#if he knew it was between him and corona in the end. would he have gone any quieter?

[carnivalls]

do you guys ever think about how babs hated ianthe (or at least had a strained sort of friendship with her) but was the perfect archetype of a cavalier, while gideon l*ved harrow but was a terrible archetype of a cavalier, and those are the only two pairs at canaan house who became lyctors.

& while we're at it, do you ever think about how, despite babs being literally born and raised for the role, it was gideon who actually served as the 'better cavalier' in the end

[tarjapearce]

That First Kiss

Pre Soccer Family! Miguel O'Hara x Reader

Warning: 0. Just fluff. Mildly suggestive towards the end

Summary: The first kiss shared with Miguel ~

After that dance back at Peter there was something undeniable blooming between Miguel and you.

He had tried to kiss you after all, only to be denied by a simple yet crucial mistake made by none other than his own doubts.

He mulled over your words over and over. Would've something changed if he invited you properly to the party? Maybe something, maybe everything. He didn't know anymore but his mind was set into achieving that kiss.

Would it be too desperate if I want to kiss her?

He had asked Peter.

Cause in all truth, Miguel O'Hara, a prodigy, and soon to be ascended in the Alchemax's bureaucracy lines, didn't know a peep in flirting, much less in when to make a move.

The epitome of such thing was him telling you about the party, but not inviting you.

Social gatherings weren't his forte but Peter and Gabriel had been kind enough to include him in every activity and prevent him from being a forever stunted wallflower. The reason why Peter always asked him to cook for his parties.

And the reason he was having an override in his system after you left him with his lips pursed, perfect to touch yours.

"If you wanna do that, means you're into her. That you like her."

Peter mumbled while sucking the sauce off his fingers.

Despite the disgusting sight his red eyes got at the moment, he knew Peter was rather intuitive when it came to these things. He wasn't a complete idiot.

But with MJ at his side, Miguel had secretly made Peter a prime example of what to do and not do when it came to women.

"Can't believe she refused to kiss you." his friend snorted while drinking the last bit of his Corona.

"Don't remind me."

Miguel rubbed his face and picked up the dishes.

"Look, you're the only one that hasn't realized she also likes you." Peter smirked when Miguel gave a faint and proud chuckle at his words.

"You just gotta make a little more effort if you know what I mean."

"Not really."

"C'mon pal, I know you had a girl back in college."

"Dana? We just lasted a semester."

"Still is experience. Negative or positive. But your friend that's into you too, is a new chance to make things right. If that's what you're after."

"I wanna take it slow and see where it leads us."

Peter nodded but then shrugged.

"Tell me something. Do you want just a hookup with her?"

"No."

"What do you want then?"

"Get to know her more and see where it takes us." Miguel mumbled a tad sheepishly.

"Do you want whatever it is to be something more?"

"If she wants to. If she doesn't then... I'll leave her be."

"And how would you do that?" Peter kept inquiring and Miguel seemed to actually consider his words.

"By inviting her to a dinner or a movie."

Peter smiled and nodded proudly. "You're welcome. Now... All you gotta do is save her number I totally did not asked MJ, and invite her." Peter sent him your number and washed his hands.

"I got you, pal. Don't screw it up this time though."

-----

Would you be asleep? Would it be rude of him to suddenly text you out of nowhere? It had been a week of staring at his phone screen, glaring at your name on the chat log and watching the profile picture change a couple of times.

A week of pure self torture and replaying the many scenarios of him being fooled and rejected. He was angry at you for making him this nervous and, angry at himself for not being able to press send after rewriting several times the future message that could either make it or break it, before anything could even take off between you two.

"If you're trying to see if you have telepathy, I'm telling you, it's not working Miggy."

Miguel rolled his eyes and heaved a frustrated sigh.

"I like her. You haven't even started something and you're already nervous."

Miguel threw a pillow at Gabriel and the latter laughed to then return it.

"It's just a message, not a proposal."

"How do I know-"

"Goddammit" Gabriel groaned annoyed.

It felt like time slowed down when Gabriel pressed his fingertip against the screen on the send button.

Three letters were sent. And the seen icon showed up.

