#and that they are a genuine danger to be aware of when they're not hidden

[worldblight]

I wish Erin Hunter would hire me not because I particularly care about Warrior Cats anymore but because I know a lot about cat behavior and it makes me really really irritated seeing people draw cat body language so incorrectly

[astrologylunadream]

Who is in love with you +why?🧸🍑🌸♡ (Pick a card/Tarot love reading)

Hellooo it's Lunadream💌 I will show you right now who is currently in love with you and what made them so! hope you find your message🌸💫

Notice: Only take what resonates because the most important thing is your own judgement!♡ If anything doesn't resonate, don't worry! It's not your message right now <3 (Entertainment purpose only. All rights reserved)

Now, shall we begin~? ^w^ Think of the your person, and pick whichever pile that fits the energy you're feeling~🍂💗

Pile 1🌸

Pile 2🍮

Pile 3🤍

Pile 4🎃

Take your time and choose carefully with the heart~♡

On to the readings —> 💕

Pile 1🌸

Sign energy: School, Heir, Sloth, Sleep, Care-taker, Sun, Venus, 12th house, 6th house, Taurus, 🛩🌹🖤🐭

🧸Your energy: Hellooo my pile 1's are very cute >w< The dreamy type, loves to take cat naps. May have venus in 12th house or taurus in 6th. I'm seeing a youthful appearance for this pile, you take good care of yourself and often engage in skin-care routines, healthy diet, ect. Make yourself very beautiful naturally💗 You have a feminine aura about you, very soft and angelic. You are very quiet at times and may seem half-asleep due to your peaceful nature. You have such calming vibes, very pleasant and beautiful. I feel like this pile have many suitors or perhaps secret admirers you aren't aware of!! I'm getting royalty from another country/land vibes~ may be a descendant of royalty or simply lots of money, the kind rich girl/boy in your social setting.🛍 Some of you are/were very popular in school. Genuine sunshine vibes <3 You just have such a sweet shining appearance, and your personality is like a little flower so graceful and delicate.🌻 Taurus, Libra, Leo, Pisces, Virgo are signs for my pile 1. You could have venus in Pisces or Taurus/Libra. You may be into the color black or feel drawn to people who wear black, like the dark to your light aesthetic kind of thing~☯💗 You love romance and dream of it often, love daydreaming and drifting off to sleep as you imagine the perfect love story. Cinderella vibes♡ Some could be year of the rat or have a pet mouse/rat.

🍑Who is in love with you: Scratch, Accident, Privacy, Rose colored lenses, 8th house, Cancer, Saturn, Taurus, Capricorn, 5th house, 🤗📌🏖⁉️ Alright my pile 1's this is someone you may know already!! Such secret admirer/hidden crush vibes rn💞 This person has a lot of scorpio/plutonian energy, very intense. Cancer, Capricorn, Taurus and Leo placements, they definitely have Scorpio somewhere in their inner planets. Their aura is magnetic and mysterious and almost dangerous in a sense. They are very private and keep to themselves, they avoid huge crowds and parties, they prefer to be alone.👤 They like being in the comfort of their own home, doing their hobbies and things they enjoy all by themselves. This person likes feeling safe, in a quiet environment, and doing whatever they want. I'm getting that they like going to the beach at night lol. They may have injuries or scars, might have glasses due to eye sight issues and this could be contact lenses aswell. They have restricted themselves from romance for a long time, they just spend time alone because they don't trust or believe in having a relationship with someone, they are hesitant to give it a try. So they just stick to themselves and do most activities alone.☹💔 They tell themselves that they don't need anyone, loner mentality. They may have had past experiences believing in love and seeing everything through rose-colored lenses and it ended terribly for them and it stabbed them in the back, leaving them with trust issues and resentment for having any sort of bond with another person. :( I'm seeing a slow warming up to my pile 1 as they finally start to fall into love again when they look at you, it's like their world is being shown in color, reminds me of the wizard of oz...😩😫💌💞 and they're like "tf is this?!?! What am I feeling rn?? Is this love?!!!"⁉️💗

🧁Why they love you: Trust, My love, Mouth, Drama, Name, Water, Capricorn, Cancer, Eros, Earth, 🆕️🟪👎📸 Okaaay I'm sensing a situation right now, you guys definitely stepped into this person's life and they were like 😳🤯🎆 It just hit them, and like this person has a lot of drama around them. So much crap they deal with and you just came in and I feel like you stuck up for this person lmao I feel like pile 1 just finally stood up for this person and just 🤚 to all those who were stirring up drama for this person💀 I feel like you were there for them when they needed it, and when everyone didn't even care about this person and you stepped in and said the truth, you said what needed to he said and your person LOVES you for that just know my pile 1 like omg they find it so attractive and just so empowering.😍😫✊ They felt like they finally found someone genuine, someone they could trust. And it made them so emotional too they felt like they could open up finally, like a new beginning for them.♡ They feel so safe with you by their side, and omg your name is a huge turn on for them btw they love your name and love saying it (and other ways too...😳) They love how compassionate you are to them and everyone who needs it💗 You ground them, and they feel so secure with you. The biggest reason they love you is because of how safe you make them feel and how much they trust you because they trust you a lot my pile 1's and this person does NOT trust easily I'll tell you that.😩 They love how you care so much for others, they know you have a big heart and this attracts them to you even more!!

💌Messages from your person: Tell me your secrets, You don't owe me anything, I wanna marry you, You keep doing this, I know your secret (What is the secret pile 1??? They're so serious about you!!🥺💍💖) Extra cards: Unheard, Mystery, Attraction, Pain, Hobby, North node, Leo, Venus, Gemini, 7th house (Literally they see a future in love/partnership with you the cards speak for themselves you guys!!)

Thank you my pile 1's! If you feel this resonated, you may tap the heart to claim this message!💫🌸

I hope you enjoyed your reading! ʚ(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )ɞ If you did be sure to let me know pile 1 with the blossom emoji~🌸 Thanks for scrolling through, Hugs hugs hugs!! See you in the next reading💗🌸💗🌸🎀

Pile 2🍮

Sign energy: Chest, Purple, Emotions, Passion, Stage, 3rd house, Eros, Mars, Virgo, Moon, 🔮📵🎤🛸

🧸Your energy: Heyyy we have a pretty person in this pile!! Your energy is radiating I'm getting lots of Virgo, possibly Gemini, also Aries/Scorpio and Cancer for you guys. Okay so let's see I'm getting really spiritual and uplifting vibes from my pile 2's, you are so emotional and that's what makes you so beautiful🥺💖 Singing/performing may be your passion, or you may really have a thing for music. I'm seeing lots of devotion to music like I'm hearing it's your life omg, You have a lot on your mind, and you think and feel a LOT too. You are at a point in your life where you are very self critical and strive for the best, you are willing to do anything for what you love, including love itself. My pile 2 is very protective over their heart and you guys are not letting it get broken, you have an amazing talent for speaking for your feelings. Your playlists say more about you than you ever could😂😭 You love comforting voices/asmr. I feel like you have really soothing voice aswell <3 You have a lot you stress about when it comes to relationships, my pile 2 should just have more trust in themselves, trust the process take it slow and be open to recieving love because you guys deserve it and it anyone can be loved it's pile 2.🥰⭐ You have a passionate mind and spirit and you put a lot of energy into everything you do, if I could give your brain a hug I would lol it sounds so funny🤣🤣 but seriously, take care of yourself and your mind because you tend to overthink and over feel a lot🥺👌💓

🍑Who is in love with you: Yandere, Winter, Chase, Love letter, Height, Capricorn, Vertex, 6th house, Mars, Uranus,🤙😒🐈🍓 Wow... just wow this is quite the person in love with my pile 2's... where do I even start-😫🤯 Okay you guys this person is really into you I mean REALLY into you... the vibe is just almost suffocating with this person's feelings towards you. Yandere is coming through so yeah they've got extreme ride or die feelings for you guys. Virgo, Capricorn, Aries/Scorpio and Aquarius could be in this person's chart. They could be above average height or have a strange height. They are most likely taller than you, they often tower over you or stand next to you in a way that asserts dominance so to speak. This person is someone you see often, they could be a co-worker/classmate or such. They could be born in winter so Capricorn and Aquarius are likely signs for them, also you may have met this person during winter. They are head over heels for my pile 2's and definitely very into them romantically, they are very masculine by nature and act that way toward you. They express their love in a more assertive/forward manner to you. I'm getting kabedons, grabbing your wrists and chasing you down lmao this person is so into you for real. They may send you love letters often or even daily. They are super committed to you and a little clingy too, huge simp vibes🤭💌

🧁Why they love you: Intuition, Toy, Careless, Flirt, Honest, Taurus, Fire, Air, Venus, Pluto, 🐚🤲🏖🌪 They love you because of how genuine, honest and true you are to yourself and others. They are actually obsessed with this aspect of you and the way you are truly yourself. They really went with their gut and just fell into loving you my pile 2's lol this person can actually be pretty quick to fall in love I'm getting. They don't think things through and just let their feelings take over🤭 They love your feminine energy and passionate nature. Honestly this person can't get enough of you😍😭 They are in love with how you show your emotions and how strong and sensible you are with them (even if you don't think so <3). This person may have started to fall for you after being flirted with/flirting with you. For some of you there may have been a very subtle flirting but they took it so so so serious and now they're like, obsessed with you🙃 Lol they love how you speak and your voice made them fall in their seat lmaooo they love how comforting and sweet you are. And that little spark within you that always keeps you going, they really love that about you.❤ They might have realized how cool you are and just brush things off not letting it effect you all that deeply. I'm getting for the most part this person just really enjoys the chase with you and is in love with obsessing over you guys🤣 Watch out cuz just because someone loves you doesn't mean they're "the one" (be careful pile 2 I'm getting some really unhealthy obsession vibes from this person with you and this could even be someone who finds you easy to manipulate/control so always trust your own judgement!!) They got really into your giving energy/soft aura and now they're hooked.

💌Messages from your person: Stop thinking about me, Stop ignoring me, I can't hide it from you, Am I perfect for you? You can't hide your feelings for me (They are definitely thinking about you rn) Extra cards: Society, Amusement park, Luck, Words, Favor, 6th house, Pisces, Chiron, Gemini, Sun

Thank you my pile 2's! If you feel this resonated, you may tap the heart to claim this message!💫🌸

I hope you enjoyed your reading! ʚ(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )ɞ If you did be sure to let me know pile 2 with the flan emoji~🍮 Thanks for scrolling through, Hugs hugs hugs!! See you in the next reading💗🌸💗🌸🎀

Pile 3🤍

Sign energy: December, Feelings, Seduction, Feet, Caution, Taurus, Neptune, Water, Venus, Moon, 🌇🔚📿🧍‍♀️

🧸Your energy: Feminine aura is prominent in this pile, I'm getting alluring siren beauty vibes🔱🖤 Such powerful seductive qualities and you guys are so attractive😫💋 May have Taurus in 12th house so Aries rising is likely. May have venus in water sign (Cancer/Scorpio/Pisces) or Venus conjunct moon placement. Some of you could love winter or winter clothing, could be born in winter specifically december. You are very charming and beautiful, ahh I am loving the vibe of this pile🥰 You are very cautious of love, it both intrigues you and scares you at the same time. You may worry about sharing your emotions so closely with another person, or wearing your heart on your sleeve. You have a heavy heart and a very fragile one, you know this so you keep it safe and guarded at all times. You don't open up from fear of being vulnerable which has led to you seeming cold or apathetic, but you do feel emotions quite strongly actually. You have a soft imagination and you wish to be beautiful (spoiler: you already are😇). You feel as if love purposely trips you making you fall harder than you would have liked. You may live in the city or love watching sunsets, you love when the sun sets and the moon rises. Jewelry looks great on you, pearls and onyx probably looks godly on you🥺🖤 Some of you are a bit of a loner type, waiting for someone to step in and say "hey why are you alone? You look too gorgeous to be all by yourself"😫😩😭💞 Omg I hope that's the person who loves my pile 3 lmaoooo

🍑Who is in love with you: Affection, High standards, Blame, Hug, Socialization, 3rd house, Lilith, 12th house, Sagittarius, Fire, ☀️🤐🤵☄ OMG I'm sensing a hot couple with you two JUST SAYING😭🥵 Omg we haven't even started yet I need to calm down!!! They got that look about them omg... they're really popular and liked by so many people it's like, who doesn't like them?! Wide smile, messy hair, dangerous eyes...💀 Omg pile 3 why am I freaking out so much this is great- Their voice makes you high that's what I'm hearing LMAO you wanna hate them but then you can't omg I'm hearing this persons a catch like others would KILL to date this person...🤯 This person lights up the room I mean set it on fire🔥 They have a way with words, and omg they have a knack for telling dirty jokes at parties and like they're so smooth about it-😳 I'm just gonna say it this person is probably really hot my pile 3 the person in love with you is HOT. But you wanna know what?? The worst part of all is they just wanna give you a hug!! They don't want a wild night or some naughty crap they just want to make you smile😭😭😭 They seem like a bad boy/girl but for you they're so sweet I can't...💓 They just wanna make you laugh and talk about your interests. They find you so amusing and exciting to be around, some of you may have a bad impression of this person. So you could be really on the fence about them, or shutting them out completely because you think they're bad news. I'm hearing "don't blame me" you may blame them for some reason!! They could be someone you like and blame them for your feelings😝💕

