#but time matters are just beyond his comprehension and he guesses he understands why she did it

[turrondeluxe]

Does your AU have a renet

Because I’m kinda thinking ronin was the first time she met the turtle

So like when she met him and the others while they were younger she just stared at Mikey for a while trying to figure out who the others were and why Mikey wasn’t covered in scars

She does! That's a neat idea! In the AU it wasn't like that though!

Renet used to be good friends of the turtles, but she disappeared from their lives completely some time around before the peace treaty.

The brothers actually had no idea why she went absolutely awol but Mikey reassured them it was alright and they didn't ask again. After all, the time apprentice didn't exist by their concept of time and used to come and go, sometimes not visiting them for Long periods of time.

Renet actually had a talk with Mikey before disappearing completely from their lives and Mikey wouldn't understand why until later, when everything started going to hell.

She told him that she was sorry and that there was nothing she could do to change the future. That it had to continue it's course.

Mikey didn't get it at the time.

[gremlinmodetweeker]

Sweets and Sours and Maggots

So, a bit more Summoned!König because he's a big sweetie. No pun intended here, because this fic is all about travelling, dancing. and chocolate. A very soft drabble with lots of bickering between Summoner and König.

TWs: None, really. Wait, mentions of maggot cheese (which is a real food)

Wordcount: 1.6K

Art from this post

Story Below the Cut

Sweets and Sours and Maggots

“So, I’m just curious,” you leaned in close as König looked at you skeptically, “what does the other realm look like?”

König relaxed as he raised one hand, “Well, it’s much like this realm in most regards, thankfully.”

“Is it?” you quirked your head to the side.

“Well, except for the fast that the colours are beyond your human comprehension,” König finished, “and surfaces are usually inverted. Oh, and I suppose the strange echoing and the ever present sense of dread and despair can be a bit much to bear sometimes. The feeling of how small you are in comparison to the rest of existence is constantly on your mind. It’s inescapable. It’s a rather psychological realm, if you will. Much less tangible than this reality.”

You blinked, “That’s not like this realm at all.”

“Oh and I suppose there is the strange phenomena where darkness is light, and light is dark,” König continued, “and how the wind feels like a vacuum. It’s a bit strange, I suppose, when your only frame of reference is this existence.”

“And is the sky orange?” you drawled.

König stared at you, “How in the stars did you know?”

“Lucky guess,” you groused as you slumped into your chair, “so I’m guessing that the other realm is ‘beyond my mortal comprehension’, right?”

“You’d be correct in that assumption,” König quipped.

“So you’re never taking me there?” you sighed.

“I’m not particularly interested in collecting the shards of your bones across time, no. Why?” König leaned his chin onto his palm.

You shrugged, “I’m bored. I kinda wanna go somewhere but I don’t know where. You know that feeling?”

“Always,” König laughed, “I suppose you’re starting to understand what it feels like to be a creature controlled by the throes of chaos, yes?”

“My mom always called me a chaotic monkey,” you grumbled.

“Then maybe you have always had an affliction,” König offered, “but either way, you want to go somewhere? Somewhere other than here?”

“Anywhere,” you lay your head in your arms, folded messily over the table.

“Anywhere where you won’t drop dead of poison, implode and/or explode, freeze to death or be instantly incinerated, I’m assuming?” König checked.

You glared at him, “I don’t wanna die today.”

“I figured would ensure proper clarification,” König sniffed, “no matters, Summoner, I ask if you are interested in accompanying me on a journey?”

You perked up immediately, “Where to?”

“Well, I’m interested in retrieving a gift for my mother, and I figured a small little trip would do us well,” König took to his feet to stretch his long body out.

“Hold up,” you held up a hand, “you have a mom!?”

“Yes?” König turned to stare at you, “don’t you?”

“Yeah but like, I’m human,” you pointed out.

“Once I hatched I was raised by my mother,” König spoke slowly, almost as though he was worried he might break your mortal mind, “much like you were, no? She fed me from her breasts and raised me to be the being I am today.”

“So you’re saying there’s more things like you?” you asked bluntly.

König gasped and grasped at his chest, “Things like me! You do wound me, summoner! Gravely so!”

“Well I don’t know what you are! You’re just… I dunno,” you shrugged pathetically, “an avatar of chaos?”

“I’m a [REDACTED FOR READER’S SANITY], don’t you know?”

Once your head stopped hurting and the images had stopped flashing behind your eyes, you were able to shake yourself off and give König a proper glare.

“You did that on purpose,” you grumbled.

“I had a point to get across,” König replied.

“Okay but did you actually,” you grumped.

König closed his eyes and offered you a blithe shrug, “It was effective, so I believe so yes.”

“You’re literally the worst.”

“And yet still you hold a place for me in your heart,” König sang, “which I do appreciate, Summoner.”

“I hate you.”

“And yet your heart says otherwise,” König walked over to pull you to your feet, “now Summoner, tell me, are you not interested in going on an adventure together? Somewhere fun?”

“Your idea of fun is mentally scarring me on a Saturday afternoon at,” you checked your watch, “three-thirty in the afternoon. So, I’m gonna ask you again, is this really fun for both of us?”

“I do believe so,” König laughed as he twirled you in his arms, “I have an idea in mind. My mother has always been fascinated by human delicacies, and so I thought I might find some to bring back to her. What are your thoughts on accompanying me on this little quest, so to say?”

“What sorts of things would you be bringing her?” you asked as he turned you to face him.

“Well,” König took your hips in his claws and swayed you both from side to side, “I have heard some fascinating things from around this realm. I’ve heard of this fermented shark up in Greenland, but there’s also something called casu martzu from Sardinia, a little island off of Italy.”

“Um, what’s casu martzu?” you asked with a laugh.

“Maggot cheese, I believe it’s also known as,” König explained, laughing at how you scrunched your face.

“Do you think she’d like that?” you held back a gag.

“Well, do you have any better ideas for sweets?” König asked as he danced you around the room.

You looked at him carefully.

“You’re kidding, right?”

“No?”

“Please tell me you’re kidding.”

“This is no joking matter, Summoner. Finding the finest sweets to bring back to my mother is of great interest to me.”

“König,” you sighed as you followed König’s steps, “you ate my chocolate, right?”

König leaned back, “I had thought you’d forgotten about that incident…”

“That was my period chocolate, König,” you bit back a snarky remark, “I’m not going to forget that so easily,” you held up a finger to his ‘lips’ (you suspected them to be a beak) and shushed him, “look, did you think the chocolate was what you’d call ‘sweet’?”

König nodded enthusiastically, “Very much so! It was delicious! It was absolutely superb! But of course, such a wondrous treat must be extremely rare, no?”

“I mean, yeah, I had that imported from Switzerland,” you admitted bitterly, “so it wasn’t like any regular old chocolate, but chocolate isn’t too hard to find.”

“Are you implying that I’m overthinking my gift?” König asked suspiciously as he dropped you into a dip, pulling you up just as easily.

“I’m implying that maybe you’re not choosing foods humans would usually consider ‘sweet’,” you explained gently.

König seemed a tad crestfallen, but was quick to recover, “Then why not go and get her some chocolate? Surely if it is as you say, it must be easy to get some of the best to bring back to my mother.”

“Well, I think we’d need to go pretty far to be able to get some,” you explained sadly, “the stuff on base is pretty shit.”

“Then let’s go to this… What did you call it… This Switzerland place!” König crowed, “it mustn't be too far from us.”

“König it’s an ocean away,” you drawled as you smoothly followed his steps around the room, taking a moment to twirl before facing him again, “and no we can’t just go get on a plane right now.”

“Why would we need a plane?” König snorted.

“How else would we get there,” you laughed before stilling, “König you’re not gonna teleport me there.”

“I think you’re being rather small minded right now,” König huffed.

“König I saw what happened to the cookies and the pizza,” you warned him slowly, “I don’t want to be killed by trying to travel through whatever magic thing you use to get around.”

“I think you’ll find I’ve improved my skills,” König sniffed.

“I don’t want to TEST-”

You were cut off by a loud VWOOSH as your world was encompassed by an inky darkness. You felt upside down, right side up and sideways all at once as a flurry of temperatures barraged against your skin. You clenched your eyes tight for fear of them being ripped from your skull. It grew hotter, hotter and hotter as you clenched your hands around König’s middle, holding as tightly as you could against the flurry of winds that threatened to tear you apart. You let out a scream, but it was completely drowned out by the raging winds and the vacuum of space around you.

Just as you ran out of breath, you stumbled to your feet. You carefully opened your eyes to find yourself in a small village square, dancing in König’s arms once again.

“König?” you asked carefully.

“Yes, Summoner?”

“Are we in Switzerland right now?”

König chuckled, “Well I’m glad your mind didn’t get scrambled by the journey.”

“You nearly did what to me!?”

“Hush, Summoner,” König held you in close, “just be happy you’re in one piece. Anyways, I never would have let such harm come to such a precious part of my life.”

“You’re lucky I like you,” you rolled your eyes, but relaxed into König’s arms.

“As you should,” König pecked you (quite literally) on the forehead.

“Ow!” you swatted his chest, “you need to stop doing that.”

“What, kissing you?”

“Pecking me!”

“Ah,” the bones under König’s hood cracked and pulled briefly before settling into a new place. He leaned down again to kiss your forehead, this time with chapped lips behind his mask.

“Thank you,” you smiled before reaching up to kiss his chin.

“Anyways,” König drew you both to a stop, “shall we get Mama some chocolates?”

“Mama?”

“My mother,” König chuckled, “did you forget why we came here?”

You tucked your face into his dark robes, “Of course not. I just didn’t expect you to call your mother ‘Mama’.”

“Mama means everything to me,” König stepped back to take your hands, “now, there should be a chocolate shop nearby. How about we go and get her something sweet?”

You stepped to stand by his side with a smile.

“Sure,” you agreed, “let’s go.”

AU Masterlist

[bragganhyl]

A Night at the Opera - part 2

A direct follow-up to this, as the name implies, depicting what happens after Gaura and Aloth leave the opera. ...it's sex, that is what happens

It's also 4400 words long, so yeah, click on the read more at your own peril

'You're back early.'

Edér was lounging on the Watcher's bed, reading a book bound in dark red leather. Gaura made her way to the bed as well, while Aloth closed the door behind them. She sat down on the edge with a sigh and began undoing her shoes. The walk back from the opera seemed especially endless considering the emotions that drove her and the wizard rushing down the mountain. Her feet were the real victims of her urgency.

'The play was in Vailian, we didn't understand much,' Aloth explained as sat down by the Watcher's desk and let his hair down.

'I can see why that would be a problem,' Edér moved to sit on the edge of the bed as well and left a peck on her cheek. 'Next time, I make the date plan.'

'We still had a lot of fun,' Gaura said matter-of-factly, glancing at Aloth who was now busy untying his sandals. She thought of the way he kept pulling at her as they kissed at the opera, the way he kept fighting his sense of decency and his need to get closer. 'It's a shame you didn't come along,' she added as she looked to Edér who kept his eyes fixed on her. His gaze reflected mischief and understanding. He could easily guess what their fun stemmed from.

'Yeah, well... maybe next time,' he shrugged.

'But now,' Aloth stood up and turned towards the farmer, 'do you think you can give us some privacy?' He asked with his arm crossed - a gesture of demand that wasn't quite as subtle as he intended.

Edér raised an eyebrow at him. He looked to Gaura , then back to Aloth again. A faint smirk appeared on his face. 'Sure,' he stood up and gave Aloth's shoulder a pat or two, 'guess you got a whole... rest of the play to make up for. Good luck with that.'

'Good night, Edér,' the wizard gave him a pointed look.

'Yeah, yeah,' he turned away to grab the book he left on the bed. 'You know where I'll be,' he said as he walked towards the exit, waving goodbye with his source of entertainment for the night.

As Aloth's gaze fell onto the deep red cover, his eyes widened in recognition. And dread. 'Wait, is that one of my-'

'Good night, Aloth,' Edér called out as he left the cabin, slamming the door shut as the last note of his call faded, leaving only Gaura's laughter filling the silence. The wizard's gaze still lingered on the door as his hand slowly moved towards his mouth. A moment later, he looked towards the Watcher and let out a short, mirthless laugh as well.

'I suppose, sooner or later he would have to learn about the things we like, anyway,' he shrugged, then sat down next to the Watcher. 'Besides, I... I have a hard time feeling concerned about what he is getting up to.'

'Good. If you want tonight to be about just us,' the Watcher said as she placed a hand on Aloth's knee, 'then it better be just about us.'

Aloth didn't answer. For a moment, he merely watched her, allowed himself to be enraptured by her visage - her tunic lightly enveloping her body, her chest lightly heaving from the long walk down the mountain and the purely, barely contained desire that her eyes betrayed. When his eyes met hers again, he uttered a spell to protect himself from her flames and yet he voiced the words as breathlessly as if he was trying to describe wonders beyond his comprehension. She softly laughed as a response, then reached for his face with her free hand and pulled him onto her lips. Her hand wandered down his neck, leaving goosebumps in the wake of her touches, until she reached his tunic. She lightly pulled at the fabric to gain access to the wizard's collarbone, drawing a gasp out of Aloth, only for him to kiss back harder the next moment, leaning closer into their contact. He wrapped his hands around her torso, and held on to her side as if she was his anchor. Gaura, however, pulled away just as suddenly as she kissed him, freeing herself from the loving trap of Aloth's embrace and leaving the wizard yearning for her closeness.

He didn't have to yearn for long, however.

'Come here,' Gaura said as she lightly tapped on her thigh a few times. Aloth looked to her lap and let out a bashful chuckle. He steadied himself by holding onto the Watcher's shoulder and moved on to straddle her.

'I wanted to do this back at the opera,' his voice rang shyly but he still smiled down at her.

'Somehow, I had a hunch,' Gaura claimed the wizard's lips again. He relaxed at their contact, placing a little more weight on her and she couldn't help but smile against his lips. She enjoyed that weight on her, she enjoyed the way his thighs hugged hers, she enjoyed the way he held her by the back of her head. He touched her lightly and yet that was enough to keep her at the distance he wanted, at the angle he needed to kiss her with all the hunger and need that pent up in him during the night. She in turn kept him steady by his hip and to her surprise, Aloth answered to her touch. He rocked his hip against her. It was a quick, shy motion, barely there, that could've been easily mistaken for a shudder. But the Watcher knew him. And Aloth trusted her. It was like a secret shared by discreet confidants.

'I like it when you get needy,' Gaura whispered, breaking their kiss. But before Aloth could answer anything, she reached for his hair and wrapped it around her knuckles. The wizard gasped, but didn't take another breath while he anticipated the light tug, that came after. Gaura latched onto his arching neck, leaving a trail of sloppy kisses from his chin to his collarbone. Aloth tightened his hold on the back of her head, pressing her down harder against him. When the Watcher reached the neck of his tunic, she took the fabric between her teeth and lightly tugged at it. 'Help me get this off you.'

Aloth stole one more shallow kiss as an answer, before he straightened his back and reached for his belt. He undid it without looking, without turning his gaze away from the Watcher's eyes. Gaura in turn let her hands roam along his body, caressing him through his clothes as if she couldn't contain the anticipation of touching his skin. She guided her hands eventually to his thighs and when she did so, she slowed her movements, she savored every fraction of a moment as she pushed his tunic up to his hips, she savored the goosebumps and the shivers and the lust reflected in those dazzling eyes of his. Meanwhile, Aloth removed a pin by his shoulder and allowed the fabric to fall into his lap, exposing his chest but only in part.

'I'd... like it if you took this one out yourself,' he said, biting his lip and pointed to his other shoulder.

Gaura cocked her head, pretending to ponder his request. She brushed the fabric covering Aloth aside, until it merely hung off his shoulder but as she did so, he reached for her face, preventing the tunic to fall off him. 'Something tells me, you want me to take this off in a... very specific way,' she said as she left a sloppy kiss on the wizard's chest, then a few others on each of his collarbones.

'I... I liked the way you nipped at my clothes just now,' he admitted breathlessly, enjoying the feeling of the Watcher's lips on his shoulder. 'Please,' he added when he felt a pause in those kisses, only to hear a soft chuckle as a response and feel the pin slowly sliding out of his clothes, followed by the relief of the tunic falling to the ground. Gaura pulled away and took the pin out of her mouth. She flicked it away, but Aloth couldn't be bothered to see where it fell. By the time it hit the floor, his lips were already on the Watcher's and this time, he didn't restrain himself from grinding against her. Gaura's hands explored his back but the anticipation she wanted to build in him had a greater pull on her. When her hands moved to Aloth's hips again, she felt him smile against her lips. She pulled away, and flashed an impish smile at him before she leaned forward to leave a kiss on the center of his chest. She traced a path with gentle touches of her lips until she reached his nipple. The wizard let out a staggered sigh as her lips closed around the nub and her fingers hooked into his underwear. He eagerly lifted himself slightly so she could pull down the fabric along his thighs, forcing her to detach from his chest, and as he sat back down, Gaura felt his tension in every fiber of his being. She reached around his waist with one hand while she lifted the other to her lips to gather some of her spit in her palm.

'I hope my hand is not too dry,' the Watcher said as she took Aloth's cock in her hand, sending shivers down his body. She touched him gently, waiting for a response, desperately trying to hide her own need to see the beauty of his ecstasy.

'It feels perfect,' his voice rang with pure adoration. A moment later, a shade of self-awareness appeared on his face. Gaura chuckled. He always seemed to use the wrong words when his heart was overflowing with fondness, but before he could correct himself she closed the gap between them, and tightened her grip lightly around his erection. She rubbed him slowly, recalling the rhythm of a serenade from the opera. She thought of the love expressed in words she couldn't understand, the intensity of the melody and she wanted it all, she wanted it along her fingertips so she can show it to Aloth through her touch alone. The wizard moaned into their kiss as she pumped his shaft with more determination. However she kept her pace slow and steady, a pace he found sweetly frustrating but easy to keep up with. He began lightly moving on top of her again, gently thrusting into her grip. Gaura softly laughed at that, breaking the kiss.

'If you want me to go faster, you can just ask,' she said as she picked up her pace, drawing a groan out of Aloth. He didn't kiss her again, instead he rested his forehead against hers. He tried and failed to keep the sounds forming in him trapped in his throat, and breathed them quietly into the small space between them. The Watcher let out a hum, an approving and impatient sound as she moved her hand even faster, unable to contain her excitement and love for him.

'Gaura,' he whispered her name after a while, and Aloth found himself unable to keep moving, unable to do anything but to hold on to the Watcher and let her have her way with him. A hand came to rest at the back of Gaura's head while another gripped the clothes on her back so fiercely that she and Aloth both wondered if he'll manage to tear it. But Aloth couldn't care of he did and Gaura found the possibility amusing. She pulled him closer by his waist and leaned to his ear. She gently took it in her mouth, caressing his earlobe with her lips and her tongue, prompting him to hold her tighter, and to bury his head in the curve of her neck. She felt him tense up on her lap and a moment later she felt a clumsy, sloppy kiss on her neck, then another and another, with a longer and longer pause between each.

