#and as far as day to day life there are a multiple variety of ways i try and minimise how bulky i look

[minniesmutt]

☾ ━━━━━━ 𝐩𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡

☾ ━━━ PAIRING: LEE KNOW X READER ☾ ━━━ CONTENT: SET IN 2010S, COLLEGE AU, POPULAR!LINO, PHOTOGRAPHER!READER, SWITCH!LEE KNOW, SWITCH!READER, NO AGE IS GIVEN BUT THEY ARE WRITTEN TO BE IN THEIR JUNIOR AND SENIOR YEAR, ALCOHOL, OVERTHINKING, ANXIETY, HINTED INSECURITIES BUT NOTHING IS DESCRIBED, FOOD, ASS GRABBING, PET NAMES, BITING, ORAL (F. REC), MUTUAL MASTURBATION, BOOB PLAY, MARKING, MULTIPLE ORGASMS, CUMSHOT, PHOTOS, PROTECTED SEX, SLIGHT OVER STIM, ALLUDES TO AFTERCARE ☾ ━━━ WC: 8.4K ☾ ━━━ COMMISSIONED WORK! ☾ ━━━ 18+ work!! minors and ageless/blank blogs DNI! you will be blocked, put an indicator on your blog somewhere that you are 18+ before interacting with this work/blog

     Accepted. One of the best things Y/n had read in a long time. Getting accepted into her top choice. She had applied on a whim, not thinking she would get in. When the letter came she was sure she was rejected. Especially since the art program was fairly good at the school and some had told her it was harder to get into. But here she was two years later. Now in her junior year and one of the top students in the program. Even if that meant sacrificing her social life for it.

     The extent of Y/n’s interactions with her schoolmates was limited to projects. Pairing up with a couple of people in class and photographing the other majors with their permission. The campus itself was the perfect backdrop for every photo. Even out of class, she was photographing everything, getting people in the background too, just wanting to document the experience to show her family when she visited them.

     Adjusting to not living with her family was a weird experience. Her family called and texted her every day for the first few months of her freshman year. Just making sure she was settling in alright. She wasn’t exactly a social butterfly, keeping to herself. So it was natural for her family to worry about her being on her own. Was it anxiety-inducing at first? Yes. But she’d settled in pretty well after a while.

     College parties were never really her thing either. She’d focused on her projects and classes and voluntarily chose to miss other aspects of her college experience. Even with her family telling her it was okay to post once in a while. Parties, dating, making friends, all that she put aside. 

     But there was always a bug that crawled out of the woodwork and bit. And this one had to be around Halloween. Hyunjin— someone she was acquainted with from their sharing school art program — had invited her to his housemate's Halloween party. Probably since he was inviting everyone else in the class and didn’t want her to feel excluded. 

     At the time she just offered him a smile and said okay. Not planning on going at the time, maybe just staying in and watching horror movies. Her usual plans always seemed to work but for some reason, she decided to go. Maybe make a few friends too.

     Y/n managed to find a costume that wasn’t super skimpy but was still cute enough to pass. She knew no one really took the holiday seriously in their early adult years and didn’t want to stand out too much. She got dressed the night of the party and walked down to the house the party was at. It wasn’t too far from the campus dormitories. Some people were out in front of the house whenever she walked up. 

     Anxiety about walking into a new place filled her. Especially with how packed it was. All the bodies just made the room even more hot too. She weaved her way through her crowd of drunk college students, not trying to be rude or anything. The bass from the speakers thumped against her skull as she made her way to the kitchen. Maybe a drink would calm her nerves a bit. 

     She managed to break free from the bodies and get to the alcohol. Red cups thrown about on the counter. She found the clean stack and searched for liquor and mixers. Debating the large variety the house had. 

     “Looking for something specific?” A voice showed over the music

     She tore her gaze away from the alcohol and was met with a fit about her age. She had zero clue who he was in all honesty. 

     “No, just debating what sounds good right now,” She replied, still having to yell over the music

     “I’m Jisung,” the guy introduced himself, holding his hand out to her

     “I’m Y/n,” she shook his hand and ordered a small smile. Now she kind of knew one person here. 

     “I haven’t seen you around before.”

     “This is not really my scene,” Y/n laughed as she grabbed a bottle of tequila. “I usually just keep to myself.”

     “I feel it. This whole party was honestly my roommate's idea. I can’t escape if I wanted to,” Jisung laughed. “What’s your major?”

     “I’m an art major, focusing on photography,” Y/n told him

     “That’s cool! I’m a music major.”

     It felt nice having someone to talk to here. Y/n began wondering what she was missing out on the last couple of years. She and Jisung talked for a few more moments till Jisung got dragged off and promised to come back in a few minutes. Y/n just nodded and sipped her drink. She stood off to the side, out of other people’s way. Waiting for her new friend to come back. She eventually started wandering through the party. Getting stopped and made some small talk with her classmates, making her way back to the kitchen for another drink when she finished hers. A couple more times throughout the night she talked to Jisung again and met a couple of his friends— Felix and Chan. 

     She rarely was ever drunk. She had a drink here and there. Had one or two when she went out with family members for dinner or something. Maybe it was the fact it did help ease her anxiety about the whole situation a bit. She felt more outgoing in the moment. Especially when she saw someone she had a small crush on.

     Minho was popular— not that he wanted to be. He was very humble about his popularity. He was ninety percent sure it was because of his looks and maybe his skill as a dancer. All night— didn’t matter if he was talking with his friends or not— he’d been having drunk girls try and get at him. He was used to it but their level of intoxicity and their very outgoing way of trying to get him to bed was annoying him. He’d be happy if he could lock himself in his room for the night.

     But here he was, talking with Changbin as yet another girl was approaching both of them. He could barely hear her over the music anyway but he mostly tuned out what he could. Telling his friend he was going to get another drink and then walking off. Not giving the drunk girl a chance to follow him.

     Minho weaved his way through the crowd. Weaving between bodies since no one knew how to keep a path clear for others. Accidentally pumped a bit too hard into one girl as a guy took a step back into him.

     “Sorry,” Minho said to the girl, having wrapped an arm around her so she didn’t fall. “Are you okay?”

     “Yeah…” Y/n said, suddenly every bit of her introverted self coming out again.

     “You sure?” Minho asked

     “Yes. Sorry!” Y/n replied, face feeling hot as his arm fell from her side, “I’m—”

     She couldn’t do much to introduce herself when Minho was already walking off. She sighed and sipped her drink. Maybe a couple more drinks and she could try again. Maybe she should just save herself the embarrassment and go home. She could tell he wasn’t in the mood even if she had a few drinks in her system. 

     “Why the sad face?” Jisung’s voice came from next to her. Scaring her a bit 

     “Party is starting to be too much,” Y/n replied 

     “Hang here. I’ll grab you some water,” Jisung told her. 

     “Thanks…” Y/n said as he went off to the kitchen after grabbing her cup of alcohol from her. 

     Y/n stood in her spot, waiting for her new friend to come back. Jisung came back after a few minutes and handed her a bottle of water, opening the cap for her and handing it to her. 

     “Want to get some air too? I know it’s hot in here.”

     “Yes please,” Y/n said and sipped the cold water. 

     Jisung led her out to the front yard and sat with her on a couple of unoccupied chairs. The cold air felt good after being in a stuffy house for so long. “Better?”

     “Yeah. Thank you,” Y/n smiled

     “No problem. I know it can all be too much sometimes,” Jisung replied. “Do you want me to take you home?”

     “No, I don’t want to bother you more. I can get home by myself. I live on campus anyways.”

     “I’m not letting you walk back to campus this late!” Jisung protested, “Let me find one of my friends and let them know where I’m going.” 

     Before Y/n could say anything else, Jisung had already disappeared back into the house. She felt bad just getting up and leaving like she had originally planned. Instead, she patiently waited and sipped her water. Staying to get cold in the material of the costume. 

     Jisung came out of the house a few moments later. He helped her up and the two started walking down the street together. Y/n wrapped her arms around her to provide warmth from the autumn air. 

     “Are you cold?” Jisung asked 

     “I’ll be fine. It’s a short walk to the campus dormitory.”

     “I should have grabbed a jacket when I went inside.” 

     “It’s fine. You walking me back is more than enough.”

     The walk was mostly silent. The occasional talk about their classes and their day-to-day lives filled the night. 

     “Wait. You’ve been here for two years and haven’t made a single friend?” Jisung asked

     “I didn’t have time to socialize. I honestly wasn’t planning to go to the party anyways…”

     “Well, we’re friends now! Now you have one. Though I’m sure Felix considers you a friend. Even if you guys had one conversation tonight, he’ll still count it! And don’t you and Hyunjin in the art program together?”

     “Yeah. I don’t really talk to people. I just do my work and if I'm in a group protection I'm still pretty quiet. Though I’m sure I’ve photographed everyone on campus at some point or another.”

     “Ooh! You should show me your photos sometime! I want to see your work!” Jisung rambled

     It felt nice to have somewhat of a friend now. Jisung made sure to walk her up to her dorm room and they two exchanged numbers as well before he started his walk back home and Y/n went into her dorm. She took a shower and put on her pajamas before crawling into bed.

     Y/n carried on her day-to-day life after the Halloween party. Going to class, focusing on her assignments, and taking photos in the quad. Just now Jisung seemed to be popping up randomly.

     “What are you taking photos of?” Jisung asked, sneaking up behind her

     “Jesus!” Y/n half-yelled

     “Sorry! Didn’t mean to scare you,” He apologized

     “It’s fine. Just not used to it.”

     “You didn’t answer my question.”

     “Just taking photos. I like capturing the campus scenery.” Y/n shrugged

     “Can I see?”

     “Sure…” Y/n hadn’t shown anyone except her teachers her photos before.

     Y/n opened her camera’s library and turned the screen to him. Jisung took the camera from her hands and scrolled through the photos.

     “I’m not a professional and barely know the first thing about pro photography but these are great!” Jisung complimented

     “Thanks,” Y/n smiled, feeling proud of her work at that moment

     “Oh! You have some of the dance crew!”

     “Yeah. I joined the school paper on a whim this year and they have me photographing sports…”

     “That’s why Felix said he recognized you at the party. Oh, there he is!”

     Jisung spent the next few moments trying to find all the photos she had taken of his friend in her camera. “You even got good photos of Minho.”

     “You know Minho?”

     “Yeah. We share a room at the house.”

     Y/n’s eyes went wide for a moment as she processed the information. She had somehow befriended one of her crush’s friends, let alone his roommate. Jisung seemed oblivious to her reaction. He handed her camera back to her with a smile. “You should come to my music group’s next performance and take photos of us! I’m sure Chan and Changbin would love it too!” 

      “Yeah. Just let me know when,” Y/n smiled

      “I’ll text you! I’ve got to run to class before I’m late!”

      Jisung took off before she could do anything. She just agreed to whatever he said, not fully processing it. She shook her head and looked at the time. She was done with her classes for the day but wasn’t quite ready to go back to her dorm. She sighed and went to the library to study for some of her classes. 

     She sat quietly at one of the library tables. Textbooks open as she scanned through and wrote down the important information she needed for her class. Her headphones were in as she listened to her music. The background noise helping keep her focused on her work. 

     Minho was also stuck in the library. Working on some homework. Anything was better than doing said work at home with seven other people to interrupt his peace. The campus library had been his safe space since he started and decided to get a house with his seven friends. Now he was in his last year of college and could get away from all this soon.

     He wasn’t getting away from Jisung though. Even in the quiet library, he wasn’t safe from his best friend.

     “There you are,” Jisung quietly said and took a seat next to his friend.

     “I need a better hiding spot,” Minho sarcastically told his friend

     “You’re in a better mood.”

     “I’m not getting hounded today.”

     “Explains a lot.” Jisung shrugged and took out his homework

     The two fell into silence until Jisung became a bit bored and poked his friend. It was soon stopped by a glare and a quick apology. The younger one laid his head on the table and then looked around the library. “Do you know Y/n?” Jisung suddenly asked

     “Who?” Minho asked

     “She’s in the school paper. She’s photographed the dance team. Figured you might have met her, Felix has.”

     “Are you comparing me to Felix?” Minho asked

     “No, but I was curious. She doesn’t have many friends. I invited her to the next 3RACHA performance.”

     “You’re trying to get her more friends, aren’t you?”

     “I’ve been the kid with no friends before so I kind of feel bad.”

     “I remember when you were trying to fight everyone in the house for the smallest things.”

     “I’m a changed man.”

     “Because of Chan.”

     Jisung didn’t disagree with him as Minho finished up his homework. Jisung had given up on finishing his and took out his phone. Replying to some text messages he had. Y/n was one of the people he had texted.

Jisung: 3Racha has a performance this weekend! It’s at Miroh!

     Y/n looked at the text message on her screen. She figured out what Jisung was attempting to do since the Halloween party and claimed they were friends. She was grateful he was trying to break her out of her shell and she couldn’t exactly come up with an excuse either. She had also processed that he had asked her to photograph them at their performance earlier in the day. And she agreed to it.

Y/n: Where’s that at? :’( Jisung: You haven’t been to Miroh before?? Y/n: No. I don’t have friends and I’m terrified of going places by myself Jisung: How about I pick you up then? You can ride with me and my friends then hang out with them while I’m up on stage Y/n: Are you sure? I don’t want to intrude… Jisung: Yeah! The guys won’t mind.             Oh! Since you’re in the library, come over and meet Minho! He’ll be there too so you won’t just have Felix when me, chan and changbin are on stage Y/n: How do you know I’m in the library?? Jisung: I came in to annoy Minho and try and do homework and saw you when I walked in. You had your headphones on so I didn’t say anything Y/n: oh

     Y/n had finished her work and was just packing up when she saw the message from Jisung. She finished packing her things up when she looked around for Jisung. Seeing him standing at a table with Minho. After the party and her run-in with the dancer, she wasn’t hopeful it would go well. She could barely even think of just getting up and leaving when the music major spotted her and made his way over to her. His friend following not far behind

     “Did you just finish?” Jisung asked her

     “Yeah. Did you even work or just talk to people?”

     “Bit of both,” Jisung shrugged as the dancer walked up behind him, “This is Minho. Min, this is Y/n.”

     “Hi,” Y/n timidly said

     “Hey,” Minho greeted back

     Minho recognized her from the Halloween party. He had seen her in the dance studio with a camera a couple of times. He just never knew her name.

     The trio walked out of the library together and Y/n said goodbye to the two and made her way back to her dorm hall. The two boys went off to head back to their home. Jisung filled in Minho that they were picking up Y/n and giving her a ride to Miroh over the weekend. The older man nodded in agreement.

     When the day of the performance came Y/n offered to meet Jisung at his house so it was one less stop for the group. At first, Jisung protested on her walking down but she told him she was already on her way down. She was a bit nervous about the whole outing so the walk helped clear her head a bit. By the time she got to the house the group was outside already, Jisung introduced her to everyone she didn’t know yet before the group went back to their previous discussion of the car assignments, and how they were getting nine people there.

     “Take three cars, three people in each car,” Chan said which the guys all seemed to agree with

     It was decided Chan, Minho, and Hyunjin would drive/be DDs for the group. Seungmin and Changbin rode with Chan. Jeongin and Felix took Hyunjin’s car while Han and Y/n were with Minho. Y/n took the backseat of the car while Minho and Jisung were in the front. The bar was about a twenty-minute drive from the house. Y/n stayed pretty quiet in the back of the car while music played. The two friends in the front talked a little and tried including Y/n. She appreciated it and it helped her nerves a little till they finally got to the bar. 

     The group managed to find parking spots pretty close together and headed into the bar. The rap group still had some time before they had to perform. A few of the guys took orders and grabbed some drinks from the bar while the others found a couple of tables and pushed them together. Minho had pulled a seat out for Y/n and motioned for her to sit. Hesitantly she sat down with the rest of the group. 

     The performers themselves talked about their performance as the rest of the group came back with drinks. Making sure everyone got the right drink. Everyone settled in with their drinks and waited for the performance to start. 

     Y/n felt out of place amongst the friends, even when they did include her in the conversation. Her life just seemed boring compared to the others. They all had some interesting lives or things that were big going on with their majors. 3Racha was about to perform, the dance members— Minho, Felix, and Hyunjin (whom she learned only minored in the art program and was a dance major)— had some competitions for the school and outside of the school coming up. Seungmin— a law major— had won another debate and Jeongin— an education major— was going to be working at a daycare over the summer. Y/n felt like she had nothing going on. Just some photos no one would probably look at.

     As soon as the boys were called to the stage, Y/n grabbed her camera from her bag and made sure all her settings were good. “Are you going up to the stage?” Minho asked next to her

     “Yeah. If it’s not too crowded,” Y/n said

     “Do you want me to go with you?” Minho questioned

     “Oh! We should all go up!” Felix suggested

     “They can feel our support from back here,” Seungmin interjected

     “Then stay here,” Hyunjin said

     Jeongin and Seungmin stayed at the tables while she, Felix, Minho, and Hyunjin went up to the stage. Felix and Hyunjin mainly went to be the hype men for their friends while Minho stayed close to Y/n so no one got in the way of the photos. Y/n felt more anxious with Minho standing close by. She had barely talked to him since his demeanor at the Halloween party. 

     She did her best not to let it get to her as she got her photos. She didn’t know what to expect from the music group. She had heard the name 3Racha before around campus but seeing them perform was a different scenario. She did enjoy the music and got some pretty good shots from the performance. She only saw how good they were when she sat back at the table after the show.

     The group congratulated them on the show. Jisung asked to see the photos as soon as she sat down with them. Y/n let him go through them and show them around the table. She felt flustered when everyone gave her props for her work, even though it wasn’t edited yet.

     The group stayed for a few more hours at the bar, enjoying the other performances and some drinks. They all ended up calling it a night. Minho and Jisung took Y/n back to the campus dorms before going back to their home

     “What do you think of Y/n?” Jisung asked his roommate on the drive back

     “I don’t think she likes me very much,” Minho answered

     “You probably scare her.”

     “You know, one day you might not wake up.”

     Minho knew she was shy from what Jisung had told him and what he had observed. He knew he could be a little intimidating at times but he felt bad he had given her that impression.

      Jisung on the other hand was curious. Pulling his phone from his pocket and texting his new friend.

