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the-dream-team · 3 years

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Chlorine

A fluffy little one-shot for @efkgirldetective's summer of jily week two prompt: swimming with friends // Today we're younger than we're ever gonna be <3

“What in Merlin’s name is that smell?” gagged Sirius, bringing his towel up to cover his nose.

Mary swotted him with a bright green foam noodle. “That’s just the chlorine, you knob. It’s a chemical Muggles use to keep the water clean.”

“The water’s not clean?” squeaked Peter, his beady eyes widening.

“Take a look around Pettigrew,” laughed Mary, gesturing wildly. “There are about a trillion little kids running around with saggy trunks and juice-stained mouths, it’s not exactly the Prefect’s bathroom here.”

The group of teenagers took a moment to survey their surroundings. Sirius was right, the thick summer air reeked of chlorine wafting from unnaturally electric blue swimming pools, packed with screaming children, brightly colored floaties, and haggard parents. Behind the main pool, reaching up to the sky, stood two impressive slides, winding and bending in every direction before opening up into a smaller basin. Once every minute, the slide discarded a new, squealing child into the water with an eruptive splash.

Lily eyed the Muggle kids with some trepidation. “Are we too old to be here?” she asked, eyes shifting as she clutched her copy of Herbology for Potioneers a little closer to her chest. “It feels like everyone else is about a decade younger than us.”

“Don’t worry too much about that, Evans,” said James, a bright smile aimed in her direction. “Today we’re younger than we’re ever going to be, anyway!” He nudged her affectionately, resulting in a rosy hue that spread across her cheeks as their bare shoulders made contact.

“Alright,” announced Remus after barely dodging a rogue beach ball, “let’s find a place to put our towels before these buggers realize we’re easy targets.”

They managed to snag a row of plastic lounge chairs beside the wave pool to dump their belongings on before Sirius set his sights on the towering waterslides across the park.

“You said these slides were crazy fast, right MacDonald?” Sirius asked, a dangerous gleam in his eye.

“They’re the fastest in Britain,” grinned Mary, tossing her sunnies aside. “And you get some serious air on your way out, it’s the closest thing Muggles have to flying, I’d argue.”

Lily tensed and quickly diverted her attention to her book, though her eyes remained still as she stared at the pages. Almost no one noticed her sudden discomfort.

“That’s bloody brilliant,” grinned Sirius. “Last one to the top has to buy us a round of those mushie drinks.”

“They’re called slushies, Padfoot.”

“Call them whatever you want, Moony, but I want a blue one.” Sirius discarded his t-shirt onto a chair and kicked off his sandals in preperation. “Prongs, do you think we could convince the lifeguards to let us go down the slides together?”

But James wasn’t paying attention to Sirius. “Nah, go ahead without me,” he said, eyes trained on Lily as she continued intently staring at her book. “I think I’m gonna start out a little slower with the lazy river. Evans, care to keep me company?”

Lily’s eyes snapped up to see Sirius’ dropped jaw, Mary’s raised eyebrows, and James’ steady smile.

“Oh,” she said, her voice finding a higher octave than usual, “sure, I could join you.”

“Fine,” grumbled Sirius, pulling the others along with him, “but I’m coming to find you at that dopey river after our first round on the slides. I won’t let you be boring all day, Prongs.”

James shrugged, barely paying the others any mind as he extended a hand to Lily. She watched their friends saunter off before accepting his help to stand up.

“Hold on there, Evans,” said James, plucking her book from her hands and tossing it back onto their pile of towels, “I can’t have you doing homework; today is all about having fun!”

“Then why aren’t you going with the others to the slides?”

He paused, considering her question with a smile. “Because you’re way more fun than a couple of waterslides.”

Before she had a chance to respond, James pulled her away from the chairs and towards the center of the park, their bare feet slapping against sizzling cement as they navigated around young children and indifferent lifeguards.

The lazy river lived directly across from the concession stand, perfectly situated for parents who wanted to keep an eye on their floating kids while they enjoyed a cool beer and a basket of hot chips. The river wound itself around an impressive structure resembling a fairytale castle, complete with canons that sprayed water onto passerbys and waterfalls that poured over plastered mountainsides and into its surrounding moat.

At the water’s edge sat a pile of tubes, growing hot under the unrelenting midday sun. James released Lily’s hand to secure them two floats, missing her subtle disappointed huff at the loss of his grip when he turned his back on her. But by the time he handed over her tube, she’d managed to rearrange her face into a neutral smile.

“After you, Evans,” he said with a little bow, extending an arm towards the gently rolling river.

She rolled her eyes at the exaggerated chivalry, but stepped forward nonetheless, carefully placing her tube in the water and lowering herself into the center. The water, cool and refreshing, lapped against her backside and kissed her heels as she hung her legs over the tempered rubber.

James took a different approach, choosing to throw his own tube unceremoniously into the water before giving himself a running start to cannonball onto it. Lily screeched as he nearly jumped directly on top of her.

“You prat!” she laughed, splashing water on his face, covering his glasses in little droplets.

“You know you love me,” he teased, a glint in his eye.

The pink glow that spread across her cheeks could have passed as a light sunburn, but the way James’ eyes flashed suggested he’d picked up on the truth. His dimples appeared despite the attempt to keep his grin at bay.

“So, Potter,” she started, choosing to change the subject, “what drew you to the lazy river, other than the obvious similarities you share?”

James drove an imaginary dagger into his chest. “You wound me, Evans! But if you must know, I thought it’d be the perfect place to chat with you.”

If the river’s current hadn’t continued pulling them along, Lily might have thought time had stood still. “To chat?”

“Yeah,” he responded as though it were obvious, “the playground would be too noisy with all the kids running around, it seems like we would’ve spent more time underwater than above it at the wave pool, and the hot tubs are simply not weather appropriate.”

“With me?”

It was finally James’ turn to look surprised. “Of course! I’ve spent my whole summer mucking about with the boys, but I’ve hardly seen you since Peter’s party and I missed talking with you.”

Lily tried passing off her pleased burst of laughter as a scoff. “I always forget how forthright you are.”

“I’m an open book,” he replied, sticking her with a pointed stare she couldn’t see as she averted her own gaze, attempting to hide her growing blush he had already clocked.

“I wish I could be more like that,” she spoke to the distance, to the cloudless expanse of sky, hoping it would relay the message to the boy whose intertube continued bouncing rhythmically against her own as they traveled in endless circles.

“As a kid,” she continued, “I loved playgrounds. Gravity melted away when I sailed off swings and soared through slides, when my magic took over before I even knew what I was. But the uncontrollable flying always scared my parents, so when my family visited parks, I’d be kept on the sidelines, hidden away to avoid causing a scene. I guess I got pretty good at hiding.”

“Do you want help practicing?”

Lily jerked her attention back to James and his easy eyes, his ruffled hair. “What?”

“Do you want help practicing being an open book?” he repeated simply. “I happen to be an expert and I’d be happy to lend my talents.”

His cheeky grin earned him a light splashing and an only-slightly-exasperated huff. “You know what, fine. Teach me your ways, Potter.”

“Alright,” he said, eyes brightening as he adjusted his position on his tube to face her more fully, “we’ll start with easy questions and then get gradually harder from there. The only rule is that you have to answer honestly.”

Lily sunk slightly into the hole of her intertube, but nodded, resting her chin on her folded arms, fingers mindlessly dipping in and out of the passing water below.

“First off, who is your best friend?”

“That’s your easy question?” Lily guffawed.

“What?” asked James, watching her curiously. “I already know the basics. Your favourite colour is forest green, you like chocolate biscuits best, and your sister is a piece of work. Now, who is your best friend?”

“Mary, I guess?” said Lily, brows furrowed slightly. “We immediately clicked since we first met, what with us both being Muggleborn, and after Sev was out of the picture…”

“I’m familiar with this part,” James grimaced, his focus shifting to his fingernails. “So, next question. If you had to be sorted into a different house, which one would you choose?”

“Hufflepuff,” she responded without blinking. “Closest to the kitchens, obviously. Next question.”

“Respectable,” he chuckled. “How about… do you prefer Butterbeer or Firewhiskey?”

She paused, catching his eye for longer than she’d planned. “You probably already know the answer.”

The corner of his mouth twitched upwards with a jolt of hope. “Butterbeer spiked with Firewhiskey?”

“Butterbeer spiked with Firewhiskey.”

James leaned forward slightly, his arm extending absentmindedly to reach for the cloth handles on Lily’s tube to pull her closer. “Like the ones we made at Peter’s birthday party last month?”

Their hands mingled together in the water between their tubes, pruned fingers brushing against each other as the current pushed them together. “Exactly like the ones from Peter’s birthday.”

He was near enough to count every sunkissed freckle spattered across her nose. She could practically fall into his growing dimples.

“Oi, Prongs!” came the disappointing voice of Sirius Black from the concession stand’s picnic tables. “You can’t hide from us all day, mate!”

“Maybe not,” James called back, a lopsided smirk sliding across his face, “but I can try!”

Before Sirius had a chance to respond, James sunk through the center of his intertube and disappeared under the water’s surface. Lily peered into the river, wondering if he could have possibly brought his Invisibility Cloak with him to the park, but her thoughts were quickly interrupted when a hand grabbed her ankle under the water. It tugged lightly, willing her out of her tube and into the depths of the lazy river.

Once fully submerged in the water, Lily squinted her eyes open to see her new surroundings, blue like the sky with ripples of sunlight refracting through the flowing stream, circular shadows overhead from the tubes they left on the surface, roaming away like drifting clouds searching for different horizons. A hand found her arm and spun her around, bringing her face to face with James, his glasses attempting an escape into the river’s flow, tiny air bubbles escaping through his nose and growing smile.

He pulled her across the width of the river, through a shower of bubbles from the underside of a waterfall, and into still water again before finally leading them both to the surface. They broke back into the world with gasping breaths and laughter, finding themselves in a dark, quiet alcove behind one of the castle’s waterfall features. The lazy river continued on as they stood together in their hidden cave, separated only by a wall of tumbling water. Despite no longer being pulled by the river’s current, the two found themselves drifting closer and closer to one another.

“Do you have any more questions?” asked Lily, her whisper echoing around and joining in with the soft roar of the waterfall.

James tried to control the beating of his heart, which must have been reverberating all around their little retreat based on how loudly he heard it pounding in his ears.

He cleared his throat. “Did you want me to kiss you that night at Peter’s party?”

She inhaled sharply. “Yes. Next question.”

“Do you want me to kiss you now?”

“Yes.”

She barely got the word out before James’ lips found hers, crashing down like a wave against the shore, pulling them into a riptide of racing hearts, fluttering eyelashes, and sighing breaths. They kissed and kissed and kissed until their heads spun, either drunk off the thrill of new beginnings or thoughts of Firewhiskey-spiked Butterbeer. Or possibly it was the intoxicating combination of magic mixed with chlorine.

#summerofjily #jily fic #jily #i wanted to float on a lazy river #so i decided to live vicariously through lily and james #emma these prompts are so good!!#this was super fun #and also the perfect distraction from the excessively depressing remus chapter of tiny photographs #lily evans #james potter #yada yada yada #<3

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jilyesplz · 2 years

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I adore what you've done with unfinished TLAT and can't wait for chapter 3! I went to Jules Tumblr which took me awhile to scroll (since she deleted her archive) and reach the answers I wanted around 2013-14 circa, regarding Luke and Lily it was confirmed by Jules' that they did hands stuff and Lily had some sexual experience. Also, James and Carlotta are defiantly broken up and Jules stated that chapter 35 kiss between the two was James actually rejecting her and that Carlotta defiantly got the message and she’ll have self-development from chapter 37 on and she’ll make a new friend that most thought to be Mary. Jules also said that Carlotta will have what to say about Jily even before it happens which made me believe it’ll be on a positive note due to her self-growth. She also said that Carlotta and James’ relationship will be ‘potatoes’ in the future like insignificant I guess, which also connects with James snorting when Lily is asking him if he considers the protest as their second date while he was seeing someone else, which I always interpreted as ‘what was I thinking’ or a similar sentiment. Such a pity we never got to see how it played out and to be comforted by Jily finally happing so all Carlotta haters could heal and see that she didn’t stand a chance to Lily! (btw, I actually prefer your continuation of Carlotta's bitchy character and it was so satisfying to read that she heard Sirius' comment about James being in love with Lily as ALWAYS!) I have much more info I took from her account, but this ask is long enough lol, so I'll just finish with the cherry on the top and confirm she was planning to write some nice quantities of jealous James (for Lily of course) that we haven't seen for awhile according to a fan's ask. cheers for stepping up and doing this. you're great :)

HAHAHA mad props for scrolling that far honestly and HMMMM intriguing. I still stand by my she was not fully done w puberty theory though - lots of teenage girls (as Lily tellingly points out) are sexually active more because it’s the thing to do than because they actively want to

Wait there were people who thought Jarlotta wasn’t over??? That post-Peverell hall kiss felt very clearly Not It to me - for both of them, not even just James? But yeah lol I’m sure Jules would’ve given carlotta a complex redemption arc, but that’s bc she was writing an epic classic. I’m writing fic of fic, and I wanted to see James’s bitchy ex suffer a bit, so…here we are lol. Although I will say the reason I wrote the Carlotta/Colista friendship is actually because that’s where I guessed she was going with the ‘two girls will form a friendship’ thing! They are two people who really really Really need a friend and neither of them are, to quote Larlotta, ‘girls who are girls’ so I think they’d genuinely get along okay. I never really saw the underpinnings of a Mary/Carlotta friendship tbh although to each their own!

