#idk they bothered me i was weird in return but not on purpose they just fucked up my concentration

[tipsywench]

I think my main purpose in life is to be really awkward and weird around upper management whenever they visit. I am gods awkward reminder to keep these fuckers humble.

[mamamittens]

Well, we have a game plan but the coming weeks will be quite illuminating about if we'll need to take out loans to consolidate pre existing debt.

The "Oh Shit Sale" is still ongoing btw, which basically means half off commissions and the chance to sponsor a chapter of a fic I haven't updated for $20 bucks (ABSOLUTELY A LAST RESORT FOR ME AND NOT IN ANY WAY GOING TO CONTINUE ONCE I FEEL COMFORTABLE IN MY CURRENT FINANCIAL STRIFE).

I will be very glad to announce the sale has ended but for the moment, it is still very much active.

Anyway, time for something less depressing! Like rambling about my new pokemon OC until I feel able to go to sleep!

So, I have a very definied look for Edna during work hours. Very... Althetic chic? Idk, she's wearing leggings and sleeveless mock turtleneck, it's very much A Look. So I was trying to figure out what her 'comfy' wear would be.

Personality wise it would make sense for her to prefer comfy, soft fabrics. She doesn't like conflict despite being very fit, as her workout routine is stress relief, which is why her normal outfit is so athletically inclined. My roomie suggested sweater dresses? But I'm not committed yet.

Whatever style it is, I want it to be cute and very... Soft? Like, cuddling would be so fucking amazing. Perhaps sweats and thick sweaters. Like a lazy librarian?

And her hair... It's already down for her main look, save random braids from her Pokemon friends. And that much hair would be heavy as shit so idk if she'd pull it up. Doubt she'd bother wearing her Togapi beanie though. Maybe one big braid with little braids throughout since she has time to let them actually do her whole hair. Just a thick, chunky braid lol

I also put some thought into how her job works. I doubt they'd be so slave driving she'd drop off a package and immediately return. She'd likely have a bulk delivery to a region she needs to complete in a certain time frame and as long as she's not late, it's fine. So in her off hours she'd likely be cleaning out whatever housing she owns in the area of her aunt's personal affects, saving them for her folks when it's sentimental or donating. I like to imagine her ordering local, sometimes with her most recent troublesome client as an apology for making her jump through hoops to deliver a package THEY ORDERED.

I imagine all of her aunt's properties are decked out for housing pokemon and eggs. So she's well prepared for the shenanigans her aunt's charm brings.

As for why she doesn't do pokemon breeding, well aside from ruining the egg gag if it's on purpose, she just doesn't have the eye for it. Edna really loves pokemon so she wouldn't have the heart to critically evaluate a Pokemon's worth the way her aunt did. She could absolutely do it if given time, but she'd just end up adopting all the 'failed' attempts, which isn't viable. She also wouldn't be able to stand people that would pay for such services as they'd likely be very dismissive of any perceived lack in a pokemon.

For sleeping arrangements, Yolky has preferential treatment as a rule. And also because they wind up as the smallest in her party, even by Togepi/Togetic/Togekiss standards, being slightly smaller than the smallest known measurement. (I may fudge numbers a bit cause it's infamously unclear how tf these professors are measuring these pokemon, so maybe Yolky's final form is measured by wingspan?) And Baby and Danny sleep nearby depending on where they are. For storms, Danny likes to keep watch with Helper (who never really sleeps to begin with, literally keeping ghostly vigil and watching over any eggs) and Baby likes to sleep on Edna's legs if Danny is present. Particularly once they evolve into an alpha Sylveon (as yet another joke on Yolky's expense, he's so mad about that).

Parcel has insomnia so they often stay up with Helper but do enjoy napping as they travel on trains and such. If they can manage, they like sleeping against Edna's back/hair.

As part of the universal weirdness concerning people casually carrying around incredibly heavy pokemon, there are many times where Edna doesn't even notice one of her Pokemon are asleep in her hair, using braids as footholds or securing points. Usually Yolky, especially once Danny starts braiding her hair with his poison spit to prevent frizz. Accidentally boosts all of their poison resistance with this stunt but he's not sorry, just embarrassed.

If it's Yolky in her hair, he's often mistaken for a massive bow, not helped by his unique, shiny-bred appearance.

Ah, for reference, Baby is a shiny Eevee that evolves into Sylveon. Danny (Cadenza) is a shiny Toxitricity. Parcel is a shiny Delibird (from work, she doesn't hatch or find this one). And Helper (Little Helper) is a shiny-bred Chandelure from her aunt that she inherited with many properties and a 'Happy Egg Charm' that unbeknownst to Edna, spawns increasingly rare eggs on top of determining viability of eggs, compatibility of two pokemon, and if an egg is shiny.

It's the main gag, it's a whole thing and I'm having a blast imagining it.

Edna usually gives the Pokemon or eggs to local professors, fueling a massive conspiracy in every region about how tf she gets these rare eggs. Only the professor from her home region knows the truth cause he's familiar with her family and aunt. But he just never seems to get the chance to explain. Whoops.

[antiloreolympus]

5 Anti LO Asks

1. In one chapter Hades get criticised for using his status and powers as king to get his way, but barely a few chapters later Hera turns some dude into a duck and its presented as this “haha gotcha moment” because the dude was a bad person, so is it ok for the gods to use their powers against people or not? Why is it not ok for Hades to threaten someone with his powers but it’s ok for Hera to turn people into ducks make it make sense 

2. I saw a post on FB celebrating that Morpheus is apparently a trans woman in LO. While I'm not against the idea (I myself am writing them as genderfluid in one of my personal projects where Morpheus is a mc), I don't trust RS to make a good job on that, but I also refuse to try reading the comic again to see how she does it. Is there any post breaking it down for me to read?

3. I tried to stay neutral with Lore olympus and its art, but the fact that Rachel forgot to color Letos hair white in the dream sequence pissed me off. Besides the black eyes, the white hair was the only thing that separated her design from Hera. I literally had to sit there and wonder what was off about the panels until I pieced together that it was Letos design that changed. I was waiting for them to fix her hair when the episode became public (since I saw it in the fast pass) but nope. It's so lazy and careless to me.

Also the male/female proportions kill me everytime I see them. I can't ship anything in Lore Olympus because the proportions make every couple look like a joke. Persephone ends up looking like an older sister to the dream kids instead of looking like their mom because the way she's drawn next to Hades looks so weird.

Anyway just had to get this off my chest. It's been bothering me for weeks (and the recent fast passes aren't helping either)

4. I am disgusted with RS about the whole Minthe. Lowkey feels like she just wants to only focus on HXP and nothing else since Minthe filled her purpose as conflict towards them. Her writing is collapsing on itself.  

5. very confused at how FAST the whole persephone’s punishment/persephone vs kronos arc happened. there are more chapters of the TRIAL than there were showing persephone on her own. i would’ve liked to see that… she’s been relying on hades for so long it would’ve been an incredible character arc for her to learn who she is without her mother or the TGOEM or hades. the time skip of 10 years doesn’t bother me. but i would’ve liked to see what else happened. like minthe and daphne are back… but there’s no explanation or struggle to show that process of their return. and idk if that’ll ever be shown even though those plot points were made to be such a big deal to the story. it just doesn’t make sense… and now persephone has beaten kronos… within 2 chapters of physically fighting him… 2 chapters…. when it took a whole war to get him to go under the first time. like kronos being a threat was a HUGE main point of the plot? so now that’s wrapped up so … now what. it just happened extremely fast. so fast that you wonder what the point of persephone getting banished was if that was going to be solved in 15 chapters (191-206). idk it was just very rushed.

[justsomefluff]

Can you do an ateez reaction where the reader gets jealous??

of course I can! took me a while lmao but thank you for being patient, here ya go, precious!

Hongjoong:

Low-key super oblivious to your jealousy

Like he’s having such a good time at whatever event your attending

Kind of gets lost in the fun

Loves making new friends and meeting people who share similar interests

And don’t get me wrong, you’re happy that he is happy

And you are so proud and love listening to all the compliments he gets on his work

You know how important feedback is to him, but you also know that praise is his weak point

(He deserves every bit of it too)

But some people really just don’t know where to draw the line

Sometimes people skip past his work and start complimenting his physical attributes and making flirtatious remarks about his great personality

Like yeah… I know his personality is great he’s my freakin boyfriend

If you say something like that under your breath and Hongjoong catches it?

LMAO

Giggling and excusing himself from the conversation immediately

Thinks its really sweet and funny, but also wants to reassure you

Maintains a steady balance of his attention on you and on networking for the rest of the night

Seonghwa:

I feel like Seonghwa is the type of significant other to be really in tune to your needs and just generally good at picking up on what you’re feeling

So if he thinks that something is bothering you or making you uncomfortable in any way?

Bye. We are leaving.

If you are somewhere that you can’t really leave (like an important business gala or something idk what famous people do)

He will just take you outside for a breath and a conversation

Tries to take your mind off of whatever you were thinking

Assures you that everything being said inside is strictly business related

YOUR BICEPS ARE NOT THEIR BUSINESS

He chuckles at you a little bit and pulls you into a hug when he thinks no one is watching

Will lead you back into the event and just do things to subtly remind you that he’s there with you

Physically and mentally

Holds your hands, keeps an arm around your waist, or just stands close beside you during conversations

Super sweet and just wants you to be happy and comfortable

Yunho:

Don’t take this the wrong way but…

He’s gonna make fun of you

Hard.

Like for real

“Oh you thought-? HA”

And if you’re pouting at his teasing, he’s gonna laugh more

Even though he’s dying inside because you’re so cute

Will say stupid, annoying things the whole time

“Ooh, would you look over there? My ex”

“That person has been checking me out all night, maybe I’ll go say hi”

And you’d whip around every time like ??? ‘Scuse me???

PSYCH

You’re like two seconds from slapping him in front of his boss and all his peers

But then you see that adorable, goofy grin of his

And all your frustration just sort of melts away

You know he only jokes because he finds it ridiculous

Like why would he ever look for someone else when youre right there?

But I’m sure you’ll find a way to get him back for being a brat somehow

Yeosang:

This one will not understand why you’re jealous

More the type to let you simmer while simultaneously doing things to soothe you

Will rub your back or your arm during conversations

Will brush a hair back from your face every now and then

But he’s not just doing these things to remind you that he loves you

No no

He is also doing these things so that whoever is hitting on him will take the hint

Like?? Shut up?? Go away??

And in the end, you forget that you were jealous and you’re more just irritated

Like quit saying weird things to my man

When they finally go away, you both look at each other with big eyes and sigh really loudly

But then you’re laughing because did that really just happen?

And he’ll tease you a little bit for being jealous before you both go back to talking about how creepy the other person was being

Low-key making fun of them; making up new ridiculous compliments that fit their vibe

“Oh, Yeosang! You know I’ve been a fan for oh so very long and I’ve loved watching your muscles grow!”

Discomfort pretty much forgotten, you just go about your night like that didn’t even happen

San:

Okay this fool

He thinks you’re really cute when you’re jealous so he’s gonna make it worse

Will be super sugary sweet with whoever is flirting with him

Thanking them and complimenting them back

Too bad the compliments are empty and he’s only using them to make you pout a little more

Eventually he ends the conversation because he thinks you’ll catch on to his evil plan if he keeps this up much longer

Drags you away into a quieter area of the event

“Were you jealous?”

He’s smirking because I mean… duh

“You were doing that on purpose weren’t you?”

If looks could kill he would be belly-up in the pool rn

But then he’s laughing and apologizing and trying to justify himself

“I mean how could I resist when it makes you look like this cute baby oooo”

Full squishing your cheeks in public like… sir

But he does it enough that you’re smiling again and batting his hands away from your face

When he realizes that he was successful in returning your mood back to normal, he’ll pull you back into the party

Mingi:

Does not realize you are jealous

Oblivious

Carries on the entire night like everything’s cool

Totally didn’t participate in mutual groping with some random fans

An awkwardly placed hand

An accidental brush against the wrong body part

I mean you know its not his fault

But ooooohhh did it make your blood boil

Literally doesn’t even mention it until you’re home because he genuinely doesn’t think anything happened

And you’re like??? Hello???

You touched their butt???

And then his face goes so red

Like you think for a second he’s gonna explode like those old airheads commercials

“I TOUCHED THEIR BUTT???? THATS SO EMBARASSING NOOOOOOOO”

But then you’re laughing at him because he is more horrified at the situation than anything else

He face plants on the couch and just yells into the cushions for a minute because my god how could he not realize

#mortifiedmingi

And then you’re the one comforting him explaining how the fan surely knows it was an accident and blahblahblah

But at least there was an easy solution to your problem lmao

Wooyoung:

I think that he will actually be concerned

Like if he realizes that you’re jealous he’s gonna think that he did something wrong

Even if its someone else’s fault that you were feeling that way

Hes gonna feel responsible

And he’s gonna wanna make you feel better

Will make some excuse about one of you not feeling well and hightail it out of there

When you tell him you didn’t have to leave the event just because of that he’s like Nono

And he’s gonna spend the rest of the night giving you his undivided attention and making sure you feel loved and cherished

Like I think he is gonna be genuinely worried about how this kind of thing will make you feel

Always wants you to feel safe and secure in your relationship

Never wants anything to damage your self esteem either

So if he thinks any of those things are in jeopardy, he’s gonna do something about it

Might tease you for it sometimes, but darker. emotions are something he tends to be gentler with and more serious about

Jongho:

Does not get the memo

Jealous? Who?

