day she would be able to ride on one.

“The merry-go-round!”

Luka and Juleka laughed at her obvious excitement but led her over to it nonetheless.

There wasn’t a long wait for the next ride, and the trio was able to get on without a problem.

There were so many different-looking horses that Kagami had trouble picking one to get on. In the end, she ended up picking a tall white one with a golden mane.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t as tall as the horse, so she had trouble getting on. After her third failed attempt, she turned to go find another horse, but a pair of arms wrapped themselves around her waist and lifted her up onto the horse.

Turning around, Kagami saw that it was Luka who helped her up. He gave her a thumbs up to confirm that she was comfortable and she smiled back.

It didn’t take long for the ride to start up, and it was amazing. From her horse, Kagami was able to see most of the park when it lifted up. She watched as the carousel spun around, making the park slightly blurry.

Letting go of the post on the horse, Kagami held out her hands and closed her eyes. It was so easy for her to imagine herself flying on top of a pegasus and it felt just as magical.

--------

After riding on the merry-go-round, the trio spent a couple more hours playing in the park with some of the other kids.

It was definitely an experience Kagami would never forget. She had never played with kids her age back home, so it was a welcome change of pace.

A girl named Rose was teaching her a hand game when they were interrupted by a soft grumbling coming from Kagami’s stomach. Luka, who had been next to her, smiled softly and lifted himself off of the ground.

“It is getting a little late. We can go grab something to eat and then take you back to your hotel.” Luka reached out his hand to help Kagami up. Luka waved over to Juleka, and she quickly said goodbye to the kids she was playing with.

“It was really nice meeting you!” Kagami waved goodbye to Rose and followed Luka out of the park.

As it turned out, they were just going across the street to a bakery: Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie.

“They have some of the best pastries in Paris. Trust me,” Luka said, opening the door. And she did. After all, he was right about Andre’s ice cream.

Immediately, the scent of freshly baked bread and sweetness filled her nose. She couldn’t really explain why, but the smell felt like home.

There wasn’t really a line, just one woman with her son. They were just finishing up their order and Kagami was able to get a glance at the boy. He was blonde and looked about her age. When their eyes met, he quickly hid behind his mother’s leg.

His mother just looked down and laughed. She grabbed her order and ushered her son back outside.

“Hello,” the friendly woman behind the counter greeted. “What would you like?”

Luka ordered three croissants for them with various jams while Kagami and Juleka looked at the pastry case. They all looked so good, and she couldn’t help but want to try all of them.

She noticed a young girl behind the glass with a tray of pastries in her arms. She seemed to be filling the case. When the girl caught Kagami’s gaze, she waved and gave Kagami a big smile. Kagami waved back and the girl resumed her task.

“That’s Marinette. She goes to school with me,” Juleka informed Kagami. “She’s really nice.”

Kagami looked back at Marinette, who had finished filling the cabinet, as she walked towards the back of the bakery.

--------

Kagami had yet to eat her pastry as Luka rushed them out of the bakery after paying. It had apparently gotten later than they expected, and Juleka and Luka needed to be home soon.

They wanted to properly send Kagami off, so they decided to walk her to Le Grande Paris. The siblings claimed that it was on their way home. Kagami didn’t buy it, but she let it drop. After all, she wasn’t ready to leave her new friends just yet.

Sadly, the hotel came into view too quickly for Kagami’s liking.

Turning to her new friends, she held back the tears that were forming in her eyes. She was a Tsurugi. She would not cry.

“Thank you for this amazing day. I am so fortunate that I met you two today.” Kagami sniffed and wiped her eyes.

“I think I speak for both of us when I say we’re glad to have made a friend in you today.”

Kagami grabbed Luka and Juleka and pulled them into a hug. It was probably one of the warmest hugs she had had in a long time.

Pulling away, Juleka mumbled something under her breath and Luka nodded. “Juleka says next time you’re in Paris you should try and find us. We live on a houseboat, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find.”

“Until we meet again.” Kagami smiled, slowly backing away into the hotel. She promised herself the next time she was in Paris, she would sneak off to find Juleka and Luka. She wanted to see her first friends again.

[fizzyxcustard]

Fear and Loathing (1)

Fandom: seaQuest 2032

Summary: (Part 2 of The Right Thing - this will be a chaptered fic) Captain Hudson knows that you and Lucas are more than just friends, and after changing your shift rotations to make sure you're not on duty together, you take things into your own hands and request a transfer from seaQuest. Before your transfer can be processed, officers and crew begin showing signs of extreme anxiety, anger and paranoia. Some are worse affected than others, you being one of them. Can you fight for not only your relationship with Lucas but your state of mind?

Pairings: Ensign Lucas Wolenczak x FemLieutenant!Reader, Commander Jonathan Ford x Lieutenant Lonnie Henderson (only slight)

Warnings: Language, violence, insecurity, angst, paranoia, anxiety, mental instability, very mild sexual references, age difference/gap. 

Comments: If you wish to be added to my seaQuest tag list, which will be separate from all my other tags, let me know, and I will only tag you in these if you specifically request to be tagged. This is practically a dead fandom now, but I would still like to share my writings with you. If you would like to ask any questions, then by all means just ask! 

For the next two months, you found that hiding your relationship with Lucas from the stern and abrupt Captain Hudson, seemed to keep a spark alight. Time alone together was limited but you both enjoyed it and anticipated the end of working shifts. Practically everyone aboard knew of the relationship, apart from Hudson and Lieutenant Fredricks, who had served for some years under his command before coming aboard seaQuest. You didn’t trust her enough with something this private and potentially career shattering if it was handled the wrong way.

One day you were in your usual seat next to Lucas on the bridge. The two of you were laughing quite loudly when Hudson strolled through the large, steel double doors. “Please do share with all of us what is so amusing, Lieutenant. Has this place turned into a playground? Maybe I should treat you like children and separate you,” Hudson growled, scowling at you both.

“I’m sorry, Sir. It won’t happen again,” you apologised with a blush.

“Make sure it doesn’t!” Hudson instructed.

A heavy feeling sat in the pit of your stomach for the remainder of the morning, until you were approached by Hudson. “A word, please, in my quarters, Lieutenant,” he told you.

The heaviness suddenly got even stronger, feeling like an elephant was standing on your head, pressing you down into the floor. Your legs were weak, but you remained calm and composed outwardly, and followed the Captain off the bridge.

“Close the door and take a seat,” he told you.

With a deep breath, you sat down. You could feel a thin layer of sweat beginning to drop from under your hair, and you prayed that Hudson couldn’t see it.

“Lieutenant,” Hudson began, folding his hands on his desk. “It’s been a pleasure so far to have you aboard, but I’m concerned about your relationship with Ensign Wolenczak. You work well together; there’s no denying that. But you sometimes appear a little tooclose for my liking.”

“We’re very close friends, Sir. We’ve been through a lot together the last two years, and it’s difficult to not bond,” you replied.

“I want to make you aware that if two officers are found to be sharing in a relationship which is more than professional in nature, they can both be stripped of rank and ejected from Naval duty. You are aware, Lieutenant?”

“Yes, Sir. And I can assure you that Ensign Wolenczak and I are only close friends,” you lied.

“Good. I’d hate to lose one of my best officers, and one who is upcoming and showing a lot of potential. Dismissed, Lieutenant.”

“Yes, Sir,” you replied, saluted, and left the room.

On the bridge and you sheepishly sat back down, noticing pairs of eyes watching you in interest.

“What happened?” Lucas whispered, leaning across his seat towards you.

“We need to talk tonight,” you whispered back, your gaze making sure that no one was in close enough proximity to hear you. “I think Hudson suspects what’s going on.”

“What? How?” Shock was present in his harsh whisper.

“I don’t know. Shh!” you instructed.

Lucas looked up to see Captain Hudson come strolling back on to the bridge. He noticed you and the Captain exchange knowing glances.

It was incredibly tense on the bridge that afternoon, just like it had been when you and Lucas first started exploring your feelings. Had someone whistle blown? Surely not. Those who knew of your relationship were close friends with you both. Not even Jonathan Ford, the second in command, would have dropped you into such a tight spot. He may have been professional, sticking to Naval code, but he was also understanding and compassionate. Commander Ford was human, recognising the flaws, yet beauty, of our nature.

When it was time for shift rotation, you walked off the bridge quickly, leaving Lucas behind to untangle himself from his headset and leave his seat in a rush. By the time he got through the doors and you had already turned the corner towards your quarters.

“We need to talk,” he demanded.

You stopped and sighed, feeling tears begin to fill your eyes. “After dinner.”

Lucas’ stomach was flipping from that time onwards, and he knew there was no way that he could eat and keep it down. Your relationship wasn’t going to last and that terrified him. The very thing that kept him happy and helped him get out of bed in a morning was falling apart.

Lucas remained in his quarters for an hour, looking at the photos of him and you that he had kept hidden in a book on his desk. You both looked so happy and in love with life. Behind your uniform was someone who was always laughing, never without a kind word and a keen mind for art, music and literature. There was nothing about you, when out of uniform, that screamed Navy.

Suddenly there was a knock and he turned to see you peep your head around the door. Like him, you were still in uniform. You said his name softly and stood before him. You took his hand and held it against your chest. Tears were falling down your cheeks.

He released your hand, cupped your cheeks and kissed you. Both of you became caught up in the waves of passion, and as you parted, you couldn’t help but sob.

“Come here,” Lucas whispered. He took you into his arms and kissed your head. “We’ll sort something. I promise.”

“We can’t carry on, Lucas. Hudson basically threatened me with the fact that if we’re caught then we’ll be thrown off seaQuest and out of the Navy. We’re risking our careers.”

“Fuck my career!” Lucas exclaimed. “I love you.”

Hearing those words made your body jolt. You closed your eyes for a second, composing yourself. “You throw yourself into everything head first and never think of the consequences. You almost resigned from seaQuest for a girl you’d known one night.”

“What are you saying? That I don’t know anything? I’m still a child,” Lucas growled.

“I never said that. You need to think, and I mean well and truly. Think about what you want.”

“Oh, and you don’t need to consider that? I can already gather your answer. I’m not enough. Your rank and career is more important than me.”

“You’re putting words in my mouth, Lucas!” you exclaimed, throwing your hands up for emphasis. “I’d do anything for you, and you know that. I always have. I’ve stayed up with you at night, protected you, loved you.” You couldn’t help but sit down on the edge of Tony’s bunk and weep.

Lucas got down on his knee before you and held your hands in his. “What do you want?” he asked softly.

“To be happy with you. Care free,” you replied.

Lucas smiled as he heard those words. “And I want you to be happy. I’m willing to do whatever it takes.”

You loved that so much about Lucas. He followed his heart and would do anything for it. All or nothing. You leaned forward and kissed him again, and this time he moved upwards and over you, with you lying back on the bed. His confidence had soared to new heights and he often took control of your intimacy, despite it being limited due to circumstances.

At dinner you sat with Lucas and Lonnie. The conversation turned to your chat with Hudson earlier.

“Someone must have told him,” you said.

“I don’t think so,” Lonnie replied. “You know that not one of us would have said anything. I think he’s reading between the lines.”

Suddenly Commander Ford called both you and Lucas to him. He remained silent and guided you down to the Ward Room, which was empty. All of you stepped inside.

“Captain Hudson has requested you be separated on opposite shift rotations. Lucas, you’ll stay on the day shifts that’s running presently.” Then he turned to you. “You’ll go on duty tomorrow night with Brody and Piccolo.”

“Why is he doing this?” Lucas asked.

“You know why,” you replied angrily.

“I’m sorry,” Ford said sadly. “I tried to reason with him but he wasn’t listening.”

Later that evening, Lucas was in your quarters. The two of you were discussing Hudson’s latest move to keep you both apart.

“He’s serious about this, Lucas,” you began. “He won’t stop until we never see each other at all. We can’t keep a relationship going like this. He knows we’re together. This isn’t a way of just making sure; he knows.”

“Even before we were officially together as a couple, Captain Bridger saw us together all the time and never suspected a thing.”

“To him I was your mother hen,” you said softly, smiling weakly. You remembered happier times and wished that they still existed.

***

The next morning, while you remained in your quarters, preparing ahead of your night shift, Lucas was called into the Ward Room with the Captain.

“Mr. Wolenczak,” Hudson said, turning towards Lucas once the door had been closed. “You’re probably aware of why I want to speak with you.” Then he said your name with a sigh. “I’m aware that you two have probably become a lot closer than you should have.”

“If you’re referring to an intimate relationship, then no, Sir. We’re very good friends.”

“Ensign, take a seat.”

Lucas sat opposite Hudson, his hands beginning to shake and sweat with nervousness and apprehension.

“I know how feelings can develop when you’re constantly around the same people. We bond through hardships. And you’re still an impressionable young man.”

“What are you saying, Captain?” Lucas asked, leaning across the table a little. “If you think she’s somehow managed to talk me into…”

“No, I’m not saying that. You’re still young and have plenty of time.”

“With all due respect, Sir, dating and my personal life isn’t really something I’d like to share.”

“While you’re on my boat and under my command, Ensign, none of it is personal,” Hudson countered in irritation. “I’m well aware that you spend a lot of time in one another’s quarters, and you really think I’m that stupid? Take this as a warning to you both to stop this right now!”

Lucas glared at Hudson angrily.

“Dismissed, Ensign.”

Lucas stormed out of the Ward Room, smacking into Dagwood on the way who was busy cleaning the hallway floor.

“Lucas?” Dagwood called innocently after his friend. Lucas never replied and disappeared out of sight of the dagger.