Re more james jealousy …..GUH I’m so sad we’ll never see that. I wonder if it had anything to do with Reg…I always got the sense Mary vaguely had an eye on James, and while I was reading (before I knew it was incomplete😭😭😭) I wondered if maybe we’d see the inverse pairings for a minute before they got it right lol. Jules is too good a plotter for Chekhovs ‘reg having a crush on lily’ not to have some payoff later.

Tysm for the info!! 🥰

#tlat

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ashthewaterghoul · 3 years

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The Ball - A Wolfstar One Shot

Tonight was the night. The night that the class of 1978 had been anxiously awaiting. The seventh year leavers’ ball. Every girl had meticulously perfected each element of their outfit and the lads had some help from their dates in finding the right dress robes, corsages and other accessories. Each couple was perfectly matching one another, and the Great Hall was decorated with magic aplenty. Confetti sprinkling down from the ceiling, banners that flashed different messages of good-luck and goodbyes, self-refilling plates and bowls of food and drinks and tables that grew depending on how many people were around it.

The couplings were just as anyone expected, Peter and Mary going as friends, James and Lily, Marlene and Dorcas, and who could forget, Sirius and Remus. Sirius had been fussing over each detail of their ensembles since Remus asked him out in a much less extravagant way then James did for Lily. Sirius was wondering how he could tie a tie and fold a pocket square without magic and trying to find spells so that his robes’ shade of black was exactly the same as Remus’.

The night was finally here, and Remus was on what he calls “the perfect day” of the lunar cycle, it’s the day when the moon has very little effect on him, his strength, his senses, anything. He could enjoy the time with his date like any regular lad going. Even though Sirius had started getting ready at 1 o’clock that afternoon, he still wasn’t done, and it was nearly 7 o’clock, the start of the ball. Remus was the only one left in the common room, he was nervously fidgeting with the positioning of his corsage, which Sirius has picked out to match the dress robes. He was about to go see if Sirius was okay, even though he was given strict orders to not see him until he was done.

Just as Remus started towards the stairs to the dorm, his date walked down. Remus’ breath escaped him completely. The wait was definitely worth it. Sirius’ long, silky curtain of hair was pulled into the signature bun with his wand going through it, small pieces of hair purposefully pulled out, perfectly framing his already perfect face. His makeup could be described as nothing less than gorgeous, blue shimmering eyeshadow accompanied by a large wing of eyeliner, the dash of blush brought even more warmth to his face and the bright red lipgloss was the cherry on top of the cake. The robes that Sirius was panicking so much about were just as perfect as the boy wearing them, the midnight blue tie and pocket square folded and tied perfectly, adorned with a dog paw print tie pin.

“You going to stand there gawking or are you going to take me to the ball?” Sirius said jokingly, a wide smile on his face. Remus found the ability to speak.

“Sirius, you look beautiful.” He said adoringly.

“You look very handsome.” Sirius replied.

“Thanks. Well, shall we?” He held an arm out.

“Yes, we shall.” Sirius replied, linking arms with his date.

They walked down to the hall, smiles gleaming and unchanging.

When they got down to the area before the hall, they instantly spotted their friends and walked over.

“Finally!” James said, spotting the two.

“We almost thought you weren’t coming.” Lily said.

“After all the effort that went into this?”he gestured to his entire body, “You’d have to be barking.”

“I reckon I look better though.” Marlene butted in, dramatically adjusting her robes and orange tie, which she favoured over a dress.

“Attention students!” McGonagall announced by the entrance to the hall, “If you get into your pairs, you may enter in a moment.”

Everyone instantly jumped into a line, joined tightly to their partners. The doors swung open, revealing the decorations that Lily and Dorcas were in charge of, every one walked in and sat at their allocated seats, ready for their meal which promptly arrived, well, appeared. Soon after, everyone was done eating and ready to dance.

The first dance was to a traditional wizard’s ball song, with a specific dance to accompany it, Sirius assumed what was usually the female’s part. The music started and everyone started dancing in synchronisation. As Remus and Sirius danced together, they felt strangely connected in a a strange way, each move, each lift, each second caused the connection to grow. The last lift at the very end of the song went well, but Remus lowered Sirius slowly and gently, not wanting the moment to end. Sirius looked deeply at Remus as he slowly descended. After a few moments of silence before the next song a million emotions flowed through each lad, and an equal amount of words were silently exchanged. The next song started playing, this one very slow and no specific dance, the two just held each other. Sirius wrapped his arms around Remus’ shoulders, and Remus held onto Sirius’ waist, their foreheads were pressed against each other’s, eyes shut as they gently swayed to the music.

Lily and James were holding each other in a similar fashion, her red hair in bouncy curls over one shoulder, James didn’t want to wear green, but after seeing Lily in her dress for the first time he could not resist. Dorcas and Marlene chose to wear orange, Dorcas in a light, flowing dress that actually managed to get Marlene at a loss for words and Peter and Mary in yellow to “symbolise the happiness of friendship” as they put it, Mary had a rather simple dress on, that worked surprisingly well with the dresses of her friends. The three couples all kept staring at Sirius and Remus, happy that they had finally found that bond that had always been lurking within since they met.

The volume of the song started to increase, Remus and Sirius separated their foreheads and nodded in unspoken understanding. As the music suddenly swelled, the two boys pulled each other into a kiss, a passionate kiss that cemented their bond with each other, forever, no matter what.

A few songs and a lot of dancing later, the two lads had snuck off outside to their little spot on the grounds that no one else knew about. Sat with not even a centimetre between them, silently smoking while enjoying the company of each other. Remus finished his cigarette and threw it to the ground, and turned to face his boyfriend. He just stared at how perfect he looked.

“You’re gawking again.” He said while casually taking another puff.

“I know.”

“Okay, then.” He said, shaking his head with a smirk.

“Merlin, you’re gorgeous.” Remus let out and caused a massive smile to grow on Sirius’ face.

“You are just,” Sirius said chuckling, not quite being able to find the right word.

“I’m just what?”

He placed a small kiss on Remus’ lips.

“That, you’re just that.”

Remus chuckled, but a thought crossed his mind and caused his face to drop.

“Are you sure you want us?” He asked, motioning between the two.

“What do you mean?” Sirius’ expression unchanged.

“I’m a werewolf and you’re a Black.”

“Yeah, no shit Sherlock.”

“We aren’t exactly going to have it easy.”

“Remus,” he said softly, throwing his cigarette away and moving to sit on his boyfriend’s lap, “I don’t care. I just want you, and you are a werewolf, and that’s amazing, and you are amazing.”

Remus started to tear up at those words.

“Padfoot, that was beautiful.” He said gently tucking one of the stray bits of Sirius’ hair behind his ear.

“No, Moony, you are beautiful, in whatever form.” His silver eyes twinkling in the starlight.

Remus gently pulled Sirius into another small kiss. Remus was staring at Sirius, something was clearly dancing around his mind.

“What is it, Rem?”

He took a deep breath before saying: “I love you. I always have, and I always will.”

It was Sirius’ turn to tear up now. He let of a happy sob and flung his arms around Remus, nuzzling into the crook of his neck. After a few moments of a bone crushing hug, Sirius looked at Remus fully.

“I love you, and I will never stop.”

Remus took another deep breath and said: “Pads, I never want to spend a day without you, never again, so would you consider spending this night with me? And tomorrow, and every day after that?”

Sirius was speechless. His happy crying replaced with a shocked expression that was fixed and impossible for Remus to read.

“I’m sorry, that was too much to quick wasn’t it? You can forget I said that, if you want. I-”

Remus was cut off by deep kiss.

“Of course I will.” Sirius said in a soft whisper.

The two went back into another tearful, bone crushing hug.

“We should tattoos as well.” Sirius said, finally looking at his boyfriend again.

“What of?”

Sirius looked around for ideas until his eyes landed on his tie pin.

“What about we get each other’s paw prints?”

“That sounds great, Pads.”

The two pressed their foreheads together again, just next with each other. They enjoyed a long few moments, until they were abruptly bombarding with their friends dog piling on top of them. All of them rolling on top of one another in an entanglement of limbs, laughing so much that most of them were losing their breath completely. When they were finally all free of each other, Dorcas piped up: “We were wondering where you got to!”

“Yeah, we thought you’d gone back to the dorm to-“

“NO, that was just you Mary!” Lily cut her off.

“How did you find us?” Remus asked.

“You forget that one of us can turn into a very small, somewhat undetectable animal.” Peter answered.

“Oh yeah, forgot about that.”

“Why’d you guys sneak out here anyways?” Marlene asked.

“We were trying to get some peace and quiet.” Sirius said.

“Yeah, probably so you could-“

“Mary MacDonald, I swear to God!” Lily shouted.

“Shall we go back in? It’s freezing out here.” Dorcas said, brushing the grass from her dress. All the girls made their way in as the boys stayed behind staring after some of their closest friends, Sirius and Remus clinging to each other’s side like there’s no tomorrow.

“They all look great tonight don’t they?” Remus said aloud.

“They always do, mate.” James said, clapping an arm around Remus’ back.

“You know what I mean, you were absolutely gawping at Lily, more than usual that is.” Remus joked.

“I could say the same about you with that one.” He gestured towards Sirius.

Remus let out a light chuckle.

“Can you blame me? He looks gorgeous.” He turned his head to look at Sirius, who was giggling and blushing.

James walked around to Sirius’ free side and put an arm around his back which was promptly returned, and Remus waved to Peter to join him. The four boys walked back to the castle, linked together like brothers, well two were closer than brothers. The special, unique bonds that each shared were ones that would last a lifetime. And Remus and Sirius? That bond would surpass a lifetime.

Hello there, sorry this one was so long, it’s ~1880 words so if you made it to the end then have a cookie 🍪. This was inspired by a part I put in ‘Take Me Back - A Wolfstar One Shot’. Thank you for reading! Any feedback would be greatly appreciated as well as other ideas for future fics!🥰

You can view my other one shots here

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corinnesamuels · 3 years

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Guarding the Gates, Chapter 9: Discretion is Such a Valuable Tool

Shoutout to the AMAZING @the-dream-team for creating this for me! Gives the fic a lil razzle dazzle, don’t you think?

A good old patronus soul mate trope to get the blood flowing, Remus has a hard time, and Lily and Sirius confront old friends.

In the weeks following James and Miranda’s breakup, there had been speculation amongst the gang about what that meant for Lily and James. For the two people in question, however, there was no indication that anything would be changing. They laughed at the same jokes, and the time they spent in person still had the same cadence. They were friends , and the two of them reinforced that dynamic whenever asked. Secretly— irritatingly —Lily reinforced it with herself every time she saw that lopsided grin, which seemed to be making more and more of an appearance lately.

It was as if the breakup had broken a dam inside of him, and now he joked more and laughed with less reservation. The glint in his eye that appeared when he was contemplating mischief had reappeared. Every day he became more and more like the version of him she’d once known. Sirius had made similar observations, saying how great it was to have his friend back at full force.

Lily had loved getting reacquainted with James when she returned to England, but to see those parts of his personality return warmed her from the inside. He seemed happier, more free. Lily loved the way it looked on him. Except for when she didn’t. This more robust version of an adult James was a lot for Lily to take in. His personality was simply overwhelming some days, not because he was being obnoxious, but because it was almost impossible not to be drawn to him. It threatened to disrupt the precarious balance that her emotions currently maintained. Lily couldn’t risk disrupting that balance, so she made it a point to carry on the same life she had been living, and her occasional recreational dalliances helped a great deal.

Except for when they didn’t. Like today, when Lily realized that she’s going to have to let go of Terry.

It’s a shame, really. He’s a nice bloke and gets the job done well enough. But Lily has noticed that he seems to be straying from their original arrangement. He usually either left first thing in the morning after their liaisons or stayed just long enough to make and wolf down a quick breakfast. Lily had appreciated it because, as her friends love to point out, she’s terrible at cooking.

But lately, he’s attempted, thrice now, to stay into the afternoon. While Lily doesn’t want to be rude or harsh, this just isn’t what they signed up for. Especially not on a day when she is already running a little late to an Order meeting. He jokingly asks why she seems like she’s in a rush and hints at not believing that she really had somewhere to be.

It takes everything she has to remain calm.

“Nothing about our arrangement requires me to share my daily schedule.” She’d said at close to noon that day as she hastily put on her shoes. She waved her wand toward his belongings, and they began hurtling at him faster than she’d intended due to her irritation, but he’d gotten the hint after that.

When she arrives at the meeting a few minutes late, she waves off Marlene and Dorcas’ concerns with a “don’t ask” and a resigned rise and fall of her hand before jumping into the agenda.

The Order of the Phoenix functions well. Dumbledore has instituted a complex but subtle system for meeting locations, dates, and times and spends early meetings going over spells and skills that might be useful for the days ahead. Dumbledore picked most of them because they had excelled during their time at Hogwarts, but certain forms of magic were usually beyond what even the brightest seventh years managed before their time at school ended.

