#exactly the way i am in the airport lol

[becauseheartsgetbroken-hs]

harry styles and airports

[kingkat12]

quelle jolie chose (marquis de gramont x reader)

WARNINGS: mentions of bodily harm, violence, intimidation, humiliation

summary: as the new owner of The Continental in Moscow, you should've known better before helping John Wick escape Russia-- what will the Marquis do when he finds out you've been in contact with the excommunicado he's been after all along?

word count: 1,714

a/n: this is chapter one of a quite long Marquis fic i'm writing, so don't you worry... there's much more to come!!! and there are some french words here and there, i am NOT french lol so do correct me if i'm wrong, and there is a vocab at the end!! enjoy<33333

I hadn't planned on facilitating John Wick's escape from The Moscow Continental-- nothing was going as planned, these days. That was truly dawning on me as the Marquis' guards gripped me harder, forcing me down on my knees in front of him as I glared up at the statuesque man before me. 

I was well-versed in the rules of the High Table, having grown up in the order. It was only recently that I had taken over the hotel, almost immediately after my father's untimely death. I had suddenly found myself at the center of the operation I had watched from afar my whole life, and had the truth about my father's work unveiled to me during a time when I should've been mourning him. It had been terribly hard, but I had gotten myself together for the sake of the hotel. For the sake of my life, my family, and our legacy.

However, nothing had been more important than the debt I owed John Wick. Funnily enough, that was exactly what had gotten me into this situation.

"You should've known better than to succumb to such foolishness," The Marquis took another step towards me, his eerily green eyes drilling into me with intimidation unlike anything I had ever seen before. "We know your father was weak when it came to Mr. Wick, but you? That you would be helping an excommunicado evade us? That was certainly unexpected from the newly instated owner of The Moscow Continental."

I hated that this was happening in my penthouse. Had I stayed at the hotel tonight to tend to business, I would've at least been sure he wouldn't kill me. The grip the guards had on me, the force in which my knees were being pressed against my newly polished wooden floors, nearly had me wincing-- but there was no way in hell I'd show him how scared I was. My gaze only hardened, trying to wry myself out of the strong hands holding me down; "I don't know what the fuck you're talking about!"

Letting out an exasperated sigh, the Marquis rolled his eyes. It was almost as though he was bored with me. "We have it all on video," he grumbled, unimpressed with my attempts of denial. "Him at the hotel, him in one of your cars, and videos from the shootout at Sheremetyevo airport. It seems you're good with a gun, miss... Actually, it's probably good to find out whether you have one on you right now." With a wave of his hand, the guard next to him stepped toward me, and it didn't take long before I was pressed face-down to the floor as I yelled out in protest.

With tears pressing upon my eyes, I could only curse as they managed to find the knife in my boot and continued to search me-- my eyes widened when they moved up my thighs, finding the gun I had stuffed down the side of my hip before having gotten dragged into this room, ambushed in my own home. I let out another yell, kicking with the best of my abilities, as my pants were dragged down my thighs and my hands were held tightly at my back.

I heard a hum coming from the Marquis, who had stepped away to make himself a cup of tea by the table I had set up a few weeks ago. Everything about his nonchalance angered me further-- I couldn't believe this was happening to me in the room I had set up to focus on the one thing that gave me a sense of purpose and peace; my paintings. They were hung up on the tall walls, and I caught a glimpse of Vincent admiring the one to his left.

My head pounded with fear, not used to this sort of humiliation. These feelings were new-- I knew I was the only one who could save me now that John Wick was out of the country. I looked away, pressing my forehead against the floor, still fighting my captivity. 

I didn't need to look at the well-dressed Marquis to know that he was watching the whole ordeal play out before him. Then again, I didn't know a single man who wouldn't watch a woman get undressed, unwanted or not. So there I was, splayed out on the floor of my atelier, the cold winter air of my penthouse hitting my bare thighs with my red panties on display. I wanted to cry, embarrassed beyond belief about being in my underwear in front of all of these men, but also scared like never before-- would they take it further than this? Would this be the moment where what I had dreaded all my life was about to happen?

Thankfully, my pants were quickly put on, but my favorite gun was confiscated. My cheeks were still bright red, remnants of tears pooling in my eyes as I was propped back up on my knees. "Aren't you supposed to be of nobility?" I asked, speaking through gritted teeth as my head hung between my shoulders in shame. "Did no one teach you to treat ladies with respect?" I couldn't remember a time when any other member of the order had been strip-searched-- sexist fucker. 

The Marquis let out a short chuckle, the arrogance evident even in his laugh. "What makes you believe you deserve my respect after helping John Wick? You're quite rightfully on your knees now, and hopefully, you'll start begging for your life soon. For your own sake, of course," 

"I would rather carve out my own eyes than beg you for anything," I said, a low growl building in my throat along with my anger. "And you know that you need me alive. The whole of Russia will go to war against you if you kill me, and you can count on Bratva and Rusko Roma to avenge me!"

It didn't take long for the Marquis to change his mood once more-- his pompous sneer disappeared off his face with one twitch of his eye, and within the snap of a second, he threw the cup of tea across the room, shattering the glass against the wall with a crushing sound that echoed through the halls. "You will obey!" he yelled, coming towards me with loud, booming steps. Blinded by anger, he crouched down to grab my face in his hand, his grip on my cheeks making me wince. "It doesn't matter to me who your father was or how important you think you are, because you work for me!" 

"And that is where you're wrong," I continued to struggle around the grip his guards had on me, wanting nothing more than to be freed and strike him right across the face. However, a sense of calm washed over me when I realized he wasn't here to kill me-- he couldn't. "I don't work for you. I work for the High Table. You're simply a code in the software, and right now you're pissing off the highest-ranking official in the biggest country in the world. Are you trying to wage a war on Russia, Vincent?"

The mention of his first name had him squeezing my face even harder in his large, rough hands. But this time, I didn't react-- I simply stared back at him, watching the way his pupils shrunk as he focused on me like I was prey. Up close, I could see the deep scar on his cheek, the way his lips pursed with anger, and it suddenly dawned on me that he smelled like a mix of tobacco, amber, and leather. Very manly, very expensive; enticing. 

"War," he echoed, another twitch of his eye ensuing. "Pas de souci. That is not what I want. But what I do want, however..." The Marquis let go of my face, getting up from the ground. "I want John Wick dead, along with his allies. And since I can't kill you yet, it seems I have to make use of your friendship with the excommunicado." With another wave of his hand, the guards let me go-- I pressed my palms against the floor in relief, letting in a shaky heave of air. 

I looked up at him through my brows, feeling my anger pulsing through my veins. "He's long gone, Vincent. He's not coming back to Russia,"

The Marquis hummed; "Get him back, then,"

"He won't--"

"Do it, or I'll put your mother's head on a spike!" His voice boomed through the room, leaving behind an echo that made me want to wince once more. "If he's not here within a week, I will have you bound and forced to watch me rip her limbs apart!" 

My lips parted in shock, feeling as though my body had frozen over. Everything about his threat made me terrified out of my mind-- I couldn't risk it. I knew that the Marquis was dangerous and that he could easily follow through with his words; I needed to get myself together, for the sake of my family. It took a lot of power for me to get up from the ground, balling my fists as I met his threatening gaze. I watched as he stood before me, clad in a ridiculously expensive grey-ish suit, visibly ready for any fight I might want to put up. 

I wasn't stupid-- I realized I was surrounded by his guards with no other choice than to obey. I didn't even have my gun anymore, nor did I have my trusted bodyguard; I wondered whether his body still lay lifeless in the hallway, bleeding out all over my new carpet. 

I was cornered, and I knew it. Which is why I got down on one knee and put my hand over my heart, accepting my reality; "I will be of service,"

The Marquis snickered at my pledge, clearly pleased. He tilted his head to the side, his eyes rounding out in victory at the sight of me willingly kneeling. "Quelle jolie chose," he breathed, nodding to himself. "Good. Very, very good."

I wanted nothing more than to shoot a hole through his face. I couldn't wait for the day I'd get that opportunity.

vocabulary:

pas de souci: no worries

quelle jolie chose: what a pretty thing

[leslovesfatties]

Pt. 1: first flight

Idk I was feeling super mushy so I wrote this in like 3 hours lol soft BHM/FFA fiction…should I continue it?

First time flying in two years…and back then it was a squeeze. Determined not to embarrass myself, I called ahead.

“TWO tickets?”

“Yes, sir. But there’s no guarantee the second seat won’t be sold if it’s a particularly full flight.”

I gulped and hesitated. “Okay…so that means I’m paying for a seat I might not get?”

“That’s correct.” Not a hint of sympathy in her voice.

What other choice did I have? “Okay, then. I guess I’ll take the window and middle seat. Oh, and I’ll probably need a seatbelt extender.” Even saying the words made my face flush. I can’t believe I’d let myself get like this. The voice on the other end of the phone either sighed, coughed, or stifled a laugh. I couldn’t be sure which, and I didn’t exactly want to know.

My alarm fades out as I desperately want to hit snooze. I get up, wash my face, and try to keep my anxiety at bay. It’s going to be fine. I got TWO seats. I won’t bother anyone. I put on a little extra deodorant in between my folds and under my moobs. A little cologne for good measure and a crisp shirt. I don’t want people to think I’m some sort of lazy, unkempt slob. I actually really care about my appearance. My face stays neatly shaven, my hair styled, and clothes - when I can find them in my size - are reasonably tasteful. My glasses frames are updated each year in an attempt to elevate my look, or at least take people’s glances away from other parts.

At the airport, I grab a bagel and a coffee, then wait as close to the line as I can to board. Don’t panic. You’re going to fit. Everything’s going to be fine. It’s a short flight, anyways. A mantra I’ve begun to chant in my head as the boarding process begins. I offer a smile to the man who scans my barcode for two tickets and he looks up for the second passenger.

“Oh, uh, it’s just for me.” He acknowledges by nodding me over to continue boarding. I practically hold my breath as I wedge myself between the aisle. Most people brace their carry ons, but I have to brace myself.

Thankfully, no one is in my row, otherwise they’d have to get up to let me through. I plop down and immediately appreciate the forethought to buy two seats. I’m positively squished between the plane wall and armrest.

“Um, excuse me?” Fuck. I look up.

“Are those your bags? Do you want me to put them up here?

“Uh, I’m actually supposed to have this seat.” I try to speak just loud enough for her to hear and no other passengers. She glances down at her phone and back up.

“23 B?” My face flushes as I realize what’s happened. They’ve given up my seat.

“I-I’m so sorry,” I stutter, utterly embarrassed. “I was supposed to…They weren’t supposed to -“ The line behind her grew and we were drawing attention.

“That’s okay! Here,” she reached for my bag and in a daze, I handed it to her. She was so short she couldn’t get it in the overhead compartment all the way and I wanted to disappear. She scooted in and I tried leaning as far as I could into the wall, my side squishing into her armrest. At that moment, I realized I forgot to ask for the seatbelt extender. My ears started ringing and I desperately wanted to get off this flight.

“I’m so sorry…” I began, but she cut me off.

“For what? Don’t apologize.” She finished shoving her bag under her seat and smiled at me.

An older gentleman plopped down next to her and scowled at me. I looked down as he muttered something I was grateful I couldn’t understand. Fuck. How am I going to get the extender now?

“Um, excuse me?” I leaned over slightly to look at the man who’d just joined our row. I’d just about rather die than have to move. He looked up.

“I’m sorry, but I have to get up.”

The man scowled. “Ugh, shouldn’t they have weight limits on these things?” My heart dropped.

“Wow, that was rude.” The girl beside me said pointedly and the man scoffed. I tried to sink down and away into my chair, my face hot with embarrassment.

“I tried to buy two seats…” I began and the girl cut me off.

“You don’t owe him an explanation. He just wants an excuse to be miserable,” the girl turned and whispered to me. I tried to smile but felt like my lip might quiver, so I mouthed “thank you.”

“Everything okay over here?” A slim flight attendant asked, primarily to me.

“Uh, yeah. I-I think I need a…” I tried gesturing to the seatbelt so I wouldn’t have to say it out loud, but she looked puzzled. I gulped, feeling my heart rate rise and willing myself to stop sweating.

“An extender” it was barely audible, but the guy two seats away looked at me with disgust and shook his head. The flight attendant nodded and retreated to find one. I looked out the window so I could get my emotions in check.

“You okay?” The girl whispered. Thank God she was small, otherwise I’d be squishing her.

I nodded, fearing my voice might crack, and swallowed hard. “Thank you.”

“People can be so unkind.” The tenderness in her voice allowed me to look up and I offered her the best smile I could muster up.

The flight attendant came back with the extender and explained how to connect it. I did it as quickly as possible and willed the plane to take off.

The girl made polite conversation with me which calmed my nerves a bit.

“Are you on the connecting flight or stopping at Atlanta?”

“Connecting flight.”

“Cool. I’m sorry they gave up your seat.”

“It’s okay. It sucks that I’m out of the money, though.” I admitted.

“That’s so fucked up. Sorry, messed up. So you paid for two seats but only got one?”

“Yeah…”

“Well, if you get stuck in the same position next flight, I’d be happy to be your seat buddy again.”

I shook my head, “oh, no. That’s very kind of you, but I don’t want you to be uncomfortable the whole trip.” Secretly, I was terrified of getting sat next to someone who wasn’t as kind as her.

“I’m not uncomfortable at all. Plus, you’d be doing me a favor. I get nervous on planes sometimes and it’s nice to talk to someone.” She smiled reassuringly and I almost believed her.

“Sorry, what was your name?”

“Oh, Leslie! Nice to meet you…?”

“Ian,” I smiled, a bit more sincerely this time.

We kept talking and I tried not making it obvious how squished I was between her armrest, but you could easily tell.

“Do you want to move that?” She asked after I’d wiggled around a bit.

“Oh, no. It’s fine.”

“It won’t bother me, but I can’t promise I won’t fall asleep on you.” I felt my face flush and let out a laugh.

“Are you sure?”

“Here,” she raised it for me and my fat immediately pooled out. I looked away, embarrassed. Thank God it still wasn’t touching her, by some miracle. I glanced at her and she had looked away as well. Fuck.

“Sorry” I muttered.

“It’s okay.” She placed her hand on my thigh just above my knee and I felt my breath hitch. She was just being nice.

“Thanks,” I looked out the window and she moved her hand away.

Several minutes later, she had fallen asleep on me. She wasn’t kidding. I tried not to move as I rummaged through my bag for my AirPods. She stirred and jerked up.

“I’m sorry!”

“It’s okay. I don’t mind. I was trying not to wake you.”

“I’m sure you don’t mind a random stranger sleeping on you,” she chuckled and I grinned in response. “If I fall asleep again, can you wake me when they come by with the snacks?”

“Of course.”

In about 30 minutes, the snack carts came out so I gently nudged Leslie who’d fallen asleep on me again.

“Sorry,” she yawned sleepily. “Thanks for waking me.”

“No problem.”

“Hey, want to get a wine with me?”

“Won’t that make you sleepier?”

“Maybe! Who knows?”

“Two cabernets, please.” She held out her card and I protested.

“No, I got it.” I fumbled for my wallet.

“I insist,” and she handed her card to the flight attendant.

“You didn’t have to do that.”

“I wanted to. I invited you to day drink with me. Cheers.”

“Cheers.” I couldn’t help but smile. “Thank you.”

The plane lands and most people eagerly stand up. I wait behind, definitely not eager to bump into anyone. Leslie stands and asks if we can walk to the gate together so we can board the connecting flight together, and I’m extremely grateful.

“Sure.” When most of the people have left, Leslie scoots out and waits for me. I don’t want her to see me struggle to get out of my seat, but it’s inevitable. “I gotta lose some weight,” I try to laugh it off, but I must be a pretty pathetic sight, wobbling and shifting myself over the seats in order to get into the aisle.