Jisung: Do you like Minho? Y/n: What?? Jisung: Like as a friend. He thinks you’re scared of him Y/n: oh        Yeah? Idk? Jisung: ?? Y/n: He bumped into me at the Halloween party before you got me water. He seemed kind of annoyed when I went to introduce myself so I didn’t think he liked me very much…         Which I don’t expect him to. Ik he’s popular and there are more interesting people than me Jisung: oh, he was annoyed the whole party. I promise it wasn’t bc of you. If anything it was all the drunk girls trying to sleep with him Y/n: idk :(        I had a few drinks too… maybe he just saw another drunk girl then… Jisung: you were not THAT drunk. You could still walk and form words lol Y/n: I still think he doesn’t like me very much Jisung: and he thinks you don’t like him very much Y/n: I don’t! He just makes me a bit nervous Jisung: oh, you like like min ;) Y/n: so does every girl on campus :( I’m not special

     Jisung knew something would come about. If someone didn’t like Minho, he didn’t care much. So Jisung knew his friends' thoughts and feelings the moment he said that Y/n didn’t seem to like him very much. He didn’t that night plotting. 

      No matter how much plotting he did, he knew his friends were idiots. He’d do everything but lock them in a room together. He told the rest of the house about Y/n’s lack of friends and what he suspected was anxiety about making them but he wasn’t sure. 

     The group always offered to include her in things and sometimes she did accept the offers. Over time she started to feel like more of a friend to them and less of an intrusion. She still kept quiet about ninety percent of the time though. 

     She’d given 3Racha the photos she had taken, fully edited, and let them do what they wanted with them. Jisung told her a lot of people on campus loved the photos when they put them on their social media which gave her somewhat of an ego for a few moments. 

     Minho didn’t know exactly what Jisung was plotting but he did know his friend had been acting differently since the day after their performance. He could corner him and ask but he couldn’t complain too much now. 

     He’d refuse to admit it to anyone— except maybe Chan — but he was glad Jisung was bringing Y/n around more. He thought she was cute when his younger friend had officially introduced them in the library. He had barely spared her much of a glance at the party. Maybe if he did she wouldn’t be too scared of him. But now, after a few months, that dislike or whatever was disappearing. 

     He’d catch her around campus and go out of his way to say hi and ask her about her day. Minho appreciated that she didn’t try and flirt with him like the rest of the girls on campus. He could be himself. 

     Currently, he was in the school's quad with her. He spotted her looking at her camera and chose to keep her company. 

     “What are you taking photos of?” He asked as he walked up and took a seat next to her on the bench

     Y/n offered him a smile, “Whatever interests me today.”

     “So the usual?” he joked

     “Pretty much.” Y/n agreed

     Minho smiled as she got up and stepped a few feet away, spotting something to photograph. Minho took out his phone after a few moments and responded to a few messages he had disregarded earlier. Y/n was taking photos of some of the flowers that were planted. She turned around once she snapped a few and looked at Minho.

     He seemed ignorant to her turning around and the sun was hitting all his angles perfectly. She focused her lens on him and snapped a couple of photos. Slowly Minho looked up at her, hearing the camera shutter as she took the photos.

     “When did I become your model?” Minho asked as she pulled away from the viewfinder

     “You’ve been my model before,” Y/n defended

     “I don’t think I’m dancing right now,” Minho told her

     “No, but it was a good photo opportunity.”

     “Let me see.”

     Y/n walked back to him and handed him the camera. Minho took the camera and looked through the photos she had taken of him before getting out of the photos and going back to the camera. He sat up, held up the viewfinder, and snapped a photo before Y/n realized what he was doing. Once she processed it while he snapped a few more, she moved to grab the camera from him.

     “Hey!” Y/n said grabbing her camera.

     Minho chuckled as she took her seat back next to him. “Let me see my work,” he said between laughs

     “No,” Y/n said as she went to look over at the photos. Minho just looked over her shoulder before she could delete the photos.

     “I did a good job,” Minho said. “You look good too. Very photographic.”

     “Don’t lie,” Y/n grumbled as she deleted the photos and tried to hide her flushed face from him

      “I’m not lying,” Minho told her. “You look good. In and out of the photos.”

      Y/n hesitated to delete the last photo. Minho did take a good photo of her. She couldn’t deny that.

      “What are you doing later?” Minho asked, watching her hesitate, and stopped looking over her shoulder.

      “Probably nothing. Maybe homework,” Y/n answered and shut her camera off. Packing it up in her camera bag

      “Do you want to get takeout and come over instead? I can kick Ji out.”

      Y/n turned to look at him. Ninety-nine percent sure she was hallucinating what he just said. “Huh?” she asked

      “Do you want to come over after you’re last class? Order food or I can cook,” Minho repeated

     “I— just us?”

     “I mean, I’m sure someone else will be at the house but ideally, yeah. Just us.”

     “Like, like a date?” Y/n asked, scared but hopeful at the same time

     “Yeah.”

     “You’re asking me on a date?”

     “Why wouldn’t I?”

     “Because you’re out of my league?”

     “You don’t give yourself enough credit,” Minho smirked, “Come over for dinner. I’ll kick the others out of the house.”

     “O-okay,” Y/n agreed

     “When’s your last class?”

     “I don’t have any more classes. I have all morning classes.”

     “Come on. We can go shopping for ingredients.” Minho stood and adjusted the bag on his shoulder

     “I don’t want to make you cook,” Y/n closed up her bag and stood with him, gathering the rest of her things.

     “I like cooking. Come on,” Minho said

     Y/n walked with him to the parking lot. Minho opened the door for her before getting in his side of the car. The two drove down to the supermarket while Minho questioned her on what she wanted to eat. 

     She was wondering why Lee Minho would ask her out. Or offer to cook for her. Her brain seemed to just go into autopilot for responses. In the store, she stayed close to the dancer. She was trying to stay out of other people’s way and helping with grabbing ingredients. Even if he protested she didn’t need to. It was the least she could do. 

     When they checked out, Y/n felt more at ease as they drove back to the house. Minho had made sure to text his friends to either not corner them or not come home. They even seemed a bit shocked at this development but ultimately Chan offered to take the other six out for dinner which the younger ones graciously accepted. 

     “Do you want any help?” Y/n asked after they— mostly Minho— carried in their shopping bags from the car and set them on the counter. 

     “No. I got it covered,” Minho said and took his bag to his room. Y/n quietly sat at the bar and took out the homework she had planned to do. 

     Minho came back after a few moments to find her doing the work he took her away from. He smiled to himself as he got to work. Washing his hands and starting to cook. He would occasionally look over at her to check on her and ask her how her work was going. 

     Y/n was honestly barely focusing on her work— she’d done most of it earlier anyway. She was watching Minho cook. He seemed a natural in the kitchen. Moved with ease, just like he was dancing.

     “How come you didn’t go to culinary school?” Y/n asked

     “Dance is what I’m passionate about. Cooking is just something I like doing for my friends. Plus I’m good at it.”

     “How good?” Y/n asked

     “You’ll see,” Minho smiled back at her, “Finish your homework. You won’t graduate if you don’t.”

     “I’ll be fine,” Y/n told him

     “Homework.”

     Y/n just rolled her eyes and turned back to her homework while he cooked. Both taking moments to watch the other one work. Y/n finished up her last boy off work and put away her things. Patiently waiting for Minho to finish, not knowing what to do now. 

     She just admired him working. He moved around the kitchen with ease, even when he plated the food. Y/n smiled as he set the food in front of her and thanked him. Minho smiled and sat down next to her at the bar. Y/n took a bite of the food and looked at him. “You should be a chef!” Y/n exclaimed

     Minho just smiled as he started eating. Y/n enjoyed probably the best meal she had had since she left home for college. She felt more relaxed than ever around Minho. She had forgotten for a moment that this was technically a date. It just felt natural to hang out with him now. Even if he didn’t give her the best impression when they had first met. He was trying now even if he didn’t know at first.

     Y/n did find it weird— being the best word she could use to describe the feeling— when one of the more popular guys that everyone seemed to like was with her during their free time. They weren’t official but they were together often. Whether it was by themselves or with the rest of their friends. The rest of Minho’s housemates all knew before they did things would be official eventually.

     “Did I scare you when we first met?” Minho asked her as they were lying in her dorm bed, her roommate gone for the weekend.

     “What do you mean?” Y/n asked

     “You just seemed scared of me when Ji introduced us,” Minho explained

     “You didn’t scare me,” Y/n said, cuddling into him. Winter was setting in now and he had become her personal heater. “Just when you bumped into me at the Halloween party you seemed annoyed when I tried talking to you…”

     “That was you?” Minho asked

     “Yeah…” 

     “I was annoyed that night but not because of you,” Minho told her, wrapping his arms around her tighter. 

     “I don’t blame you. I’m pretty boring…”

     “No, you’re not.”

     “I’m an art major Min. It’s not really a useful career. Sometimes I wonder why you talk to me or even ask me on dates to begin with.”

     “Because I like being around you. You’re easy to be around and I like your creativity.”

     “You don’t want someone more in your league? Prettier? Cooler?”

     “You’re prettier and cooler than you give yourself credit for,” Minho told her and he pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “I’d be happy to call you my girlfriend.”

     “Girlfriend?!” Y/n’s head shot up and looked at him

     “Yeah. I want you to be my girlfriend.” Minho chuckled

     Y/n’s face flushed. She had guessed it would eventually get to here but now that the words had left his lips she was at a loss for words.

     “Cat got your tongue?”

     Y/n nodded her head as Minho laughed. Resting his head on her forehead, “Is that a yes to being my girlfriend?”

     “Yes,” Y/n quietly said.

     Minho smiled and placed a peck on her lips. The kiss was too fast for Y/n. She watched her boyfriend’s reaction to him pulling away then pressed another kiss to her lips. Giving her time to return the affection.

     Y/n moved her lips with his before he pulled away again. “You’re a good kisser kitten.”

     “Kitten?”

     “Yeah. My kitten.” 

     Minho wrapped his arms tightly around her and held her close to his chest. That’s how they stayed for the weekend. Cuddled up together and only pulled away to use the bathroom or get food. Y/n felt like she was on cloud nine with Minho. He walked her to her classes when he had the time and made her any food she asked for. Even when he joked and appeared he didn’t want to. He was always doing things for her. And Y/n never felt happier in the last month of them being together. 

     “Want to spend the night this weekend ?” Minho asked his girlfriend after walking her to her last class, “Ji’s going to his parent’s house for the weekend so I don’t have to kick him out.”

     “The others won’t mind?” Y/n asked 

     “No. As long as you don’t mind the guys being obnoxiously loud while we’re locked in my room avoiding them,” Minho smiled

     “Okay,” Y/n smiled back 

     “I’ll see you after class,” Minho told her and picked her lips. 

     Y/n watched her boyfriend walk down the hallway to his class and entered her own. Now, a little too excited for her class to end. She was ready to bolt out of her class as they were dismissed. She tried giving her boyfriend time to get back to her classroom but she still managed to get out before him. 

     She waited outside her class for him. Leaning against the wall till he snuck up to her and wrapped his kissed her forehead. Y/n looked at her boyfriend, “Hi.”

     “Hey. How was class?” He asked as he took her hand. Heading to her dorm so she could grab a few things before heading down to the house. 

     Minho sat in her desk chair while she packed a small bag, looking at her photos on her wall. A thought crossed his mind as he picked up her smaller digital camera. 

     “What are you doing?” Y/n asked 

     Minho smiled at her and took a quick photo of her packing her bag. Y/n looked over at him as she heard the shutter click. “Min.”

     “I didn’t do it,” Minho told her and took another photo of her.

     “I’m never going to win with you, am I?”

     “No.”

     Y/n shook her head and finished packing her bag. Having to drag her boyfriend from her dorm and to the car. Minho put her things in the backseat and then drove them to his home. Some of the guys were home when they arrived. Y/n said hi to them as Minho pulled her up the stairs to his room. Y/n set her bag down at the foot of his bed as the dancer sat on his bed, pulling her to him and laying back with her.

     “Hungry at all?” Minho asked

     “No. My boyfriend keeps me nice and full,” Y/n told him as she wrapped her arms around him. Minho smiled and turned on the TV he and Jisung had in their room. Turning on a show the two had talked about watching, casually laying in the bed till Jisung came in to grab something.

     “Oh good, you guys aren’t doing anything weird,” Jisung teased as he opened the door

     Y/n hid her face in her boyfriend’s chest as Minho glared at his roommate. Y/n focused on the TV as Jisung packed a bag and then said goodbye to the couple, shutting the door behind him.

     “Embarrassed kitten?” Minho asked

     “A little. What if Ji did walk in while we were doing something? Not that we have done anything but…”

     “If we were I would have locked the door. I wouldn’t put you in that position. Have you thought about going further?” Minho explained

     “Yeah…”

     Minho sat up with her, in a better position to have a more serious conversation. Y/n felt shy about the topic of sex. She didn’t have much experience and she only guessed Minho had more than her. “Look at me, babe?” Minho asked

     Y/n hesitantly made eye contact with him for the duration of their conversation. The couple spent maybe an hour talking about their history— she was right about Minho having more experience than her— and protection. Minho made sure Y/n felt completely comfortable as they talked about the next steps in their relationship. Only having gone as far as a few heated make-out sessions. Minho never rushed her with anything which just made her fall for him more.

     Maybe that comfort was how the bedroom door ended up locked and Minho was gripping her ass over her jeans while she was sitting on his lap, both their tongues fighting for dominance. Both of them moaned as Y/n gripped the hair at the nape of his neck. Minho used his grip on her backside to pull her closer to him, almost tipping them back on the bed. The dancer chuckled when she made a surprised noise before pulling away and attaching his lips to her neck.

     “Min,” Y/n breathed out, fingers dragging up into his hair more.

     “Look so good on my lap kitten,” Minho said as his lips roamed all over her neck, biting a couple of patches of skin lightly

     Y/n bucked her hips against him when he did nibble on her skin. The slight pinch shot straight to her core. The roll of her hold made the male below her groan and she could feel something poking her from below. 

     Seconds later Minho had her on her back and kissed down her body. His hands moved to take hold of the low waistband of her jeans. “Can I?” Minho asked

     “Please,” Y/n said, lifting her hips for him

     Minho smiled and unbuttoned her pants, pulling the fabric down and tossing it to the side. Y/n pressed her thighs together, suddenly a little embarrassed being half-naked in front of him. Minho noticed and placed a kiss on each of her thighs and her hips, gently pulling her legs apart before settling between them. Y/n watched as he put her legs over his shoulders and pressed a few kisses to her clothed core. Y/n bit her bottom lip as she watched her boyfriend kiss and lick her through the fabric before he pulled away and pulled the fabric off her legs, tossing them to the floor with her bottoms.

     Minho readjusted them, grabbing her hands and intertwining their fingers. “Anyone ever take care of you, kitten?”

     “No…” Y/n admitted as he pressed a kiss to her clit

     Minho hummed then licked a stripe from her entrance to her clit, wrapping his lips around the bud. Y/n moaned as he sucked on the little bud. She gripped his hands as he switched between sucking on her clit and licking the bud with his tongue. Y/n gasped when she felt his tongue dip into her, back arching off his mattress as he moved the muscle in and out of her. 

     His hands left her and grabbed the tops of her thighs. Holding her legs over his shoulders as he ate her out. Y/n grabbed a handful of his hair with one hand, making him moan into her. Y/n had to cover her mouth so none of the others would hear her. It got harder to hide them as the knot in her stomach kept tightening and tightening until it snapped. 

     The photographer gasped as her hips rocked against his face. Minho held her against him as he helped her through the high. Not stopping till he had her cleaned up and her grip on his hair loosened. He pulled away, put her legs back on the bed, and sat up on his knees. Wrong off any excess liquid with the back of his hand. 

     Y/n caught her breath again as Minho threw off his t-shirt letting it join her bottoms on the ground. Y/n took in the sight up his upper torso, just by his arms she knew her boyfriend was toned but seeing his chest and abs, whew.

     “What you staring at kitten?” Minho teased as he crawled over her, caging her in with his arms.

     “My hot boyfriend,” Y/n responded as she ran her fingers down his front and hooked them around his belt.

     “Not so shy anymore,” Minho smiled as he leaned down to kiss her neck again.

     Y/n hummed as she undid his belt, pulling it from its loops and then unbuttoning his jeans. Meanwhile, Minho used one hand to push her shirt up. The two worked as best they could undressing each other. Once they finally got the rest of their clothes off and onto the floor, Y/n wrapped her hand around his cock. Minho moaned as she slowly stroked him, one hand of his having taken hold of her breasts. Groping the flesh as his lips worked their way down to the other.

     Minho wasn’t trying to hide his moans like Y/n was. He’d heard all his friends before and he was sure they had heard him before so none of it mattered to him. But knowing his girlfriend, he tried not to be too loud and embarrass her. Not that any of the guys would tease them if they knew what was good for them.

    His hand that was on her boob moved down and his thumb ran over her sensitive clit. His head came up from her chest just in time to see her tilt her head back in pleasure. Minho leaned into her neck and kissed the skin, making sure to leave his mark on her. Y/n moaned as he sucked on her skin while he circled her clit. Their stroke paces fell in sync, one would pick up their speed and then the other would follow suit. 

     Y/n managed to pull his lips from her neck up to her mouth. Kissing him to drown out her moans as her hips rocked against his hand. Minho matched her strokes with his hips. Thrusting into her hand as his orgasm approached. Her grip tightened as her second high approached her, taking over her body seconds later. Minho thrusted into her hand as he worked her through her high. His cum shot onto her lower stomach as she came down from her second high.

     “Sorry,” Mino apologized as he came down from his orgasm

     “‘S okay,” Y/n told him. “It was hot.”

     Minho hummed as he sat up, looking down at her. “You look good with my cum on you.”

     “Should take a picture,” Y/n said

     “Want me to?” Minho questioned

     “Camera’s in my bag.”

     Minho moved and grabbed her bag from the foot of his bed, quickly finding her camera and getting back in his position. Her legs rested over his thighs as he pointed the camera lens down at her stomach. Catching her wet cunt as well and his dick laying between her legs. Y/n watched the flash go off before he pulled the camera away from his face. Minho leaned down and pecked her lips.

     “Want to keep going, kitten?” Minho asked 

     “Yes,” Y/n answered. “Can I… ride you?” She asked as he leaned over to his bedside table and grabbed a condom. 

     “My kitty wants to ride me?” He teased as he closed the drawer.

