#basically it and his blue striped shirt switch colors!

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

i wanted to make an alternate more canon-compliant butterfly Howdy... similar but Different! the wings were a pain in my ass!

[notenuffbees]

I have many responsibilities in my personal and professional life, so naturally I used my valuable time to create this rating of every single one of Dick Knubbler's outfits. I know next to nothing about fashion, so naturally I'm the most qualified person to make this list. Bold fashion choices and wrong opinions under the cut. Let me know what you think!

"Pre-Accident" Outfit. Appears in Dethwater. What an iconic look to start the series with. Songgu Kwon's concept art that's available online has Knubbler in a traditional suit, so I wonder when they made the switch to this style jacket. It's a shame he never wore this exact outfit ever again. Maybe it doesn't go with his robotic eyes? Do you think Dick had to get a whole new wardrobe after his eyes exploded since he stopped being blue eyed? And what do you think happened to his collection of different shaded glasses? 9/10

"Award Show " Outfit. Appears in Dethwater. It's a suit. Boring. And it's just the same color scheme as the first outfit? Extra points for the bowtie and the pocket square. I just realized while making this list that he's not wearing shades in this outfit. 6/10

"Prison" Outfit. Appears in Dethwater If there was any justice in the Metalocalypse universe, Knubbler would have spent the rest of the series in this outfit in a jail cell. Not much else to say about this one. I like the red-rimmed glasses. 3/10

"Disco" Outfit. Appears in Dethwater.

Hideous. The bell bottoms, the clashing colors, the star patterns, whatever the hell kind of dance moves he's trying to pull off. Absolutely iconic. I would rank this outfit higher if it didn't physically hurt my eyes to look at it. 6/10

"Magazine" Outfit. Appears in Dethwater.

It's the same as the "Pre-Accident" Outfit, just with a green turtleneck. For some reason I don't like this outfit nearly as much. Maybe because the green matches the eyes? But aren't you supposed to match colors in fashion? I don't know. Again, I'm probably the last person in the world that should be judging clothes.

5/10

"Court" Outfit. Appears in Dethkomedy. Interesting color choices. This is why Knubbler's outfits are so great. You've got a basic suit-and-tie that becomes a fashion win/disaster with the lilac coat, black shirt, and pink striped tie. The stripes on the tie make it a little too busy for me though. 7/10

"The Knubbler" Outfit. Appears in Dethkids, Dethrecord, Dethrelease/Black Fire Upon Us, Dethhealth, Doublebookedklok. Step away from your phone/computer for a second. Close your eyes. Take a few breaths. Then picture Dick Knubbler. What outfit is he wearing? I bet you pictured him in this. If you didn't, well then it's what Murderface pictured him wearing in his gay crisis fantasy. So yeah. There's a reason this outfit is the one they put him in over three seasons. Knubbler wore this style jacket before and since these episodes, but the plum really makes this version of the outfit shine. Absolutely perfect. No notes. 10/10

"Recording on Water" Outfit. Appears in Dethvengeance, the cancelled Metalocalypse video game. Again, I love how Knubbler spices up a classic suit and tie with wild color choices. My personal preference for warm colors has me wishing the colors were a bit bolder than forest green and purple. But I gotta give love to any outfit with a pocket square. 7/10

"White Dethmas" Outfit. Appears in Dethmas, Fertilityklok, and in issue 3 of the Dethklok comic book. This one's great. It takes a brave man to wear an all white outfit, and he pulls it off. My only issue is that it's kind of weird that he also wore it to Toki's birthday party which, according to the calendar in Fertilityklok, is late summer or early autumn. I assume they made this Dethmas outfit all white to go with the snow/winter/Christmas theme, but apparently Dick will just wear it whenever. 8/10

"Christmas Special Host" Outfit. Appears in Dethmas. Perfectly average. Just a tuxedo. The red bowtie/pocket square with the green vest is a nice Christmas-y touch. Loses points for being so boring otherwise. 6/10

"Nativity" Outfit. Appears in Dethmas. I don't know if I've ever been able to watch this clip all the way through without having to pause due to the secondhand embarrassment. Sometimes I think about how there exists a 30 second clip of this man screaming in agony as the blood vessels in his face swell and his eyeballs eventually explode, but this is the clip that makes me cringe myself inside out. I can barely look at this outfit long enough to rank it. The necklace is pretty cool though, even if I can't tell what the charm is supposed to be. It kind of looks like Facebones? Or the old DeviantArt mascot? I don't know. Let's just get the hell away from this picture. 2/10

"Dealing with a Murderface Tantrum" Outfit. Appears in Dethsiduals The first of two suit-without-a-tie outfits. The purple and black go well together, and the pocket square makes another excellent appearance, although it pairs with the dress shirt this time rather than the ascot. Heh. Ascot. That's a funny word. 7/10

"Season 4" Outfit. Appears in Writersklok, Goingdownklok, Breakupklok. I'm disappointed that he had so few outfits in season 4. That sours my opinion on this suit a little. But I love that there are three completely different colors with this outfit. Someone teach me how color coordination is done so I can understand why this outfit works.

And we've got another pocket square paired with the ascot! So I get to think about the word "ascot" again! 8/10

"Flawless Disguise" Outfit. Appears in Writersklok. I love the running joke of a tracksuit and a baseball cap being the ultimate disguise in the Metalocalypse universe. Leave it to Knubbler to turn a tracksuit outfit into a capital L Look. I like that his baseball cap has a blue star on it like the pink shirt from the "Disco" Outfit, and that the suit itself is lavender like the "Court" Outfit. 8/10

"Clergy" Outfit. Appears in Army of the Doomstar Another boring outfit compared to what he wears for most of the series. I wonder why they picked green for the color. Because that was the color of his robot pupils for most of the series? Because it's the same color as the nuclear seahorse from Dethwater? Because it makes him look more like Yoda? I'll give bonus points to this outfit since he was probably free-balling under that thing. Or should I take away points for that? Honestly my least favorite part of these robes is that Dick didn't get to die in a zazzier outfit. Hopefully in the Metalocalypse universe, ghosts can pick what outfit they wear when they haunt the shit out of the band. 6/10 And that's that! Please tell me how wrong my ratings are and where you would rate them instead. I need fashion lessons!

[erinelliotc]

My process of making my Double D cosplay

I already have almost everything (only the basic, i.e. his casual outfit, because I plan to buy the brown cardigan, the yellow tie and the white suit too) for my Double Dee cosplay! I'm very glad because because of my obsession with perfection I tend to be very exigent with my cosplays, especially with colors, and other details... So I want everything to be as similar as possible, and I'm very satisfied with how it's turning out so far :)

Black hat? Check!

Schrödinger's t-shirt that is sometimes/both red and reddish orange? Check! (I plan to buy a more orange t-shirt in the future too as it's the official color and it becomes very clear at the end of the show, so I can switch between them)

Red socks? Check! (they have some black details that I didn't like, but it's not easy to find socks like that and they were the best I could find. Curse those who defined such specific and atypical clothes for Double D)

Blue shoes? Check! (I had great luck finding the exact color of All Star I wanted because I couldn't find it in the adult size and I was already trying to choose an alternative blue color, when I came across an ad of a person selling her almost new used All Star in exactly the color I was looking for. I opened it just for the sake of opening it thinking "What are the chances of them being exactly my size?". Well, they were! And they were much cheaper than if I had bought a new one)

I'm currently sewing by hand the white stripes on the hat (you can see in the pictures the needle with the thread hanging from the hat xD). I'll redo one of them because I think the space between them is a little too big. Sometimes I wish I wasn't such a perfectionist and could be satisfied easily... I already think the lines aren't the way they should be, but this is the best I can do because I think painting it would be worse.

And the purple shorts are on the way! I think this was the hardest part to find because I wanted them to be specifically jeans or twill, and I still don't know if it will be satisfying. I found them a little shorter than I wanted, but I wasn't finding anything better. From the measurements, it also looks like they're a little bigger than my size (it was the smallest size, but I'm a very skinny person), but considering the difficulty in finding shorts that met my very specific criteria, I decided to take the risk because otherwise I would never finish my cosplay.

When they arrive, I will post pictures wearing the full cosplay!

Now I just need to make 6 more hats and break my front tooth! (just kidding xD but I honestly wish I had a gap because I think it's very cute and everyone who has gaps are cute).

[puppylove24680]

Undertale Color Theory

ok its been what seven years now since Undertale came out and in that time I’ve always resisted it but that ends now, here’s my Undertale color theory, which after some analysis holds more weight than I previously thought (watch out its long)

ok so in the ball game in Snowdin Forest each color soul is assigned a trait right?

so if you assign meanings to colors the logical assumption is that this stays somewhat consistent

so I always took these colors as a hint at certain characters personalities, basically if you check their colors the traits match up, I only ever used this on a select few characters mainly because their stripes match the colors really well

for example

Chara and Asriel have Green and Yellow stripes

Green means Kindness and Yellow means Justice

meaning together they are kind and just

I’d say this matches up seeing as Asriel is known for being kind and Chara inflicts a sort of justice on you at the end of a no mercy run

ok how about Frisk?

Frisk’s colors are Light Blue and Purple

Light Blue is Patience and Purple is Perseverance

meaning Frisk is patient and perseveres

Perseverance is a synonym for Determination, so no questions there, but patient? Well seeing as Frisk is the player character and play styles vary this is a little harder to pin down, but seeing how in the no mercy run when Chara takes control they can just walk through various sections and puzzles, this shows patience by contrast, but that isn’t super satisfying. So let’s just say making your way through an entire underground of puzzles and monsters constantly attacking you without hurting them back takes patience especially if you keep dying and coming back

Now lets move on to some new territory.

wow thats a lot of purple

Toriel and Asgore both wear purple, the deltarune is purple in most depictions, the Ruins are entirely purple.

Traditionally purple is a royal color, so that could be the reason for the sheer volume of purple in these characters specifically, but consider purple is established to mean Perseverance, what is the kingdom doing? Persevering, this could even be extended seeing as New Home is a dull version of the Ruins,

at this point the kingdom is running low on perseverance, so no more purple

This same idea can also be applied to the Judgement Hall, which is saturated in Yellow, Justice.

Lets go back to characters now

Sans, Light Blue, Patience easy

and additionally

Yellow and Light Blue, Justice and Patience, self explanatory

Papyrus’ colors are Red, Light Blue, and Yellow

Red is commonly thought to be determination, but that isn’t necessarily its meaning there’s also the chance it means something else along the lines of “sincerity”* either way, if you use determination’s meaning as a word they both fit Papyrus, he is determined to get into the royal guard.

ok Light Blue, Patience, unfortunately I can’t find it at the moment but when Papyrus decided he wanted to be a guard he went to Undyne in the middle of the night then waiting there all night when she slammed the door in his face

Now Justice, when he’s made King in the King Papyrus ending he switches the policy to judge humans on a case by case basis which I’d say is more Just than the previous policy

Undyne’s colors are Dark Blue, Red and Yellow

Justice and Integrity are pretty self explanatory, and Red works with either Determination or Sincerety

Alphys doesn’t wear any visible colors that correspond with the souls, though her Yellow scales could be a reference to Justice, this could be taken in a variety of ways, I’ll leave that to you.

I’m a little hesitant to apply this to the characters physical color due to some monsters just being the color of an animal they’re based on

however clothes are free game, I’ll leave this with one last character

Monster Kid. They’re established to be wearing a striped shirt, Yellow and brown, which doesn’t fit, so we’ll ignore it, though if you really wanted to push it, it could be an orange.

But anyway, Yellow is Justice, in the No Mercy run they stand up to you for hurting others, Justice (and if you want to say the other stripe is orange, also a display of Bravery)

Not really sure how to end this so yeah, I bet you could apply this to more characters and probably their houses or something too, I know Toriel’s house being Yellow fits with her retreat there for Justice, and Asgore’s being gray shows the lack of Justice in comparison.

---

*one of my links is out of date now, so I’ll just quickly run through what I mean by sincerity here, basically the red soul in the ball game is given this description

[Red - Try as you might, you continue to be yourself]

Along with the

“It’s you!”

“Despite everything, it’s still you.”

“Still just you, Frisk.”

“It’s me, Chara.”

text from the mirrors.

There’s evidence to suggest every human had the ability to control time and possessed Determination, meaning having red represent Determination would be pointless, having it match up more with those “being yourself” type messages would make more sense, the post I had linked that went defunct listed this trait as “Sincerity”, so that’s what I used here.

[mel-addams]

[Image Description: The first image is an illustration of Five Snow Blossom, a young woman who has brown skin, a warm smile, and is summoning an illusory purple flower with swirls of cloud-like magic. She is seated, holding a large book, and sweeping her arm above her head, as if to “pull” the magic from the story she’s reading. She is wearing a blue wrapped skirt, and a maroon huipil that has orange and green stripes, with purple embroidered flowers on a blue section around the collar. She also has a green sash wrapped around her waist, with a dyed orange-and-green flower pattern. Her hair is green with paler green streaks, reminiscent of a plant, and her eyebrows are layered purple petals. Handwritten below her is her name, and the name of her RPG class, Dreamer.

The second illustration is of Blue Rose, a woman holding a sword wreathed in blue flames in her left hand, with a serious look on her face. She has pale skin, pointed elf-like ears, and is wearing close-fitting grey pants and a vest, with a poet-style long sleeve shirt. There is a blue rose embroidered on her vest, thin blue streaks in her blonde hair, and she has blue lipstick and eyeshadow. Handwritten beside her is her name, and her RPG class, Vigilante.

The third illustration is of Lo Karlsson, a young man grinning while aiming a shortbow at an off-screen enemy. He is mixed race, with short brown hair, green eyes, and light brown skin. He is wearing a grey tunic and loose green pants, which have visible stitching repairing some rips. He has archery gear at his hips, a sword hanging at his side, and a messenger bag with an orange-colored potion sticking out of it. On his shoulder is a light brown rat with a white spot on its forehead, and at his feet is a pet raccoon, ready to pounce. Handwritten beside him is his name, and his RPG class, Drifter.]

~~~

Wyrd Street TTRPG IndieGoGo, funding now!

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/wyrd-street-d20-ttrpg-system/x/9982631#/

Wyrd Street is a new d20 system and setting written by Tyler Edwards, that I’m doing character art for! It’s similar enough to 5E to learn fast if you’re familiar with it, but unique enough to feel fresh! Here’s some highlights:

An original fantasy setting—though the old magic races are gone, what remains are humans descended from them, with lingering features hinting at their magical ancestry. Magic itself is alive and well—spirits and magic critters are regular features, even within cities.

Flexible racial abilities—choose one from between three available for each race once you reach level 3. Some even have physical manifestations, like plantlike features, a cat tail and claws, or wings that can be summoned briefly to fly with!

“Iconic Characters” with moderately established backstories and connections—which you can choose to either play, or leave in the world as NPCs! (These are who I’m drawing, with the three I’ve already done featured at the top of this post!)

Iconic Characters’ details are flexible—you’re encouraged to switch from their default class, if you like their look or background but prefer another class. YOU DO YOU

Additional rules for physical and mental disability—which can be applied to any character, Iconic or original, with framework for how it affects them and how they interact with the world.

“Loved Ones” are a mechanic—get boons and boosts for establishing RP connections, or be a Lone Wolf to custom-pick your skill boosts. (Or be a Lone Wolf and SEE WHAT FOUND FAMILY YOU GET)

Level cap of 10—small-scale heroes! Let other people handle world-ending shenanigans, you’ve got your community to take care of. (But you still get cool abilities, because MAGIC AND SHIT)

“Focus” as the ability resource—everyone has it, but with different amounts and regen methods. It’s what you use for either magic or fancy martial abilities, so everyone has both basic AND fancy attacks.

“Missed” attacks glance instead of doing no damage, so turns feel less wasted. Chipping away at an enemy is better than metaphorical (or literal) thumb-twiddling.

Wyrd Street’s IndieGoGo ends on the 26th, so go give it a gander, and take a peek at the free primer to check out the gameplay!

~~~

- Wyrd Street Masterpost - Ji Wensdottir the Street Preacher - Lo Karlsson the Drifter - Blue Rose the Vigilante - Five Snow Blossom the Dreamer - Osiron the Fortune Teller - Burning Grin the Scoundrel - Bing Li the Heretic - Na Wen the Brawler - Dr. Zuberi Mbogo the Quack

[bitch-out]

OKAY i know you didn’t ask for a full length fic but... i couldnt help myself. here it is: 

Four times Alex saw signs that the world was changing to become more accepting of people like him, and the one time he actually realized it.

1. TV SHOW

After finishing practice for the night, the band walked into Julie’s house. Luke immediately walked into the kitchen, wanting to see what meal her dad was whipping up. His obsession with watching lifers eat was starting to get a little concerning. Reggie followed after him, wanting to hang out with Julie’s dad. That was also a little concerning.

Julie plopped down on the couch next to her little brother, Carlos, who was watching a TV show that she didn’t recognize. Alex hopped over the couch and took a seat next to her, looking at the screen intently.

“What is he watching?” Alex asked, reclining into the couch.

Julie shrugged in response. “I’m not sure…”

Carlos looked over to her with a questioning expression. “Huh?” Oh crap. She needed to stop talking to the boys while other people were around. It made her look absolutely bonkers.  

“…what you’re watching! I’m not sure what you’re watching.” She said quickly, trying to avoid any awkwardness. “What is it?”

He seemed to buy it, letting her weirdness go. “Oh, I’m watching this new show. I forget what it’s called. It’s about this girl who accidentally gets musical superpowers after getting stuck by lightning.”

“Cool,” she answered, settling into the couch. She and Alex watched for a few minutes before looking at each other in confusion. They had absolutely no idea what was going on in the show. They looked at the screen as the main character sighed dramatically, slamming her door while running out of her house. “I’m lost. What’s happening? Why is she so mad?” Julie asked.

Carlos rolled his eyes. “She’s in a fight with her dads right now because they won’t let her go to this big party. Now shhh! It’s getting juicy!”

Luke’s eyes went wide as the scene switched to the main characters dads, who were sharing a tender moment while discussing their child. Two dads? On television? Without it being played off as a joke? He couldn’t tear his eyes away from the screen.