She doesn’t respond and I regret pointing out my size, but she still waits as I reach for my bag. Before slinging it down, I notice her staring where my shirt should be covering my stomach, but considering the reaching, it might have ridden up. My face flushes and I throw my bag over my shoulder as quickly as I can, letting Leslie go first.

“Hungry?”

“Oh, no…I just had a bagel.” But I was hungry, and I would be before the next flight.

“We have about an hour before boarding. Maybe we should get something to go for the plane?”

I considered it. “Sure, whatever you want.”

The only respectable restaurant was a shitty Ruby Tuesdays and we decided to eat in. I was able to wedge myself into the booth but it was tight.

“Here, why don’t we move to the bar?” Leslie asked, noticing the tight space.

“Oh no, I don’t mind…”

“You don’t have to be uncomfortable.” She stated.

I thought over my words carefully and explained “I’m just not sure I’ll fit there, either.”

“Oh. I’m sorry. Do you want to try? I’ll keep our seat here.”

“Um, sure.” I hefted my weight and tried to keep my cool. The bar stools didn’t have armrests which was a blessing. It was still difficult to fit, but it was better than the booth. I came back to grab our bags and she thanked me, following me to the bar.

“You know, you don’t have to do this. I really appreciate it but I’m okay.” She frowned.

“I like this. I like getting to know you. I’d rather hang out with you than wait alone.” She was so sweet. “Want another drink?”

“Sure.”

We continued talking and I forgot why I was ever anxious in the first place. We ordered another round and I could tell she was starting to feel it. I was getting a little uncomfortable when her glances started going towards my body, so I reached into my bag and pulled over a hoodie. Did she…frown?

“You’re really hard to read,” I confessed.

“How so?” She propped herself up on her elbow and looked at me quizzically.

“I don’t know,” I shook my head. “I just don’t get you.” She smiled coyly.

“I’m an enigma,” she stated with jazz hands for added flair.

“Well, I’m enjoying myself a lot more than I was earlier, so thank you.”

“You don’t have to keep thanking me and apologizing. I’m equally enjoying it.” She placed her hand on my thigh and I realized I’d been bouncing my leg anxiously for who knows how long. I didn’t know what to make of her. Friendly, sweet, kind, adorable. Now I have another reason for not wanting to get on the plane…I don’t want this to end.

Leslie orders some appetizers to share and an entree for herself. I try to choose something moderately healthy, so I stick to the grilled chicken sandwich.

“Here, try” she pushes over her appetizer plates to me and I take small bites.

“They’re good.”

“Have more,” she begins forking them onto my plate.

“Whoa, no, that’s okay,” I try to protest but she’s in the middle of loading up my plate.

“I won’t finish them,” she counters, and I oblige, trying not to make a pig of myself.

I try not to eat everything to save face, despite my obvious physique that says I likely have never turned down food before. I order another drink and Leslie is practically staring at me now. I shift uncomfortably in my seat and try sucking in my belly.

“You’re full?”

“Oh, um yeah.”

“We shouldn’t let it go to waste.”

“You ordered them,” I remind her.

“Pleaseeeee,” she’s tipsy now and there’s something in her eyes I can’t quite pinpoint.

“Really?” I laugh. “Why do you want me to finish these? Why not just save them for later?”

“Because you’ll be hungry later, too.”

“Bold of you to assume.” I counter.

“Is it though?” I don’t think she intended malice, but the words sting a little.

“I’m sorry, I just…I didn’t mean it in a bad way. I’m sorry, that was dumb.” She covered her face with her hands.

“It’s okay.“ I pause. She doesn’t say anything. It’s quiet besides her fork scraping against the plate.

“I just, I’m sorry I’m so awkward,” she sighed. “I think you’re really cute.”

I stop mid-bite. “What?” Garbled by the food in my mouth.

She covers her face with her hands again.

I finish swallowing, heart pounding in my chest. “Really?”

“Yes really. I thought I’d made it obvious. I was so nervous.” She confessed.

It took me a second to compute. It made sense. The quick glances, an excuse to put her hand on my leg, insisting on buying my wine.

“It’s so cute when you do that.”

“Do what?”

“You blush.” I could feel my cheeks burning even brighter. We were sitting so close to each other I could smell the sweet rosé on her breath.

She leaned in closer. “You’re seriously so handsome.” I think my heart leapt into my throat and I had to swallow it down. Was this happening?

The bartender interrupted and asked if we wanted to close out, which we did. It gave me a moment to gain my composure.

“You don’t think I’m too…big?” I was afraid to ask. She shook her head and barely audibly answered “I like bigger guys.” Holy shit.

We had to run to our gate and we were both giddy. I offered her my hand and she took it, two wildly different strangers running through an airport together. “I booked two seats…” I explained as they checked my boarding pass and Leslie chimed in “I don’t mind sitting next to him if it’s a full flight. I’m 18 A.”

“Thanks, looks like you might have to. Hang tight.”

“You can give my seat to someone else.” She insisted and the boarding director looked at me and I shrugged.

“Alright, miss,” and he scanned all three tickets.

“I’ll go first to make sure there’s enough room.” Wow. My anxiety was no match for her.

“Excuse me, ‘scuse us,” she’d loudly announce when people’s bags were in my way. I was beyond grateful. We took our seats and I thanked her.

“No more thanking me!” And she pulled her armrest up.

“I’m so cold.”

“Here,” I peeled off my hoodie and felt the cool air hit my stomach when my shirt rode up. “I’m sure it’s way too big, but -“

“Thank you.” She eagerly accepted it and draped it over her, cuddling into me. My heart thudded obnoxiously in my chest.

“Is this okay?” She asked timidly.

“Of course,” I placed an arm around her. Whoever gets sat next to us would probably think we’re a couple on vacation, and I loved that. It was an older, middle aged woman with a smug expression on her face. She first looked at me and practically grimaced. Leslie noticed and placed her arm around my stomach where my waistline would be if it wasn’t covered in fat. I got chills.

It was the tiny nuances that she noticed. How I could use some help maneuvering the aisle, when someone made a comment or just gave a look of disapproval. She was trying to offset it, remind me that I’m not as despicable as they act like I am. Like I’m not a huge waste of space, an eyesore, an inconvenience.

“This is nice.” She sighed into me, arm still wrapped around me.

“So nice,” I agree. She rhythmically rubs her thumb over my stomach and I get goosebumps. I don’t think I’ve ever been touched like this. Sure, I’ve been in relationships and had a couple hookups, but no one ever wanted to touch my body. It was a foreign feeling to have someone actually want to. She looked so small, especially next to me.

“We barely know each other and look at us,” I whispered. She looked up at me excitedly.

“Let’s get to know each other. What’s your favorite color?”

“Blue, yours?”

“Mine too! Favorite food?”

“Anything,” I snickered. “Can you tell?”

“Ha, ha. Alright, how tall are you?”

“Six foot, you?”

“Holy shit. Guess.”

“Hmm, 5’2?”

“Nope. Five foot.”

“Five feet?! That’s it?”

She nodded, stifling a laugh. We were quiet for a little, the hum of the plane and alcohol making us sleepy.

“I really like this.”

“Me too.” I couldn’t believe this was happening. I didn’t want the plane to take off. I wanted to sit with her like this forever.

[quaranmine]

you were in Iceland?? epic! I've been there as well (in 2022), how was it? how was the volcano? (if you don't mind me asking, feel free to ignore this)

Yes! I was there 5/18 to 6/1. I've wanted to go for like a decade and have been semi planning this trip for 2024 for a year and a half, then properly researching and planning since January. It was SO AMAZING. Exactly everything I wanted :) I was ready to go home at the end for like, my own bed and some rest, but now I miss it and want to go back lol

If you went in 2022, did you get to hike to the Fagradalsfjall eruption? I know those were the "tourist" ones that people could get closer to. The current eruptions are part of another volcanic system on the Reykjanes peninsula, Svartsengi. They aren't open for hiking. It erupted again 3 days before I left. I got to see it twice! On our last full day we drove out of Reykjavik and saw it along the highway, and then the day we left we stopped on the way to the airport. I took this with my 250 mm from literally the side of the highway:

It caused no interferences with our travel. It's a fissure eruption, so the lava is erupting along a fissure and isn't as big and explosive. Initially they were afraid this one might disrupt air travel if the lava flowed to the sea (producing more ash and steam) but it didn't. It was very cool to see! I feel bad for the people who lived in Grindavik though, it’s been months since they had to evacuate and there isn't an end in sight for them yet. The Icelandic government really stays on top of things like road closures, weather reporting, etc so I checked their websites daily. The main concern with the eruption as gas pollution, so I just checked their pollution forecast to see if the wind was going to blow it over us or not (it didn't.)

Our trip went great. We had mostly good weather and apparently left just in time because this last week there's been a pretty nasty problematic storm across the whole country that left a bunch of people stranded. But we left 2 days before that. We drove 3,300 km in our rental car (2,050 miles) and did the entire ring road + some of the Westfjords + Snæfellsnes + Húsavik + Borgarfjörður Eystri as detours. Our rental car was named Jim because that was his license plate. We bonded with him lmao

Here's a few photos :)

Major things I did: Katla Ice Cave, Vestmannaeyjabær, Silfra snorkeling in 2°C water, Jökulsárlon boat tour, Húsavik whale watching, countless waterfalls, puffins at Borgarfjarðarhöfn, Hvammsvik hot springs & Sky lagoon, and Mulagljufur Canyon.

It was at coldest, 2°C (35°F) with downpour rain being pushed sideways into your face by wind to the point you could hardly open your eyes. It was at hottest 19° C (66°F) and sunny. We mostly got great weather, it was only one day that was particularly bad. Mostly it was between 7°C - 13°C (45°F - 55°F) the whole time.

I NEVER saw it get dark and that was a novelty to me the entire trip. Like it never settled in as something I got used to. Presumably it got mostly dark somewhere around 2 am but I was always asleep by then and even if I woke up to go the bathroom, it'd be like 4 am and already light again. The furthest north we stayed was Ísafjörđur, and according to timeanddate.com by May it never reaches full dark, only civil twilight for 3 hours and daylight the other 21. I can't imagine if I'd actually have been there during the solstice, with just that extra month for the days to be even longer!

Now I want to go back for a short winter trip to see the northern lights and then for a proper summer trip to see the highlands (closed the whole time we were there for thawing season)

[firstkanaphans]

I think the thing that makes me lose my mind the most upon rewatching the episode is how...very into it Sand is the whole time?? Like, the minute he has Ray in his car HE's the one who goes all "ugh, I COULD have hooked up with someone tonight" 🙄😒 and planting the seed in Ray's mind. I wasn't sure if that line was intentional, but I am certain there's a HUGE shift in Sand's demeanor when Ray asks him if he's been hit on by men. It's almost like Sand realizes and gets confirmation like, "ohhh, so that IS where this could be going?" and from there he's also the one who asks if he's supposed to be a hooker tonight and then on top of it all, the way he says "if I'm interested, I do it for free" and giving Ray that Look after just seemed sooo pointed. Like Sand's making it very clear where he is on the whole thing but wants Ray to be the one to make the final move (which Ray 100% does deliver 😂). And he doesn't hesitate at all! When Ray leans in Sand kisses him back immediately without missing a single beat.

and then once sand makes it clear they're 'only friends', and ray kisses him the second time, they even start taking their clothes off at the same time lol. like, sand is trying to be chill about this whole thing but he wants this just as much as Ray does, I think 👀

(i hope it's okay i'm screaming about these two in your inbox 😅 these two have been living rent free in my mind and i needed to vent to someone haha!)

Oh, please scream away! None of us are sane here 😂

I don’t think there was ever a question from either of them about where things were headed. The writer said that Sand lighting Ray’s cigarette in episode one was meant to symbolize him lighting the fire of their relationship and I think everything that happened from that moment on was just very elaborate foreplay. The bigger question in my eyes is why?

Ray’s motivations are obvious. Sand showed him an ounce of kindness and he imprinted on that man so fast he should be embarrassed by it. But like you said, Sand seems to have a soft spot for Ray as well. A softer spot, quite frankly, than he probably deserves. 

Why would Sand want to have a one-night stand with a spoiled rich boy who has more baggage than an airport when there are far easier targets out there? Is it about the thrill of the chase? Is it simply physical? Honestly, I don’t know.

My best guess is that Ray reminds him of someone. An ex-boyfriend, perhaps? Maybe one who drove drunk and got himself killed?

All I know for sure is that Sand is fond. He likes that Ray’s a spoiled brat. He likes that he can tease him. He likes that he teases him back. I’ve seen people say that Sand’s already in love and I don’t think we’re anywhere close to that yet, but you’re absolutely right. Sand knew exactly what would happen if he took Ray home that night and he did it anyway. He didn't even have to bribe him with a monstera!

What I'm looking forward to most about next week is watching Ray beg Sand for more. Maybe it'll humble him a little.

[pitter-patt-art]

Ace Attorney AU August oops-august-has-been-over-for-a-week Update!!

Hiiiii well okay first and most importantly of all! Happy investigations collection day everyone!!!! My copy is supposed to arrive by 10pm although I'm not sure I'll be playing it right away, but, hey, once it arrives I'll have in my possession at least one physical copy of every game in the series (2 for aai1, woohoo)!!! *Coughs* uh except all of the OG Trilogy which instead I own like 2 times over digitally (3 in T&T's case, thanks Wii) lmao. Ah well.

NOW the actual post. Yeah it's not August anymore but I've been recuperating or w/e so shhh, better late than never!

Overall I wrote over 50k words (actually in August itself) and posted 5 fics (with many more in progress), which is honestly just, wild???? That is so cool. Apparently the way to overcome writer's block is just overcommit to a month-long prompt list, who knew!

Here is my post about the first 17 days/AUs! And over here's my Ao3 series for these! Below the cut I'll wrap up the last 14 days of AUs, some thoughts, etc!

I am setting the goal for myself to actually finish writing these before the end of the year even if they're not technically "AU-gust" qualified anymore by the time I get to them sooo ...wish me luck!! In the meantime I am proud of myself for (tbh completely unnecessarily and to my detriment lmao) coming up with actually a full 31 solid AUs based on the prompts that I feel inspired by.

This post is gonna be a bit more rambly than the last one because I definitely did more of my writing last month the first 2 weeks rather than the last 2, but nevertheless--

Onto the remaining AUs!

18 - Space Travel

So, I actually started a draft at the airport before my vacation where I got wayyyy too sidetracked getting detailed about this one and thus ended up not being able to finish the post before takeoff lmao. I'm not sure whether it's annoying or interesting to include all of that here, but it's my post so fuck it, here's August 21st patt to tell you aaall about it so I don't have to: The Martian AU (I've only seen the movie and not read the book but i *did* literally just re-watch it because this thought crossed my mind lol. (Hello! It's future me popping in to say: fun fact, rewatching this movie literally ended up being the reason I knew a bar trivia answer last week lmao. Huzzah for the powers of Ace Attorney refreshing my movie quote knowledge.) Be glad this one occurred to me because my first inclination was to lean into the dark past of my vld phase (I'm super joking I had a lot of fun with it before the last few seasons haha sorry idk what to tell you friends) and see how much I'd retained if i tried to make that work but the martian sounded more fun in the end). Apparently my Thing™ is a) poisoning Phoenix and b) putting Apollo in an insane situation in which he's completely on his own--which all things considered is probably far meaner lol. I think Phoenix is to blame for creating his own problem here for choosing to eat the stupid necklace but I fully blame Capcom for all the BS Apollo has gone through after AA4 (bc...the stuff IN that game is. coincidentally also Phoenix's blame to claim. lol). That said I'm part of the problem teehee. Apollo can be Some Guy from the real world who gets isekai'ed and he can also be Mark Watney :P (sorry bud I love you but you have just the Worst case of unavoidable main character syndrome). ((Which is QUITE funny actually because I'll never get over Capcom calling 4,5,6 the """"Apollo Justice Trilogy"""" (it's really not and it's frankly insulting they're trying to say it is.) Like he's. Y’know. The main character in exactly one of those games...... so.)) What was I talking about? Lmao oh yeah so Apollo is left on Mars (not sure he actually has much in the way of Botanist™ vibes but the indomitable, never-say-die, highly sarcastic vibes.... ye haha that's my boy right there). Omg wait sorry I'm writing this and realizing this whole thing actually fits the 18th AND yesterday's (the 20th) prompt as well. Whoops.