Hey

But his heart thumped harder when the three dots appeared on his screen along a message

Hello, stranger :)

Gabriel snorted and patted his shoulder.

"Good luck, Miggy."

----

Hey

Hello, stranger :)

It's Miguel. Peter gave me your number.

Oh? Too afraid of asking it yourself, Dracula?

He chuckled while accommodating the pillow behind his head.

It always escapes my mind doing so, Pitufina.

Sorry if I'm interrupting .

My overthinking maybe, so thanks for that.

His smile widened

Must admit though, didn't expect you to message me.

Sorry for taking that long. Wasn't that sure you'd engage into this.

'Engage into this' he says. Relax, I ain't biting.

Unless that's your sort of thing. I don't judge :) .

A little warmth spreaded through his cheeks as he read the message with an airy chuckle.

Wanna find out?

I believe the polite thing to do before that happens, is for you to take me out on some dates, sir.

He had you right where he wanted. With a deep breath he typed, not letting the sudden burst of boldness that took over to waste.

Then next week, a dinner on Friday. I'll pick you up at 7.

He left no room for doubts, just a yes from your end.

Yes, sir.

And it was official. Miguel O'Hara had a date.

Then a second and a third. Tonight was the fourth one. Something regular, more intimate and comfortable. A movie night.

I'm going through the popcorn section and there's no spicy one. And I know you give the caramel ones the mean eye.

They get stuck in my teeth, preciosa. Not precisely something I enjoy removing.

I've got Butter Lovers and classic.

Bring the classics and some tajín. I'll prepare them here.

Ok. On my way

You closed the chat log and went to the cashier.

----

Even though he had explained you that he didn't have a problem by paying up in all the dates, you still wanted to give some of that back. He had refused but eventually agreed upon sensing your pouting through the texts.

So you were in charge of the snacks this time. You'd be a liar to say if you didn't go overboard with it. The usual candies and some Mexican snacks he talked about in the past dates.

Movie begun, both of you laid on his couch, inches away from touching each other's knees and shoulders. A bowl of popcorn on his hands big enough for the both, some soda and other candies.

The movie played, earning a few giggles here and there from you and sometimes Miguel.

You didn't know when his fingers grazed your shoulder, or when his arm draped around you.

You could feel his heart thumping through his solid and warm chest, inviting you to rest your head on it.

And when you did, his whole body tensed, to finally relax when you smiled.

His eyes had long stopped focusing on the movie, rather your expressions and reactions.

The way your eyes crinkled with joy, your lower lip trembling on a specific sad scene and how lovely they stretched whenever a laugh came out of them.

"God, that's so corny."

You tittered while resting your head ontop of his chest again. Body relaxing with a deep and silent sigh.

Your fingers curled softly ontop of him and his hand immediately opened to hold yours. Long and calloused fingers entwined with yours.

The darkened room and the dim light irradiating from the tv were the perfect catalyst for him to inch his head closer to yours.

Miguel gulped when you craned your head upwards to watch him,

"Are you ok?"

He nodded but gulped again when your tongue misted your lips, as if preparing them for an emerging endeavor.

"You? Are you enjoying?"

A sweet smile stretched again in your lips. But your eyes were locked in his, breaking the contact for a minute to stare at his lips.

His arm pulled you closer and one of your hands slid through his cheek, caressing his skin, mildly prickly with stubble.

He was about to speak, but closed his lips to finally dip his head and kiss you. As if deciding that going for it instead of asking made it better.

Your lips received him with a soft sigh that only deepened when he placed a hand on the slope of your jaw to keep you in place as his lips kept kissing and marking yours in slow and gentle motions.

Your hands thrummed over his chest, and soon both of his hands were gently cupping your face. Some of your strands entangled in his fingers.

Neither wanted to break it. Not when his tongue was curling and playing with yours, fighting sensually for control. But your lungs demanded air. And when the kiss broke, he took a deep inhale to give gentle pecks on your sweet tasting lips.

"Happy?" your forehead rested against his and his hands roamed your back. Taking a much heat he could from you.

"Very." Another peck and you bit him softly. He returned the bite with his fangs trapping your bottom lip to then deliver a gentle lick on it.

"Can I have more?"