     “Please…”

     Minho didn’t say anything before flipping their position. He placed her on his lower stomach and handed her the condom. Y/n took the foil from his hand and sat up on her knees. She scooted back a bit as she opened the wrapper and took out the rubber. Y/n jerked her boyfriend’s dick again until he was erect again, then slid on the rubber. 

     Minho held her hips as she positioned herself above him. She kept his cock steady till the tip was inside her. Moaning as she placed her hands on his waist while she sank onto him. The dancer helped her ease down onto him. He gave her a second once he was fully inside her, keeping a hold on her hips. Y/n sat up straight and held her boyfriend’s wrists and looked down at him. She noticed the light layer of sweat that was covering his body. She found her camera on the bed and held it up to her face. 

      She snapped a photo of her boyfriend. Minho smiled before taking the camera from her hands. Y/n clenched around her boyfriend as he pointed the camera at her. Minho snapped a photo as she started rolling her hips back and forth. Her hands pressed to his chest to stabilize herself. 

      Minho took a couple of photos of her and then put the camera to the side again. The dancer planted his feet on the bed and held her hips, slowly starting to bounce her on him. Y/n used her position to lift herself so her boyfriend wasn’t doing all the work. 

     Minho’s hands moved back and gripped her ass as she rode him. Tilting his head back in pleasure as her walls pulsed around him. Y/n took the chance to lay on his chest and suck her own marks onto his skin. Minho happily let her do so as he lifted his hips and started thrusting into her. 

      Y/n moaned against his skin as he thrusted into her. Accidently biting down a little harder on his neck when his tip found the spongy spot inside her and hit it dead on. 

     “Fuck,” Minho moaned, wrapping his arms around her and holding her down on his chest

     “Sorry,” Y/n mumbled as she kissed the spot

     “Don’t. Felt good,” Minho told her as his pace picked up

      Y/n moaned as he aimed for the spot again. Hiding away in her boyfriend's neck as her walls clenched around him. She tried rolling her hips to keep up with his pace but she was far slower than him, though she still tried. 

      The knot was tightening far too quickly in her stomach this time. Each thrust felt like the next would make her cum again. She did her best to hold out but she couldn’t. Her walls spasmed around Minho’s cock. The dance held onto her as her body shook on top of him. Fucking her through the high before his took over. Burying himself into her and letting his cum fill up the rubber. 

     “Fuck,” both groaned as they caught their breaths 

      Y/n sat up and looked at her boyfriend's neck. Not realizing how many marks she had left on him — she could only imagine what hers looked like. She ran her thumb over the front of his neck before grabbing her camera again and taking a photo.

      Minho chuckled at her before helping her off his cock and laying her on the bed. Y/n smiled as she watched him toss the condom then put on his boxers and leave the room. She looked over three photos they had taken before he came back with a washcloth and cleaned her up. 

     “Everyone’s in their rooms, wanna go take a shower?” Minho asked

     “Yes please,” Y/n agreed.

☾ ━━━━━━ M.LIST    TIP JAR

☾ ━━━ please support writers by reblogging and/or leaving feedback  

© 2024 MINNIESMUTT. DO NOT COPY, REPUBLISH OR TRANSLATE MY WORK ANYWHERE

[riding-the-sunset-bird]

Another day, another post dissecting Our Life's code! This time we'll be going over how Our Life decides whether your Cove will be Studious, Sporty, or somewhere in the middle!

If you've already seen my post on how the game decides where Cove is on the spectrum between warm and cold, then most of this will feel extremely familiar, but you don't need to check that post to understand this one! I'll be going over everything exactly the same.

According to GB Patch, getting a sporty or studious Cove is primarily based on what you do with him activity-wise.

Part of it is what Cove literally ends up doing in the events. There are multiple times where he can do something more physical or do something more low key. Another part is a somewhat meta “the player is creating their reality” type of deal. For example, if the player makes it clear that their MC is the sporty one around, that would have to mean Cove isn’t the sporty one. So even without interacting with Cove directly you’d rack up a lot studious points for him because your choices are describing a world where Cove isn’t that into sports. That’s not to say it’s impossible for the MC and Cove to both be into sports. Describing your MC specifically as the one into sports is excluding Cove from being super into sports, but he doesn’t have to be excluded. The most straightforward way to get a sporty Cove is to just really focus on it. Whenever there’s something that could possibly make him more interested in bookish things, lean away from that. And whenever there’s a way to encourage him to like or do physical stuff, do it. So, for example, don’t accept just being a silver medalist in Grown-up, don’t say that the MC is a faster runner than Cove when trying to get away from Shiloh, do ask him question that lead to him talking about outdoorsy activities he does, etc.

Calling it "points" is very accurate because it's very much a points system. Whenever you do certain actions with/say certain things to Cove, the game will add a "point" to either Cove being studious or Cove being sporty (in extremely rare cases, it will add two instead of even subtract one).

(also, shockingly, reading the book with Cove in Sleepover actually has zero effect on Cove being Studious/Sporty; I even had to read through the script to confirm and the only reasoning I can imagine is because it's related to getting a CG and the devs wouldn't want players who want the CG to feel forced into making Cove more studious just to get it)

The tutorial of the game also vaguely details the studious to sporty spectrum:

[Cove']s interests fall along a sporty-mixed-studious spectrum. It works similarly to the personality one. When he's young, Cove has a variety of interests. As time goes on that can stay the same, begin to focus on more athletic/outdoorsy activities, or become more interested in academic/indoorsy ways to spend time.

And, if you've ever been in the Cove Creator, you'd know that there are five "states" that Cove can be in when it comes to his interests, with one state being between Studious and Mixed while another is between Mixed and Sporty. However, as far as I can tell, the game will never actually check for these two states, meaning that Cove is either Studious, Mixed, or Sporty, without any sort of Studious-Mixed or Mixed-Sporty at all.

In terms of the first check of the game - after the end of Step 1, of course - the game will examine the points you've gathered and decide where on the spectrum Cove is. If you have more Studious points, then the game will look only at how many points you've gathered there and vice versa with Sporty points. If you have an equal amount of Studious and Sporty points, then there will be a sort of "coin flip" to determine which points the game will check (this actually happened to me once where I had to go back on a save and got a Sporty Cove instead of a Studious one even though I'd done nothing different, simply because I'd accumulated an equal amount of sporty and studious points with Cove).

The remaining points in the other category are thrown away, and if you don't have enough sporty/studious points (depending on what you had more of or what the game chose in the "coin toss"), then you get a Mixed Cove.

Interestingly enough, the game is actually uneven in how it calculates a "fully Studious" or "fully Sporty" Cove. If you have six or more points in Studiousness, then you get a "fully Studious" Cove, but the game only asks for five of more in Sportiness to give you a "fully Sporty" Cove. This means that you could have six points in both Studiousness and Sportiness, which would give you a "fully Sporty" Cove if the coin flip picked Sportiness, but if the coin flip picks Studiousness, you'll only get a "Studious-Mixed" Cove.

As stated above though, the Studious-Mixed and Mixed-Sporty states don't really exist and serve as Studious and Sporty respectively anyway. In the grand scheme of things, it won't matter, but I digress.

Keeping that in mind, the game only cares if you have three or more points in either Studiousness or Sportiness. If you have three or more Studious points, you get a Studious Cove, and if you have three or more Sporty points, you get a Sporty Cove (and a coin toss if you're equal in both to decide whether he's Studious or Sporty). If you do not have enough points in either, you get a Mixed Cove. A Mixed Cove is most likely if you either play through Step 1 without playing any moments or avoid leaning Cove towards anything Studious/Sporty at all.

Cove's personality and appearance are also unrelated to whether he's Studious or Sporty, excluding moments where a multiple choice option might affect multiple values at once (but this is coincidence rather than direct correlation and, yes, I'll mention them when they come). Cove will also still do things like go surfing in Wave even if he's Studious, it's just that he'll be an awkward surfer instead of a graceful one (no comment if he's Mixed).

In terms of things that affect the player directly, the gummy bear toss in the Step 2 DLC moment Birthday is one of the biggest things that come to mind, as you'll lose if Cove isn't sporty and your MC hasn't been given any "sporty points" of their own (since this post isn't about the MC, I'll keep it brief and just say that the game keeps track of your own athletic ability during Step 2, such as if you tell Kyra that you like to swim). If that matters to you, you can opt for a sporty Cove and save yourself the trouble as there's no Studious equivalent of the gummy bear toss.

As for all of the moments in Step 1 where you have a chance to influence Cove's Studiousness/Sportiness, here they are!

Step 1 - Prologue

When Cove and the MC try to flee from Shiloh (if the MC agrees to go along with Cove):

He was fast, but you knew you could outrun him if you had to. [sporty +1]

He was not that fast, you knew you could outrun him if you had to. [studious +1]

He was not that fast, but neither were you. [studious +1]

At that speed, you weren't sure if you could go fast enough to reach him. [sporty +1]

Shopping

When Cove is staring down absentmindedly at the sand:

"Are you looking for snails?" [sporty +1]

"Are you looking for shells?" [studious +1]

"What is it?" [studious +1]

"You didn't feel the need to ask why." [sporty +1]

When Cove goes back to not saying anything on the beach:

You didn't either. [sporty +1]

"What did you want to go to the shops for?" [studious +1]

"What do you usually do on the beach?" [sporty +1]

Grown Up

When Lizzie tells Cove and the MC that they won silver in the pretend Olympics:

"Silver sucks. I don't want silver." [sporty +1]

"I'm okay with that." [studious +1]

"Hey, we can do better than silver!" [sporty +1]

"Silver's not bad. Nice." [studious +1]

You stayed silent. [no change]

Long Day

When Lizzie asks the MC if they're a chicken who doesn't want to ding-dong-ditch the mean grandparents:

"Yeah. Cluck-cluck." [studious +1]

You'd rather just avoid them. [studious +1]

You thought they deserved worse. [no change]

"I'll do it." [no change]

When the MC gets to decide what they see in the clouds:

You saw a dolphin. [studious +1] {note that this will give Cove the dark blue short-sleeved shirt}

You saw a car. [sporty +1] {note that this will give Cove the red salamander sleeveless shirt}

You saw an alpaca. [sporty +1] {note that this will give Cove the dark blue short-sleeved shirt}

You saw a smiley face. [sporty +1] {note that this will give Cove the red salamander sleeveless shirt}

You saw cloud shapes. [studious +1]

Sandcastle

[NONE]

Fireflies

When the MC notices Cove lagging behind the group while en route to poppy hill:

"Are you not gonna come?" [no change] {but will give Cove cold +1}

You tugged him along. [sporty +1] {note that this will give Cove cold +1 on Indifferent and warm +1 on Fond/Crush}

You walked with him. [no change] {but will give Cove cold +1}

You waved at him to hurry. [no change] {but will give Cove warm +1}

You ran off. [no change]

When Cove fails to catch a firefly after the MC catches one:

You encouraged him to try again. [sporty +1] {note that this will give Cove warm +1}

You told him about the firefly you had. [studious +1] {note that this will give Cove cold +1}

You made a joke about what happened. [studious +1]

You did your own things. [sporty +1]

Library

When the MC chooses to go with Cove rather than participate in the quiz:

[sporty +1] {note that this will give Cove cold +1}

When the MC and Cove are about to be interrupted in their game of hide-and-seek (dependent on how good the MC has been at the game; answers marked with a * are the correct ones):

1st round of hide-and-seek

Next to a Peter Pan poster.

*Beside the fairy tale display.

*Behind the solar system model.

2nd round of hide-and-seek

By the fire awareness station.

Near the stuffed animals.

*Under the giant piece of fruit.

By the outlaw poster.

*In the fantasy section.

Near the toddler books.

3rd round of hide-and-seek

*In all the old Christmas stuff.

Next to the kid detective poster.

*Behind the Willy Wonka statues.

Final Tally

the MC won zero rounds (Cove will say "I'm doing good.") [sporty +1]

the MC won one round (Cove will say "I'm doing good.") [studious +1] [sporty +1]

the MC won two rounds (Cove will say "I can still win.") [studious +1]

the MC won all three rounds (Cove will say "I need to do good in at least one round.") [studious +1]

If the MC chose to go do the quiz instead:

[studious +1] {note that this will give Cove warm +1}

Ghost

[NONE]

Barbecue

When the MC is racing the other kids to catch the girl with the squirt gun (if the MC chose to go play with the kids in the first place):

You outran them easily. [studious +1]

You outran them with effort. [sporty +1]

You weren't as fast as them because they were speedy. [sporty +1]

You weren't as fast as them because you just weren't fast. [studious +1]

You moved to the side to let them pass; you didn't wanna win this race. [no change]

When Mr. Holden comments on his interests:

"Those are things Cove likes." [sporty +1]

"Wow. It's a good thing you live by the beach." [studious +1]

You stayed quiet. [no change]

Runaway

[NONE]

Sleepover

[NONE]

Step 1 - Ending

When Cove tries to skip a rock across the water (if the MC chose to stay with him):

You were impressed over how far he got it to go. It sailed way out into the sea. [sporty +2] [studious -1]

It was a good toss. That was pretty neat. [sporty +1]

It wasn't a long throw. But he didn't care to try for that. [studious +1]

The rock sunk kind of... like a rock and fell back down almost right after he tossed it. [studious +2] [sporty -1]

And that's all of them! A few surprises are in there, but it's mostly straightforward in either prompting Cove to talk about outdoor/active things he does or choosing options that imply he's particularly good/fast (whether compared to the MC or in general). Particularly tricky are the ones that might change Cove's appearance/personality when you didn't intend for that to happen and are trying not to use the Cove Creator to get the Cove you want.

Still, it's definitely easier to gauge than Cove's appearance or personality, so whether you wanted this for a guide or just for the data, I hope you enjoyed! :D

[transdimensional-void]

"ascendance of a bookworm" and the centrality of education

something "bookworm" recognizes that i think a lot of other isekai miss is that myne's greatest advantage from her past life isn't her knowledge of certain technologies or products. it's her education.

this is obviously true in the lower city, where most of the people around her have received zero formal education; but it is even true among the highest levels of nobility, where the standard amount of formal education is six terms at the royal academy. that's three months of the year for six years, and nobles intentionally budget their time at the academy to spend more of it on socializing than they do on education. outside of the academy, many nobles receive some form of private tutoring, but the quality, quantity, and consistency vary widely from person to person.

compare that to urano's university-level education in modern-day japan. she spent a minimum of sixteen years attending school for most of the day for most of the year. and it shows.

one of the moments from the series that has really stuck with me is the scene where ferdinand reads myne's memories and experiences, from her point of view, what her education was like: year after year, across her entire childhood, with many different teachers, in many different subjects, in many different classrooms, surrounded by other children her age. the way seeing that allows him to finally grasp why she seems so uniquely capable of being taught compared to other people he knows. it's not that she's some sort of unparalleled genius. it's merely that she's been conditioned to perform academically and that she's been taught how to learn.

and each time myne "ascends" within jurgenschmidt society and is forced to perform in a new environment with minimal time to learn its ways, this conditioning serves her well. she knows how to sit down at a desk, crack open the books, and study until she's got it. equally, having received a comprehensive education puts her far ahead of the average jurgenschmidt citizen in terms of being able to synthesize information from a variety of sources and see how disparate phenomena are interrelated. when she arrives, she may not know anything about jurgenschmidt's economy, government, social structure, etc., but she knows that they exist, are worth learning about, are having a huge effect on her own life, and can be manipulated to her own ends.

what's more, her belief in the fundamentality of education is the single force driving the greatest amount of change within jurgenschmidt. yes, the printing press is the most revolutionary technology she introduces, but her educational reforms will have more immediate and farther-reaching effects.

by the point in the story we're currently at in the english translation (p5v7), she has improved educational access and outcomes for the following:

specific people in the lower city of ehrenfest (lutz, tuuli, kamil, those wealthy enough to purchase her picture books and toys)

those in the ehrenfest temple orphanage (said to receive a level of education equivalent to the average mednoble)

members of some farming villages of ehrenfest (those who have been visited by gray priests over winter hibernation)

all noble children of ehrenfest (through the winter playroom and better grades committee, as well as her educational materials)

some nobles in other duchies (those who have gained access to her picture books and educational toys, and those who have been personally influenced by her, such as hannelore and hildebrand)

commoners with the devouring in ehrenfest like dirk, who can receive funding from the aub to receive a noble education

no, she hasn't yet introduced mandatory, free public education, but she's laid the foundation for it. she has introduced educational reform at multiple levels of society and, more importantly, impressed its importance upon key authority figures, such as sylvester, charlotte, and melchior. that ensures that her reforms have staying power.

this is one of the things i adore about this series: the realism of the societal changes myne brings about. a lesser story would have shown her introducing free, compulsory education for all commoners within the space of a few years. that would have been nice, but it wouldn't have felt real. instead, myne has achieved every small reform through sheer bull-headedness, with blood, sweat, and tears, with immense effort. and that makes her accomplishments feel meaningful in a way an easy win would not. and yet we see widespread change, inertia that we can envision snowballing into the kind of education system urano enjoyed in japan somewhere in the not-to-distant future.

myne's societal reforms feel earned, and it all begins with the story's recognition of the immeasurable value of the education she received back in japan.

[from-the-coffee-shop-in-edoras]

Do you know anything (or maybe have some headcanons) about Rohan’s wedding traditions? How do they propose to be married? What kind of wedding outfits do they have? Do they marry for life, or does divorce exist? Thank you so much! I so love reading all your musings about Rohan!

Thanks for this question, and for being so nice! I love to talk Rohan, so I appreciate the chance! ❤️

I’ve actually never written a Rohirrim wedding and there really isn’t anything to go on from the books/lore, either, so I don’t have a fully developed idea of what that would look like.

Off the cuff, I’d say weddings in Rohan probably vary a lot depending on the wealth, status, location, etc. of the couple. Rich people will obviously have a much bigger, more elaborate wedding, maybe with multiple days of feasting and revelry, while a poor couple has a simple ceremony and a little party. Someone from the far western borders might have different traditions, perhaps with some Dunlendish influence as they were direct neighbors and sometimes intermarried, versus someone in the Wold, which is all the way east, extremely rural and sparsely populated. There’s no official religion of Rohan or anything that might have imposed uniformity on all their rituals, so variety is the name of the game. But there would be some common cultural elements, like toasting and poems and songs, etc. All that ceremonial stuff is in the category of things I definitely need to think more about, though I’m also always interested in other people’s thoughts and ideas, too!