'Look at me, love,' Gaura's voice rang hoarsely from lust. Aloth hesitantly pulled away, barely, just enough to be able to look her in the eye. His face reflected his building pleasure and the Watcher couldn't help but bite her lip, seeing him so close to the edge. 'You are so precious,' she said, admiring him, as her hand around his cock picked up the pace once again. Aloth tried to respond something, but all that escaped his lips were a long, cathartic moan, as his eyes fluttered shut and his seed spilled on Gaura's belly. She slowed down her rubs, but didn't stop, trying to draw out his ecstasy as much as she could, Aloth, however, didn't let her watch him. He kissed her so hard that she felt it in her teeth and as a sweet retaliation she bit his lower lip, lightly, laughing into their contact.

They couldn't tell how much time has passed by the time Aloth's breathing calmed down fully and he finally relaxed. He let out a sigh that turned into laughter almost as soon as he exhaled it. He pulled away to look her in the eye once again.

'You're really...' he shook his head, grinning both at her and his own inability to describe her.

'Really?'

'Remarkable,' he said as his gaze wandered down her chest, 'incredible, and...' his smile faltered and an short, apologetic laugh bubbled up from him, 'and I ruined your dress.'

Gaura followed his gaze to the mess he left on her. She looked back up at him, smirking with feigned disapproval. 'Oh no, whatever am I going to do,' she shook her head, 'I'm stuck wearing stained sails and the culprit is too handsome to push him off,' she said as she left a kiss above Aloth's heart, enjoying the sound of his laughter.

A moment later the wizard climbed off her, somewhat clumsily with his underwear trapping his legs. While he freed himself, Gaura stood up and removed the pins in her tunic, allowing the fabric to slide off her and pool at her feet. Aloth froze in his movements, stunned at her sight, while the Watcher bounced lightly on her heels a few times get blood flowing in her legs again. Then she stepped over her dress and was just about to make her way to her footlocker when the wizard came to his senses again. She was stopped in her tracks by a hand grabbing hers.

'Where are you going?' Aloth asked as he gently pulled her towards himself. When she got close enough he took both her hands.

'To the kitchen. I figured I could grab something to drink,' the Watcher answered, trying her best not to get distracted by the wizard lifting both her hands to his lips, and kissing each of her knuckles while holding her gaze. 'I... I wouldn't be away for long.'

Aloth pondered her words. He held onto Gaura as if he was a moment away from dragging her back into bed and showering her with kisses. Then the moment passed and he was still merely holding her hands, while a thought seemed to have crossed his mind that put a faint frown on his face.

'Alright,' he let her go, and turned away to cast a protective spell on their blanket.

Gaura went to footlocker and put on the first shirt she found, then quickly slipped out of the cabin. She snuck to the kitchen as inconspicuously as one with flaming hair could and sure enough, she found a flagon filled with khapa tea and a bottle of rum. She gathered the bottle under her armpit while she carried the flagon in one hand and two mugs in the other. By the time she got back to the cabin, Aloth was almost done turning their pillows fireproof. At the sound of the door opening, he looked up and dropped the pillow he was holding to rush to the Watcher's aid. He took the rum and one of the mugs, allowing Gaura to pour them some tea. The wizard carefully took her mug while she placed the flagon on her desk. When she turned back towards the bed, Aloth was already sitting on its edge, pouring rum into their mugs.

'Oh, I forgot to ask if you wanted any,' he said, lifting the bottle slightly.

'I would've said yes,' Gaura shrugged then she approached the bed. When she reached for her mug, however, Aloth pulled it away.

'You are...' he cleared his throat, blushing, 'you're rather overdressed.'

The Watcher chuckled at his fumbled attempt at being subtle, but obliged him nonetheless. She made sure to take off her shirt slowly. And when the wizard still didn't offer her the tea, she slipped out of her underwear as well.

'Better?' She turned around to let him look her all over. By the time her gaze met his again, he seemed almost mesmerized by her. The Watcher burst out laughing and dropped down on the bed beside him. Aloth handed her a mug and touched his against it.

'To you being beautiful and thoughtful.'

Gaura raised her mug. 'To you being beautiful and thoughtful.' As she took a sip of her drink, she felt Aloth's gaze on herself. He watched him lost in thought, a wistful smile tugging faintly at the corners of his lips. 'What's on your mind, love?'

The wizard was snapped out of his daze. He shook his head but his smile widened. 'It's nothing, just... This has been the second time I've been to the opera. I... Didn't imagine tonight would go the way it did back then.'

Gaura didn't respond. In the silence, Aloth turned somewhat bashful. The Watcher took a large sip from her tea, then climbed on the bed proper. She crossed her legs, fully turned towards Aloth and held on to the mug with both hands. She looked cozy like one ready to hear an interesting tale. The sight drew a chuckle out of the wizard and continued.

'It was many years, ago. I was still a student at the Academy. One of my peers had a patron gracious enough to treat us all to a night at the opera.'

'That's rather generous.'

Aloth scoffed. 'Hardly. It was a statement of prestige. And we didn't even see a play. It was a concerto. The musician was skilled but his performance was loud and obnoxious, or at least it sounded that way as close to the stage as we were,' he lifted his mug to his lips and shyly glanced at Gaura over it. 'I... I much prefer your performances.'

'Mm-hmm,' the Watcher squinted at him with fake suspicion.

'Regardless... I was quickly distracted by the boxes by the sides of the hall. You see, in Aedyr, the boxes in the opera houses also have curtains. And sure enough I've seen one being drawn, then another, and another. And...' he grew quiet. The wizard looked into his mug as if he could see his memories reflected by the liquid within. 'I was wondering if... I was looking at my future. I've been Awakened for a few years by then, and hiding my Awakening, hiding Iselmyr... it overlapped with many other aspects of my life. It was fairly easy to guess what was happening behind those curtains... Secret dealings, secret affairs... And I couldn't help but ask myself if... If I never found a cure to my Awakening... If I were to thrive regardless, if I were to experience love and intimacy... Would it also be something I could only experience hidden? As a secret of mine and by being someone else's secret?' He looked to Gaura who watched him intently. 'I was rather moody in my Academy years,' he let out a rueful chuckle as he continued. 'I think deep down I dreamt of meeting someone like you... but I didn't dare hope for it.' He took a sip from his mug, then placed it on the ground beside the bed, quickly casting protective spells as he did so. He leaned over to Gaura and took her mug as well. She didn't resist. Not even as he lightly pushed her on her back and crawled on top of her. 'Thank you, for... destroying my dreams,' he laughed, 'and replacing it with a better reality.'

'You planned tonight,' she grabbed him by the face and pulled him onto her mouth. 'Give yourself some credit,' she said once she let him go.

'I suppose, that's true,' he said as his hand wandered to her breast and lightly cupped it. The Watcher bit her lip at the sensation, and reached for Aloth's chin. She ran her thumb along his lower lip as he gave her breast a light squeeze. 'But it was hardly free of mishaps,' he moved lower and kissed the glowing mark in the center of her chest, enjoying the feeling of her harmless flames licking at his lips. 'And... I still have more planned.'

'Is that so?' Gaura's question ended in a gasp as Aloth took her breast in his mouth. The hand that has been fondling it slowly moved down her belly, down between her legs. He lightly rubbed her inner thigh, close enough to her sex that she could feel the ghost of his touches on her folds. She absent-mindedly moved her leg, closer to him, closer to her own pleasure. The wizard looked up at her and pushed himself up.

'Of course,' he removed his hand from the Watcher's thigh to lick some of his slender fingers. 'It would be rather callous of me to let you make me feel the way you do,' he reached between Gaura's legs and lightly ran those wet fingers along her folds, drawing a deep, satisfied chuckle out of her, 'and not try my best to do the same for you.'

Aloth leaned down to leave a kiss on her knee. From there he traced one of the cracks running along her leg, with his tongue at one moment, and his lips at another. Gaura reached down to caress his hair while he teased her, softly chuckling to herself - after all she could feel his impatience in the touch of his fingers. The wizard looked up at her, and for a moment it seemed time itself has stopped. Then he leaned forward to place a kiss right below the Watcher's belly button. But at the same time, his fingers entered her and the contrast of sensations drew a gasp out of her. Gaura wanted to rock her hips against his touch, hungry for more, and it took her every bit effort she could spare to stop herself. Her hold on Aloth's hair tightened as he hurriedly kissed his way down on her, while his fingers kept caressing her walls. The movements of his hand were slow but meticulous despite his eagerness. His mouth, on the other hand, loved up her clit rather sloppily. When Gaura felt the precious contrast of sensations, she let a breathless curse slip from her lips and let go of her restraint. She grinded against Aloth's mouth, and she glimpsed a smile hiding in his eyes. She laughed as she thought back to the way he was grinding against her earlier.

'You like it too, don't you? When I get needy for you,' she whispered, a hint of chuckle hiding in her tone, but when Aloth nodded without pulling away, whatever response she had in mind was swept away by the sensation. The Watcher threw head back as she moaned, drowning out the wizard groan against her, but she could swear she felt his voice. She felt it resonate along her nerves that he set ablaze, with increasingly faster movements. And then... he found the perfect spot. 'Fuck,' she cried out, 'right there, Aloth,' she pushed herself up slightly so she could look at him. She involuntarily moved her legs closer to him, until they brushed against the tips of his ears and her mind couldn't help but wander to the earlier hours of the night: to the feeling of her dress against her legs that seemed to have faded behind the feeling of Aloth touching her. To the taste of the strange wine that paled in comparison to the intensity of the pleasure building in her. To the music enveloping her, the songs about longing and separation, and she only felt overwhelmed to have Aloth with her. 'I love you so much,' she let herself collapse back onto the pillow. Her eyes fluttered shut, and with it she lost her sense of time. She only sensed what Aloth invoked in her, and she couldn't get enough of it, of him, right until she was overwhelmed with ecstasy.

'I love you too,' she heard the wizard's voice coming from above, and a moment later the Watcher felt a soft kiss landing on her lips, and a tongue brushing against hers, carrying her own slightly metallic taste. She wrapped her hands around his shoulders, trying to ground herself once again, while his fingers were slowly guiding her back to her senses as well. He pulled them out slowly as he pulled away - as much as he could with Gaura holding him.

'I have to say,' she said as she tucked a few unruly strands of hair behind Aloth's ears, 'leaving early feels like the right idea so far.'

'I'm inclined to agree,' the wizard laughed, and laid down on top of the Watcher, with his head resting over her heart. 'Do you mind if we stayed like this? Just for a minute?'

Gaura lifted her head and blew a kiss on his hair. 'We've got the whole night.'

'Indeed, although... if we go on like this,' he looked up at her somewhat shyly, 'I'm not sure I'll ever be able to go the opera again, and not think of... you. I mean, us. As we are right now.'

'Well, tonight was my first time at the opera... If I were to go again, tonight will be on my mind for sure.'

Aloth's gaze softened as he listened. He didn't answer right away, merely he reached for the Watcher's hand to lace his fingers with hers.

'That is both comforting and enticing to know.'

[halonicheart]

I adore Royal aus as much as the next person… I just can’t picture one for any of my OCs thus far. That could change though. Royalty aus are so fun.

I guess it mainly applies to Lovette cause I couldn’t picture her as a princess at all. Just can’t make it work in my head. So any wolchefant knight-royalty aus I live vicariously through others.

I did think of one AU though, where Royal Knight Haurchefant falls in love with a mournful spirit, a banshee. Banshee’s in modern day are misconstrued to be evil harbingers of death when originally they were far from. Where the kingdom feared this wailing women, Haurchefant found her cries hauntingly beautiful. He was warned never to find her. For countless nights he would listen for her cries with a heavy heart, aching so viscerally to cry out back to her, to comfort her…

How does one comfort a spirit? He wasn’t sure but he would damn well try even if it made him a fool. When he finally had enough of this spirit crying alone, Haurchefant ventured out into the woods in the dead of night. There, he finds a ghostly pale woman with dark flowing hair, her white dress soaked and tears streaming down her face. ‘How cruel…’ He thinks. ‘To be cursed to mourn alone..’

The woman does not speak, she can only stare in shock as this man willingly approaches her with not an ounce of fear. The spirit is even more shocked to find this strange man reaching to swipe her seemingly never ending tears. Often did her wails scare away others, it mattered not to her before, but he was different. He sought her out despite her shrieks of pain. He looked at her with nothing but kindness. For the first in a longest time, or even the first ever at all, she smiles as she grabs the hand still caressing her wet cheek.

Haurchefant is left breathless. He grew up on tales of her kind, not a single one came close. They told him they were vengeful specters, the kind that would snatch you into the grave upon eye contact, a being whose very scream could still your heart. She was none of that nonsense, quite the opposite. Just beneath her deceivingly cold surface was something warm. “Oh my… what a beautiful smile you have, my lady!”

Never before did he think a banshee could blush, her cheeks painted the palest of pinks. Haurchefant was enamored by the sight. The Knight needed, yearned to know her name. To whom should he call out for when she cries alone… and so he asks. “What do I call you…? What is your name, dear lady…” He worried she was incapable of speech due to what she was. Haurchefant was pleasantly surprised to find that she could.

In a hushed voice she answers simply “Lovette.” -and shares nothing more.

“Lovette! A most splendid name… tell me Lovette… what ails you? Why do you wail and mourn? Whom do you mourn?”

That she cannot answer. Forces beyond even her comprehension prevents her from spilling the truth. That is why she can only scream in hopes of someone understand. Even if she wanted, she would not tell this kind knight who made her feel more than just some wretched thing, that reason she mourns was for his very own coming death.

It was cruel of fate to bring him to her, even crueler she can not stop what is to come, most cruel of all… the heart Lovette thought she lost began to beat again for a man time will snatch away.

[littlebigmouse]

TMA MAG 61 and the 'meh' episode

Don't get me wrong. I fucking love Daisy. The entire intro dialogue between Daisy accusing Jon of murder - which, yeah, actually, good point! - then leaning back and casually proclaiming that well, guess he has an alibi, but any funny business and she'll break his bones - priceless. A long-needed show of teeth in this show for sure.

Like, I'd permanently add Daisy and Basira to the "Tim&Sasha go on spooky adventures breaking into police files" spin-off, based on these few minutes of dialogue from these characters. Season 2 in general really upped it's character introductions to whole new levels. Every single new character introduced this season has left a lasting and strong impression, despite their incredibly limited screentime.

Which is exactly why I was so disappointed in the statement itself, or rather, in its presentation.

Because it's written exactly like any other statement, and that narrative style absolutely does not work here.

Sidenote: I took a while longer to get used to Daisy's voice? I feel like some of her deliveries could have been stronger, and her voice sounds rather soft for her character. That however I think is a matter of taste, and they could make such a contrast work, if, you know, the statement had taken more care to characterise her properly.

But man. The entire introduction is spend on establishing Daisy, potentially the front she's putting up, but we're getting a rather quick picture. Her sentences are short and to the point. She does not speak to fill an awkward silence, she does not mind seeing Jon squirm a bit. She's assessing him, and she's doing so calmly. She takes her time to answer questions, but we get hints of a temper, both through her threats of violence and some of the snappier answers she gives. She's an experienced police detective who's dealt with some shit over the years.

Now, given this premise, everything we've just learning about the character -

Does Daisy strike you as someone who goes on a two-paragraphs long word-vomitty rant about shitty coffee instead of getting to the point of her story?

I completely understand that the statements all have an incredibly similar style of writing, that's just what happens when one person/ a small team of writers write 60+ short stories within very similar themes and structure. The in-universe explanation for these could very well be that all the people who gives statements have a thing in common: They're all 'normal' people who encountered something beyond their comprehension, that spooked them in some way they sought out the archives to get their story to paper. Especially with the written accounts it makes sense they'd get a bit poetic or describtive or rambly at times, given how little or how much time every statement writer took to get their story down with all the detail they felt they needed to convey that their fear is real and valid, and whatever hurt them is still out there. All the narrators come from the same place, essentially, baring some variation.

Except Daisy.

Daisy isn't someone who just got spooked desperate to get her story out. Daisy is a hardened cop who is talking to someone she up until very briefly believed to be a murderer she needed to distract. She still hasn't made her mind up about this person, but she's willing to indulge and tell a story about something that happened a long time ago and was supposedly a first in a long line of weird and or creepy events.

I think the writing did even try to show her clipping speaking style through the many short sentences in the beginning, but the hurried way of speaking from the VA didn't really make that work. And the rest of the statement does what any other statement does: it establishes Daisy as a normal rookie cop (bitching about shitty coffee with a slight temper (her comment on wishing she'd get to punch more drunks), who encounters something spooky (by slowly setting the scene with detailed and colourful descriptions of the weather that day, the rising tension at the van) and is in over her head (the incredibly rushed manner of speaking, the long sentences, all the rambly bits).

Which, you know, may have been true for Daisy back when the story happened. I don't think I would have minded had the premise of the episode been that Jon finds a statement Daisy made 14 years ago and asks her about it.

Maybe Daisy is a lot more nervous in this conversation than she initially let on, and the story was also bringing back unpleasant memories that upset her to a degree that would have her this rambly. Maybe the effect is underlined by her VA talking way faster than I'm used to with John.

But damn if that doesn't contradict the entire intro, and thus her believability as a character and seasoned detective.

Daisy showed awareness of her effect on Jon, of her own behaviour in this conversation - if talking to Jon and telling a spooky story has her immediately this rambly, essentially breaking character of the front she just put up, I wonder how her record is with interrogating suspects, or any kind of successfull police work where you need to keep up a facade a little longer than that.

They could have broken the format a bit. Have her start out the statement more clipped, short sentences delivered deliberately. Then, some coaxing from Jon, some more leading questions, questions that seem unreasonable to her because she's not used on including them in the relevant information - her mood, the weather, the overall atmosphere - make her reconsider the story a bit, make her give more details as she herself thinks them over.

The statement could have put more work into taking into account how Daisy presents herself to Jon - she doesn't trust him yet, so revealing either seemingly useless information or potentially incriminating personal and/or emotional information should have more weight than a quickly forgotten side-line. Daisy feels like a third person narrator to her own story.

All this does get better once the statement starts focusing on the van drivers, but I couldn't help but feel like a great opportunity for some characterisation was lost, which sadly hurt my investment in Daisy's tale considerably.

Her anger at the end is also a bit... hmpf. Like, girl, you chose to tell the story. I feel like that bit would have been stronger if she'd interrupted herself in the middle, considering whether or not to continue.

Again, her anger at the end seems to characterise her as more impulsive and short-tempered as we initially realized, but it seriously hurts her credibility when she seemingly told Jon something she didn't mean to say... in a sudden impulsive... 20 minutes long fit of emotion. Right.

Also man, the amount of bottomless pits feat endless twisting hallways in this show is staggering :D

Also the implications of the Met having been infiltrated so deep by supernatural forces that they have a working and frequently used anti-vampire protocol is the best world building detail in... idk, episodes. Love it.

[archived-kin]

three names

note from kin: apparently that domestic diluc piece really did wonders for my writers block because i managed to churn this entire thing out within one night

anyway i know little to nothing about childe’s backstory so do be warned that i am only very loosely following the information we get from his story quest/voice lines/etc!

(also as a heads up childe is referred to as ajax throughout this piece! for those who don't know, ajax is his birth name)

fandom: genshin impact

character(s): gn!reader, childe, zhongli

pairing(s): childe/reader

warning(s): death (brief and not descriptive), mentions of blood

genre: angst i guess?? it isn’t SUPER heavy but this is very much Not A Happy Piece

You’ve known Ajax for what feels like forever.