Julie looked at him inquisitively, noticing his surprised expression. She raised an eyebrow.

“I see.” A soft smile settled on his face. “Cool.” He bit his lip and leaned back.

“Cool.” She agreed. She almost said something, but then decided it would be better for her to wait for him to tell her.

2. PUBLIC DISPLAY OF AFFECTION

“People watching in 2020 is way better than people watching in the 90’s.” Reggie stated as they walked through downtown LA. They were killing time while Julie was at school. They passed a man in a superhero costume who was taking pictures with tourists.

“I know right?” Luke agreed. “I love looking over people’s shoulder and watching what they’re doing on those… high tech cellphone things.”

“Smartphones,” Alex offered.

“Smartphones, right.”

Reggie ran over to a middle aged guy in a suit sitting on a bench who was looking intently at his phone. “Look at this guy! He’s looking at an article called ‘How to tell if you have foot fungus’.” He wrinkled his nose. “Gross. You might wanna get that checked out, buddy,” patting his shoulder, his hand passing right through.

Luke looked around for someone else to observe. “Okay see the one over there in the blue striped shirt eating a chili dog?” He pointed over to his left to a man walking away from a hot dog stand.  

The man went to take a bite out of his chili dog but dripped it all down the front of his shirt. “Oooooh…. Missed his mouth on that one,” Luke said, cringing.

“That’s nasty,” Alex chimed in.

A guy who looked to be around their age speed walked past them, looking down. He brushed his shaggy blonde hair out of his face as he grinned down at his phone. He was obviously walking with a purpose.

“This guy is hustling! Cmon!” Reggie grinned, jogging after him. Luke and Alex ran over to catch up, all three of them following in pursuit. They all looked over his shoulder to read his text messages. He was texting someone he had named “babe <3” in his contacts.

Can’t wait to see u, his text read, im right around the corner

Reggie whistled. “His girlfriend’s probably a complete hottie if he’s that excited to see her-”

As they turned the corner, the blonde stranger they were following put his phone away as he caught sight of someone. He broke into a run and bear hugged the person, wrapping his arms around them and lifting them off the ground. As he pulled away, it was revealed that the person he was hugging was a brunette guy around the same age as them.

The brunette murmured something, his lips quirking into a smirk. The blonde teen let out a laugh, then pulled him into a kiss.

Alex nearly gasped in surprise, looking around to notice that… not a singular person was looking over. Everyone was just going about their day as normal. No glares, no sneers, not even a scoff.

It felt like the breath was sucked out of his lungs. Was this… normal? The couple broke apart and joined hands, continuing down the street. Alex couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face. No one had even batted an eyelash at the public display of affection.

To him, it hadn’t been that long ago since 1995. When even looking at someone for too long would get you called a slur. When his own father would call him a-

“Alex? You good?” He was broken out of his thoughts by Luke looking over at him concernedly.

Alex opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off by someone else.

“There you guys are! I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”

They turned around in tandem to see Julie standing there, her eyes sparkling. And they continued with their day, moment forgotten.

3. MUSIC

Alex found himself once again alone with Julie, hanging out with her in her room. He was the only member of the band she would let hang out with her in here, which filled him with an odd sort of pride.

They were currently listening to one of her Spotify playlists. Julie was doing homework on her bed and Alex was tapping his drumsticks on his knee, following the beat of the song they were listening to. He was getting into the groove of the song “This song has a good beat!” he exclaimed. “What is this?”

She grinned at him. “It’s called ‘Girls like Girls’ by Hayley Kiyoko!” She stood up on her bed, dropping her homework and singing into an imaginary microphone as the chorus hit. She belted at the top of her lungs, “Girls like girls like boys do, nothing new~” She laughed as she flopped back onto her bed.

He gaped at her, surprised that she was treating it with such nonchalance. In the 90’s, this would have been music you listened to at 2 am when your parents were asleep. “Is this a… popular song?” he asked.

“Yeah, I mean it’s from like 2015 so it’s basically ancient but it’s still pretty popular.” She turned back to her homework and picked up her pen. “I think the music video has like over 100 million hits on YouTube or something like that.”

His jaw dropped even further “100 million?”

The timer on her phone went off. The words BAND PRACTICE blared across the screen with the chime of her ringtone. “I’ll show it to you later! But we have to go to rehearsal right now.”

He shook his head and followed her out of the room.

4. COVINGTON

As both his friends were pulled away by girls saucily dancing in feathered blue outfits, Alex stood awkwardly like a fish out of water. Covington slid up to him with a sly smirk on his face. “Come now. You can’t be the only one not dancing.”

“No, I… I know.” Alex sputtered. “I’m just…” Not into dancing with girls? No, he couldn’t just say that. He didn’t want to cause a scene. He pointed over his shoulder. “I’m looking for Willie,” he finished lamely.

Covington seemed to read him like an open book. He smiled and gestured with open palms. “Dante! Fuego!” Two handsome men slid up to either side of him. “Meet Alex.” The linked arms with him.

Alex looked at them, surprised. How did he know? Is this like a theater thing? Or… “You’re welcome,” Covington smirked, ducking down. Is this normal here…?

His thoughts were cut off as he was lifted up over Covington’s head and pulled into a fast-paced dance.

5. PRIDE

“Slow down Willie!” Alex shouted, running after his brunette friend as he skated through lifers and tore down the street.

Willie laughed and hopped off his board, picking it up off the ground. He waited for Alex to catch up with him “Relax, we’re almost here…”

Alex was too busy catching his breath to realize they were in the middle of a giant crowd. Lifers walked through them every few seconds like it was nothing “Wh-What is this?” Alex asked, looking around. Everyone was wearing colorful clothing and most were wearing some kind of glitter.

The skater laughed and grabbed his hand, pulling him toward the street. “We’re skating the floats, dude.” He pointed at the bright floats that were parading down the street.

Was this some kind of festival or something? Alex wondered. “Why is everything so… colorful?”

Willie looked at him like he was missing something obvious. “It’s June. Pride month.” Alex didn’t know what that was. He looked around, trying to figure it out. “You’ve never seen a pride parade before?” Willie questioned. Then, he realized. “Right. Right, you’re a 90’s ghost. I keep forgetting about that.” He slapped his forehead.

Then, he realized what this was. Alex turned to his right and saw two women kissing. A couple of guys his age were holding hands right next to him. Signs as far as the eye could see read ‘here and queer’ and ‘all you need is love’ and ‘love is love’ and countless other sayings. His breath stuttered in his chest “This is…”

“I know. Pretty cool, right?” Willie asked, sounding pretty nonchalant. He was scouting out the floats, focused on his task.

“And this is all for…” Alex hesitated, “For gay people?”

“All LGBTQ+ people, technically, but yeah dude.” Willie clarified. He grinned, his eyes set on a float just down the road. He found the perfect route.

“So it really is different now, huh?” Alex asked, his voice cracking slightly. Willie looked back in alarm, not realizing how much this was impacting the drummer beside him. A tear rolled down his cheek, but his smile could not be bigger. Alex continued, “Like I had hoped it was, and there’s been some signs, but this is…” He covered his mouth to hide a sob.

Willie walked over to his side, dropping his skateboard and taking his hand gently. “Yeah, Alex. It’s different. Better. Not perfect, but... a lot better.” He squeezed his hand.

“It’s amazing.” Alex said, wiping the tears from his eyes with his sleeve and grinning. He let out a laugh as a drag queen passed by and waved at the crowd, blowing kisses.

The skater couldn’t take his eyes off of Alex. He was absolutely glowing, basking in the atmosphere of the parade. “You know what? Let’s forget the skating.” Willie decided, taking his skateboard from the side of the street and tucking it in an alley.

“Huh?” Alex was confused. Willie wanted to... not go skating?

“It’s time to get your pride on, Alex.”

Together, they spent the rest of the day exploring every area of pride, ducking through crowds and sneaking onto floats. There was even one point where they ran through a huge glitter cannon, getting absolutely covered in glitter.

After it was all done, Willie teleported back to Julie’s house with him to drop him off.

“That was the most fun I’ve ever had.” Alex admitted, his smile seemed to be permanently glued to his face.

“Me too. I’ve been to tons of pride parades, but none of them were as fun as this one.” Willie admitted.

“Really? What was different about this one? Was it the glitter cannon? It was probably the glitter cannon-”

“It was you, Alex.” The skater said quietly, brushing a couple stray pieces of glitter off of the taller boy’s cheek.

“Oh,” Alex breathed, looking down at Willie. His heart was racing a mile a minute. He hadn’t realized they were standing so close together.

Willie hesitated for a moment. Was this the moment? He didn’t want to rush Alex. He was probably overwhelmed enough after experiencing his first pride. He smiled up at the blonde and patted him on the shoulder. “Goodnight, Alex.” He stepped away and turned to leave.

He was just about to teleport when he heard “Wait!”

Willie turned around Alex kissed him.

He stiffened at first, surprised. Before he could respond, Alex pulled away and looked at him in panic.

“I’m so sorry, I thought-”

Willie grabbed him by the lapels and dragged him down, kissing him heatedly. Alex responded with enthusiasm, wrapping his arms around his waist.

“ABOUT TIME!” someone hollered from behind him.

They broke away to see Luke and Reggie beaming. They both ran over and hugged them both in a group hug. “We thought you two would never figure it out.” Luke said, causing Reggie to laugh. 

“Happy pride, Alex”. Willie murmured, squished up against his side. And Alex couldn’t have been happier.

[thoughts-on-bangtan]

Style Check: Winter Package 2021 - Style 3

by Admin 1

It took me a little while but here we are, style number Three. Honestly this one is just really cute, Christmas-y (even in February) and mostly sticks to a Christmas color scheme of white/cream, red and green with a bit of brown and some shades of blue as attention grabbing color accents. If I remember correctly we also saw the members in these outfits in the pictures they posted just before Christmas on Naver with wishes for the holidays, which makes complete sense.

Looking at these three, I absolutely adore Jungkook’s cardigan, it’s my favorite piece from this overall style. The color and pattern is so, so pretty and it goes wonderfully with his white turtleneck and overall styling. His hair? A+. Hobi’s good-boy sweater is simple with the polo shirt collar sticking out of it and yet with the stripes (even if they remind me a bit of a simplified color representation of a hamburger) it still has that something that draws your eyes to it and doesn’t allow it to look bland or boring. Yoongi’s little vest and jeans with that patch sown onto them give me major grandpa vibes and yet he makes it work amazingly and elevates it to something that looks stylish and cute, especially in connection with the way his hair is styled. Yoongi’s power, incredible. 

Tae again with the shades of brown on cream sweater, absolutely perfect choice. I’ve said it before but earthy tones, browns and greens, are simply his colors. He owns them, done. Also, in that picture, can we talk about his smile and hair? Stunning. And here we are, the first time across three styles I’m faced with a choice I can’t quite get behind, as in Jimin’s vest. The orange with the pale, kinda mauve but also kind of skin tone pink and the green smiling flower on the front? I--? The pants are cute, and Jimin doesn’t look bad, not at all, he basically manages to make anything he wears work, it’s just the colors I’m not a fan of. To be honest, upon seeing the flower, my mind actually immediately thought of Hobi and how perhaps they should’ve switched styles, though that wouldn’t change anything about those colors... Namjoon’s sweater, simple stripes of white and cream, is elegant and suits him beautifully, complementing his warm skin complexion and hair color. And lastly Seokjin with his red sweater with white deers and cream colored overalls, a style combination I’ve never considered before and yet he looks great in it, though perhaps the overalls take away a little too much attention from the pretty sweater but maybe that’s just me. 

Generally, they all look great, cozy and warm, and most of the choices for all the various pieces are, once again, really good for the most part. When it comes to typically Christmas themed outfits, even if you go for “ugly sweaters”, there isn’t that much variation to be found besides maybe pattern and colors, yet the stylists managed to give each of the members something that distinguishes them from one another and highlights their individuality while remaining cohesive across all seven of them.

If you’d like to check out my previous posts, here’s Style One and Style Two.

[guysunderwearstories]

Story #8

“Boo ya!”

Dan sat in the couch in a t-shirt still smelling of beer from the night before and a pair of navy blue Calvin Klein boxer briefs, fiddling his thumbs on the video game controller.

His housemate Patrick sat next to him, his toned pale body close to naked save for a pair of ratty white American Eagle boxers covered in bananas. This was a rare sight; despite having the body of a seasoned athlete and the personality of a guy unwilling to discuss anything beyond the football game he’d watched the previous night, Patrick was an avid student whose dedication to his classes kept him out of the underwear antics his housemates had been engaging in this school year. In fact, until now none of them would have even been able to answer if Patrick was a boxers or briefs man; typically in a group of college guys boxers (or boxer briefs at the most scandalous) are a safe bet, but the way this house was turning up it was impossible to tell anymore.

Dan’s teammate on the swim team TJ sat on the floor in front of the couch, sockless and shirtless in a pair of dark blue jeans. He was in full view of the window, not that anyone walking by could’ve found anything to complain about regarding shirtless TJ. Even though TJ was 21, his parents forbid him from living in a house off-campus like this and he was stuck in the dorms with a freshman who wouldn’t let him come back to the room if he had been drinking; as a result, TJ spent the night sleeping on the couch after coming over for the party last night.

In the kitchen, James and Walt were scrambling around, making coffee and preparing breakfast to ward off their hangovers. The rest of their house was upstairs, either still in a drunken stupor or entertaining whatever guests they got to stay the night with them.

The reason Dan, Patrick, and TJ were so involved in this video game and the reason they were in various states of undress were actually the same reason: they had started an impromptu video game tournament that morning that meant every loss led to one less article of clothing. Blame it on still being slightly drunk from the night before, blame it on none of them getting laid but still wanting to get undressed. The reason doesn’t really matter at this point, all that matters is that Patrick was one ridiculous pair of boxers away from being completely naked.

James scurried past the tv with a cup of coffe in his hand to try and get to his bedroom, but as he walked past Dan gave a playful tug on the bottom of his shorts; fortunately for James, he didn’t succeed.

“Ah, we almost got another one for tally!” Walt shouted from the kitchen. James had been getting pantsed around the house so much lately that his housemates had started a tally on a whiteboard: he was at 11.

“Dude, you’re making fun of me for almost getting pantsed while you’re literally standing there in your tighty whities.” He wasn’t wrong; Walt was in the kitchen wearing nothing but a pair of white Pair of Thieves briefs with a red waistband. He didn’t lose any sort of stripping game, he just didn’t really wear pants around the house. This semester he had switched from boxers to briefs and to avoid teasing from his housemates he flaunted it; he had gotten so good at pretending that none of them had the faintest idea that Walt was mortified everyone commented on his underpants.

After James retreated to his room with his pants still on, he heard Dan made a comment that James seemed to be exclusively wearing briefs lately. Not even solid color ones, but typically ones with designs like stripes. To be honest, he hadn’t even imagined putting on one of his boxer briefs lately. He saw why Walt had switched. Sure it embarrassed him everytime his housemates made fun of him for his underwear, but wasn’t that part of the fun? Sure, being the victim pantsing was mortifying, but wasn’t it a little exciting? Mostly mortifying, though.

And with a final push of a button from TJ, the tournament was over. Patrick stood up, horrified. He fingered the waistband of his boxers as TJ, Dan, and Walt egged him on. After a couple minutes of dawdling, it was clear that he wasn’t going to take him off. Any buzz they had at the start of the tournament had worn off, and the thought of Patrick being nude in front of them just didn’t seem as exhilarating. Not willing to let him get off that easy, Dan proposed they come up with an alternative punishment.

“How about this? We go to the store and we pick out a pair of super embarrassing pack of underwear. You have to wear them every day and then one day we get to pants you.”

“What? Dude that’s worse!” Patrick’s Hans wavered over his crotch.

“What’s with this house’s obsessions with underwear?” TJ smirked.

“Would you rather be naked?”

Patrick thought for a second. “Fine, lets go to the store.”

Scooping up James as well, Dan, Patrick, TJ, and Walt went to the store. Despite driving them there, they made Patrick wait in the car so it would be a surprise what they picked out. James and Walt went to run some errands, and TJ and Dan went to go pick out some embarrassing underwear.

They had been hoping to find a thong or something particularly embarrassing, and they stayed away from the jockstraps; considering Patrick worked out a decent amount, the probability that he owned some already was pretty high. However, this store unfortunately only had pretty basic underwear choices. After splitting up and reconvening, they compared their choices.

“After seeing how ridiculous Walt looked this morning, I knew I had to get these.” TJ held up a pack of Gildan tighty whities.

“Nah, man, these are so much more embarrassing.” Dan held up a couple packs of Calvin Klein briefs (thankfully on sale) that had a variety of designs on them; between the packs, the only solid one was a vibrant lavender. Dan had pantsed James enough in his stripedbriefs to know despite tighty whities’ nerdy reputation, true shame was being in some patterned briefs. The two debates for a bit before Dan (quote the problem solver today) proposed a solution.

“Well we know that Walt’s rocking his tighty whities today, and there’s a pretty good chance that James in some interesting briefs,” Dan started. “So why don’t I pants James and you pants Walt and we see who’s more embarrassed?”

As this conversation was happening, James has run into his freshman year RA. Despite it being mid-September, the RA, now a few years out of college, wore a tank top that exposed some large arms and jeans that hung low on his hips. When James had started college, he was a nerdy, scrawny freshman. It had actually been this RA that introduced James to the concept of working out, but had graduated before he could see the results. Now that he ran into him in this store he finally had the option to show him his progress, to show him how different he became, to finally be cool-

Dan ran up behind him and yanked James’ athletic shorts to his ankles. James stood there frozen for a second in a pair of pink and blue striped Jockey briefs that left little to the imagination. No matter how hard James had worked to change his body, his underwear choice had betrayed any dignity he could’ve had here. The RA walked away, chuckling to himself about James’ little briefs and not saying another word. James was mortified.

“Dude, enough of this.” James’ hands rested firmly on his waistband. “How would you like if if I pantsed you all the time?”

“Bro, I wouldn’t care. That’s what happens when you wear normal underwear.”