For proposals, I think it was a tradition for most of Rohan’s history (something they picked up from the Gondorians) for royalty and nobles to be guided into negotiated marriages that were considered strategically advantageous. (Marrying for love is one of the few privileges of the poor! They could just find someone they liked, decide between themselves that they wanted to marry and then move forward.) Arranged marriage is something I have addressed in my stories. I’ve written about Elfhild growing to love Théoden deeply over time but still always regretting a little that she didn’t get to choose him. Also, my Théodred HATED the idea of being forced into a marriage and held out against it, which is why he was still unmarried into his 40’s. He didn’t live to see that officially change (*sob*), but I think it did. Éomer makes it clear in ROTK that Éowyn consented to Faramir’s proposal — “she grants it full willing” — and if he had learned that personal autonomy was important for her, I think he’d want to give the same autonomy to himself, his children and others in the future.

As for divorce, there’s no evidence for it in canon (and I am CERTAIN that Tolkien would hate it) but I’m a big believer that divorce is one of the most important tools for the protection of women’s interests to ever exist. So I want it in Rohan! I have a tiny piece of a draft somewhere of Éomer’s wife (who is not Lothíriel in my fics, but a daughter of Elfhelm) being left to rule alone while Éomer is away on business in Gondor, and she essentially invents divorce while he’s gone by granting the plea of several women for the dissolution of their marriages to drunken jerks. Even though the husbands complain bitterly to Éomer when he returns, Éomer has learned some stuff through the years and backs his wife’s move. I’m not sure if that little idea will ever make it into a posted story, but it exists not just in my head but on my google drive!

Thanks again for being so kind! And if you or anyone else have creative Rohirrim wedding/marriage ideas, please always feel free to share them with me!

[novafire-is-thinking]

Looking for volunteers…

As some of you know, @cyber-streak-2 and I have been providing the fandom with quality incorrect quotes for a while now.

I’ve had a lot of fun with it, but since I’ll be cutting down on my fandom activities for a while, I won’t be able to help with incorrect quotes more than once a week.

Styx and I are looking for a few volunteers who can fill in for me and suggest characters for quotes.

Responsibilities and requirements below:

Responsibilities:

Styx will DM you a handful of incorrect quotes sometime during the day, depending on its availability. Usually, this happens sometime in the evening (MT-EST USA).

The message will appear as follows:

Sometime before the next day, you will evaluate the quotes and suggest characters that fit each quote.

I recommend copy-pasting the full message into a separate app (iPhone Notes, Google Docs, etc.) and brainstorming over there. It’ll make your life easier if you can see all the quotes in front of you as you work, and it’ll also help prevent mix-ups on your end.

My preferred brainstorming setup:

When you’re finished matching things up, you will send back your suggestions in the following format:

Anubis will look over your suggestions, and it’ll thank you if it’s satisfied. If not, he’ll ask if you have any other suggestions for [quote #x].

Other things to know:

If you’re busy when Styx sends the quotes, don’t feel pressured to respond; you don’t even have to let it know you’re busy. As long as you send your suggestions/ideas before the morning of the next day (6am EST), you’re free to answer him whenever you want. Styx is chill like that :)

If you can’t think of any character(s) that will fit one or more of the quotes, say so. The only consequence is that there will be less quotes.

If the quotes are published, and you realize you or Anubis accidentally mixed up the characters, don’t hesitate to DM, point it out, and state exactly what changes should be made. It’s happened plenty of times with me, and Styx hasn’t hesitated to change the quotes, even after they’ve been published.

If you think of multiple characters that fit a single quote, feel free to suggest them too.

Multi-character formatting examples:

If you can think of a way to correct and/or improve one or more of the quotes, send back the full quote(s) with the completed changes incorporated. This makes it easy for Anubis to just copy and paste the updated version(s):

Requirements:

Must have a solid grasp of the main characters’ personalities in MTMTE + LL, preferably with a grasp of some characters from the rest of IDW1, TFP, and EarthSpark. Knowledge of characters from TFA, G1, and Beast Wars is appreciated for the sake of additional variety, but not necessary. No Rescue Bots, RiD15, or Cyberverse, please.

Must be able to communicate concisely. Styx does best when there’s little-to-no ambiguity in the wording of character suggestions and all other messages. (No need to be me or an Ultra Magnus. Just be willing to confirm or reword things if asked.)

Congratulations and thank you to anyone who’s read this far. 😎

If you’re interested in doing this, please DM me with which day(s) you’re available, and we can discuss other details. I’ll answer any questions you may have.

I know this may seem like a lot, but it’s easy and fun once you’ve been doing it for a little while. I’ve gotten a lot of good laughs out of imagining which characters would say which things.

[icequeenlila]

Runaway Lo'ak fic (Locorro)

Lo'ak x Spider

I want to start a new fic, bc I am depressed and need joy in my life (she said while planning out a new angsty fic).

Don't worry, I'll keep writing 'A Son for a Son'. That story is my baby and I will not abandon it. But I need/want variety.

(also it's just an idea so far)

Working Title: 'Belong'

Plot:

Lo'ak tries to make peace with Aonung, nearly dying in the process, just like in the movie. When he returns home he has the usual fight with Jake, only that Lo'ak doesn't just swallow the "You brought shame to this family.", but fights back instead, trying to defend himself. Things get heated, son and father screaming, until Jake hits. Not too hard, but he hits. He regrets it immediately but the damage is done and Lo'ak decides he can't stay. He doesn't fit. No matter how hard he tries, it's never right and he doesn't want to be a burden for his family anymore. So, over the following days he plans his 'escape'. Payakan is in on the thing and they leave together.

So much for the initial situation.

Lo'ak's 'escape' is pretty much a day (or a few) before Quarritch would have found the Sullys. (He doesn't in this fic. So, Neteyam lives. Yeay!) Lo'ak and Payakan spot the demon ship and go to take a look, just in case this is going to get a real threat to the people at Awa'atlu. Lo'ak sees Spider on the deck and he can't believe his eyes. Of course he decides to go get him. Spider is mad happy and slips away with his best friend without much thought. (No, I didn't forget the tracker inside his mask. I'll deal with that.)

Well, things happen blah blah blah. I don't know the details yet.

Lo'ak and Spider are in love. Oblivious numb skulls, of course. Lo'ak offers Spider to get him to Awa'atlu, so he can be with Kiri and the others, but Spider just wacks him and tells him he's stupid for believing he'd leave his side again. Bc Love, bro.

Spider ends up getting his own Avatar. Again, no details, but I have a rough plan.

Blah blah blah, they grow up, they travel the world, they adopt two sweet children along the line. And some day, when their travels bring them close to Awa'atlu, Spider decides to give old friends a visit (without Lo'ak's knowing).

So, imagine. Jake and Neytiri not knowing what happened to their son, finding Spider in na'vi form with their supposedly grand child on his arm. Hilarious.

Lo'ak and Spider are level A dads by the way. They gonna have a boy and a girl. I don't know the details yet, I only know that the lil boy is gonna be a difficult whirlwind with anger issues. Bc I want Lo'ak to be a gentle parent.

Also, Mo'at and Norm are part of this story (at least they are in my imagination, I'll make things up as I go.) Locorro is gonna stay with the Omatikaya for a while, Mo'at not being as rejecting of Spider as her daughter was. Also, her character is needed, so Spider can get the same ritual as Jake, connecting his soul to his na'vi body permanently. (I imagine Mo'at as a very loving grandma. Lo'ak and her are gonna bond.)

I'm probably gonna do multiple povs. Like the story doesn't just follow Lo'ak and Spider but also shows how the Sully's are dealing with Lo'ak's loss. Bc we need angst and I won't give Jake a rest.

Family reunion and stuff. Do I have your interest? Tell me pls.

I started writing some of it but I know I'll lose interest if there isn't any feedback from readers. Soooo, pls let me know, so I can decide if it's worth investing my time. I know Locorro isn't that big, so maybe the interest isn't there in the fandom.

+

I noticed how all my fics just come to existence, bc of some stupid thing Jake said that pissed me off in the movie.

A Son for a Son: " You've done enough."

This one (Belong): "You brought shame to this family."

That man is my muse.

[hiiragi7]

(Warning for discussion of abuse)

There is a certain ableist and classist feel to the way that a lot of people talk about highschool education and graduation that I've noticed. "I bet they never graduated highschool" is often used as an insult and to imply stupidity, for example. I've noticed this trend for a long time, but struggled to put it into words.

While education is important, I often feel very put down by the amount of emphasis placed on being a highschool graduate (and, on the opposite end, the disdain for non-graduates). I never graduated, due to a variety of factors; I suffered very extreme abuse starting in first grade from the school environment (As a diagnosed autistic kid growing up in SPED in the 2000s, ABA was the standard), I was being abused at home, I moved schools a lot, I struggle with several disabilities which impacted my ability to learn and developmentally I was never really at the same level as my peers besides in English and art, I developed chronic physical issues while I was still in school due to a genetic condition, and finally, I was kicked out of the house when I was 17 by my parents and I just never ended up going back to school (not that I could have graduated anyway due to a variety of issues).

I was never able to learn quite right and that lead to me falling further and further behind. By the time I was in middle school, I was already so far behind my peers that even if my teachers had wanted to help me learn the content, there was so much they would have had to teach me that it would have been impossible for them to fit it into the time I had with them, especially when they had a lot of other students to attend to besides me. On top of that, I had already given up on my own education sometime during elementary school, so any attempts that were made by my teachers were not well-received by me. I had already developed a complex web of trauma responses to anything to do with school by that point.

It seemed that I was caught in an impossible situation where between the trauma I suffered with and my autism, I could not tolerate even being in a classroom setting, much less learn in it, but there were no other options, which lead to chronic activation of trauma responses which overwhelmed both me and my teachers as well as everyone else in my life. There was also no understanding for me in these settings either, and nobody informed enough to realize what was going on with me and why I was constantly either shutting down and unresponsive or having severe panic attacks. Rather, I was called lazy, manipulative, not trying hard enough, making excuses, acting out for attention, and a slew of other insults as well as near-constant punishments which only served to traumatize me further.

To this day, I only have a second grade education in math. I do not know multiplication, division, algebra, physics, chemistry, and a variety of other subjects. Attempting to study school subjects gives me flashbacks no matter which method I use, whether it's online or with another person or on my own. I am gifted in English, but otherwise I do not know many of the things that people are generally taught in school as kids.

When I tell people I never graduated, often the response is "it's okay, you can still get your GED!" as if me not having graduated is a character flaw that I must eventually work to fix. It makes me feel as though my worth and value as a person is tied to whether or not I have at least a highschool education, and that without it I am less worthy of people's time.

Going back to my initial point, if not graduating highschool makes you "stupid", you must also consider who in practice is unable to graduate highschool - I find it is often disabled kids, traumatized kids, and impoverished kids. Not all of them, I'm sure, but definitely a lot of them.

Tying intellect and a person's worth to whether or not they graduated highschool fucks over those who couldn't through no real fault of their own and frames them as lesser for it. How can you say you believe in disability rights when you shit on those who are too disabled to complete school? How can you say you are against classism when you view people who could not graduate due to having to work full-time as lesser than you?

I feel that regardless of how much people insist they are an advocate (or how much they say "No no, when I said people who don't graduate are stupid I didn't mean those people, I only meant what I see as the acceptable group of non-graduates to call stupid"), there are biases at play regarding perceived intellect and formal education. I am viewed as inherently less-than when people learn I did not graduate. My lack of a highschool graduation certificate or "at least" a GED is viewed with pity by just about everyone I talk to.

I don't have a neat way to wrap up this post, but I do think it is important for people to examine their own biases when it comes to discussing formal education, as well as the overlap of non-graduates and marginalized groups, especially as it pertains to disability politics and capitalism.

[beautifulpersonpeach]

Which members promotions were your favorite so far? Hobi might win for me because that listening party was super fun and Lollapalooza was crazy. Also More sits at the same table as SMFpt2 for me as far as being really shocking and exciting when it dropped!

***

Hi Anon!

Nothing beats Yoongi’s D-DAY tour for me. My god what an experience. I was fortunate to attend multiple stops and I still have fever dreams in the middle of the day remembering how hard I was screaming along to Burn It and Huh, how my friend burst into tears during Snooze, how I choked up a bit during Life Goes On and finally lost it on The Last. The encore tours gave me the emotional equivalent of a blood transfusion. Seeing Jimin, Namjoon, and Jungkook on stage in a proper concert setting for the first time in almost a year, was really the best parting gift and I’ll always be grateful to Yoongi for it. I love that man very, very much.

That cute practice session Yoongi did for the ‘I’m so cute’ or whatever challenge with Jimin too, subbing ARMYs with screaming plushies and the live he did reading fan messages teasing us about his seven tattoo… and then that cheeky reveal after the tour ended…

Yoongi gave me everything and more with his album and the tour.

Other members too:

- SeokJin going to Argentina to promote The Astronaut with Coldplay was incredible. The planning and organizing behind that feat couldn’t have been easy but somehow they made it work and LatAm ARMYs were finally able to see at least one Tannie for the first time in a long while. That really was amazing.

- Taehyung’s Tiny Desk performances are 🤌🏽

- I loved how Jimin really thought outside the box with his promotions, choosing to go on many really fun Korean variety shows. These are shows BTS either hadn’t done ever or in something like 5 years. A lot of my K-ARMY friends loved how Jimin seemed to prioritize them fully in ways that hadn’t been done for a while.

- I tried hard to attend Joon’s small concert but work commitments didn’t allow that possibility, but I also really love his promotion choices. My partner (surprisingly) has become a tiny bit obsessed with Joon’s Tiny Desk performance lol, so I suspect Joon has gained a new fan.

- Think I’ve already talked about how Hobipalooza was the concert highlight of 2022 for me. Hobi had such a short time to put everything together, and I’m proud of him for going out of his comfort zone a bit sending out invites and throwing the launch party. I loved seeing him just celebrate his success, seeing the other members chill out and have a good time.

- It was nice seeing that at least one member did not forget Europe exists with their promotions (😭), so I’m glad Jungkook could make the trip over to promote Seven in the UK.

The rapline’s album projects are easily some of the best releases this year in any genre for me. And I’m not even trying to be biased. Corroborated by critics reviews, each album is a solid, cohesive, and cerebrally stimulating piece of art and I’m so proud of them for putting it together. It’s easy to see how BTS has become the biggest band in the world when you have these three men who can stand as respected artists in their own right, being the bedrock of the music created by BTS for the last 10 years.

Jimin’s debut with FACE ended k-pop in 2023. I’m not sure if you’re aware, but the industry as we know it, life as we know it, Jimin as we knew him, ended in March 2023. What Jimin did with Set Me Free Pt 2 still gives me goosebumps when I think about it. That song was a warning shot, a small mercy to the industry to warn them in advance of who Jimin is prepared to become as a solo artist and as Jimin of BTS, and I cannot overstate how excited I am for his next project. FACE as an album is the complete package. His songs are just good. Like, actually good. Good enough to play anywhere and any time. That’s the kind of music Jimin makes. Imagine hearing Face-off in a concert arena… imagine hearing the intro play before he comes on stage. Can you even imagine….

Lol I’m starting to hurt myself with these imagines.

Taehyung’s album too is very good (though these days it only gets plays from me in the evenings). And while Seven isn’t my favorite release, it’s still a well made song that Jungkook of course has done a phenomenal job with. Twice now he’s had to promote it outdoors in very bad weather and he’s kept his vocals stable and well projected. He’s working hard and I’m hoping it translates well into work done for his solo album debut later this year.

I have almost no complaints in the debut solo showcases from all the members, in their promotion styles, and in the overall presentation. These albums were all very decent and respectable first showings from the members of the biggest group in the world. The response from the general public and professional critics has been very favourable, and the fandom has supported each member to be as successful as one would expect for anyone from BTS.

I’m a very happy ARMY in Chapter 2 ^_^

[jackdraw-spwrite]

By Storm, By Claw, By Sanguine Moon

Chapter 2

For Ectoberhaunt day 19 - Claw (originally for Phantasy Phest)

Words: 6729 Characters: Maddie Fenton, Jack Fenton Warnings: Body horror (of the skin breaking, bone cracking variety)

Once again, this fic is a collaboration between multiple authors! The others are: @akela-nakamura, @datawyrms, @seaglass-skies, and @five-rivers.

Read it on AO3 or below the readmore:

The rain didn’t let up.

All through the night it poured, and Maddie wondered if she should revise her estimate of the weather controller’s power or intelligence downward. Or both.

On the other hand, maybe this was a concerted effort to wear them out before the eclipse even happened.

The power at Fentonworks was still out, despite their best efforts and their nearest neighbors (who were admittedly further away than average - some people just couldn’t stand the slight inconveniences that came with advancing science) being just fine. The sunrise had also found Maddie with a rash at her joints. Some damp must have gotten past the waterproofing. Or maybe the sweat-wicking layer wasn’t up to snuff anymore. Once the power was back on, she’d have to wash the whole thing and check. As for Jack, he’d been complaining of a sore back off and on all morning.

“Try it now!” called Jack from where he’d wedged the upper half of his body into the electrical maintenance box that the city had installed between them and the power grid when– Well, it had hardly been their fault, but the city didn’t see it that way.

Maddie flipped the main power switch in the circuit box back and forth. “Nothing!” she called.

“Hey, Mom?” called Danny from near the door. “We’re going to Tucker’s, since they have power, okay?”

“Okay,” said Maddie, distracted, waving over her shoulder even though she knew he wouldn’t see her. “Have fun!”

“Okay, this time, I’ve got it!” said Jack. “Go ahead!”

Jack had not got it, and now Maddie could hear him grumbling. “Maybe we ought to switch,” she suggested.

“I’m going to the library!” yelled Jazz, not waiting for an answer before slamming the front door behind her.

Really. What were she and Jack supposed to do about that? Well. They’d have to talk eventually. During dinner, maybe?

“One more time, Maddie, one more time!”

Maddie flipped the switch again. This time, the power turned on, and she smiled with relief. At least something was going right this time.

“Great job, Jack! Now we can check the Fenton Devilry Detector readouts!”

They went down into the lab, where the machinery was still gradually humming to life. Monsters frequently had many natural defenses against observation, going far beyond mere camouflage, so Jack and Maddie had to be as clever about finding them as they were about catching them. Some monsters could only be detected by the oldest technology, others by the newest. Some required brand new inventions.