🧁Why they love you: Past, Magnetic, Acceptance, Passion, Dare, Chiron, Scorpio, North node, Pisces, 2nd house, 😭⁉️😟🦥 Awww I feel like they saw you and was like 🥺!! Like when you see a little cat on the street and you just melt😫💓 I'm getting fast attraction vibes with this one, this person probably fell quick for my pile 3's. I feel like they were like "wow who's this hottie?" Or something like that omg just like such raw passion🥴🔥🧲 Mars in 1st house overlay vibes~ It could have been a dare from their friends to try and win you over, but they just fell deeper in love with you😍 I feel like it was first physical attraction that led them to seeking more about you, then once they saw the deeper shades of your heart they felt even more inclined to love you!! They love your magnetic aura and how you're healing yourself from damaged emotions. They think you're so strong and your endurance is very attractive to them, they have much passion and respect for my pile 3 and just overall so much love!❤ They want to he that shoulder to cry on when you finally open up to them, and they love the true you, the emotional and vulnerable you. They love your chaotic little mind, they also really fall in love with you when you cry. It makes them feel drawn to protect and be there for you, to experience everything you are feeling. They're the type to put themselves in your shoes, just so they know exactly how you feel. They love watching you grow and heal, and transform into the the strongest most powerful person you can be.🤧🖤

💌Messages from your person: Sing to me, I thought it was all in my head, Focus on me, I wanna kiss your neck, You make me so happy (Ahhh so cute😍❤) Extra cards: Angel, Out, Cafe, Girlfriend, Innocence, South node, 11th house, Scorpio, Leo, Fire (My pile 3 they wanna ask you out on a date <3)

Thank you my pile 3's! If you feel this resonated, you may tap the heart to claim this message!💫🌸

I hope you enjoyed your reading! ʚ(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )ɞ If you did be sure to let me know pile 3 with the white heart emoji~🤍 Thanks for scrolling through, Hugs hugs hugs!! See you in the next reading💗🌸💗🌸🎀

Pile 4🎃

Sign energy: Accusation, Admiration, Fear, Company, Fit, Gemini, Lilith, 9th house, 5th house, Saturn,🧚‍♀️🌇✌🦋

🧸Your energy: You give ethereal fairy/pixie vibes, you probably dreamed of becoming an air pilot as a kid😆 You enjoy having people over in your home. You felt restricted in your early years by others, so you admire those who can live freely and live in chaos and fun. You desire change in your life and all you want to to have a good time, others have tried to dampen your fun and good vibes. For some you may have had an older sibling that got on to you a lot, or told you to be more responsible😞 Could have been told you don't fit in with your family, because you are different. But my pile 4 you are so special, you are like a fairy!!😉 So magical and joyful~ you are a child at heart no matter the age, and you probably believe in fairytales at least a little🤏😇💫 You have changed a lot over the years and learned so much, you have many role models. Your child-like nature is both a blessing and a curse, many people hated you for being so light and joyful. But so many people love this about you, those who gave you a hard time felt bad that they couldn't face life as bright and care-free as you do. You truly are a gift to this world⭐

🍑Who is in love with you: Ability, Inactivity, Change, Soft spot, Friends, 2nd house, 8th house, Moon, Uranus, Chiron, 💄🤹‍♂️🌻😚 Omggg this is someone you know pile 4, this could be your best friend or a friend of yours. Could be friends of friends also, lgbtq+ vibes with this person, they could totally be a friend that has a secret crush on you!!🙊 This could be a childhood friend, perhaps someone who always cared for you all along. They are deeply in love with you pile 4 and they are so delicate with you, the way they speak is like a flower so calming and still. Could be Cancer, Taurus, Scorpio or Aquarius placements. I just realized the juggling emoji with the rainbow so that's another confirmation for any lgbtq+ in this pile :D This person loves you in such a pure adorable way, they light up when you smile. And they have the means to truly heal you my lovely pile 4, I mean they could really treat you well. They want to take care of you and probably always did/do.💝 I'm getting that if this is a childhood friend situation that they always cared for you like tend to your injuries, gave you bandaids, shared their lunch, honestly so sweet😭🥺💗🩹 You guys may not have a label for your relationship or it could be very confusing for you both, "are we friends? Do they like me? What are we??" What I'm hearing. This is a very emotional and empathetic native, they are so involved in your comfort and care. They want to check up on you a lot and ask if you're okay <3 This person is genuinely out for your best interest.

🧁Why they love you: Think outside the box, Devotion, Practical, Capricorn, Happiness, Earth, Scorpio, 5th house, 9th house, Saturn, 🌅🧤🎓🗻 I think they realized how smart and capable you are and just how you showed everyone that you aren't childish in a bad way and can actually achieve whatever you put your mind to.🤗 This person is in love with your perseverance and dedication for the things you care about, they love your care-free and fun yet able mentality. They especially love how dedicated you are to being happy and creating your own happiness, that really makes them fall in love💘 They find your mind so interesting and unlike any other, your ideas and beliefs are so unique and innovative to them. You are their little box of happiness awww and they wanna take you with them everywhere they go🥺 They think you're really smart and you never stop amazing them. Every little thing you do inspires this person, and makes them fall deeper in love with you. I feel like they try to think rationally about their feelings for you, because they wanna be thoughtful and rational just like you can be. But of course you make them so emotional and just so many feelings are ignited within this person for you. They love your success and all that you have achieved with your will. They are in awe with the things you do and say, your happiness makes them feel safe. They fell in love with your bright eyes and strong personality.🌈

💌Messages from your person: Cheer for me, No one makes me feel this way, It's karma, I have no boundaries with you, I've changed (I feel like you've inspired this person to keep going and stay strong!! You have shown this person how to be strong and believe in themselves and they honestly adore you for that🥺💓) Extra cards: Show, Interpretation, Sight, Conflict, Softie, Pluto, Jupiter, Neptune, Vertex, Sun

Thank you my pile 4's! If you feel this resonated, you may tap the heart to claim this message!💫🌸

I hope you enjoyed your reading! ʚ(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )ɞ If you did be sure to let me know pile 4 with the pumpkin emoji~🎃 Thanks for scrolling through, Hugs hugs hugs!! See you in the next reading💗🌸💗🌸🎀

Wanna see more readings like this? Check out my tumblr for accurate readings for you!💗🌊🌸

Thanks for reading! \(*^w^)/💌 -Lunadream <3

[alipeeps]

Episode 33

Ok so, first of all, how very in character for Princess Wanning to have a secret fucking dungeon hidden in her part of the palace (also hilariously cliché how the hidden door opens and the decor within immediately changes to classic dungeon aesthetic of dark stone walls/guttering candles etc 😂).

And as soon as I saw a prisoner there it was a foregone conclusion it was gonna be Xue Zhao.

So that was a bit obvious but whatever... but oh man that scene also drove home just how fucking crazy - and dangerous - Wanning is. When she abruptly stabbed him, and gleefully twisted the knife... Yikes!!

But oh I found the scene at the judicial court so SO hard to watch. Xue Li's reputation being ruined - again! And in front of her "father"! Reputation is so important to her. They destroyed her reputation as Xue Fangfei but her new identity as Jiang Li offered her a fresh start - and an improved reputation as the daughter of a high-ranking official. And here she is again with her reputation getting ruined by allegations of a sexual nature... and Wanning forced her to do it to herself. I had to pause this scene for a while and take a break before watching it play out cos I was so stressed by it/dreading seeing it happen.

But I got through it and was at least slightly consoled by papa Jiang appearing to have a brain for once in his fucking life and realising that she was probably forced to do this by Princess Wanning.

Oh how I loved the confrontation in the dungeon. Yurong is still trying to make excuses (I had to protect my mum and sister!! Yeah, and you willingly - as Xue Li rightly told him - sacrificed your wife and her whole damn family in order to do so!). Her scorn for him was delicious and entirely justified and when she told him not to call he A-li again... damn right!!

And her asking Xiao Heng for help was so good too. They are so honest with each other now. There's no more pretence at bartering, they both know the other will help any way they can (oh I do wish she had told him/asked for help earlier though... but she seems to have something specific planned re: her request to Juiyue).

I will honestly be fucking astonished (and annoyed) if Yurong doesn't try to kill Princess Wanning before the end of the show. It seriously looks like that is what he is working towards now. She is conceited/crazy enough to believe his expressions of love, and wanting to be only with her, are genuine... but anyone with an ounce of common sense can see no love in his eyes or his actions... he is setting her up for a fall.

This is the face of a man using every ounce of self-control he has to not just stab her right in the neck with that thing...

Be interesting to see the Emperor's reaction to the request for Shen Yurong to marry Jiang Li though... when we know he already knows that his boi Xiao Heng has feelings for her. Of course, he's gonna go with whatever works best for his plans though...

The image of them taking a convivial stroll through the gardens with an entire retinue of servants and guards following slowly in their wake is fricking hilarious.

I have to wonder is the emperor truly as oblivious/trusting of consort Li as he seems? Or is he (please god?!!) aware that she's just as scheming as anyone else in the palace and may not always be working in his best interests and is just putting on an act with her?

Xue Li is certainly not fooled by any of this shit.

"So you married me once, killed me, and now you want to marry me again... and kill me again?"

I do wonder if he genuinely believes that he's doing this to protect her? If he genuinely thinks this can be a second chance with her, that he can marry her again and somehow have her love him again? He is, after all, very good at deluding himself.

And Xiao Heng is there waiting for her... and she runs to him... and takes his hand... and they smile at each other. Right in front of Shen Yurong. Like, in your face, motherfucker! 😂

Ahhhh the handholding! I diiieeeeee!! They're holding hands still all the way in the carriage... and it turns out it's because he's clinging onto her like she'll vanish if he let's go! 😂😭 She persuades him to loosen his grip just a bit and they slot their fingers together and I am DYING. This shit is more romantic than any fucking kiss scene!! 😁😁

Look at his face!!!

He's like a gotdamn schoolboy who's gotten to hold hands with his crush for the first time!!

Me right now:

Holy shit, papa Jiang actually stepping up (too little too late) and saying he knows she doesn't trust him because of him letting her down in the past, but to tell him if there's anything he can do to help.

Like, I doubt it dude but hey, you at least (kinda) tried I guess?

He has at least grown some braincells though and learned that she usually has good reasons to do what she does. Saying he trusts her (and doesn't need an explanation if she's not able to give one) is actually a pretty big step for him - lookit, he's actually trying to be some kind of decent parent to his child!!

[rez-urrection]

"endos are inherently spreading misinformation" "this group of people existing is inherently spreading misinformation"

hi anon ! so, this doesn't even deserve a real answer as you absolutely know why I said that, but because there are people who are genuinely misinformed, ill make this post.

DID, OSDD, DDNOS/NOSDD, or other CDDs are trauma disorders. a CDD, "complex dissociative disorder," is the only thing that can cause a system. a system is what happens when repeated and severe trauma disrupts the fusing of the identity before the age of 6-9 years old through the process of structural dissociation.

to say that you can develop a complex dissociative disorder without the trauma to induce structural dissociation is not only extremely disrespectful, but it's also medical misinformation.

it puts people in danger. and yes, non-physical danger is still danger !

it's dangerous for a multiple of reasons but I won't get into every single one, instead I'll mention 2 main ones.

the first reason is: it's anti-recovery. if someone genuinely has a CDD and they spend their entire life believing they're "endogenic," they won't ever seek therapy or any form of healing for the trauma hidden away. they'll continue to suffer instead of receiving proper help for their CDD.

the second reason is: it harms people who do have the disorder, do have the diagnosis, and are aware of the trauma that causes it. it's invalidating and often times triggers self doubt or "imposter syndrome."

I have no idea why the internet has made it a thing to deny medical fact. I have no idea why the internet has made it a hot take to say you have to have trauma to develop a complex trauma disorder, but here we are.

[astralprisms]

@seynne, thank you for these! My ask box should now actually be open if anyone is trying to send messages. I forget it's not on by default. From the Weirdly Specific Questions list

How often do they show their genuine emotions to others versus just the audience knowing?

I don't think that Xa'rok is intentionally deceptive about their emotions, but they are hard to read if you don't know them well. If asked directly and divulging doesn't put them or those they care about in danger, they would be honest about what they're feeling, but there are some things they prefer to keep to themselves. Persuasion and Deception are their particular skill avenues of choice, and so they're fairly aware of what they are presenting to the world and what effect it might have/what effect they might want it to have (either on the audience as a bard, in concert, or in their line of work as a convincing public speaker), so they're very adept at managing a crowd's expectations and emotions; a skill I can only assume they continue to excel at as an illithid.

Being so in tune with their emotions and how they are perceived does make it easy for them to hide what they want to keep hidden, though, should they choose to do so.