And so, they found themselves assessing the talents of the group and ways to maximize them. It was a well-known fact that The Marauders were good at stealth due to their ability to cause mischief as students. So Dumbledore tasked them and the Aurors of the group with assisting the rest in learning advanced magic related to stealth and concealment. “You lot must not have been too good at being stealthy if you got caught so often.” Dorcas quips during one meeting. The four men looked at each other and grinned.

“Meadowes,” Sirius tuts. “We very rarely got caught on accident, love.”

“You can’t be legendary if no one knows your story.” James chimes in with a mischievous glint in his eye. “Sometimes you have to let yourself get caught for the greater good.”

“The most legendary thing about the two of you is your detention records.” Marlene smirks, looking over to Lily before rolling her eyes.

“Was that supposed to contradict what I said?” James asks with a laugh. Remus does his best to cover up a laugh of his own.

Lily, Marlene, Caradoc Dearborn, and Elphias Doge led the group in potions making. In addition to maximizing stores for members to have available to them, Dumbledore also had them work on potions whose brewing processes made Lily feel as if she’d run a marathon once completed.

Little by little, Lily began learning the strengths of various members of the Order of the Phoenix. Most everyone in the group was an accomplished dueler, particularly the Prewett twins and Edgar Bones. People like Hestia Jones, Sturgis Podmore, and Emmeline Vance were able to navigate Ministry circles to subtly gather information that employees were too afraid to say around Mad-Eye Moody, Frank, and Alice. But nothing surprised Lily more than discovering that the slovenly thief Mundungus Fletcher was a member of the group because of the fact that he was a thief.

“Dung was dead helpful while we were in school.” Peter says in Mundungus’ defense after one meeting. Lily, Marlene, and Dorcas let their eyes travel from Peter to his friends with raised eyebrows, waiting for confirmation.

“Let’s not go into the details, Peter. They aren’t necessary at this juncture.” Sirius cuts in. When Lily’s face still holds traces of mild judgment, Sirius rolls his eyes. “Oh, don’t look like that, Red, you were a spy. Surely you saw worse than a thief.”

Lily had, of course, seen much worse. “Yes. Usually, the kind that were sober while on the job.”

“It’s helpful to have someone in a group who can acquire…things of questionable origin.” Remus says diplomatically. “Especially information.”

“Yeah, it makes sense for Sturgis, Hestia, and Emmeline to do reconnaissance at the Ministry.” James replies. “But they can’t very well walk through Knockturn Alley and ask pointed questions without looking suspicious, can they?”

“How do we know that he’ll even remember what he learns from poking around in Knockturn?” Lily asks skeptically as she watches Mundungus falling asleep in his chair. “Surely you don’t think he’s going to go sober?”

The gang takes a moment to observe Mundungus with her. It is a valid question they hadn’t considered.

“Pensieve, probably.” Sirius says finally.

“Ah.” The others hum and nod in agreement before going back to their tasks.

In one particular meeting, Dumbledore decides to cover communication methods between members.

“I am sure you will find that we need ways to communicate with each other that owls and the Floo won’t be able to accommodate.” He says. “You may need to send a message quickly, and with the way Lord Voldemort’s ranks are growing, we may soon find the Floo Network being monitored surreptitiously. Muggles have a delightful invention called the ‘telephone.’ You pick up a receiver and can be in conversation with an old friend in mere seconds.”

Lily and Dorcas exchange grins, thinking of the summers they spent in the muggle world, on the phone with Mary, giggling like the schoolgirls they once were.

“It inspired me to create something similar,” Dumbledore continues, “and after perfecting it, I am ready to teach it to each of you. How many of you are familiar with the Patronus Charm?”

Various sounds of mild shock reverberate across the room as members of the Order exchange confused looks with each other. “Sir, I’m sure most of us have heard of it, but from my understanding, Patronuses don’t talk, do they?” Lily asks, voicing the confusion of the group.

“Not until recently.” Dumbledore replies. “As I said, I’ve perfected the method.”

A shocked James lets out a huff of air before catching Lily’s eye. She knows that his thoughts echo her own. How in the fuck was Dumbledore so good at magic? Who would even think to take that charm and make it twice as useful and three times as difficult? Lily shakes her head and lets out an exhale of her own, and he grins at her.

It takes more effort than it should have for her to pull her eyes away from that grin.

“There are fully-trained Aurors who can’t even pull off a corporeal Patronus.” Frank says from the back of the room. “And you’re saying that you’ve amended it in some way?”

“I am.” Dumbledore says patiently, as if the people in front of him aren’t intimidated and shocked by the idea of performing this level of magic.

“Stop gawking and get a move on.” Moody growls from his section of the room. “Being afraid of a charm isn’t going to help you learn it.” He mumbles about the lack of gumption witches and wizards show nowadays.

At this, and with looks of slight trepidation over their shoulders toward Moody, the members of the Order of the Phoenix began working on casting the Patronus charm. Lily, who had always been adept at Charms, was able to produce a slight mist by the end of the session. Frank, Alice, and Moody could already produce non-corporeal Patronuses and worked on getting them to take shape before they left to return to the Ministry.

“Duty calls.” Alice says with a wave as they leave.

Lily is still working on producing more mist when she sees James frustratedly struggling to produce even that. She smirks at him as she lets her mist float into his line of sight. “And to think you used to say you were better at Charms than I was.”

James cuts his eyes at her, irritated at not being able to gloat at the moment. “I used to say I was just as good as you at Charms, Evans. And I am.”

“We’ll see.” She says with a shrug before turning back to her Patronus.

James rolls his eyes. “Professor Dumbledore, what transfiguration-related spells do you have for us?”

“Grow up.” Lily retorts.

“Get a room.” Sirius grumbles with an eye roll of his own. Marlene laughs from her place next to him.

“If they start acting like they did in sixth and seventh year, I’m going to bring up the idea of shoving them in a broom closet again.” Marlene says.

“And this time, we’ll actually do it.” Sirius replies dryly.

Lily’s words lit a fire in James that he hadn’t felt since playing Quidditch before his mother died. He always had thrived on competition. So after the Order meeting, he goes to three different bookstores and buys all the books he can find on the theory behind casting Patronuses. Sirius scoffs at this initially, but he, Remus, and Peter soon end up joining James in the sitting room of the manor, pouring through books and pages. They hadn’t made this much of an attempt to learn something from a textbook since James, Sirius, and Peter became animagi. And while the others may just want to learn because Dumbledore requested it, James is not only determined to produce a corporeal Patronus, but to produce one before Lily does.

To his frustration, Lily just barely beats him.

They had been reviewing the spell at the beginning of an Order meeting, and they’d both been producing dense mists, just starting to take shape before dissipating. James closes his eyes, calms his nerves, and takes a deep breath to regroup before attempting the spell again, but before he can focus on his happy thought, he hears her excitement across the room. Knowing that it could only signal one thing, he curses under his breath before turning to see the inevitable.

He curses again, audibly and disbelievingly this time, when he sees the Patronus ambling across the room. Four legs, hooves, ears upright. In his shock, he doesn’t realize the strange looks he’d gotten from the people standing closest to him.

“Are you alright, James?” Peter asks.

But James is back in time, recalling a passage he’d read in one of his books while feverishly trying to pin down the charm—the one he and Sirius had joked about before ultimately ignoring it and going back to working out the incantation.

There is a belief amongst wizards that similar Patronuses are shaped by deep feelings one may have for another. Indeed, many agree that witches and wizards with the same or similar Patronuses may even be soulmates.

James doesn’t answer Peter as he watches Lily’s doe move about the room and returns to her. She looks at it fondly and drifts her fingers along its silvery glow before it bows and disappears. He notices that Lily still has that look about her that she’d had when she was introduced to new magic in school—reverence mixed with the pride of accomplishing something new. He can’t help but grin at her across the room, nodding his head in salute as she smiles back and shrugs one shoulder before hugging Dorcas happily. It reminds James of all those days he used to watch her in classes…when they’d joke during their rounds…how she’d hugged him and smiled in a way that lit up the room after Gryffindor had won the quidditch cup during their last year…

He’d known it would work this time before he even recited the incantation. “Expecto Patronum!"

Read the rest at ao3!

Start from the beginning

#jily #jily fanfiction #jilyfanfic #First War with Voldemort #first wizarding war #the order of the phoenix #mwpp era #Remus is having a hard time #Lily and James are pining #lily and sirius brotp #guarding the gates

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masterhandss · 4 years

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Hamefura♪ Idol AU! (part 3)

Thank you so much to the people who have voiced their interest for this AU! I honestly wouldn’t have planned on writing any of this and just planned to keep it all in my head if no one asked :’’DD Special thanks to @ineedglassesalways for the song reqs for this one! please check her out she has amazing art!

Please bare in mind that my thoughts are an absolute mess and that what i’m talking about switches between Fortune Lover and Hamefura at the snap of a finger. Most info is the same, so just try to understand which i’m talking about while reading fjhgsdjhfg

(Also i’m gonna start calling this “My Next Life as an Idol?! All Routes lead to Doom!!!” or HameFura♪ now hgfjsdgf)

Directory: Hamefura♪ Part 1 - Fortune Lover || Hamefura♪ Part 2 - hamefura

Edit: I added a cut bc i’m starting to sympathize with the people who has to scroll passed all this gjshgf

Random Plot and World-building stuff

Sorcier Entertainment is the biggest entertainment business for the past 2 decades, bringing out and producing the best quality of idols, actors, models, composers, musicians, DJs etc. It is a parent company to a lot of branches and agencies.

Sorcier Pro. is the main sub-branch of SorEn, being the most popular agency for producing the current hit in the market, which are idols. There a few other agencies within SorEn, but they wont be important until later. Geoffrey Stuart is the president of Sorcier Entertainment, and is the overseer of the main idol branch (no one knows why though, probably bc his lil bros are there). Entertainment is such an important and prevalent part of Society that the combination of the Stuarts holding power of the the entertainment industry, as well as Mr. Stuart being the prime minister, they are truly considered to be the most influential family in the country, which is added by the fact that every member of the family is an outstanding and well-respect individual.

Sorcier Pro. has a variety of high quality facilities for their idols, and even had a dormitory where they can stay in. This was done for the sake of maximizing the idol’s work hours while giving them a comfortable and accessible place of rest. Not all idols are living in the dormitories, and is usually just housing the popular ones at the time.

All of the main characters (except Sirius, and Villainess!Katarina) are living in the dormitory during the events of the “game”. Nicol and Sophia has rooms there, but they usually return to their home because they are more comfortable there. Katarina and Keith also regularly visit their parents whenever they are free, so their stay is a 50/50. Maria doesn’t visit her mother often (as her house is too far from her private school and work) so she’s always at the dorms.

A lot of the well known powerful, political and celebrity families (that are the equivalent to “nobles” in this world) are collaborators and sponsors of the company, one of the main sponsors being the Claes Family.

I thought of just making the setting an “Idol Academy” like in Aikatsu! and EnStars!, but I though nah, that’s just too easy. Industry idols are much more interesting to me, and that plot works better for a “idol rhythm game/producer simulator”, specifically for what M.C. gets to do in the game (plus I was listening to IM@S when writing the first part so hgfsdjhfdgsj)

Most prestigious families has their kids be home-schooled, especially ones that are involved in the entertainment industry. This is so that they can focus on their career while they are still young. The exception to this was Maria, until she became an idol and had to take a hiatus from school as Sorcier Pro. expects her to focus on expanding her career. She takes supplementary classes on the weekends.

Katarina’s solo unit name in Fortune Lover is Nobelia (a combination of “nobilis or noble” and “lobelia”, the blue flower of malevolence or evil). She sometimes gets temporary teammates to join for tournaments and projects, but she is a solo idol.

So the units are Fortuna (Gerald, Keith, Alan and Nicol), Amour (Maria, Sophia, and Mary), Nobelia (Katarina solo), Picotee (Sophia solo), Marigold (Mary solo), Alcea (Maria solo), Regalis (Gerald and Alan), Edel Herz (Keith and Nicol).

The name’s origins being: Fortuna as the greek of ‘Fortune’, Amour as the french of ‘Love’, Picotee as the dual colored flower (that can be white and red), Marigold (bc obviously) as the flower of passion, Alcea from alcea rosea (the pink hollyhock, which almost means strength and healing), Regalis as a root word/synonym to royal/royalty, Edel Herz being just a google translate of “noble heart” in german teehee (pls appreciate all the googling I had to do dhfgsjhfdg yes it’s mostly flower names bc I have no originality)

yes i changed the names form my original post, don’t call me out asdfgh

Idols don’t really need a stage name if they are a solo idol, but most popular idols are associated with one so it just became a trend to have both stage names and unit names.

In the original game, Maria’s default stage name is “Cinderella”, which you can then change into the username or player name. This is so that Maria can keep her name while still giving the players a custom name.