Clay as the captain (let him do something, says I)

Trucy as I think the pilot ONLY because I am literally constantly on the lookout to make a Wright Flying Brothers joke, sorry

Klavier aaaas. Uh. So the German astronaut in the film is the chemist and navigator and I know Klav's not necessarily supposed to be actually German canonically but there IS something funny about it

Athena as the flight surgeon and EVA specialist (for a couple reasons but mostly so she can be a doctor lol. I imagine she also can be there for psych stuff too, like, it's a long ass space voyage, that does shit to your brain)

Kay as the SysOp and reactor tech, tbh mostly because for some reason i really have a thing for hacker/programmer Kay, i guess?

Ema I want to be there also lol so that would be exceeding the actual number of OG astronauts but eh it's my AU. The rest of these I'm just directly comparing to a crew member from the martian but I think some of the titles and tasks could be redistributed a little to allow an extra person as a treat for me.

Originally i kind of wanted Sebastian (....SIGH. or...Eustace. (I fear even though it's AAIC release day today, I truly may die on this hill forever, falling on my sword of devotion and gratitude to the fan translation team... That said, while I think Eustace is, like, a Deeply Fine name, I have to say that Excelsius is a fucking knockout name lmfao, that one took me out. Anyway, ahem: "I wanted Seb/Eustace...")) to be there too but I think that's getting into too many cooks territory just specifically bc I'd have too many voices to play with lmfao. So instead I think he's the operator who works the satellite and realizes Apollo is alive, I think he'd fit that well. NOT THAT that needs to be. Included. In the AU. I have...so much self control.

Anyway I have too many thoughts about it, it's a problem, ironically I think I would prefer to focus on the crew and not Apollo himself, so that would at least make it more than just a rehashing of the movie/book. (Or, the movie at least. Does the book spend more time with them? I should read the book.) ...I did, Of Course, also came up with a funny, pseudo-future-science-y way to do a Sibling Reveal in this one, so there's that, too, haha. OKAY AND, SCENE. Snatching my mic back from myself. I'm actually so devoted to the Martian AU now hahaha, I really didn't think I'd let that happen to myself but here we are... You'll see in a bit, but I for-better-or-worse do truly have an extended universe going on for it now, eheh... (Help.)

19 - Spies

Franmaya?? Franziska POV??? Here's the deal: I cannot BELIEVE I got this many days into the month and STILL hadn't come up with a franmaya-centric AU, it's terrible. Also I need a Maya POV if I want to hit my self-set, self-indulgent goal of having POV of every "main" character I can (did I exactly accomplish this no but that's perfectly fine obviously haha it was just a side achievement I had my eye on). So to that end, I ended up with something here that I'm not COMPLETELY sure I won't end up changing when I sit down to actually work on it, but in short: semi The Princess Bride vibes but with spies instead of pirates! Or uh! So um okay full disclosure lol I got all excited about an AU of this kind and then like an hour into daydreaming it into existence I realized I was heavily relying on / leaning into ASSASSIN territory rather than SPY. Which are notably different things. (Wait lol should I blame Spy x Family?? Totally Endo-sensei's fault and not at all mine, boom, take that.) ...And not to go even harder into sxf territory, whoops, but my idea was something along the lines of like, since Kurain School Channeling changes spirit mediums' appearance entirely, I was going to have Maya be something of an expert in disguise, and Franziska I was almost more or less going to let retain her actual position of international prosecutor with Interpol, although perhaps I'd lean more into a James Bond-esque intelligence agency sort of thing than what we see them do in-game, I'm not sure. Maya gets "killed" for real in 2-4 except she actually just becomes an international assassin(?) apprentice. Does this make sense? Probably not lol. But is it a little funny and a little sad? Yes, yes it is, and that's always my sweet spot as a writer. The only problem with this premise is I can't stop myself from considering what Phoenix would do / be doing in the background, because the problem with Maya "dying"-only-being-secretly-alive leaves at least twofold problems in justifying why Nick hasn't gone full conspiracy theory board stop-at-nothing-to-find-her, in that a) If she's not dead, Pearl can't channel her, and knowing Pearl I have to imagine that would be her first move to try tbh, and b) even if that weren't an issue, if the police were never able to track down Maya's body at all, I fully believe Nick would still throw himself at the problem until he's able to find answers irregardless, so. This ain't about him though!! So we'll just all have to deal with knowing he's taking reaaally really bad care of himself while he single-mindedly tries to figure out what's going on ahaha...ha. He's most absolutely the drowning child in the facebook post meme. Don't worry about him.

20 - Crossover/Fusion

Soooo. Okay. First may I say, I'm not the most crossover-fic-y person in the world neither as a reader nor writer. HOWEVER. Unfortunately. My one undying weakness has proven to be Ace Attorney x Legally Blonde (and more specifically Legally Blonde the Musical, the best version, though I do love Reese Witherspoon's performance ofc it's iconic but the musical is just MWAH ugh. One of my all-time favorite musicals and definitely the one I've listened to the most esp the past couple years hahaha.) The problem is, I've joked about so many slight variations / one very Long Intensive specific AA/LBtM crossover AU ideas, that trying to limit myself to a one-shot I could conceivably finish within a day proved too much for my decision paralysis and I didn't end up writing any of them lmao. Alas. Mostly, I just think it would be funny to see the characters interact in something of a vacuum just for fun, the problem is just that I happen to be uniquely terrible at not thinking through a Crack AU until I can, ahem, "crack" it, so to speak, to make it actually justifiably function. So in theory all I want to write for this day is some combination of like, Elle and Phoenix interacting and Miles and Emmett interacting, or the four of them having a conversation that goes something like "omg wait me too!! i also went from a creative undergrad degree directly into law to chase after some guy!! what are the odds teehee" while Emmett and Miles watch in horror, and also alternatively Emmett and Phoenix mostly bemusedly watching Elle and Miles geek out over like, fancy ass high class (pink) clothing like "uh yeah i have no idea what any of those words mean. she bought me this suit and i honestly wouldn't even be able to find the store again. oh no way he bought you yours too?? man, wild." Etc. (If anyone's interested in really watching me suffer and spiral: my longer and more intensive idea for an AU with them is to have them be tackling parallel cases where either of them (Elle and Phoenix) has specific knowledge that is helpful to defending the others' client, and they get like place-swapped through dimensional shenanigans somehow also related to the cases. And Phoenix has to abide by, like, nominally-accurate US trial law (I know he wouldn't really be licensed shhhh) -- by which I mean Emmett is sitting as his co-council and exercising the most restraint possible to keep from bashing his head into the table every two seconds. And Elle has to abide by guilty-until-proven-innocent Japanifornia trial law ("wait WHAT omg what do you MEAN the prosecution can just, like, not submit their evidence before the trial???? wait what do you MEAN we should just TAKE THAT that is EVIDENCE AT A CRIME SCENE--"). On the bright side, Elle gets to experience being one of the most normally-dressed people in a courtroom and not at all being looked down upon for her general vibes and wardrobe (like tell me she wouldn't fit right in in the ace attorney universe and seem completely ordinary), and Phoenix gets to experience a real jury (take that jurist system trial that Capcom would like to never ever talk about again) and also the judge going "so, Prospective Juror No. 103, do you understand that the defense in this criminal trial does not need to say a single word in order to be doing their job? the burden of proof lies entirely on the prosecution the entire time and the defense and defendant could choose to remain silent every day of trial and that would be completely within their rights, do you understand that? are you okay with that?" etc etc, shout out to my jury service a couple month ago and the kinds of questions a real life California judge asks jurors that would seriously blow the minds of every single character in Ace Attorney lmfao can you imagine? Anyway.) So yeah idk. Also something something, spirit mediums and the whole Greek Chorus bit from the musical... "School Spirit"... much to think about in crack AU land hahaha.)

21 - Absurd Tragedy

To be honest with you, this is the entire series lmao, so much so that I had trouble even thinking of an AU to be "alternate" in any way here, hahaha. What I sort-of landed on and have vague outline notes about in my doc is (not to make another excellent-musical-adaptation-of-an-already-top-tier-movie-which-is-itself-a-highly-unfaithful-adaptation-of-a-fairly-obscure-book reference) a Shrek the Musical "I Think I Got You Beat"-style debate about whose canonical absurd tragic circumstances are the worst, lmfao. Granted, this then turned into a "wait what if I use said argument as an absurd way in which to make Apollo and Trucy have a siblings realization completely on their own, which both compounds the fact they've both already lived such tragedy to begin with but also could touch on Phoenix knowing about it and not telling them about it", and uhhhhh lmfao a debate specifically between them is OBVIOUSLY not the romantic flirting banter of the song between Shrek and Fiona lmfao but like still, the general premise, just in a sibling bickering coat of paint instead. Also was toying with it being an Athena POV just to sell home / for the additional absurdity of the experience of "you've gone over to your friend's house to hang out and suddenly they're obnoxiously arguing with their sibling and their parents are nowhere to be seen and you're not exactly sure what you're supposed to do with yourself except awkwardly wait for them to be done" lmfao. Which I've most absolutely experienced from both ends multiple times hahaha. The alternative option for this prompt is just for me to write an excessively long essay debating and attempting to personally rank the main cast's level of absurd tragedy compared to each other, lol.

22 - Orphan

I wrote 324 words (slash one physical lined page in my actual notebook) of this while I was on vacation, lol. AU where Miles invites Phoenix to go watch one of Gregory's trials (or Phoenix invites himself, or Gregory invites him while Miles tries to hold the landline phone away from him, lol) and I mean of course the trial he goes to is The Trial (like, Jeffre... AW CRAP wait I don't actually know what Jeff Master's or Kate Hall's official names are lmfao uhhh. Well you know what don't worry about that. Happy AAIC day once again..? Lol. Anyway, the concluding day of Gregory's last trial, obviously, ignore the defendant's name.) Like, basically, here's my thought. AU where Phoenix is also there, and not only does that mean he knows what happened to Miles and Gregory but also, like, it's Phoenix. Tell me even at 9 he wouldn't be insisting on taking care of the poor kid who just lost everything and has nowhere in the world to go. Tell me he's not like, begging his parents they need to help him, lol. I think really this is just sort of an AU to explore one of my several personal headcanons for what Phoenix's parents are like, because I've spent a lot of time on a different version of them (coughs for the last AU on this list...coughs) but I also have a version of them which I find fun / funny where they're like, kinda hippy-dippy and like very hands-off (tbh almost all of my hc's about the Greater Wrights is they're very hands off, just in different ways) but in more of a "we want our child to experience the beauty and wonder of the world on his own time and not influence him or set rigid standards to conform to" kind of philosophy. Anyway my point is they like adopt/foster Miles somehow before Manfred can actually get his hands on him (he's still too busy dealing with the fresh bullet wound I guess?) This is just a gen au of course, not only because they're 9 lol but also the logistics of being adoptive/foster siblings gets weird quick lmao, but mostly I just find it interesting to think about what might have happened if Miles was in an environment where people paid more attention and cared more (and weren't explicitly influencing and manipulating him to exasperate the problem on purpose), because I have to imagine examining his nightmares a little more closely a little more quickly might have led someone (say, Phoenix who was also there in this AU) to find something slightly off about it or like start putting pieces together quicker, idk. I, uh, I'm not gonna lie to you, I don't actually remember how I intended to end this one hahaha ;; I started it but I was on vacation and neglected to outline / summarize the rest of my ideas the day of, so I guess I'll just have to see where my mind takes me when I get back to it.

23 - Musician

So my FIRST thought for this day was to use it as an excuse to finish my First Ever Ace Attorney Fic, which has been in WIP stasis for...uh.... 6. Years. i--SIX????? Shit. lmfao. yeah uh. I guess I created the first version of the doc (on my OneNote, god) back in 2018. So. Yeah. Hm. Omfg. This fic has partially existed since before Phoenix Disbarment Day. That is so. Wow. Damn. Y'all we're so close to aa4 time (2026) what the hell??? Ahem. Pianist Phoenix. That's. My point lmao. I know the original thing that sparked me loving this concept was actually some tumblr post I saw apparently a LONG long time ago, hahaha, and I know there's no way I'll find it with tumblr's abysmal search function, but just know it was not a completely original idea of mine when I say i fucking LOVE the headcanon that, you know what actually Phoenix CAN play the piano, he just chooses to do it as shittily as possible because that's kind of what he's like post-disbarment and he'd absolutely get a kick out of fucking with people like that even if they have no way to know they're being fucked with. It's like, he's no virtuoso or anything, but he can passably play the piano! He's just being an ass on purpose! It kills me every time lol. I won't say I think that's necessarily true in canon so ofc it's not like an end-all-be-all hc for me or anything but it's just sooooo funny to me that I like to break it out any time I possibly can. Look me in the eyes and tell me he wouldn't. Honestly, look me in the eyes and tell me if he actually put his mind to it in any meaningful way he wouldn't be able to get decent quickly regardless, considering the fact he became an accomplished lawyer on more-or-less a total whim. This to say: that was my intention, to finish this fic I've had brewing that was about Phoenix actually being able to play the piano and hiding it for a really long time but eventually being found out by Miles by chance. Except then I sat down on the plane and started writing a Pearl POV instead? In which she finds out about more or less the same exact concept but from Iris--also by chance, but less actually catching him playing and more being asked, "Oh, does he still play? He was always good at that." And then bc it's Pearl (Pearl I love you), of COURSE she goes and confronts him about it. Pearl might be the single most confrontational character in these games tbh which is SO FUNNY to me. Like I'm kind of exaggerating obviously but also am I? I know she has psyche-locks you have to break through multiple times throughout the series but stiiiill. Everyone else is so repressed and weird about anything remotely vulnerable, I stg. Props to Maya for making sure Pearl turned out pretty okay I guess, lmao. Anyhow yeah that's sort of the AU I ended up with. Pearl POV where she and Iris know they're sisters (don't get me started on this I have so many thoughts about the amount of information I'm positive Maya and Pearl are NEVER given skjflj) and Pearl visits Iris in prison regularly and on one such visit maybe she mentions Nick's job at Borscht and Iris makes a totally innocuous comment to the effect that Pearl learns he actually knows how to play the piano and she goes to get mad at him about it because he's definitely been pretending he can't and Pearl's pretty sure he's told neither Maya nor Trucy the truth and that cannot be left to stand.