What’s the most obvious difference between their behavior at home, at work, at school, with friends, and when they’re alone?

This answer varies over different parts of their life.

I think they prefer to present as someone who has their shit together, and prefer to reserve their doubts for close friends and quiet moments. They can let their guard down around certain people, in certain places, and elsewhere they remain vigilant for threats and show little weakness. Most of this attitude was borne out of necessity: life in their northern creche was often harsh, uncompromising, and despite the insistence on training in units, incredibly solitary. But they are social by nature and deeply curious. They long for connection and take joy in finding it. They love to talk, and take pleasure in an audience. They are at their best when connecting with others, and find the psionic boost from the tadpole, and later, illithidom, a boon. To touch someone's thoughts and know their mind makes making those connections easier.

At 'work' they are by turns diplomatic and charismatic. They have spent a long time learning how to read a room and how best to construct a narrative or a story or a song to capture its occupants' attention. In front of a listening crowd, they are in their element. But they are aware of their charm and can be impulsive in its application. While they usually know when to drop the performance, there are times where their persuasive public-speaking persona will take over and they can become a little too pushy or manipulative. Their good friends will tell them to stop or remind them to mind their manners.

At home and alone is where they truly put all the performative parts of themself away and just allow themself to be. This becomes even more important once they go full illithid and get over the (very arduous) hurdle of readjusting to their new form. The Emperor was correct: home is where one can be their truest self, without guile, without pretense.

When do they feel the most guilt? How do they respond to it?

Failing to live up to expectations. These are largely internally set expectations and thus hard to gauge from someone else's perspective. But they take pride in being able to perform to the best of their ability, whether in their line of work, in their playing, in battle, or in following through on a task they have been given or accepted for themself. Falling short of those expectations really stresses them out. They work doubly hard to make up for it, and sometimes injure themself as a result.

What do they commonly misinterpret because of their own upbringing / environment / biases? How do they respond when realizing the misunderstanding?

For someone whose life's mission is to unpack cultural biases, Xa'rok is certainly not immune to perpetuating some of their own. They have long sought to be open-minded but they still find themself falling into old patterns of thinking reflexively. Mostly this tends to resolve itself in "your experience is not universal" type situations. Surely all children are exposed to the harsh and uncompromising trial of combat. Solo survival training is a common rite of passage for everyone before a certain growth milestone. That sort of thing. Growing up in the far north, they are resistant to and unbothered by deep cold and harsh winters, and so they are continually perplexed by anyone who cannot stand the cold. They find gender and its societal constraints a perplexing and unfathomable puzzle. They actively work to take their own missteps in stride and find no weakness in admitting they may have been wrong about something to which they have not had enough exposure to to know otherwise.

[flowerandblood]

Genuine question from someone struggling with writing at the moment but when you come up with a new story and it's premises, how do you organize your thoughts? Your stories are always so well thought out and have their own hidden meanings and in depth dive of the characters as if you are writing them on people you know, my question is, how do you organize how and when you will write that out?

Oh my god, okay, I'll warn you that I'm very chaotic when it comes to my writing style. I usually start by having a theme, a starting point - and let's assume, in my last story the female character is the younger sister of Aemond's friend. I had to figure out who Aemond would be here, what her or his internal conflict would be, or what the situation would be that would bring them closer together.

And I came up with an idea, oh, what if he worked as a sexworker? But suddenly he really fell in love with a girl who is not interested in such things at all? And here comes something I can work with, internal conflict, his thoughts, regret, shame, the desire to be worthy of someone. On the other hand, we have a heroine who also falls in love, tries to be supportive, but also knows herself enough to know that their expectations may not meet.

And here comes the most important thing for me, i.e. the credibility of the story and the dialogues. Nothing takes me out of a story more than dialogue that is completely out of character and as if it were pasted in from any other person. The point is that each character should have its own characteristics. If you decide to make your character charming, don't make her a stupid idiot, let her charm result from her care and unawareness, let her simply be innocent and inexperienced, uncertain and joyful.

Often when I think about my female character I think to myself "if my husband said that to me, how would I feel?" or I think "no, Aemond couldn't say that to her, if my husband said that to me/did that to me, I would kill him or I couldn't be with him because I wouldn't forgive him." Of course, it's not like my heroine is supposed to be me now, I wrote about many women who did or said things that I wouldn't say or do, but sometimes when I have doubts whether a dialogue makes sense, I analyze it this way.

Recently, I changed almost the entire chapter (even though I had written the next ones, fortunately it didn't affect the rest of the plot much) because I felt that Aemond's behavior was inappropriately aggressive to the situation, that if he knew that the heroine felt this way (and he did) he wouldn't do that if he really cared about her (in this universe). Only when I changed it and read it again did I feel that it clicked, that it fit, that it would look like this.

So my job in writing is primarily to ensure that the vocabulary is rich, to describe well what is happening, but not to do it in long paragraphs. Describing what the table looks like in 3 long sentences is, in my opinion, unnecessary - although some people like to do it that way. I always divide my paragraphs into shorter parts, I give more light to make it read better.

And it involves constantly analyzing the credibility of what is happening in relation to the fact that we imagine that these are real people with real problems, not cartoon characters. When I read fanfics where there is a girl who has never before had any dominant, hardcore stuff and loves everything immediately, it immediately comes to my mind - okay, it's soft porn, but it's very far-reaching.

It's not that easy in the real life, real people don't work like that - real people are afraid of the unknown, they are insecure, they need the awareness that they're not in danger for them to relax.

I could write more, but this is already an extremely long answer, I don't know, if you have more specific questions, you can ask further, I will be happy to answer you as best as I can, thank you for your kind words!

[daemonduality]

I feel like I've forgotten something important.

Name: Mirielle Wielant

Moniker: Narra, Firefly

Age: 22

Title: Voidheart [ Effect: Triple the duration of Mercy Invincibility.]

The Story So Far:

Mirielle worked as a chef’s apprentice for several years until her place of work was destroyed in a gas explosion with her in it. Miraculously, she survived with just a bruise to her forehead - everyone else around her in the kitchen that day wasn’t so lucky.

It’s because of her miraculous survival that the police made her suspect number one for the gas explosion, and hidden forces at play are determined to see her in jail for a crime she did not commit.

The only thing she got going for her is a mysteriously self-writing notebook that she accidentally stole one day which introduced her to the art of Scrying. As a result, she attempted to divine the location of evidence that could potentially save her and ended up in even more hot water as a result. Scouting out a place you might be breaking into didn’t really work when you have long red hair that really stands out.

After being chased into an alleyway by hired goons, Mirielle prayed for a miracle, and the book she’s been writing in delivered.

When she finally came to, she found herself in an abandoned factory and later discovered she was in an entirely different world altogether. 

Currently Doing: 

Mirielle’s now living in the Nameless City, which did have a name at one point, but now no one remembers including her. She’s pretty sure the Eldritch Entity shaped like a young girl, whom she is sharing living space with, had something to do with it.

Now to be fair, she's also certain that said young girl doesn't know how anomalous she is as everyone involved, both offline and online, seems content on letting it stay that way. Who is she to rock the boat?

Besides, what's a little bit of horror in light of having both a free place to stay and an essentially unlimited stipend for cooking. Almost like owning her own restaurant, even if her only "customers" are four freshman high-school kids her boss asked her to make sure they're fed.

...Hmmm. Maybe she shouldn't consider the entire population of Italy dying to some sort of plant-zombie plague as just a little bit of horror. But it's not like the kid was involved in that... Probably.

In any case, she's in charge of feeding the girl - and also her friends while they're living in the Inn that the girl's guardian owns. And during her free time, she'll research more into recipes and cooking and occasionally performing for her cooking stream too. Despite the occupational hazard, she is genuinely living her best life right now.

Not sure how long it'll stay that way, but all worrying did was make her feel worse, so why bother doing it?

Hope this line of thinking doesn't bite her in the ass later.

Talents:

Absolute Sense of Taste: Mirielle has a highly developed sense of taste to the point where she can remember the taste of anything she’s eaten as long as she’s had it once. She can further use this to deconstruct recipes and dishes to the point of deciphering proportions and determining the cooking technique used.

Enhanced Perception - Space: Mirielle’s perception of space is precise enough for her to eyeball distances down to centimeters. When asked, she just kinda shrugs and says it’s kinda like her sense of taste; she’s born with it. Except that she knows she wasn’t born with this, and she’s only recently started developing it months ago when she noticed that she’s aware of things placed inside of a room despite being her first time in said room.

Purple Magic:��Mirielle’s gifted with what’s known as Purple Magic - the magic of Karma. She primarily uses it to Scry - to connect with things in the distant past and the far future using her dousing crystal on a silk string. However, with the increasing danger her world is in, she’s slowly delving into other disciplines of Purple Magic too, primarily Binding with Karma and Severing Karma. 

[100hearteyes]

Here is my (very disorganized) analysis of Bienvenidos a Edén/Welcome to Eden. I usually avoid getting spoilery in these but this time it's unavoidable. I'll try to keep it to things either shown or implied in the first two episodes.

First things first, if you're watching BaE and suddenly wonder like, "wait, I feel like I've seen this before" – it's because you have. It's called The Wilds and it streams on Prime. The premise and a lot of the mechanics are pretty much the same. That said, BaE manages to keep it interesting (though not as well written) and inserts some verrrry pleasant variables.

Such as the very, very, very spoilery thing I shall yell about in the last paragraph of this analysis.

On the other hand, the story itself is paper-thin and some characters are either caricatures or badly built/written, and the writing stumbles on its own big brain-ness a couple of times.

I find it funny how Netflix Spanish shows always have an Argentinean actor (Alta Mar, Sky Rojo – Wendy ❤️ –, Élite, La Casa de Papel).

I managed to start and end BaE unspoiled and am very glad. Tbh I came for Bel's abs (I called her Abs at first) and the horses, stayed for a lot of other things. The first couple of episodes – first one especially – are the hardest ones to get through, but I genuinely think BaE is worth a watch: it has a diverse cast, the big baddie is a total MILF (we love evil women in this house); some characters are lovely – when Maika, Charly, or Bel smile, you smile; the love between the sisters, Zoa and Gaby, is beautiful to watch, even when they're apart; and the mystery surrounding Edén is intriguing.

The way they portray environmental awareness is dodgy at best. I get what they're trying to do: replicate The Wilds's Gretchen – "yeah she's evil, but is she wrong?". The thing is, as loath as I am to say this, there is a difference between putting kids in mortal danger to prove a point and actually killing them – even worse, having the kids you trust kill the ones who rebel, and making it part of a reward system. So when it's Erik and Astrid saying those things, it's worse. Also, Gretchen's is more the crazy, psychotic type than Astrid, who is calm, cold, analytical. Those things as well as its insulation from the main plot play a part in making BaE's portrayal of environmental awareness dodgier than the feminism in The Wilds, which weaves it directly into the character-oriented story it tells.

I like how BaE subverts some character expectations – Nico at the center of this –, but would oh so appreciate it if África stopped making googly eyes at Edén Dad. Bel is by far my favorite character, and not just for the abs or being a lesbian – yes, she has her flaws, and SPOILERS her recklessness has led to tragedy (she told Fran to wait though!), SPOILER OVER but she's selfless and compassionate and she is trying to effect lasting change, but still finds it in herself to pause her plans and help others.

Oh also I just realized Begoña Vargas (Bel) is also Verónica from Alta Mar and now that I've seen her freckles I need them to never be hidden again. Her freckles are beautiful.

Also love Zoa, Maika, Eloy, and Charly.

There is a surprising amount of mlm/wlw solidarity, even if I think it's not intentional. And you can really see the bond between some characters (Bel and Eloy, Maika and Charly, Zoa and Gaby, Cláudia and Fran, Astrid and Erik).

And also, HORSES. SO MANY HORSES. The horse lover in me was LOVING THE HORSES.

Despite the issues I really look forward to the second season, because I can't not know what happens next and I love some of the characters. However, I don't see this show having enough of a story to run for more than two seasons.

And finally, where this gets really spoilery.

SPOILERS BELOW

.

.

.

THE LESBIAN ACTIVITY 🙌❤️

For me it's the way it started out as Bel having an apparent straight girl crush and then she and Zoa actually became the main couple ❤️

And Nico being manipulative at first but actually liking Zoa but then turning out to be an irredeemable psycho? Fuck. Yes. This isn't a love triangle, my dudes. It's a lesbian romance with an evil psycho trying to get in the way.

And also- QUEER WOMEN STAY WINNING 🙌

That said, I fear the season finale painted a target on either Bel or Eloy (or both)'s back. I really really hope neither of them, least of all Bel, dies. I really hope the writers see Bel as key for the revolution and don't kill her 🥺 I think she's more useful alive than as a martyr.

[inglourious-imagines]

Piece Of Cake (Fred Weasley)

Summary: Fred claims that asking a girl out to the Yulle ball is a piece of cake. Harry and Ron dare him to prove it.