In the Moon Pool, Lucas paced in front of Darwin. The dolphin looked on in interest, his head just above the water. Why was Hudson being such a bastard? Couldn’t Navy officers find love, settle down and be human? And why couldn’t it be with someone they worked with? How else would Lucas have time to meet anyone? It was true what Hudson had said: people bond during hardship. That was exactly what had helped Lucas fall for you as deeply as he had. You helped him through his hardship which was mainly feeling unimportant and lonely. Everything was being ripped away from him and it was at times such as these that he missed Nathan Bridger more than he could express.

Once Lucas finally returned to duty, Hudson was waiting on the bridge. He shot over to Lucas, inches away from his face. “Next time that you decide to just disappear from your duty because you have been told something you don’t like, I’ll have you thrown into the brig for subordination.”

“Lucas, don’t be stupid,” a voice came from behind him.

You were stood just behind Lucas, looking toward the two fired up men. In your hand was an envelope. “I wish to request a transfer, Captain,” you announced.

[anotherbeingsworld]

The day we met.

Pairing: Bryce Lahela  X F!MC (Casey Valentine) 

Rating: G 

Word count: 1440 

Disclaimer: I don’t own these characters, it all belongs to Pixelberry. 

Author’s note: Hi, this is my first time writing in a while and i have the courage of posting this! So, this is sort of a different version for when MC and Bryce meet. I love their first meet up in the first book, but this is kinda like an alternate timeline-ish! Its full of fluff since i’m a sucker for fluffiness hehe! Also, I want to say thank you to @annekebbphotography​ for her advice that she has given to me before, it really helped! Also, i want to say thank you to @maria-soederberg​ for reading it and helping me with this story! She had helped me a lot and THANK YOU to you both! Go check out their stories tooo! Also, to all the fic writers on tumblr for inspiring me to post this! You guys are awesome for putting your work out there! <3 

______________________________________________________________

It is a beautiful day in Boston, the sun is shining, the birds are singing on this wonderful afternoon. The park was packed with people who was interested in relaxing time. There were those who are walking their dogs, families who are having a picnic and even a group of kids playing on the playground.

And then there’s Casey Valentine, doctor at Edenbrook Hospital, smiling widely at the prospect of the day. She and her friends are on their day-off from the hospital, and their daily routine such as work, and the sound of distress.

She was playing Frisbee with her roommates Sienna, Jackie, Elijah, and including Elijah’s girlfriend Phoebe. They had a rough start, since none of them are professionals. But, after a long tutorial on all social media platforms which approximately took an hour before all of them to got the idea of how to play Frisbee. The more they play, the better they get.

‘Casey, go long!’ Sienna shout as she released the Frisbee in her way. Casey was determined to catch it, but eventually ended up falling and bumping into someone.

‘Ouch!’ She squealed as her body crashes into the person opposite her. The mystery person stood up, and picks up the Frisbee which had flown a few steps away ahead of her.

He offered his arm to help Casey up, as an apology for running into her. Casey took his hand, and ended up frozen on the spot. His brown eyes, hypnotizing her for a moment that felt like an eternity, his hair was a bold choice, which she didn’t mind at all and his body was something that should be framed into a museum or even being placed into an art gallery.

After it felt like an eternity, Casey was pulled back into reality as her friends ran to check on her. Sienna immediately placed her hand on her wrist to check her pulse, along with the stranger who is looking at her in a concern demeanour.

‘Casey! Are you alright?’ Sienna asked her.

She rubbed her elbow, and nod to her. Casey accept his offer, and gets up with the help of Bryce after being in a wild imagination about this attractive man in front of her.

‘I’m going to say sorry, but now I am not sorry because it led me to the presence of a beautiful girl.’ The man said whilst flirting with her.

She felt her cheeks burn at his comment, she gazes towards Sienna and Jackie who are giggling at the whole scene. She felt her blush increasing as Sienna whispered something into Jackie’s ear that made them both smile. You could compare the smile with children who got free passes to Disneyland. There would be no difference.

‘My name’s Bryce and I think, I should let you go back to the game.’ He flashed a smile and was about to leave when Sienna called.

‘Bryce, let’s play Frisbee together! We’re dividing into teams of two, you should join us.’ Sienna said to him, making him instantly nod at the suggestion.

‘Good, now Casey c’mon!’ Sienna dragged her arm as they made their way back to Elijah and Phoebe who are in a deep conversation with each other.

‘We’re doing this two versus two; Me and Sienna, Elijah and Phoebe, Bryce and Casey! No questions!’ Jackie announced as they get into position.

Casey nervously made her way to Bryce who’s grinning at her presence, she smiled back but cannot contain her blush to appear when she is around him. Soon, the game commence and the teams play furiously. Jackie’s new profound focus, along with Elijah’s intellect skills caused Casey to feel a bit nervous. Bryce seems to notice and immediately placed his hands into hers, giving her a piece of comfort to ease her nerves. And it helped Casey to play perfectly with Bryce which lead to the fact that they won many games.

Both Bryce and Casey cheered for their victory, and Casey immediately pulled Bryce into a tight hug without realizing what she has done. When the adrenaline ebbs away they suddenly realise in what situation they are and instantly pull away with blushes on their cheeks. Sienna and Jackie both giggle at the ‘incident’ which causes Casey to hide her face in her hands.

 After a dozen of rematches, the sun is finally settling down. Which makes them end the game with the winners being Elijah and Phoebe. They decided to celebrate the victory with a date that was due for a long time. Sienna and Jackie said their goodbyes to Bryce as they headed back to the apartment leaving Casey and Bryce alone at the park as the sun is setting down.

‘You wanna stay for a while, I have a sweet spot to watch the sunset.’ He offered. She didn’t hesitate and nods, not wanting her day with Bryce to end yet. They took a small hike to a secluded hilltop which is a few miles away from the park.

After a few minutes of hiking, they arrived at the top of the hill and Casey is speechless. The view is amazing, they can see everything from up here. They even arrived on time to see the beautiful sunset, letting the sky changes its colours. 

 Both of them sat quietly with each other, admiring  the beauty of nature. Casey suddenly felt exhausted and her head started to feel heavy, so without her really noticing, her head falls onto his shoulder. But then she quickly stood up, and apologized. Bryce just shook his head, pulled her back next to her and offered his shoulder as they sit and watch the beautiful sunset. They both collecting back their energy after the game of Frisbee.

 The night became darker every second, as Bryce walked her home. They stop in front of the apartment and nobody moved. A voice inside of her screamed to not let him go yet, but she’ll be selfish wouldn’t she?

Casey took a deep breath as she stared into Bryce’s eyes as his eyes wanders over her body. Both of them knew that they don’t want it to end, but some things have to end somehow.

‘I guess this is it’

‘Unfortunately’ she muttered under her breath.

‘Hey, I had a lot of fun today. I never knew bumping into someone would turn this day into an adventure.’ Bryce said happily.

Casey smiled at his comment, ‘I had fun too, and thank you for showing me the spot. It’s truly a wonder.’

‘I’d like to do that again sometime, if you want. If you insist-‘ Bryce was stopped by Casey placing a sweet kiss on his cheek

He smiled and they decided to trade numbers with each other, and another sneaky kiss from Bryce before they parted ways. Casey is now laying on her bed, smiling at the events that occurred today. Little did she know, Bryce was doing the same thing.

The next day, she woke up bright and early to get to her shift at the hospital. A walk to the hospital was a breeze as Casey spared all the details to Sienna about her ‘date’ with Bryce the other day.

The day was filled with a busy shift for all the senior residents, interns and surgeons. An accident at the Grand Bridge occurred causing the hospital to be busier than usual but the good news, they were no deaths involved. Casey stepped out of the busy ER, and decided to get to her lunch break. She was distracted by thinking about the cure for Mr Razier’s disease, which ended up making her bump into someone once again.

She immediately apologize for her clumsiness, but instead she froze. It was him, Bryce. He was making his way to her direction as he bumped into her. He was wearing a pair of green scrubs. He looks different in his working attire but in a good way. Casey immediately stood up offering her arm to Bryce as he took it.

‘I wished for this moment to a shooting star last night, and I cant believe it vame true’ Bryce said as he winked at her.

She blushed and said, ‘I didn’t know you work here, and we always happen to be bumping into each other.’

‘Well, I wouldn’t mind seeing your beautiful face once more.’ As he said that, she felt her spine shiver at those words. She took a deep breath, and faces him.

‘I’m having lunch, you want to join me?’ 

‘Well, never say no to free stuff right? Loser buys the other one lunch!’ Bryce said before sprinting forward leaving Casey to catch up from behind.

‘I’m coming for you Bryce!’ She let out a giggle before catching up to him. 

Maybe this year is gonna be fun after all.  

THE END.

 Authors note #2: I hope you all enjoy it! Its been a while since I write, I apologize for any language mistakes since English is not my first language. Dont forget to like and reblog, it helps with to ease the nerves (*insert monkey covering its eyes emoji*), and thank you for reading! <3 

[creepyalienghost]

Johnny’s summer job ch3

Johnny hardly slept that morning. For one reason the time was new for him to sleep since he had the night shift and the other reason he couldn’t let go of the Conversation he herd between his boss and Sammy. “Tell them you haven’t seen the child. Then come get me.” William had told Sammy. What child though? And why? What for? What was going on?

He got an answer to one of his questions later that night at dinner, from his uncle. “Another child went missing.” He told Johnny as he finished a bite.

Johnny’s eyes widen from the terrible news. “Really? Who was it and where this time?”

His uncle sipped his coffee and sighed. “It was the neighbors kid, Nicole. She went missing near the playground.” He replied. “Listen Johnny. I want you to be very careful. The police is starting to suspect someone has taken this kids.”

Johnny nodded, understandable“ I will uncle.”

The rest of their dinner went by in silence. Sadness for all this missing children around. Johnny felt bad for the parents of these kids who didn’t know were there baby’s were. He felt bad for the kids to. Who knew what was happening to them. But then he remembered the Conversation his boss and Sammy had last night. The shame and gilt is Sammy’s voice he herd. It scared him to think they’d be the ones doing this. He hoped it wasn’t true. But he had to know. He was going to investing the place tonight right after asking Lacie about it first.

Once he got to work later that night, he saw Sammy at the prize corner, restocking more prizes on the shelves. Johnny wondered if he should go up and talk to him. Maybe he’d get a few clues from him. Or maybe he’ll figure out he was on to him and William if he did go up and question him. He doesn’t want that. He needed to find Lacie to plan something out.

Sammy must of got the feeling of being watched because he looked back at Johnny’s way. Johnny quickly looked away from him and started walking away, like he knew nothing. He hoped Sammy didn’t see him watching.

After putting his Belongings in his locker he went to find Lacie in the back. She was sitting on a stole in the corner, reading over today’s task. “Oh hey. Good you here.” She said looking over at Johnny. She was of sense something off Joey or something because she looked at him strangely. “What’s wrong. Did something happen?”

Johnny walked over to her while nodding. “Yea. Did you here about the kid that just went missing?”

“This morning?” She ask him. “Yea I did. That’s so sad.” She shook her head in sadness. “She’s the fifth one to. Wonder who’s taking them.” She stated staring down at the ground.

“Lacie...I-I- think I have reasons to believe that it was William and Sammy.” Johnny admits.

Lacies gaze snapped at him from the floor in shook. “Why? What on earth make you come up with that idea!?” She asked.

“Because I over herd some of there Conversation last night!” Johnny replied. “William told Sammy to tell the police that he didn’t see anything and to report to him after. Plus that red stuff that did look like blood

Lacie rolls her eyes at this. “Johnny. Listen to your self. That’s insane!” She said with pity. “Why would they kill when they work here? How would they manage to kill five kids without being caught?” Poor Lacie couldn’t see William or Sammy hurting people.

“God. Your both are to loud with this.” Said a voice from the door way. They both jumped up and look over at the figure.

It was Sammy Lawrence. He was leaning on the door,watching them. Johnny wondered how long he’s been there and how much he’d over herd. Johnny just started back with suspicion in his eyes. “Why are you here Sammy?”

Sammy looked at Johnny’s face then down at the ground. “I’m here to warn you to shut your mouth shuts while your here.” He replied. “You don’t want the boss to hear you. That won’t be good.”

Johnny rolls his eyes. “You herd us. Your obviously going to tell him! Since you chose to work with him on killing these kids!” He spat.

Johnny could tell that one stung him, a lot more then he intended it to be. Sammy looked down again at the floor for a long moment, then turned away and started to leave, only stopping a few steps away and turn to face Johnny. “If you wanna know everything, meet me under the bridge by the park tomorrow at noon.” With that he left the room.

Johnny and Lacie looked at each other for a long moment before Lacie came up with a plan. “Ok. Don’t talk about any of this. If this stuff is true I don’t want to get William on the fact that we know. We’re talk about this after work.” She exclaimed. Johnny nodded. Pretty soon they began doing their task quickly and quietly while both unnoticeable watch William when he’s around.

All night they have disgusted about the meeting spot and how it could be a trap for them. Lacie still didn’t fully believe Sammy and William were killers but Johnny pointed out that there was lots of evidenced to point towards that and so she’s decided to go to the bridge with Johnny.

They came to a stop on their bikes once they arrived at the park and got off, walking their bikes down under the bridge, where Sammy was waiting for them. “Well. We’re here sam.” Lacie said. “What is it you wanna say.”

Sammy stood up from his spot and digs in his backpack, pulling out a few pieces of paper and handed them to Lacie and Johnny. “First look at these..