Has to be told by the members lmao

And sees you sulking somewhere away from him

Then he’s rushing to you like a confused puppy

Sits with you quietly for a minute because he doesn’t even really know what to say

“I feel like a bad boyfriend now” is what he chooses to open with

And then youre not jealous anymore

youre in protective mode

“Noooo, baby, why would you ever feel like that youre the best boyfriend ever”

And then he’s like??? Thought you were upset???

And you’re like… maybe

But who cares? Because he’s still a good boyfriend

I mean you know he cant babysit you at events and stuff and youre always happy when he’s having fun

Youre just a little selfish sometimes and want him all to yourself

But who can blame you?

And he completely understands because… well he feels the same way about you <3

[starlightsearches]

Okay,, but for comedic purposes I need kylo and phasma being hux's besties and finding out about him having a crush on someone idk and them just trying to make them be together?? Ik it doesn't fit with star wars Canon but I'm mad at it rn so what's Canon?

Okay, this gave me some agressive college AU vibes, and I just kind of ran with it. Hope that’s okay with you, friend! Also, this is so freaking long for a drabble and I’m not sorry at all 😂

Phasma kicks his chair for the third time that night, and Hux looks at her, glaring. It’s annoyed him every time, but it annoys him even more that she’s had to; he should have more self-control than this.

“Stop staring,” she says under her breath, “it’s freaking me out.” Hux risks a glance in your direction, wondering if you’ve noticed this interaction but you stay blissfully unaware, laughing again at something Mitaka’s said to you, and Hux’s frown deepens.

“I’m not doing it on purpose,” he says bitingly, but she only smirks at him.

Ren plops down in the seat next to him, returning from his third trip through the  line, his plate stacked high with an appalling amount of food. “Was he staring again?”

Phasma nods, and Hux flushes red, glaring at the both of them, “why do I even bother sitting with you when I get this kind of abuse?” Both of them snicker, and Hux rolls his eyes.

“Well,” Ren says, leaning over him and gesturing in your direction with his fork, “you could always go sit over there.” He raises his eyebrows to emphasize his point, and Phasma laughs loud enough to draw attention from some of the nearby tables. Hux forces Ren’s arm down, hoping no one will notice the table he had been pointing to.

“Honestly, Hux,” Ren pulls his hand back, stabbing a spear of broccoli off his plate, “I don’t see why you can’t just go over there and talk to her.”

“Really? You can’t understand why that’s not possible?” He feels sick just thinking about it, walking through the motions in his head. There was very little that frightened Hux, but letting himself even think about speaking to you in any context beyond academic left his knees weak, and Ren had already witnessed plenty of failed interactions to know this.

“Oh, right,” he shrugs his shoulders and takes a bite of a doughnut before taking a long drink of coke without swallowing first. Hux rolls his eyes.

“Well,” Phasma slams her palms to the table, before standing, “you might not be able to talk to her, but I can.” She’s out of her seat before Hux can even process her words, working her way through the crowded dining hall over to your table.

“Oh, fuck,” Hux slams his head to the table before turning to face Ren, his back towards you and the inevitable train-wreck. “What are they saying?”

Ren peers over the crowd in your direction, squinting, “I don’t know, but whatever Phasma’s telling her, she’s definitely in to it.”

“Really?” Hux sits up a little, chancing a glance your way.

“Definitely,” Ren nods sagely. As uncanny as it could be, Hux trusted Ren’s intuition on this kind of thing—he had a strange knack for reading people.

Emboldened by Ren’s verdict, Hux turns to watch the rest of the conversation unfold. Phasma is animated, as she leans over the table you’re sitting at with your friends, and you’re smiling up at her, a faint trace of laughter on your lips.

Phasma points to him as she speaks, and you follow the line of her arm, your eyes landing on him and they stay there, curious. Hux can feel his ears grow warm, and he resists the urge to bury his face in his arms, instead offering a half-hearted wave. You smile in earnest.

“Shit,” Hux says, looking down at the table with laser-like focus, “they’re coming this way.”

“Then I’ll take that as my cue to leave,” Ren gathers his now-empty tray, kicking the chair back under the table.

“Wait,” Hux cries, his heart threatening to leap right out of his chest, “what am I even supposed to say to her?” 

“Just don’t be weird,” he says without a backwards glance, and Hux is left at the table alone.

“Hey, Armitage,” he recognizes your voice, and his heart stutters as if it’s threatening to fail completely. With an incredible amount of effort, he forces himself to turn around. You’re by yourself, standing at the edge of the table. Phasma is nowhere to be found.

“Hey,” he replies, cringing inwardly. He had meant to sound cool and aloof, but the word comes out glacial, and your smile fractures the tiniest bit. Out of the corner of his eye, Hux finds Phasma and Ren watching him from the door, and Ren holds his face in both hands, shaking his head. This is not going well.

“Uh, I just came over here because Phasma said you had a question about the project for Professor Snoke’s class, but if now’s not a good time . . .” the rest of your sentence drifts off as you pull your bottom lip between your teeth and Hux feels like he’s about to suffer from a fucking aneurysm.

“It isn’t a good time, actually,” he says, and you look as if he’s slapped you; even from the other end of the dining hall he can see Ren losing his mind, “but I was wondering, I mean—if you’re not busy tomorrow, of course—if you don’t already have plans-”

“Maybe we could go over it in the library?” you offer, tentative, and Hux is overcome with relief.

“7 o’ clock?” He asks, and you nod, bouncing on the balls of your feet.

“It’s a date,” you agree, waving good bye as you walk back to your table, and Hux leans back in his chair, dumbfounded. He’s got a date.

✨☕️✨ cozy time ✨☕️✨

[blu-eh]

ok its 12:30 am but i watched raya and the last dragon for the second time today and there are still some parts that like. i just Dont Understand so my Thoughts (tm) about the movie under the cut. spoilers, obviously

- firstly: sword lesbians. thats all

- disney is too much of a coward to make them actual lesbians so they went the queer baiting route instead. i see you disney. we all see you. 

- honestly, watching the movie, the dragon designs did not bother me as much as i thought they would. like, i very much think they could have been better but at the same time...they were not horrible. so that was cool. i rlly liked the scene where sisu was swimming. compared to moana though, some of the water animation was weird like characters should’ve appeared wet when they werent but...water is hard to animate so 

-animation was on point oh my god. it was a really visually beautiful movie. i thought the dragon designs clashed with the human design but it wasnt like, the worst. 

-it was a COOL world. i wouldve loved to learn more about it

-captain boun was my favorite character and i adore him. i would adopt him

-found family. nice

-the asian culture was SO cool. loved that. i love the things they incorporated 

-that scene with raya, boun, and sisu on the boat where they put the flowers in the water was SO good. i loved that

-also loved the scene where sisu reveals her dragon form, like, can we say...... iconic

-but there were plot holes/things i did not understand oh my god and i cant tell if this is a cultural thing or if the movie didnt explain it well or if i just missed things but:

-like what IS the plague (i forgot the name)???? WHY does it feed on humans?? where did it come from?? “born from human discord” is cool and all but that explains. nothing. is it feeding on them?? is it even alive?? like what is the purpose? the end goal? why is it there? why does it hate water??????? if its bred by human discord, then WHY did it not show up during the literal 500 years of Actual War that happened. did the gem keep it away??? if so, why did it return???? they have been fighting a Lot Longer than that single night

-literally why did the dragons not come back the first time. i dont understand. what made it any different the second time with weaker magic??

-does this magic ball have a two time limit like...why did the magic fade. because it was cracked??? why would it start fading at that exact moment and not like, over the six years that it was cracked before. why did it still work when simple put back together like a puzzle. how did it crack so perfectly??

-i have a feeling a lot of the answers to my questions will be “magic” and idk how to feel about that

-GOING BACK TO THE WATER THING.....does sisu have powers??? the movie obviously implied she was a water dragon but we saw maybe ONE scene where she used these powers and it was literally never explained. you couldve had a cool story arc about sisu coming into her powers or having an inferiority complex because her siblings have powers but she doesn’t (which could tie in to why it was such a big deal that they trusted her) but like....we dont see that at all and im still confused on that aspect 

- nine main characters (raya, boun, tong, noi, the three monkeys, sisu, and namaari) is a LOT to balance. i had to google everyones name just now besides boun & raya because i literally could not keep up with a cast that big. like, they were fine main characters but a couple of them just felt...flat (ie tong & noi & the monkey things. im not even sure why the monkeys were there). its a struggle too because a couple of them didnt even show up until more than half way through the movie so.

- the movie was very heavy handed on the theme of “trust” which like, yes, good theme but honestly if someone backstabbed me not once but TWICE.....i would not trust them. ALMOST THREE TIMES. plus, like trust almost got sisu killed in talon so.....idk what the purpose of that scene was??? it seemed very much the opposite of the theme.....but also there is such a huge differences between trusting your brothers and sisters (in sisu’s case) vs. trusting someone who (see: previous trust) had resulted in the “death” of your dad AND friend...like that is fundamentally different. i think the theme couldve explored “learning to trust AFTER FORGIVENESS” like there was a very weak redemption arc. idk

-what even was the fang’s leader’s plan??? “we wont give raya a choice but we will get sisu” like firstly, sisu is a dragon. she is not going anywhere unless she wants two. secondly: why?????????? and third: they literally never explain what this plan was. there is no way this woman knew that raya was just going to show up and offer her daughter a chance at redemption (which she fails. miserably. i literally dont think its raya’s fault at all for her reaction with the crossbow like......see: betrayal history and literally hunting raya down for a couple months (years?)

- WHY DID THE STONE PEOPLE FREEZE IN THAT SPECIFIC POSITION. we have LITERALLY everyone turn to stone in the same position with the cupped hands yet tong and noi and boun and namaari all just...didnt freeze in that position. i dont understand why some people were turned to stone in a specific position and some werent

-why did the water disappear after sisu “died”??? like did she truly die and the water just left because she died?? that would mean that dragons have the power to revive other dragons, but at the same time, don’t they only have a single magical power??? how does this work

-going back on the single magical power thing: HOW could all the dragons do the little flying thing??? i was under the impression that sisu could only do that AFTER she got the power from her rain brother but those other dragons were able to do it just fine. is this just a dragon thing??? can they all do this?? does this count as a single power??

-there was one point in the movie where all the dragons jumping down the cliff looked like worms on strings and i had to pause the movie because i was laughing so hard

- this wouldve been a really cool series instead of a two hour movie but i feel like they tried to fit too much into a short time frame

-i did not care for the soundtrack imo :( it was pretty disappointing 

-OVERALL i think its a FINE movie like its good and you should see it and support movies with asian casts and culture because the cultural aspect was REALLY COOL. i am just extra critical because its a disney movie but like.......i feel like disney had the funding and the team to make this movie great but didnt want to take the risk in case they lost money on it so there are a lot of things that just felt....incomplete

[bittybattybunny]

The florist?! What has she done?! And what au is that?

Oh I guess I never talked about that AU

hahaha

Okay so sit down---

I have an AU called “the resurrection of Arulius Law”

it’s based on Frankenstein as well as the song “Annabel raises the dead“

Lillian is a crazed woman who fell in love with her classmate and childhood friend Arulius Law, however, he was already in a relationship with Vanessa Frost and they did plan to wed when he finished schooling. Lillian was kicked from the school for her mad science projects including reanimating a cat and it injured a student so badly he got sepsis and died. However, she was still in love with Arulius.

Arulius got his degree and was setting up his own law firm and he and Vanessa had a daughter named Harriet. They were happy. When Harriet is 5 years old, a carriage struck her father and Arulius died from his injuries.

Lillian stole his body and others in order to experiment in raising the dead. She did succeed.

Marcus is a detective on the case of the body-snatching, and he ends up teaming up with Estelle Guardian, an ‘undertaker’ who runs the Nightingale Mortuary. Estelle is revealed to be a grim, summoned by the prior owner Sena Nightingale. he named her Estelle and had a contract with her. however when he died she just. Kept his business going. The mortuary is a cover and they really investigate happenings in Subcon City.

So with Marcus, Estelle starts tracking the cause of the body-snatching down. She ends up meeting Vanessa and becomes close to her, helping her with Harriet as they look into matters. Harriet is actually the key to helping figure it out because whenever the reanimated Arulius is out with Lillian if he sees her he stops and she notices. So using her they are able to locate him and Lillian’s hide out. They find that Lillian is having issues stabilizing him and he’s failing and will wind up like her other experiments if she can’t fix it.