Prompts: fluff list: 2 - "I don't care, just hold me." & angst list: "Try to see things in my point of view." & miscellaneous list: 4 - "My mum thinks I'm dating you." (changed a bit)

Warning: angst at the beginning, some swear words, fluff at the end

Author's Note: This is for @lunalovecroft 's 1K writing challenge! Probably it was meant to be the other way around, but that idea suddenly strucked me and I decided to give it a go. Happy reading ♡

HP Taglist: @alienoresimagines @95swifi

.

.

.

"You have a place in my heart no one else ever could have." - F.S. Fitzgerald

All the Yulle Ball decoration were making Y/N beyond sick, every ribbon reminding her that she still did not have a date to accompany her throughout the approaching evening. Molly Weasley was so kind to send her as a gift the most beautiful dress Y/N had ever seen in her life and now she was genuinely thinking about not going to the ball at all. 

When she threw herself at the bench in the Great Hall right next to her best friend Hermione who was sitting way too far from Ron, Harry and the twins were seated. Y/N knew about the brightest witch's secret crush on the young Weasley that was slowly but surely growing into something more than just a simple crush. She'd even swear that Ron felt exactly the same about Hermione but she had to promise not to get involved or play a cupid. 

"He didn't ask, did he." Y/N dared to speak up first, glancing from Hermione's sad expression on her face to absolutely oblivious Ronald just a few metres away from them who seemed to be stuffing as much food as possible into his mouth as fast as he could. 

Y/N's eyes wandered from one Weasley to another, much taller one, who's smile was so contagious that she found herself grinning like an idiot for no particular reason.

"What do you think, Y/N." Hermione sighed bringing her back from her daydreaming, "guess he's not the only one who didn't ask, right?" 

Y/N looked at her friend again, simply nodded as she wasn't able to react in any other way. As much as she tried not to, she felt a bit disappointed when the only person she wanted to go to the Yulle ball with, hasn't asked her.

"They've been bickering for the past 15 minutes whether asking a girl out is easy or not." Hermione stated, clearly upset with the whole situation.

"Are you serious, 'Mione? What are their points of view?" 

"Well, Harry and Ron are obviously struggling to even compliment a girl in the right way but Fred reckons there's nothing easier." 

The girls look at each other and burst out laughing in the next second. "Like he'd know how to ask." Y/N managed to get out of her through her laughter, "however, I must agree with Harry and Ron. They're the most oblivious idiots." 

"Tell me about it." Hermione giggled but a trace of hurt flew over her face and Y/N suddenly felt really sorry for her dear friend. 

"Hey Y/N!" Fred shouted out of the blue, his clear voice echoed through the Great Hall causing other students to perk up their heads in order to find out what possibly he has in mind now. 

Y/N threw a look full of question marks to Hermione before turning her head to the tall red-head. "Yes?"

The moment his typical mischievous grin appeared on his face Y/N knew that something either funny and unpleasant to her or something embarrassing is about to happen.

"Will you..." Fred kept on talking as loudly as possible while wildly gesturing with his arms - apparently pretending to dance, "go to the ball..." now he was just pointing at her and him, "with me?"

Y/N's whole face turned brightly red, her nervous eyes wandering from student to student with such awaiting and amused expressions on their faces. Her heartbeat fastened in the matter of seconds that it seemed like it might jump out of her chest. Y/N looked at Hermione for help with such desperation hidden behind her gaze but her friend just simply shrugged, absolutely shocked with the sudden question, just like Y/N was.

A few seconds passed and Y/N was still sitting at her spot totally speechless. She imagined many times how Fred would ask her to the ball but never in a million years did she think it'd be like this - shouting at her in front of the whole Great Hall with absolutely no sign of sincerity or romance; to her it seemed like some sort of a bet to prove his point.

Their eyes for a moment and Y/N realized that Fred was convinced that she's going to accept his offer, confidence was basically radiating off of him. She knew he's not bragging, Fred was one of the kindest people she'd ever met but sometimes, sometimes he just wasn't able to estimate the situation. 

Anger was slowly bottling up in her as she quickly stood up grabbing all her books. As much as it hurt her to say it, Y/N was still able to straighten up looking directly into his eyes. "Sorry, Weasley, not interested. But thanks for the offer, I feel flattered." The sarcasm in her voice was more than obvious. 

Y/N winked at Hermione, rightly feeling satisfied with her as she heard a few laughs from many students when she walked out of the Great Hall leaving absolutely speechless and embarrassed Fred Weasley. 

•••

Y/N rushed into her dormitory, not wanting to deal with anybody at the moment as the anger was slowly transforming into hurt. This wasn't what she imagined.

She threw herself at her bed; her books were casted off on the ground, papers flying all over the place.

"Y/N! Wait!" a muffled voice of the too familiar Weasley filled her ears and before she knew it, Fred was standing in the middle of her dormitory with flushed cheeks due to the long run, doors slammed shut behind him. 

"Let me explain." he almost begged taking a few steps towards her. She quickly got on her feet as she shook with her head couple of times. "Please, no. I don't care if your intentions were the noblest, but it happened and that's it."

"If you could just let me talk."

But Y/N didn't see the regret in Fred's eyes, or how his hands trembled a little bit, she was way too furious to notice all these things.

"Try to see things from my point of view, Weasley! You basically shouted at me in front of the whole school if I want to go to the ball with you! I understand that you just wanted to prove something to Ron and Harry but this is not a game for me."

Every single word that left her mouth went straight to Fred's heart. He never in a million years intended to hurt Y/N, he'd rather suffer himself than have something happen to her. But he was scared, Fred felt truly terrified of asking her out and when the boys confronted him about it, he panicked. He didn't have an idea why he reacted that way. The pounding heart, sweaty palms, the hotness in his cheeks - all this was new to Fred Weasley and he wasn't sure what do to with his stormy emotions.

"I'm real sorry, Y/N. I didn't want to offend you but that doesn't mean I don't stand behind what I said earlier." he tried to ease the tense in the small room, his lips even formed into a cute little innocet smile.

"I don't know, Weasley. I simply think-"

"Let me make it up to you! The ball's tomorrow, just say yes."

Then they were there - Fred's puppy eyes that no matter how serious the problem was, Y/N wasn't able to bring herself to say no. She knew he's very well aware of that fact, he somehow managed to melt her heart.

"Fine. I'll go to the Yulle ball with you, Weasley. Don't make me regret it."

"I can certainly promise you that, Y/L/N."

•••

Y/N was nervously pacing in her new white dress that she got from Mrs. Weasley while Hermione was watching her with an amused expression.

"You know, this isn't funny." she frowned but a part of her was telling her how unreasonably ridiculous she is.

"Actually it is," her best friend couldn't held back the laughter, "you'll be fine. I bet he's even more nervous than you are." 

"Hermione! His mum thinks I'm bloody dating him!" 

"That's just so perfect. Maybe you will be after tonight."

Their eyes met for a moment and then, as if their minds were connected, the girls started giggling like some 13-year-olds. Y/N finally relaxed a bit, just like Hermione did, as they both promised themselves to look after each other during the evening.

"So what do you think?" Y/N winked at her friend, "shall we?"

"Absolutely."

•••

The duo walked together down the stairs leading to the dance hall, side by side, both of them smiling widely. Y/N found Fred's tall figure right away as he was nervously pacing back and forth mumbling something under his breath while George watched him amused. Just like Hermione watched her a couple minutes ago. God, how similar they could be.

"Well done, brother dear. Fucking well done." George whispered into his twin's ear tapping his shoulder. Fred's gaze immediately landed on approaching Y/N making him stop in his tracks. George just smirked and left with his own date to give them some privacy.

Fred was closely watching her every step, how elegantly she carried herself through the room, the beautiful white dress flew around her making her look like an angel descending from the sky. 

"Blimey, I don't think I've ever seen something so beautiful like you." Fred breathed out, his eyes roaming all over her body.

"You don't look too bad as well, Weasley." Y/N blushed at his compliment as she sent him one nervous smile. The truth was, he looked way more better than just 'not bad' and she had to remind herself not to stare at him too much. He pulled her into his side, his scent and warmth immediately embracing her, and she found herself falling for this dangerously good looking red-head. 

"Everybody's turning their heads after you. I swear I even saw a smile on Snape's face." Fred pointed out, his voice filled with obvious jealousy as his grip on her waist tightened. 

"I don't care, just hold me, Fred." Y/N gave him a reassuring smile taking his hand in his, "just hold me."

"I never wanted anything more." 

[serendipityjxmn]

Mr. President

Chapter 23

TW: Brief smut

Words Count: 2.5k

Link to Masterlist

Link to Chapter 24

“I can’t believe I’m engaged now. Can you believe it? A whole week before he kept annoying me and all of a sudden he brought me a ring.” Irene rolls her eyes. The two of you met for lunch nearby the company. You haven’t seen her in a while and it feels nice to catch up with everything. Irene is one of the few of the very little friends you have.

Her longtime boyfriend had finally proposed to her. You almost scream finally when Irene broke the news to you. You genuinely feel happy for her.

“So, guess that’s it for today’s catch up session.” She grins at you.

“Um.. actually do you mind if I come up for a moment?”

“Uh duh~ of course not! You miss him already?” She teases.

You try to stifle a smile. “A little bit.” You do miss him a little.

When you reach your old desk, Irene excuses herself to the restroom. Feeling excited, you head towards Jimin’s room. But that feeling dampens quickly when he’s nowhere to be seen. Pouting, you head back to your old station.

You’re about to text him about his whereabouts when you see him comes with a woman next to him. They stand not far from where you are but you don’t think they notice since you’re slightly hidden behind the wall.

They stand there for a moment as they talk and you wonder who the woman is. You don’t think you’ve encountered her before back when you’re still working here.

They laugh about something and she briefly touches your husband’s arm. If Jimin’s somehow uncomfortable with that, he’d done a perfect job hiding it. You feel your inside boiling, perhaps just a little.

While they’re still talking, you head into Jimin’s office. Storming into the room, you huff, feeling furious.

But then something catches your eye.

Taking a few step towards Jimin’s table, you notice the name plaque with his name written on it, the one you made. Drawn to it, you move closer and reaches for it, heart fluttering a little.

And then you notice the picture frame next to it. It looks strangely familiar so you move around the table and there’s no mistaking that it’s the portrait you made. The portrait looks so out of place in his sleek and modern office that you suddenly feel like laughing.

The picture next to it does a little something to your heart. It’s your wedding picture but it’s just you, smiling brightly.

How are you supposed to be mad at him when he does this?

You pout.

And then suddenly the door opens. Jimin enters and immediately sees you but he only frowns for a moment before gesturing the woman in.

Your eyes narrow slightly.

It would all be fine, really, because you’re a professional, only if she keeps her hands off your husband.

Jimin then gestures her to sit across him. She bows, her neck a tad bit too exposed. You notice Jimin looking away for a split second, working hard to hide his uncomfortable expression.

The way her skirt is too short and the way she crosses her legs, you can see through it all.

Well, Mrs. Park to the rescue.

Biting your lips, you walk over. She finally notices your presence when you come near. You hold a hand out to her.

“You are..?” She asks.

“I’m Mrs. Park.”

For a fleeting second, you see her face registers surprise as she shakes your hand. “Nice meeting you, Mrs. Park. I’m Jinah.”

Jimin’s arm snakes around your waist as you take your place beside him.

“And you’re here for..?” You ask.

“Oh, I’m here to discuss about a new publishing project that us as Glory Publishing is currently positively reviewing. You might be aware that Mr. Park is planning to acquire Glory Publishing.”

Oh, you knew about this one. Jimin told you this before. His company had been looking for potential publishing companies to branch out and Glory Publishing is one of them. But they didn't make the cut. Yet here they are trying to convince Jimin that they're looking at the next big project.

Your husband has made it clear that their company didn't make the cut but they're very persistent. You briefly wonder why he still accepts appointments with their party. Perhaps out of goodwill.

You clear your throat. "I thought our representatives had made it clear on this issue. Your company has issues with ethical problems and we’re doing our best to avoid future problems.” Perhaps your confidence is boosted a little with Jimin playing with your hair behind you.

Jinah seems flustered, perhaps not expecting you to address the issue. She tries to have a look at your husband but you immediately covered him.

And he just grins behind you, lips caressing your hair because he swears he loves you so much when you’re protecting him like this.

“If you don’t have anything else,” you look at your watch, “unfortunately the time is up. I have to ask you to leave because my husband is very booked and busy. If there’s any further issue, I hope you can contact our representatives instead.” You hold a hand out to her and she takes it, although her expression is furious. Without another word, she storms out.

As soon as she left, you let out a relieved sigh, suddenly not believing you just did that. Jimin tries to stifle a smile at your reaction. You got up and move towards Jimin’s desk and he follows you from behind.

“I have a very good secretary it seems.” He whispers to your ears, making you gasp. He then stands in front of you.

You gulp. Too close, too close.

He sits on the edge of his desk. “And how should I reward you for that?” He smiles.

Suddenly, he pulls you onto his lap and you let out a squeak.

His eyes fell to your lips and it looks so, so dangerous.

Oh no. “Jimin, it’s the office.”

“So?”