Johnny and Lacie looked at each other for a minute before looking at the pieces of paper together. One was a missing persons paper with a photo of a slightly Younger Sammy. The information they read there stated that he went missing last year. They next one they flipped thew was an newspaper article saying the details of what happened before he disappear.

“What does this mean?...” Johnny ask as Lacie was reading still.

“It means I’m kidnaped.” Sammy answered. He was trying and failing to stay confident. “It means I want to go back to my friends...” he looked between Lacie and Johnny. “It means I’m on your side.” He said with a bit more strength.

Lacie looked up at him in shocked. “He kidnaped you?...how?”

Sammy sighs thinking about his pass. “...well....my parents never took care me. So for most of my childhood William took care of me when I went to Freddy’s.” He replied. “Feed me...taught me how to take of myself.....but ...once I turn 16 and found out he was a murderer he brainwashed me to becoming the same....” Sammy looked down sadly. “It worked for a while....then one day I realized what I was doing...but I couldn’t do anything to stop him...I was to scared...am to scared...” Sammy’s words drift away for a bit before he continued. “Once my friends found out they tried help me...but William made us burn that Freddy’s and left before the cops came...

Johnny felt bad for Sammy for going though all this and having to kill. But he still had questions on if this was true, why tell us and what can we do to help. Lacie must of had the same questions as him as well from her actually asking the questions. “How do we know your telling the truth?”

Sammy immediately began digging in his bag again for a second and this time he pulled out a VHS tape and handed it to Johnny. “Evidence . You can do one of two things with it. You can give it to the police department and and their arrest William and possibly me. But that won’t save them-“

“Them?” Johnny interrupted. “Who’s them?”

Sammy turned to Johnny to reply. “Them. The kids. There not alive anymore by our definition. But there still here.”

“Like ghost?!” This time it was Lacie who interrupted him.

Sammy nodded patiently. “Exactly like ghost!” He replied. “And that’s apart of option two set the place and robots on fire to free them and kill William and...me..”

“Why kill you?..” Johnny said sadly.

Lacie answered him for Sammy. “Because he also killed them. Ya it wasn’t his choice but the soul are mad.”

Sammy nodded at her answer as Johnny looked at him sadly. “What about your friends.?”

Sammy frowns. “It’s best if I don’t meet them again...I’m not the same person..” he cleared his throat. “Anyways. That’s all I needed to say. Please save them and Good luck.” With that he ran off, leaving Johnny and Lacie to think.

“Alright...” Lacie started. “My house is Intime right now so let’s go to my house, watch the VHS and come up with a plan.” Johnny nodded then they started walking down to their bikes.

Once they got to Lacies house they headed inside the living room, with the VHS, and popped it in. They both sat side by side as the tape began. The tape showed a camera that viewed the employees only hallway. It was empty at first but quickly the door below the camera swings open and William and Sammy was dragging in a child that was tied up. Johnny noticed it was the first girl that went missing, little Amy. The VHS switched to another camera angle as the two dragged her into a room and chained her. The footage showed William experimenting on her as Sammy sat in the corner wanting nothing to do with it.

It went on five minutes before the tape finished and stopped. Lacie and Johnny couldn’t stop watching the TV. They sat still for a very long time, disturbed by what they just seen.

After what seems like hours Johnny finally spoke. “W-what do we do, Lacie?...” he turned to face her way.

Lacie turned to face Johnny back. “He kill William...we save the children ...and we free Sammy.”

They spend up until there shift, coming up with a plan for these two goals they have. The last two was easy because once William was dead they both get free. The first goal was the hardest. They had to come up with a way to trap William so they can kill him. The only problem was the killing part. Could these two actually do it?..

Later that night was when the plan was set in motion. The two didn’t go into work on time instead they waited for an hour before sneaking in the back of Freddy’s. “Got the stuff?” Lacie ask Johnny. Johnny nodded. “Good. Let’s do this.”

They went to Williams office, careful not to be spotted and Sneaks in. Lacie stood at the door on guard as Johnny poured a sleepy drug in Williams mug of coffee. Now was the waiting part. Which they waited in a janitor closet. The waited there for hours before peaking out. They both saw Sammy walking down the hall. “There you guys are.” Sammy said walking to them. “Whatever you did I think it worked. He’s passed out in his office.”

“Good.” Lacie replied. “Wanna help us?” Sammy nodded without hesitation.

—

William slowly work up from in i’m comfortable sleep. He was dazed at first but became aware quickly. He looked around and was furious when he found out he was chained up on the same table he killed on. “What the fuck?!” He yelled. “Who fucking did this!!”

“I did” Johnny replied walking in his Field of vision.

“As did I” Lacie followed Johnny.

“And I help...” Sammy followed Lacie.

William was Beyond pissed for this. “ I gave you jobs!!! And Sammy I gave you a home!” He screams.

Sammy shook his head no. “No. You turned me into a monster! And I see you doing the same to your own kids.” Sammy replied. “No more. No more kids to brainwashed and no more kids to kill!” Sammy looked at Lacie and Johnny. “Whenever your ready” Lacie and Johnny nodded as Sammy stepped back.

Lacie grabbed a bottle of gasoline and started pouring it on William after shoving a cloth in his mouth. As Johnny watched her he started to feel presents appear in the room with him. He looked tours his left to the five kids that were murdered here. One of them- his neighbor- smiled and waved at him. He waved back at her and smiled. He was glad he was helping them. He always wanted to help people like his parents. Now he was doing just that

Lacie pulled out the matches. “Want to do the honors Johnny.”

Johnny nodded. “Yes I do.”

Johnny took the matches and ran one on the box, lighting it, then he threw it on William where he quickly ingulf in flames. Johnny, Lacie and Sammy stood side by side watching him burn. His skin turning rotting black and oozing. His screams turning bloody and soon stopping all together. He laid there unmoving.

Soon they had to get outside from the fire spreading. They stood there for hours watch the building burning even when the fire department showed up. Johnny was happy seeing each soul freed after there robots was completely burned. One after the other until they were all free.

—-

The following weeks go on and the three of them have been under investigation. The police couldn’t find any prof of there involvement so they eventually are let off the hook. Johnny and Lacie had become friends and hang out daily. Sammy had went back to his his other friends for the time being. He texts and calls them every few days. Johnny noticed how happy he was now with his friends. He was glad he helped him to.

The towns people soon got the closure needed. The police had found the five body’s and each family had a funeral for there child. Johnny road by each one and wish the kid luck in the after life.

[svtegg]

dad!svt (hyung line)

seungcheol:

three kids...he wants more though.....whew

two boys n a girl

minjae, 12, a charmer like his dad, looks exactly like him

rowdy, loud and yells all the time

loves football and is naturally good at most sports

when he went to a cafe with his dad he ordered for his dad and when the barista gave him a confused look when he ordered a double shot dark roast ice americano he said

“i’m not young i’m just really short” making seungcheol who stood five steps behind his son bust out in laughter

chorong, 10, a tomboy who idolized her older brother and wants to do everything he does, she also plays football

her focus is worse than her brothers though so she always finds herself doing other stuff while pretending to play keeper

but don’t tell him that bc she doesn’t want him to know

she’s a very independent woman and gets very agitated when someone tries to help her with what she’s doing

taeoh, 6 BUT HE’LL HAVE YOU KNOW HES 6 AND A HALF actually

a total mamas boy and seungcheol will never admit how jealous that makes him

taeoh is a calm soul and tends to be a little shy

enjoys nature and animals n prefers playing with sticks and rocks over plastic toys

seungcheol is a stressed out parent....kinda like a stereotypical movie soccer mom

stressing over the shopping list at the grocery store n you just have to take a hold of his forearm to tell him that it doesn’t matter if you get taeoh red or yellow socks for his school talent show next week because taeoh is 6 and he doesn’t care

loves his kids more than anything in the world and is extremely supportive and encouraging

isn’t very strict but does have house rules, chores and routines and treats every one of his children with respect and love

almost never gets angry or worked up....only when the kids fight or hurt each other will he slightly raise his voice to assert his authority

but always ends his lectures with an i love you and a big hug

the “that’s my kid!!” type of dad

so so proud of his clumsy, messy and comical children

cheered for chorong when she did a handstand in the goal in the middle of a match

the rest are under the cut...

jeonghan:

“two” children

a two year old son

and another on the way

you don’t know the gender yet but!!! he’s very excited to meet his second child (it’s also a boy shhh it’s a secret)

his son is named haneul and he turned two on the 3rd of may

jeonghan calls him hannie though, passing on his own nickname to his son heheheh

he’s a smart kid

jeonghan taught him all the colors and is very proud of that

when jeonghans mom comes over jeonghan will always pester his son to get him to say all the colors

“what color is this, hannie?” he would ask, pointing to the emerald green mat on the floor with an exited voice

haneul would just give him the stank eye and go back to playing with his wooden moomin figurines

a total daddy’s boy he loves his dad so so much and jeonghan rubs it in your face constantly

hannie co sleeps in your bed,,,,and lemme tell you....that lil boy is wild as fuk,.,.,.hes basically doing acrobatics in his sleep...ends up splayed across both you and jeonghan, cheeks squished into your chest and feet resting on jeonghans stomach

jeonghan is a more hands on parent, always keeping an eye or a hand on his boy at all times

anxious when haneul goes to daycare for the first time

a little over protective almost breathing down the child’s neck when he’s playing with his blocks on the floor

you have to tell him to calm down and give your kid some space to explore a little

calms down a little when the other child arrives bc he finally realizes that he won’t have time to protect his children from every potential booboo

still spoils his kids rotten and leaves it to you to be the strict and stern parent

he doesn’t tolerate any backtalk or attitude however and will discipline whoever it was that gave attitude right away

always reads bedtime stories, even when the children are almost teenagers and whine at him to just get out of their room already

joshua:

two daughters

elisabeth, age 9, her korean name is eunchae

elisabeth’s nickname is ella and both you and joshua never call her by her full name unless it’s to be assertive

ella is an artistic soul and loves to draw and paint, shes a little diva and wants everything her own way

but she’s a sweet girl down deep, clinging to her parents at every chance she gets

emelia, age 5, her korean name is eunbi

emelia has a lot of pet names, she’s the little sweetheart and always sucks up to her parents (josh loves it)

emelia is a little more shy than ella, and follows her sisters footsteps carefully

both the girls look exactly like him, the cat like mouth and the kind eyes copied from his body and onto their faces

both the girls have almost golden toned black hair if that makes sense....

joshua is a gentle parent, letting his girls do their thing while watching from a few steps

he loves exploring with his girls and taking them to parks and zoos and botanical gardens to teach them different animals and insects and flowers

the girls really like superheroes and they will make their dad play avengers with them on the suspension bridge on the playground

he will always have to be hulk and his girls will be captain marvel and groot

is a loving and sensitive father who is very open and emotionally available to his girls

has set house rules, bed times and is very respectful when asserting authority

never raises his voice to his children but guides them with an impeccable patience

the girls have their own bedroom but they often end up in your bed during the night...emelia frequents your bedroom most though

has hearts in his eyes when he watches his kids do anything

that adoring soft smile that makes the edges of his eyes turn up covering his face

jun:

one son

4 year old chaohua......english name...joshua

(yes joshua cried when he found out)

chao may only be 4 but he’s already as handsome as his dad

he’s the most adorable child ever

the kindest soul to ever walk the earth

he loves cuddling and would be content for a good hour just curled up in the corner of the sofa with one of his parents or uncles

he’s already lost his one front tooth and is very proud of it

likes watching cartoons!! especially old pokémon episodes

jun’s so loves animals...all animals,,,and when he found out meat cane from animals he refused to eat it...so now i guess jun is a vegetarian bc of the puppy eyes chao gives him whenever it’s dinnertime

when walking anywhere with his son, jun has to stop every five minutes so that chao can pet a dog or talk to a bird that’s trotting along the sidewalk

the little boy squatting down with his hands around his knees to carefully speak to mr.dove....but mr.dove is clearly a city pigeon

also always nagging his dad for a cat

chao is very good at swimming and jun takes him to his swimming lesson every week without fail

jun is v supportive and sits on the benches along the wall to watch his son

isnt really scared for chao bc he knows his child is careful and smart

so let’s him do what he wants most of the time

jun convinced you to let chao co sleep with you and he still does that

you had to get a bigger bed but no one is complaining because chao is such a cuddle bug it’s a win for everyone

basically chao is just as kind and gentle and loving as his father

and chao being born made jun grow up a little...he’s still goofy happy junhui but he’s just 10 times more loving n doting....towards his child that is

wonwoo:

two sons

twins

taewoo and wonseok, both 5

both complete opposites but still a match made in heaven

wonseok is a carbon copy of wonwoo, even his personality

while taewoo is a carbon copy of just wonwoo’s face

wonseok is quiet, thoughtful, neat and incredibly smart while taewoo is rowdy, loud, messy and lot of fun

wonseok is braver than taewoo however and this way they balance each other out perfectly, one being the life of the party while the other evens out the energy levels a bit more

wonwoo loves his kids so much

his stoic and mysterious image being completely thrown away the second he hears one of them squeal out a loud DAD!!!! when he walks through the front door of your house

the twins are v often perched on either side of his hips, or clinging onto his back as best they can

they love their dad and thinks he’s the coolest person on the entire planet

beside from Captain America©️ maybe

wonwoo is a strict parent, expecting his sons to behave and treat each other with kindness.,,..,,.,,.,,...most of the time

they’re twins so ofc they get on each other’s nerves

wonwoo doesn’t mind a little fighting and crying from the boys....as long as they make up after

otherwise wonwoo would sit then down and have a discussion with the two of them

and bc of this the boys are extremely mature for their age,,,again.,,.,,...,,,most of the time

but they’re wonwoos greatest pride and he loves them so so much

wonwoo will often play board games with his sons,,,,sometimes he becomes a little too invested

taught wonseok how to play checkers and now he almost never gets peace from the little boy who’s constantly asking to play him again

taewoo just wants to play spider-man...which is basically wonwoo lifting the boy up and holding him up to the roof so he can pretend to walk on it...while screaming at the top of his lungs in happiness

he can’t handle bedtime though and so you and him always put them to bed together

soonyoung:

he’s been busy

he has a one year old boy....