He put a strand of hair off your face and tucked it behind your ear while nodding with dazed eyes and a warm smile on his face.

"Los que quieras, mi amor." (As many as you want.)

[lollygaggingloser]

"It's become a necessity... You've become a necessity."

💫Varigo mini fic ❤️

You like a flustered Hugo? So do I.

After another long day of research for Varian's latest invention, Hugo escaped the royal library with little breakthrough achieved. He sighed, flipping through a borrowed book as he slowly walked down the marble halls of Corona's castle. It's pages gave no more information than he already had and Hugo was certain that the only place left to search for answers would be the eternal library. His walking pace slowed as he began to dread telling Varian his failure to find what they needed within the royal palace. It was bad enough to admit he failed, but worse knowing they would need the help of the eternal library again. Entering the library wouldn't be difficult to him or Varian now, but neither enjoyed going there.

It's been a little over a year since their adventures and discovery of the eternal library with Nuru and Yong. Their journey had ended in success and now, Demanitus's grand library was available to them along with the select few of scientists, engineers, and scholars that could be trusted with the library's vast collection. Still, instead of being this great source of knowledge and advancement, the group would view it as the place their dearest friend (in Hugo's case, his boyfriend) got possessed and almost trapped inside forever. The library was able to give Nuru a solution to save her kingdom, teach Yong how to hone his craft for fireworks and pyrotechnics, and help scientists across the world advance the seven kingdoms, but all the good of the library could never mask the trauma all four of them experienced there.

Hugo closed the almost useless book in his hands and stared out one of the nearby castle windows. Seeing his reflection in the window first, he retied his ponytail to clean up the stray hairs that had fallen on his face during his work. Satisfied with his appearance, his gaze focused to the view outside. Below him, he could see the royal garden, its flowers blooming in deep shades of purples, reds and blues. The sun was barely beginning to set, giving the sky a calm orange hue. Beyond the gardens were the castle walls that stood tall, separating the palace from the bustling lively kingdom of Corona. Hugo had to admit he became quite attached to this kingdom after becoming Co-Royal Engineer of it. Its people may have celebrated too many holidays for his liking and its princess always had him on edge with her hyperactive cheery disposition, but during these quiet moments, he couldn't imagine a more peaceful place. It also didn't hurt that he got to enjoy this view from a castle. He'd never imagine being inside a royal palace he didn't need to break into, much less with such a lofty title, but here he was.

Not bad for a prior thief and conartist, he figured. Discovering the eternal library must have given his resume quite the boost.

Hugo laid the library book on the windowsill before resting his elbows on it, leaning his body to stretch out his back. Even with this easier job, his back still gave him trouble. It was probably due to all the abuse it went through from his time pulling jobs for Donella. He wondered how his old boss was doing now. Truthfully, Hugo hadn't seen her since the day they uncovered the eternal library and parted ways. There would be the occasional letter between them, but once Hugo was no longer her underling, the two felt no need to see eachother. After ending his ties with Donella, he wasn't sure what his next step was, but he knew it would include Varian.

Varian.

The blonde softly smiled, thinking about the short scientist that passionately vouched for him and got him this new position. Hugo couldn't help but think fondly of Varian's smile, the freckles on his cheeks, and the gleam in his bright blue eyes. Hugo yearned to see him after having his nose in books all day.

As if the world heard his wish, Hugo's eyes squinted as a flash of bright light hit them. The light derived from the reflection of the sun bouncing off a pair of goggles. Wearing those goggles has the alchemist he was wishing to see. Hugo grinned as he watched Varian stroll into the gardens, and sit on the edge of a large stone fountain. It was likely that Varian was taking a break from work too, seeing him stretch his arms as he sat alone.

Might as well join him, Hugo thought as he made his way toward a staircase and descended to join his partner.

Out of everything that occurred from their journey, meeting Varian was what changed Hugo. The funny part was, he didn't know when it changed him. The change was slow, unraveling at a snails pace, with Varian's kindness breaking Hugo's walls and infecting him. Then suddenly, it was all at once, like a firecracker bursting with intense heat and flair, and Hugo found himself longing to be the good person Varian and the others thought he was.