24 - Pretend Hate

Okay, this exists in a similar realm to the Orphan prompt, except instead of Phoenix being there for the trial or the Wrights taking Miles in before Manfred can, it's more just AU where Miles doesn't actually cut all contact and he and Phoenix successfully end up exchanging correspondence (in semi-secret) during the time they're separated (i.e. they remain friends and close during the 15 years they're separated in canon). "Semi-secret" because they--esp Miles--somehow hide who exactly it is they're talking / writing to all the time but don't necessarily hide the fact they are doing that. Like, a fake cultural / language exchange program or something? I feel like there could be a world where Manfred really doesn't give a shit what Miles is up to as long as he's being molded into "someone Gregory Edgeworth would hate" (I don't think he would lol but that's another AU) and becoming a model von Karma protege prosecutor and such. He obviously goes to lengths to cut Miles off from everything he's familiar with in that he takes him to Germany, but I've always thought it's way more on Miles feeling guilty and blaming himself and thinking he's unworthy / pushing people away being the reason why they never talked before aa1 despite Phoenix's "attempts to contact him," whatever those may be specifically. And, yeah, I've watched that one episode of the anime but tbh I don't really use anime canon for almost anything besides maybe some of the fun visuals, haha, so I'm kind of disregarding that anyway. ANYWAY. My point is. The "pretend hate" part is that--sometime over the course of exchanging correspondence, Phoenix starts thinking something's weird and gets it in his head to "investigate" himself, since he's still in LA / has access to the scene of the crime and stuff, and then as a combo of him just plugging away at it until he has enough (circumstantial) evidence to be like "Miles I think you're wrong about this" and also a younger, slightly less repressed, slightly less in Manfred's pocket Miles actually being somehow willing to consider alternatives a little--they're able to put their heads together and eventually come to the (correct) conclusion ahead of time, before the 15-year statute of limitations, that it was almost certainly Manfred who did it. And then they work together to figure out how they can possibly PROVE that but they haven't thought of anything foolproof by the time aa1 events start rolling around (or at the very least, the 5-years-ago sections of aa3? It might make more sense if it's as soon as Miles returns to Japanifornia, and also I think Phoenix has way less reason to fall for Dahlia/Iris so hard if Miles is around and *coughs* available lmfao. Anyhow). So, in the hopes it'll keep Manfred from getting suspicious of Miles, they publicly pretend to hate each other, putting on a show of more of the canon attitude Miles esp. has before 1-4, but behind the scenes they're actually working together trying to think of a way they can definitely get a conviction to stick that Manfred won't be able to worm out of. And that's the AU! Idk, in terms of additional thoughts, I couldn't decide what to do / what would happen to Mia in this AU either, which doesn't super matter but did give me pause. So she might live, idk, depends the exact timeline. I do also think a scene where--Dahlia still hits on Phoenix in the reading room/courthouse library but he's like, actively there waiting for one of Miles' trials to conclude for a covert meeting, so when Miles gets there and is like "What are you messing with over there?" Phoenix is like "Oh, hey, check out this weird bottle some girl just gave me because apparently she fell in love at first sight, haha, isn't that so funny--" and then Miles recognizes it from the Fawles trial and they catch Dahlia earlier or something, idk. Or alternatively Phoenix was AT that trial so HE recognizes it. Or maybe it's funniest if he was there but doesn't recognize it until Miles does lmao, this is not the point of this AU but I can't stop myself from considering this part of it.

25 - Scientists

So THIS is the day I sort of alluded to earlier, many many words of post ago, where I got so invested in my The Martian AU that I started accidentally worldbuilding about it. What I've started and have about 400 words of (slash one notebook page, again from the plane after my vacation), is like, AU where it's NASA instead of law and I can make Phoenix go "What, like it's hard?" only it's about literally rocket science this time hahaha. Basically for this fic I just thought, well what if Phoenix just shows up as a flight tech or engineer or something (idk I don't really know that much about real life astronautics) as Miles is preparing for some space mission or something and he's just like WHAT are YOU doing HERE. I know I know I made Apollo literally be the titular martian and yes he ALSO has a (or tbh probably has a WORSE) canonical debilitating fear of heights, so, shhh, but I do like the idea that Phoenix is like, oh, who, me? In the flying metal death trap? No fucking thank you, I will be down here watching and talking directly to you through a headset or something. You cannot escape me however i can at least escape the building I'm in. No interest in seeing the Earth from above, thanks. Actually iirc Miles also doesn't love heights but meh whatever I'm fairly certain Phoenix talks about it the earliest in the series so there you go. Anyway, this would all be a mission prior to whatever mission it is that Apollo & Co. go on to Mars for the first part of the AU, so I guess you could consider it a prequel? And probably a fairly shippy one. I have other reasons for which it's fun for me if wrightworth is at least together if not outright married before the events of the "The Martian" part of the AU, so this one would be, like, about how exactly that went down.

26 - Victorian Era

Okay, once again, this just. IS. Literally. Dai Gyakuten Saiban / The Great Ace Attorney. Lol. That said, I've always loved the fanart I've seen of like Ryuunosuke and Phoenix (and respective Co.'s) interacting, or like, one or the other ending up in the other time period somehow, so I thought it'd probably be fun to try my hat at that. I feel like I've neglected the tgaa characters anyway, considering I actually somehow managed to reference PLvPW already, which is obviously significantly more of a spinoff and also just largely non-canonical, lmao. Also tgaa is just SO GOOD, augh. I'd love to have the multi-witness cross examinations from both of those games back sometime again, and I had so much fun with the jury in tgaa too, excellent mechanic. What was I talking about? So, I never completely decided on a concrete direction to take this, but even before AU-gust had started I'd already been toying with the idea of an AU where maybe Maya or Pearl channels a character from tgaa specifically because some documentary or special or something comes out talking about the real-life Herlock Sholmes (as opposed to the Totally Fictional "Sherlock Holmes" who Phoenix references in that one trilogy line, because I really think that's the funniest possible explanation for the discrepancy) and they're arguing over how that cannot possibly be a real person and no one was named that and etc etc and then to prove once and for all one way or the other Hurley is channeled and also for bonus joke content "recognizes" Phoenix at first (idk pretend his eyesight got worse in his older age, I know Phoenix and Ryuunosuke look, tbh, less alike than Ryuu and Apollo do, lmao, but again that's another AU) and then I get to play with Phoenix's mom's maiden name is Naruhodou and his middle name is Ryuuichi or such to that effect, because that is also a favorite headcanon of mine (not in small part because I can project my own life onto him by making him half-Japanese from SoCal, lol). So that's an idea I'd had that was already decently fleshed out and the ONLY problem is that if I'm having characters actually be channeled then there's a very real limiting factor of how many spirit mediums exist, and also that means Maya and/or Pearl don't get to interact with them, which for the sake of not overwriting would be good but for the sake of my love of a chaotic group conversation would be bad. But, uh, hopefully I do manage to hold myself to a less broad cast of characters, ideally, instead of bringing a bunch of them over to the other time period to see how they'd deal with that and interact en masse. Ha. Haha.

27. Younger / De-Aged

So here's another AU I'd already had idle thoughts about before AU-gust had even started! I...will get into this later, TRUST I will, lmfao, but I do have an extremely involved AU already in which Time Travel of the "regression" type is involved, i.e., they have their memories of the "future" but are thrown back into the past including their own younger bodies however-many-years-ago. So I've got that type of thing covered, I promise I do, haha. And additionally, I've actually already written them "younger" for my colorless AU way back on day 2, so I did think perhaps I'd just continue that one and say it was for this prompt (a smart person thing to do. this is the objectively correct option). On the other hand. I find pre-DL6 Phoenix and Miles reacting to how their lives actually turned out in the end HILARIOUS. Tell me it's not funny. And tell me it's not, like, some sort of depressing-yet-ultimately-hopeful for the older/current them to look at their child selves and be like Kid, Oh, You're Going To Go Through Some Shit, but also reflect on how they did make it and things turned out okay and life goes on etc etc. My problem with this kind of thing is that it's hard to come up with a justification for and that's not a problem in itself but it is a problem in me not knowing how i'm going to end a fic, which often gets me decision-paralysis-ed into not being able to start it in the first place, which did in fact happen to me here, haha. I think ideally I'd just do a quick "wait, was that a dream?" kind of thing where they (Miles and Nick) have a short conversation with themselves, but... Uh-oh, what, did you think that was all I had? You clearly don't know me at all. OTHER au option where young Phoenix is in the future/present and rather than himself and Miles it's the Wright Anything Agency who like, idk, find him roaming the streets of LA (fun fact! I actually came up with this AU one day while I was quite literally roaming the streets of LA myself at like 3am-ish. Do with that what you will). He is of course wearing a hat or beanie or something at first because come on, that's way more fun, and no matter how much Trucy, Apollo, and Athena are like "hm idk something about this kid seems familiar" I just don't think my first thought upon seeing some vaguely familiar kid alone on the street would be, like, "Oh, that's obviously a child version of my father/coworker/boss!" So. I'm not really sure that one has an end point either, though, so the same problem still stands, haha. The bad, someone get a spray bottle to spritz me, option of this is, obviously, to combine the two, so it's like the WAA find him first and then are like UHHHHH we need an adult (never mind actual adult-age-ness between them) and somehow end up getting Miles there too, but idk. I... should not. Overcomplicate. I shouldn't. Even, even if...august is over...so theoretically there's no longer any sort of On-Time component since it's late either way........ definitely not.

28 - Caretaker

Here are my exact notes / entire doc for this day. Ahem. And I quote: i brought up the lighthouse keeper thing but i dont know where that would be going exactly maybe this is a thing i could do franmaya for??? since i still havent gotten there? actually lol that as a lighthouse thing is funny. ghost romance? my three tropes rattle End quote. Anyway, shout-out to my friend hailstorm for being the one there to brainstorm "lighthouse keeper" with at the self-same bar trivia that I mentioned previously, lmao. I actually think that was even the same exact day as the The Martian quote was a relevant answer to a question. So yeah, even though I already kind of have franmaya planned for the spies day, that's both kind of sort of a darker AU overall and--WELP well, okay, so, i do, you know, recognize maybe a ghost romance isn't, uh, necessarily the fluffiest kind of AU lmao. Don't mind that. My point is, I love the vibes of a lighthouse keeper AU, and I generally like ghost romance as a trope, so that does feel like a viable option. Honestly, I kind of separately wanted an excuse to practice writing miego also, so maybe the Feys are just all chillin' in this lighthouse for...Some Reason, and that's side-plot relevant somehow, idk. I know Franziska and Godot exist in the same place for a minute in 3-5, but I honestly can't really remember them interacting? I think she'd fucking HATE him though lmfao. He'd think she's funny but I actually think she'd be too reactive for his most preferred teasing/fucking-with-people dynamics, haha. Regardless, if he is there at all, it's a very minor B plot, I think, 'cause this ain't about him, lol.

29 - Forced into Hiding

Achtung, baby, 2566 words of this are written! Lol. So uh, yeah. In short, AU where Klavier gets hounded by fans on the street while he's also having just a bad personal day, and the closest and best place he can think to hide from them is at the WAA. I, um, actually hadn't realized I'd written quite this much of this, haha, it was supposed to be short and fairly silly but then it turned into Klavier having a little bit of a panic attack maybe and getting consoled by Apollo, sure, of course, but then also having to deal with and experience some amount of closure / reach some kind of understanding with the Wrights, also. It's kind of part Klav character study, kind of part complaint against freaking Capcom for neglecting him (boo, I love him, stop ignoring him, or, yknow, worse, whatever the heck turnabout academy was supposed to do for him, which honestly almost felt like a step back to be quite honest). Okay, also, taking a slightly closer look at what I've already written, the REASON I'd thought I'd written way less than this is definitely because he hasn't even GOTTEN to the Agency yet, never mind spoken with any of its members, lmao. That would do it. In any case, I like the idea of Klavier having a bit of a vulnerable moment, and I also like the idea of him and Phoenix actually, like, talking for real, instead of, once again, whatever Turnabout Academy and DD was meant to tell me, which seems to be less than nothing. I kind of like the fact that it gave him a law mentor? I mean, she was very dead, but I have a very meaningful Use for her in later-to-be-announced-AUs-I-keep-teasing, haha. I of course considered other people and times when people in AA might be forced into hiding, but this felt like a silly but also meaningful way to do that without it just being an exploration of Miles and his not-suicide note (which wasn't exactly "forced" anyhow, he did that all on his own) or like, Zak Gramarye (who also completely did that to himself but w/e). Making it about Klavier completely escapes the bounds of canon, because canon is a weenie about talking about any of his actual feelings EVER, so screw you Capcom, I'm doing it for you. Don't worry about it. Trucy commiserating with him about still Loving someone, perhaps the very closest person biologically related to you you've ever known and depended on in your life, who not only did you very big harm personally but explicitly used you in a very real and participatory way to perpetuate the harm elsewhere and all the complexities about Feelings For And About Them Therein, and Phoenix somehow having enough self-awareness to recognize that shutting down completely and isolating yourself away doesn't actually do you any good even when you're at your lowest, and recognizing that Klavier doesn't exactly have a "Trucy" to be a focal point to draw him out of that, and that therefore he needs to be a bit more open to his peers. (Insert joke about "Well, I'm really definitely not suggesting you go adopt an entire child, that's really probably, uh, not the way to go, actually, but, you know. Everyone needs people, that just makes us human." Etc.)

30 - The Beginning of the World

So, hm, as it turns out, I got extremely sidetracked this day thinking about the next day on the docket. Whoops! Unfortunately this ultimately means my ideas for this day as of now are relatively uninspired: I had the thought that I could explore the beginning of Troupe Gramarye, which is its own sort of world, or else, maybe something about the beginning of the series itself but from the somewhat unconventional POV of a one Mr. Larry Butz. Yes, that's a bit self-serving in that it lends toward trying to complete a list of "main, recurring characters' POVs" that I've had as a sidequest all month, but, still. That said, just exploring actual canon through Larry's POV isn't exactly what I'd classify as an "AU" necessarily, so I feel like something would need to be different here. Okay, wait--not to draw inspiration a dang week late to the party, BUT. Now that I'm typing this up, I'm thinking, okay, maybe, what if. The "Beginning" of the series, technically speaking, is basically the fact that Phoenix gets put on (class) trial for stealing Miles' lunch money--which notably only happened because Larry himself picked it up when it fell on the floor. So, perhaps, what about an AU where he doesn't do that? I mean, I guess it would just turn the entire world of AA into something of a terrible series of tragedies with no real closure about them, lol, rip, but it could possibly be interesting? I dunno! (And, yes, I know DL-6 itself is more or less the basis of the series, if we're being ticky-tacky, but Phoenix wouldn't have been involved without meeting Miles, and that somewhat necessitates the class trial, and without him none of canon would get resolved, so. I will say, I do love going back to the earliest points to see how and how much you can make canon deviate or stay the same--reasonably speaking--via minor tweaks and butterfly effect and all that, so this could be interesting, although I once again must say I think it really just means a bunch of innocent people, Miles included, are going to be put away and possibly executed over murders that weren't their faults, lol. Hm. Much to consider.)

31 - Two(+) of the Above:

Beginning of the World + Younger/De-Aged + Canon Divergence (+ Feat. Jokers: Guardian, Everybody Lives)

With all of this, the ONLY prompts I've actually missed on this list become Animagus which I swapped for the Wings joker, and the last joker of the four, Thriller, which was never exactly a priority of mine because I'm not sure I'd write that sort of thing particularly well, so! Wild! Completionists everywhere almost rejoice, haha. SOOOOO. For the eagle-eyed readers out there, I'll bet you're just dying to know what this one AU I've been teasing all post could Possibly be to warrant such a build-up, right? (...Right?) The answer is the at-ow! (Phonetically, lol. I've been calling it that instead of out loud saying all the letters in AATTAU out loud every time.) My friend Ben can attest to the fact that this behemoth AU (her word which I'm stealing) has been in the works for, uhhhh... months?