Now it was TJ’s turn. Walt stood in line, waiting to pay for a cheap t-shirt he had found. The only person on line behind him was a 20-something businessman with every hair in place and a suit that probably cost more than their rent. TJ, unlike the guys in the house, had never pantsed anyone before; this was uncharted territory for him. Walt reached the front of the line and was ready to walk up to the young woman behind the counter to complete his purchase.

However, before he could Walt felt his khakis pulled to his ankles, leaving his Pair of Thieves tighty whities on full display. The woman behind the counter did an amused gasp. The businessman was cackling. And why shouldn’t he be? Despite the tightness of his pants, he didn’t have any visible brief lines; he probably wore normal underwear. He liked briefs and he didn’t get why everyone had to make fun of him so much for it. Why did the underwear that kept everything in place have to be the one that kept everything the closest to being exposed? Why did the underwear that was the most comfortable to him have to barely cover any of his lower half? He walked around the house constantly embarrassed in his underwear to try and convince everyone that pantsing him in public wouldn’t elicit any sort of reaction, but it hadn’t worked. He felt like he was constantly being humiliated anyway.

But, he also didn’t want to let them win. He didn’t pull up his pants and with them still around his ankles he waddled to the counter to complete the transaction. His spectators looked on, bewildered. After he completed the purchase, he turned to the women.

“While I’m here, do you have any good belts? I clearly need one.” It took every ounce of effort on his part to appear nonchalant.

The woman smiled and recommended some good brands. The businessman laughed, but this time with Walt instead of at him. Dan, TJ, and James were beyond impress.

“Well,” said Dan. “Looks like we’re getting Patrick the patterned briefs.”

[alias-b]

sins of my youth. 001

Billy Hargrove x OC! Evie Fenny~ Also posted to my AO3

Summary: It was common knowledge that Billy Hargrove hated Hawkins. Hated Cherry Lane. Even loathed the strange girl next door. Evie Fenny wasn’t too fond of the chaotic Cali transfer either. An awful high school tradition sparks a chain of events that changes everything, ultimately bringing two frayed souls together. 

A/N: Hey!!! I'm definitely not giving up on LFTM, I've had this story whirling around my brain and it's been pulling at me for a while. Hoping I can slow down, care for myself, and juggle both fics at my own pace. Thank you guys for reading and for being so supportive. I hope everyone who enjoyed WTL also enjoys this fic, it's a totally different direction. I'm excited to share it! I'll tag warning in each chp like I always too. TW: Light bullying, hints at an inappropriate relationship between a teacher/student, and teenage jerks.

Chapter 1: Fast Times

   A blaring bell trilled. Lunch time. So close and yet so far. Scrambling high schoolers like zoo animals clamored into the cafeteria. Knocking shoulders and bouncing around. No one really cared about knowledge today, the last day of school before winter break began. 

   1984. Coming to a close.

   “Evie!” A hand rose to wave. One pink scrunchie around the elegant wrist. Heather Holloway. Cute as a button smiling there. Hands pulled headphones down to acknowledge her. Evangeline Fenny. Best friends since the sandbox and now seniors. “This stupid day is dragging.”

   “It’s killing me.” Evie whined to herself, settling her beat up lunchbox on the table. Red and blue pattern, scribbled all over with song lyrics in black marker. “Mrs. Stockard fell asleep at her desk, I wanted to die.”

   “She snores so loudly.” Heather sparkled when she laughed, sweeping her hair back into a high ponytail with her scrunchie. Evie held a mirror up for her to see out of habit. “Thanks.” It was particularly louder than usual. Teens pregaming the parties to come over the two week vacation.

   “Going skiing with the folks this year?”

   “No, they’re going up to the cabin and I’m staying home after Christmas.” Heather unpacked her lunch, carefully organizing it. Evie pulled a regular PB and J out, amused.

   “Sushi?”

   “My mom’s going through a phase.” Heather poured herself a bit of soy sauce and plucked up chopsticks.

   “Your rich is showing, Heath.” Evie giggled when a foot kicked at her under the table.

   “Trade you a piece for half the pear.”

   “Deal.” They switched. Evie tucked some unruly dark curls aside, sitting back.

   “So...there is a party tonight. Loch Nora. Bunch of schools.”

   “Which ones?” Evie’s brow rose.

   “Ridgemont will probably crash, but who cares. It’s winter break, we’ll go and have some fun then crash at my place. Eat chips, make fun of them, and pass out like we always do.” Heather bounced a little. “C’mon, Evie. I’ll pick you up and we can walk from my house.”

   “I’ll think about it.” That meant yes to Heather. She grinned, reaching across to pat her friend’s arm playfully.

   “It’ll be fun.”

   Evie just whined and crunched on her pear, brows scrunching. Parties weren’t the same since the incident. But, she picked the popular, social butterfly for her closest friend. 

   The two couldn’t have been any more different.

   Heather Holloway. Rich girl from Loch Nora befriending Evangeline Fenny, a Cherry Lane girl, in preschool. They switched beaded hair ties and the rest was history. Bonded over music and fashion. Heather was classically stunning as if she jumped off a magazine. 

   Students used to make snide comments. That Heather kept Evie around because she made her look prettier. Sweet Heather shut that down. Loudly. Whenever the subject came up. Evie Fenny was a bigger girl. Plush. Fat. It wasn’t a dirty word. She was a strange and pretty teen who carried herself too high to be bothered with comments.

   Water off a duck’s back was the saying.

   Used to be she hid herself under big sweaters, tunics, and flared jeans. But, that was before the incident. Afterward, she came to school with a new haircut. Louder makeup. Even louder, fitted clothing. Flaunted the hourglass and caught eyes on her hips swaying. Sat next to Heather at lunch as if nothing had changed. Red glossed lips only smiled and the student body took to her. Those who stayed angry burned alone.

   Thick skin, no pun intended.

   “If that asshole Tannen shows up, I’m dipping.” Evie decided with one breath. 

   “I’d say that I’ll protect you, but you made your point last year.” 

   Ah, the incident.

   “I’m never going to live that down.”

   “It was legendary.” Heather beamed, crushing her fist into her opposite palm. “Bam. Prick went down. My friend is Wonder Woman. Super Bitch.”

   Evie broke to laugh, eyes rolling.

   “Truthfully, I don’t recall it all.”

   That was a lie, she remembered every second of it. Sometimes her knuckles warmed at the thought.

   “I just...didn’t think you had moves like that. Your mom is basically Dolly Parton. You don’t even like violence. You squirm during horror flicks. You love your cat, your guitar, and all plant life...and you beat the hell out of Ridgemont’s golden boy asshole quarterback.”

   It did earn Evie some Hawkins’ fame. Ridgemont was their main rival. The Bulldogs. Football players found a soft spot for the teen.

   “Don’t tell my mom she’s Dolly Parton, that’ll go straight to her head.” Evie joked, popping her water bottle open to drink. Heather’s big eyes lifted behind her.

   A flood of cologne wafted before two fingers tugged a curl. Little harder than they should have. Water choked to spill onto Evie’s chest.

   “Whoops, you got all wet, Fenny.” A tongue clicked. Billy Hargrove slid around the table. All his glory. Heather plucked up a napkin to offer it.

   “Watch it, Hargrove.” She huffed down at herself. The yellow tee tucked into her jeans was soaked through.

   “Girls can’t help it around me, I guess.” He had one hand in his pockets and another cradling his silver lighter. Flicking it open and closed. Eyes narrowed. “Polka dots, huh. I had you figured for florals.”

   “You’re an asshole.” She covered her damp shirt and bra with her striped cardigan. Thick fall colors warmed her skin. Noted the fact that he'd thought about it.

   “Whatever you say, Ivy.” 

   Billy knew her name. They were neighbors. Unfortunately. Right down to sharing the same space between their bedroom windows. She’d had dinner at their house. Susan Hargrove was new and eager to make some friends and Ms. Fenny was eager to be friends with everyone. Perfect match.

   Evie glared up at him. Fucking Adonis.

   “Heather, you going tonight?” He ignored his neighbor and leaned over with one palm on the table, back to Evie as he sat down to flash that darling smile.

   “Maybe.” Heather gestured with her chopsticks.

   “I can work with maybe.” He acted like the girl behind him wasn’t there. Frankly, Evie was used to being invisible. It was better than being bullied. Most days. “Maybe I’ll see you there.”

   “Maybe you apologize to my friend and say her name right.” Heather winked at him.

   “Who?” Billy stood and turned, mocked some surprise. “Oh. Evangeline. So quiet, I forgot you, chica.”

   She wasn’t sure if that was a jab at her mixed heritage or him just being a smartass. Billy rolled her name off his tongue like it was a joke. Like it wasn’t a real word. Blue eyes alight at her stony expression. Sly and alert. 

   The California transfer vibrated after leaving the basketball team before the season ended. Word was that he was persuaded to leave after some fight with Steve Harrington. Billy was a strange one too.

   Often, he seemed lax when he was alone like the world didn’t matter. Other days, he was rocking and quick on his feet. Hungry and itching for something. Anything. It was a scary look on such a pretty boy. You could never gauge where his mind was. Where it would go next.

   “Evangeline.” He sounded out again even slower. “Your mom lose a bet?”

   “It’s a poem.” She replied flatly, sitting back to cock her head at him. Billy snapped his fingers to point.

   “Sounds like the name of some chick whose man died in her arms.”

   She huffed at him, leaning in.

   “...That would be what the poem is about.”

   “Fucking depressing.” Billy tapped his chin. “I got it. I’m going to call you, Angel. I won’t forget that.”

   “You are not calling me-”

   “Trying to compromise with you, Fenny. You cast the first stone.” Billy flicked his eyes to Heather. “Bring your friend with you to the party, Heather. Some guys like angel cake.” He winked and slunk off to his band of merry assholes. This school worshiped him. Kissed the ground he walked on since he started in fall.

   “What a fucking slimeball.” Evie grumbled to herself, stuffing trash aside to ball it up. Thought about tossing it at Billy's big head. Heather gave this conflicted look as if to say, but he’s cute, right?

   “Ignore him.”

   “Bad enough his family moved in next to me.” They packed up their lunches. “God, I want a smoke so bad.”

   She didn’t keep the habit up just to save her singing voice. Her mom picked up cigarettes only after the divorce last year. Smoked out her window and hid it, but Evie knew. No judgment there. Better than other habits moms pick up after divorces.

   “I’ll pick you up at seven tonight?” Heather walked out with her after the bell rang.

   “Yeah, I’ll see you in fifth.” Evie turned to go to her locker and stuffed the lunchbox away. Grabbed a book to hurry to class. History. Three more periods left. Students fidgeted around her.

   “Hey, Evie.” Steve Harrington batted his eyes at her. Friendly enough these days after he left the popular cliche and broke up with Nancy Wheeler. Sometimes having your heart stopped on made you nicer. Not always. “You, ah, do the paper?”

   “All six pages.” Evie set it on her desk. “You?”

   “I made an attempt.” It was strange because Steve never gave her the time of day before this year. Maybe the guy was lonely. He tapped his pencil and the chatter quieted when their teacher walked in. Late as always.

   “Class, pass your papers to the front.”

   “Hopefully they don’t come back with red wine stains.” Robin mumbled behind her, one leg crossed up so she could draw on the rubber side of her sneakers. Evie caught a snort, taking the papers to pass them along. “I like the jacket.”

   “Thanks. New haircut?”

   “My own dad didn’t notice.” Robin beamed.

   “Psst, Evie.” A note flicked on her desk. Tammy Thompson. Pretty girl, kind of shy. “To Steve.”

   Evie considered herself a professional middle man for lovesick note passing. Discreetly, she gave it to Steve, head cocking. He furrowed his brow upon seeing it, but wrote back.

   Whatever the reply, it made Tammy’s shoulders fall.

   AP Biology was next. Teacher treated it like his kingdom and didn’t pose much of a challenge because he was disorganized as hell. Evie was relieved to share the class with Heather. 

   Billy, Tommy, and Carol also had it too. Hargrove bitched for a week about how the other science classes had no openings. Strange because he wasn’t an idiot. Still got his work in and maintained a B average. Probably due to his dad. Neil Hargrove seemed like a real hardass. And all of Cherry Lane had heard him and Billy arguing at some point.

   Evie might have also witnessed some more physical spats through the windows.

   She figured it was why Billy hated her. She knew something about him. Something he hid because it made him feel smaller. He caught her eyes once and barked nastily before taking off in his Camaro. A gust of smoke.

   She never brought it up. 

   Dads could be real assholes.

   “Watch the movie. Fill out the worksheet.” Their teacher was as ready for this day to be over as the students were. Lights went down. Yawns followed. Evie propped her elbow up on the high lab table she shared with Heather, doodling new lyrics between answering questions.

   A crumpled paper hit her hair. Stuck into brown curls. Heather turned back to glare at Tommy shrugging with a sleazy grin.

   He was no artist. Evie smoothed it for a wide, big lipped and breasted caricature of herself. She drew on it and scribbled a note back. Smiling sweeter when she flicked it at his chest. Carol and Billy leaned in on either side to see Tommy’s expression sour because Evie gave him nothing.

   “You got my hair all wrong.” She’d written. Fixing it for him.

   Billy snorted and turned back to defacing his textbook.

   “Bitch.” Tommy muttered to himself, tossing it away. Evie finished her sheet, dug for her compact to reapply a lip color. Caught Billy behind her. Intent on whatever vulgar drawing his mind was concocting. Blue eyes flicked like he’d been aware of her this entire time.

   The mirror snapped shut.

** ** **

   Study hall. Last period of the day. Most kids who had it were skipping out early during the hour. Slipping away one by one through the library. Evie was one of those kids. 

   “Leaving so soon, Miss Fenny?” The smooth as silk voice lowered, startled her enough to drop her notebooks and folders. 

   “Fr...Mr. Bowers.” Evie dropped before her English teacher standing so close to her. Second period. Been in Hawkins three years teaching the junior and senior classes. Fredrick Bowers. Dream of a man to all the teen girls. “Sorry.” She bit her bottom lip, eyes lifting to see him and his shadow blocking the light from touching her. 

   “No, I’m sorry, Evie. I figured you’d heard me coming.” Sky blue eyes centered on Evie there before he came to one knee. Helped her gather lose papers strewn about.    

   Mr. Bowers had a name and face all the teen girls drew little hearts around in pink gel pen.

   Evie thought she saw those same cartoon hearts bubbling up behind his back. Popping like gum. Styled toffee blond locks, trimmed mustache, and groomed side burns. A simple patterned shirt tucked into fitted slacks with the sleeves rolled up. Never a tie. Something groovy about him that stuck from the seventies. Mid thirties and hell of a smile.

   Evie tucked hair aside, displayed her blush in full view obscenely when he flashed those sparkly whites at her. Eyes crinkling.

   “I’ll warn you next time.” 

   Her heart plucked like a song when their fingers brushed. Dashing and broad. A Jane Austen character come to life. Enough to make any young girl melt. And how quickly she did.

   “Next time.” Evie gave this scoff. Pulling her notes close as they both came to their feet with hard intent eyes.

   "I wanted to give you something. A book to read over the break." He pulled it from his leather messenger bag and peered around.

   "An assignment?" Evie sparkled at him so he was lighter.

   "No, it's just because I believe you're so clever and mature. I think you'll read it with an open mind and we can talk about it like we talked about all the others. It's complicated material. I, ah, really shouldn't be giving you this book." He offered it. "But, there were quite a few I wasn't allowed to give you. After that chat we had over The Crucible. I'm just so fascinated by what you think."

   "Lolita. I know what happens in this one." Evie peered at the battered title. Rough paper between her fingers, it was clearly an old copy. She peered at his chest instead of his eyes. "We-"

   "Don't you miss talking? You know. Last year. Someone who knows what you're going through. I want all my students to be comfortable around me."

   "I am comfortable, we..." Evie glanced as someone passed far down the hallway.

   Bowers helped her after her dad left. A shoulder. A confidant. A crush that... She felt her heart close in on itself.

   "I thought you said we couldn't anymore."

   "I miss you." He whispered that. Lush and blunt. She barely heard it. Eyes snapped up.

   Someone missed her. Someone wanted to listen. Someone who saw her depth.

   His wife left him before he came to Hawkins. Evie learned a great deal about her too.

   "I won't tell, I never do." She hid it away into her bag, matched his tone. "We can...talk. Not here."

   "Good." He swallowed. "I just think you blossom under guidance and support. I always knew you were one of those girls."

   Evie blushed again. Eyes on her shoes. 

   “I wanted to say I was impressed with your paper as well. As always.” Fredrick gave her arm a pat and left his hand there. Fingers pressed into the knit fabric of her cardigan. His lip twitched. 

   “Good. That’s…I’m glad.” Evie’s eyes flickered over stormy blue ones, swaying. Lashes gave a dreamy bat. “I was thinking, ah, about you when I wrote it.”

   “Really, you should speak up in class more.” Fredrick gave her one subtle squeeze and dropped his hand. “All those funny poems you shared last year.”

   “My songs.” Evie corrected softer and he only smiled to nod.

   “Right.” An idle step backwards before he leaned over her. A great deal taller. The shadow crept over her eyes this time. “You have a Merry Christmas, dear. And speak up again in class, Evie. You know I love to hear from you.”

   A sensation like a fizzling sparkler glowed in her belly. Out her spine. Spread over skin.

   “I know.” She giggled at him, peering around. “Merry Christmas, Mr. B. We'll talk.”

   “Small town, I’m sure I’ll see you out and about.” A wink and he was gliding off. Shoulders back and chest perched high.

   “You might.” Evie swooned against her locker. Watched him go. Gasped a breath into her lungs. Swept all the clouds aside to fill her backpack with work. He made her feel so special, like no one ever could. 

   “Anyone...” She sang to herself, “who knows what love is...” Fingers plucked up a final book. Evie hummed and thought of small cartoon blue birds spinning around her head as she went into the restroom. Washed her hands and lingered to see her reflection.

   Evie was in a strange place. In and out of her skin. Torn between love and hate for her body.

   Usually, it just took a brave face. Her dad always used to tilt her chin and tell her to put on her bravest face before leaving home.

   She hoped the one she chose was convincing. 

   Her mom would always spin her favorite Bible or Dolly Parton quotes. Which helped on occasion even if she wasn’t sure which source the words came from half the time.

   A sigh. This was her flesh. She’d live in it as best she could. Dreamed herself into something better.