The two of you grow up together on the streets of Morepesok, spending the short hours of daylight chasing each other down icy streets and pelting each other with snowballs until your fingers are frozen solid under their mittens and you’re both lying exhausted under the trees. He’s still a somewhat skittish and shy young boy, always hiding behind you while you ask the local farmers for permission to play in their fields and leaving all of the decisions to you when it comes to your childish games.

You know exactly how to get those blue eyes of his to light up like no other, though. Ever since the two of you were tiny tots, Ajax has always been enchanted by stories of adventures, of heroes who journey far from home to conquer evils beyond his childish comprehension, fighting with both sword and mind to quell any hardships or troubles that come their way. He listens to his father tell him these stories with a sparkle in his eye like no other, and begs for a new chapter as soon as one is finished.

You take advantage of this love of adventure to coax him into playing with you - him, the hero and you, his trusty sidekick, braving fight after fight together until the great sea monster is defeated, or until the brainwashed former friend was released - until the world bows down at your feet. You stand beside him and smile as he cackles, foot set atop a stone and brandishing a stick to the sky like a sword.

While Ajax longs for battle and glory, however, you secretly prefer the stories about the fisherman who wins the favour of the sea gods by saving a seal from a net, about the fae who collects the treasures of the land in an attempt to preserve the remains of a race she has loved and lost, about the dragon who follows the rainbow far into the east to find a companion who has fallen under the control of an evil sorcerer. Where he finds interest in tales of clashing blades and rumbling cannons, you find interest in the warmth of a campfire, surrounded by laughing companions that have shared a long journey together. You don’t love these games for the fights and the victories like he does - you love the games because it means you can be with him.

You suppose that this difference of interests is the reason you stay behind when he leaves on his own ‘heroic journey’.

The two of you are only fourteen - still children, for Archons’ sake - and Ajax has long since lost interest in the mundanity of his daily life.

“All we do is eat and play,” He mutters with a pout, poking at the snow with a stick. “It’s boring.”

You tilt your head in confusion and trot up to stand beside him, face half-hidden behind a scarf wrapped like a vice around your neck. “What do you mean?”

He scoffs a little then, and offers you a boyish grin. “Don’t worry, [Name]. You’re an exception.”

You still don’t understand what he means, not exactly, but it still sends butterflies fluttering in your stomach.

The next day, he knocks on your door, dressed in an over-large coat and his favourite hat, a backpack strapped firmly to his back and a rusty shortsword in his hand. He beams at you as you open the door, and announces that he’s running away to find an adventure, and that he was wondering if you wanted to come with him.

You ask if this is another game he wants to play. He shakes his head and tells you that this is for real - that he’s going to explore far and wide, to seek out the quests that he’s heard so many stories about. He’s going to be a hero, and he wants you to be his sidekick, just like always.

But you have always been a little too timid, too afraid of going so far out into the snow, too aware of the dangers of a reckless jaunt like this. And so, bowing your head in shame, you answer that you can’t

He freezes for a moment then, disappointment clear on his face, but he replaces it with a a grin almost immediately. You don’t know it at the time, but this is the last time you’ll ever see him smile like this again.

“Don’t worry about it!” He reassures you. “I’ll bring back lots of souvenirs for you when I come back! Like a dragon head!”

“I don’t like heads.” You mumble. “Too much blood.”

He doesn’t falter. “A dragon claw, then!”

The two of you exchange brief goodbyes, neither of you aware of the magnitude of what Ajax is choosing to do, nor the consequences it will bring, and then he leaves. And you let him, watching his little figure disappear and melt into the blinding white of the snow.

It’s a mistake that continues to haunt you for the rest of your life.

He turns up again, two days later, lying unconscious on the outskirts of the forest by the village. A mere two days - but somehow, you’ve always felt as if he’d been away for much, much longer.

Ajax is never the same after that. He’s more distracted, more absent - he never wants to go out for walks in the fields with you anymore, nor does he have any interest in playing games or hearing stories. He still lets you follow him around and sit beside him, but he speaks less and less, and spends more and more time thinking.

You don’t give up on him, though. It doesn’t matter how much his blank gaze scares you sometimes, nor how unsettling the look on his face is after he shreds yet another hay training dummy to pieces. You hang around him anyway, talking about every little thing that comes to mind, and sometimes, he replies with the same silliness that he did when the two of you were younger.

It bothers you, the way that he swings so abruptly between the old him and the new him. Sometimes he’s just the boy you’d spent your childhood playing with, chasing you down the street only to stuff snow down the back of your jacket, then making you a hot drink afterwards as an apology when you declare that you hate him. But sometimes he isn’t.

His face stills, and his eyes go cold. He stares emptily at the snow beneath his feet, not responding when you call his name, and he returns to his garden sooner or later, to slaughter another line of training dummies. The way he gazes down at the wreckage, the way his hand clenches around the shaft of an arrow or the hilt of a blade, the way that he seems to hunger for more - it scares you.

Perhaps it is unsurprising that he joins the Fatui as soon as he turns seventeen.

He doesn’t tell you - he doesn’t tell anyone, not at first. He simply slips away and leaves, sometimes for days on end, and returns without a word as to his absence. You believe him when he tells you that it’s a series of job interviews in a different town, even congratulate him on the opportunity. You believe a lot of the lies he tells you.

It isn’t until you come upon him in the middle of one of his assignments that the wool is finally pulled away from your eyes.

You’re out in the city on a shopping trip by your mother’s request, carrying several baskets of fresh produce that just don’t grow quickly enough in your little seaside town, when you spot his auburn hair disappearing into a secluded alleyway. You follow quickly, opening your mouth to call out to him, only to snap it shut when you see what he’s doing.

A woman is lying beneath his foot, and he is crushing the breath out of her with the heel of his boot. There is a blade in his hand, glinting softly in the darkness of the alleyway.

The woman sobs breathlessly, begs for her life to be spared, her face contorted with fear and despair. But Ajax doesn’t flinch. In one, smooth movement, he points the blade to her neck and slashes.

You don’t know if the scream that echoes around the alleyway is yours or hers.

It’s only then that he finally turns around and sees you, and the mask covering the upper half of his face is all too familiar.

Your eyes fall upon the dead woman, her mouth still open in her final plea for mercy.

“Ajax,” You whisper, your voice trembling. “What have you done?”

The bloodstained blade in his hand clatters to the ground. “[Name]... what are you doing here?”

You don’t answer him. Your entire body feels numb. “You’re… you’re one of the Fatui.”

It isn’t a question.

He’s silent for a long time. Finally, he lets out a frustrated sigh, tearing the mask from his face and throwing it to the ground carelessly, and approaches you, hands held out as if comforting a frightened child.

“I didn’t want you to find out like this,” He says quietly.

“Were you ever going to let me find out?” You ask. Your eyes move back to the woman’s corpse despite everything in your brain screaming at you to look away, and your hands start shaking.

Ajax notices. He steps in front of the body, as if trying to shield it from your view. “Of course. I was just waiting for the right time to tell you, that’s all.”

“Why… why would you…?”

He meets your gaze. He shrugs. “I wanted to fight.”

There is blood staining the left side of his face. Your eyes are drawn to it in the same way they were to the corpse, and you feel a sudden burst of anger on her behalf. “How was this a fight? You trapped her in an alleyway - you didn’t even give her a chance to struggle!”

“This is different.” He states, as if it’s obvious, and his eyes go cold. “The woman was defying the will of the Tsaritsa. She needed to be disposed of.”

“Is that all you are now? A puppet of the Tsaritsa?!” You’re practically shouting now, tears threatening to start streaming down your face. You want to punch him, slap him, anything to make him realise what path he’s rapidly beginning to go down, but there isn’t any strength left in you. Not after what you just saw. “What happened to you?!”

“I changed,” He says simply, and his sea-blue eyes are frozen over completely. This isn’t the boy that you grew up and loved - and it occurs to you that he might not have been for a long, long time. “I grew up and I changed.”

“Ajax—” You begin, but he places a finger to your lips.

“It’s Tartaglia now.”

Perhaps if you look close enough, hope hard enough, you’ll be able to fool yourself into thinking there was some kind of emotion on his face - something, anything that proves that he still cares - but there is nothing but emptiness in his gaze.

You don’t sleep that night. You don’t sleep for a long, long time, unable to put a stop to the unrelenting march of thoughts streaming through your head like a gushing river, like the endless depths of the ocean, like the deep blue of his eyes...

You distract yourself as best you can. You move out of town while he’s out on another mission and take your parents with you, settling down in a small village at the base of a mountain. There, you busy yourself every hour of the day, taking solace in the ache of your muscles and the fatigue that weighs heavily on your limbs. The people of the village come to know you as the helping hand, the eager assistant, always raring to go when asked for a favour.

And yet, even as you sit around a table in the local bar, surrounded by warmth and chatter and familiar faces, you can’t help but feel an emptiness opening in your chest. Old Dmitri, manning the bar as usual, slides a tankard over to you with a sympathetic smile, and asks, “What’s wrong?”

You ask yourself that question more times than you can count, digging it deep into your skin, carving it into your mind, unable to help wondering, and yet... you never find an answer. What is wrong with you? Why does Ajax’s absence cut into you like a knife, keeping you awake deep into the night, plagued by dreams of cold, dead eyes and red blood pooling in the white snow? Why is it that, no matter how many times you remind yourself of the man in that alleyway and the body of the woman he’d just slaughtered, of the man that was not Ajax, of Tartaglia - you can only remember the grinning boy of your childhood?

Your parents don’t know why your eyes are always red-rimmed when you come down for breakfast in the morning, nor why you refuse to look at your surroundings when you go out into town, keeping your eyes focused determinedly on your dragging feet.  They don’t know how many hours you spend staring out into the deep sky, wondering if Ajax is watching the same stars as you are, whether he even thinks of you at all.

Everything around you seems to taunt you, and you realise something.

You have to leave. You have to run away, to find a home in a place where the streets don’t stir up memories of days long gone, where the crunch of the snow beneath your feet doesn’t remind you of the sound of tearing flesh, where you can just be without Ajax haunting you around every corner you turn.

And so you set off for Liyue. You journey to the land amidst monoliths, seeking golden soil warmed by the sun to escape the cold snow and icy rain. You do not stop moving until you reach the land where the mountains stretch high and the streets of the harbour are painted with red and yellow, where the people are unfamiliar, the buildings are unfamiliar - where everything is unfamiliar. You’re tired of dwelling on past memories, tired of putting yourself through the same pain.

You settle in quickly, taking up a job at Wanmin Restaurant and eventually saving up enough to afford more than the little hotel box room you first are resigned to stay in. You move in with a new friend of yours, an apparently refined gentleman who seems to have no shortage of money but still always forgets to bring it when he needs it, and you start to remember what living in peace feels like again.

You take a deep breath as you watch the bustle of the city from the open window of your bedroom. The cool evening breeze in Liyue Harbour is soothing, unlike the biting nightly winds of Snezhnaya. Perhaps you can finally let go of Ajax now, you think.

Somewhere in the heavens, Fate mocks your hopefulness.

Two years later, your friend, who has only become even worse at managing his money despite your constant nagging, invites you to a dinner with him and a new acquaintance he’d like to introduce you to. You agree, unsuspecting of the true identity of his so-called ‘friend’.

You take one step into the private room that Zhongli had booked and realise what a terrible mistake you’ve made when you see a familiar figure sitting at the table.

He doesn’t turn around at first, too occupied with trying to take a sip of his tea without burning his mouth. Zhongli smiles at you, painfully unaware of the amount of old trauma he’s inadvertently stirred up.

“I’m glad that you made it,” He says pleasantly, and gestures to the man sitting across from him. “This is the acquaintance I was telling you about. His name is Childe.”

There is a long silence. The initial shock of the moment wears off, only to be replaced by something resembling anger.

“So it’s Childe now, is it?” Ajax stiffens as he hears your voice come from behind him. “How many names does one man need?”

He turns around agonisingly slowly, failing to register the dangerous tilt of the teacup in his hands as it comes close to tipping its contents all over the table. You stare blankly back at him from the doorway.

How long has it been since he last saw you? He doesn’t know. Ever since the two of you had parted ways in that alleyway, you’d all but disappeared. The window to your bedroom had always been dark and empty when he stopped by your home, and neither you nor your parents were anywhere to be seen, no matter how thoroughly he’d searched the town. It had only been when Tonia had mentioned your absence in one of his letters that he’d realised that you weren’t just avoiding him. You’d left. Left the town where the two of you had grown up, left the home you’d lived in for so long, left behind all the friends you’d made over the years - just to run away from him.

There are new scars on your face, a new poise in the way you hold yourself. A sheathed dagger glitters at your belt, and even now you toy with its hilt in a way that tells him that you are familiar with it. You’ve changed so much, and he aches to think that he had been unable to see any of it.

He hadn’t wanted you to go, he never had. You’d always been his best friend, someone he looked up to, someone he enjoyed the company of, someone he cherished - someone he loved. But he’d had a duty to attend to, a new mistress to serve, a new title, a new responsibility. He couldn’t keep fooling himself into thinking he could keep the relationship he had with you forever.

That day in the alleyway - he’s never been able to forget the look on your face when you realised who he had become. It’s been burnt into his memory ever since then, flashing before his eyes just before he strikes, and even now, five years later, he still gets reprimanded by his fellow Harbingers for faltering just before he makes the kill. They always ask - how can Tartaglia, who takes pleasure in watching the life drain out of his opponent’s eyes after a battle well fought, hesitate like that?

He never has an answer for them.

Zhongli looks back and forth between the two of you, his brows knitting together slightly. “Do the two of you know each other already?”

“You could say that,” You reply, though your eyes don’t move even an inch from your old friend’s face. His expression is crumpled, almost vulnerable, a far cry from the stone-cold indifference he wore the last time you saw him.

“[Name],” He says finally, his voice barely above a whisper. “What… what are you doing here?”

You raise your eyebrows at him. “I’ve lived in Liyue Harbour for two years. Why wouldn’t I be here?”

Several seconds pass by with no response.

“It seems the two of you have much to talk about,” Zhongli observes, and gets to his feet. “I’ll leave you for now.”

He’s out of the room before either of you can object. Damn him and his perception.

You don’t sit down at the table. Instead, you move to the window, looking out over the city that you have come to love.

Ajax joins you. He hesitates as he approaches, as if debating whether or not to settle right beside you as he would have in the past. Eventually, though, he decides to keep his distance.

“Liyue is beautiful at night.” He says quietly. “Language is a nightmare to learn, though.”

That earns him a short laugh from you, and he can’t help the way his heart skips a beat as he hears it. “You can say that again. I don’t think I even have a proper grasp of it now.”

“You’re speaking pretty fluently,” He replies. “I’d say that’s a proper enough grasp.”

“It’s all just conversational, really.” You don’t look at him, instead choosing to look down at Xiangling, Xingqiu and Chongyun as they walk through the street below you together, exchanging jokes and nudges. “What about you?”

“I’d like to think I know it pretty well. I had to learn for—”

He cuts himself off, but you already know what he’d been about to say.

“For your Fatui duties here,” You finish for him, and though you don’t move, somehow he feels as if the gap between you has widened. “There’s no need for pretences, Childe.”

He freezes at the way you address him. It’s become familiar to him after using it as an alias for so long, but it sounds so wrong coming from you. It feels as if you’re distancing yourself from him, from the childhood you shared together. As if Ajax, your childhood friend, never existed - only Childe, the Fatui Harbinger.

“Don’t…” His voice breaks, and he forces himself to take a deep breath before continuing. “Don’t call me that.”

“Why not?” You sound so detached, so distant - and he hates it. “Would you prefer Tartaglia? That’s what you told me to call you last time we met.”

He feels as if you’ve stabbed him in the chest. It probably would’ve hurt less if you did, actually, but he knows he deserves it. “...no. I don’t want you to call me Tartaglia, either.”

You don’t respond, but he continues anyway. “I want… I want you to call me Ajax.”

Silence.

You finally turn to look at him, surprise painted on your features. “...what?”

Your eyes are just as he remembers them. He never wants to see them as they were on that day five years ago, filled with despair and tears that threatened to brim over.

He takes a deep breath and repeats, “I want you to call me Ajax.”

You stare at him for a long moment. Your face shifts, as if you can’t decide whether you want to be angry or sad or something else entirely. You open your mouth to say something, but at that moment the door opens again, and Zhongli pokes his head in.

“My apologies,” He says a little sheepishly, “But the attendant informed me that we should start ordering our dishes now if we don’t want to accidentally go over our time slot. That is - if you two are alright with having dinner with each other?”

You don’t respond immediately. Your eyes stay on the man gazing almost wistfully at you, your expression becoming thoughtful.

It’s been five years since you’ve last seen him. Five years of sleepless, tormented nights spent tossing and turning, of days spend exhausting yourself just so that you don’t think of him, of a journey filled with obstacles and monsters just to find a place to be at peace in, and just as you finally think you might be moving on, he shows up again.

Maybe you should be angry. Maybe you should be drawing your dagger and threatening him to stay the fuck away from your city and to take his Fatui agents with him. Maybe you should punch him right where it hurts most for all the pain he’s caused you.

But… you’re tired. You’re tired of hurting, tired of remembering. And maybe there’s a little part of you that hopes - a little part of you that still clings to the boy you played with on the streets of Morepesok, the boy that you lost the moment you let him leave on that journey.

And so you come to a conclusion.

“I’ll stay for dinner. What about you, Ajax?”

[madswonders]

A Lesson In Romance #11: Actions

Spencer Reid x Fem!BAU!Reader

Genre: A little ✨spice✨ and a little ✨action✨

Warnings: Canon-typical violence, brief mentions of alcohol consumption, gun violence, mild (???) dirty talk

Word Count: 2.3k

Plot: Reader keeps getting caught in rom-com situations with Spencer Reid. This time, they pretend to be married.

A/N: I would like to dedicate this chapter to the Classy Restaurant Music playlist on Spotify for capturing the fancy restaurant vibes I needed hahahah

Masterlist | All chapters here!

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"You know, this is not how I imagined coming back here." You said quietly. Next to you, Spencer smiled.

Your eyes were still adjusting to the warm light, a stark contrast to the blue winter evening outside. This was your second time here, technically, but the sensation of his hand on your waist and the cool metal on your left hand made it all feel brand new.

"Table for Mr. and Mrs. Reid." He said to the hostess, calmer than you'd ever seen him before. You didn't miss the way he tugged you closer when he said "Mrs." and despite the truth of the matter, giddy smiles tugged on both your lips.

But it was the hostess' reaction that gave it away for you. When she glanced at your intertwined hands and matching rings with a soft smile, you began to realise why the two of you were chosen for this in the first place. The effect you had on each other was hypnotising.

Sending you and Spencer undercover as newlyweds was probably the easiest decision Hotch has ever had to make. His reasoning came from basic human psychology; people are drawn to extreme events, and while this generally applied to accidents and tragedy, it also applied to marriage and child birth.

In this case, few things would stand out more in a crowded restaurant than a pair of shiny new wedding rings, a large bouquet of flowers, and a bottle of champagne for two. And to top it all off, he had the two of you. Everything else came secondary.

Still, it was strange. Being isolated from the operation only made you more in awe of your team. Even under the duress of three hours, they operated like clockwork; devising a comprehensive undercover mission, building a profile for an unsub they didn't even know, and training an entire restaurant's staff in a handful of hours.