and a 3 year old girl

and one on the way,,,,no one knows the gender yet shhhh (it’s another baby boy but i didn’t tell you that)

daehyun and hanbyul

he’s the biggest softest dad ever and cries at every first

cried when hanbyul said her first word...which was apple for some reason

cried at daehyuns f

cried at daehyuns first steps

cries when his child cries

keeps a list on the fridge of funny things his kids say

is super stoked and excited every time his kid learns a new thing, showing it off to every uncle one by one

is also completely on top and updated on what disney characters your daughter likes recently

knows exactly what stuffed animals his son likes and always knows what he needs when he starts fussing

he knows his kids so incredibly well its almost like he can read their minds

plays dress up with byul all the time, his favorite princess is elsa

you would often find him in the signature Dad™️ pose (the lying in the floor supporting yourself in your forearm) on hanbyuls bedroom floor with a tiny elsa costume on smiling like an idiot at your daughter who was explaining how to drink tea like a princess

a whole idiot for his kids, literally in love with them would do anything for them

spoils them rotten and makes sure theyre always happy, healthy and laughing

will never get tired of bouncing his son on his knee just to hear him laugh

his kids adore him just as much back

soonyoung almost has as much energy as his toddler daughter but will often go down as well at nap time

basically having kids with soonyoung is like raising and extra kid (him)

jihoon:

1 daughter

she’s just as badass as him

theyre best friends like actual best friends

she’s already turning into a little sassy savage princess

her name is youngsun (or just sun)

jihoon calls her sunnie or ms young

she’s currently 7 years old, and she has NO front teeth so she has an adorable lisp

she’s good friends with joshua’s girls

the little lady is very well behaved and always listens very well....jihoon likes to think this is bc he raised her to think for herself and respect and treat people like she wants to be treated herself

even though she’s jihoons daughter she is still a little cuddle bug and will savagely call her uncles out in their bull while resting her head on their chest

she’s very small, probably inheriting jihoon height lmao mingyu teases her adoringly by calling her teeny while she jokingly pouts up at her beanstalk uncle

jihoon treats his daughter like an equal, and bc of this they have a very special bond

jihoon and sun often discuss and exchange opinions on various subjects like adults and many people are impressed by how articulate and eloquent the young lady is

but she’s also a mischievous little lady and often pulls pranks on her parents or uncles,

hiding from them and scaring them when she thinks they aren’t looking and then running away with the loudest most adorable giggle leaving her toothless mouth

of course everyone just pretends they get scared but she doesn’t know that and thinks it’s the most hilarious thing

youngsun has a very strong bond with uncle mingyu and uncle seungkwan

the three of them often pairing up to scare jihoon while he’s working on something or spaced out in his own world

sometimes jihoon gives in and plays harry potter with his daughter, pretending to have dueling battles in the kitchen with chopsticks as wands

jihoon would be on the floor yelling out VINGARDIUM LEVIOSAAAAA

and you would be sat in the living room reading, laughing to yourself

you never in a million years pictured this would ever happen

basically jihoon is a very good dad and his daughter loves him,,,you could say she’s a daddy’s girl

[xmenimagine]

Imagine: Roadworks.

Requested by Anon. Includes: Alex Summers x Reader. Request: • Can I please request Alex Summers taking female reader out on their first date after secretly being in love with her for ages? And it’s just super fluffy? If you’re taking requests.. and thank you so much! • Could you please, if you don’t mind do Peter or Alex falls in love with a widowed single mother with a 6 year old daughter with lots of fluff? Thank you so much! (I’m not sure if I’ve already sent this in or not 🙈)

Note: I haven’t been writing for a while bc of uni, but I managed to find time to write this. sorry if it's not exactly what you wanted, but I hope you enjoy it.

    He was thankful that there was a diversion on his way to work that day. His usual commute to work consisted of walking passed the same replicated buildings with a white exterior, black doors, black windowsills, and black steps leading up to the doors, and the same neatly trimmed trees that were plotted every ten steps. Everything looked the same, and quite honestly, Alex was beginning to lose his sanity if he had to walk down the same road there and back with his thermos in his hand, his suit done up, his bag over his shoulder as he counted down the hours before he would eat his repetitive lunch of a sandwich, a piece of fruit, and another cup of coffee before he walked back into the building for another few hours before Cheryl, ultimately, like goddamn clockwork, came around and told him he had to work overtime. Oh, how he loathed Cheryl—the woman at the desk with the low-cut, designer shirts and tight pencil-skirts, with those black high heels, my god those heels that would do your head in, the constant clicking was almost as bad as the man next his desk who talked on his phone to his girlfriend in Mexico from the moment he sat down at his desk to the moment he got up and switched to his personal phone.

    Alex sighed to himself loudly, pinching the bridge of his nose as he continued walking. The only thing he could stand on his way to work was the colours of the leaves, the ones that were changing to a deep red before they drifted to the ground, only to be picked up by the workers who came around every day to clean the roads. His long, blond hair was tied back, which he was thankful for as the wind wasn't forgiving, neither was Malcolm—the tech support guy who looked like a stereotypical character, with the hair gelled back, the ugly yellow button-up shirt tucked into his even uglier, not exactly brown but you know they are, brown pants that didn't fit the length of his lanky legs. It also didn't help that his glasses were thick-rimmed and the prescription was so strong that Alex had to bite back the comments that consisted of asking Malcolm if he just stuck two magnifying glasses to his face. He always had those two stupid pens in his shirt pocket, and somehow an entire maths set too. He also had a patterned tie designated to a certain day of the week. Alex wasn't a fan, but neither was Malcolm with Alex.

    As he removed his hand away from his face he looked back up to the pavement and saw that, along the two pavements and road, there was a barrier. There were workers in bright orange helmets and vests with worker boots that stood around, Alex felt out of place in his three-piece suit and shiny, black, lace-up dress shoes. He paused, furrowing his eyebrows, in the middle of the pavement. One of the workers patted his colleague's shoulder and the other one turned around before he approached Alex.

    "Sorry, Sir. Roadworks. Might take a few days, a week at most. It's pretty bad, but, uh, there's a road just down there,"—he pointed to Alex's right, towards a small road—"that you can take. Sorry for the inconvenience."

    "No, that's uh," Alex started with a sigh, checking his watch, "I was going to be early anyway. Thanks for letting me know."

    Before the man could say anything else, Alex continued down the smaller road. His go-to stress sign was running his hand through his hair, but he couldn't do that right now. Well, he could, but he'd look like he had a bird trapped in his hair, and he'd rather not give Malcolm something to comment on as he walked into the office. Alex was sure to deck Malcolm in the face the day he quit. Maybe put Cheryl in her place, tell her to get the stick out of her ass too while he was at it. But sadly, that day wasn't today. More stress piled on top of Alex when he turned out of the road and heard children yelling and playing. He was directed straight into a park, granted a well-kept and fairly spacious park.

    On one side, the side that started at the back of the houses, was a flat grass area with a few benches towards the middle by the winding path, just opposite the colourful gated area where the children's playground was. Alex shifted the weight of his bag on his shoulder and walked down the path. He forced a smile at those that passed and offered him one, only really smiling at the dogs that walked passed with their owners, laughing to himself as their tails wagged faster. The grass area had a few dogs running around, their owners throwing frisbees and some teenagers huddled together smoking. He rolled his eyes at them. That shit will kill ya. He turned back, walking with his head up high, just waiting for the day to be over so he could go back home, order a pizza and side, maybe even a drink that wasn't coffee or beer, lounge in his sweats and old college hockey shirt, a game he still enjoys but no longer plays, there's no time, while watching old episodes of Bob's Burgers, maybe Parks and Rec, only occasionally watching something else like the news or some other sports that he'd get bored of in a matter of minutes.

    Then, faintly, he heard something. At first, he thought his mind just wanted to hear it, but he could hear the same voice that kept him up most nights, thinking, over at the playground. He turned his head, slowing down his walk, and he spotted you, standing at the climbing frame with your daughter. You lived in the same apartment complex as him and the same floor, luckily for him, too. Your bedrooms were next to each other, and he would often hear your soft voice on the phone, talking to someone about God knows what. He would often be returning from a jog when you got back from shopping with your little girl, he'd offer to help you, but you were determined to get it done by yourself, but he insisted, so you would have to settle with him looking after your little girl on the landing as you made two or three trips down the stairs—the elevator hasn't been fixed in a few years.

    He didn't know much about the father, only that he wasn't in the picture. He would never admit it to anyone, especially not Scott, but when he sat against the wall, waiting with your daughter next to him for you to return, something just seemed… right? He wasn't sure what he felt when he saw you walking up the stairs with two or four bags in your hands, your messy hair falling in front of your face, smiling shyly at him as you thanked him for waiting, remind him that he didn't have to, but, it was something he began to long for. When you and your daughter would disappear into your apartment he would stay outside for a few extra seconds before slowly backing up to his door. Only once did he walk back too far and almost fell into the fake potted plant in the corner.

    Alex snapped out of it when he heard your daughter call his name loudly. He blinked, cursing himself for stopping to stare, and smiled over at her before his gaze moved onto you. The small wave you sent him had him lifting his arm up shyly to wave back. Your daughter called out to him again as she stood at the edge of the climbing frame in front of the pole the kids slid down, pretending to be firefighters. Alex smiled faintly as you waved him over. He pushed open the small yellow gate and walked in, making sure not to get in the way of any of the other children that ran around.

    "Hey there," Alex spoke to your daughter.

    "Hi," she grinned, holding onto the pole, but not moving any further.

    "She's too scared to get down," you informed him and your daughter stopped smiling and glared at you.

    "Am not," she argued.

    "Then why are you still up there?" You teased.

    Alex laughed to himself and placed his thermos down, then took his bag from his shoulders. "I'll rescue the princess," he said with a chuckle.

    Your daughter grinned, shuffling her feet as she removed her hands from the pole and to Alex's shoulders while he wrapped his arms around her, lifting her up and off the frame. He kept her in his arms, smiling, as she wrapped her smaller arms around his shoulders, smiling widely at you herself.

    "You're a menace," you teased, poking her stomach before kissing her cheek gently.

    "A what?" She asked, tilting her head.

    Alex chuckled. "Trouble," he told her.

    "Oh." Your daughter tried to hide a smile and tried to bite back a laugh, turning her head away.

    "What's so funny now?" You asked.

    "'Now'?" Alex repeated with a raised eyebrow.

    "She's been doing this the whole morning," you said, shaking your head. "I have no idea why."

    "I've been doing no such thing," your daughter giggled to herself, beginning to squirm in Alex's arms.

    He set her down and she ran off to the seesaw, beginning to chat with two other girls and a little boy while Alex picked up his bag and thermos again, still standing next to you. "I don't usually see you walk this way," you spoke up.

    Alex turned his attention away from your daughter and to you, watching as you crossed your arms and kept a close eye on her. "What? Oh, right!" You side eyed him quickly before looking away again. "Roadworks and I left earlier than usual. I was hoping to get in and maybe start the reports before Andrew gets in."

    "He's the phone guy, right?"

    He chuckled, grinning to himself, feeling… happy? that you knew who Andrew was, especially since he told you about him almost five months ago. "Yeah, the phone guy."

    "How does he still have a job?" You mumbled to yourself.

    "What about you? Do you always come here at this time?"

    With a sigh, you shook your head. "No, I haven't exactly slept yet. I called in sick to work because I knew I wouldn't focus, and she didn't have school today so, here we are. I know, I know, a stupid mum thing to do. Irresponsible and childish. I already got that speech from my mum."

    "You haven't slept yet?" He asked, not saying anything about your parenting skills.

    "No," you replied, shaking your head.

    "Are both of you okay?"

    "Yeah. She's fine."

    "The question was including you, too." Alex heard you sigh quietly. "Coffee?" He held his thermos to you. You nodded your head and took it from him, unscrewing the lid before taking a sip. "Now, are you okay?"

    "Yeah, it's just… Starting to go out on dates again is proving to be difficult and stressful."

    "Dates?"

    "I don't particularly want to be single for the rest of my life, raising a child I had at a young age, who I had with a boy I got married to when I was far too young to understand how stupid I was," you replied.

    He nodded his head. "What happened, if you don't mind me asking?"

    "It's fine." You shrugged. "I was meant to go on a date yesterday, with a guy I met at a coffee shop, I'm not sure if what happened was a sign that I shouldn't date guys from coffee shops or if I should stop going to coffee shops in general, maybe it was about dating, I… I'm getting off topic." Alex smiled lightly, almost wincing. "But, anyway, when he showed up… I'm not sure if he ignored me when I told him I had a daughter, or maybe he just thought I was joking, but whatever it was, when I asked him to just wait a minute for the babysitter to arrive, he began to make an excuse as to why he couldn't go on the date. I asked him what was wrong, and it was at that point when she came up to the door behind me and wrapped her arms around my leg, staring up at him sadly, that he said he didn't want baggage and just left. I had to cancel the babysitter, change out of that stupid dress, that I'm going to burn because I can almost see the words 'I don't want that type of baggage' on it and I just… He said that in front of my child, Alex. He actually had the audacity to say that in front of my baby, like she…"

    "I still have my college hockey stick, how about I beat him to death with it?" Alex suggested when he heard you trail off, wrapping your hands tightly around the thermos.