Jack and Maddie could hardly spend all their time monitoring all that equipment all around town, though, so they’d automated their detectors, and made machines to monitor their machines, and programs to collate the data. It was all very complicated, and sent their electricity bill through the roof. It was worth it, though, to know that even creatures that could only be photographed on archaic silver plate couldn’t evade notice because of it. Especially because the monsters like that had to be full of hubris that they’d never be caught. But they would, one day.

Because the Fentons were prepared.

However, it turned out that such a system didn’t hold up well against ordinary human vandalism, storms, or even time. For example, a machine that operated a polaroid on a timer, then took a picture of the resultant polaroid to send back to the Fentonwork’s servers had many points of failure. As such, Maddie wasn’t surprised to see that the main screen was covered in red OFFLINE notifications.

But visual monitoring wasn’t the only kind. They had others, as well. Things akin to seismometers but for certain kinds of magic. They had microphones and EMF readers but these were not what Maddie was looking for. Maddie was looking for something specific.

Through hard-fought trial and error, she and Jack had discovered something critical: Magic didn’t behave like light. It didn’t, precisely, behave as a gas either. But that analogy was closer.

Magic left traces. Magic built up, and magic lingered. They might not be able to watch everything across the city, but when they needed to look for evidence of foul play, they could compare readings in the local ambient magic.

It was this system, that Jack had named the Fenton Devilry Detector, in honor of his ancestor, whose writings had given them the foundation for its construction, that Maddie and Jack rebooted now.

There were no overnight readings logged, an unfortunate consequence of their lab being offline. But the system had been functional right up until the power outage, and what the graphs showed was unmistakable.

“It’s centered right on the house,” said Maddie, tracing the massive spike in detected magic with one finger. Although, calling it a spike might have been inaccurate. Magic levels around Fentonworks in particular, and even Amity Park in general, had always been high, and had been building gradually for months - no doubt due to the monsters that used it finally recognizing Jack and Maddie as a threat. This, though… This was far in excess of even that. This was a sudden, severe change that, if Maddie was reading this right, had pulsed in time with the storm overhead.

It could only be an attack.

An attack, not only on Jack and Maddie, but their family.

Maddie picked at her lower lip, already trying to determine the best way to safeguard her children. Keeping them both home until they figured everything out would be… Well, it would be ideal, but the government wouldn’t see it that way, and from historical evidence, neither would Jazz and Danny. (Especially, Jazz, right now. After last night’s fight, Maddie had no idea where she stood with her daughter.) And whoever had attacked had clearly known about Fentonworks, and had known how to get around at least some of their protections. Talismans might work, if they could get the kids to wear them… Capturing the monsters would be better, but despite Jack’s confidence, they couldn’t count on that yet.

She itched at her elbow.

At least the kids would be safe during the day.

Jack groaned loudly, and started vigorously scratching his stomach. “I don’t know about you, Maddie, but I think some water got into my suit. It’s definitely not sensitive skin safe anymore, oh boy!”

“I have noticed some itching this morning,” Maddie frowned. “I was hoping it was only my suit that had failed. If yours has too, it might be a materials issue. Why don’t we set these aside for testing?”

“Don’t have to ask me twice!” Jack said, cheerful despite still itching at his stomach. Maddie pulled out two new jumpsuits for them, checking to see when they’d last been inspected and had their various protections redone.

Jack pulled out several pieces of testing equipment. He had to pause a couple times to rub his back against the corner of the wall like a bear scratching on a tree. Maddie frowned and hurried to get Jack a new suit. She could feel the itch spreading as well, and had to stop herself from starting to scratch at her neck.

She passed Jack his new jumpsuit, and went to go change in the small decontamination chamber’s locker room. She took a bag in with her, and placed her defective suit inside. Whatever was wrong with it, they didn’t want it to get even more contaminated before they had a chance to analyze it, and they didn’t want whatever had caused it to break down to spread.

Also, they’d been up all night, and they needed to sleep. Leaving the damaged jumpsuits and trusting they’d just remember which ones they were was just tempting trouble.

Maddie inspected her skin. There was a slight rash, but nothing terribly alarming. Still, better to be safe than sorry. She picked up the Fenton Decontamination and Exfoliation Wash, a body wash she and Jack had developed that was designed to purge negative magical influences. It itself contained ‘magical’ substances, but, well, decontamination procedures were never perfect.

For more severe cases of contamination, for example, being struck directly by an effect, or ensnarement by one of the more infectious monsters they knew to exist, there were other measures. Some simple, if tedious, like smudging or ritual purification, others… more dangerous, if not less necessary.

It was important to plan for such things, in as dangerous a line of work as they had chosen.

She lathered it over the first the rash, and then the rest of her body. Something had gotten through the protections of the suit enough to irritate her skin at the joints. It was likely trace amounts had found their way elsewhere, and she just hadn’t reacted yet.

It was best to be thorough, with these things.

The wash stung as she rubbed it into the irritated skin, like aloe vera on sunburn.

She stepped out of the shower, patting her hair dry. Jack was still in, and she decided to wait for him. As tired as she was, she didn’t want to touch any of their more involved projects. This wasn’t the first time she’d pulled an all-nighter, but she and Jack hadn’t slept much lately. Preparations for the eclipse were taking longer than they’d expected. Tools disappeared or were misplaced. Plans were miscommunicated or derailed by distractions. Rather, that’s what seemed to be happening on the surface.

Not for the first time, she wondered if someone was interfering deliberately. Or rather, how many were, and who.

Some of the monsters they’d gotten ahold of had told them things in an effort to weasel out of what was coming. Nothing that could be trusted implicitly, of course. Every monster was a practiced liar, even the ones that couldn’t. Especially the ones that couldn’t.

(There were ways to lie, she knew, while technically telling the truth.)

But enough to wonder, especially about certain more active members of the infestation creeping in this town.

Like Phantom.

Her eyes wandered up to a poster she and Jack had pinned to the wall a few weeks ago. It had been part of a presentation they’d made hoping they could convince the children that monsters, especially fairies, especially that one that loitered around the school, no doubt hoping to find easy kidnapping victims, weren’t to be trusted.

The poster featured a mock up of what their research suggested fairies of that type really looked like under the glamours. The small monsters appeared pretty and harmless, but that appearance was much like the lure of an anglerfish, designed only to draw in victims.

Fairies were small, ugly, insectoid things. Their bodies were segmented, covered in hair-like filaments and exoskeletal plates. Their mouths were grotesqueries that fused canine-like teeth with oversized mandibles. Their wings, instead of being brightly patterned, were likely drab, tattered things, possibly even covered with oily, beetle-like wing cases. Instead of hands, they had long, scythe-like claws that lacked an opposable digit entirely. Even their large eyes, so good at conveying innocence, were in truth more like the bulging, compound eyes of a fly.

Without magic and humans to deceive with it, fairies would be no better than cockroaches. Small, useless things, scuttling in the dark.

But they did have magic, and they did use it to trick humans. Especially human children, which even so-called fairy tales agreed were their favorite prey.

The fairy in the poster was a fairy like that, drawn in detail by Jack and labeled lovingly by Maddie. Jazz and Danny had barely looked at it before dismissing it.

(Her kids had been so dismissive of their work, lately. Everything she and Jack did was met with disbelief. They were nearly scornful of it.)

Maddie sighed and turned away– Then froze. She’d thought– But, no, it had just been a warped reflection in the glass of one of the older computer monitors. They really needed to find a better place for that.

Before she could start to compile a list of better places, Jack came out of the shower, towel wrapped around his head. She smiled. She remembered when Vlad taught them how to do that, back in college.

“Man,” said Jack. “I’m beat. Makes you wish monsters knew what bedtime was, huh?”

“Now, now, Jack,” said Maddie playfully, “if they knew what bedtime was, they wouldn’t stay out where we could catch them half as often.” She patted his shoulder and hid a wince as her suit dragged painfully against the rash at her shoulder. “Let’s get to bed. We’ll be ready to take on all the monsters in the world when we get up.”

.

Maddie was not ready to take on all the monsters in the world when she woke up. She must have strained herself much more than she’d thought before bed. She hadn’t even run for all that long. But clearly, her muscles disagreed. They protested as she reached for her alarm clock, and she contemplated simply returning to sleep.

But that had never helped with muscle soreness in her experience, and she wanted to catch at least some of the remaining afternoon light, sodden as it was. The work was worth it, of course. But Maddie had never taken well to nocturnal hours on the occasions they’d been required. She’d always been more of an early bird than Jack, and daylight had always made her feel more balanced. She left both her earplugs and her sleeping husband in the bedroom and padded downstairs.

The bottom floor was deserted. The house was quiet with the door to their bedroom shut, and light filtered through the windows in the living room. The couch with its soft cushions was inviting, but Maddie went up the stairs to the roof. There, she settled on the damp edge of the cornice and took a sip, waiting for it to return life to her body.

The kids were probably still out. Maddie could see that Jazz’s car was gone, and Danny loved spending time with his friends.

Despite the stresses of the last day, Maddie smiled. That boy and his friends. They really were as thick as thieves, always out doing something or other. Or in. She couldn’t quite understand the appeal of shooting demons in a video game when you could be going out and doing it in the real world, but she more than approved of the sentiment.

She itched at the crook of her elbow, then pulled a face. Rubbing already irritated skin would only make it worse, even with the soft lining of her jumpsuit.

She finished her coffee, then did some stretches to help with the soreness before returning downstairs. She was hungry, and Jack would be too when he woke. Maybe she could order out Chinese?

She certainly didn't feel like cooking—she could admit, to herself, that she wasn't great at it. She idly opened the drawer with all the local menus, and started digging for the Chinese menu. Her fingers, she noted, ached slightly with the movement.

In fact, she was still pretty sore all over, the stretching having only helped for a short while.

Ah, well. It would fade. It always did. She shook some stiffness out of her joints and dialed the place.

A few minutes later, she went back upstairs to nudge Jack awake. It always took him a little bit to drag himself out of bed, and if he started now he might be downstairs by the time the food arrived.

Maddie didn’t bother saying his name as she pushed open the door; she’d never seen Jack wake to a sound for as long as they’d been married. Instead, she opened the blinds, pulled the blankets down, peeled his sleeping mask off, and–

…frowned.

There was a rash around his eyes. More, it didn’t look like any rash she’d ever seen.

She shook him.

“Bwuh,” Jack said, face screwed up as he grappled with wakefulness.

“Jack,” she said. “There’s something on your face.”

“Sleeping mask,” he said, and tried rolling over.

She didn’t let him. “Jack,” she repeated. “I think the rash is getting worse.”

"Feels worse," he said. "Think'm dying."

"Jack Fenton, you are not dying."

"How do you know," said Jack. "I hurt all over."

"So do I. We're sick, Jack. Not dying." She hoped.

"Brave woman. Steel will. S'no wonder I married you. Be a fool not to."

Maddie sighed in exasperation and fondness. That was Jack for you, still complimenting her while claiming to be on his deathbed.

"Flattery will get you nowhere," she said.

"It got me you."

"Jaaack," Maddie said. "Fine, you flatterer. What do you want?"

"Five more minutes?" he asked hopefully.

"I'm setting a timer." Maddie got up to leave, and paused in the doorway. "If you're not up by the time dinner gets here, I'm eating your orange chicken."

.

A few minutes later, Maddie heard the stairs creak under Jack's feet. A few moments later he appeared in the kitchen doorway, slumped dramatically against the frame.

"Maddie," he said. "I think we've been cursed."

Maddie put another glass away. "Why?" she asked.

"No illness could lay Jack Fenton low like this," he said, too strained to say it with his usual excitement.

"Except for the flu eight years ago," Maddie gently reminded him.

"That was pixies."

"Mmmm," said Maddie, unwilling to start that argument again while nursing a full body ache. She’d checked. Multiple times. It had been the flu, and not anything supernatural.

"And this feels too sudden. And so soon after the attack on our generator..."

"Mmmm," Maddie said again, but with a much different tone.

Jack had a point. On the other hand, running around in the rain at all hours was a much more mundane explanation. They weren’t as young as they used to be. And while their suits should have protected them from the cold and damp, they already knew the material had failed to protect them in at least one way.

"Maybe," she said at last. "Why don't we run those tests once the food gets here? The kids aren't home, so we could eat in the lab."

Jack laughed, but there was a pained edge to it. “Yeah, no Jazz to scold us, huh? Ah. Hah.”

Maddie pressed her lips into a thin line. “Hopefully, they’ll be back soon,” she said, rather than addressing what Jack was clearly thinking. With how upset Jazz was, it was more likely that she’d give them the cold shoulder than scold them.

Or maybe not. It was becoming apparent that she didn’t know her daughter as well as she’d thought. Either of her children, really, she reflected, thinking back on some of Danny’s… odder behavior, recently. She didn’t understand it at all.

They really needed to have that talk.

“Right!” said Jack, finally managing an exclamation point. “To the lab to figure out what felonious fairy is behind our feeble feelings!”

Oh, Jack. He always knew how to cheer Maddie up.

Down to the lab they went.

Usually, the lab felt welcoming. It was as familiar and lived-in to Maddie as the living room upstairs. Usually, the clean lighting, clutter, occult diagrams, and metal tables were just as much a comfort as the dozens of experiments plugging, percolating, or maturing away on the tables. It always felt like protection. It always felt like progress. Progress of knowledge, of their bulwark against the things that stalked the night.

But tonight Maddie felt all of the weight of dirt, concrete, and metal overhead, pressing down, as if to bury them alive.

Ominous and suffocating.

Like a coffin.

Maddie took a deep breath. She hated being sick.

“Ooh,” said Jack. “This is a bad curse. We’ve got to figure it out right away!”

"What makes you say that?" Maddie asked.

"Queasy," said Jack. "And I think my claustrophobia is kicking in. I forgot I had that, after that one time we had that abandoned mine dropped on us."

"I'm feeling that, too." Maddie frowned. But what would trigger those memories? Why would a curse give them a rash and a mild case of claustrophobia? Maybe the creature that cursed them just hadn’t been very strong. Or maybe the curse had been stronger, but their protections had deflected most of it.

Or it wasn't a curse. They hadn't confirmed it yet, after all. And there was more than one way for monsters to hurt humans.

They pulled the suits out of storage. Preparations were interrupted by the arrival of food, but shortly they had takeout boxes at one table, and their compromised suits on another.

(As Jack said, if those monsters thought they’d be stopped by this, they had another thing coming.)

Jack, eagerly following his theory, was assembling their collection of more occult and mystical devices. Most of them would have limited utility in examining the suits, but… Maddie sighed, fondly. Jack would get everything sorted out. From outside, his process might seem chaotic, but he always got fascinating results.

Maddie, for her part, had on her set of magnifying goggles and was going over the inside of her suit inch by inch, starting with the edges and seams. With gloves, of course. While she was assuming the cause of the rash was irritation due to water getting inside the suit lining, assumptions didn’t rule out other causes, like unexpected chemical reactions, or even the curse Jack was so sure of.

So far she hadn’t found any tears. If there weren’t any, she’d take samples of the inner lining to test for common skin irritants. That would be truly tedious work. There were enough chemical irritants in the world that it was quite possible that she’d never figure it out, and have to leave it as a mystery… Unless it also happened to another suit. That would be an unacceptable mystery, and a real danger to herself and Jack.

“Maddie!”

“Hm?” said Maddie, looking up. She experienced a moment of vertigo, and raised her hand to remove her magnifying goggles. “What is it?”

“Look!” He pointed, and Maddie traced his finger to the Fenton branded All-Things-Thaumaturgy Amplified Quantifier.

Maddie inhaled sharply. “Is that…?”

“That’s the reading for the suit,” said Jack, gesturing with the modified microphone attached to the Quantifier. He pointed it at himself, and the line on its graph leapt into the stratosphere. “And that’s me.”

Maddie cursed softly under her breath. “Let me take a look at my readings,” she said, rolling her chair over.

They were the same.

“You know what this means, don’t you?” asked Jack. “This isn’t an instant curse. This is something that’s stuck, and stuck hard.”

Maddie leaned back in her chair, musing over the readings. There was an urgency building in her, but she had to think. Curses were dangerous, wild things, governed by the will and wording of the one who cast it. Curses that didn’t show up immediately, that stuck and built, were especially dangerous—and unpredictable. They weren’t easy to get rid of, nor were they easy to understand.

They had to be methodical about this. They had to find out the nature of the curse, and who cast it. She steeled herself, and looked back at her husband.

”Alright,” said Maddie, “we can narrow down the kind of curse… or at least diagnose the symptoms. From there, we can cross-reference cures, loopholes, and probable perpetrators with our library.”

“Well, feeling awful is one,” said Jack. “Plus the claustrophobia.”

“Maybe a cave or tunnel based creature, then? Like with the mine?” Maddie shook her head. “That doesn’t line up with the storm. And I don’t know why something like that would give us rashes of all things.” She set her elbow on the work bench and leaned forward. “Speaking of which, I really don’t like the look of the rash around your eyes. If we can’t figure out the cause, soon, we might have to focus on stopping the spread.”

“Rash around my eyes?” repeated Jack. He walked over to one of the sinks, and peered into the mirror. “What rash around my eyes?”

He jolted a bit, when he looked into the mirror. The rash had spread, past the rounds of his goggles. It drifted down his cheekbones, climbed his forehead, and was thicker around his eyes themselves. Concern shot down Maddie’s spine—she hadn’t realized how bad it’d gotten. It still didn’t look like any rash she’d seen before. It wasn’t red or inflamed, but it was undeniably a rash. The fact that it had gotten worse, despite showers and new suits, was alarming.

“Oh,” Jack said, blinking in the mirror. He snapped on a new glove, and gently touched the rash. “This is not a good look! Is this a reaction from the curse’s magic with our suits?”

Maddie hummed, even as she grabbed a sterile swab, and a new set of gloves for herself. She stepped over to Jack, running the swab over the rash before putting it into the sterile test tube.

“Maybe,” she said finally. “Take a sample from your goggles, and let’s see if there’s an environmental factor—this rain has been relentless.”

Jack did so, with much less of his usual gusto. Maddie couldn’t blame him—she felt tired and weighed down. Despite having slept for so long, and barely doing anything in the lab, she felt she could easily take another nap.

She couldn’t. They couldn’t. With the eclipse coming, and a curse to solve, they didn’t have time for more sleep. If they couldn’t fix the curse by the time the eclipse arrived, everything they’d worked for would be lost. This was literally a once in a lifetime opportunity!