By the time the final pieces fell into place, all that was left was for you and Spencer to carry out the final stage of the plan.

Maybe it was the pressure of having the entire team rest on your shoulders, or this new "character" you had to play, but something felt different tonight. It was like electricity crackled in the air; you felt it when his hand lingered on your back, low enough that you felt a growing warmth in your belly, making you yearn for his touch long after he let go.

Maybe it was the stress from going undercover for the first time that made you trail your gaze down his suited figure, muscled and lean as a side effect of this job. Maybe that's why the image of him standing at the foot of your bed in this very suit couldn't leave your mind, until the physical action of squirming in your seat jolted you out of your own imagination.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Spencer locked eyes with you, his hazel eyes dark under the dim restaurant lighting.

"Just thinking about you." You admitted, placing your hand across the table. He took your hand in his instantly, his thumb tentatively resting on the jewel on your ring finger.

"All good things, I hope?"

"Nothing but good things."

"Well, perhaps I can add to that. You look beautiful." He pressed a soft kiss to your hand, his eyes crinkling playfully when your cheeks turned pink in response.

"How do I know you're not just saying that for our audience?" You whispered, eyes darting to his tie where the mic was hidden.

"If it weren't for our audience, I'd be saying a lot more, love." He replied lowly, and you bit back a thought you didn't want any of your colleagues to hear. You could already imagine them cringing as they listened in on your conversation, and the image made you giggle.

"Who are you, and what have you done with Dr. Spencer Reid?" You accused jokingly.

"When love is not madness, it is not love." He answered simply.

You thought for a moment, before the reference clicked in your head. "Pedro Calderon de la Barca. Interesting choice. You weren't lying about your education in classic literature, doctor." You looked impressed.

"I'm hurt that you even doubted it." He mocked insult, and you grinned.

"No, I'm just surprised."

"Wait until you see my actual surprise." He smiled, gesturing behind you as a waiter appeared carrying two plates in your direction.

"I took the liberty of ordering our food in advance." He explained. When you looked at him in surprise, he simply shrugged. “I figured I should expand my theory beyond breakfast.”

"And here I thought tonight couldn't get anymore exciting." You said, marvelling at the appetisers as they were placed in front of you two.

“You can reserve your compliments for when I guess everything correct, and I will.” He mock bowed.

“You're on." You giggled. "Now, can we finally have some of this champagne?"

Dinner went by smoother than you thought it would, and thankfully for your team listening in, your conversations steered away from thinly veiled flirting to classic films as the food appeared.

Not that it was any easier for you talk about Billy Wilder and Francis Ford Coppola with what was happening in front of you. Spencer had taken to playing with the ring on your finger while you talked, and each time his long fingers brushed against yours, it sent chills down your spine.

But it was when his leg brushed against yours underneath the clothed table that you felt yourself lose grip of your facade. The first time it happened, you even thought it might be a mistake. But after the second and third time, it was clear that Spencer knew exactly what he was doing, even if the innocent expression on his face didn't betray anything.

If you didn't know him better, you would even think that he liked it, teasing you underneath the restaurant table on case, where you couldn't act on it. Instead, you pushed away the thought and allowed your skin to prick with every touch; all the while you sipped on your champagne, taking the chance to observe the patrons around you through the rim of your glass.

Unfortunately, your luck was a little worse in the unsub department, and your concern only continued to grow as your entrées made way for dessert.

Before you entered the restaurant, the team had discussed the best-case-scenario for tonight — identifying and apprehending the unsub quietly before the dinner shift was up. But if you ran out of time, there was always one back-up plan, something that would definitely force the unsub's hand.

The good thing about having two unsubs now was that victimology became incredibly simple to decipher. What you and Spencer had considered inconsistencies at first, were now clear patterns distinguishing each one.

The first one was impulsive but experienced, driven purely by a compulsion to complete his pattern as fast as possible. Despite that, he had the sense to stick to high-risk victims and secluded locations, which made him so hard to catch in the first place.

It was the second unsub that was interesting. He seemed more controlled and calculating, choosing low-risk victims and public locations. The team profiled him as the narcissistic component of the original profile. The more high profile the victims, the more they attracted him.

And now that you’d spent the entire night drawing attention to yourselves, all you had to do was present an easy opportunity for the unsub to pounce — right into the BAU’s trap.

The moment Spencer beckoned you to come closer, you knew something was up. "Listen carefully, love. I'm going to call for the bill, and we're going to go outside. If I'm right about my guess, the unsub is going to be right behind us. Do you understand me?" He whispered into your ear, low and calm.

You made an obvious move to cup his cheek as you leaned back. "Can we go home now, baby?" You cooed. Yeah, you got him.

As you walked out of the restaurant, you intentionally stumbled as you clung onto his arm, letting out a loud giggle. Your gaze fixed adoringly on your date, even as Emily and Hotch called for their bill on your left, Derek and Rossi no doubt already rounding to the front of the restaurant from the back exit.

"Trust me." Spencer murmured as he opened the door for you, and when you nodded, he pulled you into one final kiss for the public. What you didn't expect was for him to move his hand down and squeeze your ass, causing you to let out a loud squeak at the doorway.

If anybody was looking at the two of you before, they were certainly staring now, and the doctor confirmed this with a low whisper. "He's coming."

When he finally caged you against his car, you had to remember not to go overboard for your listening colleagues, but you couldn't help but let out a quiet moan into his mouth as he pushed his leg lightly against your core.

"Sp— Spencer—" You breathed, locking your fingers behind his neck.

"Just hold on a little bit more, love." He muttered, cupping your cheeks with his large hands and stroking your hair. "Just a bit mor—"

You heard the sound of a gun cocking next to you as you broke apart, lightly gasping. A middle-aged man stood in the shadows, waving his gun aggressively. Bingo.

"Get into the car."

The two of you raised your arms warily. "Who are you?" Spencer shouted, moving to shield you from the unsub.

"I said, get into the car!" He yelled. "Starting with you."

"Okay, okay." The doctor conceded, unlocking the car and slowly getting in the backseat. He left some room for you to get in next, but the unsub trained his gun on you.

"Not you, sweetheart. I'm going to finish you right here." He narrowed his eyes at you. "Drop your bag on the ground."

Everything seemed to fall silent as you slowly lowered your bag, and your hidden gun, to the ground. When you stood back up with your hands in the air, the unsub slammed you into the side of the car and you groaned at the sudden impact.

You didn't need to gather your senses to know that his gun was pointed right at you.

"Leave her alone, James." Spencer threatened, already out of the car and levelling his gun at the unsub. All around you, the team moved into the light.

"FBI! James Luther — put the gun down." Hotch ordered.

The unsub looked shocked for a moment as he looked around, finally realising the situation he was in. His expression was unusually calm, and it chilled you to the bone.

"Very, very interesting. Are you a fed too?" He sneered down at you.

"It's over, James. Either you put the gun down, or you don't walk out of here alive." Spencer warned, but the unsub only laughed.

"I should have known that it was too good to be true. It's not often I get such a perfect couple, much less one with a wife this pretty." He drawled, waving the gun in your face.

"Spencer. I'm okay." You ordered through gritted teeth, already knowing what the genius was about to do.

"Look at her, so brave. Are the two of you even married? Or is everything about this fake?"

"I won't say this a second time. Put the gun down." Spencer repeated, cocking his gun straight at the unsub's head.

"T-think about this, James." You reasoned. "If you kill me, they'll kill you, and you won't be able to hear what the press will say about your murders after we expose you. Isn't that what you want? Don't you want to stop living in somebody else's shadow?"

The unsub's grip on his gun slackened. "They're not going to run a story on me. Why would they unless I keep killing?"

"They will if you give us the names and descriptions of all your victims, and we will make sure your face is front and centre for every single one." Spencer added. The unsub looked into both your eyes, seemingly searching for a hint of a lie, but there was none.

"Fine. Looks like the lady lives, this time." He gave up, dropping his gun to the floor and putting both hands on his head.

"James Luther, you are under arrest for the murders of Lucy Patt..." Derek recited his rights while dragging him away. You braced yourself against the car, catching your breath.

"Are you okay?" Spencer rushed over, sweeping you into a hug before you could even reply. You buried your face into his shoulder, tears welling up in your eyes involuntarily as you inhaled the familiar scent of paperbacks and coffee.

"I-I'm okay, baby. I'm okay." You mumbled, not sure if you were reassuring your boyfriend or yourself in that moment.

"It's okay, just let it out. You're safe now. I'm here. You're safe." He repeated, stroking your back as he kissed the top of your head again and again and again until you lost count.

You'd never been so relieved to arrive back at the BAU. Penelope was the first to give the two of you a big hug when you returned, fussing over the small cut on your face and the bruises on your arms, while you reassured her that you'd been cleared by the medics to go home.

"Good work today, both of you." Hotch called out from behind, shooting a small smile at you and Spencer. "Reid, take her home, and take a day off tomorrow. The two of you deserve it."

"You wouldn't be able to drag me into work tomorrow if you tried." You joked, and Spencer chuckled. For the first time, he wasn't about to argue with an order to take a break.

Nor was he about to argue when you asked him to come in to your apartment, or when you asked him to stay the night.

The only thing he wanted after tonight, was you.

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Tag List:

@blue-space-porgs @nobutalsoyes @lady-loves-a-lot @queen-flower @agentcarterisgay @totalmess191 @sapphic-prentiss @oops-all-ajs @spottedzebrasinpartyhats @mellowalieneggsknight @kenny-0909 || @averyhotchner @amesandpineapples @willowrose99

[aeempress]

Apritello Express Evidences, part 3

Apritello, my dear friends, is really all hints, devil in details, little pieces that, in the end, become a huge picture.

I can't say that there are a lot of episodes with April and Donnie spending quality time together, no. But all episodes are important to understand how their relationship are involving, growing. If you have sharp eyes and think about all of this even a little bit, you will be surprised how gracefully their relationship changes and grows, how characters evolve.

Dear passengers, we're about to start. Mind the gap!

Episodes “The Gumbus” and “Mrs. Cuddles”. 

I think it would be appropriate to analyze these episodes in bunch, because they have common situations of spooky supernatural stuff and reactions of characters to this.

When you watch these two eps in raw, it's easy to see how alike are reactions of Donnie and April in some scary, really odd situations. 

Adrenaline ‘n’ reclessness

April is really into all spooky things in “The Gumbus”, she's not afraid of some creepy stuff and she's really brave girl who easily copes with stressful and life-threatening situations.

Donnie is incredibly calm and collected when alive doll talked to him.

But still, April was frightened about plush rabbit because it was really unexpected for girl, she wasn’t ready to realize that plush doll that she’d worked with is alive fear-eating monster who will hurt and intimidate to get their precious screams. But point remains: Donnie and April share crazy fearlessness, which turns into an adrenaline addiction.

And here I am, a science guy, who tell you: adrenaline is a big deal for our body. This hormone can even provoke an onset of romantic feelings. Chemistry and anatomy come to fill the gaps: when a person is afraid, their pulse quickens, a cocktail of hormones is releasing into the blood, which sharpen the senses and reflexes. It will create a strong emotional bound, that's important for maintaining romantic kind of feelings. The more impressions there are (even negative ones), the higher the chance that person will remember his|her partner, and want to see them again – the body gets hooked on adrenaline, like a drug.

That’s why D&A have so strong, unshakeable boundaries. They are so alike: their attitude to scary things, the way Donnie and April cope with them, the adrenaline addiction their share. They even express feelings the same way.

And one tiny detail: April and Donnie start the teasing Raph for his fear of mrs. Cuddles. So they become the first victims of plushie.

Friendly reminder: they were the 1st victims, and what’s happened with them we don’t know, because it wasn’t shown due to not ruin the atmosphere of suspense.

But we have a beautiful quote of mrs. Cuddles and this precious shot which explain everything

Raph: Where’s Donnie?

Cuddles: In a happy place where he’ll scream and I can grow forever and now you’re gonna join him!

In a happy place, huh? Tied up with April in Splinter’s bedroom, a really happy place. Hold a sec, are they -

And after that Donnie’s responding is killing me.

Donnie:[OS] I'm afraid of togetherness.

Yep. All normal here. We should continue.

"Operation Normal" even though doesn't show a lot of interactions between April and Donnie, however continues the general outline highlighting the topics that were mentioned earlier in the show.

Firstly, April's relationship with her classmates. We're able to see how poor her scholar life is in "Hypno Part Deux" and "The Purple Jacket". She has no "normal", human friends except some strange remora guy, more like acquaintance than friend, though. But still, having "be normal" kick she's fine with Donnie's weirdness ( Mikey is always beyond all normal comprehension, Raph goes weird while he's alone, without brothers, and his fear of miss Cuddles is no big deal to fam, Leo didn't show any weird stuff during the series, like, reeeeal weird, m'kay?).

Conversation between April and Donnie at pizza spot

Really interesting and smooth scene. We’ve got Donatello who stares at April while he’s waiting his favourite pizza, no big deal.

And his legs.

If a person is interested in you, during a conversation, they will put their right foot forward (a left-handed person is more likely to put their left foot forward) in order to close the distance between you. - Check.

being in company, peson will point the sock at the most pleasant interlocutor for them. - check.

April’s legs are ponted at Donnie. Checkmate.

Yeah, April is hanging out with Donatello and Leonardo, but the main focus of hers is on Donnie. 

All these scene makes me think that Donnie, knowing about how badly sometimes April  wants to be normal, is up to help her overcome this. Fight fire with fire:  fill up her life with all of this weird, mystic stuff so it will be normal with time. Regular people go to pizza spot to spend some quality time together, so we have pizza restaraunt here, in Hidden City. Make all odd normal, and problem will solved.

Donnie really tries his best, look at his face. Dee’s fine with all this bizzare things what happens to April, he’s fine with her. But still he fails, because April’s concept of normalcy differs drom Donnie’s.

And again, for Donnie it’s not a problem at all. He’s always was at the opposite side of normalcy and it doesn’t matter for him if April is in the same boat with him. Cause, as I said, Don’s fine with that.

Second, how much Donnie knows about April.

- Scoff! Are you really still on this whole "I want things to be normal" kick?

- Yes, what big city girl doesn't have a kayak and has hazmat suit?

Interesting detail here: this line launches Donnie’s flashback (because the first scene is from “Purple Jacket”, it’s Dee’s episode, obviously). And Don, as far as I can tell, has in his flashback moments with April when she did something reaaally impressive. His face is way more louder than any words.

- Short answer: no. Long answer: nnooooooooo.

- Oh, no! You know how April freaks out around the cosplay wizards!

These tiny lines are containing a lot of background, stories, intimate conversations that April and Donnie share. This show always does the same trick: we never see a direct action, we are only able to see a result or statement of the result. But series do a great work telling us with such small and imperceptible gestures that their bonding at this point is mutual. Not only D tells April about his inventions, family and fam's issues he has and even his falls, mistakes and failures. April does the same thing, sharing with Donatello one of the most important things to her. Problem that really bothers her.

C'mon, he'd even memorized Sunita's name, though April messed up with this situation a bit. It seems Donnie memorizes facts about April - he remembered the wi-fi password from old April's work as we can see in "The Longest fight" (he could hack it easily, he's a genius, why he's been keeping in mind some piece information that useless for a year? It doesn't make any sense)

Oh, and that. Just a coincidence, I guess?

Just alike suits, no big deal. Plus, the whole family has it (and something tells me that guys have suits at the behest of Don, so probably April does). But Donnie and April has a lot in common like emotional expressions, reaction about some kind situations, fight style and even tastes in fashion.

Also, it seems like Donnie's been watching April for sometimes.

While Leo was hiding in trash can, to not catch anyone's eye rather than April. He definitely couldn't know who was passing by, but there was Donnie to observe from above. That's why he was hanging down the stairs when Leo spoke to April.

It’s not the first time Donnie dress up as old lady to monitor April’s day.

Leo: Why do you always make us dress up as old ladies? Donnie: №1: confort, №2: to blend in as we monitor April’s day for max normalcy.

 3. Even when D took away this cosplay wizard, he's still keeping eye on her.

Oh no, you don’t. Grandmas here!

Donatello changes his foe to save April exactly. He fought all evening with Brutus, but when April slightly gets in danger, Donnie just attacked anyone who has intention to hurt her and ruin her evening.

Is that a flying turtle in an old purple dress?

April, who all evening was trying to look “normal”, hiding her real friends because they are mutant turtles and pretending that nothing unusual happens here, finally gives up when Sunita mentioned Donnie. Even though new April’s friend has asked her before about Leo.

His eyes. 

Donnie is really impressed but what he saw, and the reason - April O'Neil.

The episode "Warren & Hypno, sitting in a Tree" is another incredible piece of whole picture.

Turtle tank is decorated for April birthday in purplish scheme, definetely Donatello's work.

Dee's nonverbal speech.

• He seems more interested and softer than usual looking at April. It's easy to say comparing him with brothers. Mikey is in anticipation of fun mode, Leo relaxed and show his "whatever it will be fun" attitude, Raph is listening carefully, but still, Donnie could just turn his head in April's vouce direction, not a whole body.

• Warren felt Don's gaze while talked with April, so worm made the remark. Pay attention to the construction of the frame of neighboring scenes. The second frame is April's perspective. And Don is looking namely at her.

Indignation. Disappointment. Spark, storm, madness (i love this russian meme, sorry not sorry)

• Donnie seems sincerely sorry for this situation with April's b-day. And again, this soft gaze and "Raph, shut the shell up, your nonsense is upsetting her"-eyes.

• Donatello is kind of person, who’s avoiding a proper confrontation, so he rarely stands up for someone.  He were remaining silent, when Raphael tried to cheer April in the most radiculous way, but when Hypno tried to play with April’s feelings, Donnie blew it. 

He’s obviously in wrath as D emote that expressively. Yeah, he had much on his plate at April’s birthday, but it’s her b-day on the line, not his pride.

Warren used April, playing with her fan feelings. Her idol betrayed her, she was locked up in a cage, and now we have Hypno who wants to use her again by pitting and pushing for her compassion, because, it’s obvious - boys would do everything she said. 

And Donnie tries to keep Hypno away from her, protect her feelings from another betrayal. 

As he’s already stated - “For you, anything”.

The show always tells us: if you wanna trigger Don, bring April in. 

Hypno tried to turn this thing around, Leo did the same in “Al be back”. 

If Hypno-tamus did that accidentally as he found out that April O’ Neil is a birthday girl, so her wishes that day were laws, Leo did it on purpuse.

Leo is good at manupulating and pulling some strings, plus he knows his twin as back of his hand. That’s why Leo mentioned April in the end as she was always the most powerful argument, the reason and motive for Donnie. At second he’s even panicked, but remained calm. He almost blew up his coolheaded image because of one certain girl in yellow.

• Donnie is really happy to present Warren's arm to April. He even holds it like a rare, priceless treasure. D is really proud of himself right now: he saved the day, after all. The emotional reaction of hers is exactly what Donnie wants to get. And then, his final pose, while April is on 9th cloud from happiness - that's really territorial gesture, D claims his supremacy and confidence, telling "See? That's my happy birthday girl".

Leapfrog with a composition

Donnie and April are more and more eager to be together in the frame. Composition’s boners, m’kay.

Special ride for April

Yeah, Donnie used to offer his battleshell to give April a special ride. It even has  a seat and handlebars for her comfort. She can control the flight as well as Donatello, they are like co-pilots. But he never carried her on his back before.