MONTHS. AHAHA. Ha. That. Sure says March! It sure does! And it is not lying. Lmfao. (Ignore the time, I was working overnight then--my beloved work schedule whomst I miss dearly--so that's a perfectly reasonable discord-ing hour for March-me.) Also, once again, I'm choosing to blame Ben for my extensive AU problems, she sent me a very cute time loop AA fic that utterly destroyed my entire mind because it got the mere idea of "Time-based AU" caught in my endless void-idea-hole. So. Here's the real rub. The literal reason I started doing this AU-gust challenge in the freaking first place was that I was absolutely Desperate to find a way to overcome my writer's block. And one of the (admittedly many) reasons I wanted to do this was because I have been ITCHING to write this stupid behemoth AU for real. I have a massive outline doc already, I have a whole slew of scenes planned, I have lots of character archage, I have sooo many things I want to say and explore about them all you have No Idea. It's extremely self-indulgent and absolutely my personal magnum opus for all my very specific favorite AA headcanons and ideas and thoughts. And obviously, it worked! I did indeed overcome my writer's block! And I had so much fun doing it!! And I'll admit, from the very beginning, I had been eyeing that "Everybody Lives" joker prompt, because...that's it! That's basically the point of the AATTAU (Ace Attorney Time Travel Alternate Universe, if that wasn't clear, haha). I don't want to let myself get TOO into it, because Oh Boy, I sure will! If you let me! Haha. But basically the premise is EXACTLY what I stated in that very first discord message I could find about it. Maybe not so much "time travel" technically speaking than it is "gaining memories of everything that happened in canon right as the DL-6 earthquake happens", so it's more regression than actual time travel since they're in their own younger bodies and everything, but still. It's basically my excuse to treat canon like it did happen and YET allow for everybody to survive and for the very fun cocktail of traumas and joys that come from remembering what happened but having the chance for something different (and all the effort that goes into making something different happen in the first place).

Now, as far as AU-gust goes. I was obviously not about to even pretend I could remotely start this during August itself or justify connecting any of it to the series and the prompts I'd already written for it, lol, but I also couldn't get the idea out of my head, so I got it in my head I really wanted to end the month with SOMETHING that somehow tied into my AATTAU, if only to motivate myself to actually get on it and start writing out instead of solely outlining everything that's been in the works all these months. So to that end, I saw the "Everybody Lives" and the "Beginning of the World" prompts, and an idea came to me. I'd been dancing around the justification aspect of this AU for most of the time I've had it because let's be honest, it's just a very self-indulgent idea and it does not NEED "justification" to serve the purpose I want it to serve and be what I want it to be. But the AU-gust prompts gave me some actual inspiration and an Idea as to a way to solidify my unnecessary "justification" but in a way that it doesn't need to be directly part of the final product of the AATTAU (like, I could make it a separate one-shot and either just link it to and from the AATTAU fic itself, or if it all ends up being a series, then I could just include it in the series but it wouldn't be necessary to read to understand what's going on. And so, I present! The Ami Fey one-shot special I came up with just to fit these prompts :3 ...And by "i present" i mean, uh, I wrote 4k words of it on the 31st and didn't even come close to what I wanted to cover, because I suck at being concise. Lmfao. (Shocker.) Basically, I used Ami Fey as a semi-self-insert kind of godlike figure to reason out a semi-plausible way to make the concept I want to explore happen, happen. And I had a lot of fun, but I do still have a bunch to finish, but either way, I'm very pleased to have a (somewhat silly but ultimately fun for me) reasoning as to the gears ticking behind the scenes of my idea! To be somewhat less vague, the whole AU is predicated on the idea that, Phoenix and/or Miles (who remember from the beginning / from December 28th, 2001) meeting the other characters at-or-after the time they originally met in canon are able to recall their memories of the "original" (i.e. canon) timeline. I've used some magatama shenanigans to have some fun with this, and I'm now using Ami Fey and magatama shenanigans to explain how and why this is A Thing, even if it isn't necessarily the objectively most logically sound argument I've ever made. It's still a good one, in my book, and more importantly I like it, so that's all that really matters.

To briefly explain the "two" (by which I mean 5?) of the "above" I'm using here:

Beginning of the World: This fic specifically would show the beginning of the "world" of this AU specifically! Woohoo! Go Ami Fey, creating a whole new set of problems for our beloved little Guys to go through, hahaha. I think I may have based her character a little too much on Maya mischievousness, but, oh well. Let's just say that's where she gets it from.

Younger/De-Aged: As I've already kind of expressed, the premise of this AU is mostly just them being their own younger selves except they also have the memories of all of canon (and maybe a year or two after the fact, I need to confirm a couple dates).

Canon Divergence: I feel like this is decently self-explanatory, but then again maybe it's a bit cheesy to include this here, since it basically diverges from nearly the first major event of canon (DL-6), but that's not the only time things go almost-canonically but diverge a bit in some way, so I think it really does fit here.

Guardian: This one is a bit multi-fold. It somewhat refers to the way I'm making Gregory Edgeworth the de facto guardian (as in, legal guardian) of mostly everyone I possibly can because I love him and he would be great at it. But also, guardian in that, Mr. Savior Complex Phoenix Wright himself has literally all of the information at his disposal to try to "save" the potential Happy Lives of literally every person he loves, and, well. He does a pretty good job about it; not without cost, haha, but I feel like I can definitely call him a "guardian" of others in this AU. And, as for specifically the one-shot Ami fic, she is essentially the guardian of the entire Fey lineage, in this AU at least, so that also totally fits and is most immediately relevant.

Everybody Lives: I think this one is pretty self-explanatory at this point, lol. But for the one-shot: Ami is essentially trying to secure an "everybody lives" scenario, even if it hasn't been achieved yet, so it's more an aspiration at that point, but ultimately it is indeed successful. Now, "living" does not mean, like, "totally healthy" (mentally or physically), so there's lots more to it, but in short, yes, they live.

And......that's basically a wrap on that!

I mean, it isn't actually at all, since I still have to finish 26/31 fics, lmfao, but as far as the idea generation stage goes, and the use of the AU-gust prompts, that's what's up in my world! Somewhere out there maybe there's an AU of my actual real life where i finished more of these on time, but i'm still pretty pumped by all the work that's already been made on making so many AA fics a reality for me. I've come a long way since starting that first AA fic in 2018...!!

I still have all the aforementioned 26 fics to finish obviously, and I also have AU continuations planned for at the very least, day 2's colorless prompt and day 3's dark academia prompt (let alone day 31's, lol, but that's its own monster entirely), but I'm optimistic!

Thankfully I actually finished using nano to word track for me before they, you know, doubled down on AI and called everyone "abelist" (???) for not supporting it, which, uh. Well. But for my own posterity and if anyone's curious, here's what my word counts looked like throughout the month of AU-gust--admittedly including some planning and outlining:

It ended up being 51,377 words total in August on these AU prompts alone!

I feel like I wanted to say something poignant and meaningful at the end here, but it's almost 9:30 and I work at 4am tomorrow, so I'm going to go ahead and wrap this post up here, haha. If you read all of this, thank you very much for joining me on my little journey!

Once again, here is the Ao3 series where I'll post anything more that gets done, so if you'd like to see how any of these AUs turn out, feel free to keep an eye on that!

And here is the previous post with the 1st half+ of the AUs if you missed it and are interested now!

My copy arrived literally as I was writing this up so I've spent the last several prompts of this post listening to the AAIC soundtrack in the music collection, and, oh man, it's seriously so surreal this exists??? I might be an old fogey who has and will for an indeterminate amount of time continue to have trouble letting go of the fan translation names I've lived with for the past decade or whatever, but it's seriously so awesome the entire series is finally available internationally!! Let's hope for my sake AA7 doesn't come out before I finish any of my AATTAU, because that would really throw a bit of a wrench in my decision-making process, lol.

Bye for now!

[dmysterioblog]

Chapter XII ✦ Know It’s For The Better

Paring; Rhea Ripley x Roman Reigns

Summary: Rhea makes a decision, was it the right one?

Warnings; bit of angst, kinda smut

Word Count: 4.3k

Playlist

Masterlist

A/n: nothing…

Flashback from SC

Her phone began to ring exactly at 10:00 AM, making her stir from her sleep as she turned to her side, slowly opening her eyes while reaching out to her phone to turn off the alarm. Rhea slowly sat on the bed as she rubbed her eyes, trying to force herself to wake as she took her phone and unlocked it. She checked to see if she had any texts from the boys or any emails that she needed to take a look at, but so far, nothing. Yet.

This was her last day along with Roman in South Carolina. They both didn’t have anything on their schedule to attend to as this was their last day and plus, they would be leaving for the airport this afternoon to head back home. Technically, they could spend the remainder of their last day doing whatever they wanted. Though she kept in mind that they had until 4:30 PM to check out from the hotel.

She looked to her side to see that Roman was still asleep, the tribal chief not being awakened by the sound of her alarm. Both of them had spent the night together again, their clothes tossed across the floor and both of them laying naked on the bed with the covers being the only thing that covered their bodies. Slowly, and careful not to wake up, she sat up from the bed, finding Roman’s shirt as well as her panties as she put both of them on before she went to the bathroom to brush her teeth. She then finished doing so as she rinsed her face before she dried her face with her towel, walking out from the bathroom afterwards when she once again heard her phone ding with text messages, specifically from the group chat that she was in, along with her boys and the Bloodline.

She opened the texts as she sat back on the bed and read them.

J: what time do y’all come back tonight again????? @Rhea @Roman

S: 🤦🏽‍♂️ Jimmy I already told you earlier-

F: Jimmy, they’re coming back @ midnight.

J: nvm

DP: Thank god y’all are coming back THANK GOD

Rolling her eyes, Rhea decided to reply back to Damian’s text in the group chat.

R: So now you’re admitting y’all can’t survive w/o us? lmfaooooo

DM: he’s been stressed ever since you two left lol

J: his hair’s been getting gray just like Paul’s when Roman was out 😭😭

DM: LMAO

DP: Stfu Jimmy 😒

J: 🤣🤣🤣

R: we’ll call you guys when we leave, but please text me or Reigns if u guys want or need anything before we leave

F: stay safe sis

DM: we miss you

J: translation: “I miss you mami pls come back rn.”

DM: 🙄

Rhea shook her head and smiled before she set her phone aside and decided to wake Roman.

“Reigns, get up.” She finally spoke, inching closer to him as she shook and patted his shoulder.

“Five minutes…” He grumbled as he stirred slightly, shifting his body only a bit.

“Oh come on, I was the one riding you last night, no way you’re this tired already. If anything, I should be the one tired.”

Roman only turned slightly as his eyes opened, giving her a look. “Are we really fighting over this now?”

“I don’t know, are we now?” She asked him as she crossed her arms. He only stared at her before he noticed the shirt that she wore.

“… is that my shirt?”

“Yeah.”

“Alright.” Roman grunted as he stood, fetching his underwear and sweatpants from the ground before he turned to her. “Give it back.”

“Nah.”

“Ripley.”

“You have a pair of panties from me, are you going to give those back?”

“Come on, I need to run downstairs to get us breakfast.” He insisted while she arched an eyebrow.

“You have plenty of other shirts, why this one?” Roman sighed in defeat before going onto his suitcase for another shirt.

“You’re gonna give that back to me.” He told her as he put on another shirt.

“And if I don’t?”

Roman was about to walk inside the bathroom when he paused in his steps as soon as Rhea said that. He seemed to contemplate for a few seconds before he turned his head to her.

“Alright, okay, let me rephrase that.” He began while Rhea crossed her arms at him. “If by the time we finish eating breakfast you don’t give me that shirt back, we’re gonna have a problem.”

“Yeah, I highly doubt that since you won’t give me my panties back.” Rhea tsked while leaning comfortably on the bed. “So, you could say we’re even now. You have my panties, and I have your shirt.”

Roman looked at the time on his phone. He seemed to contemplate yet again while Rhea watched him until he spoke. “… Breakfast doesn’t end until 11:30.”

“Reigns.”

“Which means, I have an hour and thirty minutes, plus I can always just order delivery instead, so, last chance; give the shirt back or we’re about to have problems.”

“Oh, you want to go down that route now?” She asked him as she pulled out a pillow.

“No, no pillow fi—“ A pillow was suddenly thrown at his face as he yelped and paused. He then caught it with one hand as he looked down at it before he looked up at her as she retrieved another pillow.

“If you want this shirt back, you’re gonna have to fight for it.”

“… okay, that’s it—“ Before Rhea could react, he attempted to get back on the bed and immediately, she began to smack him with the pillow repeatedly as he shielded himself in defense.

“Aw, what happened now? You can’t even fight back—“ The second she was distracted, Roman suddenly took the pillow from her and the next thing she new, he immediately grabbed her by the waist as his other free hand began to tickle her side.

“Wait—!” She yelped before she suddenly burst out laughing, struggling in his hold while he kept tickling her.

“You’re giving up the shirt now?”

“You son of a— stop—!” She only laughed despite being tickled, up until after a while, she suddenly managed to find her chance as she grabbed his wrist and flipped them over, straddling him on the bed while also pinning him down. Both took a moment to catch their breaths while they looked at each other.

“Giving up now?” She asked him beneath her breath while smirking down at him. He only gazed up at her momentarily, looking as if he wanted to say something at first which was noticed by Rhea. Her smirk slowly faded as she also gazed down at him.

Maybe perhaps it was because she wasn’t ready for him to tell her what she thought he was going to say, or maybe it was potentially the heat of the moment, but she couldn’t help but close the distance between them as they shared a passionate kiss. Her hands were already reaching to remove his shirt while his own hands went underneath the shirt that she wore from him as he caressed her skin. As soon as his shirt came off, she threw it across the floor before she began to lead kisses on his jawline, neck, and chest.

To say the least, they both made sure to only last for thirty minutes that morning, knowing that even if it was their last day like this, it didn’t matter to them for now.

But a deep, unknown, and discreet part of her wished that they had more time.

“—and with that, we conclude the matter as to why the suggestion of splitting the tag titles had come up to us initially. Now we understand that with you being champions and with war games coming up, it’s not the best option, although I really want you to consider the possibility of giving the tag team division a higher chance and—“

Rhea sat in her chair as she listened to it on and on, wishing that it had already ended as she leaned back on her seat too comfortably. She almost wanted to roll her eyes while hearing Adam speak, twirling the pen that she held in her right hand as she sat between Damian and Finn.

“Listen here, with all due respect, Pearce.” Damian began. “Finn and I should have a say in what we do with our championships. Isn’t that the point of it? Plus, we have an agreement with the Bloodline in the first place. Us spreading the titles apart just to give others that opportunity makes zero sense when you can literally just come up with other types of championships.”

“Well, to be fair, Priest has a point.” Nick admitted as he shifted in his seat. “Despite the Bloodline being on Raw and the Bloodline on Smackdown, everyone is quite acknowledging the fact that both of your groups are now one group at this point.”

“Although, it’s not made official yet.” Adam said as he crossed his arms. At that, everyone within the group looked at each other, then everyone’s heads turned to Rhea and Roman specifically. Roman then outstretched his hand to Paul’s direction as the wiseman gave him a contract.

“You see Pearce, we knew you were going to mention that, so…” Roman then handed the contract to Pearce as he blinked and took it, reading the contents of it as Roman began to explain. “This contract includes everyone’s signature. And when I say everyone, I mean the Judgement Day and the Bloodline.”

Pearce narrowed his eyes as he read the contract before he looked up at Nick, who also wanted to take a look at it as the former wrestler showed him the contents of the paper. As Nick read everything, Rhea spoke.

“You also said you want to give other wrestlers the opportunity, no?” She asked. “Well, this is another way of doing it. By having both our factions unified officially and being able to be on both brands, we can defend our championships and give the spotlight to every superstar in these locker rooms.” She then looked at Adam and Nick firmly as she crossed her arms. “You both want to give people chances, but we? We want to remain on top. So, since we both want something… all we need is your signatures, as well as Triple H’s, and we can call this a day.”

She concluded her speech as she leaned back on her chair once again. All eyes were set on Nick and Pearce as they both contemplated over the contract. Nick then whispered something to Adam’s ear, the latter looking hesitant at first before he sighed and nodded. They then all saw as both men signed the contract.