   Footsteps hurried down the hallway until the door shoved open. Humming cut.

   “Hargrove!” She gasped, dropping her messenger bag. “Billy, you can’t be in here!”

   “God damn it, Fenny. You again?” Billy skidded to hush her. Pressed them back into the wall. The heat of his body engulfed her frame, standing a good few inches taller. “Do me a fucking solid. Hide this for me.”

   Billy had no sense of boundaries because he was stuffing a baggie into her front jean pocket. 

   “What are you doing?” She seethed at him, smacking his arms off her to put some distance. “Get off me!”

   “Don’t say a word. Got it?” Billy lifted a finger with an intent look. Smelled of leather and his heavy cologne. Hairspray too. It all overshadowed the cigarette scent. He smoothed his tee out and turned to see the door. Scrambling like a spider, Billy jumped up on the toilet, threw his messenger bag outside, and pulled himself up. Wiggled his way out.

   Evie heard a thud and groan.

   “What the fuck?” She whispered, more so to herself as he disappeared. Hands pulled what was clearly concealed weed bundled up several times and bagged from her pocket. “Shit.” More footsteps before the door burst as she shoved it away.

   “You see that Hard-grove kid?” A thick accent asked. Security guy. Useless.

   “Uh!” Evie pulled her bag up. “Who?...This is the ladies room! Can’t a girl have a moment here?” 

   “Sorry!” He cringed away before she jumped into mushy period talk. It always worked. 

   Evie rolled her eyes and marched out to find Billy. Casual as can be, he tossed his bag into the trunk of his car and stilled to light a cigarette. Grumbling, steps hurried up the hill.

   “Asshole!” She tossed the weed at his chest, made him catch it awkwardly and stuff it into the trunk with a hiss.

   “Keep a lid on it, will you?” He slammed it shut. No one was around to see them.

   “Don’t do that shit again.” She pushed into him to go, Billy’s big hand wrapped around her wrist. Tugged her square into his chest. An unkind grin swept.

   “I had you figured, didn’t I? You didn’t say anything.” Billy blew smoke into the air, plucked the cigarette out to flick it with his free hand.

   “Let go.” Evie huffed. “I would have been in deep shit too for that.” She wiggled and pushed at his chest. 

   Billy flicked his bright eyes over hers. So brown they looked black in winter. He never noticed that she had a dusting of freckles across her nose and cheeks like he did. Pale for a girl with darker features. Indiana falls and winters must have taken the color right out of her. Looked like a lot of the mixed gals he knew back home. 

   Big curls. Soft and curvy. 

   Angry at him over something he did.

   There's no place like home, he figured.

   “You’re so weak.” Billy laughed at her. Took another drag. “They told me you freaked out on a guy last year.”

   “You want to be next?” She twisted away from him and turned. It wasn’t a real threat. He’s seen her tend to plants like they were humans. Feed neighborhood cats and nurse her own. Old black cat with not long left. Little fucker was always creeping him out from her bedroom window. Constantly staring with huge green eyes like it knew something Billy didn’t.

   “Babysit your own weed.”

   “You walking home?” Billy was relentless, voice lifting.

   Evie huffed and turned.

   “What, are you going to say I probably need the exercise? My bike chain broke.”

   “Christ, I was gonna offer a ride. Figured I owed you for saving my damn weed and my break. Not like it's out of the way.” Billy turned to open the passenger door. “Quit being a drag and get in. I don’t bite hard...unless asked.”

   “You’re such a creep.” She eyed him there. Wondered how he stayed warm in a tee, jeans, and leather jacket. “Not waiting for Max?” He gave this annoyed look.

   “She’s going out with her stupid friends, not my problem today.” Billy got in, gesturing. “At least close the door if you’re not coming. I went through the effort to open it for you.”

   “What a gentleman.” Sarcasm.

   Evie came back toward his car and debated it. Smelled like it might rain with the sky turning grey. And she really didn’t want to walk in these shoes. Rationalizing it, she slipped inside and shut the door. Settled her bag in her lap. Even buckled up. Billy revved the engine and skidded to speed out without a second glance.

   “You going to the party with Heather?”

   Evie peered at him watching the road with this hard look on his face. Ghosted a smile. Bingo.

   “You’re being nice to me to get to Heather, huh. You know you’re not the first guy to pull this. Could have just asked me about her.”

   Crystalline eyes flared up at her face.

   “What? Dorky chicks like you turn me on, too.” He replied rougher, not bothering to watch the road.

   “Wow. Spread it on thick, Hargrove.” She turned from him.

   “I always do.” He hit a hard corner. Christ, he drives fast. “I got a shot?”

   “She thinks you’re cute.” Evie shrugged. Far too used to this. Eyes slid to his profile. Wild curls still golden on grey days. The boy glowed. It was absolutely insufferable. Leaves whirled by, brown and dead. A smile crossed her face. “Listen. Since you’re saving me a walk. I’ll help you.”

   “Help me? I don’t need your help, I just wondered if she was gonna show.” He scoffed, turning on Cherry Lane.

   “You want to know what Heather likes. It’ll help you.” She crossed her arms, nearly flying forward when he screeched to a stop in front of his house. Billy shot her a look, filled with pride. “You got a pen and paper, bud?”

   He snatched her bag, tore a page from her notebook and dug into his glove box for a pen.

   Ass. She hugged it back to her chest.

   "Talk."

   “Okay.” A breath. “The thing about Heather is she’s a romantic. Jane Austin girl. Pride and Prejudice. If you can quote that just once like Mr. Darcy, she’s yours... Well? Are you writing?”

   Billy did a double take and huffed, grumbling. He actually marked it down.

   “Mr. Who?”

   “Your life amazes me.” She chuckled. “Darcy.”

   “Got it. Darcy. I’ll ask Susan about that shit, she’s a reader.” He muttered, tongue sweeping out before he scribbled. 

   “And she loves museums. First date ideas. Milkshakes. Cheese fries with jalapenos. Cheeseburger gal. Chinese from that corner joint. Always spicy. Easy picks.”

   “A girl after my own burning heart.” Billy felt her peer at him again. Lips lifting with this expression he couldn’t read. Blinked her big eyes and went on.

   “Definitely loves to snuggle in with something scary even though they freak her out. Must be a curiosity thing.”

   “Any excuse to get close to someone, I like it. This is gold, Angel, go on.”

   “You know, I think that’s all I got for you.” Evie turned to get out, sighing. That was just a little evil. “Billy.”

   “What?” He shut his door and turned from her.

   “Thanks for the ride.” She moved to go toward her house. “Knock ‘em dead.”

   Billy didn’t reply. Just watched her go into her house before he dug for another smoke.

   “Mom?” Evie called. “I’m home.”

   “I’m in my room, sweetheart!”

   Ramona Fenny was a spirited woman, went by Mona to the neighborhood. A girl of the 60s. Built like Dolly Parton with a pumped hairstyle to match in sleek dark brown, almost black. She worshiped the woman. Looked like she could have modeled atop a cake. 

   A church going girl who used prayer to get her through the divorce. Never pushed it on others, not even Evie. Too busy pushing other things. Like the free days she lost having her daughter young. She liked what worked in life and this worked for her. Liked the pretty side to things. 

   Mona was a sunny side up sort of mother.

   Best friends with Claudia Henderson as they both went through divorces which was not in God’s plan. Evie liked Dustin, she babysat him on occasion and he was a good kid. Bullied like her. 

   Mona owned the favored hair salon in town. Worked long hours with a team of women and ran a tight ship. Did hair for all the social elites so she knew everyone and all the hot gossip. And did she love that detail the most. Evie helped out with reception during vacation time. Liked the extra cash.

   “I was going to go to Heather’s later, there’s a party.”

   “Oh, have fun, baby.” She pushed her kid to go out. To live. To be smart. Never asked her to call. Not out of trust for Evie, she couldn’t be bothered. Never imagined her daughter would be up to mischief.

   If only she knew.

   Sometimes, Mona keyed in when it suited her. Understood when Evie’s likes and dislikes changed. When she asked to not go to church anymore because it didn’t help her after her dad walked out. Ramona was understanding as long as you didn’t bring up things like depression and anger. There always had to be a way out. Turn the other cheek.

   Evie knew her mother always thought the best.

   “Great.” Evie crossed to steal the hair brush, helped her mother out with the teasing. Dyed rich and dark locks that used to be a mousy brown. Dark eyes like her daughter. Evie didn’t look like her father with his brighter features. Her lush hair and russet eyes. Thick brows. “You going out? All dressed up...”

   “Just into town, couple of errands.”

   That was something that changed a week after her dad moved out. Mona’s style revamp. She was a woman of the sixties and seventies and that came back full force. Styled and pumped up like she was walking out of a Nancy Sinatra music video. Men around town noticed it and the woman certainly speculated. 

   But, her daughter had a style change too after the incident so it must have run in the family.

   “Better?” Evie eyed the glittery rings sitting in a ceramic dish. They looked like gumballs there.

   “Touch of hairspray and I’ll be right as rain.” Pink manicured nails came up with the can. “Take cover, baby.”

   “Got it.” Evie disappeared in a waft of spray. Stole an ice cube from the freezer to crunch it out of this habit she picked up when dad was gone. Cool and melty between her fingers before she swallowed it down. Felt the bulge tense all down her throat. Another followed. Teeth straining to crack it like glass. The chunks went down a little less smooth as she looked for real food and shut the fridge instead.

   Evie went into the bedroom to see her old cat on the pillow. His head lifted. Skinny and balding. Blind in one eye.

   “How’re we doing, my handsome boy?” Evie dropped her bag and crossed to pet him. Purrs erupted, whiskers twitching. “Bourbon, my darling.”

   A scratch of a meow rasped.

   “Yes, I love you too. I’d kiss you if my lips weren’t done up.” She smacked her lips and stood. “Outfit.” Clothing pushed around. Her room was a small, intimate space. Few pictures and purple curtains. Desks covered in song lyrics, trinkets, and needle felting projects.

   Evie held up garments to the cat, but he was no help. Just purred there like a motor boat. Settled on a black top with some sparkle and a magenta wash denim jacket. Jewelry was a must, she preferred earrings that were huge acrylic hearts. Bourbon had gotten into the window to watch the window across the way. 

   Billy wandering shirtless and damp. Muscles red and bulging like he’d done a quick work out

   “Yeah, not today, my sweet.” Evie plucked the cat from the window and reached to close the blinds. Billy caught her. Winked and licked his lips slower. She made a face at him. Utterly loathing and not impressed at his peacock way of navigation. “Ew." 

   The blinds snapped down, leaving Billy to laugh there. Evie carried her purring cat out, chiding. 