Usually, April is carried by Raphael, on his neck/shoulder, and she’s fine with it. Raph is strong enough to carry her without any difficulties or slowing down.

It’s not Donnie’s weak to carry her - no, he strong enough to carry his battleshell with a lot stuff in it everyday, Don can carry Splints on his shoulder without any apparent difficulty. He strong enough to hold the weight of his battleshell+April. Oh, c’mon, D assembled the Turtle tank only by himself and this for sure requires a lot of physical strength in order to engage in auto mechanics. Try lifting the wheel with tyre, and you'll see what I mean. Of course, there is a jack, but it will not solve all the problems. Don could use hydraulics and Archimedes ' laws, but I'm sure he did most of it with his own hands. Lifting and carrying, all by himself.

Not the strengh what’s matter but another point.

The sequence where Donnie carries April on his back doesn’t last long, it’s pretty easy to miss, while Raph openly do that with April on him. 

Plus April’s gaze: she’s staring right at us with her “ninja-eyes” as if they were caught in the middle of something. The duration and length of the sequence, the way it is made all of this arouse certain thoughts. 

It’s like nobody should see this. Too personal. To be more specific - too close and intimate? 

Donnie stated a few times that he’s not into togetherness, tactile interaction and phisical side of contacts. Although he's fine with his brothers, don't forget that April is a girl. Even if she feels like part of family, she’s not his relative. She’s not his sister. 

Some people tend to avoid physical contact with the objects of their interest. And this behaviour fits in Don’s character. He’s anxious type with a lot of psychological and emotional issues. Yeah, he tries to cover it up, built a shell to protect himself, behave as confident extravert but he’s nothing like that. Sometimes D tends to distance himself from his family, to hide in his shell, and we've seen that throughout the show. 

Don hangs by his phone quite often, he addicted to this as his comfort zone, his peaceful cave, where everything is much easier,

Don pretends he’s so busy with his science stuff to ward off his brothers (ep. Mind Meld), 

Don went to the lab to work on his projects, while he could hang out with April and the brothers (ep. Mrs. Cuddles). And he left for what? To work on self-cleaning tooth pick, or the titan bust of himself? It’s seems like lame excuse to be alone. He’s definetely an intovert, who sometimes needs some space and time with himself. 

All his cocky behaviour is showing off to hide insecure, diffident and vulnerable creature, softshell purple turtle. Yeah, Donnie has confidence in what he’s great in: tech, science stuff, where he’s only one is capable of. But if someone steps on his domain or doubts his authority, his true colours exposed.

And, once again, “Mind meld” is a great evidence of that. Would callous, unsumpathetic guy without heart have a wall with pictures of his fellows? I’m afraid not. Donnie has a soft, caring heart.

There’s an alley of his the dearest moments, because photos - are always memory, precious moments we want to keep. 

1 - from “Minotaur Maze”. Don loves good pizza, loves his brothers, and they have a little adventure together. Yeah, this photo isn’t on champ wall, but still.

2 - from “Mascot melee”. Important day for bros as they show themselves to people at daylight to rescue Raph and their operation to buy a new robe for his father. It’s their joint brothers dance, and D is loving to dance, remember? Definetely special occasion.

3 - from “Mascot melee”. Splints was really glad to receive a gift from boys. And Donatello, as we know, is always eager to achive for pop’s approval. This for sure must be in his precious moments collection.

5, 7 - from “Donnie’s gifts”. He even keeps a dorky photo, which Raph uses as profile pic at Donnie’s number.

8, 9 - “Down with the sickness”. It was funny to survive all the 7 stages to achive what boys wanted. They failed, but still.

10 - from “Al be back”. Who knows that Splints is so good at singing?

4, 6 - from “The Fast and the Furriest”. Strange choice, cuz, you know, photos ten seconds before his collision with April bat?

And yeah, he HAS April’s photo here. And at this pic it’s April, and April alone,without his brothers. 

Don’s a real softie, see?

And avoiding physical contact is a way to protect Donnie’s already shattered self-esteem. To not cause any doubts in front of girl which he’s interested in. That’s possible reason why we did not receive any heartwarming hugs in “The Purple Jacket”.

But Donnie carries April, because it’s her birthday. On the one hand, the girl claims that  her b-day is cursed, and Donnie could, by any chance, do something nice for her, and on the other hand - any request of the bithday girl - is the law, as we could see earlier.

Gift for birthday girl

There is no Donnie in the scene after Draxum throw off Warren's arm. While Raph comfort April about her birthday, Donnie was looking for it to present it to April.

He knows the best what is the most precious gift for her. Warren Stone, her idol, goat of making news; she have been in Stoneheads fanclub for 9 years. Also, it seems that Donnie is the one of turtles, who collected info about this worm.

Also, he stopped immediately when April stepped between them and show no disappointing (remind you about Donnie's sadistic science guy nature). The reason is April.

And another cute detail: their glasses are the same form.

Another episode "Mystic library" has slightly touched D&A interaction. But were talking about Apritello, it's all hints but quality.

When Mayham trapped in the mirror and Raph, Leo and Mikey obviously are not coping, April decides to call Donnie to clear situation up.

Donnie, mister "I ruin everything", she's going to call for help. I repeat this. April calls for help Mr. Science to solve mystic problems with her pet. MYSTIC PET.

 And he AGREES.

Turtles dissuade their friend from calling Donatello but after a while, April returns with Donnie, and sees the bathroom in ruins.

I'm gonna clear this moment.

1. April haven’t called Donnie.

2. Some time later she returns with Dee.

3. Our girl is pretty shocked to see her bathroom in ruins, argo she didn't see/hear Raph chose to solve problem with smashing.

It must mean only ine thing: April went for Donnie by herself. We don't know where was he, we don't know what the reason April brought Donnie with her by herself, 'cause we know that if she call Dee, he will definitely get to her immediately.

Something is definetely off.

By the way, April changed Don’s profile pic.Yeah, the first one is very informative since Donnie is a turtle and he’s purple and he has bandana. Seems like April have done it by herself, editing the photo of real turtle. She didn't put a lot of effort into this, this image doesn't show her real attitude towards Don. But second is more personality-tinged. Sleeping Donatello in all his gear - this detail can tell us about only one thing - he was photographed when he fell asleep after his sleepless night(s) working hard at something - is something she can catch or receive by boys (namely speaking, it’s Leo, according to Ben Schwartz stated in an interview, that if Leo had an Instagram account, that 60 to 70% of his photos would be his brothers caught sleeping or slipping on things). And still. April has a dorky and little embarrassing pic of Donatello and this is... Interesting and cute?

This profile pic remind me about ROTTMNT: Sound off! (2nd issue)

The next station is “The Purple Game”.

Another episode in which the interaction of the characters is small in timing, but great in content.

And once again: they have a lot in common. I’d never tired of repeating this thing ‘cause the series do the same trick, showing one thing from different points of view. April and April shares the same taste in games, the same attitude, the same mojo. 

But the most important thing here is how D&A interacrions are shown in this episode. Unlike other episodes, the interaction here is indirect, is provided by gaming.

Their customized avatars reflects their personality. I mean, the colour schemes (though Donatello has never shown any interest in yellow, he used it for customization of his persona), the way their avatars looking. Game even refering to Sherlock_Corn as “she”, albeit it’s impossible to refer to her avatar in female pronoun. Because, you know, design and nickname?

And the in-game interaction of the avatars resembles D&A irl relationships. Bootyyyshaker 9000 don’t like togetherness, he’s looking like Donnie’s expectation of himself (cool and tough guy, as D sees himself in his own dreams)

Their dialogue

Actually. Actually, Donnie and April are not able to hear each other as game has no voice chat, but their lines make an perfect dialogue nevertheless.

April:Bootyshaker9000? Donnie? 

Donnie:April? You’re the last person I need to destroy to achive rank №1!

April:Ditto!

Both:There can only be one!

Donnie said the cheat combination, so April would know for sure what he is supposed to do, but she has no idea.

So, once again: their sync is incredible.

And can we talk about that?

April’s attack

As it seems, attacks may be customized by players. Bootyyshaker has attack that refers at Donatello main feature - superior intellect.

And this attack isn’t effective, because REAL April O’Neil has a resist towards it. She has known D for years, she knows what he’s capable of, she’s aware of his nerd side. April’s immune to it, so Sherlock_Corn is.

 Sherlock_corn has a default attack - kernel cannon. It’s nod to her nickname: kernel, corn, the same book. But her second atteck is something reflecting her personalitiy. Plus, April is aware of Donnie’s “fear” of togetherness. All’s fair in love and war, right?

April took a lot of BS9000 hp by her “friendly hugs”. And, by the way, his sweet reaction for hugs.

So:

The selection of the final opponent. It might be literally anyone, but we wouldn’t be able to see Dee’s obsession in that case. Yeah, he’s already had a  demon possesion ™, but it was too easy to him to win. No challenge. No “kill or be killed”, “It’s me or you” mojo.  He needed some tough gamer for challenging, to develop his character, push him too far. And  April, actually, is an excellent choice to reveal the character of certain purple turtle.To expose his true colours. And April do a great job: they know each other, so battle will be spicy, they are both compepitors, they are so alike, so it would be intersting to watch Donatello vs April. And it will, ‘cause In-game April and In-game Don is somewhat different than them usual.

April is Don’s slayer for sure. She’s good at gaming, her last attack was almost fatal for him. So he had to to cheated on her. 

Captain Cuddlecakes. Yes, she know about his afraid of togetherness. And there’s lovey-dovey attack animation with this cuddling and Donatello’s persona behaves like him. And it was SPECIAL RUN, so... I haven’t the foggiest why. Cute detail, I mean.

Just look at it.  Isn’t it cute?(at least we got their hugs somewhere... kinda. kinda.)

“Snow Day“, albeit  being family episode, shows a lot about D&A relationship through “family war”.

First of all, the same taste in films.   

Donnie’s already shown the same attitude to fashion, scary things as Cap O'Neil, April shares the same gamer’s mojo as Donatello, but now? We have Donnie and April that are loving the same movie.

For love of purple supernovas, of all the Jupiter Jim’s movies (and there are more than 60 of them), that's a convinient coincidence, they like the same movie.

It stated in series several times that Dee is fond of Atomic Lass. He had crush on her when he was child, he admires her by all his heart, so it will make sense if films with this character he would be his favourite. It’s logical, isn’t it?

Atomic Lass, even if she is part of JJ-universe, however, isn't in every movie. Leo described "JJ: Pluto vacation IV" and there is no sights of Atomic Lass. Like, at all. 

Nevertheless, April’s claimed that “PV-4” is the best movie of the time, and Don agrees. 

April:What the whaaaat? Hold up, Skip. “Jupiter Jim Pluto Vacation 4″ is the best JJ movie  of all time.

Donnie:Ranked, by us, just now. So it’s basically official, no arguing.

And they do this thing again. Reflecting each other. Facial expressions, intonations, poses and etc. Haven’t I mentiones that? Mirroring is natural way to build communication. People, who communicate enthusiastically, who have sympathy to each other, feelings of certain nature, unconsciously copy each other's poses.

Direct reflection and close contact have a strong effect. This is used between lovers, people with close relationships or interested in each other.

And you can see that during not only episode, but through the whole series. 

Poses, gestures, facial expressions they share constantly. Even if they are apart, they are mirroring each other, showing their bound. Because Apritello is not always about sitting close, holding hands and blushing. Apritello is about staying together even if they are not.  It’s about solid foundation, about synergy, about chemistry Donnie and April share. And all of these are not always so obvious and clear, evident. But so realistic nevertheless.

And that’s why they splitted off the fam - they are too close and alike. 

I stated it before but DonniexApril team is way more effective than Donniexbrothers team. Donatello and April are equal, worth each other. They are comfortable with each other, their teamwork is amazing. 

They are always near, close to each other for the entire episode. Stand up for each other, side by side. They have no need to do team-building, because their sincronization is incredible. April works well together with Donnie, their skills compliment each other. 

I love that April in a first place look at Donnie to check is everything alright.

And a cherry on top?

This inviting gesture. Donnie just watched all along how his brothers and April try to throw some cold water on this situation (khem, it slipped). But when April call him with this inviting gesture, he’d like to help. 

In other words, he was waitng when April requests for his help.    

Composition’s boners

Sometimes it happens during the show, but this episode beat hte score at this point. I say only one word: physics. Or, more precisely, the force of attraction. Or, maybe Mayham.

... Anyway.

Fitting in the type

April can play not so nice against her enemies, she got steady hand and meanness, merciless and reclessness. She’s passionate and kinda badass, sassy - in a positive way, she’s baddest girl who can kick your butt if you mess with her, and she really good at this. 

She has a fire, and Donnie likes that. Dee never stated that directly but miss O’Neil impressed him so many times and in different way so it’s kinda pretty obvious. 

Just look how Donatello reacted the way April took Raph down a peg. Her actions are elegant, relaxed but really sly. She almost dare Raph to put his flag on top only to bring him down to Earth in really painful way. She destroyed Bros’ team so easily just by waiting a bit and by calling Mayham. 

She’s definetely got some pepper.

Pretty cute but baddest, don’t you think?

And Donnie was impressed for sure, he admitted it - “That is fun for me”. He don’t even stand a chance, c’mon: she’s smarass and elegant, she can be mean and cute at the same time. 

Even though that’s it for season 1 analysis (the last series is more appropriate  to review as part of 2nd season, plus it was a reaally big post, I need some time)

You can refresh this whole situation in the car 1 and the car 2 or follow the hashtag #apritello express as you please. It’s a pleasure of mine, keep in touch :)

[dialovers-translations]

Diabolik Lovers DARK FATE ー Laito Maniac [Epilogue]

ー The scene starts in the entrance hall in Eden

Yui: ( So this is Eden, the place where Karlheinz-san lives... )

Laito: Nfu~ He doesn’t seem to be around. ...Well, I expected as much.

Seems like we have no other choice but to wait. Good grief.

Yui: Shouldn’t you look for him?

Laito: I can’t. No, to be more precise, it would be a waste of time and energy...I guess?

Yui: ...? What do you mean?

Laito: Hmー ...How should I put this? ...It’s a bit difficult to explain. ..Well, I suppose you’ll find out eventually.

I wasn’t expecting to meet him right away after showing myself here out of the blue either.

That man knows everything. I’m sure he’s aware as to why I’m here as well.

Yui: Eh...!? 

Laito: I guess you could compare him to God. Not only does he foresee everything, he never shows himself.

Because he knows that time is not ripe yet.

Yui: W-What do you mean...?

Laito: He can predict the future. However, while he can foresee what can happen, he can’t change it.

Picture yourself in front of a river, for example...There’s a large obstacle somewhere far up ahead...

He can see the entire river, so he’s already aware of the obstacle.

However, he can’t stop the flow of the water, nor would he attempt to stop it himself.

ーー I guess putting it like that makes it a little easier to understand...? Nfu~

Yui: Yeah, I feel like I can vaguely understand what you’re trying to say.

( He knows that Laito-kun has come and why he is here. )

( However, he hasn’t shown himself because it isn’t the right time for them to meet yet, right? )

( ...I wonder what kind of person he is to be capable of such a thing? )

Laito: That’s the current situation, so let’s take it easy here for a while, okay?

He should show himself when it is time.

Yui: Yeah...

( ...Somehow that’s a little anticlimactic after stressing myself out the whole way here. )

( Besides, it feels weird to relax here. )

( Laito-kun’s here to kill the owner of this castle after all... )

( To a measly human such as myself...The way things are handled over here in the Demon World are on a completely different level, far beyond my comprehension. )

Laito: Say, Bitch-chan? Let me show you something nice.

Yui: Something nice...?

Laito: You’ll find out once you follow me. Nfu~

*Rustle rustle*

Laito: Come on, this way.

Yui: Yeah.

ー The scene shifts to the flower fields

Yui: Wah...How beautiful...!

Laito: Right?

Yui: ...What are these flowers called?

Laito: Hmー Their name, huh? I’ve never even thought of that.

Yui: I see...

( I’ve never seen these kinds of flowers before... )

( The petals become multi-colored when hit by the light, so they’re very pretty... )

Are these flowers exclusive to this garden, perhaps?

Laito: Exactly. They don’t bloom anywhere but in these flower fields at Eden.

Yui: I see...

Laito: ーー These flowers, you see. They’re immortal.

Yui: Eh?

Laito: Nfu~ Just like us. As long as no supernatural powers are involved, they won’t ever wither.

Yui: They never...wither? Such flowers exist...?

Laito: I mean, there’s creatures like us which are immortal...

So it isn’t all that strange there’s similar plants as well.

Yui: I see. Good point...

Laito: If only...the same could be said about humans.

Yui: ...Laito-kun...

Laito: I wouldn’t have to be plagued by any weird thoughts if you could be like these flowers, right?

Yui: Um...This might be a strange question to ask, but can I not become a Vampire then?

Laito: ーー It didn’t work.

Yui: Eh?

Laito: I started considering making you one of us a long time ago.

For some reason, I couldn’t. Under normal circumstances...A human would slowly transform into a Vampire by having their blood sucked repeatedly.

We call this ‘the awakening’...

But for some reason, you never awakened. I don’t know whether your heart’s the blame for that, or if it’s something entirely different...

Yui: I see...

( My heart was taken from Cordelia and put inside me... )

( In that case, it honestly wouldn’t be all that strange for me to become a Vampire, so I wonder if there’s some other reason behind it...? )

Laito: Are you upset, Bitch-chan?

Yui: Eh...? Why would I be?

Laito: Because I tried to make you one of us, without ever asking your opinion on the matter.

Yui: No. I’m happy knowing that you thought that far ahead for me.

Besides, if anything, I’dーー

Laito: Nfu~ You would have preferred to become one of us?

Yui: I just thought that would allow me to stay with you longer.

Is that strange...?

Laito: It is. Or rather, don’t you think you’re taking the concept of immortality a little too lightly?

Yui: Am I...?

Laito: I guess in the end, both humans and Vampires want whatever they don’t have.

Being able to naturally pass away is such a blessing after all...

Yui: I guess it is to you guys...I’m sorry, I...

Laito: No need to apologize. I’m the one who tried to take that privilege away from you after all.

If anything, I should say sorry, no? ...Fufufu.

Well then, guess we should get back inside soon?

Yui: Yeah...

ー A flashback ensues

Cordelia: ...!! Why...Why!? Why won’t he come!?

He...Karl said that he would come today...He broke his promise with me!! Unforgivable!!

Who does he think I am...!? I am the daughter of the Demon Overlord, Burai...!

All other men are head over heels for me and yearn after me...So why does Karl...!?

Laito: ( ...She’s having one of her lunatic episodes again. Honestly, she should stop bothering since it’ll only exhaust her. )

( I don’t think there’s any reason to get so upset? )

( For one, this happens all the time. He never changes. )

Cordelia: God!! I won’t forgive him...!!

*Thud*

Laito: Oh come on, don’t be so mad. Calm down...

Cordelia: How am I supposed to stay calm right now!? Aah, god...It grinds my gears...

Laito: Nfu~ But you have me, don’t you? Just forget about that man already.

Cordelia: ーー Hah?

Laito: ‘...Hah?’, you say? How cruel...

Cordelia: I have you, so what?

Laito: What do you mean? ...I mean, I could replace him and...