Maria’s original stage name is a nod to a lot of things: the “Cindrella syndrome” that her character is based on, The name of Fortuna’s fans/fanbase (as most players really are a fan of the boys), and is also a reference to how you are the main love interest for the boys (as you are their true Cinderella)

Katarina doesn’t retain the same stage name “Nobelia” as Villainess!Katarina does, in fear that it might her more similar to her, leading her to a doom end. She doesn’t have a stage name, unlike her friends. Her fans would call her “Bakarina” online though, but she never finds out about it jhagjsfg

Fortuna is an all-around male idol unit, one that can take on different images and genres with ease. The image of the unit changes depending on which boy is the center/lead of the song:

With Gerald, the music focuses on the instrumentals or the orchestra, giving a royal or heavenly vibe. The songs have an emphasis on righteousness, the beauty of life and a prosperous future. The songs for the fans usually has a theme of “reminiscent love” or “looking forward to a future with their partner”. A good example of a unit center song for his is Genuine Revelation from EnStars, and Flower as a solo song from his VA

With Keith, the music becomes more mature. The songs have more seductive lyrics, and has an emphasis on “forbidden love” or “having a secret relationship” with the fans. The lyrics are usually innocent in nature, until you read in-between the lines. Sometimes, his center songs throw a curveball and becomes about a “pure and innocent love” or “longing to be loved”. A good example for his solo song is Gekkoujou no Aria from A3 (please listen to it, it’s by Keith’s VA and the lyrics screams “Keith”)

With Alan, the guitar, violin and piano take the center stage.The music usually has more instrumentals than lyrics. The songs are primarily about being one’s true self, loving who you are and looking back at the past. Friendship and Identity are common themes in his songs. Sometimes, his center songs would throw a curve ball and be about something like “not acknowledging one’s feelings until it is too late”. A good song that represents his usually themes is Bokura no Kizuna from A3

With Nicol, the music is more slow and deep. The songs are usually about self-conflict, self-development and change. His songs sometimes have a theme of having an extreme adoration for the fans, a love so strong that time nor age can make it falter. “Being the only one for him” is the theme of his more popular songs. A good example for his solo song is Sword and Soul from his very own VA!

Yeah, basically the image of the center idol is reflected in the performance.

I don’t have a full list of idol song recommendations yet, but my friend who i mentioned above already recommended a bunch of good duo songs for the boys!: (feel free to suggest stuff if you guys have any :DD)

Gerald/Keith - Es No Yutsu from A3

Keith/Nicol- Plastic Poker from A3

Alan/Nicol - Don't Cry from A3

In the original game, all four boys we’re scouted while the girls all auditioned to become idols. Now, since they are all close friends, Gerald was able to market the talents of his friends and was able to get them all scouted into Sorcier Production.

Fortuna has a producer before Maria, but by the beginning of the game, he had to leave due to health reasons, leading to the sudden application for a new producer. While many producers offered to take care of the boys alongside their other idols, Fortuna insisted that they want a new producer who would focus solely on them.

Mary and Sophia also have their own producers, but they are barely present because they are busy handing other idols (and eventually, will let go of Mary and Sophia once they decide that they want Maria to produce them)

While Fortuna, Mary and Sophia’s careers were able to skyrocket quickly do to their appeals and talents, Katarina’s career grew slowly compared to her friends. This is because, despite to protests of her Producer Anne, she usually takes smaller gigs in far away towns, malls and small live houses. This is because Katarina wanted to perform in front of people who can’t easily access or attend live performances outside of the internet, just like her own small town in her previous life. She knew how happy she’d feel if there was an idol performance near her area, so she wanted to share that joy to other people.

Katarina doesn’t join her friends in doing acting and modeling jobs until much later, when Maria joins their group.

Anne Shelley acts as Katarina’s fitness instructor, personal health manager, and producer. She was brought into Katarina’s life even before she regained her memories, only exclusively as a health manager recommended to the Claes Family. She ended up taking on more jobs that involves watching over Katarina as the years pass by, as the young girl started gaining more and more interests and hobbies. Katarina wonders how Anne is able to be qualified for so many jobs, but she just sums it up as Anne being amazing! (Katarina: I guess she’s kind of like a maid!... or a babysitter...) Anne was (somehow) able to become a producer in Sorcier Productions and was easily recommended for Katarina due to their history. Anne cares a lot about Katarina in her happiness, and will do anything to support her (both version of her, in fact), so much that she is willing to juggle so many careers in order to stay by her side.

Katarina has a small farm that she tends to in her free time (since she doesn’t get a lot of job offers in the first place) that is located in the garden grounds near the main office of Sorcier Pro. Her visitors/helpers differ each day, depending on who is available (and who intentionally made themselves available to make sure they can spend as much time as they can with Katarina)

While her friends constantly get fan mail, the delivery man is always wondering why Katarina always specifically gets a small light box. In reality, it’s packages sent by Tom the gardener, from the Claes Mansion, showing her all his new prototypes for the snake toy. While Katarina first started out as making them out of paper before deciding on buying them online, she knew her family would be suspicious and question why she’s making such a purchase, so she was surprised when Tom started joining her in making fake snakes, until the snakes started to look even more realistic than the plastic ones online!

Maria Campbell: A Girl Chosen by Destiny

Since “Maria” is an involved protagonist, she gets to keep her name in the game, with her idol alias being the “username”of the player

Just like in HameFura, the game doesn’t give much on Maria’s actual history.

The game does have an implied personality for her, being a kind and hardworking girl who puts all her focus on the task at hand. The game implies that she is also a bit introverted, with her personality becoming more open and outgoing as the game progresses (implied through the slight changes in dialogue choices).

She’s a bit of a country bumpkin who moved into the big city in order to experience the world outside her town. She was able to gain a scholarship to a school in the city, and moved alone to stay with her aunt from her father’s side.

Due to her father leaving the family when she was young to due to rumors that she might be the daughter of a different man, Maria’s relationship with her mother is still very strayed. Thanks to these rumors, her father left her and her mother when she was young, and her town heavily criticized the two for the adultery that her mother apparently committed. These rumors stemmed form the fact that even as a child, Maria was beautiful (with clear blue eyes and bright blonde hair, that are in contrast to her mother’s dull eyes and dull hair). While her mother was fare-faced, the appearance that Maria had was usually associated with celebrities or artists, making people believe that Maria didn’t come from her father. Despite Maria’s mother claiming that none of it was true, the rumors got so out of hand that Maria’s father became ashamed of his family, leading him to leave without a word.

In the beginning of the game, she stayed with an Aunt from her father’s side, on the condition that she somehow pays the bills by herself, leading her to want to get a job.

Maria saw the announcement of Sorcier Production being in need of new staff, so she applied quickly in order to start saving money. Thanks to a set of misunderstandings, she accidentally got the role as a producer, despite her lack of credentials (not knowing that she was the beginning of a big project of SorEn)

Maria is an extremely hardworking person, believing that if she worked hard enough, she will be one day rewarded with the love that she’s always dreamed of receiving. Fortune Lover makes you think that Maria is naturally able to produce 7 idols, but in reality, it’s at the expense of Maria overworking herself to the bone, with almost no time for herself at all. Sometimes she sleeps in her small desk office instead of the household that she’s paying the bills of, in order to maximize her work hours. She dedicates every second that she has on the four boys, so when they shower her with love and attention, she was able to easily fall in love with them as well (and sadly becomes dependent on their validation as a personal reward for her efforts).

A month before one of Fortuna’s biggest live performance (or a little bit after Maria joins them as their producer), Maria oversaw the training of another idol who came to her and ask for help (not knowing that she was just trying to get close to Maria to get close with the Fortuna boys). Maria helped her train her dancing and singing, and even memorized her choreography in order to critique her steps. She became too dedicated in helping that idol improve, thinking that the girl wanted to be friends with her. When the event happened, the female idol was hit with bad karma and injured her leg just as the live started, leaving her unable to perform. This causes an uproar among the staff, as the set list was too complicated to change in such short notice. Gerald, who is aware that Maria has been helping their colleague, encourages Maria to take her place since she knew the lyrics and the dance. Thanks to the encouragement of the boys, Maria debuts in front of a huge crowd, gaining instant popularity as the cinderella idol that saved the live event.

Most of Maria’s job as a producer in arranging the schedules of the boys, staying in contact with their costume designer, staying in contact with their personal composers and lyricists, sorting through job offers, keeping watch of their health, watching them while they practice and accompanying them in their jobs. When she isn’t there to accompany any of them, another producer temporarily takes her place.

As Maria’s popularity increases, she is given job offers that prevents her from focusing on being a producer. Since the boys are very fond of Maria, they are very encouraging of her desire to become an idol too, and offers to help support her and themselves moving forward.

The game itself doesn’t make the changes in Maria’s occupation obvious, since Maria’s idol life is only prevalent in the Idol Rhythm Game Mode, but in reality the increase in workload is slowly eating her up (not that she’d let anyone know that)

Maria, as an idol, gets constantly harassed by her peers (especially Katarina) for being a nobody idol who took the spotlight away from them, as well as for being a close ally to Fortuna. A lot of scenes in the story mode is the boys saving her from the harassment (leading to a lot of good CG art that are sold as posters :P)

Depending on whose romance route you are on, Mary and Sophia start out as very hostile towards Maria, as her existence takes away the attention that their loved ones were supposed to give to them. Sophia warms up the fastest, as Maria’s lack of hostility towards her makes both her and Nicol easily attached. Even after the three starts as unit as Amour, Mary’s relationship with maria is mostly professional, before she slowly warms up to her somewhere near the end of the Alan Romance Route. The three can be considered friends, but they still seemed more like colleagues in the eyes of other people.

When Katarina meets Maria, she was very surprised to know that the Maria she played as in the game was a more humane person than the game shows up (somehow who isn’t perfect in every way, and works hard and long to be able to provide for both herself and the four boys)

Their meeting and friendship bloomed in the same way as the Otome Game version (because i’m too lazy to jot down every minor difference hgfjsdgf), surprising Katarina that baking hobby that was just mentioned in text or used as a plot device is actually real and flourishing, and is something she actively supported Maria.

Due to Katarina’s slow popularity gain, and Maria being a novice idol, they usually took and accepted jobs together since they both needed a boost. Instead of the quick burst of popularity that Maria has in the game, this time she wants to take each step slowly with Katarina, with the desire for them to grow at the same time.

Since Katarina is now aware of the hardships that Maria must be facing as both a producer and an idol, this time Katarina and Anne often help Maria with her paperwork and organization. Whenever Maria isn’t there to follow Gerald, Keith, Alan or Nicol, Anne now takes over if she’s available or she’d recommend a colleague that she knows would assist the boys like a pro.

Katarina insists that Maria doesn’t have to shoulder all her burden alone, and that she has all their friends around to help her and support her as they do with each other. Katarina tells her that it’s okay to ask for help and even offers her hand constantly (wow, Katarina can easily carry all these boxes of documents? My hero~) and Maria takes this lesson to heart.

Even though Maria felt nervous about joining Katarina’s friend group so suddenly, which even includes the very idols that she’s meant to watch over, Katarina was very insistent that Maria’s wonderful and warming presence would let her blend in so easily (Katarina isn’t aware of how the relationships of the characters were like in the original game since she never finished). Maria is eventually able to become friends with everyone, and is easily able to hold conversations with Mary and Sophia without Katarina around. Maria is there to act as a straight man to Mary’s exaggerated attempts at hindering the boy’s time with Katarina, and Maria often acts as an ear to Mary’s gossips about other idols. Maria, while not an avid fan of novels as Sophia and Katarina, can still join conversations about books by asking details, recommendations and insights on books she’s already read. Maria can easily get along with the boys as well, since they are in each other’s presence most of the time due to her role. They don’t hesitate to help Maria whenever they can (despite her resistance), and she’s usually the one who stops the arguments between Gerald and Keith whenever they are in the middle of a job.

Since Katarina ended p being so attached to Maria, the boys sometimes takes advantage of Maria’s role as a producer to have her work instead of attending to the woman of their affections (of course they feel somewhat bad about it, but it’s better than watching them look so love-struck with each other!) but it ends up backfiring when Katarina lets go of all her activities in favor of assisting Maria with her job as a producer.

Whenever Maria is free, she insists on borrowing the small kitchen in the Office in order to use the small over to bake some pastries and treats for her friends. Katarina constantly endorses the amazingness of Maria’s sweets, and they are both happy whenever their friends compliments the results of Maria’s hard work.

Compared to her work schedule in the game, Maria can now work comfortably as both an idol and a producer, thanks to the support and help of her friends.

Sirius Dieke: The 5th Love Interest

Sirius Dieke is a non-payable character in Fortune Lover, who usually appears in Gerald and Nicol’s stories and side story events to explain things about the world and the past relationship of the characters.

He is another idol in Sorcier Pro, and is an old friend to Nicol.

In reality, he’s actually a hidden character within the game that can only be playable if you get a Friendship Ending in the first playthrough. Getting a neural ending is already super hard, so Sirius being playable wasn’t revealed until two months after the game initial release. The game is so good at hiding this fact that not even the dataminers were able to find evidence of his existence outside of being an NPC.

Getting a Sirius Route is only possible in the New Game+ Mode, with story events and side story events dedicated to him alone. He only comes with only one new song though, so people in forums usually don’t recommend going to the Sirius Route in the second playthrough (unless you’re a completionist dgjfd)

There’s also the fact that Sirius’ Route has a completely different tone than the rest of the game. The developers of the game planned on removing his route in their game update, but due to the outcry of his fans, they kept it in, and even included a payed DLC where you can instantly unlock his route on your first playthrough.