Hugo was annoyed by Varian when they first met. The freckled alchemist was the model of a goody two shoes know-it-all and it nerved him to see how careless Varian was in trusting others. It irked him even more to know he was one of the people Varian shouldn't have trusted so freely. And yet, that trust...that ability to see the good in others that people can't see in themselves gave Hugo this new life. There was something about Varian's genuine nature that was contagious and powerful. It tore him down and built him up multiple times. It was easily one of the reasons Hugo found himself falling for him.

He learned later that Varian believed in second and third chances after his own criminal past was forgiven. Now the two of them stood together, as lab partners and lovers, ushering a more scientifically developed Corona. It amused Hugo to realize how many previous criminals were not only living peaceful lives in Corona, but also within the palace.

The kingdom should have come with a slogan. Come to Corona. The capital of criminal rehabilitation. Includes royal titles!

Once in the gardens, Hugo crouched low and carefully stepped around the few twigs and leaves on the cobblestone steps toward the fountain. He quietly tiptoed his way to the fountain's right side before plopping down next to Varian in such a rush that he almost knocked him off the stone edge.

"Hey Goggles!"

Varian yelped at first before seeing Hugo's shit eating grin.

"Hugo!" Varian chided, slightly shoving him back. "You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

The blonde chuckled, letting his partner collect himself from the scare, fixing his lopsided goggles.

"And what is Corona's Royal Engineer doing in the gardens?" Hugo inquired. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were slacking off."

"I could be asking you the same thing," noted Varian, quick to retort Hugo's remark. Over the past year, Varian had picked up Hugo's sense of sarcasm and comebacks. It was only fair that since the shorty had changed him for the better, Hugo could change him as well...for the worse. His sense of humor wasn't the only thing that changed. Varian had gotten taller, but was still shorter than Hugo. At least the blonde no longer had to be looking down or bend over so much when wanting to see eye to eye with him. Varian's skin was less tan due to all their inside work lately, but in the sun, his freckles continued to pop out more intensely. And so did his scars. They were from their adventures, and it made sense since Hugo, Yong, and even Nuru had scars of their own from travel mishaps and the occasional fight or explosion. But Varian had the most from putting himself in harms way to protect them. Hugo wondered if he wasn't such a coward or selfish if he could have prevented Varian from so many injuries.

The two locked eyes for a brief moment. It was insane how such a simple look could change the atmosphere between them. The look in Varian's eyes was a mix of joy, relief, and just a hint of annoyance. He truly new how to make this scrawny engineer feel special. Compelled by the unspoken fondness in his gaze, Hugo's smirk softened and he reached his hand up to touch Varian's cheek. Understanding what was to happen next, Varian smiled meekly as Hugo leaned in to kiss him. The alchemist's lips were soft and warm against his and Hugo felt like he could kiss them all day. Slowly pulling away, Hugo relaxed next to his boyfriend and the two leaned comfortably against each other, perched on the fountain.

"Did you find anything in the royal library?" Varian softly asked.

"Yes....No. I found nothing."

Hugo felt Varian tense up, knowing what it meant.

"Hey, hey, I can go on my own, Goggles," he assured, giving his boyfriend an encouraging smile. "I'll find the info we need, and we can go to our lab to finish up-"

"It's okay, Hugh," Varian interrupted, glancing up at him. "I'll be o-...I am okay. We'll go together tomorrow."

Hugo nodded, both worried for Varian and relieved he wouldn't be stepping into the eternal library on his own. Varian's gaze turned toward the sky, taking in the vast view. The two sat in silence for a moment before Hugo broke it, curiosity getting the better of him.

"Penny for your thoughts? You got that eyebrow scrunch so it must be something serious."

Varian softly scoffed at Hugo, but rubbed his forehead as he answered.

"Well, if you have to know...I was thinking about you," he confessed.

"Me?"

Determined to lighten the mood, Hugo smirked and tilted his head to feign innocence.

"What about me were you thinking about?" he asked. "Nothing inappropriate I hope."

"Hugo-"

"No, I understand, Freckles. With my good looks, superior intelligence-"

"HUGO-"

"And! And my rougish charm, there's no possible way you couldn't think of me. So tell me, actually, let me guess...you were thinking... about how in love with me you are."