    A small hum left your lips. "Tempting."

    Alex smiled lightly, and then his heart began to race, his hand began to twitch. He wanted to mess with his hair just to distract himself. "H-How about I take you out for dinner tonight, to make up for his mistake instead? She can come with us." He motioned his head towards your daughter who was now sharing one side of the seesaw with the little boy while the other two girls shared the other.

    Slightly stunned, you turned your head from your daughter and looked up at him. "What?"

    "Oh, would you look at the time." Alex chuckled nervously, lifting his arm up to look at his watch. "It's time for me to get to work."

    "Alex," you called after him as he began to walk. He only got away with two steps before you grabbed onto his arm and moved to stand in front of him. "Are you asking me out on a date?"

    He gulped, tugging at the collar of his shirt, noticing a few strands of his hair had fallen in front of his face. "I've been meaning to for almost two years," he admitted quietly, feeling a knot in his stomach, his hands shaking and sweating at the same time, his heart beating uncomfortably in his chest.

    A smile rose to your face as you looked down, hiding the fact your cheeks turned a shade of pink faintly, your skin warmed up. "I, uh… yes." You nodded. "I would love to… we would love to."

    "Really?" He asked.

    You nodded, turning to look at your daughter who was already making her way back. She wrapped her arms around your leg again, leaning her head against you. Alex crouched down and cleared his throat.

    "I need to ask you something very important."

    "About stocks?"

    "What?" Alex looked at her, then up to you, who was just as confused as he was, then back down to your daughter. "No."

    "Good, because I don't know anything about them."

    "No, I need to ask you for permission."

    "To do what?"

    "Take you and your mum out for dinner tonight, and if that goes well, maybe every other night after that?"

    Your daughter looked up to you, a smiling growing on her face. You shrugged, waiting for her response. She looked back at Alex and grinned, nodding her head before she pushed forward and wrapped her arms around him again. With a chuckle, he stood up, holding her tightly. The nerves were still there eating away at him, but it was no longer a bad feeling, they were the good kind of nerves. Alex glanced at you and grinned, unwrapping one arm from your daughter to bring you into the hug as well. He was no longer pissed off at the diversion, and, slowly, the stress started to melt away.

[oodlyenough]

fic: return on investment (1/2)

If Atlas were a baby, Fiona realizes, she would be its luxurious, jet-setting mother, travelling the world on a whim, and Rhys would be the live-in nanny doing all the actual childrearing.

--

Atlas needs money. Thanks to Felix, Fiona has four million dollars.

Rhys will probably regret this.

3.5k in this chapter. Mostly comedy, with a bit of drama to come. Post-game. Pretty exclusively about Rhys & Fiona’s relationship, with bit parts and cameos from Sasha, Vaughn and Yvette. Kudos to @shinyopals, @firstofoctober and @valoscope on Tumblr for humouring this idea long enough for it to grow as it has. Also on AO3.

Update: Part 2 on Tumblr | Part 2 on AO3

The first million of Felix’s nine is spent getting Fiona and Rhys back to Pandora after the Vault transports them half-way across the galaxy.

It’s not how Fiona imagined spending her first million dollars. It’s also not how she imagined her first visit to another planet. Or who she imagined visiting it with.

It does put an end to Rhys’ whining when he learns she has millions of dollars cash in her back pocket, though, so at least there's that.

“I didn't think Vaults were supposed to cost you money,” Rhys points out, ever so helpfully, as Fiona parts with a larger chunk of change than she's ever previously held.

“This was a dud,” Fiona reasons. “Obviously. The next one I find’ll be better.”

“Seriously? You still wanna be a Vault Hunter? After all this? You’re not all… Vault-ed out?”

Rhys looks at her like he's pretty sure that's stupid. Truthfully Fiona is pretty sure he's got a point, but it's not like he's one to talk.

“Hey, people with glass career ambitions shouldn’t throw stones.”

Rhys smirks. “Yeah, not sure that figure of speech really held up for you.”

“Whatever, just… shut up. You're lucky I'm nice enough to pay for your ticket, too.”

“Technically that’s money you stole from me and Vaughn, so…”

Fiona flips him off, upgrades her ticket to first class for the leg home and leaves him in coach.

That leaves eight million to split with Sasha.

Sudden wealth agrees with Sasha—or at least, Sasha agrees with sudden wealth.

She spends a chunk right away, on a tricked-out caravan that makes the old one look like a clown car, a sound system powerful enough to wake the dead, and at least a dozen guns that individually cost more money than any gun has any business costing.

Fiona understands the kid-in-a-candy-store impulse (Sasha nearly buys out one of those, too), but she’s older, arguably a little wiser, and definitely more patient. Besides, she might end up teleported across the universe again.

So instead she takes her four million, buys a new hat, and waits for an opportunity to present itself.

Rhys gets them all together with such forced nonchalance that it can only mean one thing: he wants something, and he is nervous to ask for it.

Fiona knows this, but she decides to let it play out anyway. Watching him squirm is funny.

Hours later, when Sasha and Vaughn are preoccupied with Sasha’s new motorbike, Rhys finally spits it out, and even though Fiona knew there was a request coming, she nearly chokes on her beer.

“You want me to what?”

“Invest,” he repeats, like it sounds any less insane the second time around. When her eyes remain as wide as dinner plates, he raises both index fingers. “I know, I know, I know, just—hear me out—”

He launches into a well-prepared sales pitch/slideshow/shameless plea, of which Fiona absorbs about twenty per cent through her haze of surprise, confusion and bewilderment.

When he’s finished, Fiona watches him closely through narrowed eyes. Her first question is, “Did you ask Sasha the same thing?”

“No.” He shifts in his seat under her scrutiny. “It seemed like a bad idea to… mix business and pleasure.”  

“God.” Fiona just about gags. “I’ll give you the money if you promise never to call my sister ‘pleasure’ ever again.”

Rhys is disturbingly unperturbed, tilting his head with a grin. “Is that a deal?”

“I dunno…” Fiona tilts her chair onto its back legs and pushes back her hat so she can stare up in proper contemplation. “Would that mean I’d own Atlas?”

“Nah, there’s lots of different ways you can do it, you don’t have to be involved at all. Could just be a loan with interest, or—”

“I wanna own it,” Fiona decides.

“You… what?” he sputters. She can just about see the gears in his head grind to a halt—or the circuit boards, or whatever cybernetic garbage he’s got implanted in there. “No, you don’t.”

“Uh, yeah I do.”

“...Why?”

Fiona shrugs. She lets the front legs of her chair hit back against the ground with a thunk.

“Sounds cool, doesn’t it? Fiona: Vault Hunter, business owner.” She spreads both hands in the air as if she’s unfurling an imaginary banner.

Rhys stares at her, dumbfounded. After a second, he narrows his eyes. “You were that kid on the playground who had no interest in the toy truck until somebody else was playing with it, weren’t you?”

“Dunno. Didn’t grow up with a lot of toys. Or a playground.” She pouts, aiming for a guilt trip, but she must fumble the landing, because Rhys just rolls his eyes.

“You don’t want to own Atlas,” he insists.

“Sure I do.”

“Look, the interest rate I’ll give you—”

“Nope.” She leans across the table, her chin cradled in her bridged fingers, smirking. “Wanna own it.”

Rhys leans forward too, with an equally snide smirk, like he’s hoping to catch her in a bluff. Fiona realizes two things in quick succession: that this has become a game of chicken, and that she isn’t about to lose.  

“Really? That’s really what you want. You really want equity, not interest, or a portion of the profits, or—”

“Really.” She slides one hand free and extends it across the table. “So, deal?”

Rhys’ narrowed, mismatched eyes study her face and then her outstretched hand, his jaw working in wordless contemplation.

Finally, with an aggravated huff, he grabs her hand in his. “Deal.”

Fiona grins, and tries to make sure her grip is as tight as his, even if her efforts are wasted on his prosthetic.

“Don’t worry,” she tells him, “I’ll still let you do all the work.”

Rhys shakes his head as he lets go, scowling. “You’re such an asshole.”

“Hey, hey, hey!” She points a finger in mock offense. “I’m a rich asshole.”

Once she signs on the dotted line, Fiona owns, technically, 51% of Atlas’ outstanding shares.

Majority shareholder. It sounds like it pains Rhys to say it.

Sasha asks what that means, exactly, and Fiona sort of shrugs, and Rhys groans very loudly and hits his forehead on the table.

If Atlas were a baby, Fiona realizes, she would be its luxurious, jet-setting mother, travelling the world on a whim, and Rhys would be the live-in nanny doing all the actual childrearing.

Rhys does not appreciate this metaphor as much as Fiona does.

He also doesn’t appreciate when Fiona refers to Atlas as her “hobby”, her “side hustle”, her “pet project”, or basically anything that describes it as “hers” at all.

This, of course, only encourages her to do it more often.

For the most part, though, she doesn’t spend a lot of time thinking about Atlas. Vault Hunting is a pretty preoccupying gig. Rhys sends her updates, sometimes—because he thinks she might care or because he wants to make her feel guilty for her uninvolvement, she’s not really sure—and she sort of half-skims them. She hasn’t got the head for business, anyway. She’d rather get shot at than read a quarterly report. Literally.

“That’s why I’ve got loyal servants like you,” she tells him.

If looks could kill, and if those killing powers worked even through a vidlink, she’d definitely be dead by now.

Fiona leans back against the wall, one foot braced against it, and buffs her nail polish while a nervous-looking woman in a lab coat turns her back to Fiona, hand at her ear.

“Hi, yes, sorry to bother you,” the woman says, “it’s Sophie, from R&D?”

There must be a pause on the line, because Sophie shoots a skittish glance over her shoulder at Fiona.

Fiona waves.

Sophie turns away again immediately, and Fiona shakes her head. She isn’t even trying to be intimidating.

“Yes, hi,” Sophie says again, apparently transferred to another line. “I—no, no, there’s nothing on fire this time. There’s just, um, there’s a woman here? Who wants a tour of the lab?”

Fiona wonders if Sophie is one of the so-called Children of Helios, and if so, exactly how long it’s going to take for those children to stop hiding in their parents’ basement.

“I know we don’t do tours,” Sophie says, sounding a little irritated at the insinuation. It’s the most Fiona has liked her so far. “But she says she’s—well, she…” Sophie casts another helpless glance at Fiona, like she resents what Fiona’s presence is making her say. “She says she owns the place.” Sophie is still watching Fiona from the corner of her eye as she nods slowly to the voice on the other end of the line. “Right. Okay. Will do.”

Finally, Sophie turns to face Fiona properly.

“He says he’ll be down in a minute,” says Sophie.

Fiona grins, pushing herself up from the wall. “Great.”

“You didn’t tell me you were coming,” is the first thing Rhys says to her, and Fiona snorts.

“Hi, Rhys, I’m fine, good to see you, too, it’s been so long,” she says pointedly, but he ignores her, moving straight to the door, his palm held out to interface with the control panel.

She watches him work, head tilted. They haven’t seen much of each other in recent months, each caught up in their personal whirlwinds. Fiona is finally starting to earn some respect, and Atlas is taking its first fledgling steps as an actual, functional business. Again. Vault Hunter, CEO. It’s been… busy.

The Rhys in front of her now is even starting to look the part, all expensive clothing and serious facial expressions and the perpetual vibration of someone who’s consumed way beyond the recommended daily intake of caffeine.

Fiona knows him, though, and she’s not so easily fooled.

“It’s really… not a great time for you to be here,” he admits to her as the door slides open. “I’ve got advertising proofs to approve, financials to look at, a couple big meetings that really need to go well, and shepherding you around is not exactly the prep I had planned.”

“Shepherding?” Fiona counters, following him through the doors. “Thought you’d be excited to show off.”

Rhys smiles thinly. “Yeah, well, you know, I would be! Just… kinda busy… trying not to lose all your money and torpedo my own career. Again.”

That sounds more like the Rhys she knows, always a little more awkward and uncertain than he tries to pretend. Fiona grins and claps him on the shoulder as they head into the lab.

“Tough. I want to see what my money’s paying for.”

Her money, it turns out, is paying for a number of things. The Atlas of yesteryear had a lot of irons in the fire, and in that regard, at least, Rhys’ is no different.

There’s a limited line of guns, the expensive sort that collectors pay exorbitant amounts of money to never use. Fiona asks if these were made explicitly to please Sasha, and Rhys gets a dumb look on his face and shrugs, which she takes as a yes.

They don’t keep the plantlife in the lab, he explains, which makes sense, but he assures her there’s a lot of it. Fiona remembers ten-foot carnivorous flowers and decides she’s not really missing out.

“Is it all still so… aggressive?” she asks, and Rhys sort of grins.

“Aggressive plantlife really agrees with Pandora,” he says, which she has to admit sounds true enough. “We’re working on fruit and stuff though, you can try some later.” Then something catches his eye, and he waves her forward eagerly. “Fi, come here.”

He introduces her to a frazzled woman named Hannah, standing on the outside of a tiny observation room. Through the window, a small, nondescript robot is holding what looks like a glorified button. Painted on the floor are two separate, coloured circles.