In Sirius’ Route, it’s revealed that he was the son of a former celebrity and one of his maids, and that his real name is Raphael Wolt. His mother quited her job just before he was born. They were ultimately hunted down by Mrs. Dieke, who refused to believe that her husband had a mistress.

Raphael and his mother were kidnapped by people payed by Mrs. Dieke, and as his mother begged for her to spare their lives, Mrs. Dieke’s plans were revealed: Her own son is ill and was slowly dying from an illness, and in her jealousy of Raphael’s strong physique and health, she has decided to take Raphael as her own son, as both him and her original son both looked like their fathers more than their mothers.

In front of his eyes, Raphael’s mother was murdered in cold blood and Raphael was left to suffer from various degrees of shock therapy and blunt forces to the head in order to forcefully induce amnesia without killing him. He wakes up in the hospital bed with no memories of who he is, and Mrs. Dieke graciously plays the part of a concerned mother who is visiting her own son in order to sell the idea that Raphael is her own.

In the background, a news headline states that a mother and son was found dead in an abandoned warehouse.

The doctor tells Mrs. Dieke that her son “Sirius” might not recover his memories, and despite the glee in her voice, Mrs. Dieke acts and pretends to be devastated by the news. Unbeknownst to both of them, Sirius did eventually regain his lost memories over time and realizes that the woman claiming to be his mother is in fact the very person who had killed his only family.

Sirius learns that the reason Mrs. Dieke is so insistent on having a son was to be able to nurture and create a new star that would dazzle the entertainment world, with hopes of being able to live vicariously through her son’s career and success. Feeling disgust and hatred towards the woman that he is now forced to call “mother”, he plans to enact his revenge by destroying the entertainment world from the inside, exposing its ugliness to the world.

Sirius ends up becoming an idol because of the encouragement of his “mother”, leading him to be affiliated with Nicol and Gerald. He had already met them when they were all young, and he even planned to have them as allies in his quest to destroy the entertainment industry, only to find them as disappointingly bright eyed teens when they reunited.

When Sirius finds out that it was the effect of Maria Campbell, their new producer, he decided to wage war against her for acting as a thorn to his perfect plans. It’s revealed that a lot of the bullying scenarios in the story mode was orchestrated by Sirius himself, in an attempt to get maria to lose her reputation and her job.

Maria was able to trace back all the incidents to him, and confront him alone in the Office at night, before he left to go home. Sirius laughed and admitted to all of his past and crimes, and mocked Maria for having no proof against him. Instead of condemning him, Maria hugs him while telling him to change his ways. Despite the violent ways that he tries to get Maria off him, she doesn’t let go, trying to convince him that his way of acting in correspondence to his grief is wrong. Sirius cries as Maria spoke sense into him and dissected the flaws in his grand plan, until only the sound of his crying is left in the cold and empty office that day.

In Hamefura, When Sirius finds out that this was the effect of the “saint” Katarina Claes, he had orchestrated various events that could lead Katarina to being condemned by the public through her supposed “bullying” of the public darling Maria. This plans fails, so he plans on using Maria as a form of blackmail to get Katarina to leave the entertainment world in exchange for her friend’s safety. Maria disappears for a few days, causing her friends to be very worried for her, especially Katarina who is somewhat aware of the events that were occurring. During the search, she was able to find Sirius and tried to engage in some small talk, until she remembered a detail that her old friend Acchan said about a dark and secret love interest. Without any thought, Katarina questioned Sirius about Maria’s disappearance, surprising him with her sudden awareness.

Sirius admits to his crimes, and before Katarina can escape, Sirius hit her on the head so she can lose consciousness, but not before screaming about how he hates her ignorant enthusiasm, how she changed his pawns and made them better people, and how he wont let her take his heart and change him as well before he could enact his revenge, with tears in his eyes. This act leads to Katarina going unconscious for a few days. In this come state, Katarina was able to gain information from her old friend Acchan that she can use to save Sirius and Maria.

In the abandoned warehouse where “he” and his mother supposedly died, Sirius has Maria locked up, with no plans of letting her escape until he can guarantee that Katarina is out of the picture. He is shocked to find out that Katarina and her friends were able to find both of them; he goes on a rampage about how he wants to destroy the Dieke family and everyone associated with them and the cruel world they have created, before the feeling of despair and fear for his future leads him to almost taking his own life as a final escape.

Katarina stops him, and tells him that both of them has no future, as a secret love interest and as a villainess, and how she can’t save him the way Maria can. But that if anything else, she can a least stay by his side and take some of the weight off his shoulders, like what her friends have been doing for her since the beginning. Katarina calls him by his real name, Raphael Wolt, leading him to unlocking the final memory that he had lost from his temporary amnesia:

A memory of his mother, in her final moments, telling Raphael that she will always be by his side, and that she wishes for him to have a happy future, even if it wouldn’t have her in it. Katarina’s words made him realize that this wasn’t what his mother would wanted for him, leading him to see the error of his ways.

In both versions, it ends with Sirius turning himself in and confessing to the crimes of both him and Mrs. Dieke, leading to both of their arrest and the return/resurface of the Wolt Family murder case investigation. Sirius’ contract with Sorcier Entertainment gets terminated, and heavy manipulation of the media was used in order to prevent the story from coming into light.

Since Raphael lacked any crimes that would have him arrested, he was set free and left the Dieke family as it slowly fell apart from the controversy. He announced that he wants to spend his freedom as himself, but will one day come back to all of them as a better person.

Without Katarina realizing it, Raphael confesses that his rampage was caused by his fear of his desires for her and her company, and that he was scared that if she continued to open her arms to him in such an easy-going and warm fashion, he would lose all his will to have his revenge on the entertainment industry. Much to the annoyance of Katarina and Raphael’s friends, he takes her hand and promises to come back, to stay by her side, like she had promised to him.

In the Raphael Ending, Maria and Raphael meets again years later as both were on the way to work. Maria has already left the entertainment business and had no plans of returning, while Raphael became a changed man with a good heart and a steady job. Eventually, Maria was able to fall in love with the good man that Raphael was always meant to be/has become, and Raphael was able to rekindle the love and affection that he felt for Maria when they were still idols together.

Raphael had declared that he will back, better than ever! As an idol? who knows :3c But where will he go from here...?

Fortune Lover 2/Fortune Lover Re:Dive

Spoilers for Volume 3 of Hamefura and beyond, since this is about FL2

I’ve had a bunch of ideas that I’d like for Fortune Lover 2, but I’m not really sure if I want to put it out there because it seems too fanfiction-y in a way?

I feel like my ideas are straying far away from the original version, which disappoints me in a way, but then again, My Idol Game version of Fortune Lover is nothing like the Otome Game counterpart, so I’ll still write about it.

If you like the premise for an Idol Game style Fortune Lover, then feel free to just absorb the content above because for (my version of) Fortune Lover 2 to happen, Katarina will still get her bad end: Public Humiliation and Self-Banishment. I’ll save how it happens in part 4

In Fortune Lover 2, there would be 3 new produce-able idols, but in My Next Life as an Idol, there will be 5 new idols:

this is what i meant when I said the plot is gonna feel like a fanfiction :DD

Fortune Lover 2 isn’t really a sequel, as it is like a bulkier and softly rewritten version of FL, like how Persona 3/4/5 remakes are to their original games.

FL2 introduces a new Idol Agency that is affiliated with Sorcier Entertainment: Mahouka Production (also known as MahoPro), a recently established talent agency created by a mysterious Director. Despite being new, they were able to quickly gain a following through the eccentric idols in their line-up.

With a longer story, halfway through the game you start being introduced to three new male idols: Sora Smith, Cyrus Lanchester and Dewey Percy. They are idols that are under MahoPro, who dislikes the idols of SorPro and claims to be their rivals.

They start out as rival characters in the game, taunting you (Maria) and the idols of Fortuna constantly for a few chapters. Some time after your initial introduction, you slowly get to know the boys, until you’re finally able to gain their trust. You can then start to secretly “produce” them without their Director knowing (just like Shika from IM@S Stella Stage), which leads to gaining events, scenes, idol clothes, songs and CGs of the three new boys.

As the new character gets introduced later into the story mode, they are more of an optional route, as the game still prioritizes the original 4 boys over the new cast. You can still “romance” the 3 new characters, but since they are introduced late, it can only be done at the expense of focusing on them almost exclusively during story events and side stories so that you can quickly gain Relationship Points for them.

So basically, halfway through the game, you have the option to produce 11 idols: Yourself (Maria), Gerald, Alan, Keith, Nicol, Mary, Sophia, Raphael, Sora, Dewey and Cyrus. The first 5 being obligatory, while the last 6 are optional

Rufus Smith (or “Sora”, as he reveals to you his real name during the story) is new idol in MahoPro who was able to quickly gain a female following due to his attractive figure and maxed-out sex appeal. Many compare him to Nicol Ascart due to the fact that he is slowly taking a lot of his jobs (or works alongside him at times) due to his handsome face. While both of them are handsome models, the public is aware that there is no point in pining the two against each other since their beauty works in different ways.

In the story (and as hinted in a few side story events), he was a slum rat who didn’t have much for himself. One day, he met a man who had join him and his fellow slum dwellers into their territory, a man by the name of David. The man was able to give Sora a new perspective on life, his new name, as well as how to sing. After David died, he wandered around the country, doing dirty jobs for shady adults for money. A few years later, we was caught singing in the streets by a man who offered to take care of him and cultivate him as an idol at the age of 13, complimenting him for his beauty and his singing. While Sora rejected the offer, the man’s words never left his mind. He started out by singing in the street for change, then getting singing jobs at cafes/live houses/restaurants for money, until he suddenly got a small following as an underground idol. The Director of MahoPro offers a place for Sora, alongside with giving him jobs as a full-fledged idol that can help him provide for himself, leading him to be affiliated with Sorcier Entertainment.

Sora starts out having a rather sarcastic relationship with Maria, thinking that she is one of the many women who throws themselves at him to get his attention. He always gives her back handed compliments as always has a vicious tone when speaking. As the story progresses, Sora realizes that Maria isn’t disgusted by his history, and realized that Maria is truly a good and kind person. Sora starts to unconsciously seek her out, trying to reverse the bad impression that he must have left on her and to be with someone who doesn’t look at him lowly, like the other adults and idols of SorEn who dislikes people that aren’t of celebrity-upbringing.

Dewey Percy is a young idol that auditioned for Sorcier Pro. and won, but was rejected at the last minute in favor of a less talented wannabe-idol who was related to a famous actor. The Director of MahoPro came to Dewey with an offer as an idol, acknowledging his talents in music and dancing that he evidently have been polishing for years. In his town, Dewey was known as a Music Prodigy, as he was talented in singing, dancing, acting and playing instruments, though that’s not to say that those weren’t the effects of his own hard work. Because his family wasn’t the absolute best financially, he decided to audition as an idol in order to get jobs despite being young.

Dewey is revealed to be somewhat of a childhood friend to Maria, as he lived in the same town as her. Despite this, he is very wary of her due to the bad impressions left on his by Sorcier Pro. after he almost lost his chance at becoming an idol. Dewey absolutely hated asking for help, even when it was draining him down. He is very desperate to keep his title as a music prodigy, even though he knows it’ll be drowned once he’s in a battlefield of idols. (Also he tries very desperately to be seen as a mature and hot idol, despite his youth and appearance giving him a cute one instead lol)

Maria realizes how hard Dewey is pushing himself, and convinces him over multiple instances that he doesn’t need to be hard on himself and suffer alone. Maria offers herself as a shoulder to lean on, making Dewey embarrassed but happy at the idea that he can finally have someone to rely on, and that he doesn’t need to be alone anymore. They were also able to bond about their similar upbringing, making Dewey feel at home in the arms of Maria despite being miles away from their town.

Cyrus Lanchester is an idol from a different agency, who was transferred to MahoPro by the time the events of the game began. He has a very strict personality, and is an overall perfectionist as an idol. He was let go from his original Agency because his strictness and tendency to scold his fellow idols caused his peers (who are a bunch of lazy and stuck up children of celebrities) to take him out because they didn’t vibe with his attitude. Before his original producer was able to tell him that he was done as an idol, the Director of MahoPro offered a place for him in their new agency.

While being grateful to the Director for taking him in, he does not hold back in letting everyone know about his distaste for their odd Director. While is he very talented as an idol, he is just using it as a chance to learn more about the industry and gain connections that he can use to be a part of it in the near future.

While he doesn’t start as wary of Maria as his fellow male idols, he insist on keeping distance with her due to the fact that they are of different agencies, as well as the fact that he is not good at dealing with women.

Notes

(I’ll have to rewrite Cyrus and Dewey’s descriptions after Volume 7 comes out, since I don’t have much to work with. I’ll add the Sora, Cyrus and Dewey endings in the edit as well.)