Hugo waited for Varian to quip back with a tender insult or another little shove, but was surprised when Varian turned to look at him, a soft blush radiating across his cheeks.

"Yeah...I was," Varian answered. An amused "heh" escaped Hugo's lips as his flirty facade faltered. While Varian was usually the more anxious and flustered one between them, there would be moments like these where he laid his heart bare, and it would strike Hugo to his core.

"I was thinking," he continued, looking back at the sky, "...about us. And how my life is so different with you."

"Cause I drive you crazy and make it a little harder?" Hugo joked, trying to regain composure. Varian chuckled, shaking his head.

"Of course not!" Varian scolded him. "You drive me crazy, yes, but you don't make my life harder. You make it easy. You make it-"

Varian paused, trying to find the best words to convey his feelings. All the while, Hugo struggled to keep his heart from pounding so fiercely from all the sincerity in his boyfriend's voice.

Calm down Rottwange, he thought to himself. Don't let some sappy words get the best of you.

"Loving you is like...like breathing."

"Breathing?" Hugo pried, finding the strength to tease Varian once more. To add to the dramatics, Hugo playfully rested the back of his hand on his forehead in a swooning motion. "Ah, so it's effortless? I'm such an amazing boyfriend that loving me is second nature to you, Sweetcheeks?"

At that, Varian laughed and gave Hugo a little shove.

"Well, that too I suppose," Varian giggled. He then took Hugo's hands and held them gingerly in his. "More like...I need it to survive."

Hugo swallowed, his throat feeling dry, not sure how much more of this sweet talking he could take. He didn't even realize that Varian had intertwined his fingers with his.

"Loving you is like oxygen, Hugo," Varian confessed, gazing at their hands with an intense stare . "Like food, or water, or sleep. I need it to live. I can't imagine living without loving you."

Hugo's ears burned hot red and he brought his and Varian's hands up to cover his face. He could handle these words if Varian was joking around or teasing him back, but the tender and true expression on his face and honesty made him melt.

"Geez, Var, you can't just say stuff like that without warning," he mumbled, his thoughts and composure becoming disorganized. Varian smiled, his own face blushing from the realization of his words.

"Sorry,"Varian apologized. Hugo shook his head and looked back at Varian.

"I can't imagine living without loving you either, Varian," he confessed, deciding to cave into the mushy sentimental atmosphere. "Loving you is like breathing for me too. It's become a necessity...you've become a necessity."

"Do you mean that?"

Varian focused on Hugo's face, searching for any hints that the blonde was jesting. And then, Hugo saw it. A flash of concern, doubt, and bashfulness? spread across the alchemist's features. Just when Hugo began to believe Varian held the spontaneous charisma to confess his feelings without care, he found himself corrected. Varian was just as self-conscious in disclosing these feelings as Hugo was receiving them.

Hugo held up his hand in a small fist against his chest. He began to list the things he needed to live, a finger popping up for each necessity.

"Oxygen. Food. Water. Sleep. Loving you. That's all I need, Sweetcheeks."

Now it was Varian's turn to be lost for words, only being able to let out a soft laugh. Hugo leaned in once more to kiss him, savoring the gentle silence, and keeping his boyfriend from saying any other words that could make him fall apart.

[tangledbea]

I would like to know what happened between Eugene and Rapunzel after their first kiss at the end of the movie, what would they talk about on the way to Corona? And what were the first 6 months of their relationship like?

There's actually a storybook that covers this! It's called The Jewels of the Crown, and while the storybooks aren't canon, this one at least is canon compliant! Rapunzel and Eugene talk about her being a princess, and what that will entail, and her anxieties about it. Eugene assures her that she'll make a great princess, because the crown symbolizes everything a princess should be: a strong, adventurous spirit, gentleness and kindness, courage, and leadership. Her anxieties stem from the fact that her long, magical hair is what made her special, and now she doesn't have it. They run into bandits who try to steal Max, and she and Eugene rescue him, and Rapunzel scolds the bandits and find out that the lead one just needs a horse to take his son to the doctor. So they detour and take the boy to the doctor for him, and this adventure proves that she's got all those qualities that Eugene mentioned, even without her hair.