Estelle tries to get him to pass on (as a grim protects the dead. she will guide them) Lillian has other plans and wants to attack all of Subcon for mocking her and make a paradise of corpses for her and Arulius.

Arulius is able to snap to clarity when Harriet screams for him and ends up escaping with the main cast. He gets bad, Estelle can’t get him to pass. he willingly returns to Lillian to try and get her to stop, instead she locks and chains him up.

Marcus keeps an eye on Harriet and Vanessa and Estelle go to confront in a  big showdown, during it, Vanessa forms a fresh contract with Estelle giving her the name “Eclipse”. this Allows her to unlock her magic properly as due to the death of her prior contractor she was stuck in human form as she refused to return to the vail.

Eclipse in her grim form, runs and puts down the zombie army Lillian has created. with Vanessa on her back they are able to free Arulius and they chase Lillian down to stop the hoards. Arulius ends up snapping and going feral as an undead and attacking his own creator. In the struggle, he ends up consuming Lillian’s heart (as she wanted his heart--) This causes him to fully stabilize and he returns to his senses.

With Lillian’s death the undead slowly fall and they are released from her grasp. Eclipse states she’ll guide Arulius if he wants and they wind up staying together until Vanessa dies of old age. She then guides the couple. She stays with Marcus and Harriet as well, guarding them until Harriet herself is a mother and tells her she’ll be okay and says if she wants to go meet her parents she can. Eclipse is torn because she misses them both terribly but isn’t sure how to go herself as she’s been a guide so long. However both Vanessa and Ru are able to help her and let her finally pass on. (You see, a grim in some legends is made by BURYING SOMEONE ALIVE IN A CHURCH FOUNDATION. Eclipse was killed in this manner.)

Anyway that’s that au. Here’s the first couple pages I have written cuz IDK if/when I’ll work on this more--- it was like a hyper fixation I had for a few weeks hence the completed plot synopsis

“Soon… Soon you’ll be back…” She smiled so wide mouth threatened to rip. Her red hair flying around wildly in the stormy air as the window flew open papers scattering, “Soon. Soon, my dear, you’ll be back!” 

She laughed as she looked outside than at her work table and threw the switch.

The hand twitched.

-----

“Mommy…” the little girl tugged on her hand as they walked through the town, “Mommy can we do a chicken for dinner?” She asked curiously. 

The blond looked down with a chuckle, “No, Harriet. We’re doing fish tonight.”

The little girl puffed her cheeks up and stopped. She let go as she watched a tall figure amongst the crowd vanish into an alleyway. She smiled widely and ran off after him.

“H-Harriet!” her mother yelled taking off after her.

The little girl wove through the crowd, her small size making it easy to weave. She jumped into the alley, “DADDY!” She shouted.

The man turned, gold eyes flashing with recognition before the red-headed woman grabbed his hand and they vanished.

“HARRIET!” her mother gasped pulling her up in a panic, “D-Don’t run off like that! I-if I lost you too…” she held her close and buried her face in her daughter’s shoulder.

“B-But mommy! I saw daddy!! He was a weird lady!!!” She whined as her mother picked her up.

“Harriet... Sweet, sweet, sweet Harriet… Mommy told you… Daddy isn’t coming back…” She sighed carrying her back into the crowded streets, the heels of her shoes on the stone.

“But.. I SAW daddy… and daddy saw me…” she mumbled as she held onto her mother.

------

“Another?!” She gasped as she threw a knife at the wall, “Are you kidding me?!”

“Calm down Este----” he flinched as the dagger buried itself behind him, “Look. I wouldn’t come if it was a joke and this time--!” he flinched, “It was my own family who was stolen.”

She froze. “Marcus.”

He gripped his hat tightly, “My elder brother. Arulius. Estelle. They stole his body. Half the graves were stolen.” he sighed and shook his head, fighting back tears. He reached to rub his visible eye, “My sister-in-law and niece don’t know yet. I can’t tell them. W-why would someone be stealing bodies?!”

She scowled and sat down in her chair. She fumbled in the drawers behind her, “Nothing good. I can say that.”

The young man jumped as the cat rubbed against his legs, its blue and red eyes glinting before jumping to the desk. It crawled onto the woman’s shoulders as she skimmed the papers.

Pulling out a stack she threw them on the table, spreading out. Marcus grew closer, reading them over, and scowled, “These are…”

“Older cases. We had a string of body-snatching about a decade back. If I recall, a student from the Subcon School of Science and Law. She was expelled for illegal possession of a corpse. Something about fighting natural order.” she growled a bit.

“You don’t think!” He gripped his hat, “M-my brother’s body is being used for an illicit crime?!”

“Most likely.” She stroked the cat’s chin, enticing a purr. “I can’t say I’ve seen this much disrespect for the dead in a while.” she leaned on a hand, black hair falling over her shoulder. She chewed on her lip some, “If Sena was alive still…” she looked at her hand and sighed getting up. She grabbed the top hat and threw it on, “Well, Mr. Law. ready to get a little dirty?” she grinned as her cat meowed in agreement.

He shuddered, “No But I suppose this is on purpose?”

“Of course.” she sang moving to remove her dagger from the wall and hid it in her waistcoat among her other knives, “Why else did you come to Nightingale Mortuary after all?” her eyes glinted.

He sighed and fixed his hat as he followed after the woman as she locked the door behind her.

She flipped through pages of cases and scowled, “seems it all over. I wonder. Have you eaten recently?” she asked looking at the young man.

“Eh? No? I haven’t since breakfast. I’ve been too nervous.” Marcus grimaced, “why?”

“Oh I just didn’t want you to vomit over my associate’s home.” she waved a hand as they walked down the street. Her heels clicked as the cat on her shoulders snickered as they shifted.

“Why would I vomit?” Marcus scowled, “Estelle, where is it we’re going?” he asked in a shaky breath.

“Tacks-idermy and other novelties.” She explained, “I need to speak to the owner. She may have an idea.”

“A taxidermist?” he scowled, “why would she know of missing…” he got close to whisper, “corpses?”

“Well. you’ll see.” she sang.

----

Marcus paled as he heard the snapping bones as they entered the basement. He stuck close to Estelle as she walked, flinching every time he heard that sickening crunch. His eyes were wide as he noticed the blood on the walls.

“E-Estelle wh-what exactly are we doing?” He asked as he clung to her.

“Asking an associate if she stole the corpses.” she huffed.

“WHAT?!” Marcus gasped.

The bone snapping stopped. There was the sound of a heavy door as a person with skin white as paper and dark inky hair peeked around the corner. One eye was held firmly open with thick black stitches and the other half closed.

“Oh. Grim. Hi. What do I owe the pleasure of company?” their voice didn’t match their frame at all. It was light and soft like a voice made to read a storybook to children. She crossed her arms. Marcus stared at the thick stitching across her pale arms and she raised a brow, “who’s the standard?”

“This is Mr. law, my current client.” Estelle nodded at him, “we’re actually investigating something you may have ties to.”

The pale woman sighed, “Bodies?”

“Bodies.” Estelle chirped, “Have you been bothered?”

“I can’t GET any!” She threw her arms up annoyed, “do you know how HARD it is to do necromancy when you have no corpses?! Stanradrds make the BEST servants but with the shortage, I can’t GET any!” she fumed.

Marcus gulped.

“Really? You have issues getting corpses? Riley is unable to find any?” Estelle blinked, “Bridgette!”

“Riley has been having issues as well. I’m barely getting enough parts to keep healthy.” The necromancer rubbed her nose bridge, “I’m not going to go make my own but I may have to move shop.”

[its-whitetomorrow]

Pokemon Journeys feelings... not such a “journey”

Uh so I have lots of stuff going on, health and such... and I’m behind 3 pokemon episodes and really doesn’t bother me sadly

Just looks pretty boring tbh and after I checked today uh it’s even worse than general regularity

Goh will just randomly catch more pokemon, one episode is Team Rocket randomly caring for a patch of earth with a mecha apparently (hopefully framed as their free time but probably random and not clarified huh), the upcoming “spy” episode probably a filler nothing cool that it has potential to be and Goh doesn’t even have a reason to use a spy pokemon when his evolves... Team Rocket could but of course they are not being utilized like that *sight*

Oh and yes, apparently Suicune is being chased by random hunters (AGAIN, legendary chased by hunters but Team Rocket isn’t around for some reason and they can never come up with appropriate tech as of late.. just nets) and it’s actually owned by Goh now. DUH. Legendary pokemon that’s not a threat like Eternatus is in a ball and stashed away at the park... and won’t be used for anything important or plot relevant I guess so we might as well forget about it!

About Koharu... she seems to be in a transition state from unique pokeani girl to a tired regular pokeani girl as part of the three-some and invested in pokemon or specific pokemon activity - probably following in her father’s footsteps after all... meh, REALLY? Oh and right, from all Pokemon available she got an Eevee - the damn Eevee being featured yet again and owned by a female

I think the series has identity crisis. It IS being innovative (kinda), yes, but it is trying to cater to everyone while at the same time afraid to do something truly huge and unique. 

1. It fixed Team Rocket quality problems/why are they even still employed? problem while retaining their *irrelevance* in the series and plots. At the same time they’re considered “problems” by other members which is damn conflicting - simply because the tradition states they need to be third wheels when confronted with other rockets? Idk honestly, it puzzles me. It doesn’t make any sense. So are they contributing somehow or not? If not why are they being employed and given missions?

2. They do the “all regions” premise and bring back nostalgia, old characters, or places from old series. At the same time they AVOID *iconic* places and make many locations/scenarios exclusively game-based in order to cater to game nostalgia or new players from Let’s Go - for example. Also, those returns don’t mean anything, they are pretty frequent but don’t influence plot. It’s like you’re given something and then it turns out you were not, let’s forget about it again. Oh, and not even Team Rocket can bring back their old mottos to spice things up. DAMN IT.

3. Goh catches pokemon... no, he spams pokemon... and not even legendary can resist his awesome allure and powerful pokeballs. But it doesn’t bring any development, it doesn’t have any purpose after all, it’s just there to cater to Pokemon Go players and “collectible” mindset of a fan

4. The collectible mindset and no plot aspects are very prevalent, also lots of silly fillers (sometimes bordering on questionably appropriate which makes it more akin to franchises like Yokai Watch)

5. At the same time there are no ridiculously-intriguing SILLY plot bits and returning characters. You know, like in Yokai Watch...

6. But... they did experiment with “segments” - those weird two part episodes with openings in weird places and they seemed to work pretty well, even Team Rocket got cool relevant segment roles. At the same time... no, they won’t introduce returning segments in accordance with lore and with lots of silly plot bits or something, just regular pokemon episodes.

7. Hey but they still have Ash, he takes part in this competition to become top 1 and he seems like such veteran trainer now. This is sort of continuation of the old saga and caters to long time fans (kind of), this is also the plot so they have an ongoing plot (boring and stale as it is atm)

8. Team Rocket also spam pokemon with their gacha machine (which is a gacha similar to Yokai Watch gacha...). This is actually pretty cool and innovative, also huge potential and helps them become legit threats when needed. Only... eh... really sounds like the series DOESN’T need them to become legit threats! So the gacha becomes useless in the long run. I guess that’s the end of it, won’t be used in plot or even utilized in Team Rocket scheme bigger than their weekly filler battles. MEH!

9. Legendary fest, legendary on the openings all the time, more legendary fillers. But yeah exactly they are fillers - so just the collectible aspect of it

10. But wait, there is big plot too - they did the Galar arc. But even then it had some inconsistencies and was rushed, Rose just crash-landed and... is gone. Maybe dead lol. TR didn’t really matter while at the same time properly characterized and given orders by Giovanni off-screen. 

11 ... and yet Team Rocket only has a bazooka even when sent by the boss and informed about their target... because god forbid team rocket use “non-traditional” means even though Original Series TR used bazookas, lasers and energy fields (both the TRio and other members!). 

12. Also, TRio’s balloon seems to be something that’s considered “old” now (not modern enough for new audiences if you will, and I agree with this sentiment) and thus sparsely used. But they didn’t really replace it with something new, Sun and Moon at least had Bewear, here... nothing. No truck, no car, no jet, no jetpacks, no boat, no modern aircraft with steam or small TR blimp, nothing.

13. We have school so normal kids can relate. Koharu has a normal family, often showcased. But not much is known about her school in terms of plot... and why Goh is free to drop out of school... and still be part of it... and now Koharu will probably drop out of school too... pretty confusing. What was even the purpose of the school in the first place. I believe I know why Ash is not involved in a schooling system, probably because pokemon trainers who start early on are not required to attend but... well yeah in lore explanation/plot seems like a must here!

14. Oh and yes, almost forgot! They don’t really do Galar and thrive on cheap nostalgia. This is not a Galar-based series. Not even framed as Sword and Shield series. But hey, actually, sometimes they do Galar which seems like it’s gonna become more relevant and prevalent but not really, bad call! Back to Kanto, sometimes other completely random places in other regions, less frequently Alola and Unova... for some reason :) But then we gotta promote the heck out of Sword and Shield material so let’s introduce major characters from those games and create an “arc” (I wish...) or some one time “huge” event in Galar again. Back to Kanto and regular formula, soulless pokemon collectibles again. My head is spinning god damnit!