“We will notify Triple H to be in touch with you all regarding the contract.” Adam said before he stood. “Make sure to also keep a copy of it once he signs as well. We will also discuss this with him as well. But as of now, with Triple H’s signature, this will be fully official.”

“Good. So now we’re good to go then?” Rhea immediately asked as she stood up along with the others.

“Yes, yes it is.”

“Great.”

“Pleasure doing business with you two.” Damián said as he shook both Nick and Adam’s hands, the others also doing the same before they all began to walk away from the conference room. As they did, Rhea heard her phone ring as she looked to see that Raquel was calling.

“Hey Raq, I just got out of the meeting, ‘sup?”

“Ay, al fin, loca. Shayna and I are waiting for you outside, we’re gonna go and pick up Zoey and then we’re heading out.”

“Alright, I’ll be there in a minute, see you.” She then hung up as she kept her phone in her pocket before she turned to Damian. “I’m heading out. If anything happens, text me.”

“I got you. Stay safe though.” Damian nodded at her as they fist bumped one another before she began to walk away. She managed to head outside the parking area where Raquel and Shayna had been waiting for her. Raquel was in the driver’s seat of her rental car as she decided to move to the passenger seat to allow Rhea to be the one driving.

“She’s still at the hotel?” Rhea asked as she put her seatbelt on.

“Yeah well, she overslept. I told her not to go to the gym last night but noooo, her dumbass didn’t wanna listen.” Shayna said as she texted her phone. “But I’m letting her know that we are on our way.”

“Where are we going anyways?” Rhea asked as she arched an eyebrow while she began to drive off.

“Whenever we want,” Raquel shrugged. “Chica, it’s a Saturday. We get to do whatever the fuck we want today. And plus, you need a break.”

“Thanks for reminding me again.” Rhea almost said sarcastically while Raquel gave her a look. After a while, they arrived at the hotel as they waited. Raquel was the one to call Zoey’s phone as they waited at the parking lot when they heard the door open.

“Shut up, I’m here!” Zoey said almost urgently as she got inside the car and sat with Shayna in the back. “What’s the occasion anyways? Y’all were rushing me like it’s the end of the world.”

“We are going to places. Wherever Rhe Rhe decided to take us to.” Raquel casually said. “And I’ll be paying.”

“Well as long as we get to chill, I’m cool with it.” Zoey simply commented before she perked up. “Oh by the way, Rips, I hope you’re ready for that match at Survivor Series against me.”

“Oh, you bet your ass that you’ll be in for Hell, I’ll tell you that.” Rhea scoffed as she fixed the rear view mirror before she drove away with them.

“Well, if Liv doesn’t get to you fi— ow!” Shayna yelped when Zoey smacked her in the shoulder.

“Hey, no Liv, no Dom, no Roman, not even a word of them. We talked about this.” Raquel told Shayna sternly.

“Sorry…”

The group continued to chat about many things until they stopped by a red light. Because Rhea’s phone was connected to the car’s Bluetooth radio, a call came through, and everyone could see that it was Roman calling.

“Girl, I thought you blocked him—“ Zoey blurted out while Rhea sighed and rubbed her head.

“Fuck my life.”

“Ah ah ah, you’re not answering.” Raquel quickly said. “Just let it ring.”

“Yeah, what she said.” Shayna immediately agreed.

“… guys, it might be something about the meeting—“

“Oh you have GOT to be kidding me, Rhea don’t you dare—“

“We signed a contract thirty minutes ago, so Reigns might have an update for me, Jesus.” Rhea snapped at them as she huffed. “Plus, it’s just one phone call. Won’t take that long.”

“… Okay, fine, answer it. But only if we hear it.” Raquel told her as she sighed deeply. Rhea only nodded as she went ahead and answered the call.

“Reigns, whatever you have to say, make it quick. I’m quite busy here.”

“Just wanted to let you know that Wiseman just spoke with Triple H on the phone. He wants to arrange a meeting this Monday with us.”

“Alright. We accept.” Rhea replied as she made a left turn, all the while Raquel, Shayna, and Zoey listened carefully. “Time and place?”

“Next Monday at 10 AM before Raw.”

“Good, we’ll be there.” Rhea was then about to hang up when Roman suddenly spoke.

“Also, I know you’re busy and everything but… if there’s a chance if we can meet up tomorrow and—“

“Nope, she’s busy with us, so bye bye!” Zoey immediately interrupted as she reached the screen and hung up on the call.

“Zoey what the fuck—“

“Hey, I’m saving your mental health girl. You’ll thank me later.” Zoey said as she smiled while Shayna tried her best not to laugh beside her.

Rhea stared at Zoey incredulously from the rear view mirror. “You did not just do that…”

“I mean, I would’ve done the same.”

“Raquel, please.”

“What? It’s true.”

“Look, Zoey’s right though.” Shayna told her. “Don’t think about them for now. Get your break, you can worry about your own shit later.”

Rhea sighed as she continued to drive away. The group spent most of their day hanging out in several places for the most part.

Up until nighttime, the group returned to the hotel as they got out of the car and walked together.

“We should do that more often,” Raquel commented as she carried her purse and her phone all in one hand. “I’m kinda liking this whole thing, to be honest with you guys.”

“Yeah, even better than dealing with shit at work.” Zoey snorted as she looked at the time in her watch. “I’m heading to the bar for a bit, does anyone wanna join?”

“I can” Shayna folded her hands inside her pockets before she turned to Raquel and Rhea. However, Raquel yawned as she shook her head.

“Sorry guys, as much as I want to, I need to take a few z’s… I didn’t sleep much last night.”

“I might go for a swim in the pool for a bit. It’s not that late anyways.” Rhea mumbled as she also looked at the time in her watch.

“Alright, if you guys change your minds, you know where to find us.” Shayna told them, her and Zoey bid the other two women farewell as they went to the bar while Raquel and Rhea went to the elevator.

“Told you this was a good idea.” Raquel said as she pressed the button of the elevator.

“Aside from Shayna and Zoey screaming and singing in the car like a pair of hyenas? Yeah, it was.”

“Oh please, you were literally headbanging whenever your favorite songs played the entire time.” Raquel snorted.

“We should do it more often- but only after I retain my title against Zoey.”

“Oh, you’re THAT confident, I see you.”

Both laughed as they went inside the elevator. As they did, Rhea felt her phone vibrate in her pocket as she blinked and retrieved it.

She had three texts. One from Dom, one from Roman.

And unexpectedly, a third one from Liv.

Her smile dropped as she sighed deeply while Raquel noticed. “You’re making a face, something’s wrong. Let me guess, Roman texted?”

“Close.”

“Roman and Dom?”

“Closer. One more.”

“… no way.”

“Yep.”

“What the hell does Liv want—?”

“I don’t know, and frankly, I do not care right now.” Rhea immediately said as she kept her phone inside her pocket once again before the elevator stopped as they both got out.

“Do you want me to talk to her? Because I can gladly deal with her again if I have to.” Raquel asked as they both went to Rhea’s room while Rhea went to unlock her door.

“No. No, I’ll be alright.” She reassured her as she exhaled. “I’ll deal with her on Monday.”

“Deal with her? Rhea what do you—“

“I spoke with Adam and apparently, Liv wants to settle this score with a non-title match. And because unfortunately I need to keep everything settled again, I had no choice but to accept.”

“Rhea, fighting Liv isn’t going to solve anything.”

“Well, try telling her that. She was the one that asked for the match.”

“Look- let me talk to her first. Tomorrow.” Raquel insisted to her. “That way maybe you don’t have to deal with her the hard way on Monday. You have a lot on your plate right now, and I want to help. I really do.”

Rhea stared at her for a moment as she pondered, considering her idea before she leaned against the wall. “You know, if only the circumstances were different, I’d have you join the Judgment Day.”

Raquel chuckled at that before her expression immediately changed to a serious one. “Yeah no— thanks, but no thanks.”

“That’s what they all say at first until they give in. I’m just saying.” Rhea said as she smirked while she opened her door. “Think about it.”

“Still a no- but hey, I’m open to hang out with you guys though. Except Dom, you know damn well that we will argue like little kids.”

“Hey, I can’t guarantee that he won’t be around. Even if we’re broken up, he still hangs out with Priest and Finn and only talks to me when needed, so.” Rhea said as she crossed her arms while Raquel scoffed and slowly walked away.

“Same thing with Reigns then?”

“Sadly, too. Although it’s a bit different, now that you mention it…”

“Oh come on, why do you always pick pussies?”

“Well, they are what they eat.”

“Chingona—“ Raquel almost howled laughing while Rhea also couldn’t help but laugh at her reaction, watching as her best friend walked to her room. “Alright, I’m hitting the hay. See you in the morning! Take care!”

“No promises!” Rhea replied back.

“You will promise!”

“No I won’t!”

With that, Rhea went into her room as she closed the door behind her. She placed her things on the table lamp beside her bed before she removed her shoes and plumped herself down on the bed as she looked up at the ceiling. She rested there only for a bit, considering whether she should head down to take a quick dive on the pool and then come back and sleep or just finish off her day for now. She looked at the time on her watch before she made her choice and went to the bathroom. She would rather go in the morning after she did her daily workout in the gym.

After a quick shower, she went to grab her suitcase as she had the towel wrapped around her body, looking for a set of comfortable clothes to sleep with. She managed to dig for a pair of panties, followed by a pair of black shorts. She then went to look for a shirt when she noticed one in particular inside her suitcase as she blinked and— wait, this one looked a bit bigger on her than usual...

Blinking, she took a closer look at it when realization dawned on her.

Roman’s shirt.

“Fuck.” She mumbled as she snatched a bathrobe from the bathroom and placed it around her immediately while also putting on her panties and shorts underneath. No, she can’t have his shirt here with her. She had to give it back to him. She was trying her best to give herself some space from him and everything else going on- what if he also went to try and look for it when he realizes that he doesn’t have that shirt with him?

She held the shirt in her hands, debating whether she should go and find him to give it back when she heard a knock on her door which startled her. “Fuck—“

“Ripley, it’s me.” She suddenly heard Roman’s voice from outside. At that, Rhea paused as she looked at the door, then at the shirt in her hands. “Look… I just want to talk.”

She remained silent, hoping that he would assume that she wasn’t there in the first place. However at the same time, she just wanted to open the door to him and tell him.

But tell him what, exactly?

“Rhea, I know you’re there. I just heard you curse earlier. Look, if you don’t want to talk the —“

“Wait, hold on.” She immediately called out as she replaced the bathrobe with another shirt of hers from her suitcase. She then looked down at his shirt before she took a deep breath as she once again took it and went to open the door.

“Hey.”

“Hey. Are you doing alright?”

“… I’ve been worse.” She only mumbled before she looked down at his shirt and gave it to him. “I uh, I packed it by accident… I figured I should’ve returned it to you.”

“No. No, it’s fine. I… I didn’t come here for that, anyways,” He said to her. Rhea went silent at that as she looked down moment before she looked up. “I wanted to check on you.”

“Look… I’m sorry, it’s just…” She mumbled, trying to find the right words to say. “I’m just trying to keep it together at this point.”

“I know. I get it. It’s been rough, but look, I’m here if you need anything and—”

“No, Reigns, it’s…” Rhea trailed off as she sighed deeply. For some unknown reason, she felt a knot form on her throat as she tried to compose herself as she spoke. “…I’m sorry, I don’t want to sound like a dick, but…I need some space. I need some time. Alone.”

“...Well, if that's what you want- if that’s what you need, then that’s what i’ll give you.” He softly cupped her face before placing a gentle kiss on her forehead, as if saying goodbye. He then gave her one last look before walking away, right when tears began to fall down her cheeks.

“Fuck.” She cursed underneath her breath as she went back inside her room and locked the door behind her. She allowed her tears to fall from her eyes as she rested her back against the door. She then looked down at her hand and realized that she still had his shirt.

He never took it back.

Without a word, she simply went to turn off the lamp in her room before she laid down in bed, holding the piece of cloth close to her and even hugging it for dear life as she laid on her side. Had she made the right choice?

Taglist:

@sassginaswanmills @riptideripley @tonuitekan @eepyslut

[imaginaryberries]

I'm in a bad mood bc I think I'm due my first PP period and I've been vaguely sore the last couple of days but it hasn't shown up yet. Anyway so here's some stuff that annoys me:

- photos of like a weird shaped rock or whatever that very clearly resembles a food item with the caption "my fat ass thought this was a [food item] 😂😂" like yes obviously because it looks almost exactly like one and the photo has clearly been taken for that reason?

- also photos of unusual cloud formations or water splashes etc where the caption is "if you see X you're left brained, if you see Y you're right brained", where the thing doesn't look like either and is clearly a third thing to get people to comment and say that

- I guess those two are similar but that combo of blatant insincerity and fishing for likes just irks me

- the fact that it's fairly widely known that ADHD meds are less effective in the run up to getting your period but it doesn't seem to be routine to make the obvious small adjustments to prescriptions (slight dose increase for that time) to remedy it

- we are going skiing next year with my in-laws and we were meant to be flying from Edinburgh (we live in Glasgow so already I'm not thrilled about this as once the holiday is over I just want to be home asap and this extra journey is another obstacle to that) and the idea of travelling for that long and flying and being away from home for a week with two young kids is stressful enough but we found out earlier in the week the flight got cancelled and we have to fly from fucking Manchester instead. We're only going to Austria so it's not that far but it's going to be two days of travel either side essentially (one to drive down to Manchester with enough stops for the kids, one for the airport faff and the flight, and the same on the way back) and I hate travelling and I hate flying even more since the terrifying landing earlier this year and I don't know what I'm going to fucking eat either now that I can't have dairy as well as gluten. I know how negative I'm sounding here but I also don't like skiing, I've tried it but I don't like it and it scares me and I'm not interested in doing it so I won't be hiring any ski stuff and will just hang out in the resort with the kids (my SIL also has two so this will be at least a two person job) and see family for meals etc but I know they will not be happy about this because they really want me to like it but I just don't!! I don't like to seem like the spoilsport as the only person in a group of 10 (adults) who doesn't want to do it but I can't help it! I don't want to stop anybody else from doing it I just want them to be okay with the fact that I don't

- it's just occurred to me that none of the ski gear that I will still need to wear due to the cold will fit me anymore. And I see now why I have been having vaguely unsettling recurring stress dreams about trying to pack for a trip lol

- I am still not getting all that much sleep and for the most part I'm coping well but today I'm grumpy about it

[mana-jjk]

this is so good. ok so it seems like toge did not take yuuta leaving to study abroad very well. I wonder how that conversation went.

Also I am obsessed with fashion student nobara. I'm curious how the main trio become friends

thank you !! 🥺

study abroad:

• so the last thing i want to do is make toge out as being too dependent. the reason why he struggled so much is because of a variety of factors weighing on him. his family life, his unhappiness with college, losing a close friend for a year, guilt at his scholarship, isolation from classmates who couldn’t understand sign, etc.

• that being said, yuuta was completely against the idea of going abroad at first.

• it was a proposed study abroad/internship that gojo and shoko helped set-up for him without really consulting him first (gojo lol). but it was also a really good opportunity under the guidance of a traveling anthropologist, miguel, who had medical connections in africa.

• maki immediately pushed him to do it, saying it would be an insult not to take advantage of every opportunity. med school is competitive and he needed every advantage and connection on his side. she was obviously going to miss him, though she’d never admit it out loud, but her ambition is what has fueled her for her entire life.

• panda was less passionate about it, and a lot more expressive at his bittersweet reaction. but he grew up around academics with no perception of time, so he was full of encouragement and promises.

• toge’s immediate reaction was pride for him, he was always trying to tell yuuta how amazing he was and this was just a product of his work. he tried to ignore the heavy pit in his chest, the way his eyes burned every time he thought about going a year without seeing him.