They had to keep moving, to figure this out.

“Some dastardly monster thinks they can stop us,” Jack muttered, not able to get his usual volume. “A curse has never stopped a Fenton, and it won’t now.”

Maddie smiled to herself, even as she ran tests on the sample she’d taken from Jack’s rash. They wouldn’t be stopped.

Whatever evil being had cursed them, they’d soon regret it!

.

The curse was harder to pin down than expected. Usually it was a place that was afflicted with these sorts of monsters- cursing actual people took much more power and nefarious intent.

Even so, curses generally exerted their power through something. Effigies. Inscriptions. Sound. Blood. Sometimes more than one. If they could find that part of the curse, destroy that part of the curse, then the curse would start to unravel.

But they hadn’t found anything. Not yet.

At least they had been able to rule out the whole family being a target. Much as Jazz and Danny did their best to duck lifesaving checks, they got enough readings to feel a weight lift from their hearts. It was bad enough that some foul beast was after them without it threatening their children.

Danny’s readings were still uncomfortably high, but not in a new way. Jazz almost seemed like she might also be a target, but her contamination levels plummeted while theirs crept higher. Neither child was struggling with itches or food going foul in their mouths, a huge relief. They could put their whole attention on solving the curse much faster when not at risk of endangering the kids further.

.

A few days later, Maddie sighed as she took the final step down into the lab, and immediately headed into the corner to peel her wet jumpsuit off.

The rain was heavy today, coming down in fat, icy droplets that sank into the jumpsuit's cloth and stayed there, chilling the skin. By the time she'd finished setting up the battery of traps in the park woodlands, she'd felt icy herself and had been hard pressed to keep her hands steady against the cold.

The curse had made them allergic to the Fenton patented anti-moisture, sweat-wicking formula for sensitive skin, which wouldn't be a huge problem–except it was how they'd waterproofed all their jumpsuits. They'd had to switch to unfinished jumpsuits without the coating–and therefore, without the wet weather protection.

Needless to say, Maddie was looking forward to warming up.

A hot decontamination shower and a toweling later, she reached for a fresh jumpsuit–and froze.

The skin of her arm hadn't changed much from that morning. It was still the same scaly, angry red that covered most of her extremities. But there was something off about the movement of her forearm.

Slowly this time, Maddie repeated the action, making sure to watch her forearm as she did.

There.

It was smooth.

Not the skin. The skin was still rough from the rash. But beneath it–beneath it. Her forearm was smooth.

Maddie was a woman of science, but she was also a woman of action. She trained regularly, she kept herself fit enough to keep up with the human wrecking ball that was Jack. She fought using any number of weapons but liked staves especially, which gave her exceptional muscle development in her forearms.

She fluttered her fingers, and the back of her forearm remained motionless.

Maddie was a woman of action, and her forearm should have had enough muscle definition to see the individual muscles controlling the extension of each finger.

Should have. Usually, did have.

It did not.

.

Eyes could be fooled, especially while cursed. Instead of making assumptions, she let science find the truth.

The scanner showed dense plates of tissue forming beneath their skin.

.

They made a grocery run before the curse worsened. They didn't know how bad it would get, after all, and this way they wouldn't need to worry about food for a little while.

Jack was silent in the checkout line. Maddie felt stares prickle at her skin and pretended not to notice the way the cashier's eyes darted to the rash crawling up Maddie's cheek.

When they left, the rain was still coming down in a quiet rush. The sensation of droplets trailing down her face flared into burning when they made contact with the rash. With Jack unable to be as boisterous as he normally was, it felt like they’d lost the sun twice over. The burning pain was an unwelcome substitute in the gloom.

.

There was something watching them from reflections. It skittered in the corners of their vision, always careful, never quite slow enough to properly see. Or to shoot at.

Maddie saw the nebulous shadow of it in her peripheral vision as she soldered some final details on another set of traps, and pretended she had not.

Belatedly, she felt the hairs of her neck prickle.

She set the piece she was working on to the side, and reached for another, concentrating on the corners of her vision hard enough to make her eyes ache. After a moment, she eased her thumb off the on switch. She didn't need to stab herself with a fully heated soldering iron while trying to finally get a good look at the thing cursing them.

Quietly, she mimed continuing with her work, setting aside a few more pieces as she waited. It shouldn't have been convincing, but the shadow lingered. Apparently, it could be fooled. Good to know. She could make out more details, now. Too many appendages, too long. Huge, larger than she was.

A smear of red where the eyes would be. Similar, then, to Phantom's true form.

Maddie thought of her gun, holstered at her side.

Maddie thought of empathetic magic, and their research on how it might work. On how they thought that something projecting an image elsewhere might still be vulnerable to harm done to the reflection.

Finally, Maddie thought about the curse.

In one smooth blur she dropped the soldering iron, grabbed the gun, took aim, and fired at the thing cursing them–

And was left lightheaded from the sudden rush of adrenaline, arm out and gun pointed at–

At the charred divot in the sheet metal armoring the walls of the lab, directly in the center of her own head's reflection.

Nothing.

It was nothing.

.

But–if Phantom or something like it was channeling this magic through reflections, through their reflections, maybe that was something.

Maybe it could be disrupted.

They covered mirrors, painted the stainless steel of the laboratory walls, even hid glass.

It didn't work.

.

The first time it happened, they thought it was a fluke. A result of improper weapons safety due to their single minded focus on the curse. Jack had placed one of their newer weapons on the table, a thing of gleaming metal, automatic aim, salt and iron ammunition, and an alert function. It was as yet unnamed, but compact and efficient. It was a favorite of Maddie’s.

But Jack had placed it down, and Maddie had found herself catching a glimpse of a red laser, hearing the humming whine of the auto aim—and she ducked, just in time for the weapon to lose its target. Just in time for it not to fire.

Jack had been horrified. He’d checked the weapon over a dozen times, and nothing had seemed amiss.

They concluded it was either an accidental slip that had primed the weapon, and something possibly needing adjustment in its targeting code.

They moved on with their research on the curse.

.

The hair on Maddie’s head came off in chunks.

At least, the hair that didn't thicken and stiffen until she had a twin set of antennae emerging from her forehead.

.

They kept the blinds closed. When a package delivery came, Maddie signed for it with her hood up.

.

The second time it happened, it was something simple. She’d needed a break from their research, from the headache she genuinely couldn’t tell if it was from the curse or from the stress of it. She couldn’t think straight, and as much as it rankled, she knew she’d be useless in doing more research.

She’d pulled out some simple protections and a couple of small net projects. They needed nets of various sizes for the upcoming eclipse, and while Jack liked to show off with the large ones, Maddie did enjoy weaving together the smaller ones.

The net itself was itchy against her skin, but it was made of a new weave of fibers, embedded with near gossamer iron and silver. There was also a new mix of herbs she’d had some luck with, but she needed to mix up more to soak the net in.

With the net on her lap, and the various herbs around her, she’d begun to mix.

And had managed to spill some of the garlic, sage, St. John’s Wort, and yarrow mixture on her hands and down her arms.

It had taken her several moments of frustrated clean up for her to realize what was happening—and for the pain to kick in.

The mixture was burning her, and where she’d touched the net felt raw and prickly.

Her stomach sank as she moved robotically over to the sink.

Just how deep did this curse run?

.

Breaking mirrors was bad luck. Fortunately, it was unnecessary when you had a sandblaster. It even worked on steel.

.

The third time, Maddie clutched the toilet, thinking, thinking, trying to think of what she might have eaten, what she might have done to feel like this. They’d barely been out of the house. It had to be the curse again. Was this it? Had it been taking her through this horrible transformation only to kill her like a stomach bug? She hadn’t eaten anything she didn’t eat all the time.

The ingredients. Pasta, tomatoes, onions, garlic–

Garlic.

Like in the mixture that had burned her so badly only a few days ago.

.

Jack's hair was wiry, and too stiff. Too thick.

.

They had only two leads. What was happening to their reflections and what was happening to themselves. They didn’t want to let the curse run its course, didn’t want to see the form it ultimately took, so, when covering or defacing the mirrors didn’t work, they studied them.

When viewed straight on, their reflections seemed… not normal, not with what was happening to them, but not otherwise supernaturally altered. But from the corners of their eyes, they were more. More changed. More alien. More monstrous.

Maddie and Jack designed new machines, new tools for measurement, new methods. They compared the readings of mirrors that were reflecting them to mirrors that were not. They set cameras to record their reflections. They argued and built and tested and…

And all they knew for sure was that mirrors were involved somehow.

.

Entering the kitchen was like walking headfirst into a wall of acidic fumes. They had to throw out some of the herbs with tongs, and their eyes and noses burned for hours after.

.

Among all their tests, all their increasingly frantic research, the house became a minefield. Weapons began to track them with increasing frequency, alarms went off when they entered the house or the grounds. It felt like every fifteen minutes they got a new alert on their phones, on their equipment about monsters in their house.

No matter how many times they searched, or how well, they never found a thing.

No one but themselves.

Jazz was out of the house for hours at a time. Danny had become a shadow, fluttering in and out at odd times.

Maddie tried, several times, to talk to her daughter but it seemed something got in the way every time. A new alarm would go off, or a weapon would malfunction and start to aim, or Maddie would forget and reach for something and feel the burn of herbs or certain metals.

As the days went on and the curse worsened, so too did things around the house. Every protection they had built into the very walls of their home was now a weapon against them.

Maddie feared they were running out of time.

.

Maddie scratched absently at the rash covering most of their bodies, and felt skin slide.

Her hair didn't.

Her hair didn't, and through it she could feel the texture of the flesh sloughing off, suddenly too loud, too wet, too much too much too much.

.

When she emerged from the shower, her arms and hands were segmented. Behind her, the shower looked like a crime scene.

.

(After that, they had to shut down the internal alarms—they were nothing but a never ending shriek, and neither she nor Jack could figure out how to make it stop targeting them but still protect their home.)

.

They did research. Not the scientific kind of research that they liked best, but delving through old and unreliable secondary and tertiary sources, trying to pick out strands of truth from among the razor-wires of misunderstandings and outright fabrication. Some books, Maddie hadn’t picked up since Danny was born.

One had ‘good’ fairies. That other had humans inadvertently casting curses on their family members. The one she’d just discarded had talked about monsters that had once been human, when Maddie knew that was impossible. None of their data supported such a transformation.

But it didn’t matter what their data supported when this was happening to them. When their appearances were so warped that they’d resorted to communicating to their children solely through notes and text messages. When so many of the protective wards they’d built up around their more sensitive or more dangerous equipment made them shy away.

They were desperate. It showed.

They tried dozens of cutesy neopagan countercharms. They worked through purification rituals with limited or even singular attestation. They pulled out screwdrivers and hammers and systematically removed and broke every mirror in the house and the MAV, despite the years of bad luck common wisdom claimed they should get with each one.

It didn’t work. None of it worked.

.

When Jack's eyes began to bulge from his sockets, growing until they were the size of tennis balls, it was no longer a surprise but a horrible confirmation: Phantom had cursed them to become like him.

It was a foul, monstrous trick befitting a wolf in child’s clothing like Phantom. They knew they weren’t monsters, not ‘fae’, but whatever magic it had woven was enough to convince their own eyes and tools. In a home primed and ready to fight off all foul creatures of the shadows, that was no small danger. There were safeguards they could no longer safely disable.

At this rate, they’d be unable to even stay in their own home.

[pastorfutureletthembe]

Link Click and Flowers

> Hyacinth ~ Blooms of Affection

Hyacinths grow from underground bulbs that are planted in the fall. Each spring, the bulbs send up green leaves followed by their colorful flowers. They have spire-like stems with one to three spikes of flowers and narrow, strap-shaped leaves. With the proper care, a single bulb can bloom for multiple years.

The name, from the Arabic zargoun, means vermilion and is associated with Zircon: a gemstone. This stone can wear all colors of the spectrum. Although blue is one of the rarest and because of it, his stone is often confused with sapphires, quartz or topaz. In Revelation 21:20, one of the twelve foundation stones of the New Jerusalem is hyacinth.

The flower is believed to have originated in the Middle East and gained popularity in Europe in the 16th century. Hyacinths are robust blooms that can grow from Mediterranean regions to colder European climates. This adaptability has contributed to their widespread cultivation.

Hyacinths are well-known for their strong, sweet, and slightly earthy fragrance. Each variety actually comes with a unique scent, often described as rich and floral, with a hint of green freshness. It’s a smell that’s associated with the arrival of spring. Despite of their vibrant colors and uplifting fragrance, be aware that the bulbs contain oxalic acid, which is toxic.

Primarly used to welcome spring and celebrate Easter, Hyacinth flower bouquets can be a thoughtful gift for birthdays or anniversaries, symbolizing the constant love between individuals. They are a great way to bring cheer to someone who needs it, making them a good choice for ‘get well soon’ flowers.

Lore

Greek mythology: Apollo, the sun god, and Zephyr, the wind god, were both trying to win the affection of a young man, Hyacinthus. The boy tragically died while playing discus with Apollo. Zephyr actually got jealous and blew the discus back to Apollo with a strong gust of wind which backfired and accidentally killed Hyakinthos. Apollo used all sorts of herbs to heal Hyacinthus' wound, but it was futile, for he could not cure the wound inflicted by the Fates. Apollo wept for Hyacinthus' death and expressed his wish to become a mortal to join the Spartan boy in his death, going so far as to ask Hades to kill him. A flower emerged from the boy's blood and Apollo named it in his honor. Hyacinthus was eventually resurrected and attained immortality. The celebrations lasted three days (day1, mourning, day2, rebirth, day 3, "merry midnight festival"). This tale reflects the flower’s enduring symbolism of love, devotion, and the cycle of life and death.

Victorian era: Recreation and lightheartedness in Victorian flower language. These fragrant blooms were a common sight in home gardens, bringing hope for brighter days.

Modern Times: Placed on the graves of loved ones to honor their memory, they are proof of enduring love that transcends mortality. Additionally, potted hyacinth plants are cherished gifts for housewarmings and weddings.

Iran: The hyacinth plays a significant role in the celebration of Nowruz, the Persian New Year. It's one of the seven symbolic items (Haft Seen) displayed during the festivities, representing the coming of spring and rebirth.

Asia: In China, hyacinth flowers are believed to usher in good luck and prosperity during the Chinese New Year. In Japan, the hyacinth is a symbol of friendship and affection.

Religion: In Christianity, hyacinths are used to decorate churches, and they symbolize peace, beauty, and joy. In Islam, hyacinths symbolize death, loss, and mourning. They also embody humility since they grow in small clusters without flashy displays. In Buddhism, the hyacinth is a symbol of detachment from the material world. It serves as a reminder to focus on things that matter, encouraging a spiritual perspective on life. In Hinduism, the hyacinth flower symbolizes wealth, prosperity, and abundance.

Symbolism

They come in a variety of colors, each one carries its own fragrance and unique symbolism, making the hyacinth a versatile flower for expressing a range of sentiments. However, it’s important to take note that the symbolism of these hyacinth colors are quite different from those of many other flowers, there are flowers for every element of the emotional spectrum.

White Hyacinth offers prayers and represents loveliness. Due to its association with the Greek sun god Apollo, it can represent strength and majesty. They can be a good way to let someone know you’re wishing them well during a big life transition or challenging moment.

Sincerity, loyalty, care, blue hyacinth symbolizes constancy most of all, meaning the feelings of love and deep care will remain intact no matter what.

While yellow hyacinths can be tied to a sense of envy, might it be jealousy or as a compliment for their achievements, purple hyacinthes is a sigh that we recognize we’ve made a mistake and want to express remorse. They are a sincere apology and a desire for forgiveness. They could also be reflection and remembrance; expressing feelings of sadness, grief, and apology.

Pink hyacinth represents playfulness often takes part in celebration, all in fun and games in some lightheartedness.

If you look at rose and tulip symbolism you’ll find that red flowers are often symbols of intense, passionate love. But it’s a bit different for red hyacinths. These flowers can be linked to love, yes, but a more playful and light kind. They send the message that you’re looking to enjoy yourself.

Finally, as one of the earliest flowers to bloom in spring, they are often poking through the last remnants of snow. This makes them a symbol of rebirth and renewal. Additionally, it can mean starting anew and enduring tough times. The bulb of a hyacinth sleeps in the winter and blooms in the spring, showing strength, renewal, and the ability to get through challenges.

There you go! I believe this flower is both perfect for Qiao Ling and is good insight on the show as a whole.

You can read the post about Myotosis and Daisies here.

In conclusion, I would bring your attention on the fact Qiao Ling, Lu Guang and Cheng Xiao's flowers are all about lost love and remembrance but often with one hope, one desperate attempt to reach our love one's heart. They are adaptable and cannot wait for spring to come so they can enjoy life again, despite the challenge it puts on their path.

[marauders-fanfilm]

Hey Everyone- We apologize for the delay on this update. We had hoped to have more tangible progress and updates to present to you before posting this, but an update is overdue. First off, we all want to say how much we appreciate everyone’s patience and continued support for this project. It’s taken much longer than any of us had anticipated, but our team is committed to seeing this project through. Unfortunately this year has been challenging for everyone, and progress has reflected that. While VFX has made progress in the past year, it is not as much as we would have hoped. We’ve lost a number of our artists this year, both due to Rowling’s ongoing bigotry making it understandably hard for people to continue working on the film, as well as unrelated schedule and workload issues outside of the project. We started 2023 with 10 artists on our VFX team, and nowadays even on our best days we have less than half that. This leaves plenty of days/weeks where members of our smaller, but dedicated team are entirely unavailable.

While I presume most of you are aware of the WGA & SAG strikes that shut down much of the film industry from May to November, what many people outside of the industry aren’t aware of was the pressure that came down from the studios on those who work in Post Production, especially VFX, during that time. Many of the talented artists on the TGS team work in VFX as their day job as well, and this studio crunch left little to no time for side projects unfortunately. We had artists report working 60-80 hours a week. Other members of the team were out on the picket lines fighting to protect the industry and their livelihoods. All of this led to a rough summer and fall for progress on the project.       Beyond that, a variety of other struggles have also faced our team throughout this past year. Without going into too much detail so as to protect the feelings and privacy of our amazing team, we have had members dealing with life threatening illnesses, deaths of loved ones, others facing numerous struggles due to rising transphobia, and several who simply had less time for TGS due to being forced to take up lower-wage jobs to survive during the strikes. 