15. Ash and Goh are supposed to do Pokemon research work but mostly they are having random adventures and taking part in competitions... like in every other series. The research part is basically catch a Pokemon/help a pokemon and tell the professor about it, nothing interesting to learn, nothing to discover or unravel. The professor and his assistants are bore, why do they even exist and they are ORIGINAL characters created for this series specifically, mind you! Sounds like they just needed an excuse for the cast to locate legendaries (because it’s lazy writing lol) and someone who will pay for their flights. I wonder why Team Rocket and Giovanni can’t detect all those anomalies... LOL.

Ok, someone tell me this is normal and NOT an identity crisis? You can’t have everything in one magical formula but at the same time reset the clock every single episode and leave a viewer with a completely stale "traditional” formula requiring him to forget and adjust their expectations yet again (yet... all those exciting places in the whole pokemon lore and world we could visit... in a relevant way... all those legends that could actually contribute... in a relevant way... all those returns... and so on). Because then it becomes saturated, conflicting and unexciting.

They need to decide. They are either like Yokai Watch with fun returning silliness and inconsequential returning segments, where cool plot bits, ongoing side stories and development are prevalent and brought up but never serious enough to shake up “weekly” status quo and make you expect a huge ongoing plot out of this. Or... they are like Pokemon of the past, more realistic approach to the game lore, stories with morality and weight not a silly fest treated like it doesn’t matter, series with actual ongoing plot only better written, with fixed mistakes, more innovative and even braver than in the past. They can’t be both, those are mutually exclusive!

[vampirequeenoffan]

Intrusive

IDK, just a DP drabble that seized me by the hands and forced me to write it. I haven’t re-read or edited lmao so it’s probably Real Bad but I have other shit to be doing so imma just dump it here, sorry to yalls eyeballs

Tucker pokes him in the shoulder.

“What’s wrong?” he asks.

Danny groans. He’s got his arm slung over his eyes and he’s upside-down on the couch; legs hooked over the back and back pressed into the cushions. It’s not exactly the world’s most comfortable position, but if he eases off the gravity a little it doesn’t actually hurt. Besides, the discomfort is grounding, pulling his brain away from itself and back into the physical world.

“Ghost bullshit,” he grunts at Tucker. He doesn’t bother uncovering his eyes. He doesn’t really even need to, not the way he is right now, with Tucker picked out so neon in his mind that he can almost taste his presence. He doesn’t use his eyes to “see” when his friend sits down beside him, leaning his elbow on the back of the couch and drawing his legs up off the floor.

“That sucks,” Tucker says.

“Tell me about it.”

“Do you wanna?” he asks. “Tell me, I mean. Get it out of your brain.”

Danny contemplates that for a moment, falling so still he nearly forgets to breathe. Then his lungs start complaining, reminding him that he is very much still in human mode, thanks, and that he does need air for more than just vibrating his vocal chords.

Danny sighs.

“Urges,” he says. One-word response.

He still can’t see Tucker, but he can “see” him nod. He’s such a pleasantly warm shade in Danny’s mind right now, a color he can’t describe because humans can’t perceive it. Danny could look at it forever.

“One of the fighting ones again?” Tucker asks. Danny shakes his head.

“I wanna put you in a box.”

It’s a testament to their relationship that Tucker doesn’t freak out about that sentence and all that it could imply. Instead he just pauses, purses his lips in the way that Danny can only vaguely “see” (a slight variation in his color, dipping almost orange on the spectrum), and drums his fingers against the back of the couch.

“Like. . . a coffin?” he asks, tone casual. More casual than it probably should be for the subject matter.

“Not really,” Danny says. “I mean, it’s not not a coffin either, but it isn’t specifically one. My brain just. . . really wants you and Sam to be tucked away somewhere safe where no one else can touch you and I can guard you forever. And ever.”

He pauses.

“And ever.”

Tucker nods, the motion burning brightly in Danny’s mind.

“Creepy,” he comments.

Danny groans again.

“I hate my brain.”

“So do I, you’re not special,” Sam calls from the other room. Danny’s itching under his skin with the urge to go grab her, despite how the walls in between them don’t dampen the “sight” of her in his mind. He presses his arm a little harder down over his eyes, as if that could block out her luminous smear across his consciousness.

“We’re having a private conversation,” Tucker yells back at her. “Me and Danny are bonding. Get your self-depreciation out of here!”

“Then stop talking so loudly, idiots!” Sam says. She’s crouched on the ground, rifling through what Danny knows is a box despite neither seeing nor “seeing” it. It shouldn’t take her that much longer to find Dead Teacher iii, and then she’ll be back in the room. Danny has to keep repeating that to himself.

Tucker reaches down and pokes his shoulder again.

“It’s really bugging you, huh,” he says. “That she’s in the other room.”

“How can you tell?” Danny asks. He hasn’t moved, hasn’t acted on any of his instincts. For all intents and purposes Tucker should just see a normal teenager lying sprawled out next to him, albeit in a somewhat awkward position.

Tucker shrugs. His shoulders bleed color behind them in an echo of the movement.

“Your teeth. They’re always pretty sharp, but right now they look like you could bite your own lip off. You’re not kissing anyone for a while, by the way,” he adds.

Danny’s groan borders on a whine this time.

“My ghost half is ruining my life,” he complains.

Tucker snorts and pokes him again, this time on the cheek. The warmth of his skin, of his presence in Danny’s mind, make Danny shiver. He wants so badly to bundle Tucker up in his arms and never let go.

“Is it just us right now?” Tucker asks. “Do you wanna box up anyone else?”

Danny hesitates, turning that thought over in his head.

“. . .no,” he ultimately concludes, “Not really. My brain’s got my house categorized as safe and mine and that’s where my family is right now, so they’re fine. And Val– well. Val is Val. I’ve always got conflicting feelings there.”

“It would be nice if those cancelled out, huh,” Tucker muses. Danny’s complained about this to him before. Fight and Protect fluctuate in his mind from moment to moment when it comes to Valerie and The Red Huntress, and the overlap when they’re both at their strongest can nearly give Danny a migraine. In the same way he can have a panic attack while in the middle of a depressive episode, he can very much want to swaddle Val in bubble wrap while also wanting to stab her.

“Well,” Sam says, straightening up and starting to (yes!) return to the room, “We can’t do a box, but we were already going to cuddle pile on the couch.”

“I still can’t get over you saying cuddle,” Tucker says.

“There’s nothing more hardcore than cuddling,” Sam huffs as she flops down on Danny’s other side. Her arm swings as she makes to throw what Danny assumes is the DVD box at Tucker, and Danny’s hands shoot up to snag it out of the air before it can strike his friend.

There’s a moment of silence. Danny opens his eyes. It’s weird seeing the world around him and “seeing” on top of it, part of why he’d covered his face in the first place. His brain just isn’t meant to process that much visual information at once, the same way his brain isn’t actually wired to “see.” He tries to focus on what’s real, on the actual light bouncing off his friends and into his retinas, and blinks away the glowing smear that isn’t even on the visual spectrum. He’s holding Dead Teacher iii in his hands, and he stares at the cheesy cover art with the single-minded focus of a guy recalibrating his eyes.

“Ah,” Sam says. “That bad, huh?”

Danny lets go of the DVD and it lands on his face. It hurts, but not that much.

Tucker sighs and grabs the case, standing up and moving to pop the DVD into the player. Danny, with a herculean effort, manages to not grab his ankle on the way by and drag him bodily back onto the couch.

Sam stretches, her long pale fingers tangling together overhead, physical form barely more present in Danny’s mind than the glow of her presence. Then she drops her hands and lays down, plopping her head onto his stomach and peering up into his very-close face. Danny can pick out every sun-starved freckle-that-could on her face, inherited from her parents and dampened by lifestyle choices. In the summer, when even the extra-strength sunscreen Sam slathers on can’t fight back her love for the outdoors, those freckles darken and bloom like constellations in the night sky.

The weight of her head against his stomach smooths some of Danny’s anxiety. She’s here. She’s real. She’s alive. She’s safe. She’s his.

She isn’t, of course. Tucker isn’t either. No one, on this planet or off of it, belongs to anyone, least of all Danny. And Danny knows this, believes it with the same certainty and maybe even the same part of his brain that knows that the earth goes around the sun, but that doesn’t get rid of his ghost-lizard brain chattering away in the back of his consciousness.

There’s the hum of the DVD player starting to spin the disk, then the previews begin behind Danny’s head. Tucker sits back down and, with Sam taking up the real estate on Danny’s abdomen, hooks an arm under one of the legs thrown over the back of the couch. He drags Danny’s limb closer and starts using it like a headrest, cheek pressing against Danny’s shin.

“You guys–” Danny’s voice breaks off. Finally, the anxiety that’s been buzzing at the back of his mind for the past hour and a half is tapering off, soothed by his proximity and contact with those he wants to protect. It’s such a relief that Danny could almost cry. But. . .

“You guys don’t have to be that close if you don’t want,” he says. Because it’s true. Sam and Tucker are under no obligation to play along with his ghost brain, no obligation to surrender to whatever weird instincts Danny has jammed into his consciousness. Danny has no right to ask them to, and he doesn’t. Not ever. They can make their own choices, and he refuses to become the kind of monster who would try to take their free will from them. They’re his friends, not his property, and he’s never going to forget that.

“Danny,” Sam says, “Shut up. The movie’s starting.”

“Yeah, man,” Tucker chimes in, “We were gonna do this anyway. Let us know when your brain’s calmed down enough to be upright, okay? I want popcorn later and there’s no way we’re gonna be able to integrate a bowl into this mess.”

Danny kicks his foot lightly, jostling his leg in Tucker’s hold and bumping his head, but he’s smiling. His friends are here. They’re alive. They’re watching a dumb movie from a dumb series they love and hate in equal measure.

And Danny’s happy.

[hopevalley]

@kvanbooven said:  I wholeheartedly agree with the Rosemary line and thought it was weird when I watched it live. Idk if they were going for it to be a normal response and think people would think it was normal or if they were going for a bad response just so they could start a fight, but like Rosemary as Elizabeth’s best friend, would never say that to her. That makes her look so bad and not caring. I maybe could understand it if it was true what she said (like the rest of the convo of it not being Nathan’s fault) but it wasn’t true. Even if it was supposed to be a bad thing to saying on purpose in makes Rosemary and Nathan look like they don’t care about what Jack meant to her idk. 

You know I always look forward to your thoughts!! Thanks for stopping by again. ♥

I think they wanted Rosemary’s reply to Elizabeth to be a “bad” response for the purpose of it causing drama/turmoil, but the thing about bad responses is...it still has to feel like a natural response someone might have to the conversation that’s taking place, and unfortunately Rosemary’s reply didn’t feel like that, at least not for me. 

I can only guess, but I imagine what they wanted to do was give us an episode where Elizabeth is struggling so hard with everything she’s feeling that she doesn’t really know how to talk about it. If this was a novel it would be easy to write out all those feelings to make her reaction to people feel more natural, but I think the writers are really struggling with how to convey this exact type of struggle in a way that both makes sense for the audience and works for the characters.

I talked before about Elizabeth being a sort of selfish “everything’s about me” kind of person and she does that several times within this episode, so I feel Elizabeth is largely in character here. She turns Rosemary’s conversation about Ned and Florence into a discussion about her, for example.

The problem is Rosemary, and it’s not the character. She can be a bit stupid sometimes (she used to jump to conclusions a lot back in the old days, though mostly for humorous reasons) but her logic always tracked. In this episode we have two responses from Rosemary that don’t feel quite right. The first is her “maybe he didn’t think it was important” and the second is “it’s not Nathan’s fault.”

I get what they were going for, though!

It’s not Nathan’s fault Jack died so Nathan didn’t feel the information was important enough to reveal. It would just be upsetting and offer little else.

The problem is...the fact that this information was clearly weighing on Nathan tells us all that he knew it would be a big deal (and therefore important) to Elizabeth.

Which makes it really hard to make the same logic-leap that Rosemary does. The only thing I can assume is that Rosemary has largely been left out of the Nathan side of things; she doesn’t really know him very well (as compared to Lucas) and is just giving it her best guess.

But still, Rosemary knew that Elizabeth felt he was keeping something from her, and if Elizabeth got those vibes from Nathan, then that should tell Rosemary that Nathan is aware it’s not ‘unimportant’ at all.

I’m just going to have to chalk it up to poor writing. There’s no other explanation that works for me.

---

@kvanbooven​ said: What you said about Nathan’s line too got me as well cuz I also felt the last line was out of place. It just don’t flow with the rest of the convo of him telling her why he kept the secret. When this scene was in the promo, I thought it was going to be a scene where Elizabeth was pulling away from him or she was past Lucas already and wasn’t sure if she wanted to be with Nathan or if she was telling him why she couldn’t be with him but could be with Lucas. Idk. Anything else that would have made more sense for that line to follow. I was also afraid of having Nathan coming to town to look after Jacks family, but because he never knew him, to me, it’s not that weird. I actually kinda like how he said I had to protect them rather than take care of them and that it was his duty. 