I know some part of Maria and Sirius’ backstory doesn’t make any sense but just use your imagination lol hgjgfjsfgd

More about Katarina, the silhouettes, the Director, and how it affects the story on the next part :DD my fingers really hurt from all this typing hgjsdgfjs

If ever i’m dissatisfied with what I have here and end up changing things, don’t be surprised jhfjshdgfs

Next Part is gonna be plot points that I want for this AU and a bit of FL2, so sorry if the next one might not be that exciting fsjhgfjsd

feedback and suggestions are very much appreciated! Thank you to the few people who are interested in this AU :DD

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charityfaithfull · 3 years

Photo

Connection and Plot Ideas

THE CLOSE FRIENDS charity’s circle that she interacts with usually daily. They know her ins and outs. She is drawn to people who feels she engage in both mental and emotional states. She is talkative and likes to solve problems. They are an academic bunch, but they’re interests can diverge into many fields.

open connection

THE CHILDHOOD FRIENDS Charity is a halfblood with wizard family on her father’s side. She would know some other wizard children, however she is much more engaged with the muggle world because she is closer to her mom

@frcnklcngbottom Frank Longbottom - They don’t speak all that often, everything being more mild acquaintanceship in the end.

open connection

LOVE/HATE DORM MATES Charity isn’t the most typical Ravenclaw. Often her diverse experience and views can conflict with those near her.

@allaircss Ellie Allaire - It’s so bad. It’s only gotten worse. The more pets Ellie has brought, the more posters and records Charity hangs about the room. Ellie is resistant to Charity’s salt-of-the-concrete-city essense, and Charity is resistant to Ellie’s taste for the lavish.

@chvrrys - Usually the buffer for their rather…intense living situation. The pair get along much better. Unfortunately, their different life experiences and desires tend to be more of a wedge than discussion point.

@ivytravers - She may be the most relatable of the bunch for Charity, the most similar sentiments. Charity understands her anger with the world, but perhaps not how she believes she can handle things on her own. While Charity knows the grime of the world, Ivy knows the underbelly of the elite.

open connection

THE INSURGENTS Someone who works with her in all respects for her beliefs in changing the view anti-muggle and muggleborn sentiment

@macmcry Mary MacDonald - The pair had plenty to relate to since Charity lived half her life in the muggle world. She was all about helping Mary in any little way, and they don’t mind breaking the rules to get it done.

LOST FRIEND This is the person who she became unlikely friends with. She’s a great teacher and tries to experience things fully. However, she has been discouraged by how sour things all turned. It’s likely this was someone pureblood who thought they could resist the high pressures of family and social circles. It was a great disappointment to Charity when they could not.

open connections

FRENEMIES Engage her mind, she lives for conversation and will try to prove she is the smartest person in the room

@frcnklcngbottom Frank Longbottom - Occasionally, Charity can enjoy having the upper hand in an intellectual conversation too much, and Frank isn’t one to enjoy that. Just as equally, Charity does not want to be bested by him.

open connection

ENEMIES Come at her death eaters! She may be a pacifist in most situations, but she can make enemies easily. She openly shares her opinions and thoughts, which not everyone agrees with. This has gotten her into trouble for not just attempting to rework the educational system while she’s still in it, but for speaking out of turn because she knows she has to.

open connection

THE SILENCER - Somebody trying incredibly hard to get her to shut up about her pro muggle and pro muggleborn talking points. It’s a real battle because she is so well spoken and so clever. This person is getting to the point of considering more extreme means to get her to stop.

Open Connection

EXES Charity is mature in that she has a deeper understanding of herself. Yet, she feels really young and doesn’t actively try to take things too far in relationships. She has a crew of muggle friends who she wanders around with, one of whom she has a special connection with, but because they are far apart most of the time, she chooses to not pursue anything. At Hogwarts, she knows she can’t worry herself with that and likely had at least one serious relationship.

open connection

DECISION MAKER Charity is becoming indecisive about her future. It’s a typical smart kid, told they were gifted when they were young and now they are suffering, type deal. She’s considering making her way to muggle university, but this person thinks her skills are better put to use in the magical world. They may even suggest she become a teacher...

open connection

FLING In some ways Charity is more suited to flings, she can be endearingly sweet but also finds her brain just moving too fast. She is someone who is hard to keep up with.

@aciiers Sirius Black (summer 1976) - She never thought he was dumb, just a little stupid. It was a good summer to forget and live a bit. Charity appreciated his attempts to mimic her conversational style, it was charming in the end. However, continuing into the school year wasn’t even a thought that crossed her mind.

open connection

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE I always struggled to think of character comparisons, but yeah I think Charity is basically Lizzie Bennett. This is her Mr. Darcy. It isn’t someone who she has to be end game with, however this is someone from the complete opposite world. They can come off rude, but their choice to consistently interact intrigues her. It would take a lot of releasing their own pride to make anything happen, otherwise its all tension. basically gimme wizard pride and prejudice

@dirtbvg - Overlapping with plot for Star-Crossed Lovers. This was never intentional, and up until the last minute she had every doubt. Now that it’s summer, things may cool down. Their blossoming friendship can be less hidden in the shadows when its behind the wall of her London pub. But it won’t last as long as their own prejudices persist.

#wc #charity #inspo #ok so i added one new thing lol

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siriuslyblack12 · 4 years

Text

chapter 5

As the following week passed, Remus and Sirius found themselves dancing around each other: walking on eggshells. They hadn’t really spoken since that fateful day in the science lab and neither wanted to push the other into anything. The tawny-haired boy doubted that his love was requited, without looking hard enough to see if that was true.

After confiding in the girls about what was said (with Sirius’s permission of course) the first thing they did was laugh confidently, unbelieving that he hadn’t just confessed his crush. Lily’s not any better, Remus thought. She knows that James likes her and she still won’t tell him. He’d covered his ears childishly to block out her out as Dorcas tried to pry his hands away.

“Remus Orpheus Lupin.” Marlene announced as they sat in Privet Fields, wading her fingers through the grass as they onlooked James and Sirius, racing each other to the top of a climbing frame, Peter and Mary cheering them on.

“That’s not my name and you know it.”

Her brows furrowed, “You are the most disastrous bisexual I have ever met, and I’m dating Dorcas.”

The girl in question punched Marlene lightly in the shoulder, pushing her short, brunette hair out of her face, smirking to herself. “You’re the one who was practically throwing yourself at me every excuse you got.”

“Was not.”

Dorcas scoffed. “So you don’t remember mysteriously tripping so that I could catch you every single day? Asking McGonagall to change the seating plan because Kingsley was ‘distracting your learning’?”

“He was! I’m not that hopeless.” Marlene harrumphed.

Dorcas’s smirk shifted to a genuine smile as she kissed her cheek. “I never said you were, babe.”

Remus also smiled, watching them adoringly. He’d seen them both make fools of themselves before they’d finally gotten together. They were the most deserving people of happiness, and happiness they had found together.

His attention was brought away by the harsh shouts of Mary, who’d gotten to the top of the frame before James and Sirius even after giving them a head start. “Fuck yeah!”

Sirius was tangled in the rope, limbs flailing. “There are children present, Miss MacDonald.”

“He’s right, we can’t have you corrupting our ickle Peter, can we?” James said from where he was helping to free Sirius.

Lily rolled her eyes from beside Remus, not quite committing to it, “I think he was corrupted the day he met those two. If anything, Mary saved him.”

Remus agreed, “We all were, Lils. My teachers used to love me, I’d just sit in the back of the class quietly and actually do work.” That wasn’t entirely true, but no one had to know. “I had a clean record, no detentions or anything.”

“Maybe it’s a good thing then, I couldn’t even imagine how boring that’d be.” Marlene started.

“How boring what would be?” Sirius was now untangled and stalking towards where Remus and the girls were situated on the field, wilting daisies surrounding them as their coats sat beneath them and the damp ground. His hair was tied up in a manbun, a few curls not quite reaching and framing his face messily, lighter from the summer sun.

Lily answered him, “Remus was telling us all about his shameful past as a teacher’s pet.”

He gave her a scandalized look as Sirius said, “Our Moony? He would never. I specifically remember him pulling a prank and blaming me for it, that’s actually how we met.”

The girls erupted, laughing and shouting praise, clasping him on the back. He saw a mother give them a pointed look from across the field, tearing her eyes away from two boys aimlessly kicking a football back and forth. It had been in year 7, one of the first days of high school, when he’d taken one look at Sirius Black and something inside of him just knew.

And he hadn’t made any progress since.

“Sirius, mate, how is that even possible?”

“It’s not that big of a deal, but I’m not exactly complaining.”

Sirius was stood in the middle of the pool changing rooms, 6:00 am, wearing nothing but a speedo and a swimming cap. Morning practices were always the worst, especially when he’d tossed and turned all night with no real sleep. In front of him was Frank Longbottom, teammate and friend, dressed in a similar state to him.

“Your time went down 5 seconds, for fucks sake! It’s incredible,” Frank gushed. “No one here could do that if they tried.”

“Bet Coach still makes me work harder, no amount of improvement in the world could make him like me.” Sirius and his coach had never gotten along, considering he had a great relationship with the Black family, and it often worked out against his favour.

Frank gave him a sympathetic nod, tightening his own cap before padding out of the room to find the rest of their team. Temper rising, Sirius messily shoved his bag into a locker and followed his friend.

I have more important things to worry about than a stupid coach.

But it would be nice to be liked.

A few moments later water flowed fast all around him, his mind only focused on the movements his limbs. Every trouble faded out of his head as he kicked, hands dragging almost lazily as it was second nature to him. This was where he could feel safe. This is where the highs and lows of life couldn’t reach him, his muscles hard at work. The wall was right in front of him, getting closer by the minute as he stretched out his arm to touch it and when he did he felt a surge of happiness shoot up his spine and through his blood.

He ripped his goggles off excitedly to realise he was the first one to finish warmup, eyes scanning the board to see the set they’d be doing. It looked difficult, and would definitely take a lot out of him, but that was exactly what he needed. No time for overthinking. So exhaustingly yet refreshingly, he swam and dived and turned and flipped until his head felt fuzzy and his legs ached.

Coach shouted at them to get out of the pool and line up against the wall, voice calmer than usual. It was almost startling, how Fabian and Gideon could fuck about and not get given push-ups, how Frank could lean over and whisper to Sirius without being caught.

“Bet he’s announcing the new Captain,” He explained. “He’d have to be stupid to consider anyone but you.”

Sirius laughed dryly, “Don’t get your hopes up, Frank. Alice has been kissing his arse for weeks, I barely stand a chance.”

“But you’re the best swimmer here!” Frank exclaimed.

“If you don’t shut up now I won’t stand a chance at all. I won’t even have legs to stand on.”

His eyes went quickly to the towering height and corkscrew hair of the man speaking, broad shoulders filling out the team t-shirt. His face was angry and intimidating, which seemed to help the team win often enough for him to continue. “I expect a better swim than that, especially coming off your wins last night. I didn’t come here to watch mediocre swimmers.”

There was a general hum of acknowledgement, “All of you have the potential for excellence, but I expect very few of you to come into your own.” He paced up and down the line menacingly. “Selecting a Captain did not come easy to me, considering that the job takes responsibility and maturity.”

Gideon smirked back over at him as if to say ‘can’t be you then’ as their Coach continued, “The person I have selected may not demonstrate these things 100 percent of the time, but gala after gala has proved their worth.” Sirius now shifted in anticipation. “So, without further ado, your Team Captain for the rest of this year is…”

I was unfocused last week.

I didn’t finish that set one time.

My fly needs work.

There’s no way he’ll make me Captain.

“…Sirius Black.”

Frank and some others jumped on him immediately and he had to wince as they shouted right down his ears. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing but was elated nonetheless as the rowdy praise evaporated into polite applause and surprisingly authentic smiles. It came to an end, not without a warning from their coach and swimmers filed out orderly. Before Sirius could follow he heard a stern voice call him back.

“I need to talk to you, Sirius.” His Coach said.

He turned back around and folded his arms complyingly, prompting the man to continue. “You did well last night, I was quite impressed actually.”

“Thank you, I appreciate it,” Sirius stumbled, taken aback by the sincerity.

“You’re not exactly the most easy to work with, nor the most responsible.” Don’t hold back with the compliments, Sirius thought internally. “However I know a good swimmer when I see one, and I’ve seen you with our junior swimmers, they love you.”

Sirius choked back a smile, “I love helping them, ‘s nice to give back, you know?”

A t-shirt was placed gently in his hands, the same one that his Coach was wearing but in a smaller size. The team logo shone from where it was embedded on the right and his title was sown neatly below it. He was brought out of his trance by a contrastingly harsh voice, “But one slip up and that t-shirt goes to Alice, mark my words.”

He couldn’t help but groan. “I understand.”

“You can leave now, Sirius.”

“Happily.”

Remus peered over his book for about the thousandth time that hour, watching James obnoxiously flirt with Lily as she rolled her eyes, contrasting the way her cheeks pinked. This interaction had been going on ever since they’d gotten to school just half an hour before, and it was becoming quite exhausting to watch. He took a look around the practically empty library before shifting his focus back to his book.

“Lily, you have no idea what you’re missing out on! I have a lot to offer.” James sang.

“And what would that be exactly?” She said sharply.

He hesitated for a moment, ruffling his hair to make it even more messy before saying, “A lot! I don’t even know where to begin.”

“Of course you don’t,” Lily sighed. “Better luck next time.”