    That said, it hasn't all been negative. We've also had members of our team forced to lighten their workloads due to happier circumstances, such as welcoming children, getting married, or attending grad school. It's not all dark clouds and gloomy circumstances, but one way or the other, the past year has undoubtedly thrown so much at our team that progress has at times become far slower and far less than we would have always liked.

    All of that said, there has been some wonderful progress made this year. After a tremendous amount of collaboration between multiple artists, one of our most deceptively challenging VFX shots, the Dungbomb Prank seen in our very first piece of concept art was finally wrapped up by artist Porter Justus.     Work has also progressed beautifully on various digital establishing shots. After a ton of work, our VFX Supervisor Martin Bayang was able to solve the issue of a particularly problematic Petrificus Totalus shot. There has been continued work on some very exciting Potions and Invisibility Cloak effects, and we recently wrapped up the spells for a very fun Lily versus Regulus altercation. And while not completed, there has been a lot of excellent progress has been made on much of the third act, including many of the most difficult sequences of the film.

     To put some more-concrete numbers on the amount of progress we’ve made versus what we still have to tackle, only about 12 minutes of the film remain unfinished as of the time of this update. The vast majority of the film is just about fully locked, barring color and some slight timing adjustments. Within what remains, most if not all effects are already in progress. Obviously the climactic third act contains some relatively complicated VFX shots that may take slightly more time to complete, but the finish line truly is in sight now. 

   One of the last big updates, and perhaps the elephant in the room, is that this year we also found ourselves forced to finally part ways with a member of our team - our composer. This was an incredibly difficult decision and one that we obviously did not take lightly. In truth, we probably took far longer to arrive at this decision than we should have, given our affection for the person involved and how excited we were about the work they had done. 

   Unfortunately, we reached a point where essentially no new work had been done for over a year, despite multiple efforts to reach out and work through various struggles. Continuing with the same situation and with the same composer simply became untenable and we were forced to make the very difficult decision to move on and try to finish off the last several minutes of music needed with a new voice. We are currently in talks with a talented new composer, and had hoped to have the details locked in place before giving this update, but the transition is taking a bit longer than expected. Moving forward, we are hopeful that we will be able to still make use of all the excellent music that our original composer did create for TGS, but working through the logistics of that between him and our new music team remains an ongoing conversation as of the time of this update. We hope to have more details for you in the coming weeks. As difficult a decision as it was, it does also feel like a dramatic step forward that gives us much more confidence today than we had prior to the decision that the film is actually, finally, nearing completion. 

We have said this many times before, and unfortunately it still bears repeating: no one wants to see this film completed and released to all of you more than we do. Even with the tremendous toll JKR’s vile conduct has taken on all of us, our hope remains that TGS can be a small piece of that universe untouched by the emotional baggage that the canonical franchise now carries. In light of the recent strikes in Hollywood, some attention is finally being paid to the insane working conditions many, if not all, VFX artists are subjected to. They are one of the last groups left in the entertainment industry that is not protected by a union, and as such they face essentially unfettered pressure from the studios they work for. Many of the artists volunteering their precious free time to TGS face these conditions in their day-to-day lives, and have still found it in their hearts to carve out time for our little movie. We are so incredibly grateful for them, for their time, and for the contributions they continue to make to make this film look as great as it possibly can. We are committed to delivering the best possible version of this film that we can to you when all is said and done. 

It has been a long road. The end is finally, truly in sight. Please know that we are eternally grateful for your ongoing support and your ongoing patience. We are very much looking forward to finally reaching the end of this journey, together, and finally being able to share this film with you all. Thank you again, and all our love to all of you and yours in the new year.

[andavs]

Genuine Beer in 9-1-1

There’s been a lot of talk about the Genuine beer that Buck and Eddie keep drinking, so I thought I’d make a post about it! But if we're talking about Genuine beer, I think it's only fair that we look at all of the other beer they use in the show too.

Just a quick note before we start: I don't think their prop department makes any of these. There are vendors that specialize in making props like this, and at least five of these come from the same company.

9-1-1 has a lot of commonly recurring brands of prop beer. They tend to use multiple brands at a time for variety, peaking at six used throughout 3b. There's also a bunch of one-offs they've only used once or twice that I didn't bother including here, and there's some that they've only used in the backgrounds, but I couldn't really read the labels.

They didn't really use prop beer bottles until Hen Begins (2.09), halfway through season 2. Most of the characters are shown drinking wine until Buck, Actually (2.08), and aside from one scene at the end of 1.10, those who do drink beer use a glass.

So without further ado: the beers of 9-1-1.

Blind Fox Ale is used mostly in seasons 2 and 3. As of 6.15, it's tied with Genuine for most uses, with main characters drinking it nine times. It's shown on screen even more in the background, and pops up in 5a when Michael's drinking one.

Alexander’s Famous Ale was used in a two episodes during season 2: Chim drinks it twice in Chimney Begins (2.12) and Athena and Hen drink it in Ocean's 9-1-1 (2.15). Red was drinking it at the bar in The One that Got Away (3.16). It's frequently used in the background by extras.

Grand Ale first popped up in Kids Today (3.01) and stayed through season 3. Chim drank it twice, Michael had it at a Grant-Nash family dinner, and Buck also drank it in Fools (3.12).

Cerveza Extra was used mostly in season three. Chimney was drinking one at the party for Buck in Kids Today (3.01), Buck had one sitting in front of him at the end of The Searchers (3.03), Chimney was making his way through several in Seize the Day (3.11) and Buck has one in front of him during the party at Eddie's later that episode. Buck also served it to Connor in Peru in Buck Begins (4.05).

Mendoza Lager was added in season 5 and these are the three times we've seen it: Buck drinks it in Outside Looking In (5.11) while the team is at the bar, he drinks it again on the balcony with Maddie in Starting Over (5.18), and in Tomorrow (6.06), Hen was drinking it when she first met Karen.

Rio Negro has been used a few times, and so far, Eddie’s the only main character who drinks it. Lena had one with him at the junkyard fight in Rage (3.05), he had one or two at the bar in Seize the Day (3.11) (and extras were also holding it during the party at his house later that episode), and he also drank it in Texas with his family in Hero Complex (5.17). As far as I can tell, this is the only beer that's this character-specific.

Tux’s Red Ribbon was used once in season 1 at the very end of A Whole New You (1.10), when Chim was hosting a party. I didn't notice it again until In Another Life (6.11), where it was the only brand of beer anyone drank in Buck's coma dream. I'm wondering if they used it in the coma dream because they don't normally use it, to subtly emphasize that things are wrong, or if we're going to see it again sometime soon.

Which brings me to Genuine.

The first time I found Genuine being used is back in Hen Begins (2.09). It’s in the scene where she goes out with Athena, Bethanne (the female cop), and Casey (the gay firefighter). She’s the only one at their table drinking Genuine, though Casey also has a beer in a pint glass. That extra behind her looks like they might have it too.

Note: this isn't the only brand to be used once earlier and then resurrected later; Tux's was used once in season one, and then again in season 6.

After that the show used other brands and I didn’t see it again until Fear-a-Phobia (5.13) when Chim and Hen drink it during their reunion.

Buck and Eddie drink it in Let the Games Begin (6.01).

The guy who blew up his cheating neighbor in Crash & Learn (6.02) was drinking Genuine.

Buck gave one to Connor in Recovery (6.12). It wasn’t in his fridge a few scenes before when Maddie was stocking it for him (meaningful or continuity error?).

Eddie had it in his fridge later in Recovery and grabbed two for him and Buck, but drank both himself when Buck fell asleep.

Buck and Eddie were both drinking one while helping Chris with homework in Mixed Feelings (6.13).

And Eddie had it again at the poker game. (Many of the extras around them were also drinking Genuine.)

Eddie also had it in his fridge while on the phone with his mom in 6.15, and it's still there when he calls her again at the end.

It's shown in Maddie and Chimney's fridge at the end of 6.16.

All that kind of makes it seem like we're seeing it a lot more often lately, like maybe it's a sign of something building. Of the three beer brands we've seen the main characters drink in season 6, Genuine shows up the most by a wide margin. Mendoza Lager has only been in one scene, and Tux's in two (both in the coma dream).

So is it a sign of something being genuine? Uncovering something genuine? Their prop beer budget got cut and they can only afford one brand? Just the latest favorite in their rotation of prop beers and it doesn't mean anything at all? You be the judge!

(It seems like they try to cycle through brands for the core seven characters to drink every season or two. The ones that were most prevalent in seasons 2 and 3 still occasionally pop up in the background in later seasons, especially in bar scenes, or for characters like Michael and Red. And once you notice them, then you too might find yourself pointing excitedly when you spot a rogue Alexander's Famous Ale on a passing server's tray for the first time in two seasons.)

Bonus unrelated discovery from my search: Back in Hen Begins, Hen had the frog sponge holder first.

[goingmerryied]

The Pirate Who Loved Me~Chapter 3

(18+)

Masterlist

Summary: (Y/N) grew up in a noble home and island. Her family were members of high class, and were invited to lavish parties thrown by the highest members of society. Although she was raised to be a proper woman, she always longed for something more in life. At the age of 18, she is now ready to enter the social season and her father is to find her a suitable husband much to her dismay.

*3 years before Luffy sets out on his adventure*

Pairing: Trafalgar D. Law x reader

Warnings: MDNI, 18+ explicit sexual themes, Teasing, Dom Trafalgar D. Water Law, Vaginal Fingering, Penis in Vagina Sex, Unprotected Sex, (Be Safe Out There), Multiple Orgasms, Rough Sex, Creampie, Pet Names, Overstimulation, Biting, Bruises, Hair-Pulling, Aftercare

I do not own the rights to Bridgerton or One Piece

__________________________________________

The day after the ball, my family and I had a nice dinner over at Lord Andrews's estate. I learned of his first name, Keelan as he accompanied me on a tour with my parents around the property before dinner. He was very kind and respectful, not at all what I pictured. I was expecting a very misogynistic man who only saw me as his breeding tool. However, Keelan held great conversations and spoke about education which I greatly appreciated.

Keelan would be the perfect match for any lady, but there were still doubts in my mind. Doubts that included me running far from here, and wondering if Law would let me tag along with his pirate crew. Then I thought about Ace and that idea went down the toilet.

Today, I asked my parents if I could go out shopping with my lady's maid Lana to chaperone. They agreed feeling that my one day courtship with Keelan was going well and expected me not to run away. However, I didn't plan to, we walked along the market and visited a variety of shops. I was picking out different clothing and silks that I knew my mother would never approve of but I wanted to have a say in my clothing if I were to be stuck in this god-awful place. I continued to walk and passed by the board that contained the most recent wanted posters, I eyed them and saw Ace once more. His bounty had gone up and I smiled.

I began to walk away and noticed a familiar face on the board, it was him. It was Law, he did have a small bounty but he was a pirate. He did not lie about that, I knew some pirates could be awful but he was far from it, especially with that bounty.

"Madam, shall we get going," Lana states.

"Yes, do you think we shall visit the mandarin orchard to pick out fresh fruits for breakfast?"

"As you wish." We continued our short walk to the orchards and began to look. I suggested that Lana and I should split, she was hesitant at first but I ensured her that I wasn't going anywhere, and my father would not hear about it. She nodded and went the opposite way as I continued down my path. I eyed for the perfect fruit that would satisfy my palate. I soon found one and began to reach for it until someone reaches from behind me.

I turn around and face Trafalgar Law once more. He smiles and hands me the fruit.

"To what do I owe the pleasure Law?" I ask as I continue my path down the orchard.

"I wanted to check in on you, make sure you were alright after last night."

"I'll manage." I inform him, and he gazes at me with pity.

"You know you don't have to live this life. You can be free from all this?"

"Are you offering me a spot on your crew?"

"No."

"Then how can I-"

"It's too dangerous for someone of your kind to be a pirate, I know you dreamed about it but with your upbringing." He says.

"My upbringing?" I say feeling a bit upset at what he was insinuating

"Well you know, a proper lady, tea time, gowns,"

"And training with my tough brothers on how to defend myself, asshat." He looks at me surprised.

"You trained with your brothers?"

"Yes, they taught me everything I know, Law."

"Alright then, show me." He says.

"Right now? You don't think anyone would-"

"I checked to make sure the orchard was clear before speaking with you. Your lady's maid is being preoccupied by my crew."

"Alright then" I go to swing at him and he immediately dodges it. I try again and he catches my fist in his hand. I use this as an opportunity to kick my leg up. He moves to the side however, I decided to aim towards his arm. This catches him off guard and causes him to stumble back releasing my fist. I take this as an opportunity to kick once more but he is quick to grab it. He yanks me forward forcing my weight to turn us. I then lose my balance causing me to land on my back. He chuckles a bit.

He begins to walk away, but I decide to try again to take him down. I go to throw a punch but he moves to his right grabbing my wrist. He pulls my weight into him bringing his arm and mine into a chokehold. However there is no pressure to this and I'm flush against his chest. I can feel his breath on my neck as he recovers from our little sparring session.

"See, I told you weren't ready." He whispers into my ear, my eyes close as I relish in his embrace, shivering at feeling his breath on me. I look up at him  and notice his lips and mine so close to each other. What am I doing? I look up to him and he shares the same uncertainty that I do.

"Not ready and being rusty are two separate things pirate Law." I finally answered.

"Captain Law, and whatever you say diamond" He says.

"I hate that you call me that." I say unraveling from his embrace.

"You've must have hated it more when the queen named you the diamond of the season?"

"Of course I did, last thing I wanted was to be an instant bride and here I am."

"An instant bride? Already?" He asks. Was that panic I heard?

"Well he has yet to propose but he has already begun courting me. My father has already given him his blessing."

"And is that what you want?"

"You already know the answer to that Law."

"Reject him."

"I cannot"

"Why?"

"It's complicated."

"Would you rather spend the rest of your life married to an oaf that only cares about wealth and status?"

"Out of all the noble men I've met, he's decent."

"So you like him?" He steps closer to me until are faces are inches apart. My breath hitches.

"As a friend, I can't see myself married to him."

"So what happens once he proposes?" He says as he begins to lean in

"Law..."

"You know the answer, just say it."

"Law I would say no and travel the world if I could, go on adventures, be the crappiest pirate there is but my hands are tied. If I were to run now, my brother that's out at sea is at risk of being captured by navy admirals!" His grey eyes gazed into mine as I confessed my true feelings to him. His stoic demeanor sent chills down my spine yet he still captured my attention in ways I could not describe.

“Don’t give up on your dream (Y/N), keep fighting for it.”

My heart raced as he stood close to me and I could feel the faint brush of his hand on mine. He slowly grabbed mine and we latched our hands together. Warmth spreads across my chest reaching up to my cheeks, I look down to his lips and slowly begin to reach my other hand up to lay on his chest. I close my eyes as we begin to slowly inch closer to one another.

"(Y/N)-" He began until we heard footsteps approaching. He stood in front of me as to shield me from anyone seeing us together unchaperoned. He remembered.

"CAPTAIN! We lost the lady's maid she can be here any minute." Penguin and Shachi scream. Law curses as his crew members failed to keep Lana distracted.

"We can continue this some other time (Y/N)."

"I look forward to it..." I say. He smirks as he and his crew take their leave.

I couldn't believe what just came out of my mouth. His concern of who I'm marrying did raise some questions. He mentioned that I could not join his crew. However, that doesn't mean I still couldn't find Ace's crew and join them. If that were the case then I would be by Ace's side if the Marine's were to come after him. That still meant putting him and his crew in danger which is what I had been trying to avoid. God if only he were here to talk to, or even Sabo. They would know what to do. Luffy would tell me to grab some meat and ponder on it.

"Madam there you are! I was getting worried, these two odd men approached me asking for directions, and then continued to ask me more about kingdom." She said as we began to walk out of the orchard.

"Maybe they took an interest in you, Lana"

"Oh no madam. Surely not." She says as her cheeks begin to tinge red.

"I'm just joking, let's get home now." I say as we begin the walk to my parent's home.

As we turned the corner, we run in to none other than Lord Andrews.

"(Y/N). Ms. Lana." He greets us nodding in our direction. "What brings you both out here?

"Lana and I were doing some shopping. Then we decided to pick some fresh oranges for breakfast tomorrow."

"Sounds lovely. Would you mind if I escorted you both back to your estate?"

"Not at all, Keelan."

"What brings you out here, sir?"

"Please just Keelan, and I was in town looking for a gift for my mother. Her birthday is approaching soon."

"Well please let her know I said Happy Birthday."

"Of course. I've actually been meaning to ask you something (Y/N)" No. No. No. not yet Keelan.

"Yes, Keelan?"

"I know that in our lives, we are to fulfill our birth right  duty.  Wed, have a family and carry on our families name. However, I have a feeling this is something you do not want."

"That's ridiculous-"

"So you're saying I'm wrong. I can tell when people are lying to me (Y/N)." Shit, he knows this isn't what I want but my parents would be furious to know that I called off the engagement before I was even proposed to.

"You would be correct but I do have an obligation to fill for my family. I know it may not be love but I do believe we would make an excellent partnership." I try to answer truthfully.

"As do I, however I too can't help but wonder what true love feels like."

"You and me both Keelan."

"Perhaps it is something we can explore with one another." He suggests.

"I wouldn't say no to that Keelan." I begrudgingly say but truthfully I wish I could ask him to hold off on the proposal.

"Great to know, (Y/N)." He himself seemed a bit unsure of me.

We continue our walk to my parent's estate, we bid our good nights and go our separate ways. No proposal has been set but I'm sure one is to come. I make my way back into my room.

I sat in my bed as I thought about what it would be like when Keelan decided to propose, well if he ever did. I don't think I was much help in wanting to marry me. Especially after the conversation we had today. However, I don't want to marry in the first place. I could try to write a letter to ace, but there would be no way to address him without it being intercepted by my parents. My thoughts then traveled to Law.

He was a man of mystery, I wanted to ask what it is he was looking for here.

Just as the thought appeared, the room turned a light shade of blue and a gust of wind flew through my hair. Speak of the devil. I look up and Law is standing there handsomely with a smirk on his face.

"Law, are you trying to get us caught?" I walk over to my door to lock it.

"Sorry diamond, didn't mean to upset the lady of the house."

"Please stop calling me diamond and I am not the lady of this house."