Yeah, I was expecting his final line about fighting for love to be put into a scene where his willingness to fight for it was called into question. Until this season he was the quieter, less openly emotional character, and I could see where he might feel he needs to be a little more earnest in expressing his intentions—kind of like what we got right out of the gate with his love confession.

I’m not bothered by Nathan’s situation in regards to Jack, either. Both because he didn’t know Jack (as you mentioned) but also because he was very well aware of how odd the situation ended up becoming. He didn’t come to Hope Valley expecting to fall in love with Elizabeth. He didn’t know anything about her when he arrived!

It would be creepy if he’d known Jack well beforehand, or if Jack asked him to look after Elizabeth, but him feeling that he had a hand in Jack’s death (that he was the indirect cause of it in this case) makes the choice...more understandable. All he knew was that Jack had a family, and that nobody would be returning to the post there. So he took it upon himself to do what he thought was the right thing to do: go to Hope Valley and make sure the people Jack cared about were safe and cared for.

I agree with Rosemary that it’s a noble act. It’s not selfless, but it’s noble. I think they handled that aspect of the story extremely well. I was afraid of it happening because I was afraid of how it would be presented, but...they surprised me!

---

@kvanbooven​ said: I will say in the handholding game I got major secondhand embarrassment and almost couldn’t fully watch the scene lol. Elizabeth’s look at rosemary right before fiona puts in the blindfold is absolute Terror. IM DYING ABOUT THE SPARKLY PEN THING. AND ABOUT THE DOCK THING. Haha cuz yes that was frank and Abigail spot and I loved them. 

My husband and I were both shouting during the handholding game! It was just so awkward!! I would have thought it was pretty funny if we saw a bunch of people from town playing it, too, but having it be Florence and then immediately Elizabeth kind of took some of the fun out of it. I’d rather have had a gentler fall from “Cute and Fun” to “Secondhand Embarrassment City.”

I’m glad you enjoyed the other things, too, lol. ;)

@kvanbooven​ said: For the mine disaster, I don’t really remember what happened off the top of my head and if they ever actually really solved it. I think what Henry could know is either specific people or the specific thing that went wrong. I really love your theory about the first mine disaster. Overall wasn’t a bad episode and Lucas is starting to see he might not have a chance I think. Hopefully he’s the one that confronts Elizabeth about it all and makes her face her feelings.

I’m not sure what’s left to solve about the mine. I mean, everyone knows Henry was involved and the company was sued for negligence and the widows won. We got the name of the person who told Henry to shut up from S6: a Mr. J. Smith.

March 27, 1910 1231 Front Street San Francisco, CA 1819383

Re: Noah Stanton

Dear Henry,

After careful review, we feel your concerns regarding any safety issues are unwarranted. 

Please consider this matter closed.

Best,

J. Smith Manager - North West Territory Pacific Northern Mining Company

The only resolution that never occurred were prison sentences for the guilty parties in question, so...maybe Henry has more names, or is willing to tell Bill the entire sequence of events that took place (rather than him having to piece together what he knows occurred). 

I also think it was a pretty decent episode and I can see Lucas losing hope each and every scene he gets with Elizabeth. The poor guy. I agree that it would be nice if he was the one who prompted her to face her feelings and work through that last bit of grief she’s struggling with. It’s the only way I feel like I’d be satisfied with her choosing Nathan, now. 

(They’re still on thin ice, though. If Nathan does anything else stupid or thoughtless I can’t imagine many people will still be rooting for him.)

[tinypnut]

[taps fingers together] Would it be weird if I requested something along the lines of the reader having a rough time loving herself? And Crosshair actually catches onto the real meaning of her degrading jokes? She's defensive and dismisses it, but when he presses she breaks down and yells about how it doesn't matter and that she doesn't need his comfort?? But she doesn't mean it. Idk it just,, came to me when I started the request. :') Hope this isn't too much.

Doubts

Crosshair x reader

@kriffingunlucky

(I hope you like it, it’s angsty as kriff and I made a few tweaks cause I just couldn’t stand a salty ending (Had some time between zoom calls to write this))

Words: 1,252

TW: Extreme self-deprecating, mentions of suicide

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

You pathetic piece of bantha fodder, you can’t do anything right. You're gonna get everyone killed, you think you’re so smart? Do you think that you can achieve anything? Your ‘progress’ is gonna crash and burn like everything you do. Do you really think that they appreciate you? No one has ever appreciated you! They don’t accept you, you're such a kriffing fool. You’re a failure.

You had been with the bad batch for a while now, they were like a family to you, the family you’d always dreamed of but nothing could ever stop those thoughts. They were never-ending and sometimes you wished you could just end it all. They pounded on your head, you always needed some form of a distraction to not become consumed by your thoughts. Many times you have been caught making self-deprecating jokes during missions or even just hanging around the Havoc Marauder.  ‘Maybe if that droid shot first for once it would have hit me’ or ‘why does my holopad die faster than I ever would have’ even ‘How do people get confused by me? I’m pretty bland’ and ‘my body is a temple, but it’s one where they let banthas shit all over it’ These jokes, sometimes you don’t even remember saying them, they just happen. The Batch all brush it off with their own humor treating it as an ordinary thing. But not Crosshair, something about how you said your jokes, they didn’t sound right, they didn’t feel right. But you couldn’t tell anyone how you felt, they wouldn’t understand, well they might but not in the way you wished or hoped that they would, and Crosshair...Crosshair would push you away, he would see you weak and pathetic. You didn’t want that to happen, not again. So you kept it to yourself, just as you always had. 

Hunter, Wrecker, and Tech left the Havoc Marauder to go scout the area leaving you with Crosshair, on the ship, alone, together. You sat in the cockpit checking the systems and running diagnostics just in case a quick getaway was needed and Crosshair sat towards the back of the ship watching you as he cleaned his rifle. His eyes studied your form, the focus you had on your current task, but also your eyes. He shifted the toothpick in his mouth as he stared. You could feel his piercing gaze as you worked.

“Staring is rude you know” you glanced back at him before returning to your work. He set his rifle down and stood to walk over to you.

“And what if I’m simply admiring your beauty?” He questioned as he stood behind you resting his hands on the head of the seat. You couldn’t help but laugh.

“Ha! Yeah, me? Beautiful?” you paid no mind to the fact that he was looming over you.

“Yes,” he turned the chair around and stared at you. Your face began to redden.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about Cross…” You try to avoid the conversation he’s pressing.

“I’m pretty sure you do (Y/N).” He pressed and you looked away. You stand and push past him and hold yourself. “What the Kriff has gotten into you (Y/N)?” he continued.

“It doesn’t matter Cross...It’s nothing.” Your gaze fell to the floor.

“It matters to me…” He rests a hand on your arm and you pull away once more. He bit down on his toothpick now slightly becoming peeved with your actions. Not too long ago you began distancing yourself from him, you barely spoke to him and there was barely any physical contact as well. “whatever’s bothering you just spit it out already! Sweet Maker, All you say now are these self-deprecating jokes, you don’t hold actual conversations anymore, what happened to us.” You bit your lip and lowered your head. You didn’t want him angry with you…

Maybe it’s for the best, I knew this wouldn’t last….

“I don’t need you to comfort me alright! I don’t need your pity or concern! My personal opinions on myself don’t matter to you! They shouldn’t matter to you….” Crosshair remained silent, he cast a glare and snapped his toothpick in half. He was heartbroken, but also furious, how could you say such things...

“If that’s how you want it” he growled before walking past you. He grabbed his rifle and as his brothers walked up the ramp they watched him push past them to leave the ship. They looked between his retreating form and you. Tech made his way over.

“(Y/N)? Are you okay? What happened?” he asked hesitantly. You pulled away from him as well and wiped your face.

“I’m fine Tech…” You walked away back to your bunk. Tech didn’t believe you but when he looked back to Wrecker and Hunter he simply shrugged. 

A bit of time had passed since the conflict occurred between you and Crosshair, neither of you had said a word to each other and the tension building in the ship began to feel suffocating. Hunter was getting to the point that he was about to drop you and Crosshair off on a hospitable planet to sort out your problems. So that’s just what he did, or well close to it. The Havoc Marauder landed on Felucia and the brothers began gathering their weapons. Crosshair grabbed his rifle and made his way to leave but not before Hunter grabbed his shoulder.

“Oh no you don’t” He gently pushed him back onto the ship and crossed his arms before pointing a finger at both you and Crosshair. “You two are going to sort out whatever the kriff is going on between you two even if it kills you” And that’s all he said before leaving with Wrecker and Tech. A silence fell on the ship as neither of you dared to speak or to move. You could feel his gaze on you once more and you let out a shaky breath before lifting your head to meet his gaze.

“I-I…” You lowered your gaze again. “I’m sorry…” your voice was soft, meek almost. Crosshair arched a brow and crossed his arms. “I can’t help it Cross….the things I say….” You shook your head “It’s to cope...I can’t stop thinking, it won’t ever end, sometimes it’s rambling in my head, other times it’s screaming at myself…. I try to be strong, I put up a wall but it just won’t work.” Crosshair’s gaze had softened and he approached you slowly. 

“(Y/N)”

“I hate myself Crosshair, I’m not attractive or pretty, I barely passed training, I was overlooked and ignored...what purpose do I even have, how can you even care about me?” You bit back your tears and tried to keep your voice level. Crosshair pulled your hands off your arms and held them with his gloved ones. 

“I can’t understand that you believe all that…” Crosshair sighed and you looked up to protest but he cut you off “Don’t you ever kriffing believe that shit. Cause it’s not true, what happened during your training is in the past, forget it. Your purpose, well that’s right here, on the Marauder, with us, with me…” He rested his forehead against yours “and you're the most beautiful person in the galaxy, you’re all mine and I’m all yours” He cracked a small smile.

“Do you mean that?” you question.

“Every word Cyar’ika” and you believed him, Crosshair was there, he was holding you, and he loved you.

[lady-plantagenet]

What hasn’t already been said: The Spanish Princess 2

Episode 2: SOdden (or Sod ‘Em depending on your persuasion)

(Dont know how long I’ll be able to keep these puns up)

Catherine, like this woman, does not really fit into this era. But while this woman seems dropdead cool and at least looks the part, Catherine just...

To all those of you keen enough to have come back for another segment of ‘what hasn’t already been said: TSP’, as opposed to have just been scrolling when you see this - welcome back! (Scrollers you too <3)

To anyone who’s seeing this for the first time: what this is a list of observations, jokes, reactions and criticism which occur to me upon a rewatch. I wait every week until Saturday to do this so that I have had my fill of scrolling through the tag and aggregating what has already been said. I tried doing a whole spoof (here where I gave up 10% in) but tbh a) I don’t know the history well enough b) it’s more time consuming than I thought and c) this series is just not as funny or as crazy as TWQ, so it’s untenable. Having said that: This is not a hatepost. I’m not hatewatching this series and nitpicking on purpose but expressing my honest views and trying to find the good in it as well as the bad.

Without further ado...

First Scenes:

The baby cloth lifting into the ceiling of the chapel had nice ‘myth of the demon countess of Anjou (ancestress of the Plantagenets)’ vibes. I am 100% that was unintentional. I get this impression by the cringiness of the baby’s screams (what’s up with those sound effects? It sounded like a zipper).

Henry gives me such softboi vibes? It’s pleasing to me because it’s making me attracted to him as a viewer, but no good in convincing me this is Henry VIII.

I think Catherine’s exposition about how she feels is pretty ok actually, it’s fitting that she would feel anger.

CHARLES’ FATHER IS NOT MAXIMILIAN, IT’S PHILIP (or rather it was). ~~ A quick wiki search guyz, a quick wiki search. Ughh

Again with the whole everyone acting like Catherine is Queen. Can they cut it out? Also while we’re at it, what was Catherine’s attendance in councils even like?

The music was nice

Post Child announcement phase:

Oof I hate to say it but I lowkey wanted de la Pole back in this mother. Mainly because it would mean more Margaret Pole and by this point I am scared her storyline will fade in prominence now that there’s no longer a Yorkist subplot (showhorned as it was, it was the crowning glory of last season tied with Arthur x Catherine).

More x Maggie Pole and all of it over Seneca and learning :’). I already know this will be the best part of the episode.

‘We certainly know stoicism in our family’ ~ I guess she’s referring to Reggie? Because our boi Clarence was no poster boy for stoicism. Though could she be making an ironic reference to her father~?

Edmund de la Pole Debacle:

Well this convo at least passed the bechdel test.

Maggie and Edmund’s interactions here are touching. I know this plotline was rushed but I think it was just right to bring us back here for 5 min as a mournful throwback to the bygone era to which Maggie Pope belongs to and now continues to do so alone. It is emotionless and you can just feel how the York cause was hanging on by a tired old threat by that point.

Maggie Pole is becoming matronly now and I like this transition.