“You can’t do anything to me.” You try to run.

“It’s my company.” He catches your wrist effortlessly.

Your eyes widen. “It’s gross.”

He quirks one eyebrow. And you catch his off guard moment to run away. Pretty sure your husband’s laughing at you now.

A grin appears on your lips when you’re reminded of that evening’s event. Jimin really has a gift of making your heart rate spike up. You have no idea how to handle when your husband’s being flirty. You’re in the kitchen, having just finished washing the dishes. You set to make a cup of coffee for Jimin and then heads to his study. You softly knock before entering to see him talking through a phone call. He glances up upon your entrance and mouths a thank you as you put the cup down in front of him.

You look around his study for several moments, briefly remembering the first time you’re in here and your husband has just come up with the marriage contract with you. You smile fondly at the memory. It feels so long since then. And look at where the two of you are now.

You’re just about to dismiss yourself when something catches your attention.

Something’s weird.

You think as you stop and stare at the vast painting before you. It looks strangely familiar. You think hard for a while but is still unable to remember the source so you resolve to thinking that perhaps it’s been hung there from the start.

“You remember this painting?” Jimin suddenly asks as he comes to stand beside you.

And suddenly it all clicks in your head. It’s the painting you both saw at the art exhibition. The Isle of Sorrow.

You feel like you’re in a sort of treasure hunt today with everything that you found.

“I bought it the day we saw..” he says carefully.

Your heart starts to race. “I didn’t wanna scare you.. so I kept it hidden.. I didn’t know why I bought it back then.” He laughs at himself then smiles sheepishly. “Perhaps I was already in love..”

You don’t think you can control the pace of your heart anymore.

Especially not when his face is inching closer and closer to you, closing the proximity between the two of you.

And then he takes your lips by surprise although you’ve been anticipating it. It’s slow and languid but it’s enough to suck the air out of you. You think you’ll always marvel by how soft his lips are against yours. When he pulls back, you’re all sorts of breathless.

“Y/N.” He says firmly.

You look up at him expectantly.

He takes a deep breath and looks at you straight in the eye.

“I love you.”

It takes a moment for your brain to process and to make sure you didn’t mishear it. And your eyes water immediately.

“I think I’ve fallen for you since back then.. even before.. you said you love me. But I wasn’t sure what it was back then and I tried so hard to deny what I was feeling.. you were constantly on my mind.. I keep on worrying when you’re not in front of me, I feel so angry even at the thought of another guy touching you, I want to destroy anything or everything that hurts you the slightest.. including me.. because I know I’m the one that hurts you the most.. and it almost cost your life.. for me to realize that I burn for you.. my day and my nights.. that I’m actually in love with you.”

And the tears run down your cheeks. It’s all so overwhelming and something that you can’t describe because you’ve been waiting for so long for him to reciprocate your feelings and then he finally says the words but you both had been through so much and it just somehows feels like a very long journey.

A tear escapes Jimin’s eyes too but he’s quick to inhale a breath and recomposes himself. He then wipes your tears and gives you a moment to recompose.

“There’s something I want to do.” he says, eyes staring at you seriously. “I.. I know I’m a lot to put up with.. and I know I’ve done.. worse things. But I want to do this.. I want to be.. with you.”

And suddenly he takes out something from his right pocket and kneels down in front of you. You gasp as you watch him with widening eyes.

“I promise to love you, cherish you, honor you, and to hold your hands always in times of good and bad. I vow to stay faithful, loyal and honest till we both grow old. Will you... start this marriage anew.. with me?”

Your heart beats even faster, tears almost threatening again when you realize he’s reciting the wedding vow six months ago, except that this time it is full of sincerity.

And your heart continues to thunder against your chest when he opens the small velvet box, a ring with a simple crystal centrepiece encased in it.

And it suddenly dawns to you that he’s the only man that you’ll ever love in your life.

So you nod. With your eyes glistening in tears.

Jimin gives you a full smile. And then he takes the ring out and gently put it on your fourth finger. That’s when you realize he already puts his on, one that matches yours on his finger too.

When he raises to his feet, you don’t waste another second to pull him into a hug.

You love him.. with all your heart. Is all you could think.

When you both pull back, he looks at you fondly.

“I just thought that you deserve a proper proposal..” he grabs your hand and guides you to his study desk. You watch in confusion for a second as he bents down to pick up something from behind the desk and your eyes widen when you see a bouquet of red roses. “Hearts..” he says as his finger points to his heart, “and flowers.” He hands you the bouquet.

He smiles as you remain speechless.

“I.. honestly I’ve had this for a long time, ever since you’re still in the hospital.. and I tried to find the right time but I don’t know.. I gave up trying to find the right time because I think there’s no such thing as the right time.. but I want to do this..”

You raise your fingers to cup his chin tenderly. “It’s.. perfect.”

You watch as his eyes lit up from your words. And then his face inches closer. You know he’s about to kiss you again but this time, you’re ready.

Your eyes flutter close as his lips finally meet yours and it’s as if your lips are made for him when they moulded perfectly against his.

He tilts his head slightly and this time he pulls you even closer. His lips presses against yours more deeply, drawing a whimper from your throat, a sound that causes him to grunt.

The kiss escalates quickly, growing more and more intense, making your feet curl against the plush carpet.

His hands move downwards from your neck towards your shoulder. And when one of his hand brushes against your breast, you let out a squeak in surprise.

Jimin pulls away immediately, eyes finding yours. His expression concerned, perhaps wondering if he’s gone too far from your comfort zone.

“I’m sorry.” He says quickly, still a little out of breath.

You bite your bottom lip. You don’t want him to stop. “No, I’m sorry. It’s just.. I’m not used.. I’m.. I’ve never.. I’ve never done this before..”

He looks at you softly. “I know. And I promised you to take it slow. So I’m not gonna do anything you’re uncomfortable with. Okay?”

You nod. He smiles and releases you and suddenly you’re afraid he’ll go away so you grab his shirt quickly.

He raises his brow at you.

“We.. we can.. we can continue.. to kiss..” you say and you feel like you’re going to die from embarassment.

Jimin smiles wickedly, almost wanting to clutch his heart physically because he finds you too adorable. “Wow okay. Kiss me then.” He says playfully.

You look up at him, eyes round in determination and he finds it so adorable it takes everything in him not to initiate the kiss first.

Closing the proximity, you tiptoe slightly and press your lips firmly against his.

You feel him smiling against your lips and you can’t help but smile too. This time, you try to take control.

Your fingers card his hair as you pull him tight against you, deepening the kiss. A moan escapes his mouth and you’ve never heard something sound so sinful before.

It almost kind of sparks something carnal deep inside you.

And then your hands are on his chest, deftly unbuttoning his shirt. His hands are on each side of your waist, palms flat against your skin, not making any move to explore anymore and you want to change that.

You want him to know that you’re ready.

So you press yourself against him and practically grinds against him, making him groan.

“Baby-” he says but you cut him by taking his lips again. Tongue fervently exploring his mouth.

“Jimin-” you call him, breathless. “Take me to bed, please.”

A/N: *fanning myself* im actually blushing aaaaaa yall know what's coming in the next chapter ;)))

on the side note, I am having mixed feeling right now. I can’t wait for this story to end and show it to you guys but at the same time I’m sad that it’s coming to an end because there’s really not much chapter left 🥺

Buy me a cup of coffee here! 💜

Link to Chapter 24

Posted on 210607 9:00PM

[vulpinmusings]

Scooby Doo character pitches

A few days ago, I saw a youtube video offering commentary on Scooby Doo, mainly focusing on the core cast but having little footnote sections on the various minor allies including the ever-divisive Scrappy Doo.

The whole thing got into my head, and all this week I've found myself unable to stop brainstorming how I'd structure the members of Mystery Inc. if I had creative control of a Scooby show. So, I'll unload those ideas here.

Fred: I'm rather taken with the trap-obsessed and general himbo portrayal of Fred in Mystery Incorporated, so that's largely what we're going with here. Fred is a pure-hearted but largely clueless boy who never intends any malice. As the more respectable-looking male member of the gang (what with the white tucked-in shirt, clean haircut, and great posture), people tend to think he's the leader and speak to him as such, when in reality he's probably the last person you'd want to consult for updates on the mystery. Fred's one area of genius is in the building of traps to capture the costumed villain of the week, and his expertise in the use of levers, pulleys, and springs bleeds over into his investigative specialty: leave this man in a room undisturbed for ten minutes and he'll have found every trap door, hidden compartment, and secret passage that relies on mechanical triggers.

Daphne: The socially savvy team member who swiftly comes to Fed and Velma's rescue if they're out of their depth dealing with people (usually just Fred, but Velma has her moments). Although appearing at first to be a rather shallow, entitled debutante just following her boyfriend Fred's mystery solving hobby out of either boredom or a show of support, Daphne is actually one of the main driving forces to investigate mysteries and no slouch in the deduction department. Daphne is well aware of her group's tendency to cross paths with greedy criminals being sneaky and thus approaches every ghost or monster rumor with the attitude of "somebody's hiding something shady and I'm going to find out what." Her wealthy background and genuine interest in high fashion gives her a keen eye for counterfeiting and knock-off goods. Daphne's not "danger-prone," and while she's adverse to dirtying her clothes she can and will fight her own her way out of the rare hostage situation she finds herself in.

Velma: Book-smart, scientific-minded, and blind without her glasses. Velma is more or less as she usually is, with the exception that instead of immediately dismissing the possibility of the supernatural, she's eager to find and document genuine cases of it. While experience has shown her that the monster is most likely just a dude in a suit, she always starts with "real ghost" as a possibility in each individual case until the evidence proves otherwise. Velma's the other driving force of the group, always on the lookout for rumors of hauntings and cryptids to narrow down the list, one way or another. She does clash with Daphne on occasion over their contrasting opinions on the supernatural, while she and Shaggy tend to feed of each other's belief, hence why the group typically splits into the Fred/Daphne and Velma/Shaggy/Scooby teams.

Shaggy: Shaggy's a theater kid who took on a lot of very active roles on stage, which has given him plenty of stamina and speed for running away. Shaggy is a believer in the supernatural and very cautious by nature, which can come across as cowardice at times compared to his friends' willingness to blindly walk right into haunted buildings and dark caves, but at the same time he's notably braver than Scooby. Shaggy does enjoy solving mysteries on principle, but he's significantly less thrilled to have to come face-to-face with sword-wielding pirate ghosts and snarling sea monsters in the process. Shaggy's theater experience serves him two-fold: he's the best in the group at figuring out and explaining the villain's special effects (projection tricks, flight, smokescreens, etc.) and stalling and confusing the villain with improvised bits, although both of these depend on him having enough space and time to get past his Flight response whenever the villain pops up. Shaggy uses food to cope with the anxiety inherent in his chosen hobby, and he tends to expend more calories than the rest of the gang, so frequent and sometimes sizable snacks are a must for him to stay at the top of his game.

Scooby: Great Dane body, chicken heart. I mean, it's Scooby Doo, what do you expect? Scooby's the kind to jump at his own shadow, but he's fiercely loyal to Shaggy. Being the Theater Kid's dog, Scooby is skilled at quickly picking up on Shaggy's improv bits and playing along.

Scrappy Doo: Yes, Scrappy's here. If you don't like it, shut up and hear me out first. Scrappy is puppy, just a little guy who heard some stories about Mystery Inc. and decided to go learn the art of monster hunting from his heroic uncle Scooby. Lil' Scappy's a bit too young to grasp how cowardly Scooby actually is, but ironically his presence does help goad Scoob into acting more bravely, if only because Scooby will do as much to protect his earnest but naïve nephew as he would for Shaggy. Being a puppy, Scrappy logically shouldn't be more eloquent than Scooby, so although Scrap can speak English he's only, at best, as comprehensible as Scooby himself. Sometimes the only one who can understand what Scrappy's saying is Scooby, which... is not ideal. By the same token, Scrappy's not a mystery-solving genius, although his small size and impetuous hunting instinct does lead to him digging up clues the others wouldn't have spotted. While not an unreasonable approach in principle, Scrappy's inclination to charge the monster of the week on first sighting is undercut by his being puppy. You can just pick him up and hold him out in one hand where he can't do any damage. This and his inclination to wander if nobody's watching over him can lead to him becoming a hostage and triggering Scooby's protective drive. Daphne, Velma, and even Fred at times see Scrappy as a nuisance, but Scooby won't hear a word against him and Shaggy sees the potential in Scrappy once the pup learns restraint and how Mystery Inc. operates.

[echo-three-one]

Chapter 41

THE ROAD SO FAR

One step closer to the end.

FIVE Seconds

John 'Soap' MacTavish

Task Force 141 Base - Infirmary

We overcame Ultranationalists, chopper crashes, danger close with gunships but a goddamn dog is what'll get me into an infirmary? Rabies, ridiculous. What a waste of time. 

John wrote down his anger in his black journal. It housed all his thoughts ever since being recruited at the Task Force regarding mission briefings, regrets and training schedules. It was his outlet on all the things going on around the world.