   "Don’t make his head any bigger than it already is.”

~~~~

TAGLIST OPEN! Hope you enjoyed! Thanks!

[idreamofplaid]

Our Secret

Summary: Jensen and Jared can’t resist that unspoken thing between them anymore.

Characters: top!Jensen x bottom!Jared

Warnings: first time; anal sex; unprotected sex; coming untouched; begging

Word Count: 1791

A/N: It’s a repost from my former blog. I used to write Wincest and J2. I’m likely to start again. If this isn’t your thing, pass it on by.

It was an incredible audition every way you looked at it. Jensen had totally clicked with this character. Dean Winchester. Even the name sounded badass. He didn’t even mind that they had switched roles on him. So, he wouldn’t be Sam. He could definitely get used to Dean if it meant he got to work with the guy he met today.

Jared was basically amazing. The more they had talked, the more they connected with each other. They had so much in common, from Texas to the music they liked. And, if Jensen wasn’t mistaken, Jared had been flirting with him. So, feeling optimistic and bold, Jensen had suggested they hang out together. With a dimple studded smile, Jared had said yes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jensen never had trouble deciding what to wear. The work he’d done as a model made him aware of clothes and how they worked together, but tonight he couldn’t decide. He’d been “hanging out” with Jared for a few weeks now. The word date had not been used, but that’s what was really happening. They were going on dates disguised as two co-stars bonding to strengthen their chemistry on film.

Tonight was going to be different. For one thing, it was private. Jensen had banished his roommates and asked Jared over to his place. Jared loved to eat, and Jensen could cook, so he was going to use that to his advantage. The ribs had been marinating since last night. They were ready for the grill. Jensen wanted everything to be perfect. He hadn’t been this nervous since his junior prom. He’d lost his virginity that night, and right now he was trying not to make too much of that connection in his head.

To distract himself, he started thumbing through his collection of Polos. He knew which colors he looked best in, so he pulled a black one from the hanger. He put it on with the jeans that hugged his ass just right and surveyed the results in the mirror. Satisfied, he took a deep breath and headed to the kitchen to pick out the perfect wine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Jared arrived, Jensen led him straight out to the deck where he had the grill started and the wine ready. Jared closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. When he opened his eyes, Jensen couldn’t help but notice how they sparkled. “You didn’t tell me you could cook like this. I thought you meant macaroni and cheese.”

Jensen casually shrugged a shoulder trying not to grin. He kept reminding himself to be cool. “You want some wine?”

Jared gave him a quizzical look. “You drink wine when you grill?”

Jensen picked up a glass and poured Jared some Cabernet. “Yeah. You just have to drink the right one.”

Jared took the glass and sipped. “You like wine, huh? You know all the different kinds and everything?”

Something in Jared’s tone told Jensen that was a compliment, and that pleased him greatly. “I do. It’s kind of a hobby.”

Jared grinned and took another big sip. “What else is there I don’t know about you?” Jensen smiled before he turned to flip the ribs. “Maybe you can find out.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The food was good and the conversation easy just like it always was. Two bottles of wine later, Jared and Jensen were both relaxed and starting to look at each other in a way they hadn’t ever allowed themselves to look at each other before.

It was LA, so you couldn’t actually see stars but they both looked at the sky like you could. Jared was the first to speak. “Do you ever think about a different life, Jen?”

Jensen looked down from the sky filled with the pink glow from the city lights to focus on Jared. “What do you mean?”

Jared chewed on his bottom lip and gave his eyes a little squint. “I mean like a life where people aren’t watching you all the time and telling you who you’re supposed to be, what you can and can’t do.”

Jensen let Jared’s words sink in, and they struck a place inside of him that he rarely acknowledged. He answered quietly. “Yes, I do. Like right now.” Jensen moved closer and put his hand on the side of Jared’s face. His eyes roamed over Jared’s features memorizing them, the green and blue sunburst in his eyes, the mole on his cheek, the point of his nose. Then Jensen touched his lips to Jared’s.

It was soft at first, tentative, exploring the feel of it, the feel of what it was to be kissing each other. Then Jared opened his mouth, and Jensen accepted the invitation sliding his tongue inside. He circled it around Jared’s, tasting, wanting more. It was Jared who deepened the kiss making it clear to Jensen that he wanted more too.

Jensen slid his hand down Jared’s back to cup his ass and gave it a squeeze. Jared moaned into his mouth and grabbed for the hem of his shirt, pushing it up so he could touch skin. Jared could feel Jensen’s erection against his own spurring him on to push Jensen’s shirt the rest of the way up his chest and off. Jared was nearly breathless now. He looked into Jensen’s eyes, the need in his own was raw and vulnerable. “Can we keep this a secret, Jen? Will we be able to?”

Jensen’s answer was quick; his voice was steady and reassuring. “I can if you can.” Decision made, their lips crashed into each other again. Jensen’s moved over Jared’s and down his neck leaving a trail of hot kisses while his fingers worked at opening the buttons on Jared’s shirt. They left a trail of clothes all the way to the bedroom.

Completely naked, Jared lay stretched out on Jensen’s bed. The golden skin of his long, lean, well toned body was contrasted against the white sheets. He was propped up on his elbows; his eyes travelled over Jensen’s body taking in the beauty of it. His shoulders were broad, his thighs thick, and his forearms strong. Everything was covered with a dusting of freckles. But the most riveting part of him was the erection that stood up next to the firm muscles of his stomach.

It was flushed pink with arousal and a good eight inches long. Jared sucked in his breath at the girth of it. It was bigger than anything Jared had ever had in his ass, and he couldn’t wait to feel the sweet burning stretch of it. He wanted to be stuffed full. Now.

Jensen put one knee on the bed and ran his hand slowly down the outside of Jared’s leg starting at the hip. “Turn over, Jay.” Jared rolled over to his stomach. He felt Jensen’s hand caressing one globe of his ass before moving to the other, and he just couldn’t help the moan that escaped from deep in his throat. Jensen’s hand was so big it covered most of his ass. “Open your legs for me.”

Jared spread for him. He could hear Jensen opening the nightstand drawer. Then Jensen spread his cheeks, and he could feel the cool lube drizzling over his hole and running down his crack. With the tip of his finger, Jensen massaged over Jared’s pucker then slipped his finger in to the first knuckle. Jared started to move pushing back against Jensen’s thick finger silently begging for more. “Up on your knees, Jay.”

Jared got on all fours as quickly as he could being careful to keep Jensen’s finger inside him; Jensen helped by pushing it in deeper. When Jensen added another finger, Jared dropped his head to the mattress and groaned. “Please, Jen, I want you in me.”

Jensen’s fingers scissored back and forth. “I will. Just give me some time, Baby. I need to open you up. I don’t want to hurt you.”

It was when Jensen put in a third finger, that Jared keened. “Now, Jen. Now. Don’t make me wait anymore.” He could feel Jensen positioning himself behind him. Jared held his breath when the tip of Jensen’s shaft breached his first ring of muscle. God, he was huge. Jensen held Jared’s hips, steadying him. He kept perfectly still giving Jared time to adjust to his size. “More, Jen. Give me more.” Knowing Jared was ready, Jensen pushed in another inch.

It went like this, Jensen pushing in one inch at a time and treating Jared like he was fragile while Jared begged him not to. “Move, Jensen! Please move!” When he couldn’t hold out any longer, Jensen started to thrust. Jared was a screamer; and when Jensen hit his prostate, he saw stars and reached back to grab Jensen’s ass. His fingers tightened on it trying to make a fist. “I’m gonna come, Jen. I’m gonna come!” He squeezed Jensen’s flesh. “Give it to me. I can take it. Give it all to me!” Jensen thrust in hard as deep as he could, and Jared screamed again. He felt like he was splitting apart, and that was just what it took to make him lose it without ever being touched. Long ropes of thick, creamy come shot from the end of his dick and hit the headboard painting it with white stripes.

Jensen’s thrusts became erratic, and he released a huge load of come into Jared, filling him full. With both of them spent, Jensen collapsed over Jared’s back, and Jared sank down to the mattress. Jensen rolled and lay on his back next to Jared, his arm flung over his head. Jared was quiet. “You okay, Jay?”

When he didn’t get an answer, Jensen sat up and started to brush his fingers through Jared’s thick hair. “Jay?”

Jared was still on his stomach, his chin was resting on the back of his hand. “I don’t want this to hurt you, Jensen.”

Jensen continued to comb his fingers through Jared’s hair. “What are you talking about?”

“I...I don’t want it to stop, Jen.” He turned his head to Jensen; his eyes were clouded, not shining like they had been before.

Jensen took Jared’s face in his hands. “I don’t want it to stop either.”

“You know this could destroy your career if it got out. And you’re good. Really good. I see what you can do every day. I don’t want to be the reason that gets messed up for you. I won’t be.” Jared swallowed hard and looked back down at the pillow. “It has to be our secret, Jen. Has to.”

“C’mere.” Jensen lay back down and pulled Jared into his arms. “Okay. It’s our secret.” Then he kissed Jared’s lips again sealing the promise they had just made.

Wincest/J2: @j2xforxlife​ @myinconnelly1​ @aihoshiduo​ @kickingitwithkirk​ @dean-winchesters-bacon​ @ladycynthia​

I’ve only tagged you if you’ve expressed an interest in this. If you are on my usual tag list and would like to be added here, message, comment, or Ask.

[twst-rose-prisms]

Alice Whiterose

----------------❄️-----------------

~Technical Information~

Japanese: アリス • ホワイトローズ

Romanji: Arisu Howaitorozu

Nicknames: Goma-chan* ( Floyd ), Ari-chan ( Alisa ), Shiro-chan** ( Cater ), Chibi-senpai ( Ace ), Reine de Neiges ( Rook )

Voiced by: Satomi Akesaka ( voice sample )

~Biographical Information~

Gender: Female

Age: 17

Birthday: January 17th***

Starsign: Capricorn

Height: 1m55

Eye color: Blue

Hair color: White

Body type: Petite, short ( for a 2nd year ), curvy

3 sizes (bc why not?): B85 - W60 - H84

Blood type: A

Homeland: Rose Kingdom

Family: Alisa Whiterose ( non-blood related sister )

~Professional Information~

Dorm: Heartslabyul

School year: Second

Class: 2-D, student no.16 (poor girl have to sit next to Floyd)

Occupation: Student

Club: Science club

Best subject: Magical pharmaceuticals

~Fun Facts~

Dominant hand: Left

Favorite food: Anything edible

Dislikes food: Spicy food

Dislikes: Scary people, people judge her base on her height

Hobby: Gardening, Origami, Making sweets

Bad with: Open up a conversation, Talking to strangers, Stamina needed works

Talents: Cooking

----------------❄️-----------------

“White roses are very delicate and easily get tainted, just like people, don't think so too...?”

Alice Whiterose is a second-year student at Night Raven College and a member of Heartslabyul Dorm. A shy and introverted girl, she often got anxious if there are too many strangers around her. However, she can be very passionate and devotional when it comes to working.

----------------❄️-----------------

APPEARANCE: Alice is a young girl with shoulder length white hair that tied into twintails styles, wavy bangs covering her forehead and long side bangs. She have droopy blue eyes with a small red rose patch under her right eyes and wear a pair of dark blue glasses. Often got misunderstood as a first year because of her height and petite figures, though she doesn't show her uncomfortableness outside on her face. Alice also doesn't like to let her hair down naturally because it's easily got disheveled. Alisa state that she jealous because she have a "greater body" than her (which Alice quickly debase this but it's actually the truth)

In her Dorm uniform, she wear a white collar shirt with black-and-red striped necktie under a red vest. Over the vest she wears the blazer that others in her dorm wear ( except for Riddle ). She wear a white skirt with a black and yellow ribbon and a chain of 4 keys around her waist, black-and-red tights with heart patterns and red-and-white high tops.

PERSONALITY: Alice usually seen as a shy girl with somewhat gentle aura around her (as stated by others). A little clumsy and easily got scared, she usually got teased for being "jumpy" whenever something scares her. As a child, Alice got taught to not talking to strangers unless they're her friend's acquaintance, so it's understandable why she's bad with open up a conversation. If she found someone have the the same hobby/like the same things as her, she'll talk with them non-stop about it and even forgot about the time. Alice does state that she hates that habit of her and tried to fix it until today ( but failed anyway )

“I-I think... Plants are more gentle and easier to talk to than human. Maybe it's because they're not judgemental like some people.” - Alice's lab-coat SR card personal story (part 2)

Sometimes, people got weirded out by her strange habit of talking to plants and magical creatures during classes. The reason is that she think they're also like human, they need someone to understand them. Her gestures are very gentle and delicate, you could see this clearly whenever she take care of the plants in the school's garden. She also often talk with a soft and respectful voice, even at underclassmen. You might think she's slow, but the truth is that she actually have short stamina, so she can't run fast or holding heavy things. Part of it is also because she have a fragile body at birth, so her mother become very strict about her movements (hence why her gestures are very gentle).

It might make you think "She should be in Pomefiore instead!", but, the reason she got sorted into Heartslaybul is simple. Her passion and ambition towards works. She also doesn't like to live by her own rules, she think that "rules" are part of people's live, and sometimes, you have to follow it to have a better live. While she adore beautiful things, to her, anything that good at heart is beautiful, hence why she doesn't got sorted into Pomefiore. Another reason is that she doesn't strike to be the best in beauty, to be honest, she doesn't want to be the best in anything at all. Trey did comment that: “You sure are a suitable member of Heartslabyul huh Alice? Although Riddle doesn't admit it himself, but I'm sure he must've think the same way about you too.”

“I-I actually did used to play piano... B-But, that hobby of mine used to hurt someone, so I've quit for a long time now...” - Alice's initial SSR personal story (part 3)

Used to be a piano prodigy when she's was a child, she started playing at 8 but quit after 5 years because of an accident. Ever since then, she got anxious and sweating unconsciously whenever she saw a piano. Because of that accident, she also have fear of breaking/ruining things, hence why she always have a tight grip despite the gentle gestures on things she hold (even things like doorknob). If she accidentally grab on the hem of your shirt, you'll clearly notice it. (Though don't tell it out loud or else her face will become red as Riddle's hair). And when she's on verge of getting(?) anxious, she will immediately run away to wherever her feet take her, which usually ended up at the school's Botanical Garden. To her, it's the most quiet and peaceful place at NRC, it's warm atmosphere also help her to quickly calm down as well.

UNIQUE MAGIC: "Gift of Card Suits" - ( 魔法の上書の鍵 "Magic Overwrite Keys" ) To be able to use one of the key that she carried around on other people's magic. Each key have a specific effect:

♥️ Heart: To change the effect/chosen target of anyone's magic (for example, if someone use fire magic, she can use this key to change it to other type of magic or switch the target to anyone she chose)

♠️ Spade: To be immune to any effect of anyone's magic

♣️ Clover: To dispel any effect of anyone's magic

♦️ Diamond: To double the effect of someone's magic (basically, a magic buffer)

However, she can't use Heart, Spade and Clover keys to Unique Magic(s) because it took too much mana to do so. She can also only be able to use 1 key per day, meaning if she use more than 2 keys then it'll reach the limit of her strength, and her Unique Magic will become useless if she doesn't have the keys with her (hence why she even bring it when wearing the Ceremonial Robe). Alice also stated that out of the 4 keys, Heart is the one that consume most mana so she doesn't use it usually like other keys.

----------------❄️-----------------

BACKSTORY ( just a small part of it ):

The first thing she saw was the ground. Everything was quiet. Too quiet. She couldn't felt anything except for the cold, hard ground right beneath her feet and the broken wall on her back. Her small shoulders unconsciously shivering from the cold but she doesn't even try to warm herself. She just sit there, like a broken doll waiting for someone to notice it. Her blue orbs doesn't have any lights reflect on, as if they're dead. The only sound was ominous wind blowing on the dead trees. Her white, ripped dress were dirty as well as her used-to-be pure white hair.

Everything around her is dead.

"Oh my, what do we have here?"

A strange, deep voice suddenly speak up and break the dead silence. When she grown up, she couldn't remember much who was that, but she knows, that person was the one that changed her life. Her lifeless eyes slowly look up. Everything around her was a blur, even that person become a black silhouette. But she remembered it well.

A pair of glowing emerald orbs.

"Hmm? What's the matter, _____?"

"A human child. It seems like she's still alive..."

"Nfufu~ You sure are interested in human huh, _____?"

"...Want to bring her along?"

"...Haha! I guess that look is a "yes" then! Go on and pick her up~ If she still alive, that's it."

Then slowly, a large silhouette appeared in front of her. The little girl still sit there lifelessly, only until that person pick her up and place her into their chest, a faint shock expression slowly form on her pale face, a sign that she's still alive. For a few seconds, she panicked, and it seems like she also made that person panicked too.

"Hey now, don't panick along with her! You were supposed to comfort the child, _____!"

Slowly, a large hand awkwardly pat on her back, making the small child flinch due to the sudden contact. But after a while, her body relaxed and gradually melted into their chest. The little girl unconsciously rest her head on their shoulder while slowly drifted to sleep, a peaceful expressions reflected on her face.

The last thing she saw behind their back was a pair of glowing magenta orbs before everything went black.

RELATIONSHIPS ( in Alice's opinion )

Heartslabyul

🌹 Riddle Rosehearts: "W-Well, Rosehearts-san might looks strict, but... I think deep down, he's a kind person...! A-Also, he seems to be fond of sweets, though he doesn't show it outside... *giggles* I also admire him for how responsible and serious he is with his works...! And... I'm glad that he still keep the pin that I gave him...!"

❤️ Ace Trapola: "H-He's actually a reliable underclassman, but sometimes his words are quite harsh... A-Also, I hope that he get along with Rosehearts-san more since they sometimes kept arguing...And I felt a little embarrassed that he always calling me "Chibi-senpai"... *sigh*"

♠️ Deuce Spade: "A-A very reliable underclassman...! He also seems to be very serious about works, w-which I'm glad that we have hard-working underclassmen in Heartslabyul too...! Though, he can be a little too serious sometimes... *giggles*"

♦ Cater Diamond: "He's actually... one of the upperclassmen that welcomed me to Heartslabyul with open arms...! T-Though I felt quite embarrassed when he post pictures with me in it on MagiCam... Diamond-san alao help me out whenever I asked him, so he's quite reliable too...!"

♣ Trey Clover: "L-Like Diamond-san, he's also one of the upperclassmen that welcomed me with open arms...! T-Though I didn't trust him at first, he surprised me of how kind he is...! I-I also really admire his baking skills and often asked him for advice too...!"

Savanaclaw

🦁 Leona Kingscholar: "H-He's a little scary in my opinion... I-I also think he's a little hard to approach... Maybe I shouldn't made him mad..."

🐆 Ruggie Bucchi: "He is... Well... Easy to approach...? I-I did share some classes with him and he did help me sometimes, so I think he's a kind person...! His ears also look very cute...! *giggles*"

🐺 Jack Howl: "W-Whenever I stand next to him I felt like I got shorter... Aside from that, he's also quite reliable...! At first, I thought he's a little scary but after I talked to him, he's actually very nice...! A-Also, his tail looks very cute...! *giggles*"

Octavinelle

🐙 Azul Ashengrotto: "Even though he's quite nice when I talk to him, I felt like something is wrong... Sometimes, he kept staring at my keys when I wasn't looking, which is a little worrying...B-But he is very smart though, I really admire his alchemy skills...!"

🦈 Floyd Leech: "H-He almost gave me a heart attack when I first met him...! I hope that he stop hugging me or calling my name so suddenly whenever he saw me in public... I-It's really embarrassing even when I think about it... But he sometimes help me a lot with school works so I guess that he's a smart person too...?"

🐬 Jade Leech: "U-Unlike Floyd-san, Jade-san is very nice whenever I talk to him...! He also doesn't seems to hesitate when I asked him to help me with something... B-But, somehow, I felt like he is hiding something...?"

💄Alisa Whiterose: "W-Well, since she's my sister so I respect her a lot...! Although I felt embarrassed when I take a picture with her... H-Her fashion sense are very good though, I wonder why she didn't got sorted into Pomefiore...?"