What bothers me about a lot of fans of Margaret Pole is that what they don’t realise is that she wasn’t all like ‘I want nothing to do with my family I’ll stay low and obscure’. While far more cautious than the likes of her ancestors, she did engage in land disputes with Henry VIII and was an outspoken supporter of Catherine and Catholic. Having her be a woman woth dubious loyalties towards the Tudors is accurate.

Scotland with Meg and Jammes:

LMFAO it’s like they read my mind when I spoke of how much I laughed when Meg was like ‘Alexander Steward you pig!1!!’ last episode.

Nice reference to Aulde Alliance

I like James.

Henry and Catherine on the balcony:

Was she commander of the forces? Was Howard appointed that? Regent she was, ok.

Charlotte Hope’s new hairstyles really suit her!

‘Will you please stop cursing’ agahsjdk ahah

No offence to women (of which I am one) but this comparison between childbirth and war is just... wrong. I know Starz think they are being smart but childbirth is far less impressive than winning or surviving a battle - comparing the two diminishes the bravery of soldiers. YET ,having said that, childbirth is necessary for our society whereas war is almost always futile and by comparing them, it wrongly represents violence as something inherently as natural to us as birth and continuing of civilisation. overall not a smart, respectful or accurate parrallel to make.

Meg and prep for invasion + Catherine in her weird armour:

So Margaret dreams that her husband is dead and bloody in her bed. Ughh show you neeed to get more creative. But I did like the whole ‘dreams are how our ancestors talk to us’ line from Angus Douglas.

Re: Meg in her beret... Why is Meg dressed like me going to the London shops in October? Digging the aesthetic but not sure about the accuracy.

Rich of Catherine to bring up Edmund.

Why is Ursula Pole crying??? What is all this to her really?

Did Howard just call the guard... sonny?? Is this some WW2 crossover?

Catherine - James and the tent parlay:

Did Catherine just insult Meg’s intelligence??

Also lmao I’m going to miss James.

Re: Howard saying ‘I’m not going to get insulted by a man wearing a dress’ .. UMMM Starz, you do know that just thirty years ago men were prancing about in dresses and leggings (essentially). From around the middle of the 14th century to the beggining of 16th century (if not earlier), Englishmen were also essentially prancing about in ‘skirts’.

Am I getting a weird cooperation-partnership vibe between Meg and James?

The Battle:

Charlotte Hope looks so good with the helmet, she’d really suit an english hood! Such a shame they won’t give her one!

Ewwww he’s eating mud, why?

Just standard battle scene. They are all the same to me no matter which movie.

Aftermath:

Jesus, I find the whole Meg crying over James IV so heartfelt ‘you arrogant bastard’ for some reason just came out so full of emotion. Can someone please explain why the hell I ship them more than Henry x Catherine?? Like how ??

Awwww Linna is sooooo adorable ughhh. Also this whole Catherine going into armour among all the women crooning over the children gives this adorable sense of Catherine boyish and bloodying herself out to protect their peace, idk. All I have to say is that these series is less eager to pitt women against each other than the previous. I think that’s a step forwards.

Also, good to see Catherine being modest about her victory so Henry can save face. Finally starting to seem like the real Catherine.

‘Go on you dog’ arghh ahah he sounds like some public school rugby lad egging his mate on.

Re: Wolsey cock-blocker; the real Catherine would know it was uncatholic to have sex when you were pregnant. Also Catherine is not technically speaking in confinement if she’s wandering about.

It’s nice to see Catherine sticking up for Howard, she at least learned to respect him during the battle.

I foresee Oviedo having enough of this Christian stuff and wanting to return to the berber domains (I suppose Spain is out of the question)

Knighting Ceremony:

Apparently Margaret Pole herself was made Countess of Salisbury during this same ceremony... right? @houseofclarence

Also Maggie Pole being like: “being a rebel is in my blood, or so they tell me”... gahhh what’s with these shows and the Clarence erasure? Can’t they make one bloody reference to her dad or grandad Warwick? Ugh. Especially with lines like this. Actually? You know what? Ignore my previous comment about the stoic remark and it being an ironic reference to Clarence. I put such subtlety above this show’s writers.

Catherine has a habit of going to the coldest places possible to lose her children...

Haha @ Henry asking Bessie Blount (of all people) where Catherine is.

Conclusion:

6/10

What I’m happiest about is that Flodden got dealt with in one episode because warrior xena Catherine is not what interests me most about this show. Having said that, it was a true shame that James IV died because his were some of the best scenes. This whole show is starting to feel so historical fantasy-ish because the aesthetics are so confused. Granted it’s still pretty (not eyesore like Reign) but it doesn’t penetrate.

I am as always invested in the Poles (and More) but am also starting to get attached to Princess Mary whose actress exudes plenty of charm. This show remains confused with its feminist message because while it shows women being proactive there is so much emphasis on babies that what remains with the mind after watching is this womanish birthdrama, as opposed to a show about struggles which affect both genders.

You might tut at me and say I’m being ridiculous and that it is historically accurate to put so much emphasis on women’s babies and I say that’s swell. I would happily watch a show where that element is strong (most pre 1995 historical dramas are like that with traditionally feminine characters and I gulp them up like sustenance), but if a show promises feminism and women-men being partners I want it to deliver that properly. As I said in my previous post, why do we keep trying to make women engage in acts like war as if such an abhorrent act is the only way to take them seriously? I await the day where cunning, rationality and cool-headedness will be the traits portrayed as feminist ones.

There is nothing else to really comment on... the only potentially deeper message in this is the gender discourse. I am unsure about the accuracy so I can’t speak of the historical value of the interpretation. But what I will say is that though I remain excited for each new episode... I’m just not as invested as I was in TWQ (rewatch every year dont @ me) or TWP despite their many flaws. Some characters pull me in eg Maggie Pole (Carmichael is a bae), Thomas More etc but not the whole cast like TWQ. Anyway... would be interesting to see if anything happens with Lina and Oviedo tommorow as their storyline is conspicuously slow.

[chidoroki]

TPN ch180

(spoilers! i'm so broken)

I didn't want to be right. I didn't want to actually believe that Emma was lying. If anything, I thought she was just lying about staying with her family when they crossed over to the human world, knowing she would be separated, but this.. oh my god. This girl knew ever since ch143 that she was going to lose her memories of her family and straight up lied to them about it. Granted, only a few days passed from when she returned from The 7 Walls up until they all crossed over to the human world, but still, I.. don't know how to feel. I knew since the prison break she had great acting skills so I'm impressed that she managed to pull off yet another wonderful performance, but wow.. I really hoped she wouldn't! To keep such an important and life changing secret from her family, who are all so important to her, I can't imagine how hard it must have been for her knowing this while dealing with the entire capital attack and GF plantation raid. Fighting so hard and succeeding in achieving a bright, happier future for everyone but herself.. ow, my heart.

Some people are fine with the memory loss, others aren't. If anything, at least she's the only one who forgot? I think it would've been worse if everyone else forgot about Emma instead, so having the promise only hurt her is fine.. well, it's not, clearly, but you get what I mean.

And if demon god wasn't on my nerves enough already, the little prat decides to basically photoshop every family member out of the photos Emma kept this entire time. I'm touched she still had the photos in her possession, but now this upsets me so much. Upon seeing the first set of raws and learning Emma lost her memories, I hoped that she could possibly remember them by looking back at these photos if she still had them. But no. Demon god doesn't want me to be happy or get my hopes up. It would've been such a cool idea though. We know Ray originally requested the camera because he needed to strobe for the taser, but he continued to take pictures, not only to keep up the act to prevent Isabella from getting suspicious, but to give said photos to Emma because he knew how important their family is to her. I would've loved it if something so important from the first couple arcs came back at the very end to help Emma regain her memories.

Not only that, but demon god also got rid of her id number? Like.. really? I don't know why that bothers me so much but it does. I know the id brands just proved that the kids were meant to be nothing but food. Of course I know that they're all so much more than that and I should be happy Emma lost hers, because it truly means she's free, but the number was a part of her you know? It would've been fine if every cattle child lost their identifier, but since it was only her it makes me think demon god wanted it to be that much harder for Emma to remember her past and family. That's what bothers me. That even now, after they all crossed over and don't have to deal with demons anymore, demon god still has the audacity ability to make Emma suffer. If she still had her number, I'm sure she would've questioned it, much like Ray did when he was younger (my mind thinks back to ch28, that one memory of him looking at his neck in a mirror). Maybe she would've realized that the people in her dreams also have the same neck numbers, if only faintly. (it must be so weird for Demizu to draw Emma now and not include her number after all this time)

That leads me to wonder if Emma has questioned the rest of her appearance yet. I would assume she's still missing her left ear, since her hair is still covering that side, so does she ever wonder about why it's missing? What about the scars on her body? We personally haven't seen them, but you can't tell me her back and abdomen looks perfect and clean after getting stabbed by Lewis. Yes I know, scars heal with time, but the scar on Lucas' face was still recognizable after 13 years. Same with Zack and his many unfading scars. So does Emma question where hers came from?

Moving on, a month passes and still no memories, however Musica's necklace seems to be the cause of Emma's vivid dreams, like it somehow brings life to her feelings. We see the necklace constantly, not only because Emma wears it, but on volume covers and other color pages as well. It's always been shown off as this important item and yet it hasn't really served a purpose yet. Emma recieved the necklace back in ch51 and the only thing its done so far was show her that one old vision at Cuvitidala in ch101. It'll be a real easy way to solve everything by having the necklace just conveniently bring back her memories, so I get why some people might not like the idea, but at this point I'd be fine with it.

Figures she would end up in the human world with someone who can sympathize with her pain. Old dude lost his family due to war but at least he can remember them. He asks if Emma would want to see her family, if they're alive, and she remains unsure and lost. She doesn't know who these dream people are to her, why they call out "Emma" or why it makes her feel better.

This panel.. this one right here is what breaks me. Our girl is so upset and she can't even understand why. We know why you're crying hun, it's because you miss your family. Your memories may have faded but your feelings for them still live on with you! I have no doubt that love you just as much too! My poor girl, someone send me her location so I can go and hug her!

Emma might have given up trying to remember who she was and live a new life, but if she did encounter her family again, I hope she would be excited to meet them as new people. Maybe they could all start over. Over time they could gently remind her of her past, and if Emma truly can't remember, I hope they'll accept her regardless.

And a name change? I'm.. mmm frustrated. Yeah it makes sense since she couldn't remember hers and would need a new one anyway, but aahh, really? No id identifier, no memories, no name; it's like she's a new character. I was never a fan of the amnesia trope, like she's such a great character and gets built up wonderfully, and now it's like you reset her to zero. Yeah I know, deep down she's still the happy go lucky girl we all know and love, who's strong and capable to still smile even now, but.. man, idk anymore. This whole chapter hurts me.

There's a dim light at the end of the tunnel because we get a glimpse of Ray, Gilda and.. at first I thought it was Don but that person is way too short, so Phil? Regardless, I gotta give them some credit. It may have been a couple months, (remember, old dude said he could't call for help until spring and there's flowers in the ground now) but they've already managed to find where she might be in this new, large world. Please, turn around though! She's so close to you guys, she's right there! Notice her antenna or something, I beg you!

Demon god said that even if Emma met her family, she wouldn't remember them, but I still have small hopes. Emma claim's she stopped having the dreams and given up trying to remember her past, but maybe that short amount of time believing in them was enough. Aside from the necklace which connected her feelings to her unconscious mind, the five sense can also recall memories. Perhaps if she heard her name now, outside of a dream, something in her mind will click. Maybe she would get that warm feeling again she once longed for. Sense of smell and taste are usually most effective in bringing back memories so maybe just being near them or having them cook for her could also help. I know the sense of touch usually works for when you personally touch something, but if it's possible to also recall memories by being touched, then please, for the love of god, let Ray pat Emma's head again! He's done it countless time over the years.. can you imagine if upon meeting and learning that she has no memories, Ray is just like "no worries, you're still the same Emma to us," and while he pats her head, she's like wait hold up, major deja vu, I feel like I felt something like that happened before. I'm probably only getting my hopes up real high with that idea (since old dude just patted her head and nothing) but bro.. I would honestly cry if something so simple and nostalgic as a head pat helps Emma remember her family even the tiniest bit.

And yes, I'm worried Norman isn't around. Please don't let me be right again by having him stay behind due to his health issues. Just let him be in another search group somewhere else okay? I'll accept that. It's odd he wouldn't be working alongside Ray but whatever, split your best minds up to create equally powerful teams, that's fine. It only worries me because now we might not get one last full-score trio hug like I originally hoped! I swear having a hug like that as the very last panel of the series would've been perfectly fine with me after everything that just happened. But now.. aahhh, we'll see.

I can't believe the series ends next week. There's still so much I want to see and know. I pray there's a happy ending for everyone. I want Emma with her family. I want her to remember them. I want one last full-score trio hug. Shirai, don't let us down! You played with my feelings so much within the past year, so please make all the stress and tears worth it! Give me an ending that will satisfy me so much that TPN replaces Black Lagoon as my favorite series! Go ahead, I dare you! Ya see that beautiful panel? Give that to us and not have it be a fantasy! (pretty please??)