He noticed that Captain Price also slept by the other bed, his eyes looked tired from staying up late, he never gave up on Volt that he tired himself out.

He winced at the pain of the bruise the rotten dog gave him. He was never really a fan of them as most dogs tend to chase him wherever he went. Yesterday was another proof. Luckily, France seemed to catch up on his body language, how he didn't want anyone to know that a dog was the reason he's in the infirmary. The way she knew it without telling her was starting to convince the Scotsman that he got himself a keeper. Someone who understands.

Speaking of which, the same gorgeous blonde girl entered the infirmary, greeting Soap with a very genuine smile of relief. 

"Hi." She smiled quietly as Price was still asleep. 

"Aye. Hello there." He greeted, his voice was low and rough as he attempted to catch the lady off guard. She may look tough wearing her 141 training uniform, but Soap knows how to make her lose her composure. 

"How's the wound?" She asked, her face was already turning red as she approached him. She looked so cute right now, Soap won't mind kissing her amidst the Captain being there along with some CCTVs.

"Getting better. Hopefully enough to join the fight. How about you?" he replied, smiling at the female soldier. The general mood of the room quickly shifted and the two of them were pretty aware about it.

"I'm fine. I'm just here to thank you for saving me back then. But you didn't have to… I deserved that bite for not being careful." She muttered.

Soap sighed. 

"Eh, you know full well that I care for you, France. For once let me be the hero." He chuckled and France laughed.

"You already know that you are my hero, dummy." She winked as she started to leave.

"I gotta go. It's my turn to clean up the comms. Wish you'd help me though, Hero." she teased as she left the room, Soap was left staring at her beautiful figure exit the room.

"You sure got yourself a tough lass there, lad." Price grumbled as he woke up, commenting on the two.

"Aye. She's definitely a keeper. I just hope I don't mess up. Because I think she's the one." Soap finally admitted, to Price of all people. The captain just chuckled.

"Yeah. My word of advice. Go with what your heart and mind says." He said with full sincerity, as if he didn't want Soap to regret everything. There was flavor in his words that made Soap wonder if such advice came from experience. Though he did hear rumors that he and Laswell had some sort of history, and he got that from France.

"Aye, Captain… Will do." Soap nodded and Price got up.

"I'm giving Volt a final visit." He grumbled and went off, leaving Soap alone in his thoughts once again.

The next day, Soap was cleared from the infirmary and was immediately tasked on the mission. Last night, Nero started his assault on the capital and thousands of rangers were struggling to keep them off the country. With Volt finally given up, he relayed information regarding one of Nero's allies.

They were going to Havana, the home base of the mind manipulation and the command center of Nero's forces. How it managed to stay hidden, nobody knows but the team was eager to find out soon. Especially that another nuke is ready for launch.

Abandoned Building, Cuba, Havana

Soap could hear France hum the song Havana quietly as she crossed her arms just before the plane started. She was nervous and Soap knew that so he tried to hold her hand in secrecy, showing him a face that assured her that everything will be alright.

In this mission, time was of the essence so stealth wasn't an option. They were headed to the base guns blazing, all in hopes to disable the second nuke launch.

The helo flew dangerously low as metal clanged on it's base as soon as enemies fired at it. It was a risky move but the squad needed to drop by the rooftops to get a clear vantage point.

Soap immediately seeked for cover by the edge of the rooftop, eyeing the door that led to the lower floors where the command center should be.

"We'll hold them off! You go!" Alex yelled as Soap, Price, Roach and France breached the door, descending to the second floor of the building. 

The place was abandoned and very open, enemies' footsteps echoed across the halls, making the team aware of their positions.

"Soap, focus on getting to the control room. We'll take care of them. France, cover his six. Roach and I will make a grand distraction." Price said, popping a grenade on the main hall and Roach assisted him, drawing all the attention towards them.

"Alex, when you're done sweeping up the yard, I need your team down here asap." Price muttered over comms.

"Roger that." he replied.

"Looks like it's you and me against the clock now." Soap managed to chuckle at their situation. France just chuckled and cleared the location so Soap could advance. This was her forte. Stealth and close quarters.

"You're good to go, John." She said as she took the stairs down. Soap cautiously followed as he heard gunshots from France's location.

"Two tangos down." She declared, clearing the staircase to the basement.

"Multiple tangos in the basement. Looks like we're in the right place." France nodded and Soap followed, pulling the pin of a grenade and tossing it to the narrow hallway.

"GRANADA!!" One yelled and an explosion followed, signaling the couple to press on the narrow hallway while they're dazed.

They shot down the enemies until more emerged from behind, trapping the two of them.

"Shite! At this rate we'll never push forward. We're pinned!" Soap called for help.

"Someone's escaping! Reinforcements are arriving!" Alex warned as the team was now overwhelmed with hostiles. Time was running out.

"John! Watch my six and I'll clear a path for you." France said and left without letting him reply. This worried Soap but he had to trust her and so he covered her six. Shooting at enemies dumb enough to dive on to the narrow hallway. He did his best to retaliate by firing back and tossing any grenades back to its source.

It felt like the longest two minutes of his life. France fought her way to the command center and him, defending the entrance while his ammo slowly ran out. Then after what seemed like forever, he heard her go signal.

Soap ran as fast as he could, and just before he lost sight of the entrance, he saw Price immediately follow him. They did it. They cleared the entrance.

He fished out his journal for the cryllic translator, decoding every letter just so he could stop the launch. They only had five seconds left. 

Soap furiously typed the code Volt gave them and pressed enter as soon as it's done. The launch didn't stop. Soap figured that they were too late, but Price's face never looked worried.

"Captain. The launch didn't stop! What are we going to do?" France said, worried.

"It's all according to plan." He muttered as he signaled his head to head back to the rooftop.

"Let's burn this place down." He added and they all ran back to the rooftops for exfil.

"Dropping the skyhook now! Latch yourselves in!" Eagle Two Four yelled as the thick rope dropped from the sky, Soap quickly latched himself in and looked behind him. France was a few meters away from the final hook as a stray bullet grazed her thigh.

"France! Hang on!" Soap quickly detached himself almost automatically, without thinking. The rest of the team were already being hoisted up when they noticed the two members still on the rooftops.

Soap's body felt the rush as he quickly carried her up and held her tight, running toward the last hook and quickly attaching himself in, all while holding her tight in his arms.

"Why didn't you call out to me? You know I'm going to save you whatever it takes." he whispered as he felt France already in tears. If it wasn't for him always checking out on her, she would've been left alone in that abandoned building.

"Is she going to be fine?" The worried Scotsman asked the nurse. His voice was almost loud enough to disturb everyone else.

"She got hit twice. One on the chest and one on the thigh. They're both minor but she just passed out from the panic and exhaustion. We found this on her chest. The thing practically saved her life." The nurse handed over his journal. Soap's eyes widened at the hole that pierced through the whole book. He must've left it when he typed the abort codes and she must've grabbed it from there.

"The bullet barely pierced through her armor thanks to that book." She said as Soap looked up and silently thanked that she was safe. He quickly flipped through the pages until he found the page where he drew her. The bullet hole on the page was where her heart was. It was funny because it was the other way around. That woman was the one that fired a bullet straight to his heart. And he wasn't a big fan of metaphors at this rate.

"So is she okay?" Roach quickly ran to Soap's side, a worried look on his face. Alex and Price were behind him.

"The journal saved her." He said, raising the pierced black book as proof.

"She's lucky enough you got her on time. I couldn't think of any other way she could be saved from there." Price commented as she looked at her through the glass.

"She's a tough lad. But sometimes she needs to understand that she isn't alone." Price added and Alex nodded. 

"She'll wake up soon." Alex tapped Soap's shoulder and he nodded, as they left the infirmary for another briefing.

On the way to the briefing room, they caught up with Ghost and Alexandra bringing an unknown man to the interrogation area, which prompted the team to follow.

Inside the interrogation room's observation area, the team sat while Price and Jack talked to the man.

"Nice to see ya, Jack. Thought Nero got rid of you." He smugly said with a wide annoying grin on his mouth.

"Who is this prick, anyway?!" Roach hissed.

"That's Gabriel Lannister. CIA's Research and Development Head." Alex said nonchalantly, Soap could see the disbelief in his eyes. There was more than just one mole in his previous department.

"He was the one in charge with the mass manipulation of the missing persons cases." Ryder added.

"While you lot launched the nuke, he went off running with four convoys of protection. Luckily we were able to intercept them by the bridge." Ghost informed.

"What about the nuke?" Soap asked, completely forgetting about it. It was his responsibility, as he typed the whole command on it.

"Blasted at Nero's fleet not too far from the White House. If you were five seconds later, the war would've ended differently." Ryder supplied the information.

"And the capital?" Roach asked.

"Mostly damaged, but it will recover. Turns out Nero did really burn the place down." Ghost answered. 

"What about Nero?" Alex asked, eyes not leaving the whole interrogation.

"No one knows where he is. We were hoping this guy would give information about him." Ryder pointed to Gabriel, who was having a fun time at the interrogation.

The tension inside the room was different. Each person had their own little realizations and this pushed them to end the war as soon as possible.

Soap immediately exited the area and went back to the infirmary.

"Hey." He was greeted by France, who was already up.

"How are you holding up?" He asked, his tone more concerned than ever.

"Well, It doesn't hurt right now but… I'm… I almost died out there, John… What if I died?" Her voice croaked and tears started falling from her eyes. John quickly approached her and hugged her gently close to his chest.

"Don't say that… What's important is you're alive… I got you and you're safe…" He whispered.

"Thank you." She croaked. John just rubbed her back assuring her everything will be alright.

"No. Thank you. You changed me, France. You made me realize a lot of things. I know that this isn't the most perfect place right now, but… Will you be my girlfriend? Because I can't help thinking about how every single day of my life since I met you, I can't stop thinking about you. Your smile, your face, the things you say, the way you hide what you really feel. I want all of those and after that last mission, I realized that I shouldn't have left you waiting. There was no better time than as soon as possible." He said, offering his notebook as replacement for flowers.

France nodded with tears in her eyes, accepting the journal with confusion.

"Turn it on the last page." Soap said as she did it, showing a sketch of her and him together happily smiling. She wore the clothes she wore when they were out together in that coffee shop.

"This is beautiful." She said, tracing a finger on the paper.

"I love you, John MacTavish." She said as she leaned in for a kiss, not letting him reply.

Next Chapter : FOUR Weeks of Silence

Notification Squad my Beloved

@smokeywhalee @enderio @samatedeansbroccoli @ricinbach @whimsywispsblog @bumblingbee1

[interestsofabookwormbitch]

Season 1 Episode 5

Watching the next episode of Roswell

Wait wait wait! I just looked at the episode titles now, are they song titles! OMG I love that! Smells Like Teen Spirit is the episode after this one (that's how I figured it out) and it makes me so happy. I love Nirvana.

Ok, so here's the thing after the recap I just wanted to say. "After all I'm the one who killed those girls" but not Rosa... just saying.

Also, I know this was his thought process, two good lives compared to his shitty one, who do they ruin? Easy answer. The whole shebang. But I always hate that. Like not really but it makes me feel bad and I hate that mindset, love it from a storytelling perspective.

Ok back to this episode of which I have no idea why Isobel is out here alone. Love the crop circles though

See I like this argument though. Like genuinely Michael shouldn't be confessing because he matters too, but you know, with his mindset I doubt he cares. Making him aware of the dangers it poses to his family is more likely to work.

Sidenote: I mean technically speaking they should all confess since you know people died and all that, but I don't really care about those people, so....

Ok, so she went missing, and they're horrible at on the spot lies. Do I need to say "wonder what's up there?" I don't think I do.

Did he BUY that!? Oh my god

Oh he's speechless.🙄 I'm sorry. I know it's rude. And I like Kyle, I do, I just don't ship them. I mean, it's not gonna end up working, so why would I even bother trying.

I can't believe his mom knew all this and his it. I don't like that. Kyle's mom is kinda iffy at times. I get why she would (I think) but still.

Ok, that's gonna be important, but Idk what that thing is.

Kyle being shady. I do trust him now, but why does he have to keep secrets from Liz?

Oh! It's a recorder. Of some kind

Oh my. We have to talk with the conspiracy theorist. I don't mind that. It could be interesting.

She just cuts right to things.

So he's definitely too scared to talk, which I mean, fair enough. Also how did he disappear? Like she wasn't far behind him.

Cabin.

Alex! I missed him last episode. Also, sidenote, why is Kyle's second thought to break the window instead of, oh idk, scoping it out to see if anything is left open?

I'm gonna be honest, I didn't actually remember Noah's name until he introduced himself there. This really is a small town with everyone running into each other all the time.

Dude, Kyle's dad was so fucking shady omg. Like idk why he's connecting to these people, and just has so much hidden stuff. Weird dude (obviously on a less funny note he's extremely gross for getting with Rosa)

What's with the gun? Ah America. Lmao

Wait wait wait. Ok, unpacking this. A) blackouts, right around the end of high school, B) talk of Rosa as stressor, C) she doesn't know what happened. So like, am I reading too much into this or did Isobel kill Rosa? Cause I think she did. Accidentally by the sound of it, but tbh I wouldn't expect her to do that intentionally.