Scarabia

🕌 Kalim Al-asim: "He seems to be a very energetic person... A-A little too energetic... But he's nice and friendly, so I don't felt uncomfortable when I talk to him...!"

🐍 Jamil Viper: "A mysterious person... He seems to be always around Al-asim-san for most of the time, I guess it's because they're friends...? I also admire his cooking skills too, so sometimes I asked him for advices...!"

Pomefiore

👑 Vil Schoenheit: "W-When I first met him, I got stunned by how beautiful he looks...! Even though I don't really like make-up but I appreciate his advice to improve my appearance...! I also like his hair color because it's really pretty...!"

🏹 Rook Hunt: "A weird person... To be honest... W-Whenever I walk past him in the hallway he always call me with a strange name that I couldn't understand... But, I respect the fact that he also adore beautiful things...!"

🍎Epel Felmier: "O-Out of all the members in Pomefiore, I think Felmier-san is the easiest person to approach...! He also teach me a lot about apples, which made me actually plant an apple tree...! *giggles* H-His fruit carving skills are also very beautiful, I really, really like it...!"

Ignihyde

💀 Idia Shroud: "H-He's a little gloomy in my opinion... If only he become more talkative then perhaps I could approach him easier..."

🤖 Ortho Shroud: "H-He looks very cool...! I've never seen a robot in my life before so I was really impressed by how pretty he look...! He's also very friendly and kind too so I felt at ease whenever I talk to him...!"

Diasomnia

🐉 Malleus Draconia: "I-I don't know why, but whenever I saw him, my chest got tighten up for no reason... His eyes looks so familiar too, I wonder why...? A-Also, he might seems like a cold person, but it's not the truth at all...! In fact... He reminded me of a child a little bit...! *giggles*"

🦇 Lilia Vanrouge: "I-I actually thought he look quite young for his age... *giggles* And I don't know why, but his eyes give me a strange feeling, just like when I look at Draconia-san... Aside from that, he's very knowledgeable...! I really admire him about that...!"

⚔️ Silver: "W-When I first met him, I almost tripped on his feet...! To me, he is quite mysterious and somewhat hard to approach though... B-But if it's possible I would like to talk more with him...!"

⚡Sebek Zigvolt: "H-He almost gave me a heart attack whenever he shout at me out of nowhere...! And it seems like he respect Draconia-san a lot too...! B-But it seems like he doesn't like it much when I talk to him or Vanrouge-san, I wonder why...?"

Others

🌻Mary Merveilles: "S-She is one of the first person to become my friend so I really respect her...! I also admire her because she always stay positive, even when come across troubles... If only I could be more cheerful like her..."

🐱 Grim: "A-A very cute cat...! I love the feeling of touching his fur and pet his ears because it's very soft...! *giggles* Though it'll be better if he stop causing trouble around the school..."

🌙 Luana Crowley: "W-When I first met her, I was surprised by how mature she looks...! And not to mention, she also talk like a true lady too...! I really, really admire the Vice Headmaster and I hope I can talk confidently like her someday...!"

Dire Crowley: "H-His masks looks very mysterious... I felt like he is hiding something, but I just can't tell what it is... I wonder why...?"

Mozus Trein: "L-Lucius-san is very, very cute...! Ah! I wasn't supposed to talk about him huh... *giggles* it's just that Trein-sensei's cat is very cute so I couldn't help it... His words are quite easy to understand, so I guess I can say he's a good teacher...?"

Divus Crewel: "H-His appearance is very... unique...? Even though I sometimes got scared of the stick that he kept carrying around, his lessons are actually quite easy to understand...! T-Though I would prefer it more if he stop calling me a "puppy"..."

Sam: "A-At first, I thought he's a weird person, but he's actually a cool person...! Not only did his shop contain lots of nice things, he's also very friendly too...! I-I often come to his shop to buy ingredients or new kind of paper for origami...!"

----------------❄️-----------------

TRIVIA:

+ *: Goma stands for ゴマフビロードウミウシ "Gomafubirodoumiushi" which is a type of sea slug that known for its fluffiness and cuteness in Japan and other Asia countries. It can also be called "Sea bunny" in English.

+ **: "Shiro" mean white in Japanese, Cater probably referencing to her hair color

+ ***: This is not her actual birthday. It's the day when she was found in the backstory. Her real birthday is unknown ( She doesn't even remembered when she was born )

+ Her name, "Alice" is a reference to "Alice Liddell" - the main character of "Alice in Wonderland" series while her last name is a reference to the (supposedly) white roses in the Rose Maze

+ While her profile stated that her homeland is Rose Kingdom, her backstory actually revealed that it's not her true origin.

+ In Alice's school uniform R card's personal story, she stated that the Heart key was a gift of someone she cherished until now.

+ She actually joined the Science club just to be able to take care of the school's garden easier

+ When she's bored, she will unconsciously do origami. It's one of her habit and hobby

+ Which is the reason why she often carrying around a small stack of colorful paper in her pocket

+ If you want to look for her, she'll usually be around the Rose Maze or the Botanical Garden. Alice also occasionally at the library too.

+ Her room have lots of decorations made from papers

+ She eats quite a lot but only when she's alone. Alice does stated that she doesn't want others to know about her appetite.

Will add more facts in the future~

----------------❄️-----------------

...And that's it! I actually decided to redesign one of my first child, Alice and give her a more detailed backstory! To all of you who read until the very end, I'm very, very thankful 💞💞💞 Also, I'll post all OCs related posts in this blog from now on while my other blog: @twststrash will mainly about rebloging and other stuffs!

Also, after finished her Ceremonial Robe, I realized what my true nightmare is: drawing detailed patterns. God I hope I won't draw it again after finished redesign all of my current OCs -w- Anyway, peace~!

[witchcraft-in-wonderland]

Cori's Tale (Pt.1)

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

I was never much for listening to the old stories they told us about monsters and humans fighting. It wasn't that I didn't care- I just had better things to do, like drawing. I had a black backpack with gold spikes for all my sketchbooks and drawing materials, I never leave home without it. The other kids at school think it's weird, I've never taken the thing off since I got it, but I like it! That's all that matters.

Oh, how rude of me, I haven't even introduced myself have I? Cori Sable, resident nonbinary disaster child. Not that it's of any consequence what my gender or lack thereof is, after all I'm only twelve years old aren't I.

But back to the important stuff! I live in a community of lots of people, it's fun, we get along pretty well when people aren't calling me names or telling me the backpack I wear is pointless and stupid and I should just get rid of it.

If I had to complain about anything, it would be the fact that no one seems to notice how many kids go missing at Mt. Ebbot every year. Every year some kid gets dared to climb it, and every year they don't come back. With the way the other kids look at each other sometimes, I worry they know exactly what they're doing when they send someone up there.

"And that's the story of how the humans were victorious in the Battle of Mt. Ebbot," the teacher closed her book, placing it on a shelf next to her. I hadnt heard a word of what she said, not that it mattered since I already had the whole thing memorized to begin with. I glared enviously at the back of the room, where teenagers sat on their phones, willingly able to ignore the story and not get in trouble. We werent allowed to get phones until we were fourteen, and even then we had to get jobs first, and recite the story of monsters vs humans. I don't think I'll ever get a phone, I'm terrible at doing work for one. For two the way everyone here tells the story of our fight seems very biased, it's almost like they didn't try to cooperate with the monsters at all, just maim and kill and lock away where no one else can find them. It's rather rude in my opinion, monsters just seem like weaker magical humans, they just look different and have a different culture, I don't see what's wrong with that.

Of course, bringing this up would be a detriment to my already tediously hanging reputation here. A kid who isn't well liked would be ill-advised to go spouting off about how monsters and humans aren't so different, about how maybe if we'd shown a little mercy we wouldn't be in this situation.

See, we used to be able to live in separate houses, used to be able to get stuff whenever we wanted. But it turns out a lot of that was because if decent trading with monsters, and of course, no monsters, no nice things. Not to mention, going through an entire war is hardly good for anyone involved, it's actually probably the worst possible event to go through. That's what led us to here, with so many orphans the human race decided "why not just make all children orphans" and took us away from our parents nearly as soon as we were born to be raised in these communities, only able to escape once we prove sufficient enough to survive on our own.

I'll probably never get out, they'll kick me out at twenty-one of course, but the problem with that is, I don't think I'll get the hang of life by then, or ever really. There's just to many things to learn! How to drive a car, how to use a phone, how to get a job, how to talk to people, it's all way to much. And with no one helping me out, I'm basically trying to operate a plane where all the buttons are the same color and the switches don't have labels.

Recess was my least favorite part of the day. I used to like it, but now I get pushed off of everything I try to use. On top of that, recess is when The Choosing happens. If you haven't figured it out yet, that's when someone gets dared to climb a giant mountain or risk being labelled a coward and ostracised, one time a kid refused and they got them kicked out entirely!

"Cori!" I heard a rough grumbling voice call my name. I turned to face the girl, her name was Ulana, and she was the one who decided what happened to all of us. Red hair braided behind her back, Jean's ripped in so many places it couldnt possibly be intentional, the only thing scarier than her was the twin brothers that always followed close behind. Sora and Pevril were oddities of their own, with Sora having black and blue eyes and Pevril being abnormally tall for a child. They were of course, only scary when around Ulana, other than that, I didn't see them as much of a threat, sometimes it even seemed like we could be friends.

"What is it, Lan," I said, raising an eyebrow.

"Don't call me Lan," growled the girl, she was nearly a foot taller than me, and almost old enough to age out of the community to. But she was looking for a reaction, and I learned long ago that I should never give one to a bully, not if I had any self-respect.

"Right, well what do you want then?" I tilted my head to the side, focusing more on the sound of children playing in the distance than Ulana.

"I bet you can't climb Mt. Ebbot and survive," I froze for a second. I was aware I wasn't well liked, but perhaps i should've paid attention to just how deep that disdain went.

"And if I don't accept?" I said, digging my feet into the ground.

"Then I'll take that nice backpack of yours and chuck it in with the next kid, and you'll get kicked out," I wrapped my hands around the backpack straps subconsciously.

"Fine, I'll play your game, but if I do make it back, you can't send anyone else down ever again," I said, looking her directly in the eyes. There was a glint there, one I that sent shivers down my spine.

Mountains were, of course, cold, but my legs had a weird relationship with temperature. I had a blue and indigo striped hoodie on, one with little grey horns at the top, and black shorts with black boots. The ever important backpack was still tossed over my shoulders, sketchbook and art materials jostling around inside.

I reached the top of the mountain soon after, there was a crater at the center. I thought to myself for a second, whether Ulana had mentioned anything about going into the mountain, or if I could go home saying I had climbed it myself. I was in fact, so caught up in this decision, that I was caught off guard by a light shove from behind, and sent hurtling down the crater, my backpack clutched to my chest.

I landed, miraculously, in a pile of soft flowers, that seemed to cushion my fall.

I couldn't tell where I was, just that I was really far down, and the sky was really far up. I made the decision to keep walking.

After a few mere seconds of this I came across a patch of grass, where an orange tree stood at the center. I paused for a second before realizing- the tree had a face.

"Howdy! I'm Orangey, Orangey the orange tree!" It spoke, in a voice that sounded cold and calculated.

"Uh- hi- I'm Cori- the not orange not tree-" I said, doing a sort of two-finger salute in return.

"You're new to the underground arentcha?" Said Orangey, I nodded in response.

"Let me help you," suddenly something jumped out in front of me. It was glowing, different shades of pink blue and yellow faded in and out of what looked like a heart.

"This is your SOUL, the very culmination of your being!" Said Orangey, he seemed unphased by the tri-color phenomenon of it.

"Your SOUL can get stronger when you gain LV, that stands for LOVE," he said. I wasnt sure that sounded right, Love didnt seem like the kind of word one would need to abbreviate.

"Down here, LOVE is shared through friendliness pellets," spinning orange shapes appeared on all sides, I eyed them suspiciously "Go on! Catch as many as you can!" Said the tree. I chose to go the opposite route, backing away as the shapes closed in on me.

The tree's expression changed, it was one of anger and hatred "Smart kid, aren't you," its voice was deeper, less calculated, more angry and bordering on psychopathic.

The pellets surrounded me on all sides, preparing to close in. The tree began to laugh, a cold and unfeeling cackle that sent a chill down my spine. The pellets were inches away from my skin, when suddenly they'd disappeared, the tree was gone. Something- no- someone- walked out if the shadows. He was tall, with white fur and horns, and a tossle of light brown hair at the top of his head, adorned with glasses, a blue shirt, khakis, and a grey cardigan.

"What a cruel creature, torturing such a poor innocent youth," he spoke in a softer voice, one that reminded me of how the guardians back at the community spoke to the younger children.

"I am Patton, caretaker of the ruins, come with me, I will keep you safe," Patton held a hand out, I accepted it after a few moments hesitation. Patton walked with me through an archway, into an elaborate structure, covered with vines and flowers. I felt something spark in me, I thought back to the sketchbooks in my backpack.

"Can I sit down for a second? That was a little scary," I said. Patton smiled and nodded, setting himself down in a pile of flowers between two sets of stairs. I sat down as well and pulled out a sketchbook, beginning to draw the things surrounding me.

"Oh! An artist!" Patton said excitedly.

I smiled and brushed it off slightly "Not so much artist as bored little kid with to much creativity," was my only reply as we sat there, trying to ignore the things my head was telling me.

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

Tag list:

@nerosdayinhell

@that-artsy-gay

@official-lucifers-child

@spooky-scary-virgil

@youtuberswithalex

@misunderstoodshadowling

[thebestworstidea]

Now I’m gonna talk about it; because I can.

In Into the mind (and a few related stories) the sides have special objects that relate to their roles and help support them, The Shield, Cloak, Breastplate and Sword.

Hilariously, the scroll work I used is basically fancy linked ‘s’ which made me laugh when I realized it. Virgil and Roman have less because I wanted to make the designs on Virgil’s more jagged, and Roman’s didn’t really have room. I maybe should have made the sheath gold too, but I wanted to call in the ‘samurai sword’ he uses in the videos, even though it didn’t match the way his sword is described. (it’s not described as sheathed either, but practice safe swords.)

The star on Thomas’s shirt is broken apart because he’s a bit fragmented being where he’s not supposed to be. Originally I had each piece of the star a different color, but I didn’t feel great deciding who went in the middle, so steven universe reference go.  In the original configuration, the sides are looking in all directions, surrounding Thomas, while Thomas is looking directly at the viewer. (Technically, no one is looking behind them, and it would have made sense for Patton to be, but that would have hidden his face.) Generally speaking in the story, Virgil was watching the back and Patton led, but for better display of the artifacts, I switched them. (Besides, Anxiety watching where you’re going while the heart supports from behind works)

While all of their eyes are brown, I added highlights of their colors, just like the hair. Logan has the least highlights, Virgil has the most.

Logan’s wearing jeans; and the color is closer to indigo than true dark blue. He’s wearing slip on sneakers because it was described in a fic once and I liked it. A little bit nerdy, a little bit cool. Just like him.  Gonna level with you, not really satisfied with the shield. Overall design good- execution poor.

Patton’s wearing socks with sandals because I thought it was funny, and then I just committed. His socks have paw prints on them. His bracelet has a cyan bead, an indigo bead, a purple bead, a red bead, a green bead and a yellow bead. The friendship band is orange because of Joan’s beanie. There’s a heart on his belt buckle, it would probably match his logo if it was bigger.

Virgil would totally zip up his hoodie over the breastplate if people call too much attention to him. His hair is darker than everyone else’s.

I really like what I did with Roman’s coat, with the tails and all and the stripe of gold down his leg

[acsmithwriting-blog]

“Anything New?” - A Short Story by A.C. Smith

Anything New?

Aquarius gave Pisces the news. With her hood up, she pounded on Pisces' door. "Hey!" She pounds harder. "Open up, little minnow!" Aquarius shouts up at her bedroom window, and Pisces, she finally wakes up and unlatches the door. "What?"

"Sagittarium is playing this Friday! At the Leo Plaza. You're going, right?" Pisces' eyes lit up and died the way an old light bulb blows when you throw the switch. She says to Aquarius, her voice low, she says, "You know I can't." "But it's Sagittarium!" "I know."

"Look," Aquarius says, pulling her hood up. "I've got a plan. You turned me on to listening to them, and I know how big a fan you are. We're sneaking you in." She smirks, hand on her hip.

"But how? There's no way I'll get in." Lifting her right arm, Pisces shows Aquarius her tattoo. The Pisces sign in black on the inside of her wrist. The stigma. "As I said, little minnow, I have a plan."

Pisces didn't like Aquarius' plans, but she meant well. And she was right. She had to see them live. Nine years back, before the updated restrictions were enforced, Pisces would wake up every morning, drink a glass of tap water, and make it to the record store five minutes before they opened. Pisces always wanted to be the first to listen to any new release. Any record. "Anything new" was her favorite type of music.

The manager with the keys every morning, A Leo, he was always excited to see Pisces there sitting at the front door. One morning when Pisces asked the manager, "Anything new?" What was new was Sagittarium's first album, "Circles." Pisces was the first person to buy it, back when they were allowed, and she instantly fell in love with their music. After the new enforcement codes went into effect, Pisces, she had to ask Aquarius to buy them for her.

The weekend comes up fast. Friday morning, Aquarius shows up with her boyfriend, Taurus. And his best friend, Leo. Aquarius was wearing a tight red dress with adjustable shoulder straps that pulled her cleavage up to her neck. Taurus and Leo, they had some hip new black pants adorned with chains and studs. Sagittarium T-shirts on. All of it underneath raggedy robes with large hoods. Aquarius bangs on Pisces' door again. "Open up, little minnow!" The door flies right open, Pisces shaking with her hands balled up in front of her chest. She asks, so what's the plan?

The boys, Leo and Taurus, they played chess in the front room while Aquarius painted Pisces' wrist. The brush, dipped in cream colored paint, sliding cold across her tattoo. It nearly matched her skin tone, but not enough. Blowing on it, Aquarius says not to worry. She brought her makeup bag, too. "We'll get in blended in right. And tonight, you'll be a Libra!"

Pisces half smiles. "Well, it looks great. But, um. What about my Sign Card?" Aquarius put Taurus to work two days back with some laminated cardstock. He's a graphic designer. Good with photoshop. At least enough to fool the security guards at the festival entrance. "Reach into my left pocket," says Aquarius, blowing on the painted skin.

Pisces digs for the card, and looking at it, she finally lets herself feel excited. She thinks maybe she'll get to see them after all. Aquarius, still blow drying the paint, breath after breath, she says, "I've already bought two tickets. So, it shouldn't be any trouble. Okay, I think it's dry." She blends it in with foundation to match Pisces' skin, and then draws the Libra sign tattoo in permanent marker. "Good enough! Just be mindful not to rub it." Aquarius smirks, proud of her ingenuity.

It's time to leave, and everyone throws their robes back on. Pisces leaves her legally assigned Sign Card under her pillow. "Libra." She says, holding it to her chest. The others exit first, and Pisces lifts up on her doorknob so it'll line up with the latch to lock.

After the four of them make it out of the Pisces district. After they get two whole blocks away, they check around them to make sure nobody will see, and they toss their robes aside. Pisces wears a two-piece outfit Aquarius brought for her. It's a bit too big, but Aquarius finds a few safety pins in her makeup bag, and they cinch it up to fit. It's a black tank top and skirt with a shimmering blue stripe running diagonally from shoulder to hip. Black stockings with the same royal blue hem run up to the middle of her ashen thighs.