James huffed, his lips forming a pout as he slumped back into his chair. Remus braved a look at the scene and so his eyes lifted to meet Lily’s fierce blue ones, pleading and disturbed. He wondered what could possibly be going on in her head when even though she liked him she still rejected his advances.

James perked up suddenly, “Sirius, mate, can you tell Lily about everything I have to offer? How much she’s missing out on?”

Sure enough, Sirius was walking gracefully into the quiet of the library, hair still damp and clinging to his ears from what must have been a morning practice. His hoodie was half unzipped, giving a peak of a tight graphic t-shirt beneath it. “I’m afraid there’s not much to say in that department, Prongs,” He laughed.

“Fuck off, I’ve got class.” This only made him laugh louder as James continued to sulk even when leaving the room. He really is a child.

Sirius sat himself in a chair right next to Remus, his hair almost brushing the other’s nape when he leaned over his shoulder to assess the book in his hands. With a slow turn of his head, the two met face to face with longing and shyness. Through the corner of his eye Remus could see Lily stand and call out to James, flicking out her phone, but he couldn’t bring himself out of the weighted moment.

Sirius leaned forward carefully, until he was close enough to reach up and run a hand through Remus’s curls.

“I really do like the haircut,” his voice was down to a low whisper. “Not that I didn’t like it before, I just… like it more now, I guess.”

Remus’s breathing hitched as the hand that was carding through his hair moved down to his cheek, his thumb brushing over his cheekbone lightly. Well, it’s now or never.

“Is there anything else you want to get off your chest? He asked, matching the other’s whisper.

“Yeah, there is actually.”

“Me too,” The moment he sounded the last syllable Sirius’s other hand came to rest on the other side of his face. It was only just occurring to him what was happening. Sirius’s hands are on my face. Sirius likes me. Oh shit.

“Can I kiss you now?” The boy in front of him questioned, way too casually from what it was, thumbs tracing circles on his flushed skin. Quickly and simply, he nodded until he felt soft lips on his own.

He thought fireworks must be going off somewhere outside because holy shit. Sirius’s lips were warm against his own, insistent yet gentle, and certainly better than he could have ever imagined. He realised he wasn’t really doing much so he wrapped his arms around the dark-haired boy’s waist and brought him as close as possible to his body. A thought ran through his mind like broken a train, that he could never be close enough to Sirius. Remus felt a tongue run over his bottom lip as the kiss deepened, both boys letting out sounds of contentment. He never wants to stop kissing this boy; He wants to die kissing this boy.

It did stop eventually, but not without both of them savouring it as best they could. As they parted, Remus kept his eyes closed for a few moments, desperately trying to hold onto the feeling. When he finally did open them, his eyelashes fluttered in a way that Sirius thought to be simply criminal, and so he leaned back in to kiss him once again. Remus tasted like chocolate and mint, a taste he tried to memorise in the next few minutes they spent with their lips almost molded together.

This time they only stopped as distant hollers got increasingly louder, hollers that they soon figured belonged to their friends. Dorcas was holding her phone up, obviously recording the new couple’s (couple? Is that what they were now?) reaction. Mary handed Lily some change, Remus noting that they must have been betting on this. Fucking Lily.

He buried his face in the crook of Sirius’s neck out of embarrassment, realising that maybe that was something he could do now. Maybe. This was only reassured by strong arms folding around his shoulders, hands bracketing his head to keep him there.

“As much as I appreciate the well wishes, we’d much prefer if you could kindly fuck off, thank you.” Sirius addressed the audience of smug faces around them, ending it with a kiss to Remus’s head.

“I knew you like him! I told you, didn’t I Lily, I told you!” James jumped up and down like an excited puppy, quite an unusual sight to behold.

“You like me? I hadn’t noticed.” Remus replied dryly, his voice dripping in his signature sarcasm as a surge of confidence swept through him.

“Moony, I think you’ll find that I do like you. A lot actually, and I would really like to kiss you again.” Sirius said in a much softer voice than he was used to hearing from the boy.

Remus smiled back at him, “I think that can be arranged,” Before leaning back up into a now familiar kiss.

“Prongs, you didn’t even know he was gay, how could you possibly know they liked each other?” Marlene shouted.

“Oh please, I’m not blind.”

For the first time in a while, Remus could say that he was truly happy.

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scentedsongrebel · 4 years

Text

A Normal Day

Summary: MARAUDER’S ERA

"Oh God! Potter I have been declining your requests on going out with you ever since I can remember and now suddenly you think I wrote you a love letter? Just an ordinary day in the life of one Remus John Lupin.

Warnings: None? Minor cursing maybe?

Word Count: 1,851

Remus Lupin POV

It was a normal day. Now some of you would raise an eyebrow at my reference of 'normal' and I see why you'd say that because sounds of shouting around the common room late at night is something which most of you don't consider to be normal. But for me, it was nothing quiet out of the ordinary. It was a normal day.

"HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?" I hear a girlish voice shout

"No, I have found my everything" a boy replies and I don't even have to focus to know who it was and I think not even a single person in this Gryffindor common room (including the new first years) has to turn to see who it is.

I still focus my attention on the on-going fight out of which I so peacefully got distracted.

"IF YOU DON'T SHUT THE HELL UP AND LEAVE ME ALONE, POTTER I WILL KILL YOU"

Lily was shouting her hands closed tightly in a fist, she has no wand and I feel a bit relieved for she cannot hex my friend but as I look into her usually emerald eyes I clear all my assumptions. Hell she could kill James with her hands with the amount of anger in her eyes which now so mysteriously have turned red. Well not so mysteriously but that's out of the point.

"Oh sweet Lily-flower, you hurt me so much" James says clutching his heart in mock hurt and shaking his head and I can't help myself but say it

"Umm James your heart's on the left side mate" and as I say it I receive a glare and a pat on the shoulder by James and Sirius respectively.

"Oh! Dearest Moony, you see how much hurt my heart is actually bearing because I feel the pain on the other side" James says winking and I feel the corners of my mouth twisting in a small smile. Trust James to take change everything in his favor. Actually trust Sirius to change everything in his favor but again that’s not the point.

"No Remus, don't smile" Lily says frowning "you're encouraging him".

"Umm sorry Lils?" I say uncertainly

Lily continues to frown. At the corner of my eyes I can see Marlene Mckinnon clutching her stomach to control laughter and Alice just arriving, asking Mary about the events to which she just shakes her head, she too not able to conceal laughter.

"Okay what's going on?" Alice who seems to have given up on asking her friends turns to main origin of the on-going fight.

"Well well well" James says smiling at Alice "You see Lily-flower here sent me a letter confessing her undying love for me" and just as he says it Lily gets even angrier. The frown of earlier turned in a growl of irritation as Alice starts to laugh joining her already laughing friends. I just realize when I have to hold on to Peter for support how much I too have been laughing on the news. Sirius on the other hand tries to look as determined as James but the amusement on his face betrays him.

"No Potter, I did not" Lily says calmly this but her face and clenched teeth tell otherwise

"You did….see" he says moving a piece of paper in front of her

"I did not" Lily now whines "oh! God, Potter I have been declining your requests on going out with you ever since I can remember and now suddenly you think I wrote you a love letter? Does it says my name?" she says and then snatches the letter out of James' hold "let me see"

As she examines the contents of the letter a satisfactory smile embraces the tips of her lips and she looks up to meet James' eyes

"see it does not say my name and that's not even my handwriting"

James looks a bit dejected at this revelation but quickly regains his smirk "Who on earth will send me a love letter other than you?" he says pointing his finger at Lily who seems to get a little amused and I feel she too would burst out laughing but a reply comes from behind her

"Really James?" Marlene says emerging from behind Lily, an unending smile on her lips "The question should be 'who else could it not be except you'?"

And I have to agree with her. Every girl except our dear Lily dies for James' charm… Well maybe not Marlene but she considers him her brother because of their parents' friendship and Alice who seems to be lost in the 6th year Frank Longbottom too much and a few but except for them, every girl.

"Well James, I think no I am sure Marlene is right" I say moving forward towards Lily and taking the letter from her hands to examine it. I had already seen it earlier in our dorm when we arrived from our daily trips to the kitchen to find this letter on James' bed. James was really excited for he quickly assumed it was from Lily and I tried to object but eventually went with it. Even I enjoy a little laugh and scene in the common room.

Sirius tries to tell me that they read the letter already and I don't have to read it but I don't listen. The boys who can assume Lily sent a love letter to James cannot be trusted to read a letter carefully.

I read the contents of the letter carefully

Dear My Jamesee-poo,

I have been drooling over you from a very long time now and it feels horrible to not to get to be with you all the time, to not call you my boy-friend, not being able to kiss you, to hug you and I write this letter today to confess my deep undying feelings to you.

The first thing I want to do is apologise to you for not liking you for sooooo long. I was an idiot, I had no brains, well I had a brain but It was not working. Okay so it was working but not thinking the right way. But now it has found its right way and I realize how much I love you. Oh! James I can't live without you and I would spend my entire life waiting for you, no matter how long it takes.

You must think I may be mad but I won't deny cause I am mad for you. I have no idea what I see in you? Why I see you as the love of my life when you have a sooo handsome best mate who I can spend my life with? Oh! Sirius is handsome so much… No but I love you, yes I do it, I love you a lot…

Yours

Secret love girl

The writing in the letter looks so insanely similar that I read the letter again. Where have I seen this writing? Uh and then I see it, the grammatical errors and the comments on James' best mate. I immediately snap my head towards him and our eyes meet. He gives me a sly smile and a pleading look.

It's Sirius! Sirius wrote James a love letter? Sirius loves James? Sirius hated James at first but now wants to hug him? Kiss him? Sirius? Sirius and James? But James loves Lily and I thought Sirius’ love for James was platonic…. Guess he hid it so well.

I look at him, the confusion evident in my eyes. He just looks at me for some time, confused but realizes what I mean and his eyes widen.

"NO NO NO" He shouts and all heads snap in his direction

"Umm Sirius pal?" James asks confused and puts a hand on his shoulder. Sirius quickly shrugs it off looking horrified.

"I'm fine, just remembered about something" he says "a 'prank'" he says emphasizing the word "Prank" looking at me and I understand. It's a prank, a prank huh! How could I have been so stupid? Of-course it's a prank.

"A prank?" It was Marlene "then why were you shouting NO?"

"umm the prank went wrong" he says itching the back of his head

"So you realised the prank went wrong just standing here just as Remus read the letter and looked at you?" she asks raising her eyebrows

"Yeah" he says coolly. Lily looks at him and then suddenly snatches the letter off my hand. James just looks confused, mirroring the look Peter almost always wears. Just as she reads it Sirius passes me a scared look and I see Marlene smirking, understanding something.

"Oh my god!" Lily exclaims as she finishes reading the letter and looks at Sirius who starts to move backwards "YOU FANCY JAMES!" she literally shouts pointing at Sirius, causing a lot of heads to turn our way.

"WHAT?" James exclaims in unison with Alice, Mary and Peter while Marlene and I just burst off laughing.

"NO NO NO" Sirius shouts on top of his lungs looking disgusted then looks at James and shouts again "NO…. Oh god! Lily… NO! and people say you and Moony are the smartest" we raise an eyebrow "Please, how can you… Uh!... It was a Prank"

"A what?" James says looking at Sirius with his eyebrows raised, his fist closing. Lily seems to have realized and gives out a weak laugh which turns into a loud laughter.

"A- a- a" Sirius looks to have lost words and just runs away while all of us start laughing while James looks like he won't shy away from committing a murder.

"That dog" James says through clenched teeth and then looks at Lily with a sly smile

"Well not today but trust me Evans, someday you will send me a love letter, Now if you'll excuse me I have you kill my best friend. Moony help me dispose off the body will you?" he asks and I just laugh

"Of-course I will, come Pete" I say waving my hand towards Peter. We always forget him.

We go towards the 5th year dormitory because I know James won't beat him off but the revenge would be something equally fishy and as I said, I love a laugh. Sometimes I think how I am friends with these weirdos but sometimes I don't. I just love them and every adventure that has become my life.

So I just go off with 2 of the very little people that mean so much to me planning off the murder of the third.

It is a normal day.

#Remus Lupin #James Potter #Lily Evans #lily potter #Sirius Black #marlene mckinnon #alice longbottom #Mary MacDonald #Marauder's Era #Marauders #marauders jokes #Moony #Wormtail #Padfoot #Prongs #Harry Potter

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drink-n-watch · 4 years

Text

It might actually finally truly be summer here. I get paid by the adverb! But it really is a rather nice weekend. Sunny and bright but not too hot. The type of weekend that makes you want to just be lazy and not do a ton of paperwork. I have a lot of paperwork to do… I have been putting it off. But I absolutely must get this review out first. Right? Right! How are you doing Crow? Everything good for you?

I am doing mostly fine. It’s getting very summerly here (we’re splitting the adverb bounty, right?). Did you know it takes a week and a half to get the replacement valve that feeds refrigerant into my air conditioner? I just learned that myself. It arrives Thursday. The joys of homeownership…

We are now at episode 8 and going into the final arc. Unless My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! Is planning on getting another season, we should be starting off the denouement right about now. Any thoughts before we get started?