“We’ve been trying to learn more about the teleportation technology from the Vault of the Traveler,” Hannah tells her, and over Hannah’s shoulder, Rhys wiggles his eyebrows excitedly.

“Quick, easy interplanetary travel, right?” he prompts.

“Easy is one word for it.” Fiona tilts her head and raises an eyebrow. “Another is nauseating. Disorienting. Terrifying.”

Rhys dismisses it with a shrug. “I mean, it’s... probably less terrifying if you know it’s going to happen.” He sidles up next to her, full-on salesman. “Just think, though! Pandora to Dionysus in ten seconds.”

“Yeah, Dionysus will love that,” Fiona jokes, but it does sound pretty cool, now that he’s said it.

He scratches the back of his neck. “Well… we can worry about that later. It’s a work in progress.”

“I made some adjustments,” Hannah says, and then launches into a technical explanation that sounds like gibberish to Fiona. Rhys makes a good show of looking very attentive, but Fiona’s pretty sure he has no idea what any of it means, either.

By the end of it, Hannah’s holding up a remote control, and all three of them are watching the robot in the observation room curiously as Hannah holds up a remote control switch.

“It’s supposed to reappear in that blue circle, there,” Hannah explains.

The little robot dematerializes from its red circle and rematerializes almost instantly, in a bright flash of light, three feet into the air and nowhere near the blue circle. Before it can even hit the ground, it disappears again, reappears elsewhere, faster and faster, with non-stop bursts of blinding light, clattering around the room as it collides with the walls, floor and ceiling.

Finally, there’s a memorable slam against the window that sends them all flinching backwards. Hannah flips the switch the other way, and the robot falls from mid-air and lands on the floor.

Fiona cringes.

“It doesn’t, um, there’s no AI in that, or anything,” Rhys says hastily, though he looks a little horrified too. “It’s fine.”

With matching, pained thumbs up, they leave Hannah to her work.

Along with the guns and the experimental teleportation, there’s a variety of miscellaneous tech, small-ticket items that Rhys shows  to Fiona with all the enthusiasm of a teenager working part-time at an amusement park.

Every employee they run into knows Rhys, and Rhys knows all of them, well enough that she thinks he might be cheating, but she never catches his ECHO eye lighting up.

None of them know Fiona, which leaves her the great pleasure of introducing herself as Rhys’ boss, reveling in their look of confusion and Rhys’ scowl.

“I mean they really should have heard of me,” Fiona tells him.

“They don’t have reason to,” Rhys says. “It’s not like you actually do any work here.”

“You could have posters. ‘The Woman Who Made This All Possible’.” When that fails to get a response, she nudges him with her elbow. “Or a statue.”

“I’m not building you a statue,” says Rhys flatly, a disappointing underreaction.

It’s unusual for Rhys not to take Fiona’s bait, and she frowns. “I feel like your heart’s not in this.”

Rhys ignores that, too. “Last lab’s up here, let’s just finish up.”

There’s not much to look at in the last section of the lab, except for various computer displays she doesn’t understand, some whiteboards covered in indecipherable writing, and various hunks of metal in various states of completion, largely unrecognizable to Fiona. She peers at a printed list of specifications, trying to make sense of it, her eyebrows knitted together.

“Is this an… arm?” she asks finally. When there’s no answer, she prompts, “Rhys?”

Nothing. When she looks up, it’s obvious she’s lost Rhys’ attention. He’s standing in the hall, staring in deep concentration at some display projected from his palm, his golden eye flickering wildly.

“Hey. Rhys.”

No luck. Fiona rolls her eyes.

“Mr. Robot,” she tries again, and this time she reaches up to flick the port at the side of his head.

The display from his palm flickers for a second, and Rhys reacts like he’s been shot, jumping away from her with a yelp and flailing both arms uselessly.

“God, don’t do that,” he scolds, glaring, and Fiona would maybe feel a little bit bad about it if his reaction were not so funny. “What? What do you want?”

“Food,” she says, aware of the sudden rumble in her stomach. “Where’s this fruit you promised me? Lunchtime!”

“Oh. Right.” He points to the exit doors behind him. “There’s a cafeteria that way. Keep going, hang a left, can’t miss it. You’ll find something.”

He turns to go the other way, already focusing on his palm display again, and Fiona catches him by the shoulder.

“What, you’re not shepherding me?” she asks.

“Can’t. Sorry. Busy.” He doesn’t even look up as pulls out of her grip and waves her off. “I think you can manage lunch on your own, Vault Hunter.”

Fiona watches him go and shakes her head.

“Jackass,” she mutters.

“This is Atlas food, and I own Atlas, mostly, so if you think about it, this is really already my food, and I shouldn’t have to pay.”

Fiona says it all clearly and slowly, with such a winning smile that surely no one could deny her.

The man serving food at the canteen does not look convinced. “Lady, I don’t even know who you are.”

Fiona’s about to explain why that’s really not her fault, and she’ll be speaking to the CEO about that, because it seems wrong, really, that she not get her due, and—

“It’s fine, Steve,” comes a voice from behind her. “She’s with me, just put it on my tab.”

Turning to face her unlikely saviour, Fiona finds Yvette, eyebrow arched, hands on her hips, and lips pulled into a smile. Steve mumbles something about executives looking out for each other, but he hands Fiona her tray of food without further complaint.

“Thanks,” says Fiona brightly, after Yvette’s grabbed her own food and lead them to a table. “Rhys basically abandoned me,” she adds.

Not that she’s feeling resentful, or anything.

“Yeah, he’s been a ghost recently,” Yvette says, sliding into a booth. “He always gets like this when he’s busy. He’d probably sleep in his office if your sister would let him get away with it. Vaughn and I used to stage interventions at Hyperion.”

The second she’s said it, she looks like she regrets it, a shadow passing over her face at the mention of Helios. Fiona pretends not to notice, studying her plate of food intensely.  

“But anyway,” says Yvette, abruptly trying to regain control of the conversation, “I didn’t know you were visiting today!”

“It was a surprise.” Fiona takes a swig of her drink through her straw and raises her eyebrows. “You know, like a secret shopper. Gotta say, though, my tour guide gets a failing grade.”

Yvette laughs at that, and then she starts to catch Fiona up, filling her in on all the details Rhys had been too distracted to bother with. Atlas is doing a lot of work with cybernetics, Yvette explains, and at various price points. There are lots of people on Pandora who could use prosthetics like Rhys’ own, but not many who could pay for them. Trying to find the right balance of dexterity, function and affordability is the primary focus and current struggle of the R&D team.

“One of our suppliers is a real dick, too,” Yvette adds, matter-of-factly. “I know he’s trying to overcharge us. I’ve worked with him before.” She rips her piece of toast in half and points at Fiona with it. “That’s one of the meetings Rhys has been hyperventilating about.”

“He didn’t tell me any of this,” Fiona says, pulling the lid off of her soda cup to chase down the last drops of her drink with her straw.

Yvette only shrugs. “Like I said, he gets like that.” She pops the second half of her toast into her mouth. “Besides—it must be pretty boring compared to what you’re up to these days. You must have amazing stories.”

Fiona pushes the ice around in her empty cup. Vault Hunting, not unlike conning, is about ten percent the sweet thrill of victory, ninety percent guesswork and fumbling to cheat death in ways that are embarrassing to think about later.

Still, she doesn’t like to spoil the illusion.

“Oh yeah,” she says, looking up. “Totally. Great stories. The best stories.” Already she’s mentally fishing for anecdotes that lend themselves to her… more creative impulses. “This one time—”

Yvette shifts closer in anticipation, but when she glances at her watch she blanches. “Shit. Hold that thought. I should probably get back to work.” She rises easily from the booth and takes her tray with her. “Come see me before you leave, all right? I wanna hear about the Vault Hunting.”

“Will do.” Fiona leans back in her chair, one arm draped over the side of it. “Thanks for lunch.”

“Oh, don’t mention it,” Yvette winks as she drops her tray on the pile and walks backwards to the door. “Rhys pays that tab anyway.”

Part 2 on Tumblr | Part 2 on AO3

[arcticdementor]

Most of the stuff I need to do I can get the right tools and materials. But where that fails, I’ll have enough knowledge and understanding (by now) to contrive.

It’s not different for mental tools. In my oh so cherished fantasy of sending my mind back in time to when I was 20, note the deal would be “I get to take the skills I’ve acquired with me.” Why? Because at this point — and providing life stops interrupting every five minutes — I can write saleable books while tired, while sick, possibly while dead. I have internalized a bunch of mental tools on “how you do this.” When I was 20 I had more time, arguably was more methodical in proofreading, and had more enthusiasm and energy, but I lacked the tools. And what I produced took more effort and often showed thumb marks and badly mitered joints.

For some things, like the fact I’m stuck working in a language that was not my first or second, there is no remedy. I just must be that much better at using it, much closer to understanding how the thing works, so I can do consciously what would otherwise be subconscious.

So.

Recently one of my young friends came to me with an astonishing story. One of his young friends had no idea who the combatants were in the Civil War. No, she didn’t know what civil war meant. She thought it was just a name. You know like it was an exceptionally polite war.

We are now in the fourth generation from whom the tools of building civilization, or even of maintaining it have been withheld. Yes, four, and I’m the middle one.

Most of my adult life has been learning things that someone should have taught me but didn’t for whatever reason.

…

In the same way, I’ve spent most of my adult life learning history, grammar, natural science and the basics of things that I supposedly learned the advanced form for with my degree, but without anyone ever teaching me the fundamentals.

Kind of like part of my degree is the study of literature but until I read Dwight Swain Techniques of the Selling Writer I’d never realized that books are composed of conflict and reaction units. (No, not physical conflict, though heck, you could sell that.) Instead I tried to fit them into the structure of plays and wondered why it wasn’t working.

Because no one had ever taught me the basics. I mean, I knew how to do a lot of advanced things, even as a beginning writer. I just had no clue how to do the basic things. And it showed.

For four generations our culture and education has been in the hands of an unholy hybrid of Marxism and Rousseau’s Romanticism. (The two are related in that both believe that natural man left to his own devices creates paradise.)

I can understand how those scarred by the long war of the 20th century would decide that they were going to ditch all the evil bad things in civilization and let the children grow up “naturally” so they would be sweet and innocent angels. (Spit.) I understand but I don’t forgive. If they thought what they saw in the war was the result of Western Civilization, they’d never studied other civilizations or for that matter hid in a playground and watched the children be “natural.”

Then the cascade started. People who only half learned could only half teach. On top of which the doubts instilled in them about the purpose of civilization made them teach less than half. And the next generation knew less. And then less.

More than once, as an inquisitive student, I’d go to my teacher and ask why something worked the way it did or didn’t work the way they said, only to be given a glib explanation I knew was wrong. I must have been 11 the first time I realized the teacher had no more clue than I did. (This was a good thing. It set me on a path of researching and investigating on my own.)

By the time my kids were in school it had become more so, partly because to justify themselves, and abate the feeling they were incompetent, people derived entire theories on why they shouldn’t learn the basics, learning the basics was bad, and you could be so much better by learning naturally.

…

Part of the unlearning are people who never learned enough to realize what works and what doesn’t trying to do things in ways that only work for a very few highly gifted individuals. That’s how we got whole word, new math, total immersion, whateverthehelltheyretryingnow all of which involved “less work for teachers” and the vague hope that unschooled children, or children who learned ‘naturally’ were just somehow ‘better.’

Kind of like what would happen if I decided my digit dyslexic, half-baked way with wood meant my making, say, a table that was lopsided and wobbly made the table better and more authentic.

The problem is that in lieu of teaching our kids history or civics, what works and what doesn’t, we let people so ignorant of how the world works that they don’t realize they’re teaching the kids the just-so story of classes and oppression which was never true like that anywhere, and the religion of “social justice” instead of the real mechanisms of history. Because they know no facts, and can’t reason, they pat themselves on the back and say they’re teaching the kids not things, but “how to think.” Except they’re not. What they’re teaching the kids is how NOT to think. They teach them that thinking “wrong” is a crime worse than murder, and therefore they can’t risk reasoning, because it might lead them to dissent from the group. And dissent from the group is the most terrible of crimes. (To be fair, this is an effect of mass-industrial-public-schooling.)

Their inability to teach, now forces them to declare the most basic tools of civilization racist and somehow oppressive. Because this is an excuse not to teach math or English. Which they can’t do because they never learned, and they’re not willing to do the work.

If you’re not alarmed by this, you might be a Marxist or a Rousseauan who believes that by unlearning everything, we will be like angels.

You might also be an idiot, who never had to deal with infants or toddlers, or in fact ignorant and half-savage people.

Honestly, I believe this is at the bottom of their sanctification of the Homeless, because by eschewing civilized life (not really, but that’s how it looks to the left. In fact the homeless are kind of like rats. Domesticated and destructive of the society upon which they feed) and destroying their reason with drugs, they are somehow superior to us, who are bound by civilization. This is why they want to inflict the homeless on every large city, creating danger and filthy conditions for people who live and work there. “Afflicting the comfortable” is supposed to make them change their ways and… I don’t know? Become homeless? As if there were some great happiness in that.

…

This is going implode. And by this, I mean this shell of civilization and knowledge, and ability that surrounds us and protects us. Already, anyone in highly technical fields is being actively hindered from doing their jobs by “administrators” which is to say maleducated people who know only how to make rules about how others should do things. And since they know nothing real, those rules are often counterproductive.