[luukeskywalker]

Also 14 and lawlu ???? Maybe???? Idk

AAAHHH I LOVE YOU... I LOVE LAWLU..... IM ALWAYS LOOKING FOR AN EXCUSE TO WRITE MORE FOR THEM.... also  oopsie daisy! this got away from me :)))

Luffy didn’t like to complicate his life. He had one true goal in mind: that bright, glowing ideal he always strived for - to be the king of the pirates. 

Some might say he gets too side-tracked to have such an impressive goal. He’s too busy helping people, too busy fighting other pirates and marines and really, the rest of the world, but at the end of the day… if he’s king of the pirates, and he didn’t stop along the way to actually, you know, be a pirate - was the whole journey worth it?

Most people didn’t really understand him. That never really bothered him. It was his life to live, in the end. 

And just because he had big dreams, just because he was always running around upheaving hundreds of years of oppression in the making (not usually on purpose - at least, not at first), didn’t mean he never had downtime.

They’d found their way to a cozy little island with huge, brightly colored fish that glittered like gemstones and swam in clear shallow waters. Sanji had set up a picnic of sorts on the beach, and had tasked himself with catching and cooking one of those beautiful fish. He’d roped Zoro and Usopp into it, and the three of them stood there splashing in the water together like idiots as the fish darted away from them. 

Nami, Chopper, and Jinbei were further inland, exploring the large, dense forest that spanned across the whole island. There hadn’t been any sign of people yet, so Nami wanted to try and map out the island herself. But she didn’t want to go by herself, and Chopper thought there was safety in numbers, so Jinbei tagged along as well.

Robin and Franky, and Brook, were on the beach. Brook played a song on his violin, but stopped to laugh every time Usopp squealed when a fish would brush up against his legs. Robin was reading a book and making warm, noncommittal “I’m listening” sounds at Franky as he talked about one of his plans for an upcoming project. 

Luffy sat on the lion’s crest of the Sunny and watched them all through content-half lidded eyes. His crew was his family. For once, they were relaxed and comfortable, and finally had a chance to relax. 

And… Luffy wasn’t alone, up there on the Sunny. He turned and looked to his companion, who was lying down with his fluffy hat covering half of his face, protecting his eyes from the sun. 

Law wasn’t a part of his crew, but he was still there, still comfortable surrounded by pirates not his own, still content to relax in the Strawhat’s presence. 

It made Luffy feel warm. Like he was sunbathing - well, he was technically already doing that. But it was like the sun reached inside of him, into the spots it had no way to touch, and warmed him there. 

He wasn’t stupid. He knew what love felt like. 

He’d felt it before, in moments like this. Peace, calm. He’d felt it in worse moments, too - it was a sharp, hot thing, when he’d seen Doflamingo curled over Law, ready to kill him. It molded itself to Luffy’s heart, changing shape as needed. But it was always there. And now the sun was shining, and his crew were off having a good time together, and soon there would be lots of food for everyone. So Luffy finally said it.

“I love you.” It was easy to say - why wouldn’t it be? After everything they’d been through together, love was the least of their worries. 

Law sat up, suddenly. His hat slid off of his face, but Luffy grabbed it before it could fly overboard. “What?” Law asked, his eyes sharp, as he snatched his hat back from Luffy’s grip. 

Luffy shrugged. “I love you.” He smiled. “You don’t have to love me back.” Of course he wanted Law to return his feelings - who wouldn’t? But Luffy had discovered along the way that love was often used to hurt people. He never wanted his love to hurt Law. And that meant he had to give it with no strings attached. 

“But- “ Law frowned, his face turned red, and he quickly put his hat back on. He turned away, looked out at the sea. “I don’t get it. What - why? Why now?” 

“Why not now?” Luffy laid back down and crossed his arms behind his head, giving him a pillow to rest on. “It’s nice out.” He was happy, and he’d held this inside of him for so long, because it had never felt like the right time. 

Then he’d realized it would never be the right time. So it might as well be when it’s nice out.

“You-” Law was looking at him now, he had to be - but Luffy had his eyes closed. Law was fussy, but he’d get over it. He could handle knowing he was loved. “How long have you loved me?”

“I dunno exactly. A while.” He remembered that sharp pang in Dressrosa, when he thought he’d lost Law for good. Or how it softened to something sweet, a comforting feeling, when Law held him in his arms once it was all over. 

“And you don’t mean like your crew, right.” It wasn’t asked like a question, but it still was. 

Luffy nodded. “Not like my crew. Like - a partner.” Like he wanted to go on adventures with Law, but after the adventures they had a place to return to, together. Like a partner that could travel the world, away from him or by his side, and at the end of the day they had each other. 

A partner he could fight with, like Zoro and Sanji. Or a partner he could listen to or ramble at, like Robin and Franky. A partner he could depend on. A partner that is his equal.

Luffy didn’t say any of this out loud. He didn’t need to.

Law laid back down on his stomach and leaned over Luffy. “How could you say it so - so - like it’s no big deal?” Luffy cracked an eye open to watch Law shake his head. 

“Because… it isn’t a big deal?” Luffy laughed. “I already said you don’t have to love me back. I just wanted you to know.”

“No!” Law groaned, then buried his head - right into Luffy’s chest. “You stupid-” He made a quiet noise of frustration and then picked his head back up. “I can’t believe you said it first. I can’t believe you said it at all. I thought maybe…” He frowned. “Maybe you didn’t have those kinds of feelings.” 

“Well, I’ve never felt like this before.” Luffy spoke up to the sky. “I think you’re the exception.”

Law made a strangled noise and dropped his head back to Luffy’s chest. “I…” his voice was muffled. “I think you’re the exception, too.” 

Luffy’s heart fluttered in his chest. “You love me?” 

Law stilled, took a deep breath, then lifted his head again. He fixed Luffy with a look, then exhaled. “Yeah. I love you.” 

“Was that so hard?” Luffy found himself laughing, suddenly filled with a giddy warmth. “You look like you’re about to throw up.” 

“Maybe I am.” Law said darkly, but let himself be pulled up in Luffy’s arms. He stopped, for a moment, and looked very, very vulnerable. “What… does this mean now?” 

Luffy gave him a thoughtful expression. “I dunno.” He hadn’t really thought this far ahead.

They stayed there in silence for a few moments - Law half dragged into Luffy’s embrace - and then Law started to laugh. 

“This is stupid.” He pulled himself fully upright and disentangled himself from Luffy’s arms. “It’s not a big deal. We can just…” 

He cupped Luffy’s face in his palms and leaned in.

Law’s lips were dry and chapped, and Luffy was certain his must have felt similarly weird, but it was… not bad. 

The kiss lasted only for a second before Law pulled away and made a face. “Huh.” 

“You’d think it’d be more fun, if Zoro and Sanji are doing it all the time.” Luffy shrugged. “Want to try again?” 

“Yeah,” Law said, his smile slowly blooming, “Yeah, I think I do.” 

[asb-fan]

Hey! So i see a lot of cool artwork for your Vecpio Angel Devil AU, and I really love its aesthetic- but i can't seem to find any information on it like explanations or back stories- would you be willing to share some? Sorry to bother youu with thissss

X,D yeah, sorry, there shouldn't be much information online since I only really talked about this AU with my buddy bane, who's pictures you're probably referring to 👀 (he drew so many I love them all 😭💜💚 and contributed so much and ahh FUN TIMES forever grateful for him listening and ok I'll shut up sjdjdj )

Thanks for your interest!! (And happy you like the aesthetic xD) ANNND you're not bothering me no worries I just usually keep these things to myself besides some art here and there

Guess I could try to explain it as simple as possible. It got sad themes so if you're not comfy with that feel free to skip it xD

Good vs Evil (same old story lol) but who's really the good and who's the bad ??

Angel Chaotix got lured into an ambush causing Vec and Charmy to get hurt so badly esp thought they are gonna die

Which results in Devil esp being created (ala dark emotions and fears taking over)

Devils main purpose is to PROTECT the angel Chaotix.

Angel esp thinks it's safest for his fam if he isn't around so he flies off into the mountains lol

Devil checks up on all of them while waiting for Angel esp to finally kill him

Only the original can kill their devil self so the higher-ups want angel esp to get rid of devil esp so angel can return to being a "proper" angel.

Oh yeah the angels are like soldiers I guess tho angel Vec always preferred to do things his own way.

Anyway angel esp is gone for a while after the incident (devil and him are connected tho so devil knows when angel is in trouble)

Devil esp starts developing feelings for angel Vec (wondering if these are HIS feelings or Angels)

And more drama begins adding to poor Devils suffering buts he's a good guy so he smiles his way through it most of the time

Then Bane blessed me with Devil Vec who I love so much bc he and Charmy are like the only smart ones in a weird way djdjdkfkf

He's also the person who cares the most for Devil esps feelings in the end (besides Charmy)

Got Big(nasty) puppy energy but only for Devil esp.

Devil Vec wants devil esp

Devil esp wants angel Vec but starts getting feelings for devil Vec too

Angel Vec wants angel esp

Angel esp wants angel Vec too but he's off to be dramatic

And Charmy just wants the grown ups to act like grown-ups 😂

Idk if that made ya any smarter but the most important info is

DEVIL ESP DESERVES ONLY THE BEST and I love him dearly x,D that's why he keeps suffering and he breaks my heart but in a good way. Love me some angst.

THE SUPER CUTE WHOLESOME PICS ARE FOR MODERN AU mostly, Which Bane threw at me for them to be HAPPY and it's DEFINITELY happier and SO MUCH FUN to think about 😂 especially for the Devils💚💗💜 love them being happy and madly in love (and fashionable)

[arigatouiris]

an obscure evening — h.o

Author’s Note: I’ve never written for Harrison before and honestly idek if this is how he is in real life but I can’t picture him in any other way for some reason and I think this personality is so attractive and like, I do believe he’s reached zen or something like that. Tell me what ya’ll think~

Word count: 3431

Pairing: Harrison Osterfield x F!Reader

Warnings: Fluff (tooth-rotting kind), some crack? idk

❝

If anything, Harrison Osterfield wasn’t one to believe in obscure love stories. His mind had already reached zen, his composure not fitted with any other sort of trauma, Harrison walked the earth as if his feet kissed the ground; that was all there was to it. No mind on earth could enjoy only happy thoughts—it was when the mind accepts every kind of thought there was, did it truly achieve zen. 

Harrison sat thinking this when he was breaking up with his then-girlfriend. 

     “W-What? Are you bored with me?”

He didn’t have it in him to be rude, but there it was. His eyes reached hers, and his smile turned crooked just a little bit, his eyes narrowed, just a little bit; it was as if he felt terrible for going out with her in the first place, but this was not out of pity or any sort of false promise that Harrison made. In fact, he was one of the most honest people in the world, and that was perhaps why he was currently breaking up with this girl whose name does not really matter to this story.

     “I only see things differently than you do, love,” Harrison said, smiling at her now, carefully treading on a path most drown at.

     “Different?”

He nodded once before continuing, “See, it’s like this. I’m not going to say the old ‘it’s me not you’ line to you. I am pretty sure the guy or girl out there for you is not someone who can’t even enjoy pizza and burgers with you.”

Perhaps, it was the way he said it that made her laugh a bit. 

     “You really don’t like junk food?”

Harrison shook his head, knowing his mission was a success. 

     “I really don’t.” 

The girl then leaned back and accepted the breakup rather well. However, the one that it affected most was Harrison himself.

That was the thing with Harrison ‘Haz’ Osterfield; he was far too understanding and perceptive for his own good. People, most often than not, fell under his predictions, not surprising him pleasantly, often leaning forward because he was influential and Tom Holland’s best friend. Unfortunately, most of the population knew him only because of Tom, and while he didn’t really mind being known as Tom’s best friend, it bothered him sometimes that this was all he was. 

Compared to Tom, Harrison had other special skills. He understood people better than Tom did, his calculations and predictions on people’s personalities and behavior were top-notch, and there was almost nothing that could surprise him. It was in fact both a blessing and a curse, for Harrison knew that if nothing surprised him then all he could be was bored. 

After breaking up with the fourth girl in six months, Harrison took a walk home. He had to take the tube, but that didn’t matter. Walking often made Harrison meet with certain characters that he otherwise didn’t have the luxury to find, and this was all that made the walk worth it. He’d observe mothers with their children when he was in the tube, he’d observe teenage boys and girls as they chatted with one another—comparing it to the things he would chat about when he was a teenager. The generational gap often startled him, but it also filled him with a weird sense of pride. All of this observing went unnoticed, but even then there was almost nothing out there that even came close to surprising him. 

His phone rang all of a sudden and he knew right away who it was.

     “What’s up, Tom?”

     “Did you do it?”

Harrison chuckled. “Yeah... As selfish as it sounds, she really wasn’t passionate about anything, mate. Anything except junk food, I suppose.” 