I imagine the first six months of their relationship was... complicated. Not their feelings for each other, but because both of their lives had completely changed overnight. Eugene knew he was being constantly watched by castle guards, Rapunzel knew she was constantly being judged by the citizens and palace staff. They want to spend time together, but she also wants to spend time getting to know her parents, and Eugene neither needs nor wants to be a part of that. They have these blooming feelings for each other and Rapunzel doesn't understand any of it, so Eugene has to teach her, patiently and lovingly, without making any attempt to control her or tell her for certain what she's feeling, because he doesn't want to assume, groom, or gaslight. In fact, I'm sure he recommended she talk to Arianna about it a lot.

[loneberry]

FIRST TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE

Images from my first total solar eclipse, depicting the outer corona, inner corona, prominent prominences, diamond ring, and the partial phase. Photos taken by Dan.

A black sun. Never had I seen a black sun, that insignia of melancholia that will forever remind me of Kristeva, which will forever remind me of M’s suicide—it was one of the few books M had with her at the very end, the book that her mother believed was the key to why she did it.

Black sun. On the day of—or day after—M’s death anniversary. I had been weeping for days when I found myself beneath that darkening sky.

*

What’s the difference between a partial and a total eclipse? I vaguely remember going onto the playground with some glasses as a child, but I don’t remember what I saw in the sky. What’s the big deal? The sky goes dark for a few minutes. It can’t be much different from the onset of night.

Wrong.

The rhapsodic scientists I listened to on various podcasts convinced me that there is really no comparison between a partial and total eclipse. I tried to hatch a last-minute plan to get myself in the path of totality. In the days leading up to the eclipse, I would be at the French King Bridge for M’s death anniversary. The only person I knew in Western MA, besides M’s mother, was my poet friend Ethan. So I asked him if he had a plan to see the eclipse.

I did not know, when I texted him out of the blue, that his parents lived in the path of totality in northern Vermont, that his father Dan was an astronomer (communist astronomer!) and eclipse chaser (this was his 14th eclipse), that Dan had even organized the local viewing event and wrote a book on the history of astronomy. At Ethan’s parents’ house there were literally photographs of eclipses mixed in with the family photos (see below). His father had even built a little observatory on his land. I had, in the most haphazard fashion, found the perfect guide to my first total solar eclipse.

Dan brought his equipment to the eclipse viewing: cameras, filters, binoculars, and a $4000 hydrogen alpha telescope that we used before the eclipse to look at the sun’s prominences and a sunspot on the surface. He enthusiastically answered all my questions. How had the Babylonians worked it out so long ago? Why does the wind pick up when the eclipse begins? Why is the sun’s corona so much hotter than the sun’s surface? (It’s still a mystery to the scientists…) Why why why. (People often tell me that I always ask a lot of questions—almost like an eternally curious child.)

The eclipse. It is not like the dimming of sunset, with its orange hues and plunge into the horizon, the low angle. It is a light unlike any light I have seen before, a strange dream-like atmosphere, a gray yet shimmering unreality, the air suddenly cold, the birds in a confused tumult. The uneven temperature of the atmosphere makes the wind pick up as the moon slowly covers the sun. Though the light was not the gold of sunset, you could see a band of orange on every horizon like a 360 degree sunset, an eerie gloaming that electrifies your skin.

A silence descended on the field as the moment of totality approached. Then, audible gasps—we couldn’t believe what we were seeing. I think the first thing I said was, “Holy. Shit.” Nothing prepared me for the numinous beauty of the sun’s corona, those elegant wisps of bright white light haloing the black sun. I think it’s probably the closest one can come to seeing God while alive on this earth. I cried during totality while observing the patterns in the corona through binoculars. A beautiful pink arch of plasma (a prominence) was visible toward the bottom of the sun. Dan pointed out Venus in the sky.

In the center of that black hole there is an abyssal silence

I don’t know how to describe it. Celestial indifference to human endeavor, human emotion. A kind of coldness in that heat, the heat of the corona, beyond even the fires of Hell. Then I can hear the angelic squall of the corona ringing over the landscape. It is a sound full of grace even as it cannot be called happy.