Heck, even in my field — not highly technical, but specialized — editors and publishers seem convinced their job is to “teach” the public, instead of sell to the public. Partly because they have no clue HOW to sell to the public, and are in the fourth generation that lacks basic skills to do so. (Like being able to read for pleasure.) They have therefore laid down rules that make it harder to produce and publish enjoyable works.

But it’s everywhere. And in research? The time frame and conditions of the research often makes the results flawed or irreproducible.

Oh, and of course, hiring people by skin color or sexual orientation makes bridges fall.

Even teaching — My kids had two or three good teachers who had escaped somehow — is made impossible by rules and regulations that have nothing to do with teaching or learning. (So those good teachers left to work the private sector.) As for parenting– In most states the law forces you to be an helicopter parent. I lived in fear of my kids being called in when they took their walks half a mile away to buy hotdogs at six. Even though at six I’d ranged all over the village all day, and come dragging in for dinner at sunset.

Anything worth doing is worth doing well. And doing it well requires tools. Mental tools. Sure, you can do it upside down and sideways, with tools you found, but you still need to have tools.

In what comes after — and I’m suspecting/hoping it’s been somewhat postponed by the unlocking most places. People are so busy traveling and gathering they haven’t paid attention to politics. But it will come. The Junta will do something so egregious it will intrude on everyone’s notice — after the implosion/explosion that waits us, we need the tools to build.

Our kids certainly don’t have them.

Absent the tools they’ll default to “not fully civilized but trying” human method of governance, and really, I’m way too old to live under the divine right of kings.

…

Go back to the basics of civilization and acquire the tools. They won’t work very well, because acquired late, but it’s better than nothing. (Later, either after we move, or in a month or so, after house is ready to stage and we camp somewhere for a few months, in an apartment or something, I intend to re-learn Latin and Greek, which I taught myself poorly and late. At that time, we’ll set up a room where other people can come and walk along. We need that. A sort of free form academia, where some teach and some learn. I will, yes, in a month or two, set up to teach writing. Yes, I will charge, and I’m sorry. It is just what it is. One way or another, we’re going to need it. I’ll try not to do more than once or twice a month, or it eats the writing.)

It’s time to get the tools. To learn to do things. Whether those things are how to make clothes, or how to speak a foreign language, they might not save you much money or they might be totally impractical.

But you’ll be learning how to learn. Learning how to claw back a little bit of civilization, and basic knowledge. And then you should pass it on. By every way you can. Lest night fall forever.

Because 2000 years of civilization are a terrible thing to waste.

[carasueachterberg]

This is a long-overdue post to catch you up on Daisy’s Diary of a Rescue.

Truly, I did not imagine I would still be writing this Diary almost six months later. But maybe that’s the piece of rescue that is hardest – they are all good dogs, but some require a little more of us than others.

Sometimes you rescue a dog from a shelter, imagining it’s shiny new future now that it is ‘out’, but then that future is nothing like you imagined. For whatever reason, some dogs struggle to find a forever family.

In our rescue we call them long-term dogs. I’ve also heard them called hard-to-adopt dogs.

When they first arrive, we are excited and motivated, but when the foster situation drags on (and on), you begin to wonder….will she ever be adopted?

I don’t know.

But I do know she deserves to be.

Daisy B is a sweetheart. She has a huge heart swollen with unused love ready to pour it out on her future ‘mommy’. That much I’m certain of—when the right person comes along and takes a chance on this precious pup, that person will be overwhelmed by the loyalty and love that Daisy will offer.

Yes, Daisy is still paralyzingly afraid of men. But she doesn’t bite or snarl at them like many dogs who are afraid of men will do. She simply runs away from them and if there is no avoiding them, she freezes in terror.

And the amazing thing is that over time, she comes to like men who do not threaten her, men who let her come to them on her terms.

Yes, she is still learning that the insides of buildings are safe, but that fear is waning as she has gotten very comfy inside our house and she has begun visiting others.

And yes, she needs to be the only dog in her home…for now. She is still defensive towards other dogs, obviously having had some not so great experiences. But when she sees another dog, she does not bark or growl, she wags her tail and gets excited, so I know that she wants to have doggie friends, but for now she will require her adoptive family to be focused on her alone.

She’ll need someone patient and someone willing to listen to her. But the rewards, oh the rewards, they will be great.

Because this is a great dog.

It’s killing me that she will be spending so much time in boarding over the next few months as I will be away working on our new house in Virginia and also traveling to shelters in the south again.

If you have been watching Daisy and feeling a pull to adopt or foster her, now is the time to step up. She can be adopted with a lengthy trial adoption period, or even a foster-to-adopt situation. She has had a portion of her adoption fee sponsored, and another generous person has donated funds to pay for initial training with her new adopter.

So, I know you feel it’s a risk, everything in life is, but I’m here to tell you that Daisy is not a risk, she is a sure thing. All she needs is a chance.

What follows are the entries for her diary for the last two months in their entirety as they have been posted on Facebook:

Diary of a Rescue Day 84:

Daisy is a different dog outside- here she is meeting my friend Allison. She met my friend Pam this morning and was just as happy to meet her. I’ve never seen such a drastic difference in a dog’s behavior outside versus inside. Who wants to adopt this silly love bug? #adoptabledog Daisy B #yournextbestfriend

Diary of a Rescue Day 87 :

We’ve discovered that Daisy loves children! These two kiddos stopped by (with almost all of the Rescue Road Trip Team!) on Sunday and Daisy was beside herself with joy. She sniffed and licked them endlessly like they were puppies!

#areyoumymother? #adoptabledog Daisy B available thru ophrescue.org 

Diary of a Rescue Day 88:

Daisy had a fun day today. She, Flannery, and I drove to my friend Gina’s house and went for a walk in her busy neighborhood.

With Flannery in the lead, Daisy was a different dog than the last time we walked with Gina. She trotted along, more interested in all the good smells than worrying about the people we passed- she hardly even noticed a man with a leaf blower!

When we came home, her favorite friend Tanis stopped by and that just made her day!

#opttoadopt Daisy B from ophrescue.org #heartdog

Diary of a Rescue Day 92:

This is a long overdue update but our world is busier than usual. Daisy’s days are much the same, divided between time in the kitchen and long stretches outside in the playyard.

She is always overjoyed to see me- leaping and twirling and I have to wait for her to settle and sit to put on the leash. She acts more like a ‘regular’ dog every day and I’m working on her leash manners.

She’s had quite a few visitors and usually greets them happily but hesitantly at first before devolving into the zoomies and tearing around the yard to show off.

I took her to the vet on Friday because the nails on her dew claws confounded me and I couldn’t figure out where the quick was, plus they were too thick for my clippers and were beginning to curl back on themselves. (Full confession- clipping nails scares me so I’m generally much too conservative and rely on long walks on the roads to keep nails under control).

It turned out that she actually had two nails (intertwined) on one foot and three on the other! The vet got them trimmed but said Daisy really should have those hind dewclaws removed at some point. When dewclaws are as floppy and barely connected as hers are, they are normally removed as a puppy when the dog is spayed, but we all know that Daisy did not have a pampered puppyhood.

I worried how she would be at the vet, but she did great and the staff loved her and thought she was beautiful (she is).

I’ve started Daisy on a homeopathic tincture for anxiety and I’m hopeful it will help, but really she isn’t anxious when it’s just the two of us and I think when she gets a real family, she’ll be fine too. She just won’t be a dog that loves to go to the pet store or playground with you (although we’re going to try those places in the next few weeks).

I’ll try to do better with updates this week but it is a busy time in our house full of dogs (10!).

#areyoumymother? #opttoadopt Daisy B

Diary of a Rescue Day 94:

Pictures of Daisy

#ready #areyoumymother? #adoptthisdog

Diary of a Rescue Day 97:

Daisy is very happy spending her days in the yard, but now that company is leaving and Nick is headed out of the country again, I’m hoping to get her back to a regular schedule (time inside, crate time, walks) and also take her on some outings to see how she is in public places. Her confidence has grown so much that I think she might be fine if she has Flannery along.

Can’t say whether the homeopathic drops are helping but they sure aren’t hurting.

Daisy loves her toys and kind of plays fetch (though she is easily distracted). Mostly she loves attention- butt scratches and snuggles. She is so ready for her forever home, but we will keep trying to expand her world.

#readywhenyouare #opttoadopt Operation Paws For Homes

Diary of a Rescue Day 98:

Just had to post this picture I got of Daisy tonight. She is such a pretty dog.

I took her for a walk yesterday in a busy neighborhood without Flannery chaperoning and she was amazing. We passed a man with his dog and she didn’t even miss a beat, even when he talked to us (told me I had a ‘gorgeous dog’). We ran into another guy that Gina knows well and we stopped while she gave him a hug and I shook his hand and Daisy did not panic, just waited quietly. I really feel like we’ve turned some kind of corner in terms of her confidence.

I walked her this morning and pretty much forget to worry about her, like she was a ‘regular dog’. We went about three miles with no panic attacks, no issues.

I’m seriously considering introducing her to our dogs once Nick is back from his work trip in a week. At the very least, we are going to go check out the dog park, since she now loves to go for rides in the car and jumps right in. I need a house to visit. I think her biggest hurdle will be going indoors. We may try the pet store or home depot, and take Flannery along for that. Anybody local who would like a Daisy visit, let me know!

#thisgirlisonherway #progress

Diary of a Rescue: Day one hundred and something:

We’re in our fifth month with Daisy and this finally happened.

Diary of a Rescue Day 124:

I’m sorry it has been so long since I’ve given you an update. It has been a really hard couple of weeks here.

Daisy has been unfazed by the emotional turmoil, as far as I can tell. She’s had long days alone in the side yard but is happy outside. She pulled some of the lattice off the side of the small porch out there to create her own little shelter (rejecting the puppy house that Nick removed the side from to allow her access). Now she reminds me of the troll under the bridge (the nice one). Sometimes when I go outside I have to stand and call to her and wait for her to crawl out. At which point, she inevitably gets the zoomies, thrilled beyond reason by my visit and oblivious to my sadness.

A few early evenings Nick and I have sat outside with her, quietly watching the bluebirds who have moved into the birdhouse on the fence (for the first time since we put it up). Daisy is always happy for our company and has grown to be very affectionate with Nick. As long as he is seated in the Adirondack chair or on the steps, she covers him with kisses and insists on pets. If he gets up, she follows him, sometimes showing off with her zoomies but shying from his touch. It’s progress and makes me believe that she will be able to be adopted into a home with a man in it, as long as he is patient and waits for her to accept him.

I am praying hard for her to find an adopter. We will be away a lot this summer and this will mean that Daisy spends a lot of time in a boarding facility. She is ready to find her home and has an enormous heart that has years worth of love stockpiled inside waiting to unleash it on her person.

If you know someone looking for their next best friend, please suggest Daisy. She loves children and women but would do best as a solo dog. She seems pretty oblivious to cats, walks great on a leash/harness in all kinds of environments, and is crate-trained and working on basic commands (she’s an ace at ‘sit’).

#adoptabledog #opttoadopt #yournextbestfriend.

Diary of a Rescue Day 135:

Daisy has come so far and now we just have to wait for the right person to come along and choose her. I never know what makes a person choose a dog- I guess it’s a bit like falling in love- totally unpredictable.

Daisy is more than ready and as you can see in this video has tons of love to give. She deserves a happy life.

Today I will drop her at a boarding facility for the week while I am gone in Tennessee visiting the shelters. She did fine last time but it was a different facility. I’m supposed to take her bed but her bed is actually a ‘nest’ of bits of blankets she shredded a few months ago. Not sure what they’ll make of that so I’m going to take the blanket I use to cover her crate when the kids are up late with the lights on and one of my t-shirts for comfort. I’m guessing she’ll shred both.

I know she’ll be safe and it sounds like a really nice kennel (indoor/outdoor), but I’ll worry nonetheless. It will be a long week for her and I just hope we get our same happy Daisy back at the end of it.

#opttoadopt Daisy B Operation Paws For Homes

Diary of a Rescue Day 143:

Daisy is sooooooooo happy to be ‘home’ after a week in boarding. The facility was spotless and the staff very attentive but it still feels like (and smells like) a shelter.

Daisy had an indoor/outdoor run in one of the quiet buildings. Those are the ones where the kennels don’t face each other so the dogs know other dogs are there but can’t see them. This immaculate facility had 200 kennels. I requested that Daisy not be handled by men and was told there are no men on staff.

She doesn’t seem any worse for wear. Gosh this pretty girl is ready to be adopted. I just wish it would happen.

#pickme #DaisyB Operation Paws For Homes

Thanks for reading!

If you’d like to know more about my blogs and books, visit CaraWrites.com or subscribe to my occasional e-newsletter.

If you’d like to know more about the book, Another Good Dog: One Family and Fifty Foster Dogs, visit AnotherGoodDog.org, where you can find more pictures of the dogs from the book (and some of their happily-ever-after stories), information on fostering, and what you can do right now to help shelter animals! You can also purchase a signed copy or several other items whose profits benefit shelter dogs!

If you’d like to know how you can volunteer, foster, adopt or donate with OPH, click here. And if you’d like more pictures and videos of my foster dogs past and present, be sure to join the Another Good Dog Facebook group.

I love hearing from readers, so please feel free to comment here on the blog, email carasueachterberg@gmail.com or connect with me on Facebook, twitter, or Instagram.

 Best,

 Cara

Released August 2018 from Pegasus Books and available now

Diary of a Rescue: Month Six Sometimes foster dogs don't leave #opttoadopt #dogrescue #fostertoadopt This is a long-overdue post to catch you up on Daisy’s Diary of a Rescue. Truly, I did not imagine I would still be writing this Diary almost six months later.