There was nothing Tom could say. Harrison’s bad luck with dating wasn’t anything new. He never really had any luck from the start—even in acting school. And as Tom knew from Harrison himself, it wasn’t better even in school. The one girl Harrison had a crush on in school turned him down, and the second that happened, he understood that there was something else about her that wouldn’t have satisfied him. It was merely the idea of how unattainable she was, and once that was cleared, there was nothing interesting about her.

He hated how his mind thought sometimes, but he had come to accept this as well. He was over-calculative, analytical, and very, very smart. It wasn’t always a great thing.

While he was talking to Tom on the phone, however, there was a light sound of music that his ears picked up. A soothing song, a song he had heard elsewhere in a different light but was now playing back to him in a rather different manner.  He felt breathless, almost—not sure if the singing was from the radio or if it was live. Before he could think, Harrison found his feet moving toward the sound, like gravity was pulling him there—leading him to a place where something finally would surprise him. 

And then he saw her. 

He listened wide-eyed, stupid. Glowing by her voice in the dim light of the underground station. If chocolate was a sound, it would've been her voice singing. If singing was a color, it would've been the color of that chocolate. She wore a light blue sweatshirt rolled up to her elbows, holding a guitar connected to an amplifier, a beanie covering her (h/c) hair and track pants. However, there was nothing more gorgeous than the sight of her smile, singing words that sounded like rhythmic honey, to a crowd that barely paid any attention to her.

     “Haz? You there?”

He didn’t think twice before cutting the call and watching her, admiring her, listening to her. He took a breath in and realized he was holding his breath till now, feeling a tad bit stupid. 

He was just thinking of it; he was thinking of how unlucky he was that nothing, almost nothing, surprised him in his life. Tom had come in like a whirlwind but sometimes, his quirkiness came with distance, and he was not someone Haz could call his own. Date after date, girl after girl, felt more a stranger when he broke up with them—feeling more of a stranger himself. And how strange it was that all it took for him to feel surprised was a stranger singing in a subway station?

Right then, if she were oxygen, Harrison was dying to breathe. 

When the song ended, only Harrison was near her. There was a smile stuck to his face, his eyes glued to her form, as she carefully detached the guitar from the amp and started setting things inside. Harrison walked over to her, feeling a tad bit nervous, before finding the right words to say. Just as he was about to open his mouth, he found that words had left him on his own.

     “I... I’m sorry, I... It’s as if you sang a song I’d heard when I was a child but forgot I knew until I heard it again.”

She giggled a second later before saying, “That’s very kind of you, but it was Train’s ‘Soul Sister’. I’m sure you’ve heard that song.”

Harrison chuckled before she began to fumble, “O-Oh! You haven’t? I-I’m so sorry, I only meant—”

     “No, no. Your singing was so good that the song felt like home. I didn’t have the right words there, sorry.”

Her eyes widened a bit before she made an awkward ‘o’ with her mouth. Giggling, she rubbed the back of her neck before grinning cheekily.

     “Thank you.” She said, bashfully.

Harrison chuckled, “For a performer, you’re quite shy when it comes to compliments.”

     “That’s because I barely get any. I don’t sing any originals, really. I just... do this as a pass-time. And I don’t even perform in one place, so... It can get a bit hard to follow.”

     “You deserve the praise. Oh, and here,” Harrison handed her a 20-pound bill. “For your beautiful singing.”

     “Oh my! I—I don’t take... I don’t—” She composed herself a second later before clearing her throat and continuing, “I won’t accept! I do this for fun, good sir!”

Harrison’s eyes widened. For someone so observant, he had barely noticed that there was no upturned cap or a bowl placed for money. He bashfully placed the money back into his pocket before muttering a soft apology. The girl turned around and placed everything in the bag before looking like she was ready to leave. 

     “My name’s [y/n], by the way. And thank you. Really. Compliments are really nice when they do come around. Especially from handsome men like you.” 

Harrison smiled at her before feeling his heartbeat accelerate. He noticed her reach forward to shake his hand. He mimicked the gesture and shook hers.

     “Harrison Osterfield. And don’t thank me for the compliments, that kind of defeats the purpose.”

And when she giggled, Harrison swore he felt butterflies.

     “Um, do you have somewhere to be?” She asked, tilting her head a bit.

     “Actually, no. I was just...” Harrison didn’t know what to say, “I was returning from meeting a friend. Why do you ask?”

     “O-Oh! Nothing, really,” She was bashful again. “I was just—okay, here goes. I was going to perform a song near the park. I have a very special audience and I have a feeling they’ll really like it if you came.”

Harrison chuckled. 

     “Me? Without knowing who I am?”

Sure, it hurt a bit that she didn’t recognize him. But, at least she didn’t burst out and call him ‘Oh, you’re Tom Holland’s best friend!’ And now, he was more curious about the audience she was talking about. 

She nodded vigorously before saying, “Don’t worry. They don’t need any other information other than your presence. Like I said, a very special audience.”

     “In the park?” Harrison asked, smiling a bit.

     “In the park.” She confirmed. 

He tagged along because he had nothing to lose, but actually, Harrison liked the adrenaline that it gave him. A whole life he spent predicting, calculating, learning—here was a girl who so effortlessly surprised him with every step she took. It was like she was meant to surprise him with everything. Especially the way he found her.

     “So, do you sing full-time?” Haz asked once they were inside the tube.

     “No, no. I’m in college. I really shouldn’t be spending my weekends here, but most people find solace in drinks and socializing and I... I have my hobbies.”

Harrison smiled, “It’s a good one, really. I’m glad I got to hear you sing.”

     “Oh, stop! You’re making me awkward.”

     “More than you already are?”

She giggled after that. Harrison stopped and thought about it, though. Her flaw had somehow become part of her charm; and here she was, with effortless mastery, proving to him time and time again that it was okay to be calculative and the way he was because she came along and changed everything in one breath.

In fifteen minutes, Harrison had learned she had a cat named Aziraphale (he assumed she loved the show), she had not yet watched a single Marvel movie because she prefers binging them like she did with Star Wars. He had learned that she didn’t have many friends but a thousand friends on the internet that she trusted with her life. And he had also learned that he no longer believed that he did not believe in obscure love stories. Every word that came out of her mouth sounded like a melody made just for him, but Harrison said nothing.

She was not made for him, no. She was her own person. And what a beautiful person she was.

     “I can’t wait for your show to come out.” She said as they got out of the tube.

Harrison’s eyes widened, and his heart almost stopped. 

     “W-What?”

     “Harrison Osterfield? The actor? Honestly, I thought you’d be a snob or something considering there’s a huge poster of you outside my dorm room. I had to look you up after that. And then I saw the show you were working on and it sounded incredible, so I’m looking forward to it.”

He couldn’t believe it. Not once in that sentence did she mention Tom. She knew him for him, and there was nothing more or nothing less. A mere billboard and a bit of Google had sent him right to her.

     “So you knew me?”

     “Oh, of course not. I knew of you. I’d...” She looked away before saying, “I’d like to know you, though. You seem like a nice guy,”

Before he could say anything, she brushed it off.

     “But, who am I kidding? Heh. This is all too surreal.”

It is, he thought before grinning to himself. His eyes shifted to her free hand beside his and thought once more, it is surreal.

When they reached the park, it was already twilight. Harrison’s heart was full. Harrison couldn’t remember the last time he felt this happy, especially with a stranger. It was a strange lie we feed ourselves most of the time—perhaps, because of the dying kindness in the world, set to enslave us in our own thoughts; we lie to ourselves saying the world is devoid of kindness and there can be no such thing has an instant connection. The idea of an instant connection seemed so surreal to Harrison that it didn’t even occur to him as a possibility in his life, as it doesn’t occur in ours. For those it does occur to, they are branded as hopeless romantics. 

For the first time in his life, Harrison wondered, ‘When did cynicism become normal?’ He turned to face (y/n), who had an awkward smile on her face as she was talking about some movie she really liked, and he felt his chest constrict. It was equally uncomfortable and warm, a wistful ache that lets you know you’re feeling. 

The two of them walked inside the park, somewhere in the middle, and noticed a group of older people sitting near the benches. The twilight made it a bit hard to see their faces, but they could somehow see him and (y/n). She made a whale noise upon seeing them, something that made him chuckle a bit, causing her to hit him playfully on his arm. 

     “Guys, this is Harrison, he’s here to watch me play! Can you believe it? My very own celeb audience!” 

One of the older men grinned before saying, “What a sharp young lad.”

Harrison smiled at all of them, now that he was closer he could see that there were around 8 of them sitting together, near each other. (y/n) turned to look at Haz and then grinned widely, shooting his heart to the skies.

     “Aren’t you going to introduce us, (y/n)?” One of the older women asked, with a soft smile.

     “Oh, right. Harrison, this lovely group is from the Cheshire Community.”

Harrison’s eyes almost widened; he knew what the Cheshire Community was. Senior citizens with no homes to go to would end up at Cheshire’s, and while his impression was that people in old age homes were sad and lonely, here was a group that showed him they were smiling despite it all. There was no room for pity, they looked genuinely happy.

A second later, (y/n) stood in front of them and unpacked. She was setting up her entire system while the group chatted amongst themselves. Silence was an odd thing, he thought because it communicated more than words sometimes. He watched as she giggled at some snarky comments some of the members of the group made, and his heart warmed at the sight. Did she have a relative here? Did she know any of them personally? Does she play for them often? What does she like? What food does she like? What are her favorite things?

His eyes widened as he watched her; he couldn’t believe it. For years, Harrison went looking for passion, bridled in people, making them do irrational things, but alongside this hunt, he would tell himself that it was impossible to find anyone of the sort. And just when he was getting used to the idea of mediocrity, he met her. 

When she started to sing, Harrison wondered if his smile was as big as hers. Maybe, it could be as big but definitely not as beautiful. The way she sang carried him away. It was a familiar song, the lyrics of which were sung by countless before her, but it was beautiful. Beautiful songs could sometimes take a person out of themselves and carry them away to a place of magic. But when (y/n) sang, it was not about the song, really. Harrison believed she could sing the phone book or even an instruction manual. He knew right then that whatever she sang, whatever the words or the tune, would be so beautiful, so achingly lovely, that no one could listen and be untouched.

When the singing stopped and it was time for them to return, he understood why she was doing this. It was a simple thing, and he couldn’t believe people never thought of simple things.

She sang for them. Because they indeed were lonely, but for a day, for a few minutes, they could forget all fo that because (y/n) was singing for them.

After packing things and saying her goodbyes to them for the night, she skipped to where Harrison sat and sat down beside him, grinning.

     “Seems like I’ve wasted your entire night.” 

Harrison only could scoff. “I wouldn’t ever call a night such as this ‘wasted’,” He turned to look at her with as soft eyes as he could manifest, “This is anything but wasted.”

She blinked a couple of times but her gaze was firmly fixed at his eyes.

     “It’s very strange,” She said, almost a whisper, “How real you are.”

He scrunched up his face with confusion, “Real?”

     “Wrong word,” She scolded herself before shaking her head, “Em... I’d say, normal.”

He felt a pang of hurt hit his chest but he waited. There was something about the way she said it that made it seem ethereal. 

     “Normal sounds... boring.”

She giggled at his reply, “It’s anything but! I don’t really know when it became a crime to be ‘normal’. People look down on normal as if it’s a bad thing, but really, normal is where we need to be. We’re all in search of something so we do these silly things to keep us occupied from ourselves. Take me for example, I can’t be by myself for even a second and there you are, making it seem like it’s the simplest thing in the world! For that kind of solitude to grow on me, as if it’s a normal thing, I think... I don’t think it’s possible at all.”

Harrison’s eyes widened. 

     “You’re perhaps the first person who’s made normal sound fancy.”

Taking a leap of faith, she leaned her head on his shoulder, “Normal is the fancy, pretty boy. Nothing beats it.”

You do, he thought resisting the urge to kiss her head. She smelt like vanilla and blueberries—and also rust and earth. Suddenly, she looked up and stared at him before turning away, clearing her throat.

     “I’d like to see you again, (y/n),” Harrison let out, unable to hold it in any longer. “I’d like to see you again a lot.”

     “I’d like to see you again too, Harrison.” She said, giggling, taking his hand in hers, and entwining their fingers.

     “To think this is happening after a weird break up.” He mumbled and instantly heard a gasp from her side.

     “Was it sad?”

     “It was... without emotion.” Harrison made a face.

She tightened her grip on his fingers and scooched over closer to him. He noticed the sudden closeness and his face felt warmer by the second. Passion drove him nuts but here she was making passion seem like a desperate school kid.

If every word she said was a rocket, nothing had made him fly like the ones she said next.

     “What will you do if I kiss you, Harrison Osterfield?” Her voice was a merry whisper, loud but careful, bouncing around the silence in the air as if it owned everything in the world.

He chuckled, leaning forward, their noses almost touching. 

     “Why,” His lips grazed over hers, “I’d kiss you back.”

If anything, Harrison Osterfield wasn’t one to believe in obscure love stories. And perhaps, it was because he didn’t believe in one did it happen so strongly to him. Not that he complained. 

❞