"You. Look. Hot!" Aquarius squeals, and Pisces blushes.

Walking there, Pisces isn't used to being a Libra. So, Aquarius has to keep pulling her out of the shadows. Telling her, "Honey, you're fine. Libra, remember?" "Oh, right."

"And," Aquarius whispers into her hear. Her breath hot through Pisces' hair, she says, "Stop covering your wrist like that. People are going to think you're a Pisces. Act proud, girl!"

By the time they arrive at the Leo Plaza, Pisces feels confident about her "Libra walk." She tells herself, approaching the ticket gates that nobody will even know she's a Pisces.

Just act natural.

The guard checks her tattoo, then her card, and she hopes he didn't notice her hands trembling. Inside, the four of them scope out a spot to set up, but it's crowded. Leo, Aquarius' boyfriend, he says they'll go do some scouting. "Hold your chin up a little higher," Aquarius whispers, her teeth clenched together.  Pisces listens, and raises her chin. Telling herself, Tonight, I'm a Libra!

The right perimeter is the food side. Two-dozen food trucks selling the best from around the world. Overpriced, but you can't bring your own in. The left side has sideshows. Circus attractions. Games that scam you. Dartboards painted with big, fat minnows. The word Pisces painted into its sun-bleached pink scales with a million tiny holes from years of playing darts. Knock down the pins with the ball to win a purple moose. That kind of thing. Everywhere sat couples on blankets, some with flags proudly displaying the face of a lion. A scorpion of glowing stars. The Scorpios. Blankets with more space than people. The loners.

Flags with oversized crab claws pinching a lion and a fish in half. Mostly, these ones were Libra frat boys. The second best. Leos might be some high-hat cats, but Libras never get off their high horse. They check out a few of the games, and Aquarius gets a sniff of something and has to go find and eat whatever it is. "I'll catch back up with you!" She disappears into the crowd. At the first tent, the walls are lined with prizes. Stuffed animals ranging from small to large, bottom to top. Pisces noticed a small section to the left, one of the smallest prizes. A stuffed minnow. Cornflower blue with magenta fins. When she asks the staff how she can win a fish, he asks her, does she have a dog at home? "What" She asks. "Why?

"Nobody wants those, 'cept for as chew toys." He chuckles and fans his hand out. "All you gots to do is pop one of thems water balloons. Three darts. Five coins." The Carnie, Pisces sees his wrist when he drops the darts into the wood in front of her. An Aquarius.

"Okay," Pisces, who reminds herself that tonight, she's Libra, says, "here." And leaves five coins out. Half her money.

"One balloon! That's all for the fish." He steps out of the way.

On the dartboard, two balloons are painted to look like eyeballs. They're clipped up and hanging over the painted fish's face. Pisces throws the first dart. It's front heavy, making it nosedive early and land on the tip of the painting's fin. Before she can throw the second dart, a voice next to her, he says, "If you miss I'll pay for three more." On his wrist, the Capricorn symbol tattoo. Its sun-faded ink stretched and skewed from growing with age. He smiles at her.

"Thanks, but I'm not going to miss." Is that what a Libra would say? Pisces wonders. She looks forward and takes aim. The second dart lands just beneath one of the huge, bulging water balloon eyes. Capricorn gives the back and forth glance, and doesn't say anything.

The last dart lands, spilling water into the grass as the one eye deflates. The Aquarius Carnie hands Pisces the fish, and she shoves it into her purse to swoon over later. At Capricorn, she shrugs and explains that it's a chew toy. "Of course." He laughs. "Hey... You're a Libra, right?"

"Obviously!" Pisces scoffs, overtly looking at the paint on her wrist. "So, you think you could cut us in line for the Ferris wheel?"

Pisces had never been on one, and thought she would probably be afraid of heights. She didn't know for sure. "I can do that?" She asks, not thinking. "Please, you guys are basically Leos."

She tries again to play along. "Oh, stop it."

"A bashful Libra? Ha!" He grabs her hand and says he'll buy her a snow-cone first. They cut in line with the card Aquarius' boyfriend made up. The home-laminated Libra Sign card, printed with middle-class black ink got them to the front of the line, but the rules clearly stated: No snow cones allowed.

Pisces got a lemon brain freeze and tossed what was left into the waste bin. They stepped into their two-person gondola, and Capricorn said, "Don't worry. It only takes a couple of minutes to go around. We'll be out before the band's on." The door clicked shut behind them. They started moving. The sun had just set, but the Ferris wheel lifted them high enough to see it set again. They only just met, and Pisces thinks it might be the sugar high, but her heart flutters when he grabs onto her hand. His palm wet against hers after a hot day. The extra light from the sunset nobody but them can see, it isn't helping. Pisces is sweating through the paint on her wrist. She notices it starting to crack through, and keeps it tilted so Capricorn won't see.

When he asks her what kind of dog she has, Pisces thinks, What kind of dog would a Libra have? An Australian Shepard, she tells him. How many siblings does a Libra have? What is a Libra's favorite sport? He asks, were her parents Libras, too? What is a Libra's favorite flower? Food? Phone number? The wheel begins moving, or the sun goes down again. What did a Libra drive here? Pisces, she's trying to keep up. Act natural. What does a Libra listen to? She answers honestly, for once. "Anything new, I guess. I like Sagittarium." "Well, then you're in the right place."

That's the last thing he said to her before his double-take at her wrist. "Is that... Paint?" Pisces had gotten distracted by his questions. She wasn't mindful enough to hide it, but she tries lying. Lies are not a strong-suit for Pisces.

"Let me see that!" Capricorn grabs her by the elbow, jerking Pisces toward him. She pulls back, but it's too late. His grip is strong, and he's thumbing at it. Scraping it away, smudging his thumb with the fake skin. Latex, dyes, and makeup powder smeared into a ripple. Wiped clean off from the layer of building sweat beneath it. From the heat, and the worry. Her tattoo shows.

Pisces.

The gondola's door opens to the line of people they cut in front of. Capricorn's jaw buried in his shirt collar, he yells, "Pisces!" pointing at her. The crowd outside murmurs. They're not even allowed in. Capricorn steps out holding his hands halfway up. He disappears into the crowd saying he's got to wash them, and the people turn their heads back. Looking at Pisces.

She tries to bide her time and escape the corner she's in, lying like a Libra. "Oh please, that Aquarius." Flicking her wrist. A dismissal. "He's such a prankster." Tattoo hand on her purse, she shows everyone her fake Libra card with the other. Pisces puts on her best poker face, making her way outside just before someone finally shouts, "Show us your arm!"

Pisces turns to run, but a large Taurus man grabs onto her. He pulls her wrist out and lifts it up for all to see. "A Fish!" He shouts, tossing her forward. She catches herself, but already people are pulling little white cylinders from their bags. Their back pockets. Pisces turns to run, going face first into a few people. They pop the caps off their little bottles. The tops punched with various sizes of holes. They shake out fish food. The flake kind. Green and orange transparent because it's so thin. The air stinks like stale sea brine from a thousand tiny flakes snowing down over Pisces.

They chant, "Fish bitch! Fish bitch! Fish bitch!" Pumping one fist, shaking fish food down with the other. Pisces eyes wet up with tears, and the flakes pick it up, soaking onto her skin. Like flecks of glitter surround her eyes, but they're too large, and they don't shine. They just stink.

She gets up and starts to run. Her only sense of direction is away from the music, because that's the way to the door. The people, most of them have a second bottle. Inside, a reel of fishing line with a hook at the end. It's got lead weights attached for easier throwing. With tears and fish food swelling up, blurring her vision, Pisces makes the longest bounds her short legs allow her to. Behind her, spinning hands build momentum for the hooks. They let go and send them flying. Chasing after Pisces. Most of them miss. One, a triple-sided hook, snags onto her leg beneath the skirt. She pulls it forward, taking another step, and it rips backward, taking a chunk of skin with it. Behind her, someone yells "Ooooohhweee! I almost had her!"

Others, still chanting "Fish bitch!"

Others, throwing hooks on lines as Pisces runs away. Hooks shoot past her. They grab into her hair. Cut into her tank top. Dig into her shoulders. Her back. Both sides of her legs and arms bloodied and pouring red.

The next thing she sees is an arm fly up. The next thing she feels is like a wall in her face. And it's black.

When she wakes up, it's black out. Pisces tastes iron in her mouth. When she tongues at it, there's a raw spot where her canine tooth used to be. Her eyes feel swollen. From being hit, or maybe an allergy to the food flakes, she didn't know. Every inch of skin stung when she pushed herself up, away from the earth. Next to her, her purse. With both hands she dove into it. Her crimson stains from hook wounds forever tear-dropped into the thin polyester fish design.

Pisces knew she had better not get caught being outside after curfew. Especially without her Sign Card. Above her in the sky, the Leo constellation. The lion's tail pointed the way home. It was a long walk, but nothing is quite as bad when you've got a plush animal to hug onto.

End-

[swappingswap]

some basics, aka character designs!

sans, aka big blue: has a tooth gap along with freckles. we see him as the tallest sans, around 6′0″, and as buff as a skeleton could possibly be. very thicc. always wears a leather jacket to make himself look cool, jorts, and a different themed bandana everyday. on lazy days, he wear crocs, a sundress, and obviously a bandana.

papyrus, aka sticks: also has freckles, fake snakebites, and braces. the shortest papyrus, around 5′7″, very slender, and he’s actually apart of the royal guard, so he wears a suit of armor to work. however, when he isn’t working, he wears a hoodie, sweatpants, and socks with bunny slippers that throw their ears up whenever he takes a step in them. 

alphys: she wears a suit of armor similar to greater dogs, though it’s larger and functions as more of a mecha that she controls from the inside. inside of it, she’s wearing a matching mew mew kissy cutie set of shorts and a tank top.

undyne: she wears a slightly dirty labcoat, slightly dirty because its covered in soot from explosions, and she still has her tank top, but the jeans are replaced with capris, because her lab is in hotland and even though she keeps her lab at a comfortable temperature she doesn’t want to risk overheating. she also has goggle and protective gloves, also slightly dirty with soot on them. she also has random in stains on her clothes because she likes to chew on pens and sometimes, in frustration, she chews too hard or breaks them in her hands and ink goes everywhere. 

temmie: temmie, due to some lore that will later be posted, is taxidermy instead of a doll. very creepy looking, and sometimes, if you look to closely, she really does seem real. 

toriel: she wears a crown, but she has her ears set in a ponytail. instead of a dress or a robe, toriel wears a pantsuit, as its easier to move around in and she has the delta symbol on a breast pocket. instead of a cape like original asgores, she opts for something a little more flowy. think elsas cape. 

asgore: he’s an old man living in the ruins, and the ruins are covered in many kinds of flowers from his pure will alone. he wears a cape with a hood, and the hood is always up, covering his face and leaving nothing to be seen. under the cloak, he wears dad clothes, aka a hawaiian button up shirt with khakis and work boots. due to the many flowers he takes care of, there are always dozens of petals attached to the bottom of his cloak, causing him to leave an endless trail of petals wherever he goes.

chara: for the sake of edge and angst, in this au, chara is a teen. when thinking of their clothes, think a teen given a credit card and free will to buy whatever they want from hot topic. band shirts of bands like mcr or fall out boy, though chara does have their original stripped sweater always wrapped around their waist. at the end of their journey, they take it and put it on, symbolizing growth and coming to terms with themself.

mettablook: obviously a ghost, with the ghost sheet look. he’s link pink in color and is very into decora kei, so he has various little bows and cute items scattered on and around himself at all times. 

napstabot: either a light blue or navy blue in coloring, his legs aren’t that amazing but in bot form his arms are BUFF. in both box and bot form, he has a set of turntables attached to his body. he has a matching bowtie and tophat. an addition is a charger attached to his body, meant to give him energy. if removed, he starts to become sluggish and tired. it’s how you defeat him in his fight. 

grillby: more victorian in nature, but in a subdued sort of way. tasteful and not overdramatic, but he is a slight bit more eccentric as in his flames are brighter and bigger and dance with multiple different colors at the top. 

muffet: still gothic in fashion choices, but also in an aesthetic kind of way. wears a more bartender like outfit, but in a gothic lolita type of fashion. enjoys the cuter things in life. has a bun instead of pigtails. 

floweys: floweys come in all shapes and sizes, from roses, echo, golden, orchid, lily, aster, or any other flower type. 

now, these next things may seem a bit weird, but my heart says cringe culture is dead and also its my au so i get to give everyone a happy ending. in the end, the barrier breaking not only releases gaster from the void, but somehow they manage to bring back frisk and asriel. why? because i love them and they all deserve better. also, in this au, i decided not to switch asriel or gaster with anyone. there wasn’t really anybody who made sense in my mind to switch them with.

frisk: they have their iconic sweater, yes, but sometimes they like to indulge in more colorful fashions, like brightly colored sweaters and other baggy clothes. 

asriel: he has a sweater similar to frisks, blue with purple stripes. he wears slightly baggy pants and big rainboots. 

gaster: honestly? he’s got a mad scientist type of look. before falling into the core, he wore a labcoat covered in mysterious chemical stains, and was usually seen in his lab. he wore no lab safety items, meaning he has no gloves or or goggles. under his labcoat, he has a deep purple turtleneck and black slacks. after falling into the core, hes a big goopy mess, but sometimes, when he’s able to pull himself together, you can vaguely see traces of a dirty labcoat and a dark purple turtleneck. 

one last thing: sometimes, you’ll see us refer to a character called ‘twig/twigs’, basically, for my au, i made a oneshot set on the surface, and we named the reader ‘twigs’ to make it easier to talk about them. since they’re the reader, they can look however you want. feel free to send us your twigsona! 

[typingtess]

NCIS: Los Angeles Season Ten Rewatch:  "Smokescreen" Part 1

The basics:  The team faces a new terror threat.

Written by:  Andrew Bartels who wrote or co-wrote “Allegiance”, “Zero Days”, “The Grey Man”, “Humbug”, “Fighting Shadows”, “Driving Miss Diaz”, “Angels & Daemons”, “Where There’s Smoke…”, “Glasnost”, “Old Tricks” “Battle Scars”, “Fool Me Twice”, “Warrior of Peace”, “Reentry” and “The Prince”.

Directed by:  Dennis Smith directed “Fame”, “Standoff”, “Rocket Man”, “Cyberthreat”, “Exit Strategy”, “Patriot Acts”, “Out of the Past” part one, “The Livelong Day”, Between the Lines”, “Deep Trouble” part two, “Black Budget", “Black Wind”, “Blame it On Rio”, “Defectors”, “Matryoshka”, “Granger, O”, “The Queen’s Gambit”, “Hot Water”, “From Havana With Love”, “Plain Sight”, the delightful romp that was “Monster”, “Superhuman” and “One of Us”.

Guest stars of note:  After several episodes of Rogers or the team running themselves, Esai Morales returns from "Diamond in the Rough" as NCIS Deputy Director Louis Ochoa.  Bianca Lopez's Paramedic character appeared in "Praesidium" in season six.  Kerr Smith as FBI Special Agent David Ross, Medalion Rahimi as NCIS Special Agent Fatima Namazi, Délé Ogundiran as Janet, Rima Haddad as Rana Azim, Stephen Chang as FBI Special Agent Yim, Stacie Greenwell as Sonya Morales, Julie Zhan as Annie, Toby Meuli as Dan, Amir Kamali as Abbas Jalal, Danny Boushebel as Wasim Ghulam, Austin Bowerman as FBI Special Agent Nelson, Raz Adoti as Masked Man, Reece Rios as Mr. Ryland and Gillian White as Instructor.

Our heroes:   Are in the middle of terror attacks.

What important things did we learn about:

Callen:  Looking for Hetty and Garrison. Sam:  Defusing a bomb with literally a second to spare. Kensi:  Thinks maybe it is time to be done with putting their lives on the line all the time. Deeks:  Wants to be respectful to Kensi's choices but has thought for a while that it is time to be done with putting their lives on the line all the time. Eric:  Tries to support Nell while she's feeling down.  Doesn't do a great job but tries. Nell:  Her white paper on the Comescu crime family was unparalleled in its scope and so insightful. Hetty:  Seems to want to not be found.

What not so important things did we learn about:

Callen:  Has a door that keeps the bar from his stairwell. Sam:  Planning a day of fishing with Callen and Tom Olsen. Kensi:  Can't sleep without with weird noises Deeks makes in his sleep. Deeks:  Makes weird noises when he sleeps. Eric:  Chooser of fonts. Nell:  Not a lot of light moments for Nell.   Hetty:  Absent.

Who's down with OTP:  Kensi and Deeks seems to be getting closer to a plan to leave the life they love working together because it is not a safe way to live.  In his own way, Eric tries to be supportive of Nell as she beats herself up for not foreseeing the terrorist's attack on the FBI SUV.

Who's down with BrOTP:  The fellas are going fishing!

Any pressing need for Harm and Mac:  Not today.

Who is running the team this week?  Ochoa is back.

Mosley watch:  Not a mention.

Fashion review:  To start the episode:  Navy blue long sleeve tee for Callen, A rare appearance of the brown henley for Sam.  Kensi is wearing her white and blue stripes henley.  Black long-sleeve tee for Deeks.  Dark blue sweater over a blue dress shirt for long pants wearing Eric.  Dark dress for Nell with a bow (feh).

On their "off-day", Callen starts the day in a long sleeve, dark blue tee-shirt but switches to the dark blue button down shirt when called into the office.  Sam stays in his black henley.  Kensi and Deeks start the day in bed with no fashion choices.   Later, Kensi is in a blue-green v-neck long-sleeve top and a military style "army jacket". Deeks has on a medium blue tee and his black jacket.  Blue short sleeve button down shirt for Eric with long pants.  Red plaid, bowless (yay!) dress with different color red panels and a black blazer for Nell.

Music: "Hunt You Down" by Lee Richardson, James Cocozza, Jonathan Murril and Raxstar is playing in the gym when Callen and Sam meet Fatima.

Any notable cut scene: No.

Quote: Kensi:  "We really can't keep doing this forever, can we?" Deeks:  "No, we cannot." Kensi:  "I mean, one more second and we would've been gone, you know? How many times can we cut it that close?" Deeks:  "Well, I haven't exactly hidden my feelings on the subject, but I also want to be respectful.  So, when you're ready to stop, so am I." Kensi:  "I know.  And I appreciate that.  Yeah, but then I, um I just think of people like David Sarraf, and how he just needed someone in that moment." Deeks:  "He needed you." Kensi:  "He needed his wife." Deeks:  "Yeah, but his wife wasn't there, baby, so he needed you." Kensi:  "I just want to keep helping people, Deeks.  And I love what I do.  I love it so much.  And I love it even more that I get to do it with you." Deeks:  "I'd be lying if I didn't say me, too.  But we also don't have to make these decisions right now.  I mean, the truth is we don't have to do anything, right now.  Let's just stay in bed all day." Kensi:  "That sounds wonderful."

A great conversation between two adults about their lives that doesn't include a gurkha, an icy body of water or racoons.

Anything else:   Things have really gone to hell.  Deeks is driving the Hellcat; Callen is on the hood of the Hellcat trying to jump to a trailer being pulled by a pick-up truck; Sam is inside the trailer trying to disable a huge bomb with the timer dropping to 60-seconds; Kensi, "my girl" according to Deeks, is fighting with a man on the non-bomb side of the trailer.

Callen jumps from the Hellcat to the armored truck.  On the roof the trailer, Callen winds up fighting hand to hand with a man who climbed to the roof from the truck's passenger window.  When the man pulls a knife, Callen pushes him off the moving vehicle.  Deeks nearly runs the man over as he hits the highway.  Besides falling bad guys, Deeks is concerned that they are getting close to the target.

With 15-seconds left on the bomb's timer, Callen has made his way to the front of the pick-up truck.  Killing the driver, Callen gets in through the passenger's side door, warning the others to brace themselves.  Sam is down to seven-seconds.  Kensi pushes her bad guy against the wall as she grabs handles for balance.  Callen slams on the brakes.

Deeks runs to the back of the trailer, imploring everyone to get out.  Opening the trailer door, Kensi is handcuffing her bad guy, Sam is folding up his Leatherman tool – the bomb has been defused.  Kensi looks Deeks and tilts her head.  There was one-second left on the bomb's timer.  "Wow."  Kensi and Deeks are both troubled.  Sam announces it was "too close" and Callen agrees.  The trailer is right by a huge battleship in port.