[ethicallysourcedhumanmeat]

Practically Impractical

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 Part 9

“You’re certain that there’s nothing we should be worrying about,” Jumin asks in the car.

“It’s fine,” she responds sharply. “It’s a totally innocent security gig, he’s not even hacking he’s just writing a security system and he has to make sure it’s implemented properly. Saeren went with to help him field test it once it’s live. They’ll be home the end of the week.”

“And you’re certain you want to consider staying in that bunker alone until then?”

“I’m not alone, remember there’s a whole small person living with me?”

“You and Max could stay with me while Saeyoung is away.”

“You know that’s not a great idea right now Jumin, maybe if Max was with her Dad. You are welcome to stay with us though.”

“Your home is not appropriately cat proofed.”

“I want you to remember you said that,” she laughs.

She appreciates that he is inviting her and Max both to stay, she knows that is a big step for him but the gossip sites had been particularly well informed lately and more than once they both had thought they’d seen the woman who’d posed as a reporter. Jumin had chalked it up to paparazzi but Callie wasn’t so sure.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to argue,” Jumin sighs. “I really did want to take Max shopping, I just feel uncomfortable when I know you’re alone.”

Jumin had long since giving up trying to take her shopping but she could never say no to letting him spoil Max, and the child did love to shop. He knew they had nothing planned so he’d shown up unannounced and invited them to go shopping and then perhaps the park. Max had literally dropped what she was doing to change while her mother had given him what he could now tell was a warning look but she’d also gone to change after cleaning up the box of legos Max had dropped.

She cheered up slowly as they shopped. It was hard to frown when Max would come running over to them with a shirt or a dress asking her mother what size she wore; Callie would smile, thank her for thinking of her, and send her off to find something from the children’s section. In the end Jumin had whispered her sizes to the world’s smallest personal shopper and told her to pick something out for her mother.

Max picked out an entire outfit, shoes and jacket included.

“It’s only fair,” she whispered to Jumin when she called him over, since he was buying her a five piece suit, that he buy her mother at least five things.

“Alright, show me what you’ve found, quick before she comes back.”

Max holds out a flowing gauzy tunic with a pair of skinny jeans and runs off to retrieve the rest. She comes back with a leather bike jacket and a tall pair of black boots with a heel that could have doubled as a weapon, and when he takes those she presents to him, like the cherry on top of the perfect outfit, a large amber pendent.

“It’s her favorite,” she whispers conspiratorially to him.

He nods and winks at her, and as he catches sight of Callie’s hair coming around the corner, he sends Max to stall and finds someone to take their things to the counter until they’re done.

“Max, I told you no toys today, not until you go through the ones at home you don’t use.”

“Fine,” Max chirps glancing back to Jumin.

“Did you find what you were looking for?” Jumin asks.

“No,” she shrugs. “I don’t know what I was looking for to be honest.”

“I suppose I should pay then?” Jumin smiles and her eyes narrow.

“And then the park?” Max asks.

“Yep,” they say together.

The girls wait by the doors. Callie appreciates that Jumin seems to enjoy buying things for Max but she has an aversion to seeing the number on the register increase.

“Don’t think I don’t know that that is too many bags for what my daughter picked out.”

“I swear on my life,” he smiles at her, “that your daughter personally picked every item in these bags.”

“Mmhmm,” she nods unconvinced.

Jumin is relieved that there are not many people at the park. He found the chaos of the play structures overwhelming at times. Today it seemed that most of the children were elsewhere, only two or three were playing on the big plastic structure that Max took off running towards. Callie had walked to the picnic table with him taking off her boots and tucking them under the seat.

He watches her run to catch up, and then chase Max up the slide. They play together for a while before Max seems to strike up with one of the other children. He watches Callie talk to Max and her new friend from the Monkey bars, he watches her ‘skin the cat’ then back again. The girls laugh when the floppy collar of her shirt falls on her face and she stops upside down to pretend to fight with it.

He doesn’t notice the man walk up to him until he’s leaning against the table.

“Kind of overdressed for a playground,” the man says in broken Korean

“Am I?” Jumin answers in English. He looks at the man beside him, a wide shouldered American in a hoody with the word ARMY across the chest and a ball cap. There was something familiar about him and Jumin tries to remember where they’d met. Normally he had no problem but this man’s name was escaping him.

“She traded up I guess?” He grunts. “Kid probably couldn’t afford her.”

“I’m sorry?” Jumin turns to the man as it hits him. This is Max’s father.

“She always did like to spend other people’s money.”

“T,” she says sharply, suddenly beside him. “What are you doing here? What did you say to Mr. Han?”

“Nothing he doesn’t know.”

Jumin glances back to the play structure where Max is scaling the rope bridge. The way she says his name, formally as if this is just business, he can’t stand it.

“Toby I know you’re leaving soon please try to be an adult about this for once in your life.”

“When you get to act like a petulant teenager.”

“When, T? When do I get to act like a petulant teenager? When do I have time for that?”

“You spend all day playing video games and singing to yourself.”

“Doing my job, that’s my job T. Remember when your child support payments were lowered because I have a job?”

“You couldn’t have gotten a job when we were married though, right Amy?”

“At what studio, Toby, we were in the middle of nowhere, I got a job when we split because I moved where the work was, and my job sent me here.”

“Lucky break you got there with this rich idiot footing your bills, Amy.”

“Holy shit T, Jumin is my friend but he’s also my fucking Boss.”

“Friend huh, is that what you tell that kid you live with?”

“Are you done?”

“I’m sorry I’m not sure what you’re implying,” Jumin says. “Amelia is paid a fair wage for an above board job, which she appears to excel at.”

“Yeah, you pay Amy for some kinda job,” he grunts. “I got plenty of pictures Amy.”

“I fucking knew it.”

Both men look at her.

“Of course you have pictures, I knew that chick was following me.”

“Oh sure,” Toby rolls his eyes.

“T tell your PI that she’d be less conspicuous if she didn’t act like the entire world was a film noir.”

“Who fucking cares she says she’s got all I need.”

Jumin watches two of the three kids leave the play structure with their mothers. Amelia and her ex-husband speak in low voices but at the rate the conversation is deteriorating he’s not sure they won’t be yelling at one another very shortly.

“What do you need? What do you think she has? Pictures of Jumin and I eating together, or at work functions? Pictures of Luciel and I getting groceries, of Max with me and my friends, healthy, happy and cared for? Are you trying to build a case to take her back with you? You’ve got shit.”

He folds his arms in front of his chest and gives her a look that would have normally had her bending over backwards to make amends but she’s sick of this.

“Our daughter is not a pawn in some game you’re playing,” she practically spits at him.

“Take your own advice.”

“I’m not going to defend myself. I’ve never said a negative thing to her about you, I’ve excused your absences, I’ve defended you when she’s upset about the way you talk about my friends and myself.” She throws her hands up. “T, if you feel like you need to put Max through this again I can’t stop you. If that’s the route you wanna take? But honestly you know who that is over there, and my fiancé, the guy you keep calling kid isn’t far behind him? They fucking love Max, as much as I do. If you think Luciel or Jumin are going to just let me fight you alone or let you take her you’ve lost your mind.”

“Are you threatening me.”

“Do I look like I am? Listen you can get your military appointed attorney and have them contact me, Jumin has already offered to have his lawyers go over our agreement. Or you can go over there and plan something with your daughter before your exercise is over.”

She watches her ex-husband stomp towards the play structure and looks around for Jumin. It’s not until Max jumps into her father’s arms that Callie see’s Jumin stand up from inside the big plastic submarine. She holds her breath, when had he walked away? When had the other children left? Had Max heard them arguing.

She watches Max take a few steps away from Toby and glance at Jumin. Jumin shrugs and smiles and she steps back towards her Dad. Callie watches Jumin standing with Max and she wants to go over. Stand with him, lean on him, bury her face in his neck but she can’t. Not just because they’re in public but because her heart is pounding and she’s trying to catch her breath.

She watches Max’s smiling face and inhales shallow through her nose. Toby leans down and hugs Max and Callie exhales the breath she was holding. She wants to sit under the table, the world feels too big suddenly, but Toby is walking away and Max is barreling full force towards her. She takes a few more shallow breaths and braces for impact.

Jumin makes eye contact with her as he walks towards them and Max chatters excitedly about all the things she’d going to do at her Dad’s. Max’s excitement overflows during the drive home, a whole week with her Dad, she can’t wait. She makes lists of things to pack, and Callie does her best to keep breathing until finally they’re home and Max has disappeared into her room to pack.

Callie drops to the couch and slides onto the floor in the tight space between the couch and the table. She throws her hands over her head and buries her face in her knees. Jumin listens to her take ragged gasping breaths.

“Are you ok?”

She shakes her head no.

“Can I do something?”

Another no.

He reaches out for her and stops, she may not want to be touched and he doesn’t want to make this worse. He looks towards Max’s room but she doesn’t appear to be coming out anytime soon. He sits on the couch near her and after a moment she moves closer to him, and soon enough her face is buried in his neck her arms are at her sides and he holds her as tight as he can.

Eventually the gasping breaths turn shallow and then deep. Jumin pulls her into his lap and runs his fingers through her hair until quite suddenly, red eyed and wet faced she stands up.

“You want a drink? I’m getting a drink, would you like something.”

“Are you ok?” He asks again.

She waves him off. “Wine? Tea? A bathtub full of bourbon?”

“Would you like to talk about it.”

Her eyes narrow and then she turns towards Max’s room. “Not right now.”

As if on cue the wild haired 8 year old bursts out of her room, three backpacks hanging off of her. “Mr. Han we forgot something!”

“You’re right,” Jumin smiles remembering the bags in the trunk of his car. He extends a finger towards Max and texts Driver Kim to be sure he is still outside.

The co-conspirators leave Callie alone for a moment while they gather the bags from their shopping trip. When they come back in she’s sitting at the kitchen table behind a glass of wine, she’s pale but she looks better.

Max shoves a wrapped box onto the table in front of her and almost knocks her glass over. Callie looks at Jumin and he shrugs.

“Mr. Han let me pick out an outfit for you!” She smiles.

Callie frowns at Jumin. “Did you just use my daughter as a loophole.”

“I saw an opportunity and I seized it.”

She opens the box and coos over its contents. Max beams and it seems that all is well. Max disappears into her room to finish packing.

“I should call a taxi and take her to her Dad’s.”

“Amelia I can have Driver Kim take you.”

“No,” she sighs.

“Will you be alright, would you like me to come.”

She snorts. “Yeah, but no. I don’t know. No.”

They don’t speak for a while. Callie tries on the jacket and the boots as something to do, to avoid talking about it and then looks back at Jumin who doesn’t appear to have moved.

“Would it be wrong to just say goodbye to her here and have Driver Kim take her to her father’s?”

“You have done that before.”

“It’s stupid and malicious, and maybe I am just a petulant teenager.”

“I could accompany her and then come back here.”

“Wouldn’t that just be fucking perfect.”

“Is he going to be a problem?”

She takes a deep breath and opens her mouth as if she’s about to speak, but then she shrugs and breaths out. “I don’t know. He talks big and he did hire someone to stalk me but there’s no way she has any photo’s that are even a little worrisome, it’s not like anyone can get past the gate without me or a Choi twin and there’s a zero percent chance she got close enough to the penthouse to get anything even remotely useful for him. He could make me travel back to the states more than I can afford to while trying to do my job, but I don’t think he really has a chance unless he plans to retire but even then,” she shrugs. “He’s probably just trying to scare me; I don’t usually take the bait.”

“You’re human,” Jumin takes her hand. “It was very difficult not to step in. I did not want to escalate the situation.”

“Jesus no Jumin, I appreciate you keeping Max away from that. I lost control, it’s not fair for me to do that in front of her or you, thanks.”

“It wasn’t fair for your ex-husband to provoke you,” Jumin adds. “You’ll do better next time.”

“Next time?”

“We’ll drop Max off together,” Jumin smiles, “and if he attempts to provoke you again I will give him my attorney’s card.”

She hadn’t really wanted to leave the bunker, but he’d convinced her. He was not normally given to haranguing her into doing anything but he had never seen her as shaken as she’d been when they’d gotten back from the park. He’d considered leaving it and suggesting Assistant Kang invite herself over, but he knew that both women would have something to say about that.

After they’d dropped Max off at her father’s without incident she’d sat as far from him in the car as she could and he worried that he’d crossed a line somewhere. He watched her reflection in the window, she looked tired and pale. He considered contacting his doctor when they got to the penthouse when he heard her sniff.

He sat very still in his seat and watched her wipe away a tear with her thumb. He had never seen her cry until today, he’d not seen her emotions get the better of her. Even after everything she’d been through with Mint Eye she’d only raised her voice once. He’d considered comforting her but it was not something he was particularly skilled with. Perhaps he should contact Saeyoung, he always seemed capable of making her smile.

She rests her head against the glass and he makes eye contact with her reflection.

“Hey,” she smiles at him weakly.

“Amelia,” he starts but she looks away.

“Can you not call me that tonight?”

“I’m sorry,” Jumin says.

“No it’s just every time you say Amelia I hear him calling me Amy and I just,” she exhales, “I can’t.” She doesn’t look at him but she reaches out and brushes her fingers over his before squeezing his hand.

He squeezes back. “Calliope,” he starts and she looks at him, a small genuine smile forming on her lips. “If you really would rather not come with me that is alright.”

“No you’re right,” she twists her mouth and frowns. “I’m probably better off not being alone for now.”