"Oh right, soon to be Lady Andrews."

"Hearing you say that out loud makes me even more nauseous. What are you doing here anyway?"

"I wanted to see you."

"There's not much to see."

"Don't do that."

"Do what, Law."

"Put yourself down."

"It's what I feel.."

"It doesn't make it true, you're an amazing and courageous woman who is still standing after being forced into something she doesn't want. If only I can talk her out of it."

"I might consider it if you let me-"

"Not a chance diamond, last thing I need is your pretty face getting hurt."

"Aren't you a doctor that could heal my pretty face." I say getting closer to him.

"I'm the surgeon of death."

"Still a doctor" I lean in closer to him, I just wanted to be as close to him as possible. His presence brought me great comfort, and I felt free while I was with him. I could speak freely, dress freely and act freely. No need to worry about manners, gestures or greeting. It was just me and him. (Y/N) and Law.

"(Y/N).."

"Law" We stare deeply into one another's eyes and the gap slowly closes in. This was wrong, this was wrong on so many levels for a proper woman. Me on the other hand felt this was right.

Just as the gap was about to close, the doorknob began to rattle. Loud knocks began to follow, Law and I pull away quickly and by the time I reach the door to turn around he was gone. I open the door to be met by mother.

"(Y/N)! Make sure you get plenty of rest, I'll have a dress picked out for you tomorrow. I just spoke with your father, Lord Andrews will be over tomorrow for brunch with his mother and father. That can only mean one thing!" She closes the door without waiting for a response and I feel the tears well in my eyes and begin to pour over. I walk back over to my bed and begin to sob into my pillow.

I feel a hand begin to rub my back.

"Don't cry (Y/N), everything will work itself out." He whispers into my ear.

"I can't do it Law, I don't want to do it, but I can't put my brother in danger." I say as the tears begin to get heavier.

"I tried to run away earlier in the year but my father caught me. He said if I tried to run, he would send marine admirals after my brother Ace. I can't let that happen, I won't put his life in danger."

"Do you think he would want you to suffer like this?"

"It doesn't matter Law if I'm here, the only danger he faces is the open seas. Not the wrath of admirals. If I'm here he gets to have his freedom.

"But you lose yours in the process."

"It's what I have to do as his sister."

"As a brother I could never allow my sister to do this to herself. If she were in your position I would tell her to let the admirals come. I would never sacrifice her happiness for my life. I'm sure Ace would do the same." Law argues but I couldn't accept that. I haven't heard from Ace in years besides seeing his wanted posters.

"Law, I wouldn't know what Ace wants because I haven't seen him in years. I can't put his life at risk."

“I’m sure your brother is much stronger now. Stronger than the last time you saw him, he wouldn’t want this for you. I know I don’t.”

“You barely know me.”

“You barely know Lord Andrews.”

“Law, please help me.”

“I’ll do what I can diamond.”

———————————

Tag List: @metonimia-de-bellota

[grapejuicegay]

Get to know me tag! :)

I was tagged by @telomeke here and @dribs-and-drabbles here.

do you make your bed?

I try to! On days that I'm too busy to make it in the morning I do so about half an hour before I'm getting to bed. I don't like the feeling of getting back into an unmade bed - it feels like a completely unproductive day and that just throws me off

what's your favourite number?

I don't really have a favourite but I love multiples of 7, they make my brain go brrr

what is your job?

Photography! It's something I always wanted to do as a child but gave up on as an unrealistic dream before eventually sort of stumbling into it. Happy accidents and all that.

if you could go back to school, would you?

Hah! No chance. I burnt myself out pretty badly through undergrad by taking on far too much - there were just so many things that I found interesting - and I'd much rather not repeat that experience.

can you parallel park?

I can't drive. I keep meaning to learn but the way people drive freaks me out a little too much. I've also been struggling with a bout of motion sickness recently and that doesn't help my comfort in cars. Someday though! Hopefully!

a job you had that would surprise people?

I worked on editing and post production on a documentary for National Geographic once

do you think aliens are real?

In what form, I'm not sure. But some forms of life that exist outside of our planet? Absolutely. My other answer, channeling the 12 years I've spent on this hellsite: doooweeeewoooooo

can you drive a manual car?

If/when I do finally learn to drive I'm going to make it a point to learn manual too. Idk, feels like an important skill to have

what's your guilty pleasure?

I make it a point not too feel guilty or embarrassed about my interests. If I started doing that far too many things I like would qualify and I just cannot live like that

tattoos?

I wish :( I have a bunch of small tattoos I've always wanted but I have a medical condition because of which I can't get any.

favourite colour?

It changes every so often but I'm particularly biased towards shades of teal right now.

favourite type of music?

I love rock of the general/alt/post/punk variety. Recently I've been listening to a goth-folk band called Charming Disaster and have been a little bit obsessed with their album Our Lady of Radium and especially Radium Girls

do you like puzzles?

Love love love puzzles of any kind. I just like having lil things for my brain to do.

any phobias?

I have a little bit of a phobia of falling off of high places which unfortunately comes from a close call during a hike where I slipped off a steep rock and almost into a sweeping rapids (luckily I ended up slipping sideways into a little pool in a gap between said rock and another big one... took a while to pull my short ass out of there but at least I wasn't being swept away!)

favourite childhood sport?

I was a sporty child, tried my hand at just about most sports. My go to was basketball for a while (though I don't play anymore) but now I'm more inclined to go for a swim or a bout of kickboxing, sometimes badminton. Funny story: over the course of a year I got hit in the nose with 4 different kinds of balls (not that kind!). My nose is fine but I was paranoid around sports grounds for a while after that 😂

do you talk to yourself?

All the time! It honestly helps me keep track of a lot of things, especially when I'm overwhelmed but it's a little funny when my everyday running commentary comes out in front of people. It gets me a lot of strange looks, especially when I ask everyday objects what they think they're doing

what movies do you adore?

Depends on the day you ask. I tried answering this 5 different times but each time I came up with 5 different movies to list out. I really could not pick for this one

coffee or tea?

Coffee! Far, far too much of it!

first thing you wanted to be growing up?

An astronaut. It took me far too long to give up on that pipe dream. But around the time I gave up on that I was getting interested in photography as something to pursue. I was bullied out of it for a few years sadly but hey, I ended up here eventually!

I'm coming to this way too late so I'm not really sure who hasn't done this yet. I'm just going to tag @casualavocados @celestial-sapphicss @jemmo

And like both Tel and Lin mentioned, I've been far too busy to be on tumblr too much recently (most of 2024) and so a lot of stuff I've been tagged in has slipped through the cracks. Most of it is in my drafts somewhere and sometimes it just feels too late to bring it back. I still love all of you though and I'm sorry!

[desultory-novice]

I'm sure that you may have heard about Kracko really hating Kirby? It's implied by some pause descriptions to my knowledge, like one from Kirby Fighters Deluxe.

What are your thoughts on this subject? I think it's a funny concept. That some recurring non-final boss character - on the same boat as Whispy Woods, more or less - may hold a serious grudge against Kirby and that could potentially be one of the many reasons it keeps showing up.

I have indeed heard the thing about Kracko and Kirby and I agree with you 100% it's funny in the best way?!

I mean, we have King Dedede, Meta Knight, and far worse last bosses than them who have come around as friends but this cloud... oooh, this cloud! It just HATES Kirby!

You'd think Whispy Woods would be in the same boat, or would hold claim to that title first, being the perennial first stage boss. But no, Whispy just seems kind of...cranky to be woken up or disturbed. And Whispy is fairly easily pacified - except when it decides to go all second form on you.

But Kracko is just...

You know, Kracko themselves is unusual in a variety of ways that makes the whole long-standing, one-sided grudge between Kirby and Kracko all that more interesting?

Like, Kracko Jrs can become full-fledged Krackos! Whatever a "full-fledged Kracko" even IS! And different Krackos can reform into new Krackos?! Or rather, OUR Kracko, while other Krackos, like Twin Kracko, are implied to share the memories of previous Krackos - enough to know that they feel anguish at their multiple losses?!

Are they a hive-mind? (*) Are they a species at all?!? And bopping back to the Whispy Woods thing, at least we can understand why Whispy attacks. They get woken up or otherwise disturbed.

But Kracko?! Kracko hates Kirby from the moment it laid eyes on our lovable pink puff! Who DOES that? (*) So the weird grudge Kracko has doesn't even seem to have an origin! It is LITERALLY that "woke up and chose violence" meme.

You know, I haven't really gone back and done much pondering on (Super) Kirby Clash since the big reveal from the Magolor Epilogue, but before then, I (like many others?) saw it as both an alternate universe and a sort of fairytale-esque retelling of Kirby's past! After all, there's Galacta Knight, only they are still considered a "hero" at this time and four Kirbys representing the four heroes of yore!

The reveal that it is one of many (!) possible dimensions just seems to expand Kracko's power. Because now Kracko(s) can be angry at Kirby from across different dimensions?!

...Gosh, could that have been where the grudge started? There was some original Kracko out there, a happy, peaceful cloud, and some Kirby from some other dimension, long in the past or otherwise did something horrible to Kracko and those memories are carried on each time Kracko reforms itself. The hatred and pain never going away. Tears recycled into water vapor, forming anew. Dreaming of the day it could have vengeance! The moment they meet again (?) on Bubbly Clouds in Dream Land 1 should have been the most important day of Kracko's life. But for Kirby... it was Tuesday.

(Sorry! I just love that meme!)

--

(*) But okay, the other thing I think we have to talk about with regards to Kracko is of course, the "Is Kracko related to Dark Matter?" question. It's crazy, right? 

Or is it? Again, there's the hive-mind thing. The weird "what kind of matter is Kracko even made of" question. The fact that it only has ONE eye and it spits out Waddle Doos as helpers. And Crystal Shards showed (a) Waddle Dee transform into a Waddle Doo when it got possessed by Dark Matter. That's not to say that Waddle Doos can't spawn naturally without the presence of Dark Matter. After all, Kracko makes them.

...But it would make a kind of sense of Kracko was able to do that because it had some connection to Dark Matter. Or another power. For as much of a mean jerk Kracko is, it actually has a very soft, sensitive looking eye.

It's a bit like Galactic Nova's eye. Sympathetic-ish looking. It's not the eye of a villain. Except that Kracko does occasionally spawn a more villainous looking, slit-pupil eye. Which reminds me...

I had my wild theory that Dark Nebula, the Master Crown, and Morpho Knight's sword were all elemental versions of the same power. But since Kracko has "the" eye, maybe they are the "wind" in this hypothetical 4/5 elemental grouping!

We know that Gooey is Dark Matter but isn't 100% similar to the others we've seen. Although to be fair, the 64 Dark Matters don't look 100% similar to Swordsman either, who is what we as the fandom consider the "typical" Dark Matter. But is he really? He disguised himself in a semi-humanoid form and had individual desires, so IS he normal? I was vaguely under the impression that the Dark Matters Zero sends at you are basically a "reset" Swordsman, but I might be wrong on that...

...Sorry, got off on a tangent.

Speaking of things half-remembered, isn't Kirby supposed to dislike rain? (Or was that from one of the Drama Tracks?) I have to assume at this point that is a subtle nod to Kracko, if it is indeed true at all.

I could believe it though, as despite the number of water-based stages in Kirby, there isn't really a "rainy" stage, is there? (Please feel free to jog my memory if I'm forgetting a really obvious one! Or a more obscure one! ^_- )

Another last minute thing I just thought of that's very funny about Kracko is we all know how Kirby feels about naps. Always taking them in the middle of the day. Dream Land is very snoozy, and sleeping under the clouds sounds ideal... except that there's a cloud out there specifically out to get Kirby! Doesn't that feel almost evil?! Is that why Kirby is so often napping under a tree? Is Kirby actually aware that Kracko seems out kill them ruin their day?!?

Anyway, good question! I welcome more thoughts about Kracko! Maybe they are just a cloud, but maybe... they're more??

[foxydivaxx]

Zosan Wrestling AU Part 2

Will turn this into a fanfic later.

-So the Ministry of Darkness storyline begins. During this time, it becomes public knowledge that Sanji and Zoro secretly got married at Las Vegas

- The marriage is both in and out of kayfabe. They snuck off to Las Vegas on vacation together and got married at a wedding chapel.

- What makes this shocking is the fact that they are both 18 as of the time of marriage

- The rest of the roster supported the relationship and marriage and defended both of them behind the scenes

- Judge punished both of them by separating them.

- Zoro gets humiliating angles and bad matchups that eventually led to him getting injured so badly he went off air for months

- Sanji is beaten and tortured by multiple heels. His siblings turn on him and bully him. Judge then reveals himself to be the higher power just so he can screw Eren out of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship and also he got petty over Sanji’s marriage to Zoro and sacrificed Sanji to a black marriage to Blackbeard who tortured Sanji to the point of going insane. Eren saved him but Sanji has a mental breakdown that leads to him leaving the company for a while

- Eventually Zoro returns and openly challenged Judge to a match as revenge for the stunt he pulled months prior.

- Judge then adds a stipulation, if Zoro loses that his marriage to Sanji gets annulled but if he loses, he leaves the company

- The match takes place at their next PPV. Sanji shows up at ringside and watches in horror as his dad beats the crap out of Zoro

- Angered, Sanji steps in, grabs a sledge hammer and hits his dad hard in the back. Zoro then Pedigrees Judge and wins the match

- Zoro is stunned to see Sanji yet Sanji smiles and kisses Zoro in front of everyone, confirming both their real life and kayfabe marriage. This is also the beginning of Zoro’s reign of terror and Sanji’s heel turn

- The next day after that match, Judge calls Zoro out for manipulating Sanji only for Sanji to walk out using Zoro’s theme. Compared to the sweet Sanji everyone once knew, this new Sanji hit different. He was a lot more confident and sexual plus he wore a pair of jeans that showed off his most famous asset, his ass. Something that made the fanboys happy

- He gets in the ring and dares his dad to hit him after all he had been doing that for years. He tears the old man to shreds for ruining his life with the black marriage and the pain and torture he made him go through. This segment was the birth of Sanji’s now legendary mic skills because as a heel, Sanji does not hold back.

- The fans were happy to see Sanji do more and found his scathing pipe bomb of sorts satisfying

- He told the old man that he does not regret his marriage and that he is no longer his little boy anymore. Mic drop

- The next couple weeks, Zoro’s reign of terror begins. He first beats Eren to become the WWE World Heavyweight Champion and terrorizes the entire locker room with Sanji by his side

- Sanji starts showing off his body and quickly becomes the most popular Vinsmoke as he is considered a lot more sympathetic and nicer compared to the rest of the family

- A lot of the people on the roster find Sanji appealing and openly flirt with him which is enough to piss Zoro off

- Judge comes back and proceeds to wreck havoc and destroys the Roronoas leading to a rematch between Zoro and Judge which Zoro loses and thus ending their marriage. This also happens in real life and that affects Sanji’s relationship with Judge leading to Sanji leaving the company and going to the Indy scene where he starts working his way up and becoming a far better in-ring talent compared to when he was in the company. He starts wrestling with a variety of different wrestling companies and eventually he retires after working with New Japan

- Sanji exposes his family for who they truly are on Aizen’s podcast and tells the world how they had been treating him behind the scenes especially his dad and also speaks the truth about his marriage to Zoro and says that they are still technically married but were forced to live separately thanks to his dad’s interference and even read a scathing text from his dad regarding the marriage and his sexuality. That led him to leave the company

- Zoro also leaves around the same time that Sanji does and goes to rival company TNA where he instantly becomes a top star

- Zoro and Sanji would not speak or see each other until 10 years down the road.

- Zoro meets Sanji at the parking lot of a shopping mall and the two begin to speak to each other again and rekindled their romance and soon get remarried and later adopt two kids

- Ichiji then contacts the Roronoas and tells them about a sick angle he had cooked up and the two decide to return

- Sanji and Zoro make a comeback on Raw as Ichiji and Niji had taken over WCW and announces Reiju and Yonji as ECW’s new owner much to the shock of everyone

-The couple align with Judge for their own personal reasons

- Sanji steps up to the plate as an in-ring performer. Unlike the rest of the family, he brings some much-needed sex appeal and grit to the role and relishes every moment of it

- Zoro meanwhile plays the role of the badass with a lot of charisma and one hell of a foul mouth and buries peole on the mic every single day

- Reiju and Yonji proceeds to put the WWE faction of the company through hell and subjects them to a series of brutal matches and other forms of humiliating situations

- Sanji does get his comeuppance occasionally as expected for heels but he also gives his dad enough hell. Yes, the Prince has not forgotten what his family put him and Zoro and always reminds them of that

- Sanji’s mic skills have improved so much that he can go toe to toe with his family as evidenced during one segment where he buries the rest of the Vinsmoke family on the mic. During said segment, he gives his siblings plus father very hot bitch slaps that shocked everyone

- Unlike his siblings he is not that loyal to his dad and bitches at him openly and only hangs around his dad for his own nefarious purposes which work out in his favor

- Sanji is then allowed to step into the rings and compared to before, he is now a legit threat and can kick anyone’s ass. Zoro finds that so sexy and gives him some advice on how to get better

- Doflamingo or Doffy as everyone calls him affectionately serves as his mentor and teaches him more stuff as well

- Sanji is the only Vinsmoke that has proper wrestling training as the rest of them work best as managers who can scrap occasionally.

- Sanji loves being a heel

- Zoro comes from a well known wrestling family that hails from Japan and his parents are both wrestlers and are proud of their son and love Sanji a lot and consider him their son. Zoro’s siblings love the Vinsmokes and marvel at their work

- Zoro’s most prominent rivals are Eren Yeager, Grimmjow, Obito, Blackbeard, Aizen, Sukuna and Kenshin. The Vinsmokes count as well. Yes including Sanji too because every once in a while the competitive spirit in both of them comes out to play. Oh and he cheated on Sanji a few times

- Sanji’s archnemesis depending on the storyline are his family especially his dad, Nami, Eren, Blackbeard (because of the Black Wedding), Corazen, Doflamingo and Kaguya (she almost got Sanji killed).Zoro counts as well because Zoro cheated on him a few times and Sanji being the vindictive spirit that he is was having none of that

- Pray Sanji has no heels on. He will smack your face with it

- Sanji gives the most brutal bitch slaps and has dished these out loads of times. His dad dreads segments with him knowing full well that Sanji will not only give him the slap from hell but he can lose his shit and beat his ass there