As the guy Kensi was tangling with is loaded on a gurney for a trip to the hospital, Kensi admits that she was struggling a bit in the fight.  Deeks understands – she hasn't slept in 48 hours, none of them have.   Deeks feels lucky he didn't drive the Hellcat into the harbor.  Sam thinks Deeks should stay in the Hellcat if he does ever drive in into the water.  Deeks wants a Hellcat of his own – trade in the Audi for one with flames on the side.  Kensi is not onboard.

Callen arrives with Agent Ross from the FBI.  Ross is impressed with what NCIS accomplished, Kensi thanks Ross for the FBI's great teamwork.  Ross explains the Mashriq Army only attacks live military targets. The huge battleship in port is actually a museum vessel.  It wasn't on the FBI's radar.  Sam thinks the attack was more symbolism than strategy and likely as effective.  Ross is going to tell Washington all the good work NCIS did that day as he takes a call from the FBI Director.  Sam hopes that gets them out of Washington's dog house.  The team is going back to the office.  Deeks wants to drive, Sam wants his keys – Kensi and Deeks are amused.

The team is unpacking their gear in the armory.  Sam never took a shot – he was too busy with the bomb.  Callen and Sam banter away about Sam cutting the bomb detonation a little close.  Kensi thinks he's bored, needs to keep things exciting.  Deeks agrees – a relationship with a bomb is like any relationship, "you got to keep it interesting or the spark goes out." Sam asks if they are finished saying thank you.  They are.

Eric and Nell arrive with info with a hit on someone involved in the case.  Callen, Sam, Kensi and Deeks all think the case is over.  Nell thought Eric told them it wasn't and vice versa.  They found one of the terrorists working for the Mashriq Army, Wasim Ghulam.  Kensi stops them – Ghulam is the man she was fighting with in the trailer.  Eric and Nell have multiple photos of Ghulam meeting with the same man in Los Angeles in different locations.  Ghulam passes items to the man – Abbas Jalal, a college student at Boyle Heights who is currently in class.

The team is about to leave for Boyle Heights when Ochoa arrives.  The FBI is picking up Jalal – Ross's team was aware of him for a while.  Ochoa tells the team they need the rest.  They're done for the day and they are off the following day.  Callen and Sam offer to put away all the gear.  Kensi is fine with staying, she's not even tired.  Sam warns her it is the adrenaline rush keeping her going.  Kensi and Deeks take up Callen and Sam's offer – Deeks has some ways they can work off their adrenaline.

The FBI has Jalal in custody.  Two agents are bringing him in to the safe house.  Jalal went quietly – did run, didn't put up a fight.  The two FBI agents are bantering about who is going to get credit for the arrest when the FBI vehicle hits a man.  Warning Jalal that they'll shoot him if he moves, the FBI agents go outside to see how badly the man is hurt.

The man is not hurt.  Once the FBI agents get close to the man, he rolls over and the agent driving the SUV.   A second gunman arrives to kill teh other agent.  Leaving the dead agents in the street, the second gunman and the man hit by the car take the vehicle and drive off with Jalal.

In bed, Kensi is watching Deeks almost sleep – which he thinks is creepy.  They joke about him whistling in his sleep.  He sounds like a dying swan.  Deeks is so embarrassed he's willing to sleep in the garage or on the porch.  Kensi thinks it is sweet.  The two cuddle.  Kensi realizes they "really can't keep doing this, can we?"  Deeks says they cannot.  One more second and Kensi knows they both would have died.  Deeks tells her he's trying to be respectful of her choices but he hasn't hidden his feelings on the subject.  Kensi appreciates the respect.  She remember David Sarraf who needed someone.  Deeks disagrees – he needed her.  No, Kensi thinks he need his wife.  Deeks insists Sarraf needed her.  Kensi wants to keep helping people. She loves her job, she loves doing her job with him.  Deeks admits he'd be lying if he didn't say "me too."  They don't have to decide anything right now except stay in bed all day.  Kensi likes that idea.  They share I love yous.

Sam is making his way to Callen's apartment.  On the phone with Tom Olsen, the three men are going fishing.   Sam hears someone yelling in Russian in the bar.  Kicking down the door, Sam find an unhappy Callen.  Deeks just put in the door to separate the bar from the stairway to Callen's place and now Sam kicked it in.

Picking up his phone from the floor, Callen explains he gets his morning coffee from the bar.  Sam sees Callen has his laptop opened with a map of Russia on the screen.  After Sam promises they will find Garrison, Callen passes on the pep talk.  Besides – the call was about Hetty.  She doesn't want to be found, Callen wonders why are they still looking.  As for his father, Callen believes he isn't going to like what they find.  Sam thinks they keep looking anyway.  Sam's phone rings – it is Ochoa.  They are being called in.  

In Ops, Callen and Sam arrive with pictures of FBI Agents Nelson and Yim dead in the street on the big screen.  Sam asks for details.  Ochoa says NCIS is back on the terrorism task force.  The place where the agents were shot was a dead spot for cameras but matching the surrounding street cameras, the shooting and taking of Jalil and the FBI vehicle took less than 30-seconds.  That’s training, according to Callen.  The assumption is multiple killers to take out two FBI agents.  

With the FBI processing the crime scene, Callen asks about the FBI SUV having a tracker.  It did – the killers disabled it 200-yards from the shooting.  An hour later, 911 got a call about an SUV on fire in a vacant lot.  Kensi and Deeks were sent to the vacant lot.  Callen wants to talk to Galum, the only survivor from the failed attack.  Galum is back in surgery.  Sam wants security upped at the hospital.  The terrorist took Jalal from FBI custody – Galum needs to be secured.

Nell sighs loudly.  She analyzed the intel on the Mashriq Army for over a week.  Callen tells Nell nobody saw what the terror group planned.  Nell thinks she was wrong about the group.  The others tell her they all thought the Army had a limited network.   "Tell that to Agents Nelson and Yim," Nell says sadly.  She wants to bring an analyst with more of a background with the Mashriq Army.  Ochoa agrees – nobody else is dying today.  

Kensi and Deeks meet with Agent Ross where the SUV was burned.  Kensi offers the team's condolences.  Ross tells them the two dead men were great agents.  Yim just became a father. Ross still had not informed his wife.  Ross tells Kensi and Deeks the trip out was a waste of time – there are no cameras within five blocks of the vacant lot.  There are no tire tracks.  The fire ruined any evidence inside the SUV.  Kensi asks if she and Deeks can look around.  Ross welcomes it but wants to know if they find anything, "I want first crack at these bastards."

Callen and Sam visit a boxing gym.  Nell's suggested analyst is there – one of the women in the ring.  The woman is cheap-shotted by her opponent Carrie.  Carrie is bounced from the gym but the gym owner thinks Carrie was baited.  Taking off her boxing headgear, the woman is wearing a hijab.   The woman is Special Agent Fatima Namazi.  She knows about Callen and Sam - Ochoa called.  She's ready to help.

Deeks finds Kensi near a homeless person's set-up.  Ross called Deeks – no prints or DNA from the SUV, not even Nelson's or Yim's.  Kensi thinks the homeless person had a direct line of sight – they need to find that person.

Fatima explains the background of the Mashriq Army.  They are not looking to establish an Islamic state or enacting Sharia law.  They are interested in taking the war out of their home countries and bringing it to America.  A number of people in intelligence think it is a strategic choice by the Army – there are dozens of terror groups fighting for a home state or Sharia law.  After interviewing former members, Fatima believes it has more to do about revenge.  Members saw their homes and lives destroyed by US attacks.  

Fatima asks about Abbas Jalal not being on anyone's radar before the near bombing.  Callen tells her the team thought they knew all the members before the planned attack.  Sam figures Jalal is important – you would have to be to kill two FBI agents to free him.  This doesn’t track with Fatima's intelligence.  No member of the Army has any information outside of what they do for the organization.  Jalal was taken because the Army needs Jalal to do something.  Sounds like another attack is imminent.

In Mosley's/Ochoa's/Rogers's office, Fatima is briefing Ochoa.  Near Ops, Eric tries to be supportive with Nell but Nell believes the agents are dead because she didn't bring in help sooner.  Eric mentions that Fatima is just out of FLETC.  That's fine but Fatima was also Navy intelligence.  She has the expertise even without the NCIS experience.  After seeing Fatima's childhood home was Beverly Hills, Eric drops some Valley girl speak.  Nell wants no part of that because Fatima is a resource they should tapped into earlier and that Valley Girls are different than women from Beverly Hills.

Fatima arrives.  After exchanging handshakes and greeting with Eric and Nell, Fatima wants to know if it is OK to call Nell, Nell.  After reading so many of Nell's reports, Fatima feels like she knows her.  Praising Nell's white paper on the Comescues, Fatima is a fan and even more impressed since Nell wrote it while working in Ops full-time.  Ochoa leaves the three to work.  Fatima is grateful to be involved.  Looking at all the intelligence, Jalal is a new figure to the Army.

Fatima walks into Ops and takes it all in.  Eric hands Fatima a tablet and explains he was helpful with the Comescu paper – mostly font choices.  Callen and Sam are on the big screen from the boat shed with Bana Azim sitting in interrogation.  Azim and her husband own a currency exchange business, Jalal worked for them as a teller.  This is an illegal job – Jalal is in the US on a student visa.  He can only work on campus.  

Sam asks about Bana's husband Omar.  He's missing.  The FBI has been looking for him with no luck.  The Azims left Iraq 23-years ago and have not returned.  They raised a family in the US.  There are no red flags around any of their business or personal behavior.  Callen wonders if Jalal recruited them.  

When Callen and Sam enter interrogation, Bana Azim wants to know about her husband, he has been missing since the prior evening.  Sam doesn't think that's a long time.  Bana disagrees – Omar comes home every night.  She leaves the currency exchange a little before he does so she can prepare dinner.   She made his favorite meal and he did not come home.  Omar is a cancer survivor – he had a hard time with his strength last year.  

Sam asks about Jalal working for them against the rules of his student visa.  Both Bana and Omar knew Jalal was breaking the rules.  Kind and polite, Jalal was from Iraq.  The Azims deal with so few people from their home country.  After becoming friendly, they offered him the job. Jalal could not afford meals on campus – always hungry.  The Azims thought the best way to help him was to offer him a job.  

Bana says they should not have offered Jalal the job.  Callen assures her she won't be arrested for breaking the rules.  No, Bana explains, as soon as Jalal started working with them, the exchange was losing money.  A closer look at Jalal's transactions showed he was stealing from the exchange.  The Azims fired him.  When Sam asks how Jalal reacted, it occurs to Bana for the first time that Jalal could have something to do with her husband's disappearance.  She begs Callen and Sam to find Omar.

Kensi and Deeks are sitting in the Audi, looking at the homeless set-up.  Deeks wonders how long they are going to wait for someone who may not have seen a thing.  Kensi thinks the "she" must be cold at night.  Deeks wonders why Kensi went with "she" but Kensi turns it to or he.   There are thermal blankets in the back of the SUV, Kensi is going to leave them near the homeless set-up while Deeks asks for a second stakeout team to be sent.

As Kensi is leaving the blankets under the makeshift tent, the woman who sleeps there arrives and is not happy with someone poking around her belongings.  Kensi promises she's just leaving some blankets.  Deeks walks closer, making the homeless woman a bit nervous.  Kensi pulls her badge which makes things worse. Kensi assures the woman she's not in trouble – introduces herself and Deeks.  The homeless woman thinks they have weird names.  She won't share hers but she assures them it isn't a weird name.

Kensi asks what the homeless woman saw.  The woman pulls out a small piece of paper from her coat.  After the FBI SUV was set on fire, the men inside drove off in a different vehicle.  She got the license plate.  Handing the paper to Kensi, who hands it to Deeks, the homeless woman gets a "good job" from Deeks before he calls it in.

As Deeks walks away, the homeless woman explains that there are a lot of "us" living in the neighborhood – they all look out for each other.  They warn each other when they see something suspicious.  Kensi tells the woman "I know" before saying thank you.  Leaving, the homeless woman asks about more blankets.  Kensi promises more.

In Ops, Nell and Fatima update Callen and Sam on the currency exchange.  Bana Azim was telling the truth – Jalal was stealing from the business.  He took more than enough to finance the attack in the start of the episode and for a second one.  Eric arrives.  The homeless woman's license plate was found pulling into a warehouse downtown at 10:30PM. Callen wants Eric to send the address Kensi and Deeks – they will meet there.

NCIS and the FBI are in full body armor going into the warehouse.  FBI Agent Ross wants to go in immediately.  Sam wants to wait until they have "eyes inside".  Ross is worried about tipping the bad guys off and everyone goes in.  Once inside, a man behind a folding table stands up and starts shooting at the FBI.  Sam quickly puts an end to that.  One of the FBI SWAT members was hit by the shooter but the vest took the bullet.

Once everything is secure, a sheepish Ross admits to a very "I told you so" looking Callen and Sam that he jumped the gun but letting his anger make the call.  Deeks finds some weapons in an open box.  There are plenty of similar-sized empty open boxes all over the warehouse,

There is no video footage of other men leaving after the van arrived.  However, side and back doors do not have cameras nearby.  The dead man was there to clean up what was left in the warehouse and get rid of all evidence.  He was in the process of taking apart a laptop when the shooting began.

Eric has traffic camera footage from nearby.  The FBI is going to run down license plate numbers while Kensi and Deeks are going back to NCIS so Eric can examine the laptop to see if anything is left on the hard drive.  The van from the previous night is still in the warehouse – Callen and Sam want to check it out.

In Ops, Nell ID'd the dead man as Lethabo Kahn, former South African special forces.  That makes no sense to Fatima – why was he with the Mashriq Army?  Kahn was discharged for insubordination ten-years ago.  Fatima thought Kahn was from Yemen or Egypt – the Army does not take in outsiders.  Everyone is from the Mashriq region.

A lot of the data on the computer was corrupted but using the world's largest Microsoft Surface, Eric tells Kensi the laptop's internet activity is still all retrievable.  The last website access was a map of a particular area downtown.   Since the Mashriq Army targets military sites, Kensi wants to know if there are any enlistment/recruitment centers nearby.  There are not.  Grabbing Deeks, Kensi is going to meet Callen and Sam in the area.

Callen and Sam arrive first.  Eric wants to know why they are not in their tactical gear as he sees them on the big screen in Ops.  Sam does not want to tip off the terrorists.  Eric is worried about the level of firepower the terrorists have.  Callen assures Eric he's fine.  There were two other thumb drives found in the warehouse – both had the intel about the same corner where NCIS is investigating.  Looking around, there is plenty of civilian foot traffic. The Los Angeles movie theater looks like a soft target to Callen.

Inside the movie theater, people are milling about.  A couple regrets their movie choice.  She's off to the restroom before they leave.  Looking around the theater, Sam wants to start evacuating the movie goers.  Theater manager Sonya Morales passes by.  Flashing their badges, and being told there are no discounts for law enforcement, Callen tells her about a credible threat to the theater.  Morales thinks Callen is kidding until he pulls the fire alarm.

Ochoa has all sorts of first responders on their way to the theater.  Fatima does not believe the theater is the target.  The Mashriq Army is about revenge and this doesn't fit their pattern.  Nell disagrees – saying revenge could make the choice of targets chaotic.   That is possible to Fatima – stopping the earlier terror attack may have them changing their targets.  Ochoa wants the theater evacuated but that's already started.  

Kensi and Deeks arrive.  Sam wants them outside in case the plan was to get all the people from the theater into the streets and try an attack there.  Callen spots Jalal at the top of the theater's grand staircase.  Callen and Sam approach Jalal, who shows an explosive vest when he raises his hands.  Sam tells Jalal "you don't have to do this" before a massive explosion.

Outside of the theater, Kensi, Deeks and all the people in the immediate area are knocked to the ground and covered with debris.  In Ops, Eric, Nell, Ochoa and Fatima lose all feeds.  Ochoa is calling to Callen and Sam but communications are disrupted.  Callen and Sam are conscious but disoriented.  Looking up, Jalal is still wearing the explosive vest.  Jalal is telling Callen and Sam "you have to…" when the vest explodes.

Callen and Sam struggle to their feet, both with facial cuts from flying glass.  The woman who left her boyfriend to use the restroom is desperate to find him.  Sam tries to reassure her while Callen tries to contact Kensi and Deeks.  Sam tries Ops but realizes the explosion likely caused everyone's comms to reset.

The woman finds her boyfriend Dan badly injured on the ground.  She tries to move him but Sam stops her.  Telling the survivors it is all going to be okay, Sam asks them to all move away from the doors.  Callen looks at the people near the doors – they are either dead or in bad shape.

Callen looks up and see the EXIT sign was dislodged in the explosion.  In the sign’s casing is more C4 – the doors are wired to explode when first responders open them.  Sam wants everyone away from the doors – they are all likely wired to explode.  Callen finds Sonya Morales, who is frightened and crying.  Using the theater's PA system, Callen wants her to warn everyone in the theater to stay away from the doors.

The comms clear up.  Kensi and Deeks want to come inside but Callen tells them to stay outside because of the C4.  Sam is still worried about an active shooter scenario with all the people gathering near the theater.  Kensi asks how will they first responders get in.  Right now, they aren't getting in.  Callen and Sam are going to tend to the wounded as best they can.  Kensi and Deeks are told to keep everyone away from the entrance.

As Kensi eases some lookie-lous back, Deeks has to grab a man racing to the theater.  His wife Cathy is inside.  Kensi sees a man wandering around the theater's marquee.  His left arm was blown off just below the elbow.  Kensi takes the bleeding man to a nearby bench.  Deeks has Cathy's husband held on the ground to stop him from entering the theater.  Deeks explains he has friends inside - they all have to stay outside.  Kensi takes off her belt and makes a tourniquet for the man.  Kensi tries to talk to the man but he's not answering.

In Ops, Ochoa and Nell are in full action mode.  Ochoa is preparing to contact everyone up the bureaucratic food chain while Nell is coordinating with the FBI, the LAPD bomb squad and all the first responders.  Fatima, however, is off to the side, appearing stunned.  Ochoa asks Nell how they went from concerns about a mass shooting to bombing with two current fatalities and more to come.  At Nell's workstation, Eric tells Ochoa there could still be a mass shooting – this time with FBI, LAPD bomb squad and first responders with the civilians outside the theater.  Ochoa wants a review of the nearby traffic cams – see if anyone is waiting to ambush the first responders.  Ochoa notices Fatima, asking Nell if Fatima is okay.  Nell thinks Fatima needs a minute.  Ochoa is going to the theater.  

Nell approaches Fatima, who says she is fine.  Nell tells her "It is okay not to be."  After interviewing dozens of bombing victims and bombing perpetrators, Fatima knows she can handle this.  Nell points out the difference between speaking to people after the fact and dealing with a bombing as it occurs.  Fatima does not know what to do.  Nell invites her to help sorting some of the security camera footage.  Fatima sits at Eric's workstation – Eric gives her a supportive smile.

Callen and Sam try to tend to the wounded.  Dan is in rough shape, struggling ot breathe and coughing up blood.  Callen is called to help a woman bleeding from her neck.  Talking over comms, Deeks has bad news – the other exits are wired the same way.  Some of the people in the theater are going to die from their wounds if they don't get help.

In Ops, Fatima has video from the Mashriq Army, claiming credit for the bombing.  As the terrorist reads his manifesto, Kensi and Deeks are working with the first responders to help the injured outside the theater.  Body bags are being used to remove the dead.  Inside the theater, Callen covers the body of a dead moviegoer while Sam tries to comfort theater manager Morales.  "No one is safe" and "To Be Continued" end the episode.

What head canon can be formed from here:  Really different ways at how the show looks at acts of terror bookend this episode.  The opening is the usual loosey-goosey action-adventure scenes the program specializes in.  Big action, big excitement, big fun.  The end is what acts of terror really look like.  No cool cars with super cool agents saving the day.  This time, it is innocent civilians like Dan and Cathy and their partners enjoying an afternoon matinee.  A great part one to this two-parter.

Kensi and Deeks are closer to their eventual next act, knowing they enjoy the lives they are living now.  There was a hint of Kensi's past here.

Tom Olsen is Sam's fishing buddy.  Of course he is.

Episode number:  This is part one of two episodes, episode 14 in season ten and episode 230 overall.