Cordelia: Time to get off your high horse. Listen carefully? You aren’t Karlheinz.

Don’t get the wrong idea. You’re no replacement for him.

Laito: ...

Cordelia: ーー Haah...Honestly, Karl...You’ve kept me waiting for so long...I can’t believe it...

Just look at how much I love you!

Laito: ...

( Then, what exactly am I? )

( If I’m not his replacement, then!? What...purpose do I serve!? )

Monologue

ーー That one sentence she spoke,

was a fatal blow to me.

Pierced deeply through the heart,

I came to realize how foolish I had truly been.

I even felt the desire,

to kill myself on the very spot.

I had the wrong idea this whole time.

I thought that she sought after me,

both to spite him,

as well as a way to replace him.

However, reality was different.

I was nothing,

but a way for her to vent off her frustrations.

In other words...

I was her personal trash can,

to throw in all the ‘love’ she didn’t know where to go with.

Looking back at it now, I was shallow-minded.

To think that while twisted,

there was something there,

which could be considered love.

I truly believed so,

and I wanted to believe.

ー The flashback ends with Laito waking up in the guest room

Laito: ...!!!

Haah, haah...A dream?

( Oh, it was just a dream...Even so, it felt incredibly real...A true nightmare... )

( All of this probably happened...because I’m currently at this place, at Eden... )

( This is his territory...He could easily (1) manipulate my dreams... )

Fuck...!!

*Rustle*

Yui: Nn...

Laito: Whoops...!

( Right, she’s lying next to me... )

...

Yui: ...

Laito: ( Thank god. She’s sound asleep, huh...? )

Yui: Uu...

*Rustle rustle*

Laito: ( ...Such a thin neck. I could probably snap it with just one hand... )

( A fragile...and delicate neck. )

*Rustle*

Laito: ( If I use both hands like this, it’d be over in a second... )

*Rustle rustle*

Laito: Kuh...

Yui: Uu...

Laito: ...!!

Yui: ...Uu...

Laito: Bitch-chan...?

Yui: ...

Laito: ...!!

( What was...I doing just now...!? Did I try to...kill her...!? )

( ...Even though I told her...Told her that I’m here to kill him to be able to look at life more brightly... )

( No...I’m not killing him for that reason... )

( I want to be killed by him. Because then I can die. )

( I won’t have to see her perish either. ...I want to avoid that. )

...

( I’m scared of myself...At this rate, I’ll end up killing the person I love the most. )

( Just like...I killed her. )

Fuck...This is messed up, isn’t it!?

Why am I like this...!? Kuh...

ーー TO BE CONTINUED ーー 

Translation notes

(1) わけない or ‘wake nai’ is a tricky one, because the two possible meanings it has are polar opposites. Either it means ‘easily/easy’ or ‘there’s no way’. Although in the latter case, ‘wake ga nai’ is more commonly used. 

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<- [ Maniac 10 ] [ Ecstasy Prologue ] ->

[bubblegumbeech]

The Librarian’s Trick

Day one Ectoberhaunt: Trick or Treat

https://archiveofourown.org/works/34213519

 1:

 Wes was certain this Cassius guy was a ghost. He had to be. Humans didn’t live on the outskirts of town in large decrepit clock towers that Wes was      pretty sure didn’t exist last week    .

 Humans didn’t have red eyes and white hair (unless they had a condition called Albinoism, Wes had looked it up. But Albinoism      also     meant they had no melanin      anywhere    and Cassius Dark was decidedly tan in an admittedly attractive but decidedly not Albino kind of way)

 Humans didn’t have fangs when they smiled but normal teeth whenever Wes tried to point out that      He had FANGS. They were right there!!!  

 Humans didn’t spend all their time either with Danny Fenton (who was Also very much a ghost!! Which should be in the list of proof but no one believes it so it’s seperate but still!) or mysteriously absent.

 And humans didn’t seem to know everything all the time but talk like a bad astrology website.

 So Wes was going to find a way to prove it.

 His first try had him sneaking a “ghost translator” he didn’t remember the stupid name Fenton’s dad called it when he bought it with his allowance, into the library where Cassius Dark supposedly worked.

 Supposedly, because while he could be found there, Wes had never actually seen him doing anything other than reading. And it was never a book Wes recognized, like, he wasn’t reading the Twilight series or anything. The last book Wes saw had been a large ancient looking tome written in a language Wes didn’t recognize. But Everytime he tried (subtly! He was super nonchalant about it!) to take a picture it ended up blurry!! And No Kyle, it wasn’t because he was      bad at taking photos    .

 But that didn’t matter because Wes had a different plan now. He was going to use the Fentons’ new version of their “ghost translator” thing, and see what happened. It was supposed to be both a translator and a truth decoder at the same time. So no matter what a ghost said, the device should say what they actually mean. Or something.

 With Danny, a bunch of innocuous stuff went off around him, but people always hand waved it as faulty tech. Wes wasn’t sure that was the case, in fact he was positive it wasn’t. But if he could get something useful to build up from, that would be a good start. And every good reporter needed a start.

 He stepped up to the Library’s front desk, where Cassius was sitting reading what was      clearly     a spell tome if the different summoning pentagrams in the open page Wes could see were anything to go by.

 “Welcome Young Weston,” Cassius said, the hint of a smile hidden behind his red eyes as he closed his book. Wes could swear they were glowing slightly. Geez did this guy get his ‘how to pretend to be human’ classes from      Fenton    ?

 … that would certainly explain why no one ever believed Wes, since that was a long beaten dead horse in his closet.

 He, very discreetly, had the device hooked up to one of his earphones, which he kept in one of his ears like any normal less than perfectly mannered teenager as he asked Cassius Dark his questions.

 “Excuse me sir? Do you work here?” he started with, it was a more or less innocuous question and one he actually wanted the answer to.

 Cassius Dark smiled. “I do.”

 My Job is all that was, is, and shall be. That which I set as my goal is beyond mortal comprehension and those I call master shall fall to my machinations. But yes, I get paid for sitting at this desk and answering questions sometimes. I am a ghost, fear me.

 Wes tried not to sweat too obviously. What the fuck?

 “Can you tell me where the journalism section is?” Wes decided to make a tactical retreat, at least his voice didn’t crack.

 “Straight back for eight shelves and then turn right. It’s next to the Non-fiction books.”

 I know what you’re looking for, I know why you are here. I know the exact time of your death and what will happen next. Your efforts amuse me though. I am a ghost, fear me.

 What Wes did next was not      exactly     fleeing. But it wasn’t      not     fleeing either.

 He’d have to try something else.

 2:

 The next thing he wanted to try was a bit riskier. If you thought about it a certain way. But it also wasn’t if you thought about it the way Wes did.

 He was going to use a phase-proof net.

 Genius, because unlike the translator machine thing, it would actually stop the ghost from attacking Wes if it got angered. Which it would, probably, since Wes was throwing a net at it.

 The plan was really simple though, he’d gotten a very large net, paid extra for the little aim thing, practiced half a billion times of his brothers before they went to the parents and got him grounded for a week, and then memorized the path Cassius Dark took in the mornings to go to his “job” at the library.

 Right now he was hiding in one of the leafier trees, right above the path that Cassius always used, waiting.

 And waiting.

 And…      waiting.  

 Honestly he was about to go home and was fairly certain this guy was going to be like, super late to work, when he finally appeared.

 Wes wasted no time aiming, making sure the trajectory was absolutely perfect, and firing the net off. He was just about to jump in celebration, watching the net as it curled slightly around its target, but before it could hit and wrap around him, Cassius was suddenly not there.

 Or he was, but just a little bit to the left, so that the net sailed harmlessly past.

 Wes cursed.

 3:

 The third one was fool proof. It had to be.

 Which was why Wes was staring at a large conspiracy board, covered in paparazzi-esque shots of the librarian and random notes he’d taken, all connected with a dizzying amount of red string.

 “Kyle, seriously. I need to figure out what kind of ghost he is or he’s always going to have the upper hand!!”

 Kyle just rolled his eyes and continued playing his video game, as if he didn’t care that Wes had set up his very important planning and plotting in the middle of the living room so long as it didn’t interfere with his own plans.

 “It has to be pretty powerful, he was able to dodge my net before it even touched him. And the translator thing clearly said ‘my goal is beyond comprehension’ or something,” Wes mused, “and he also said his job was like, everything?”

 Wes checked his notes, “yeah, ‘all that is was and shall be’. What could he mean by that?”

 His very annoying and clearly not taking this as seriously as he should brother just chuckled. “I don’t know Wes, maybe he can see the future?”

 That… no. That’s way too OP. Just the thought of it sent a shiver down Wes’ spine. There was no way a ghost could see the future right?

 Right?

 He had to test this theory.

 But how do you even test something like that?

 “Kyle, how would you test if someone could see the future?”

 “Throw something at the back of their head and see if they dodge?” He answered way too quickly.

 Wes thought about it for a moment. “No, what if they just have really good reflexes?”

 “Oh huh, I guess that could be true. No idea then.” He shrugged and Wes had to fight the urge to throw something at the back of      his    head.

 Whatever. He had to make plans.

 He’d tried just throwing things. It was risky, and kind of terrifying, but Kyle was right it      was     the first that came to mind.

 But Cassius never dodged. He was always just, not where Wes thought he was. Or Wes had      really bad aim,    which he didn’t!!! He was a basketball ace!! He had great aim! And great situational awareness!!

 So why couldn’t he hit Cassius Dark?

 Obviously it was because he could see the future. And the smug smile he always had when he knew Wes was looking reminded him an awful lot of a certain other Phantom.

 4:

 Ask him about his family.

 Easy enough. Especially without the Fenton’s weird translator because that might have been a bit terrifying. And also this time he had back up.

 He dragged Kyle by his sleeve into the library.

 “Mr. Cassius!”

 Cassius looked up from his book, removing the delicate reading glasses balanced on his nose. “Can I help you Mr. Weston?”

 “Yes!” He smiled broadly, taking out a small notebook that he had used to take notes on the suspicious and ghoulish things going on around town until it was mostly shreds of paper. “I’m writing an OP ED on the town library, and would like to know more about the librarian. Can you answer a few personal questions?”

 Kyle snorted and Wes had to elbow him in the side to get him to shut up. He was here as back up, not to ruin his plan.

 “So,” he began, “is Cassius a family name?”

 “No.”

 Wes nodded. And then frowned. Did ghosts have families? Supposedly they were alive once right? At least that was the general idea, Wes thought.

 “So what can you tell us about your parents? Like, what’s your father’s name?”

 Cassius raised an eyebrow, and had a soft smile filled with good humor. Wes felt it hit him like a threat. What was this ghost hiding?

 Well, other than the fact that he’s a ghost.

 “I can’t tell you much I’m afraid. My mother is long gone and I never had a father.”

 Kyle grimaced and elbowed Wes himself before saying, “I’m sorry for your loss.”

 “It’s no matter,” Cassius replied, still smiling, “I may yet see her again.”

 Ah, so either she wasn’t dead or he’s convinced she became a ghost too. That made sense. It could be his unfinished business as they say among the paranormal hunters. At least, the not fight-y and crazy ones.

 “So Dark was your mother’s name?” Wes asked, wondering if he could maybe find any records on her where he had failed to find them on Cassius himself.

 The smile slid right off his face. Wes and Kyle both felt the subtle chill in the air as Cassius leaned back and looked off to the side, as if to glare at something that wasn’t there. “No, I’m afraid Dark is my ex-husband’s name.”

 “Why keep it?” Kyle asked, completely ignoring the danger of the situation.

 The smile came back, except this time instead of soft and barely there as if he were indulging a child, it was sharp and twisted. He chuckled at an inside joke no one else in the room would ever understand and then he said, “Well, it’s not like      he     has any use for it now.”

 Wes paled. Had he killed his husband?!

 5:

 After a hasty retreat from the library Wes treated Kyle to a milkshake and fries at the nasty burger just as he had promised. Payment for going along with his ‘weird ghost theories’.

 But Wes couldn’t eat, he was too busy thinking. This one actually helped! He found information about the ghost’s previous life! He had a mother, but not a father, and had a husband.

 With the current politics it was one of two options. Either he was from a previous culture that allowed men to marry each other, or he was a more recent ghost than Wes had been expecting. He had already taken out his laptop and was scrolling through obituaries with the surname Dark, trying to think if he knew any off the top of his head that might have been in town when they died.

 Nothing particular came to mind.

 Wes’ thinking was interrupted by a loud, obnoxious slurping noise from his brother. He shot him a glare, but Kyle didn’t react. Wasn’t even looking at him. Instead he was looking out the window and watching one of the daily ghost attacks with Phantom playing hero as always.

 “You know, it’s kinda cool that they’re hiring actors to build the town’s lore like that,” he said, clearly ignoring the obvious evidence of ghosts right outside his window.

 “What the      hell     are you talking about?” Wes groaned, rubbing at his eyes. He needed coffee or something, it was a shame the Nasty Burger only served sludge no sane person would drink.

 Kyle finally looked away from the window, his eyes wide as if      he     was the one confused. “You know, how they got the librarian to say he was married to Pariah Dark? And then imply he’s the reason he’s a ghost?”

 Wes felt like the seat underneath him had suddenly disappeared. “Where did you get      That    from?!”

 “He said his ex-husband was named Dark! Pariah Dark’s Ghost Zone show is the first thing that comes to mind!” Kyle argued back. “Isn’t it?”

 Holy shit this guy was married to the ghost king.

 He thought back to the ominous answers he’d gotten that first day from the Fentons’ translator. Maybe he should leave this one alone.

 +1

 Wes was at the library, studying quietly and absolutely avoiding the librarian. Not that he’d seen him today, but it didn’t hurt to keep his head down. With any luck the guy had a short memory and would forget Wes had been trying to find a way to out him to the town.

 A portal ripped from the air in front of him, sending a static energy throughout the library and causing Wes’ hair to stand on end. It was a swirling purple, deeper and more… well      more     than most of the natural portals that Wes had seen appear around town.

 He wanted to scream, but years of living in Amity Park had fully trained that out of him. Screaming was the number one way to get a ghost locked on you as their first target. Especially if you were there when the portal opened.

 Before Wes could even think to duck under the table he was using a figure stepped out of the portal, poised and composed. He had a deep purple hood that seemed to swirl with the fabric of galaxies and a large ornate clock embedded into his chest. His skin was a rich blue and he had glowing red eyes.

 Wes recognized him immediately.

 “Oh, hello Mr. Weston, is there something I can help you with?” Cassius Dark asked.

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S5 Ep 20: Yugi’s Senshi Outfit

So I’ve been doing a lot of work, and I haven’t looked at the blog for a hot minute and when I finally checked back in to do these posts I noticed something on my tumblr was just blowing up. I got all excited thinking “oh shoot, Did I draw something right??” and instead, it was a random post I made about the bootspants from season 1. Three years later, resurrected from the grave and covered in...thousands of notes? I don’t understand how this website works.

Anyways, the comments are mostly good, but a little bit wild. A lot of people seem to think I would know what Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is, when I’m an adult who is still watching the first 5 seasons of Yugioh. (I will never have time to watch Jojo,) and then some other people started talking about Actual Card Mechanics that went...completely beyond my comprehension. But then there was one person. One person who said one thing, and brought it all together.

Poots.

The boots that are pants.

Poots.

I can’t believe I looked at all the different combinations, but a Poots never crossed my brain.

It is so perfect, so cathartic, although it took 3 years to get there.

Poots.

Anyways, we’re in S5 and unfortunately not in poots anymore, Yugi is now dressed in a tupperware container from hell and they have wandered into a desert. On cue, Grandpa has an injury, but at least this time it’s not his ass.

You know how there’s artists who do hyper-realistic versions of pokemon monsters with detailed bone structure and muscle anatomy? I dare them to look at this orb and tell me how the hell it has wings. Like go ahead and try and pin a spine down on that thing. I’ll wait.

(read more under the cut)

So Joey decides to sprint down this endless desert with just boundless positivity.

Over the edge of this sand dune is a whole bunch of huts,just random civilization out in the middle of no where.

One girl walks over and it’s a look.

She’s really the only one here who can talk, and she just seems...so incredibly bored to be here. A whole lot of Wednesday Addams energy. She leads them into a hut where an old guy pulls a scroll out of blue fire. As you do.

Again, this arc should have been a video game, because while it’s something to get the player interested if there’s some riddle they have to solve to progress, when you’re watching a TV show, it’s not like I’m the one solving the riddle. The format is honestly one of the downers of this arc, tbh.

It has strong “I played a D+D sesh and made a webcomic out of it vibe” and I know I just called out like half of you, but listen, I will not take it back.

This episode, our gimmick is some asshole is going to be yelling at us from the other end of the map, just shouting in the background for the entirety of the episode like that tangible human skull meme.

Then Wednesday Addams hands over yet another MacGuffin because why not?

Tea can twin it up with Yugi now. Her necklace doesn’t seem haunted, but it’s only a matter of time. (also her necklace looks so freakin terrible, we’ll see it later and I’ll have a lot more to say because wtf it looks like some sort of polly pocket.)

I’m not 100% that the voice that shouts at us from the end of the hall this episode is Mokuba’s voice actress. But I’m 99% positive it is, or Mokuba’s voice is just really that type of vibe.

Stuff happens, and it felt like card duel stuff, so I’m gonna skip over the part where they pulled out their duel monsters one by one, since the fight was pointless anyway because the worms can turn you into stone. So Yugi and Pharaoh decide to have a chat about it because their plan is clearly not working.

This is when Pharaoh has a vivid lucid daydream, which seems like something that would have been more convenient before he ended up turning into stone on the floor of some desert. But, hallucinations never come when they’re convenient on this show. They usually come during card games, tbh.

Imagine with me that you’re dreaming of like...an old ass greek guy who is 99% Alexander the Great. Imagine he tells you to fuse with a sentient paper card that you already carry around in a weird capsule.

Please

For the love of all that is holy

Do not think about what it means to fuse with the Dark Magician.

Dark Magician is...he “exists” but he’s like not even a person. There seem to be whole fleets of dark Magicians, which are all the same guy, just cloned, right? Or maybe they’re a family? Or like...I don’t freakin know. Like they’re all hanging out together in some card dimension so it’d be more like fusing with the guy who dresses like Barney the dinosaur instead of actually Barney. Like he’s more of like a concept than a dude, but apparently you can just introduce him to your...whatever this armor is supposed to be, and Dark Magician turns into a Super Suit.

I want to express my thanks to the Yugioh team for not putting Yami in his underoos. Hell, they didn’t even take off his jacket. I do not know what art directer ok’d this for animation and said “yeah, this won’t kills us if we animate it.” but that is a hell ton of lines and design right there. Yeah they have 3d, and probably had to 3d that staff...but that doesn’t mean you don’t end up drawing it, in the end--you still have to draw over your 3d. You still have to draw literally everything.

Anyway, when we get to the eye of the storm. The secret to getting there was that you have to fly, which again--3/5 of these guys already have a monster that can fly. We can finally tell the voice at the end of the hall to stop yelling because it’s really bothering all the townspeople, and then move on with the quest.

Everyone else was stone during this. So when they un-petrified they kinda looked over at Yugi and were like “how freakin long was I out???”

But youknow, Yugi’s 2 people, so it’s fine. So long as you don’t get down to the third bastard still sitting around in there.