• for yuuta the thought of leaving his friends to an entirely different country was terrifying. what if they found new friends they liked better than him? what if they forgot him? what if everything was different when he came back? he was terrified, and anxious, and everything in between and at night it felt like he couldn’t breathe.

• it’s toge with his awful sleep schedule that finds him huddling under a blanket at an ungodly hour. face pale, eyes dull, knee bouncing with a mind of its own. and despite the way toge wanted to tell him just to stay, he never could bear to see him suffer.

• so he ignores the way his hands shake, he pulls the blanket up just enough to hide alongside him, and traces into the palm of his hand, ‘what do you want?’

• and strangely enough, he’s the first one to ask him that. it’s enough to send him to tears, shoulders up to his neck, and head bowed with a sniffle.

• “i want to do this,” he says, “but i don’t want to leave, i want to stay with everyone. What if you forget all about me?”

• ‘you think one year would be enough for us to ever forget you? stupid. we encourage you because we love you, but we’ll be counting down the days until you come back,’ toge hesitates before softly reminding him, ‘how could i ever forget you?’

• by the end of it, yuuta runs out of tears to cry and promises to buy a better phone so they can facetime.

• if they hug for a little too long at the airport, not even maki gives them grief about it. they even get a calendar designated, ‘days until yuuta is home.’

the first-year trio:

• so i do have some grief about how exactly these kids would have met. and i know for sure that yuuji is probably the gravitational force here.

• so if i had to break it down, i would say that megumi probably noticed yuuji right away, but was too emo to approach him. they probably shared a pre-requisite class that yuuji struggled in and then noticed how smart megumi was. cue yuuji bombarding him, pleading for help and basically dragging him into helping him. from there, yuuji eventually attached himself to his hip, especially after meeting his dogs.

• they met nobara halfway through the semester. completely on accident, on their way back from a study session that accomplished nothing, to see her threatening someone with a hammer.

• to say they were shocked is downplaying it.

• it turns out the guy had tried attacking her first. but as per her heated explanation, she happened to have a hammer from one of her projects in her crafting bag that she busted his knee cap with. then proceeded to yell at him for the next ten minutes until they passed by.

• they helped her move the guy to the nearest police station, and yuuji insisted on walking her back home. she gave him a scrutinizing glare before shoving her bag into his hands, to which he took with minimal complaint. from there she decided their presence would be beneficial enough, though she complained about megumi’s resting face.

• i absolutely love nobara getting to do fashion design and marketing, i think she would be such an unhinged creator.

• she has every social media possible, posting pictures of both the outfits she creates and the crazy marketing strategies she employs.

• she still wants to model, and insists her style is completely unique. she even hammers metal into her functional fashion that she boasts with a crazy grin.

• yuuji once offered to model for her and she gave him such a disgusted look that it physically wounded him lol

• it’s actually meeting maki and toge that inspires her. she designs so many outfits for maki that her closet actually starts to fill with something other than training equipment. meanwhile toge does have some interest in fashion and is genuinely interested in her work. he’s one of the few men she tolerates and actually has asked him to be her reference for male attire, something that makes yuuji give her a kicked puppy look.

• anyway toge is actually her bestie because he’ll spend hours talking about her designs, and also do the dance trends with her. she already decided the day she and maki have a child that he will be the god parent lol

whew, thank you for the asks !! i always talk way too much so this might take a hot minute to go through them, but i truly appreciate the interest !! 🥺🫶

[thundergrace]

Oh sorry for two things. First to bother you with my asks and second to not explain myself properly(my bad for not knowing English fluently)

I was meaning about the idea of building projects with the same actresses, honing in their chemistry to build what it seems to be a new genre of media in Thailand.

You are completely right about the shipping and that has become a big issue, as you can see with Freenbecjy and englot.

I am new to kpop but the way the shipping is being handle feels a lot like those ships from gg groups and I feel it feels weird

First of all, English should apologize to YOU. It's not you. English is the problem here.

Yeah and I think it's a wonderful thing! You see two people who really spark on screen, and that project ends, it's amazing to know you'll see them together again! But I'd be careful if I were these studios. You don't want the actresses to get to the point they're checked out on screen because they're too used to each other. That spark can burn out. So again, they need some variety as well. They should mix up the pairings from time to time.

But yeah, the shipping thing makes it uncomfortable. It's exactly like the kpop stuff! They're having fan meets - which still feels bizarre in itself. They're having huge crowds at airports and ship names. And just... it's wild. It's taken some getting used to but yeah they're basically idols lol

But it's more intense because people don't have to imagine them in romantic situations like they do with kpop idols. They literally get to see it on screen. So the shipping seems really like.... it's on another level lol

[bleachbleachbleach]

9/6 - 9/10/2023

I think my biggest accomplishment this week is definitely regrowing a decent bit of skin on my leg, and in addition to my "omg just write fanfic do not clean the kitchen it's dangerous out there" lesson I mentioned last week, I've now also learned a lot about burn care! Or not the care itself, but burn progression, and what those stages look and feel like. Also learned that Reddit won't let you view "mature content" (burn images) on your phone unless it's through the Reddit app, which is very annoying. I'm never gonna download the Reddit app. Anyway, new skin is thrilling! And while my September plans were supposed to be "work out more," the burn care thing has sort of tabled that for a bit, which has let me commit more to "omg just write fanfic" September.

I spent most of this week working on scenes that do not feel that great. Reasons for this:

My attempts to describe setting and/or stage business keep coming out in the most arcanely described and/or overwritten (or maybe underwritten?? who knows) ways. Why.

It just feels like there's a lot of Things, and why are there so many things. Like *butterfly meme* is this worldbuilding or is this an episode of Hoarders

But by the time I got to the stuff I was writing on Saturday and this morning, *I* at least feel like some of the threads are coming together. I spent a lot of Thursday feeling despair of the "but who's going to read that far" variety, but part of me is also like, well, it's fairly likely no one's going to read this either way, so maybe the concern should be proportional to that.

Right now, I'm about 1000 words into a Renji-Akon conversation that's had all the middle bits written for like, a year and a half. The middle bits were all jokes, lol, but I'm currently feeling pretty excited by the Themes and Motifs that are coming out of the full version of the scene. It's been really interesting learning about how their POVs about the Gotei and their co-workers and the NATURE OF LIFE AND DEATH mesh, or don't. I always think it's interesting thinking about like, people who've worked together(ish) for decades, and what about each other is knowable and old hat--except you're co-workers, not exactly friends, so your dataset of what's very known vs. what you know absolutely nothing about is super skewed.

To finish the chapter, I have the end of the Renji-Akon conversation to write; the end of the subsequent scene to write, which will probably be more involved than it seems because it's kinda-sorta a fight scene; and then revisions to the chapter tag, which I think will mostly be about trying to make this chapter seem less like a grab bag of things that happen to happen in sequence and more like there's some kind of narrative throughline.

I want to say I can finish the chapter by the end of the week, but unfortunately I'm out of town Thurs-Sun for a ~strategy retreat~ and am feeling very upset about having to drive myself to the airport (hell itself) at 2:30AM on Wednesday night, so I'll probably spend most of the first half of the week trying to keep all my shit together and then a lot of next week trying to get everything back together.

I'm going to boldly aim to finish this chapter, my Part 1 read-through, and Chapter 7 (to finish out Part 1) by the end of September! Which was my previously-stated goal for the end of August, lol.

Part 2 starts with Kira's chapter, which I think is the only chapter I've written absolutely none of, and which I have the least notes for (and all of those notes are about Hinamori, not Kira), but Renji and Akon just talked a lot about Kira, and I'm pretty excited for that horizon once I get there!

[reillyissof]

I’m really glad you liked the barbie movie!! I’m not the target audience so it’s not for me but I think you really got it when you mentioned Ken adopting the patriarchy and sexist ideas as a way to make himself feel more powerful and secure because that’s really one of the core ideas of the patriarchy that by dominating women men are more well… manly and loyalty to a patriarchal system results in men being given the privilege of feeling big and hurting women without consequence.

Anyways I don’t want to ramble but I do wish the whole bit about how Barbie never really regards Ken as a friend was explored more because while it’s not exactly immediately a feminist idea I think it should still be unpacked just as a growing up thing. Also because I think because it’s not super unpacked it’s not unreasonable for viewers to leave the movie thinking it said Oh Men are Misogynistic because they feel insecure in a weird way that strips them of responsibility (which I don’t think the movie wants to say) but it’s just my Opinion lol

Hello!!!!

I agree with most of what you are saying but I might of come off differently then what I was intending, I wasn’t trying to say that Ken was doing all this just because he was insecure I meant it just because it made him feel good. It wasn’t a oh.. no one here respects me I’ll never be cool… ooh what’s this *installs patriarchy*. I thought it was more of a “woah they people are treating me extra cool it’s be cool if everyone treated me and my friends like this all the time! *installs patriarchy*” like that

He elevated himself with it but his higher standing was unstable due to his connnection and unresolved feelings towards Barbie.

Another thing about him was at the end when Barbie was trying to forgive him and he kept taking it as an opertunity to try and kiss her was a bit realistic how people think they can just do stuff like that once they get any kind of I forgive you, like it’s a green light.

Thags all!

I am at the airport and distracted but Thankyou for the ask!

[thoroughlymodernminutia]

A Wisp of Smoke - Chapter 1 (Mike Duarte x F!Reader)

Summary: An unconventional member joins the Bronx Gang Unit.

Word Count: 3364

Content Warning: This is mildly canonical but like not really, so if that bothers you, then I’d skip. Some physical description - gave hte reader some gray hair cause I'm old and I want to represent some old people lol. Edit that out of your mind if you need to. Foul language (if that bothers you?), Gang talk, coworkers who don’t like each other, this part I don’t think has anything that would be triggering, but if you feel differently I can update the warnings.

A/N: When I tell you that I started writing this in October…it means exactly that. This has morphed into something different than I was expecting and I imagine I will have to scrap some stuff I have written once the next episode airs, so this is EVOLVING. Who even knows what this will be about by the time it’s finished. God help me. If there are typos, I apologize - I proof read this a few times and i'm sure somewhere there is something wrong

UM, Minors probably shouldn’t read this but I’m not your mother.

—-

The thing about the subway is it takes time to understand the quirks—the nuances—of the subway lines you take. The majority of your time is taking one line to and from work if you’re lucky. You’ve been taking one train line for so long, you’re at 90% accuracy of predicting when something is about to go wrong. You like the routine of it—knowing if you get to the platform right at 8:01 AM you’ll only have to wait a minute before the train comes and you’ll get to work early. It’s an art and a science, but it takes practice. It’s why taking a job so far out of your usual subway line is annoying; you have to learn it all over again. It’s made even worse by having to switch to another line, if something goes wrong on that first leg of the commute, you’re fucked for the rest of it.

And today, you feel like you’re fucked. You leave your apartment like a parent leaving for the airport; panicking about the time and trying to make sure you have everything. You feel smug catching the subway right when it pulls into the platform and getting in a nearly empty subway car. The smugness fades when you transfer to another train that happily sits between stations for 30 minutes and then decides to switch to the express track. It’s not express for you though, of course. It puts you a good mile away from where you need to be, instead of the five blocks you planned for. The extra distance isn’t an issue, for once you might show up on time without having to walk around the block ten times. It is, however, unseasonably warm for February and now your coat is overkill. You stop and take it off, juggling your bag from hand to hand as you remove it. It’s insane, not even being able to feel cold in February in New York. 

While you walk the unfamiliar sidewalks of the South Bronx you think about how this is your brother-in-law Tommy’s doing. You don’t even know how or why he’s sending you up to the Bronx as some kind of backfill in the Gang Unit. You aren’t a cop, so you have no idea why they’d want you up there. You feel like it’s going to look pretty strange, a senior analyst for the NYPD in the Intelligence Bureau, joining the Gang Unit. Gangs in the Bronx aren’t really on your radar; the majority of your time is spent juggling mostly empty threats against NYC. Analyzing the message boards and social media where people spew garbage 24/7. It’s weird to think that maybe this will be a break from that. 

You do know a little about Duarte’s reputation. For as much as Tommy thinks gossiping is a female trait he certainly loves to partake in it. You heard all about the drama between him and Captain Benson–Tommy was almost gleeful when recounting it. You get the impression that like most men in the NYPD Duarte is only happy when he gets his way. You could be completely wrong, it’s not like Tommy is the most reliable narrator. 

—-

The precinct looks different than you thought it would. You had imagined something along the lines of a bland box with windows, but this is a beautiful limestone building. Some of the stone work looks like it belongs in an Italian palazzo in the 16th century. The inside reminds you of an old library with the heavy wood furniture and dim lighting. It’s really quite something—all these disappearing architectural gems throughout all the boroughs. As you walk towards the Desk Sergeant you wonder how much longer it will be around before the city turns it into a glassbox citing progress in the neighborhood. 

When you ask where you can find Captain Duarte you realize the charm seems to end with the interior and doesn’t really extend to the people. She looks like you’ve just ruined her day by speaking to her. She nods her head towards the stairs and says it’s the third floor. You thank her, thinking maybe that’s her problem, no one ever sounds grateful for her assistance. Halfway up the stairs you do consider turning around and walking right back down and out of the building. You suppress the urge; dealing with Tommy in the aftermath of flaking would probably be worse than whatever fresh hell is waiting for you a few flights up.

You duck into the bathroom when you get to the third floor and are relieved when you find it empty. You set your bag on the edge of the sink, and drape your coat over a stall door. You turn back to the mirror and give yourself a once over. You were going for an overall look of extreme competence so you went with all black. Black silk button down, black skinny jeans, black thick soled loafers. You think maybe you look like you’re about to attend a funeral—probably your own. You hike up your jeans a little and try to ignore how much your feet hurt. You look back up to your face in the mirror to check your makeup. It still looks good; your eyeliner is intact and hopefully giving the impression that you’re precise, detail oriented. Your hair looks fine, the gray pieces framing your face, glossy under the overhead lights. You used to hate that you started going gray fairly young; you must have spent thousands covering it up over the years. At some point you stopped caring and just let it be. It came with a fun bonus, men you worked with suddenly thought you were old and left you alone. You give yourself one last once over before washing your hands. As you grab your things and head out of the bathroom you run through the little information you have like you’re cramming for a test. 

An officer shows you to Captain Duarte’s office and tells you that you can wait inside, that he doesn’t know when he’ll be back. It’s very you to think that you’re going to be late to something and be the person that ends up waiting. When the officer leaves you put your bag on one of the chairs and drape your coat over the back. His desk is neat and you don’t see much in the way of personal effects on it. There’s a few books and you’re tempted to go to the other side of his desk to get a better look, but restrain yourself knowing the moment you do, he will come walking in. You sit down in one of the chairs and wait. 

—-  

As Duarte approaches his office he can see you sitting inside. He had put your arrival out of his mind once McGrath had told him and seeing you now throws him off for a moment. He should be prepared, he only knows what McGrath told him. Although, he’s sure that since McGrath is the one who sent you here, the information isn’t reliable. When you get up and introduce yourself, his initial impression is that you’re prissy. The way your coat is folded over the back of one of the chairs. How you’re now clasping your hands in front of you. Your outfit, a far cry from the recently departed, hoodie-clad Muncy. He can’t tell what he hates more right now, the way you look or that you were foisted on him by McGrath. 

Duarte closes the door to his office and turns back to face you.

“I don’t really know what you’re doing here. You have no gang—no actual police experience. I’d wager to say you’ve never used a gun. I don’t care about your intelligence experience. Frankly, you could single handedly bring down all gang activity in this city and it wouldn’t matter to me. If you think whatever relationship you have with McGrath is going to help you here, you’re wrong.”