I was about to say I like seeing old friendships, but then things a turn. Oof. Bullying, homophobia, this is not good childhood memories like I thought we were gonna get. This cabin just got awkward

I love when someone asks "how much longer?" And it's immediately followed by something happening.

Fucking, guy who believes everything is normal, "don't open that. Bad things." Guy who knows about aliens and the existence of creatures outside of what we know and also experiments and government conspiracies "ah nothing bad could possibly be down there."

So why does Isobel blackout but the other two apparently don't?

And there's a big bed. Why, idk, but it's here.

First of all, poor Alex, literally life had to suck so hard for him, I can't imagine living life with no one real loved ones. Like I have 6 siblings, you know, hard to not have one of them be attached to you.

But anyways, see, now Alex is arguing if Kyle's dad was a good guy, and like, it pulls into questions which way this story is gonna go. With this it looks like it's gonna go he's not bad, but then what's withthe letter? Wasn't it a love letter? I'm confused

Girl just broke in! Was there no other way? Why does everyone resort to breaking windows in this town?

Yeah, I saw him being there coming. That was obvious after she went to unplug

Ok, was it not a love letter? Is that why it's possible this was just a detoxt?

Confetti gun, cause even if you can't legally own a gun in America you still need to have one

Ok, these three feel so much like siblings here, and I always have to stop to appreciate it cause so many things get siblings wrong.

This time! And truth comes out😬.

😲 why did I not see this twist coming! I'm quite literally speechless rn

Holy shit! I was pausing to say something and the gu went off. Another good twist! Why are there so many twists!? Help this show is actually good. So far I think this is my favourite episode.

How does she know what gun he has?

Oh back to the three of them. That's bad. I thought she was like investigating Rosa or something back then too, that's why they made her leave, but it was literally just cause Max liked her. Like I'm sorry, but that crosses boundaries. Making life changing decisions without the people who's lives your changing.

Fhskfhdskhd. Ok, they gonna be feeling guilty though. Like man, seeing his reaction hearing him be so broken, must hurt knowing you caused someone you love all that pain.

Also, finding her, yes please! She's kinda in danger rn.

Lmao, the gun! I hate that I laugh at it.

Holy shit that's that guy! Is that family bad guys? Omg I'm so confused help

Look, we love a girl who will fight, but tbh, not the best idea. Kinda sucks though cause I can't think of anything better, so A for effort

IS HE PLANNING ON BURNING HER ALIVE! Bitch why!? Like you could've just shot her. This is way too brutal, thank God she won't actually get hurt

Ok, I thought Max was gonna end up saving her and I was low-key rolling my eyes at damsel in distress, but the fact that she got out on her own? 👌 Also Wyatt is dumb. How do you mess up murder that badly?

Ok, so Kyle's dad good apparently. Yay

Anyways. Alex's dad? He fucking disgusts me. He can choke

Aw Kyle, I like that. I hope they can get over that bad phase, cause I'm really digging this friendship. And also I want to hug Alex rn. He kinda needs it

Yeah, he was gonna be dead

Symbolism! Shot in the same spot she was, by the same guy too! Ok ok ok. Um, I was thinking somethings gonna happen and he'll be fine, then I remembered the picture thing I mentioned earlier with Max being see through and now I'm terrified.

Ambulance is here. It's ok. He can be saved. I'm freaking out guys, this episode doesn't stop (unless I pause it of course) it's been an hour and a half and I still half 10 minutes. The episode is 40 minutes.

Ok it's all good. He's safe. Now a moment for him and Liz.

Oh, Noah's confronting her. I mean, fair enough, he's been worried all day.

Well shit. I didn't think it'd get to this point. Like I thought it was gonna be just "where were you? What's going on?" But I should have known we weren't pulling punches today. Things are coming to a head with these two too, the bottles, the lies. Isobel, I feel like you have to tell him.

I feel so bad for her. Like I get why he's doing this. A relationship can't work if there's lies, but she feels she has to lie. It sucks

Ok, yeah, digging into your dead father's history can do that. Also did the actor for Kyle play someone named Tyler? Cause every now and then I want to call him Tyler. Not as much as I want to call Alex Caleb (not even close) but still

What is Alex finding right now? Ajdgkszosysk that's the alien tech omg! He's finding out too!

Aw! I just need Max and Liz to get together right now. Of course it always comes back to Rosa

Yes! Tell people. Michael's right.

Uh, there's one more secret

Shit! Liz has put it all together! Omg I was right it was Isobel! Yes! And no, because like it sucks for her. But yay I'm right!

Fuck me! Ok! Hands down my favourite episode thus far! Like easily. Anyways, it makes me mad that I need to sleep. I want to just keep watching.

[championfrita]

Pokémon Sword and Shield Review

So...I've taken some time to fully play Pokémon Shield. Now, I know this is pretty delayed, and I got the double pack so I wanted to play Sword first to see if how I felt was really accurate or if I was being too harsh. That said, let's talk about my experience with the Galar Region.

Initial Impressions

Overall, I was excited to play Shield at first. Everything was bright and exciting and the characters were easy to recognize and not overly generic.

The first few hours of this game, well it's a slow burn. And I do mean SLOW. Even with the text set to Fast and me taking things at my own pace it took me at least a good couple hours to reach the Wild Area. Furthermore, this game has an infernal amount of handholding, even when given the option to say "I know all this already" it still gives a brief explaination for almost anything and STILL makes you sit ALL THE WAY THROUGH the catch tutorial.

It's 2019 and older players still don't get the option to skip this. Come on GameFreak.

That said, the longer I played the more I began to notice...how should I put this? Blatant laziness?

The Wild Area

Now, the CONCEPT of the Wild Area in theory is amazing. It's still not too bad as is, but there are definitely flaws. For starters, the same tree has been copy pasted all over the place to make up 90% of the foliage.

More than that, though, despite the Wild Area having a good selection of Pokémon and a fairly varietied environment (desert, lakes, forest) it feels oddly...empty. There are no real secrets to speak of, no hidden areas, no easily missed items. Everything is all right out there to see and spread pretty far apart. I don't know if it's a lack of Trainers or the fact that I don't have an Online membership so I played alone, but the Wild Area feels like it just needs something MORE.

Dynamax Raid Battles, even when done alone, are fairly fun and sometimes challenging with the turn limit. Radiant AI Trainers spawn in to assist you if you're playing alone so there's no worries about having to take one on with just one Pokémon.

Camping, which can be done anywhere but is introduced to the player here, is an absolute treat. Have YOU played fetch with a unicorn? I have, and I love it. The wide variety of curries you can make with different ingredients is nice, and your Pokémon even get EXP boosts if you play with and feed them while camping.

The Pokémon

Honestly, I'm really not impressed. The Galar Dex of new Pokémon feels painfully small, so much so that playing Pokémon GO and catching a few Unova Pokémon made me yearn for the days when we used to get regions completely FULL of new Pokémon. Remember when you had to wait until AFTER the main game to start catching Pokémon from past gens? I...well, this might be an unpopular opinion, but I LIKED that.

That said, using a sparse selection of Galar Pokémon and Galar Regional Variants on my team definitely made the Gym Challenge more difficult. I picked Scorbunny, because Fire Types, and honestly didn't really care for it or its evolutions at first. Cinderace has really grown on me though and I like Pyro Ball as a move. It's flashy and powerful and that suits me just fine. Most of the new Pokémon's DESIGNS were good and I liked them, there just really weren't ENOUGH of them.

I'm fairly pleased with the regional variants as well. It was difficult to adjust to Ponyta and Rapidash being Psychic Type, but I really liked having them on my team. At the same time...Meowth not evolving into a Persian doesn't really sit right with me.

I'm all for branch evolutions, but Perrserker honestly just looks more like a giant Galar Meowth than anything. I played this with only the info given in the few scattered trailers I'd seen, so I was genuinely excited to see what a Galarian Persian would look like only to end up with Perrserker. The Typing is phenominal, and I think it's great to see a Steel Type Meowth for a change, but I just don't like where they went with it. Eh. Ces't la vie, moving on.

The Story

It's weak. Straight up, the story in this game is poor. There were so many directions they could have gone. I really liked the idea of Rose being this charismatic chairman hype man for the League and being the bad guy. I saw it coming, but it was a nice change to see just based on his personality. Still, it feels rushed. His motivations are really one dimensional and glossed over. Like, "Oh, here's the bad guy. Go get him." It worked in Gen 1 because Giovanni was a MOBSTER. He was MEANT to be a bad guy straight to the core in general, but Rose just doesn't have that vibe.

Not only that, but the "Bad League Members" are kinda meh. That feels REALLY lazy. They didn't even really get a decent uniform change when they started taking on the name Macro Cosmos in Rose Tower. They got black glasses. That's it. Just that. The fight with Eternatus feels painfully rushed and shoehorned in too, almost like they thought "Oh no, we need to give them a big nasty boss to fight! Let's just throw a random monster at them and say Rose summoned it. Seems like a solid plan."

I DID like the after story with Piers though. It really solidifies that older brother sort of nature with him, even if he tries to hide it most of the time.

The Characters

I liked Hop. As a character he's really fun and I like how they gave him this over excited very grand gestured sort of personality. He's really just happy to be ANYWHERE as long as it's with his Pokémon and you. His admiration for his big bro might come off strong and make him seem a little flat at first, but he's overall portrayed as a good kid and I like him.

Leon on the other hand...well I hated him for most of the game. His design is great and he looks fabulous, but he just has the most cocky, obnoxious, pandering personality 90% of the time. Still, I have to give credit where credit is due and recognize that he IS actually a multifaceted character. He showboats not just because he's too confident but also to give the crowd a show and put people at ease in times of danger. Not only that, but his recognition of his little brother's accomplishments and his graceful acceptance of defeat when you beat him reveals a really well written character.

I don't DISlike Sonia, and I have no problem with Prof. Magnolia sitting on the sidelines, but she can be a little...irritating at times with the way she speaks about and to people. The Gym Leaders, aside from Piers, feel a little...light.

I mean, most Gym Leaders don't have detailed backstories, but these ones feel paper thin personality wise as well. I had to look at the official GUIDE just to be sure what the relationship between Melony and Gordie even WAS because you only seem him in her Special League Card in Shield and that tells you nothing about him. The only real leaders that stood out to me were Piers and Raihan, and while I was iffy about his design at first I LOVE Raihan. He has so much more personality and ferocity than any of the other leaders. And the social commentary about him needing to constantly take and post a selfie, even after losing, is a nice touch.

The Galar Region

Is very linear. Like, VERY linear. Even when you take a branching path it either loops back around or gives you a free ride to wherever you have to backtrack to. I hope you like Hammerlocke, cuz you're gonna be visiting there several times.

I know that the region is based off the UK, and maybe my Americanized idea of cities is different (idk, I've never been to the UK), but a lot of the towns in this game feel really small. Like, almost smaller than some of the towns in Hoenn small. Maybe it's a lack of significant interactable buildings, but despite many of them having multiple floors you typically can only access one and that's kind of a disappointment. The hotel in Wyndon won't even let you get in the elevator, and while I get that Alola also did that, it's kind of jarring when the hotel in Motostoke WILL let you see other floors.

That said, I kind of expected more than ONE Wild Area. The one we DID get is fine, and I appreciate what it is and lets us do, but I honestly thought there would be multiple places to really explore outside the standard straight lines. Pokémon has never been a franchise to shy away from puzzles before so I expected this to not be any different. Unfortunately, I was wrong.

Moreover, many of the environment pieces are just UGLY. A lot of the ground textures are reused 3DS assets, and those copy pasted trees I mentioned earlier? Also 3DS assets. How do I know? They're pentagonal instead of round. In other words, they have five sides. Why? Because the 3DS hardware couldn't handle complex environmental shapes that well so they could get away with it, but now that we have nice round berry trees the contrast becomes painful. The Wild Area is so ugly the first time you see it is at NIGHT. They were so aware of what they did they hoped making it darker would hide the lazy flop instead of showing off how bad it was.

It isn't like they COULDN'T fix it either. Look at Ballonlea and Glimwood Tangle. They're absolutely beautiful and very well done. The modeling with them is fantastic and I love the glowing effects. They absolutely could've made the poorly done areas look amazing, but for some reason they didn't and the game suffers some as a result.

Other Thoughts

The Gym Challenges...they were not fun. Like, honestly some were ok. Herding Wooloo was easy, but they really didn't feel like anything I would expect from a Gym. The water puzzle in Nessa's Gym was fine, and I personally liked the spinning cup ride, but the rest just felt like agonizingly long padding because they couldn't come up with anything. Look at Circhester's challenge. It's a dowsing rod gauntlet where you have to avoid falling in pits in an artificial blizzard. It. is. SO. SLOW. That said, Spikemuth having just a Trainer gauntlet instead was kind of awkward. I reached the end and asked myself "Was that it? Is this it? Is this all there is to Spikemuth? Just one giant alleyway and a Pokémon Center?"