I’m really curious to see what you thought about this one. I had fewer notes, but it’s taking a lot longer to process. And poor, poor Mary! I’m glad Maria was… Well, I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves…

Because the school year is nearing the end, Catarina is studying for her exams but she soon decides to take a little break and change things up, by doing some gardening. I was always fairly good at studying and absolutely horrific at gardening. I’m just a notorious plant mass murderer. It was a very upside down notion for me to have Catarina actually choose shovels over books. Like my brain had to adjust.

I grew up on a farm, so I had to make sure fields of plants lived or we had no income. It wasn’t easy, I can tell you! Fortunately, I just had to plow, disc, and cultivate. More experienced folks applied the nitrogen and other dangerous chemicals. Then the plants would not have been the only ones in danger!

In the garden, she runs into Alan and spying on them s from the school windows, Mary gets the wrong idea gets very worried and decides to go interrupt them.

She’s my favorite. I think that’s why I felt so sorry for her even through the after credits scene!

At this point we get the OP. I’m not sure if I’ve ever gotten a chance to mention it but I really like the opening song, for what it is. It’s quite bouncy and puts me in a good mood whenever I hear it. I think it really suits the series quite well. The visuals are fine but not that interesting all things considered, but when you pair them with the music, everything seems to come together so well. It’s sort of a nothing special really but solide and fun OP.

It’s a very uplifting song. Apparently, the artist is named angela, and Crunchyroll did a writeup on her. Very interesting video, by the way!

Fortunately for Mary, Catarina was in fact just going in, and the two meet up right away and go to the student council room to study for a bit. I quite like the squiggly writing they use. It looks a bit like drunken sanskrit. Sirius is there and they exchange a few words. Do you like his voice actor?

You know, I didn’t really give his VA any thought until this episode — and I thought that he’d done a particularly good job. Toshiki Masuda managed to sound friendly and helpful while giving off an ominous vibe!

At this point, the two girls (Mary and Catarina that is) decide to switch over to the library and start heading that way. I just wrote a post on anime libraries so this was very topical for me. On their way the first run into Geordo who decides to invite himself much to the chagrin of Mary. She really is not very good at hiding her emotions and her disappointment at losing her alone time showed on her face perfectly. Geordo teased a bit about it but was generally a very good sport about someone with romantic aspirations trying to spend alone time with his fiance. He’s impressively not jealous which you would think would be a big part of his archetype.

I wonder how this library compared to the ones in your post? About Gerald, though, he’s really surprised me. He has every right (socially speaking) to be upset that everyone’s horning in on his fiancée, but he’s generally been very patient!

Next, the tree of them ran into Keith who immediately decided to join in as well. From there, a series of quick vignettes showed all the main characters in turn decided to tag along, namely Maria, Sophia, Alan and finally Nicol. I really loved how Nicol was basically just a still shot of him without any dialog and the next scene was him walking with the group. That made me giggle. The entire little montage was fun.

The group finally makes it to the library which is surprisingly cozy, or maybe this was an offshoot or something. The room they were in only had one table and it was just big enough for the 8 of them.

Yes, it looked comfortable. But I thought it was awfully suspicious that neither Mary nor Catarina (okay, Mary…) had heard of the library when Sirius mentioned it. I wonder if he knew what was going to happen…

I think it’s at this point that I realized that I would probably like this show more if I was binge watching it. It’s great as is but I do think it loses a bit of its momentum having to wait a week between episodes and the repetitive nature of the narrative stands out more. It’s so light and airy I would probably have blown through an entire season in a day or two and have been left in a good mood for the rest of the week. What do you think Crow?

You know that I look for moments to celebrate, and I love the characters so much that I’ve been trying to ignore it. But, in all honesty, you’re right. As you said, it’s nothing against the show! Catarina’s Baka side is part of its charm. But it might flow more smoothly viewed all at once.

It seems that being part of a group does help Catarina focus on the books, but only for a short while. As she starts to get fidgety the Maries (that’s what I have decided to call the duo of Mary and Maria – it’s sort of a misspelling of both their names so no one can get mad. That makes just perfect sense) Where was I? I got lost in my own parenthesis. Oh yeah, seeing Catarina getting distracted! The Maries figure it’s a good time for a bit of a break. Maria decides to get them some sweets she made while Mary makes the tea. Both of them would make good maids.

No argument here!

Catarina jumps on the occasion to do something else and peruses the shelves next to the table when she spots a specific book that seems to glow for a minute. When Catarina she opens the book out of curiosity it glows a LOT more and we find out her voice stress has an impressive set of lungs on her. I was watching the show with my windows wide open and I’m sure my neighbours got a little worried there.

At this point, everyone in the library disappears, apparently having been sucked into the book, leaving behind the Maries. Maybe this will be their chance to save the day and redeem themselves after doing nothing but almost killing Alan last week!

This was the Bakarina moment for the episode, I think. I mean, if a book went all glowy for you, would you open it right in your own face? Especially if I couldn’t read the title (which I doubt Catarina could read).

Mary garbs the book and starts looking through it. Fortunately, it doesn’t also suck the two of them in for some reason, and they can sort of see what’s happening in the book’s universe through the pictures. Or maybe those are illusions? In any case they cannot seem to directly interact by touching the pictures. I’m not sure why they didn’t try writing something in the book. This whole idea is a little meta, Catarina getting sucked into the universe of a storybook from the universe of an otome she got sucked into….

I love Re:CREATORS. This is almost normal for me! Seriously, though, it is delightfully Inception-like! Or maybe I should say Paprika-like…

For some reason, Catarina is the only one who seems to realize something is amiss. Maybe because she comes from a different world to start off with? The Maries get to briefly watch a scene that seems to be taking place right after Geordo and Catarina’s wedding as the two of them start their first evening as husband and wife. Understandably, Geordo is eager to romance his one true love now that they are legal and after a 15 year courtship (I’m not actually sure how old they are but they seemed older than they are now and they have been engaged for a long time already…) but since for Catarina she was in the library a few minutes ago, it’s a bit of a shock. Nevertheless she doesn’t seem that opposed to it. I was looking through my screencaps of the scene and it ends on her smiling face. A visual I missed when reading the subtitles I guess because though she was a bit more hesitant than that expression seemed to indicate.

The scene gets to be a bit much for Mary and she slams the book shut not wishing to see her beloved Catarina with someone else in a romantic way. The Maries talk over what they have just seen and decide to open the book again not knowing what to do.

Honestly, I felt bad for Mary in this episode. It had to be very difficult to her to have to watch others acting on their romantic desires for Catarina!

I got a similar vibe from Catarina and Geraldo. She seemed more surprised than anything. Maybe from his perspective, his imagination had experienced the wedding ceremony. But she was still fresh from the library, so the scene was a complete surprise to her.

The next time Catarina is at her desk in her room, trying to study, with Keith standing over her shoulder. Except Keith looks a little weird. Like he got lip injections or something. Then he sort of flirts with her and tries to feed her a cookie. Which he immediately succeeds in because Catarina has never said no to a cookie, but before she gets to taste it, the book slams shut agan and Mary is exasperated. We learn that the book feeds on desires and we are actually seeing the characters deepest desires realized.

I laughed at Catarina’s reaction to Keith: “he’s giving off an oddly sexy vibe…”

I have to say, I can see it for Geordo. He is very much in love with his fiance and has worked hard for years to be the proper companion for her. I can see him really looking forward to their wedding night. I also figure he would be the type of guy who sees himself as debonnaire and smooth. But Keith’s scene was a bit baffling to me.

Sure Keith likes Catarin a lot, that’s no secret. And I completely believe that his deepest desire would involve her. But I can’t see him wanting to be a sleazy playboy type. Wouldn’t he have been horrified if not slightly repulsed by that version of him? It seems much more like what we are told game Keith is like rather than what the Keith we have come to know would fantasize about. This felt like they lost sight of the character a bit.

Unless the book is acting more on the characters based on their normal game routes? Nah, that’d be too subtle. I always saw Keith are more earnest and straight forward. I could see him helping her study, and getting closer and closer to her. But doing the who “open wide” thing? I’m with you on this one.

I don’t remember if this is where Alan comes in. His sequence is extremely short. We just see him playing piano next to a standing Catarina before Mary slams the book back shut, obviously not wanting to even think about it. I believe we are meant to understand that Mary also cares about Alan. It bothers her way more when he is with Catarina than when anyone else is and it’s not like Catarina shows him any favour. Think it may have hurt her feelings just a bit that she wasn’t any part at all of Alan’s desires.

Her eyes were completely blank. It’s like that was the last straw for her. I loved how Maria kept trying to comfort Mary. They worked well together in this episode!

The next scene was Sophia’s, and it was rather sweet. I like little dreams. Sophia and Catarina were in a library again but not the same library. This was Sophia’s private library and Catarina was really impressed by the wealth of romance novels available. She even mentioned wanting to live there which stirred up something in Sophia. The latter reacted by pinning Catarina to the wall with her arms on either side, all aggressive boy in a shoujo type. It was pretty funny to watch, especially as Sophia is markedly shorter. I’m not sure if they were going for actually romantic feelings here or a very strong friendship but either way, it was cute. Cute enough for Mary to slam the book shut again.

That library was probably too small to qualify for your list, wasn’t it? I agree that Sophia was just darling in this scene. She loves her time with Catarina, and the idea of the two of them living together with a stocked library seems to be a dream of hers.

Finally, we get Nicol’s fantasy sequence that was my favourite of the bunch. First, it really looked like an old school Sailor Moon episode with Serena fantasizing about Tuxedo Mask. In case that sentence didn’t make it sufficiently clear somehow, it looked amazing! Second, it was hilariously ridiculous. It seems even in his own desires, Nicol is pursued everywhere by a veritable army of swooning fangirls. I like this openly conceited Nicol. Second, he has the imagination to pretty much forgo realism. Unlike the others, his sequence wasn’t something that could happen and it made it all the better!

Leaping off the balcony into a gondola; sweeping Catarina into the air to bound from building to building, then telling her he’d love for her to be in his arms forever with the moon as a backdrop — yeah, he’s the most imaginative!

Mary is starting to get really worried about Catarina and how hungry she must be by now. Staring longingly at the sweets, she mentioned that Catarina hasn’t eaten in a while. At this point, the Maries suddenly remember that the magical book that feeds on people’s desires will let them go if their desires are fulfilled somehow. Unfortunately since they don’t really know what to do about it they decided to just open the book again and check on Catarina’s own desire next.

I really loved their teamwork this episode. Maria also showed that has a shrewd, inquisitive mind. Very cool!

I have to admit, the Maries seemed to believe that sweets were Catarina’s deepest desire (a reasonable guess), but I was sure that she would put them all to shame and they would see a scene with absolutely everyone, themselves included and realize that Catarina’s deepest desire is for everyone to be together and happy.

Catarina’s sequence opens with her walking alone through a grim looking forest and complaining about being hungry when she suddenly chances upon a life sized gingerbread house just like in the Hansel and Gretel fable. Of course, she goes right for it and starts devouring the walls. Soon the house turns into a tornado of candy which a rapidly fattening Catarina more or less vacuums up. The scene goes out of control quickly and the Maries try to shut the book again but something is going wrong as it distorts and bubbles. Suddenly everyone explodes out of the book.

We are told that because the book candy wasn’t real, Catarina couldn’t get full no matter how much she ate, so her desire just kept getting bigger and bigger until the book couldn’t handle it anymore. I’m not sure what they did with the book next but everyone was happy and they had tea and snacks. Too bad the Maries didn’t get a chance to do anything in the end.

I think I’d be at least a bit curious about the book — and why it decided to get my attention! It was interesting that they said it was one of the 7 mysteries of the school. Put me in mind of Yamada and the 7 Witches.

I’m not sure if I’m understanding this right, but if Mary had just let anyone’s scene play out, they would all have been freed from the book right away. Like it’s not really a trap. You get sucked in, it plays out your deepest desire and when it’s fulfilled, it lets you out. That sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me. I wish I had a bunch of those books lying around. Last week, Crow and I discussed potential My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! Merchandise. I’m saying a fully functional desire book will make them all millionaires. I hope someone is working on that! Oh man, I would spend every second I could in anime worlds… probably watching anime…

My luck, no one would open the book, and I’d be trapped! Bit of a downside, there… But with the appropriate safety equipment, it could be a complete blast. There’re several worlds I wouldn’t mind visiting! As several I’d very much want to avoid…

Does anyone need to open the book?

Finally, the after credits scene showed a broken hearted Mary watching what she believes is her long time fiance betraying her with her best friend and not so secret unrequited love. It stops a bit abruptly so maybe it’s a lead in for the next episode?

I wondered for a moment if it was part of the book fantasy! But it doesn’t look like it. I thought Catarina might be more interested in Nicol! But that moment in the tree seemed so comfortable!

Crow, how did you enjoy episode 8 of My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!? Are you looking forward to next week?

Yes, I did. Your earlier comments about some of the situations being repetitive was spot on, but I like the character so much that I’m really looking forward to the next episode. I really don’t want this comfortable, supportive group to change, though I know it has to! It’s just so rare to see a group like that being good to one another!

My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! ep 8 – Simple Pleasures It might actually finally truly be summer here. I get paid by the adverb! But it really is a rather nice weekend.

#anime #blonde bishie #comedy #My Next Life as a Villainess #otome #reverse harem #romance

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