It’s a lot all at once and you try to ignore the way he says ‘relationship’. As if you slept with Tommy to get you a job with the Gang Unit. If you’re going to sleep your way to a new job in the NYPD, it wouldn’t be for a mostly lateral position all the way in the Bronx. You can feel yourself about to do that thing where you match the energy that’s being directed your way. It’s great when the person you’re dealing with isn’t an asshole. But if they’re looking to take the low road, well you own a home there.

“I’m sorry, I must have blacked out. I think I missed a part where you said something like ‘I’m glad to have you on the team.’” 

The look on his face tells you he was expecting you to be more yielding in your response. Maybe eight or ten years ago you would have been. You’re tired of minimizing yourself to make men in the NYPD feel better.

“If I felt that way, I would have said it. This is real shit we deal with, no one here has time to babysit you.”

“Well, I’ll just have to cut the crust off my own sandwich then, won’t I?” You try to keep your voice calm. “Look, I’m good at my job and whatever it is I’m supposed to do here, I’ll be good at that too.”

Duarte grabs a box off of his desk and thrusts it at you. 

“I think you’re going to find your confidence is misplaced.”

You balance the box on your hip as you pick up your coat and bag from the chair. You consider not saying anything else, but when you get to the door you turn around and smile.

“I just have to say, this has just been so pleasant. Really looking forward to working with you.”

He huffs in your general direction before turning back to his desk. You know he’s setting you up for failure—not giving you a single inch already. He’s probably looking forward to watching you spin your wheels and flame out. If there’s anyone that can dig their heels in it’s you, so if he is looking for some kind of low level fight you’re ready.

—-

You’re unpacking the box at your desk when you see a friendly face standing at the desk across from yours. It could be Satan smiling at you at this point and you’d take it. You both introduce yourselves as he sits down.

“Should I call you Jordan or Williams? I know how much everyone in the NYPD loves going by their last name.” 

“Ha! True. Honestly, either is fine.”

You pull another stack of files and a hard drive out the box and look at your computer for the time. When you see it’s barely 10AM you know it’s going to be a long rest of the day. 

“Well, Jordan, can I ask you something?”

“Let me guess, your face is giving me, is he always like that?”

“Ha, yes that is the question.”

Jordan lets out a sigh, “It depends. He’s still pissed at McGrath I think. After he let Captain Benson snatch Muncy from us. And then Benson gets attacked, I don’t know, there’s a lot going on.” He pauses for a moment. “It’s fucked up, but he’s probably worried McGrath sent you up here as a spy or something.”

“What if he did?”

Jordan leans back in his chair and scans your face trying to determine if you’re telling the truth.

“Did he?”

You give Jordan a wry smile.

“No. But it will be fun letting Captain Duarte think so.”

You can’t help but laugh because it’s so dumb; that someone would think you were sent up here to spy. It seems like something Tommy would do—send someone up here to unknowingly spy for him. Tommy is an idiot, but you’re not. 

Jordan chuckles as he shakes his head.

“I think it’s going to be good having you around.”

You both chat a little more and you’re able to get from him what you couldn’t from Duarte; what he’s actually looking for. You already had a feeling that he wanted to treat gangs like terrorist groups and your theory proves true. It also proves true that he wanted someone with your experience but who was also a detective. He must think Tommy short-changed him with you so he could have a person on the inside. At least now you have a clearer picture of why he hates you. You’d probably hate you too if you were in Duarte’s shoes.

You spend the rest of the morning going through everything Duarte gave you. It’s strange trying to apply everything you know to a completely new set of circumstances. You can already feel some doubt creeping in. Yes you’re good at your job—but this is not that. You think that Duarte probably views you as some interloper trying to use this as some kind of play to get ahead. Take credit for fixing a problem and leave behind other growing problems. It’s only partially true; you don’t care about taking credit for things but you are an interloper. It’s not like this is really your community; you don’t live in areas impacted by gang violence. You don’t have the depth and breadth of knowledge on the specific systemic issues that allow this type of thing to flourish. With counter-terrorism it always seems like a much broader issue where the violence impacts many, where gang violence only affects the few. It’s something that you feel like you’re going to be unpacking for as long as you’re here. 

Duarte and Williams leave early in the afternoon. You don’t know if you were expecting Duarte to tell you what’s going on, but he doesn’t. He just gives you an annoyed look as he passes by your desk and you give him a tight lipped smile. You think back to this morning and wish you would have taken the high road and acquiesced to his running commentary of your lack of abilities. It’s the ‘relationship’ jab that’s bothering you the most for some reason—probably because it was so unnecessary. You wish you were the type of person that could just move on from comments like that but you’re not; it’s probably why your last relationship ended. So you know you’re going to hold on to that relationship comment much longer than necessary. 

With Duarte gone you feel like you can finally relax; your shoulders drop and you take a few quiet breaths. You plug in the hard drive to your laptop and try to figure out where to start. When you first started with the bureau in counter-terrorism, it was overwhelming, but you quickly found your footing. It was a lot of research and developing counterintelligence reports. It was your job to plan, research, develop, and communicate in-depth analysis of targets, networks, and issues to key leaders in the department. You know how to plan and implement strategies based on a combination of information and gut feeling. At least here you won’t be starting entirely from scratch. You have your experience—and while this is a different set of circumstances you know what’s needed. You settle in and start familiarizing yourself with all the information you have. 

You want to memorize the faces, the names, everything about the people in the files and computer in front of you. You know right now the focus seems to be BX9, but you also know as these groups collapse they splinter off or join existing gangs. You work on putting something together that you can leave for Duarte. The thought crosses your mind that if he doesn’t expect anything of you then why bother, but you have enough self respect to not do that.

—-

He sees you in his office as he comes into the squad room. He can see through the open blinds that you’re standing behind his desk, looking out of the window towards the street. He was hoping you’d be gone and that he wouldn’t have to deal with you again today. He just wants some fucking peace.

“Do you need something?” Duarte’s voice is quiet as he enters his office but he sees you jump a little in place at the sound of it. As you turn around and see it’s him you half smile. He recognizes it as the kind of smile that says you didn’t want to see him either. He thinks for a moment how this could have gone differently. How he could have been given someone qualified—a real detective. He wouldn’t have this generalized annoyance he’s been feeling since this morning.

“No, sorry. Was just leaving something on your desk.” 

You brush past him as you say it and it breaks him from his train of thought. He watches you grab your things from your desk and then turn to leave. He sees you stop as Williams comes back to his desk. He watches as you say something to Williams but it’s not loud enough for him to hear. Whatever it was it must have been funny because Williams laughs. Duarte calls him into his office and he hears you say goodnight as you’re walking out of the squad room. 

“You need something, Cap?” 

“I want you to keep an eye on her.” 

“Yeah, of course.”

“I need to know if she’s—”

Williams cuts him off and shakes his head.

“I don’t think she’s like that if that’s what you’re getting at. I like her.”

“Good for you. Just do what I ask.”

“Aye, aye Cap.” 

Williams turns to leave and Duarte closes the office door behind him. He goes over to his desk and opens the bottom drawer and pulls out a bottle of bourbon and a glass. It’s incredible how fucking exhausted he is every day. Every day since the subway attack in Manhattan has steadily been draining him. And then Benson getting attacked and her inserting herself into the investigation; he feels like everyone is coming at him from all sides. He feels like a tire slowly losing air. He uncorks the bottle and pours himself a drink and downs it before sitting in his chair. 

He mulls over the decision the DA’s office made every single day. On the surface he understood the reasoning behind it. But deeper, he felt it was a mistake, a decision made for optics. A lie that Manhattan has rid itself of BX9. That only the poor fucks in the Bronx have to deal with them from now on. Well that went out the fucking window once Benson got kicked in the ribs. If she had listened to him instead of only thinking about her case it would be a different story. Instead he has two dead kids in Rikers and he’s hunting for more. He pours himself another drink while he tries to ignore the pressure building in his chest. He’s grateful for the nearly empty floor, the quiet.

He leans in his chair and notices a manilla folder on his desk; it has a post-it with his name on it scrawled in unfamiliar handwriting. Maybe you’re already resigning, it wouldn’t surprise him. He knows he wasn’t very welcoming. He has no desire, no energy to be—this job is all consuming. He grabs the file folder and opens it. Inside he sees you’ve put together a briefing based on all the information you went through. You seem to have analyzed what you view as gaps in the systems that are being used to monitor gang activity currently. You’ve even outlined the resources you’ll need. It’s not even entirely focused on BX9–you included other gangs in your briefing, gangs that weren’t included in the information he gave you. He feels a little sting of something reading through everything. He can’t tell if he’s impressed or irritated that you put this much together in a day. He realizes that he knows almost nothing about you, having put in almost no effort to find out. He closes the folder and starts making some calls. He wasn’t expecting so much from you on your first day.

[butts-bouncing-on-the-beltway]

Wifey comes home today and the dogs don't know it so they officially hit peak wretched baby behavior yesterday and have slumped into depressed baby behavior today. I do have work today but it's my short day so I'm thinking after I'm done with work and before I head to the airport with doggos to pick up wifey, I'll wash dishes and dogs.

That way wifey doesn't feel like the house is exactly as she left it you know? I definitely know it's not in worse shape I was very careful to always clean up my presence, but I want her to not have to clean up things that were here a week ago when she left either cuz that sucks and just because I was busy and had a hard time getting around to them shouldn't make them her problem. Most things like that aren't a big deal, or are things we specifically planned for (e.g. she emptied the litterbox right before she left and it's self cleaning so it only needs to be done once a week) but the dishes were a fluke that snuck by us in the last couple days before she left and then I literally never once had the spoons to get to them (heh) while Wifey was gone. Which I expected! I kinda figured that I would either do them all on Friday or maybe if I was very lucky do 1 round a dayon the others. So at least I'm on schedule lol.

Anyway, I did also clean the tub this week, and pick up the laundry in the bathroom, so I figure I might also do a quick wipe down in bathroom (sink, toilet, tub, sweep floors, take out trask) since it usually only takes 15 minutes and would make the whole room look really nice at this point. That plus shiny dishes and dogs is bound to make wifey happy coming home.

Anyway, my morning plans are as follows:

throw chili in the crock pot for dinner tonight

maintenance clean of bathroom

first round of dishes

take out the bedroom and bathroom trashes

refill pet water fountains

Extra Credit: unpack the monthly grocery grocery delivery and confirm their allergen listings

So far I'm over 100% on my tasks today and feeling great about it!

In the next hour I've got some work tasks to do, a little documentation stuff to prep for the day basically, and then it's off the the races for my short day with clients, my one on one, and then me getting the dogs ready for the evening!

Managed to finish all of my work prep stuff even the thing I was sure I wouldn't manage! So yay to that! We're still at "all essential AND all extra credit tasks completed" for each phase of my day so far, though obviously I'm not gonna elaborate on the work stuff for privacy reasons.

Feeling good about the day, feeling good about my ability to get shit down now that I've been back on my meds for a week, feeling pretty good overall! I do think I might be headed for a no show today but I'm fine with that because it'll just give me an extra 45 min for dishes and one less note to write before I switch over to household tasks this afternoon.

I am contemplating doing an extra credit task of throwing on new sheets and remaking the bed fresh and clean for wifey since Jaxxine crunched her yams all over this one all week on top of chewing on the fitted sheet like a pacifier to calm herself lol. But we'll see how that goes.

I've managed to get both blankets into the wash, and the quilt is already in the dryer, so I figure I'm definitely remaking the bed now. I'm most of the way through the tough jobs and then all that's left is the easy or fun ones. I do have to leave in about 3 hours tho, so I'm definitely running low on time. Gotta prioritize a bit and wittle down my remaining tasks. Dinner's all set but for some rice if we decide to make it. I may just empty the dish rack and not worry about washing a 3rd load unless I finish everything else in time. Jaxx definitely needs a bath next, then the tub a wipe down, the pets fed, and me a shower. At that point we're likely to be ok the edge of time so I'm thinking remake the bed and then kitty fun den and then prep the dogs for our trip.

After work plans are as follows:

2-3 more rounds of dishes 1 more round of dishes

bathe the lassie (START WITH THE LAD)

Feed the dogs dinner

bathe self

wipe down tub

build kitty fun den with dinner and treats

pick up wifey from her trip

Extra Credit: wash the blankets dry the blankets

Extra Credit: remake the bed with fresh sheets and blankets

[hologramcowboy]

Lol anon thought you as high maintenance because you like Dior or something? Sorry for butting in, but seriously, f*ck you anon. For years - and still so - i am not capable of being high maintenance even if i'd want to. Then one day after finally getting fulltime hours at my job I thought "huh. I never actually allow myself something expencieve. Imma gonna buy myself a Dior perfume at the airport as a celebration". And it genuinely made me so happy. Not because i'm high maintenance, but I value the things I get, especially something I have earned. This one time I allowed myself a perfume. Once in a very rare while i now do. It's not like it's an insanely expencieve designer bag. A perfume. Don't go calling people high maintenance. You don't know their story.

Exactly, people work for their money and they have a right to choose what they do with it. It's important to take care of yourself and your wellbeing. The things that enhance it and bring you joy are worth investing in.

Thank you for being vulnerable and sharing your story with such a powerful, heartfelt message, I hope this new year will bring higher opportunities your way because it seems you are a very grounded, non-judgemental person and so you will be a blessing in whichever setting you evolve in. 💕

[embossross]

Let’s get started by the start : HEY ROSS HOW ARE YOU 🤩🤩 ??? I'm so happy to read you after all this time !! I had to admit that for a few weeks, i thougt you have abandonned the writting (no pressure here, you know it). How’s the new job ?? I’ve missed you !

For once, this won't be a live-reaction, I'm on vacation and still in bed, and I was so engrossed in my reading that I didn't take the time to grab a second screen.

My poor girl, at first, and this is most certainly intentional on your part, I thought she already knew about the videos and was just leaving the country like « no, this is too much for me, bye lol 🫡 » but then I understood this need to no longer exist and indeed, what could be better than an airport ? Which is ambivalent, because your identity is meticulously controlled there, and at the same time, it's often where you find the biggest crowds of anonymous people, idk if you know what I mean.

Takashi.. when I think I felt bad for that guy.. lol I hope someone (Shuji) will make him suffer like he makes Doc suffer.

Poor thing.. the two « men in her life » are vengeful bastards.

Her mental breakdown when Hanma wanted to take her home was incredible, so relatable. I think if I'd had a handbag, I'd probably have attacked him with it.

And Hanma.. Oh Hanma, I have to admit that even if I'd have attacked him, and even if I would like him dead, I think I'd still have ended up following him, because he'd be the last constant in my life. But the suicide threat is so much « her » too, and so much more logical. Who'd want that raving lunatic Hanma Shuji as their only marker (except me, lol)?

So now what can happen to her ? To them ? I'm worried but so excited to find out !!

By the way, are you prioritizing FHMTH before moving on to another fic or were you just indulging us, given the suspense of the last chapter ?

See youuuu 💕💕

awww thank you so much! i was pretty iffy on this one, so i'm glad you liked it 🥹🥹🥹 my job has been great! it's not even that busy. it just has completely changed my schedule and i haven't built in good writing times, so i've slowed down a lot. i'm so close to the finished line for this one, and i vow i will finish no matter what.

and on that note, yep i am prioritizing fhmty! we're in the middle of the final arc, and i want to stick close to it and see my vision finally all come together!

i love the way you describe the feeling of being in an airport! and i know exactly what you mean. i've been doing some travel for work and i realized it was the perfect liminal space as reader hovers on the precipice of a decision. they're just neat tbh. and i am so glad you thought she was skipping out of town! i structured the start of the chapter that way on purpose to trick you!!! i love when stuff works!

thank you for liking the breakdown at the end. it's honestly the part of the chapter i'm most on the fence about. i worried it lacked subtlety, so it's a relief that it was cathartic to readers :)

anyway you are so absolutely kind and i hope you have a fantastic time on vacation!!!