After this, our NPCs vanish, and the show pushes us directly forward. No time for them to piss off a land turtle or set a bunch of wolves on fire. Just get out of the desert and freakin go.

I’m just so bothered by this random ass huge chunky necklace.

It’s like the size of your freakin fist. And it’s just...a pentagon. Congrats Tea, you have a fake ass plastic necklace. I guess it’s so that when we’re far away we can still see it on her chest but like...This show loves huge ass necklaces, and they’re all basic ass shapes. We got a pyramid, the Kaiba’s wear squares, Bakura wears a circle with kind of phallic bits hanging off of it and this is just...it’s literally just a pentagon.

I guess Ishizu wore a wadjet and Duke has an indecipherable clown as his necklace. But man...the Yugioh necklace game is just a lot of shapes.

And so we continue on with this filler arc, which is also a pokemon arc, and even secretly has a Sailor Moon arc just stuffed in there for funsies. This arc is weird.

Also, I brought up the human skull so I legally have to post this.

Anyway, here’s a link to read these in chrono order, in case you just got here: https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

And I’m off to drink a bin of ice water because it is 5 billion degrees right now in this house.

[gesternchen]

Deleted footage: did Tsu’Tey’s Path change it for the better or not?

So here I am again, talking about a detail from Tsu‘Tey‘s Path comic book published by Dark Horse. I don‘t find it appropriate to spoil the entire comic, but, in my opinion, this particular moment intertwines with the scene from the original script and a bit with the episode from the extended cut. A very important moment which would add so much depth to the relations between the characters, I should admit. Yet we didn‘t get it in the final cut nor as one of the deleted scenes. And I don‘t get why, honestly.

First of all, the scene did remain the unedited one, no doubt in that, you guys can check it on Youtube. Still, if we followed the script, we‘d notice straight away that the moment when Grace meets Neytiri is skipped.

Here‘s an extract from the original script to Avatar. The meeting scene was completely left out: Grace‘s chat with kids is then cut to Jake and Neytiri being out in the forest.

Though the scene of Grace telling Jake about what actually happened in school did make it in the extended cut, the connection between Dr. Augustine and Neytiri didn‘t go beyond her image in the photographs Grace keeps on the fridge door.

Grace with Neytiri, Sylwanin (presumably), and other kids from the tribe.

The audience just weren‘t given any real life interaction between the two (except for when Grace faints in her avatar body and Neytiri rushes to her). The script literally tells us that it was supposed to be 'an awkward moment between them', and I can totally understand why. Along with her elder sister, Sylwanin, Neytiri was the best student Grace has ever had. She must have come to her school at a very young age, which I may prove by one of the pictures on the door, featuring Grace showing 'ears' gesture to her students.

The girl, copying the gesture, seems to wear a yellow flower-like headband, pretty similar to which Neytiri is used to wearing on special occasions. We could spot her wearing it during making out with Jake under the Tree of Voices and while being present at the ceremony of Jake’s consciousness transfer. I may suggest, it’s one of the early pictures of Neytiri taken in the process of learning. I haven‘t figured out yet who the boy on the table in the picture below is, however, it might be a younger version of Tsu‘Tey (I motivate my guess only by the alike hairstyle).

So how would it feel to meet the person you had spent years together, sharing knowledge, culture, and warm memories, who had suddenly disappeared from your life and had never come back until now? One would hardly find the right words to say, rather, it would be this uncomfortable moment of silence. I‘m not surprised that Neytiri and Grace just greet each other in formal way and that‘s it. Both would go through very powerful flashbacks. Neytiri may recall Sylwanin, falling dead in the doorway right before her eyes. Grace would feel guilty for letting all that happen, for not having checked on Sylwanin to reason her out of the idea of setting bulldozers on fire. Just a couple of seconds that would possibly make one of the most dramatic scenes of the entire movie.

Tsu‘Tey‘s Path is meant to tell the story from Tsu‘Tey‘s perspective. Not to spoil anything, the comic provides the opportunity to follow the character’s background and also gives a unique chance to observe some deleted footage. Let‘s see if it managed to make up for the lost.

So, what we can see in two pages down below (not gonna spoil which issue it is), is Grace meeting Tsu‘Tey instead of Neytiri. The reasonable question is if it’s good or bad for the narration. Well, hard to tell, since the comic story focuses on Tsu‘Tey‘s point of view, after all. Personally, I would answer in the following way: the short episode of Grace meeting Neytiri would be much more essential for the Neytiri’s character arc in the actual movie (and I‘m still unhappy about it having been cut out), while the comic does an incredible job in expanding the relations between Grace and the tribe of Omaticaya. Thanks to the comic, we know for sure that Tsu‘Tey matters to Dr. Augustine just as much as Neytiri and Sylwanin.

Grace is astonished at the fact that Tsu‘Tey still remembers everything she taught him in school, which suggests he may not have been the most hard-working student of all. Yet, since Tsu‘Tey calls Grace sa‘nok ('mother' in English), it‘s clear that he attended the same school as Neytiri and Sylwanin and so formed a strong spiritual bond with Grace. His command of English seems to be pretty good, as he‘s able to communicate with Jake throughout the movie and later translate Jake‘s speech at the Tree of Souls.

The only significant difference is in that Grace is wearing her casual outfit instead of the researcher’s one from the movie. She‘s also holding a baby na'vi, which doesn‘t appear in the extended scene, making us wonder if her encounter with Tsu‘Tey took place on another day.

The moment of holding Sylwanin‘s dead body recurrs in Tsu’Tey’s mind when Jake returns to Omaticaya as Toruk Makto. Tsu‘Tey seems to be a couple of years younger than his adult self in the movie, which again proves him witnessing the attack on kid rebels happen and being one of other students Grace managed to get out of school. Tsu‘Tey‘s latent fear of the Sky Person’s mightiness inside of Jake‘s avatar is way more comprehensible now, cause Jake, appearing on Toruk as a symbol of power, reminds him of how cruel and merciless humans can be. Hence he is sceptical about Grace coming back to the tribe, but his attitude changes as Grace calls his name.

To sum up, I believe, Tsu’Tey’s Path did succeed in reviving a rather important scene, which got unfairly edited out from the extended cut. It would certainly be ten times better if we were given the opportunity to watch Grace finally meet Neytiri after a while and their reaction to the encounter. Still, I also consider it a breakthrough that in just a couple of lines we were told the sad story of Tsu’Tey, having breathed so much life into his character.

[tokoyamisstuff]

Betrothed - Illumi Zoldyck x Reader

Chapter 3: Blood

Summary: While treating Illumi’s wounds, you learn something about his past.

Warnings: Well...blood. Mentions of past abuse. Choking.

Words: ~1800

Story Masterlist

“You could at least try to relax when you’re at home, Lumi.”

As usual, every muscle on Illumi’s body was tensed as he shifted around on the small wooden chair, his upper half completely bare.

Running your hands over his delicate skin, you couldn’t help but humming happily while opening the first-aid-kit.

Lumi.

That nickname wasn’t really creative, you had to admit. Yet there were still many thoughts connected to it.

How it sounded a lot like ‘Luna’, for example - the latin word for ‘moon’. Illumi pretty much had a moon face anyway.

A wet and warm feeling on your fingertips got you down to earth again - it was your husbands blood, steadily running down his whole back. Quickly, you got a gauze pad to absorb it and started working.

Had it come to you fancying him that much that you already lost yourself in daydreams?

The deep cut on his shoulder would most likely leave a scar, no matter how well you’d treat it. Yet what bothered you more was the fact that he had acutally tried to hold the gap together with his way too big needles.

“Sorry...” you whispered as you tugged them out of his flesh, but he wouldn’t even flinch.

He insisted it was fine, and you knew that he was used to the pain. But he could still feel it, even if his face remained as cold and calm as always.

God knows what’s going on in his head...your husband was very hard to read, actually.

But you knew he wasn’t just a puppet for his family. Illumi had some thoughts of his own, and you burned to get through to him.

The flesh wound was still bleeding, and since it hadn’t been properly closed in hours, you needed to clean it first. “I’m so sorry” you repeated, pouring some disinfectant into the cut.

“Stop apologizing.” The way he emphasized the words made him almost sound irritated.

“B-But I-”

“You’re assisting me as I demanded, so there’s no rational reason for you to say something like that.” It were moments like this that made you think Illumi actually tried to calm you down - the best he knew how. Through choosing his words wisely.

After the bleeding stopped, you began stitching up the wound while your husband was still sitting as if frozen in place.

“I-I just don’t want you to feel more pain than necessary...” He was used to way worse. You were well aware of that fact, and yet-

“Y/N.” Hearing your name escaping his lips, you immediately got attentive. “Is that the reason you’re holding back while sparring with me?”

For a long while, the room fell completely silent.

Because both of you knew he was right.

“I see.” Before you could even think of an answer, Illumi jumped up from his chair, running his hand over your handiwork. “Thanks for the bandage.”

Oh god, he was preparing to leave again. Maybe forever this time.

Soon, he’ll tell his parents you were unfit for an assassin’s spouse - too soft and weak.

Death was a bearable punishment for your shortcomings, but simply being thrown out like a toy one has grown tired of?

How pathetic, being afraid of conseqences you now only imagined. Knowing very well that empathy was considered futile in this environment.

And yet you were shocked it came that way, only because of you speaking your mind.

“Illumi, wai-”

He cut you off right there, turning around with his hand reaching for your neck.

Illumi’s aura had always been intense, laced with a bloodlust that seemed like it was imprinted on him at his very birth.

You’ll never get used to seeing him like this.

“Are you scared?” he asked just before his fingers wrapped around your throat, repeating the question at your lack of reaction. “Are you afraid of me?”

Slowly but increasingly, the pressure on your neck began to become discomforting, making you wince a little.

Yet your look wouldn’t falter, rather decided taking on a staring contest with him.

“I’m afraid of you leaving me.”

Just like that, he retracted his hand.

The look in your eye gave it away. Every word, every syllable you spoke was true. 

Even Illumi could tell just how much genuine affection they held - and he wasn’t immune to it either.

You cleared your throat and he only now realized just how much force he had used on you. Yet instead of apologizing as would be appropriate, he decided on continuing his interrogation.

“Why?” Illumi croaked, sounding a little bit broken. Hewasn’t able to speak any more, still baffled at your statement.

To ever think you could caught him off guard with such a simple sentence - but even through his poker face, you could feel his mind racing.

You sighed quietly, nervously tapping with your foot. “Do I really need to repeat that? It’s embarassing...”

No answer. Instead he stared you down even more intense.

“I like you, Lumi. This is my home, and I feel happy when I’m with you. Simple as that.”

Finally, he gave in to his exhaustion and took a seat on the sofa, with you following him closely after.

No matter what might follow, right now he needed some time. That much was obviously. So you just try to share your calming aura in silence.

You knew that puzzled expression way too well.

He’d put it on whenever something went past his comprehension, like when you once asked him about thinks he enjoyed or his dreams for the future.

“You look so sad...” you had once commented at an old photo of his. If you had to guess, he was about 4 years old at the time it was taken.

“Dunno” he tried to avoid further conversation back then, “Can’t remember.”

Just how often did you want to tell him that it was wrong? That his parents - no, his whole family - was full of sociopaths, and that they had stained his innocence through their wrongdoings and overeagerness?

And yet you had always kept quiet in the end.

Because you knew what it meant to him. The last bit of his sanity would probably break down if he knew all of the pain he had endured was wrong and abnormal.

Yes, their bonds were sure strange ones: They manipulated and harmed each other, all for the sake of the greater goal and the continuation of their bloodline.

That was probably how criminals beyond redemption desperately try to cling to their last bit of humanity - through the only people they can trust and be close to: Other murderers.

But at least you wanted to make him learn how to feele truly loved: For what he really was, and not only his obedience or achievements.

Right now, however, his elbows were resting on his knees, he was bent over and holding his chin with his hands. That position made it even harder for you to read him.

“I trust you with my life” you said without the slightest hint of hesitation in your voice. “It belongs to you ever since the day we married.”

Illumi cocked his head upwards, empty orbs staring holes into you. 

“They think I’m a monster.”

Huh?

Usually, Illumi isn’t really a man of many words. That fact should change tonight.

“I heared them talk” he began explaining as if it was the most normal thing in the world. “About regretting training me so harshly. I was their first child, more like an experiment at how to raise an even more powerful assassin.”

You nodded in silence, trying to signalize him that you were listening - and that you cared.

So he kept on. “I’m the reason my brothers were allowed more freedom. Having the right to feel and think on their own. And now Killua has left us. If I hadn’t been a failure, they would’ve trained him stricter.”

He blamed himself, thinking he was responsible for being a failed experiment.

Dear god.

“Mother said she’s afraid of me. I was 10. Everyone else at the family at least bear certain, acceptable emotions. She said I’m dead on the inside and it freaked her out.”

Every single word of him shot needles into your heart, tears already filling the rim of your eyes. You grabbed the fabric tight, trying to hold yourself together for your sake. 

“Illumi...”

You knew from the very second that many things were haunting that poor man’s conscience - but what he had just confided was just hard to bear.

In an attempt to comfort him, you instinctively shuffled closer until there was no gap between the two of you. It was an awkward closeness, but soothing nonetheless.

“It’s okay” he spoke in a tone that was unfamiliar soft for his standarts. “I understand how you all feel. I may not be able to emphasize with any feelings, but I can intelectually comprehend them.”

“Now cut it out!” This time it was you disrupting him, through a soft poke on his already injured shoulder.

"That’s bullshit and you know it. No person is absent of all emotions. You just shoved them into the back of your head and tried to surpress them. With your kind of childhood that was probably the only way to survive without completely losing it.”

His eyes shifted between your face and the place where your shoulders would touch, soaking every word like a dry sponge.

“And you do care about your family, right?” Well, how couldn’t he? It was the only way of mimicking normalcy he could pretend to have. “You’d do anything to keep them safe.”

“I just don’t get it” he murmured as you softly caressed his hand. “My allies are usually also mass murderers and psychopaths. But you are almost perfectly normal.”

Normal? You were an assassin too, goddamn it!

“Most would describe you as a very kind and sympathetic person. You should despise or at least fear me. They all do.”

“Not everything has to be logical, Lumi. I don’t think it makes sense either, but I also doubt that you’re a bad person. You’re much more of a victim.”

“Is that so...” That question sounded more like he was highly doubting it.

Just now you were realizing how slumped he was leaning back on the couch. That whole conversation had probably drained his energy reserves more than any mission ever could.

“Rest now, dear.” Carefully, without alerting him, you wrapped your arm around Illumi’s head and gently led him to your lap. “We can talk later.”

Much to your surprise, your husband would slowly close his eyes, swiftly drifting into sleep at hearing the steady beating of your heart.

“I’m sorry for frightening you, Y/N” he whispered those last words barely audible, fingers squeezing the flesh of your thigh ever so slightly.

“You didn’t. You never do.”

___

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[redteabaron]

Different anon… Here is the thing though, Drogo/Dany isn’t a parallel to sansan. People who make that comparison either lack severe reading comprehension, which is not surprising for this fandom, or they want to use it to validate sansan. (Tyrion was the older guy Sansa was forced to marry. Dany and Sansa have opposite journeys and their marriages are a part of that.) But sansan’s mirror is Jorah/Dany. Book!Jorah is an older guy who has a creepy obsession with a teenage girl. He dumps his trauma on her, he projects onto her. But he is also her advisor, her confidante early on, his protector. There are also the same BaTB elements sansans love to talk about. She even refers to him as her bear. But he was lusting after her ever since they met and then he assaulted her. He forced himself on her. She is uncomfortable with his actions, but she doesn’t possess the necessary language and she doesn’t understand consent (we know this because of how she frames her relationship with Drogo but also how she expected Lhazareen women to be ok, even be thankful for being married to their rapists, and her dubcon relationship with Irri) so she recontextualize what happened and chastise Jorah for kissing her not because she is a teenager and he shouldn't and she didn’t consent to but because she is his Queen. That's the language she has, so she expresses her discontent, disapproval, rejection with that. Sandor was verbally, psychologically, physically abusive to Sansa but he also occasionally protected her in King’s Landing. He lusted after her, made sexually inappropriate comments to an 11 year old child but he was also the only one in KL to have honest conversations with her. Then he assaulted her, held her at knife point. She was afraid of him kissing her, killing her, she had nightmare about the assault which she clearly registered as a sexual one despite what his fans claim his intentions were. Sansa has a habit of romanticizing/redefining these things. Sansa thinks Arys Oakheart was preferable, that he was kind because he beat her less hard than the other Kingsguard. She remembers Tyrion as someone who were kind to her, someone better than Joffrey even though he molested her and she had him in her nightmares too. She separates Littlefinger and Petyr in her mind because just like with the other men before him the thought of her sometimes-protector at the same time being her abuser is too much for her. Just like Dany she recontextualizes what the Hound did to her and turns the assault into a song to cope with it.

These two pairings has the same dynamic, the difference is fandom’s response to it. (The slight differences are that Dany had actual amiable feelings for Jorah -not romantic love or sexual feelings but friendly, sisterly love for him- and she as a Queen had a lot more agency than Sansa as a prisoner had. She isn't as powerless as Sansa, she could have easily banished him, punished him, even ordered his death.) But no one in fandom writes essay after essay why and how could and should Jorah and Dany end up together. It’s an outrageous suggestion. Dany is a main character, she is the heroine. She is a Queen. Why should she ever end up with someone as lowly as Jorah? Someone as old, as ugly as Jorah? But Sansa, meh she is not an important character. And she needs to be punished, first because she was a child making childish mistakes. Secondly, she is shallow, she refused to be raped by her older, ugly husband. So she needs to end up with an older ugly guy to humble her. Even when the author expressed his distaste of the trope of a noble girl running away with a lowly guy in medieval stories, nah that doesn’t matter here. Sansa being of high nobility, a princess won’t have any factor at all who she’s gonna end up with. They had to keep assuring themselves that she is not a main character so she could even end up with a villainous character, that she is not a Stark so she could end up with people who hurt/fight against her family. The hypocrisy of this fandom, and their selective reading is most clear when it comes to these two “couples”. Almost all sansans (whether it is the actual shippers or those who think it’ll happen because well it’s Sansa what else she’s gonna do besides being a reward bride for some hideous guy) hate Jorah/Dany (as they should) while trying to justify how and why Sansa should end up with the hound. Let's forget the abuse and pedophile, let's assume those never happened, even then it makes no sense. There is not a narratively satisfying way, a logical reason how Sansa could be with Sandor. But they ignore all that because it doesn't fit in with their vision, with their interpretation of the books and characters. Because admitting Sansa is a main character and more than a reward for their pedo fave has a ripple affect, it challenges all their theories, they all crumble. And they just can't let go of their 2 decades old theories, they just have to be right, they must be right. That's why they all took the show's ending as a personal offense, especially the QiTN Sansa. I just can't wait for the books!

Yeah, agreed. jorah and sandor are mirrors of each other. I mean I hope they both die without any glory or honor, personally. I don't really care if they have sacrificial deaths for the greater good - or whatever framing the show had intended - jorah and sandor were also whitewashed and made more pitiable/likeable.