Raihan's three trials of worthiness challenge? It was more difficult than the battle AGAINST RAIHAN. Speaking of, I beat Hop, Marnie, Bede, all the Gym Leaders, Rose, Oleana, and Leon on my first try every time. While it was more difficult with my specific Pokémon choices, it really wasn't much. And can I just say that the Gym Badges are kinda lame? I get what they were going for, but the designs of each piece could've been really unique and intricate and instead we got glorified stamps.

I liked a lot of the general features of the game. Camping, clothing shops, League Cards. I love designing League Cards, even if I'm the only one who's ever gonna see em. That said, the clothing choices were really narrow based on what we got in Sun and Moon. The variety of different items was pretty small, though I loved all the punk leather stuff but WOW IS IT EXPENSIVE. Like Lumiose Boutique expensive. AND WHY IS THERE NEVER A REDHEAD HAIR COLOR THAT ISN'T JUST AUBURN RED? There are actually A LOT of redheads with LIGHT RED hair (that's more a personal gripe than anything, I know).

A lot of the music felt almost like rehashes of older BGMs. Like, Postwick, Route 1, and Wedgehurst all sound like they have remixed Hoenn music. A lot of the other music tracks just don't feel fitting for the areas or for Pokémon games in general. I like parts of the Slumbering Weald music and I like the Gym Music, but the opening of Slumbering Weald feels awkward and like it doesn't fit a mysterious forest we're not allowed to be in.

I know I've complained a lot, but there were some things I genuinely liked. A lot of the Pokémon designs, place names, and other radiant decor and parts of the region are actually subtle and not so subtle references to cultural points of the UK. Skwovet and its evolution for example are a gray and red squirrel respectively and are a nod to invasive species, which is neat.

In Conclusion

Is Pokémon Sword and Shield amazing? No. Is it bad? No. Sword and Shield fall into that mediocre middle ground of being ok but nothing to write home about. Could I have done without them? Sure, they aren't some world ending imperitive must play. They're ok, and they make for a fine jumping on point and a fine little adventure if you have spare time. Have other mainline games done it better? Heck yeah, but that doesn't mean Sword and Shield haven't done a few good things too.

Overall, it sort of feels like GameFreak bit off more than they could chew, or were afraid to make changes because of unfamiliarity with the Switch's hardware and software limitations. Pokémon Let's Go had a lot more effort, but it also was much safer and had a much easier to work with art style to everything. Chibi proportions are a lot easier to fake than a more realistic counterpart. Things can be not perfect and it's less noticable than with more realistic proportions, and I think they were afraid to push back the deadline any further for the inevitable backlash despite that being what they likely needed. The DLC may change my mind, but as it stands, just the fact that they feel they can JUSTIFY their laziness with DLC packs really upsets me.

I give Pokémon Sword and Shield a 5/10.

It's just, OK.

[sarcasticgaypotato]

For an interesting prompt: masquerade party. Both chell and Glados attend in masks not recognizing each other until after they've danced and are dumbstruck because they're on hostile ground and why is this person so alluring all of the sudden...

This was all ridiculous. Gladys strongly believed that.She understood the need to get funding for Aperture, she was well aware of the financial situation that Aperture was in.  She wouldn’t have even rolled her eyes too much at a normal black-tie event to look pretty for potential investors.But this? This was absurd.A masquerade, Cave had suggested. It would be perfect, he said. Interesting enough to create buzz, but formal enough to keep up a reputation.  Caroline had, of course, agreed with him.  And Gladys, being a lead scientist, found herself with an invitation.She had argued with Caroline for hours when she first found out, protesting to the idea of being sent out to chat up living sacks of money.  However, to her surprise, Caroline had openly admitted that wasn’t the reason Cave was sending her.  He was there to talk to investors, along with Caroline and a few others. Gladys was there to talk to the other guests.Potential test subjects.  If they seemed like they could be someone that Aperture would want- athletes and olympians being the preferred options- then they got an invitation.  Then, Gladys and the other scientists were to entice them in the same way that Cave intended to do for investors.  Except instead of money, they’d be giving Aperture their bodies.This information had been enough to get Gladys to agree to go, as she was admittedly interested in seeing what test subjects she might get to run through her program.However, as the night of the event was upon her, she was reminded why she had been against this idea in the first place.Gladys liked to know who she was speaking to. She liked having files on near everyone she spoke to so that no matter what, they could not surprise her. She would always be one step ahead, knowing them better than they knew themselves.A masquerade made that incredibly difficult.

She had a limited knowledge of the guests who would be there, but hadn’t been granted access to the full list.  All she was told was where to be, and what her end goal was. How she got there was up to her.With a small huff of annoyance, she stood outside the doors to one of the conference rooms that had been transformed into the ballroom, hand lingering on the door.She could do this. She didn’t like not being able to know these people, but at least they couldn’t know her.Pulling her mask down to rest in place, she opened the door and stepped into the the mass of people, trying not to lose herself to the mindless sound of music and chatter combined.The first couple hours passed without anything of interest. A few glasses of champagne to keep herself sane, a few successful attempts to chat up soon-to-be test subjects with more brawn than brains.  They spoke loudly to let their voices reach over the music, boasting about their athletic accomplishments, and sometimes going so far as introducing themselves- clearly missing the point of a masked event.Gladys treated them all the same: offer them a smile, some well twisted words, and perhaps even a dance, if they looked like they needed extra encouragement.While a promise to see their applications within the next week was certainly satisfying, Gladys hadn’t exactly been having fun.  She didn’t think she was supposed to, but sparing one glance towards where she knew Cave and Caroline to be proved that she might be the only one who thought that way.Her boss seemed to be having the time of his life, and she even noticed Caroline cracking a smile from time to time, or a hint of laughter that was quickly hidden behind her hand.Well good for them, Gladys thought bitterly.  Cave was a social man, and Caroline was seemingly content doing just about anything, so long as Cave wasn’t doing something reckless.Gladys, on the other hand, had higher standards of entertainment. She could be doing science right now.  She could be reviewing the reports that came back on the long-fall boots, or looking over the blueprints on the next prototype for the portal gun. She could be getting so much work done right now, and that would be ten times more interesting than-She was snapped out of her thoughts by the feeling of a pair of eyes on her. That on its own meant nothing- she was well aware of how hungry eyes that followed the lines of her low-cut black dress had been staring at her throughout the evening- but something about this was different.As Gladys brought her gaze up to meet the eyes in question, she found herself almost taken aback.Sharp, silvery grey eyes that seemed to look into her very soul. They held a heat within them that burned with intrigue, a look of awareness and intelligence that Gladys hadn’t expected to see from anyone tonight.The woman was dressed in nice enough clothes, a suit that didn’t look terribly expensive, but molded itself to its wearer’s body incredibly well. Her face was partially covered by a mask that matched the colors of her suit, simply painted with no excess adornments to distract from the simplicity. She was clearly not an investor, as her build alone gave away plenty to Gladys.A lean form, well built and muscled, holding herself high and at the ready with the attentiveness of a soldier, yet with a stance that seemed to radiate independence that didn’t come from someone who had been through the military.If not for the figure’s outstretched hand-presumably waiting to shake her hand- Gladys would’ve forgotten to speak, as her pre-prepared speech for everyone she met suddenly seemed to fail her, and she could hardly remember a word of it.“Good evening. I take it you’ve been enjoying yourself?”A polite nod in response, though Gladys didn’t miss the hint of a shrug that came with it. “Well I’m a scientist here at Aperture Science, and I take it that you must be-”Gladys was cut off mid-sentence.  She had taken the outstretched hand as she spoke, expecting a handshake, yet finding herself very surprised when she realized that the figure held her hand instead, surprisingly gingerly, and gestured to the dancefloor without a word.Well. That was bold.Gladys blinked, before a slow smile crossed her lips.  She liked bold.  Bold was interesting.Slowly, she allowed herself to be pulled into the fray of dancers, only vaguely taking note of the song that was playing, and instead finding herself more focused on the rhythm.Her newfound dance partner wasted no time slipping into position, keeping one of Gladys’s hands held in her own, while her other hand rested comfortably on Gladys’s back.  Not too low, but not too high either.Gladys could feel callouses on the woman’s hands, leaving them slightly rough to the touch, and stark contrast of her own, which were smooth and soft from a lifetime of watching other people do the physical labor. The closer she got, the more she realized how badly she wanted this woman. -As a test subject.  She wanted her as a test subject.She was clearly strong, yet showed no signs of being a complete meathead. She was aware of her surroundings, managing to easily avoid bumping into less talented and more intoxicated dancers, and most of all?  She just seemed to… fit.Something about the stranger just radiated Aperture. Something about her got Gladys practically tingling with excitement at the thought of all the tests she could run with her.  She didn’t feel like the others. She didn’t feel like she’d just give up. She would be the perfect fit… so long as Gladys could actually remember to talk to her and convince her to send in an application.As even when the first song ended, Gladys found that she didn’t try to coax the woman back to the sidelines to start chatting her up, finding the very thought to be so disinteresting that it was brushed away without debate. Instead, as the next song began- slower than the last- she found herself leaning a little closer.What had been somewhat stiff, calculated movements before slowly became more and more loose, as Gladys slowly stopped caring about the act of perfectly pulling off each move, and simply moved to the beat of her partner’s movements.Quicker than she liked to admit, she relaxed into it. Finding that time started to slip through her fingers as the two of them moved through song after song, each time allowing themselves to move closer and closer, to the point where Gladys hardly noticed that she was pressed against her partner’s chest, and that the mysterious stranger’s hand had moved to the small of her back, where it now rested, dangerously shifting in a motion too frequent not to be intentional.  In return, Gladys had allowed her leg to occasionally slip, pressing forward against the stranger. Brief enough to not break the flow of their movements, but distinct enough to make itself known.Gladys knew her cheeks were flushed a dark red at this point, and was genuinely thankful for her mask for keeping that mostly hidden.  Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she remembered why she was here. That now was a good of a time as any to pull this woman aside and rope her into Aperture. Yet, as their fifth song together slowly faded out, she found herself… reluctant.Those grey eyes had been on her this whole time, burning into Gladys and sending a heat that had only grown in intensity as time went on. She hadn’t even noticed that her partner hadn’t said a word this whole time, but she didn’t have to. It was unspoken between them, shared in each moment that their eyes met.Slowly, she leaned in closer, so that her lips were a breath away from the woman’s ear, allowing her to say what she needed to without anyone around them hearing it.“Come with me.”Pulling back just enough to meet the stranger’s gaze, she got her answer.A glimmer of excitement in those silver eyes, followed by the slightest twitch of her lips upwards.Without another word, Gladys lead her off the dancefloor, to the outskirts of the room where she knew she ought to stop and start talking, and then out the door, and down an adjacent hallway.She had been bored earlier, but not now.  Now her heart was hammering in her ears as she pushed this complete stranger- she tried not to think about that part- against the wall of the dark, currently unused hallway, and pressed their lips together.It was hot, messy, and exactly what she had been craving. Perhaps it was the champagne, perhaps it was the fact that it had been so long, but Gladys found her better judgement thrown out the window as she sucked on her partner’s bottom lip, earning a wordless sigh of encouragement, and prompting hands to snake back around her waist, pulling her closer.They broke apart for breath for only a brief moment, neither one of them wishing to do more than gasp for air as quickly as possible before clashing back together, lips and tongues seeming almost violent in how aggressively they were pressed against the other. It was exciting, intoxicating, and… familiar.Gladys brushed the thought aside at first, wanting to focus her full attention on the task at hand, yet it started to nag at her.As those calloused hands tangled themselves in her hair, as those lips- slightly chapped- moved from her lips to her neck, to a very specific spot on her neck, causing Gladys’s back to arch and a soft vocalization to escape her.It was all familiar. Like she had felt this before.She moved her hands away from her partner’s chest- where they had already started to undo the first three buttons- and brought them to the stranger’s face, coaxing her head upwards and away from her neck.  Her fingers slipped underneath the strap of the mask, and in one, swift movement, she pulled the mask off.And promptly after, dropped it to the floor.“You.”The face that greeted her was one that she should’ve recognized sooner. She should’ve known from the moment those eyes met hers.And, judging by the way the stranger’s expression was painted with confusion, Gladys had the feeling that she wasn’t the only one who had failed to recognize an old flame.Or, more accurately, a bitter ex.Pulling herself back, Gladys pulled her own mask off, tossing it to the side with a clatter, and meeting this woman- no, Chell’s- gaze once more, so that she could watch the dawning realization flicker into those silver eyes with no mask to distract them.The heat in the air between them had shifted from a comfortable warmth to something more akin to being burnt alive, as the two of them stared the other down, with only the heaving sounds of their breathing echoing through the hallway.Gladys had thought about this moment for a long time. What she would do if she ever saw Chell’s face in Aperture again.She thought about slapping her, or downright strangling her. Screaming at her, or perhaps leaving her in icy silence.She had not foreseen the surge of heat in her stomach that pushed her forward once more, so that her face was once again only inches away from Chell’s, as she uttered only three words-“I hate you.”- before kissing her again.