Whenever dany x dr*go is used to validate literally ANY pairing, I am suspish. In particular when we acknowledge that dany absolutely couldn't consent - she was 13 iirc - and was sold off by her abusive brother to a man twice her age, but Sansa reimagining her trauma about Sandor's assault to something less traumatic is considered being hateful to Sandor because he's unattractive. (And I never really listen whenever ppl give me shit or deny it was assault; pertaining to my job, I'm pretty fucking aware what assault or intention-to-assault looks like, and I think most ppl do to, they just seem to lose awareness when it comes to their ships or certain characters).

I think it has to do with Sansa being the archetypal "Pretty Popular Girl" - the one who like feminine things, sort of fussy, likes feminine colors and just in general is feminine. She seems to remind people of the classic mean popular girl we saw popularized in 1990s-2000s high school movies - the one who gets her comeuppance in the end when the non-feminine girl somehow triumphs in whatever way, or she's the one who learns her lesson and stops being quite so feminine, or hooks up with a most-popular guy. The Mean/Pretty Popular girl has to be humbled in some fashion. Fans who don't like her, tend to view this as a way for her to pay for the error of her ways.

Like being a prisoner of war. Or not wanting to fuck tyrion. Or not wanting to run away with sandor.

I mean...all of asoiaf, beyond the politics and magic, is all about trauma and the human response to it - which is varied and depends on circumstances, personalities, and a lot of other things. One of the more vile things GOT did was whitewash jorah and tyrion the way they did imo. Jorah was a predator, circling Dany, regardless of whether she thought of him fondly, he just happened to not be violent towards her - she cries when he forces a kiss on her. Tyrion was a predator who molested her when he acknowledged she was a child "but he wanted her anyway". I've seen a lot of ppl react more sympathetically towards Dany. I haven't seen much recrimination against dany for refusing him the way we see sansa being hated for not wanting tyrion or sandor, hell, even petyr.

But - Sansa, imo, in the larger or at least circles of the fandom that have been around longer, is a more ideal whipping girl for the outlet a lot of ppl crave. See again the popular girl trope. She can't fight, she has no magical creatures, she is not a Chosen One of any kind. She has her wits and her ability to observe and adapt who has no choice but to navigate survival surrounded by people who have more agency and power than she does. That's it. I guess in a world of amazing abilities and magic and warfare, this is very boring, particularly when she doesn't weaponize her femininity or sexuality, where she's beautiful without being dangerous or magical or erotic. And I guess ppl feel that because of that, she needs to be punished for not being as extraordinary as she should be, OR, because she was the "Mean Popular Girl" (she wasn't) she must be humbled, and the ones to do it are the ones she refuses.

It's really delicious knowing they don't get "to have her" 🤢. Hopefully they just both fuck off to the ends of the world or die, idc they deserve zero thought.

[pheita]

NaNo Snippet or "How to say you are in love without saying you are in love"

Ok, I am dying of fluff here because my dorks are too cute again. For context: Three nights ago they got attacked by monsters and Sojan lost it a bit when the monsters aimed for Arritit and Lyran, and he was close to leaving the group in his self-crucifying brooding mood. The night after this, the dream demon teenager girl of Nevashi ran into them after her magic blocking bracelet broke, since she had also been exposed to the tainted magic Sojan's father created to make himself stronger. For now, she travels with them to the next city.

Now have fun @ashen-crest @adie-dee @abalonetea @cometworks @vivian-is-writing @viskafrer

The night watch with Lyran was strangely relaxing that night. The weather was stable for the moment, Arritit had managed to reactivate Nevashi's bracelet with the pendant enough to make her look human again, even if it had made everyone laugh. Sojan could understand it well. In human form, they could pass Nevashi off as kin, and if he was honest, part of him toyed with the idea. It would make things easier in Rochekirk, especially if they had to find merchants or other travelers to get her out of the infested part of the country. Lyran's laughter pulled him out of his thoughts. "What's so funny?" "You're humming!" snorted out Lyran. "I'm doing what?" "You're humming! The fine nismo I-don't-sing, is humming!" Why Lyran found it so amusing was completely beyond Sojan's comprehension. "Humming is not singing." "Oh, on the contrary! It's the start. The beginning! It's where it all begins." With laughter, Lyran fell into Sojan. "I don't have to understand you right now, do I?" "Only if you sing for me." With the best pleading look, Lyran had in store, he looked at Sojan. With a sigh, Sojan put an arm around him. "I can't sing, even if you claim otherwise. You for that, my dear, the way you and Nevashi harmonized, one would think you've been singing together for a long time." "Good singers can do that," Lyran murmured with unaccustomed modesty. "You're good. You don't have to hide." "It's not that." "It's not?" Lyran slid closer. "I'm glad you're not retreating again." "Lyran, it's..." "... Nothing personal. I know, Sojan. Still, I'm worried. After the other night, I thought you'd just be gone at some point." That thoughtful tone of Lyran's at that plunged a knife into Sojan's heart. The question of whether he really wanted to know how many people Lyran had already left flitted through his mind. "If it makes you feel any better, I'm not just going to leave. Not without telling you something, and not without asking you to come with me."

Lyran raised his head. His eyebrows were pinched together. "If I want to come with you?" "With your tendency to get into danger, I can't let you go alone," Sojan tried to joke. "Says the hunter for whom danger is his daily bread," Lyran poked Sojan's ribcage with his free hand, "But thank you. And just to be on the safe side. I'd go with you anytime. No matter where. No matter when. And who knows, maybe I'll be useful for something as a magical battery someday. Unless Arritit makes sure my mind is freshly fried." Sojan started laughing and pulled Lyran closer to him. "She's not going to do that. So she's showing you how to put up mental barriers?" "Yes, and it's exhausting, annoying, and at least once a day I want to make her suffer for it the way she makes me suffer, but I guess I have to go through with it." He stroked through Lyran's curls with a smirk. "That's normal. All magic users have to go through that." Sojan wondered what Lyran's world was like in his mind, but such things were not only very personal, but dangerous. Something like that could always be used against you. "That's what I was afraid of. I'm just glad all the theoretical discussions with the mages and scholars at court gave me enough basic knowledge." "So your curiosity was good for something after all." Lyran joined in Sojan's laughter. "Yes, there's no denying that." For a moment, they just sat there peacefully. The fire crackled before them. The others should be fast asleep, and Parin was just a few steps away next to Arritit, Yunadeldi, and Nevashi's tent. It benefited them that they were all small and so there was room to spare. "Sojan?" "Yes?" He looked to Lyran, who had a strangely serious expression on his face. "I have a question that has been bothering me for some time. You don't have to answer if you don't want to." "If you introduce the question like that, the likelihood of someone answering goes down." Lyran rolled his eyes. "I know, but I think the question is more personal than I already suspect." "Then ask and we'll see." Sojan gave Lyran's shoulder a little squeeze, hoping he understood it as an invitation as well. "You're not your typical lust demon, are you?" The question came so abruptly that Sojan could only sit there staring at Lyran for a few breaths. "What makes you think that?" "If I put Arritit and you side by side for comparison," Lyran began with a chuckle that turned to laughter, "Then you have about as much to do with the behavior of your kind as I do with magic." At the comparison, Sojan had to laugh as well. "You could say that. I didn't really understand it until recently, either." "Understood what?" "That sex is something different for me. I can go long periods without sex and the prospect of sex is about as enjoyable as jumping into a nest full of Torinling bugs and different when it slowly changes, and it's like a sweet dessert at the end of a long meal." He knew himself that the explanation wasn't perfect, but Sojan didn't know any other way to explain it. "So I'm your dessert?" laughed Lyran softly. "You certainly are." "You're saying if it's too much for you?" "I'll take care of myself," Sojan reassured him, kissing him on the forehead.

[imaginewarehouse]

Tate Staskiewicz x Reader || Oneshot

Plot: 

Inspired by ‘Something That We’re Not’ by Demi Lovato. Basically, you and Tate hooked up one night… for the second time… and you’re content with that just being a wrap (That’s that! That was good, that’s enough- why push it?). You aren’t a relationship person, you don’t like the commitment. But… Tate has other plans.

Warnings: Hmmm, I don’t think so. Commitment issues?

🔆  🔆  🔆

“Hey, Y/N?”

“Hm?” I look up from my - fucking bottom, - locker and to the table Sarah and Justine are at eating their lunch. Sarah, the talker, is staring at her phone; A deep frown plastered to her lips that causes my eyebrows to knit together in confusion. Justine notices, too, and leans over to see what’s on the phone- and when she does see, her brows promptly shoot up. Oh, boy. That’s not good to see. What’s happened? “Yeah?”

“Did you and Tate really hit it off the other night??”

… w h y? My heart just about stops beating in fear. Why. Why mention Tate. Any mention of a one night stand in that tone is not going to be good. I get up from the floor and rush into the empty seat beside Sarah, looing expectantly for her to explain but she just looks right back. Looking for an answer to her question. “Uhh? Yeah, I guess?? We had a good time. Why! ?” Oh good god, tell me the whole store doesn’t know. What is it?? A video, pictures, a running gag!? Good god, I thought we were beyond slut shaming but I guess not-

Sarah’s face scrunches up in confusion. “Are you dating then, now??”

Now that really causes my heart to feel like it’s skipped a beat. Or two. “What!? No! Why would you say that? It was just sex- Oh.” I look sheepishly to Justine, waiting for the high five or the ‘Heyo!’ that’s classic from her at the word ‘sex’… but receive nothing but an awkward look- her gaze turning to the wall as she takes a nervous sip of her coffee instead of talking. Realisation that this is really not good dawns on me. Jesus christ- Justine skipping the chance to talk sex? Its like a sign of the apocalypse. What’s next? The river Nile turning to blood? “Show me the phone, please.”

Sarah glances at Justine, before letting out a sigh and revealing the screen of her iPhone to me. It’s Tate’s Instagram profile- and it says, ‘In a Relationship’, at the top. I look up, deeply confused to Sarah and Justine.

“It didn’t say that before Saturday night.” Justine explains. The night Tate and I were at the bar and hooked up. “Trust me, I keep a close eye on those kinda status’.” She grins, proudly, before sobering again and adding lowly, “And Tate is pretty anal about how his social media looks, so… “She shrugs, meaningfully. So, he knows that that incriminating, incorrect phrase is printed there in his bio. 

Sarah vocalises my assessment. “We can’t see him putting that kind of thing down willy nilly… Also, it says that on all his other profiles, too. Snap Chat, Twitter, even Facebook.”

“Yeah, and I mean,” Justine’s cute little nose scrunches up and her eyebrows knit together as she looks at Sarah who mouths ‘I know, right?’, back.  “Who even uses Facebook anymore?? Ugh.”  

I’m running through the night in my head, wondering if there was any point that I might have hinted to the pharmacist that I was looking for anything more then casual sex, at all. And I find nothing! I did not treat him any differently to how I would usually treat a person in his position- and that treatment has been carefully strung together and thought out so confusions like this do not occur. And it has nothing to do with us working together, I know that much seeing as Isaac understood just fine!

… well actually, honestly, mayyyybe I shouldn’t have slept with him at all this weekend… seeing as this was not our first time… that might have given him the wrong idea...

But god fucking damn it, Tate’s handsomeness obscured my rational and interesting conversation distracted me. I’m a fucking idiot!

I am not a relationship kinda person! I can’t be in a relationship with, fuck I don’t know… Channing Tatum- much less Tate the Pharmacist! Commitment is not for me; No, no, no-no, no. Fuck, fuck, fuck… I have to talk to Tate.

“I should go talk to him,” I say, excusing myself from the table with a polite smile but freaking out inside as I get out of the chair, kneel down and lock my locker back up, then rush out of the room leaving the girls behind in my dust. As I’m passing Grocery, I’m stopped by Cheyanne and Marcus who have their phones out, and show me a picture of me on Tate’s Twitter w i t h  a  h e a r t emoji and the tag #bae. My eyes bulge nearly out of my head as I look in horror at it over Cheyanne’s shoulder. 

“You know, now that I’m seeing it- you two are a cute couple.” Marcus’ words cause a tsunami in my brain- all the little Inside Out-type emotions are drowning and struggling- and Fear is screaming.

“Yeah you do, but- I didn’t think you ‘did’ commitment, Y/N?” Cheyanne adds, sceptical.

“Uh, I do- “Damn. I slam my mouth shut again. I can’t talk to her about this before I talk to Tate. So instead, I just toothlessly smile, and shrug at the two- For lack of any appropriate words. “Anyway! I gotta go- see y’all later!”

And then I’m off again.

~

I find Tate exactly where, and in what position, I thought he would be; Sitting behind the lonely pharmacy desk with his feet up on the register bench and his nose buried in his phone rather then working. I approach with caution, but confidence also, and knock on the desk surface by his feet to get his attention- and watch his eyes light up when he sees me.

Oh dear god.

“Hey, love bug.” - Oh god, oh god! - “Nice of you to visit me at work!”

Oh… is it? Is it really? Nerves swallow me whole and I nearly shrink back down because to just go with this relationship for the rest of our lives until we get married and have 4 children together and raise them and send them all off to community college instead of having an awkward conversation, sounds really good. How dare he look so soft- this T a t e. Tate is narcissist and an asshole. This isn’t how the world is supposed to work-

“Hey… “My voice cracks like pubescent teenage boy, and I avoid eye contact like a criminal. “Tate, um- So! I think that… maybe, possibly… we might have gotten our signals crossed the other night?”

Tate tilts his head to the side and sets his phone down- all attention on me. “How so?”

“Well,” Why is my voice so high??? I cough into my fist, trying to clear it and return it to its regular register, but fail. The show must go on, though. “Um, I-I was under the impression, that… what we were doing, was, uh… a one-time thing? I guess?” Tate’s eyebrows begin to knit together. “A-and, I think you might have interpreted it a different way?”

“So… you’re saying, that you were just using me, for sex. And somehow that’s my fault?”

My eyes blow wide open and I rush to amend his reiteration as he gets up from his chair and stands, looking down on me now. And… I… oop. That’s just great “No no! Not your fault, at all Tate!! I was just at that bar looking for… err, well, sex! And I thought you were too, but apparently not, and… do you understand?”

“I understand.” For a millisecond, I begin to relax- before Tate’s eyes narrow so much so that they’re nothing but sparkly, black-lashed slits of death. I wish I was at that bar now- I would order a Long Island Iced Tea and black out. “You’re screwing me.”

“What- No!”

“Yes! You want the rig, but not the rest of the machine.” Does he know what a rig is?- Either way, I solemnly, apologetically, shake my head. Well, yes, he’s correct, but I also don’t want to lose the, uh, machine! I really like talking to him when I’m stuck stocking shelves in the pharmacy! I don’t want to lose that? Then, suddenly like the changing wind, Tate’s eyes widen and a ghost of a smirk flickers across his face. “Oh, or- its more than that.” Hold on what. “Cuz Y/N, this isn’t the first time this has happened, you know? The first time, fine. I get it, you need a release. We all do- especially working a lowly job like you do, unlike mine. Heh. But you came back. To me. You could’ve approached anyone else at that bar and gotten the same results… but you came back to this one.”  

Now I narrow my eyes and furrow my brows, leaning back from the self-absorbed chemist. “… what are suggesting, Tate?”

He lets the smirk come out, now, and the only comprehensive thought that passes through my brain is: ‘shittttt’. 

“You just can’t get enough of me.”

“What!?” I gape, jaw dropped. Ridiculous!-

“I’m Y/N-Nip.” Oh sweet jesus. The thought genuinely seems to please him. Of course, it does. Ugh… No way. This cannot be right. I do not want a relationship! No way no how! “So it doesn't really matter if you don’t want me right now- because you will. We both know you will.” 

“I- Tate! You’re cracked!” 

He chuckles, dipping hands into the pockets of his lab coat and shaking his head slowly. “Love you too, babe.” 

“TATE!” 

“Yeah... you keep screaming my name like that. Good practise.” 

“Oh my god!” I exclaim, covering the bottom of my face and closing my eyes, a grin hidden behind my hands at how ridiculous this is. He’s too cute, oh my god! “How have you twisted this, you insane person. I do not have feelings for you!- Well, romantic feelings.” I cross my arms across my chest. “I do not have the romantic feelings, for you. All the feelings that I have for you can be simply summed up by whatever insane, terrible illness that kept putting Lorelai and Christopher together.” 

“Gilmore girls?” He grimaces. 

“Yes.” 

His eyebrows shoot up his forehead and his eyes light up even more, despite his apparent aversion towards my chosen American favourite, and I immediately regret my analogy. “So, you admit there are feelings there?” 

“Yeah- raw, animal sex-drive! That’s it!” I try to explain, looking away to avoid his eyes and feeling my cheeks warm up. 

“But you like talking to me, too, don’t you.” Its not a question, its a statement. He knows! And... it is not totally wrong. I do like to talk to him. He’s a narcissist and he’s smug but I happen to find that funny on all but bad days, and he keeps up with my antics like no one else. But so does Sarah. So does Jonah. So do Mateo and the guy on Echat so charmingly called ‘B1gHairyDucksRunTheW8rld’- long story short; I’m darling and lots of people like to talk to me! 

“Oh, Tate. Since when has an amusement by intelligent conversation been considered a for sure indication of desire for a romantic relationship?” 

“Oh, its not. But combined with the ‘raw, animal sex-drive’ that you so aptly named, it kinda does.” He leans closer a little bit over the desk towards me. “Also, you’ve said my name no less then six times while you’ve been here.” 

I laugh out loud- a definite sense of nervousness laced through the sound. “That means nothing!” 

“No, no-no. It means... “ He raises his eyebrows again at me and sets me with a wise look, like somehow he knows the deep secrets that hide out in the recesses of my mind. “Something.” 

Maybe he’s right.

“No!” 

“Oh, believe what you want, love bug.” 

“This is crazy, Tate. We are not in any kind of relationship and I do not have feelings for you!” 

“So I’ll see you tonight?” 

“No?” 

“My place? 7?” 

“You will not see me tonight!” 

“Do you think you’ll end up staying over? Just because, man of riches and luxury that I am, I need to change the sheets if you are to set the right mood.” 

My jaw drops. He’s lost his mind... and maybe I am too a little bit, because for some reason I’m leaning towards agreeing and going to his place tonight. Is there anything that I can say to him to dissuade him from these delusions of me being in love with him? Because I don’t! 

But... I wont lie. This is the most stimulating conversation I’ve had in forever, it feels good. It always does, with Tate. But again still, I am not commitment girl. He is commitment guy. He may not seem like it, in fact he has the complete guide and tool set to be a grade-A douchebag, but he isn’t and he apparently somehow likes me which is not a horrible feeling and I do not want to let him down. I... really don’t. 

Sighing, I collapse against the register and roll my eyes back. “Tate... I might like you. A lot.” 

“Oh. Shocker.” He rolls his own eyes, pressing some buttons on the register. Oh, he thinks that he’s funny. Hm. 

“... but I want you to hear me now. Okay? Listen.” Thankfully he looks up and focuses on me, blue eyes meeting mine. “I am not relationship compatible. I cant do it. I’ve tried it before and I couldn't hack it. Its not in my genetic make-up!- please don’t push this and make me ruin what we have.” 

He takes a deep breath, and sighs it out... before reaching over and holding my hand on top of the desk. He sets me with a reassuring look. “... I’m a Pharmacist. We don’t ruin things.” 

BONUS: 

“... Jesus Christ you’re self absorbed.” 

“Maybe you can work on that with me at my place at 7. Now I have to get back to work, pharmaceutical business waits for no man.”

“Oh boy.” I’m dating this guy...