I can see why the ancients might interpret an eclipse as an augur of something deeply ominous, perhaps apocalyptic. The experience is, at once, sublime, ecstatic, and deeply unnerving—all your perceptual faculties are telling you that something is wrong. The ongoingness of the world and its rules cannot be taken for granted, for the sun went black, not in my dream, but in the afternoon sky.

And just as soon as it began, it was over. We had almost 3 and half minutes of totality. I was surprised by how quickly the sky brightened, how much light we get when the sun is almost completely covered.

One day the moon will float away. There won’t be any more total solar eclipses. Be grateful you were alive during this slice of cosmic time.

This is my favorite scene in all of cinema, from Béla Tarr's Werckmeister Harmonies. Watch drunkards reenact an eclipse in a drab Hungarian bar...

Ethan and communist astronomer dad!

I even got eclipse-branded maple syrup (peak Vermont)

[mythicalartistx]

KH3 Worlds ACTUALLY Matter and show Major Parallels and Foreshadowing through Sacrifice and Separation

The worlds in KH3 are often seen as just retelling of the Fairytales but with added Sora and his friends or Organization members. Because of this they're often disliked especially when there are some sections that are scene for scene and Sora and the others might not be present for this.

However, if you get passed the fact it's a retelling of the movie and get into how it connects with Kingdom Hearts story, they actually play a major role.

Olympus: Sacrifice

Olympus shows themes of sacrifice and love. It shows that Hercules didn't think and all he knew was that Meg was in trouble and threw himself in harm's way to save her. He sacrificed himself by doing that but also sacrificing his godhood to be with Meg. He would have to be separated from Meg and that's not the kind of life he would want to live.

Later on Riku ends up doing the exact same thing. When Sora feels powerless and all alone he sacrifices his being and life for Sora. And I could also argue he does it out of love because when he does this he doesn't necessarily think of his actions but does it to his devotion to Sora and protecting him like he always promised Terra.

Corona: Sacrifice

In the Tangled world, Rapunzel is willing to sacrifice her freedom to save Flynn's life and become separated from the outside world she's grown to love forever.

However, Flynn decides that her freedom is more important and sacrifices himself by cutting her hair which could make her lose the power to heal.

Rapunzel is also compared to Riku because they both so desperately felt trapped. Riku felt trapped at the island and wished to leave and explore other worlds with Sora and Kairi to point where if the raft didn't work out, he would open the door to darkness. I'll also like to include they both felt that someone they were close to left them for others.

Toy Box: Separation

In Toy Box, we learn of how Woody and Buzz among a few other had separated from half of their group. However, they are later seen that the world was split in half and are separated from their beloved friends. They realize at the end their friends who they've been separated from that they are always connected through their hearts.

And this goes back to how Sora will soon be separated from everyone and become stuck at the Quadratum. It also shows that he is always connected to them through his hearts and that's how he uses/and abuses the power of waking through that connection.

Arrendale: Sacrifice

When Elsa is about to get slashed by Hans' sword, Anna who is in the brink of death rushes in and saves her by taking the hit instead. She freezes at the same time and makes it so the sword shatter from her entire body becoming ice. She sacrifice her life for her. Elsa manages to thaw her and the cold weather by the act of love.

Which Riku then does the act of love when he sacrifices his life for Sora. Riku is also compared to Elsa on how they both pushed the people they loved/ cared about away to protect them.

Monstropolis: Separation

In this world, Sullie goes through separation of being away from Boo. They have to separate so Boo will be safe.

This also refers to how Sora ends up in the Quadratum from bringing back Kairi and abusing the power of awakening by using it too many times.

100 Acre Woods: Separation

In this world, Pooh talks to hope they're growing apart and that he misses Sora. Sora feels sad that they're not as close. The eventual outcome is that he'll always be in his heart no matter what.

I feel like this refers to him and Kairi not being as close as they were before. Ever since KH1 things changed between them and she changed. She's no longer the Kairi he knew and they are slowly growing apart. (Which is honestly sad). It also shows that even if he's by himself in the Quadratum he'll have everyone in his heart no matter how far away they are.

Fransankyoto: Separation + Sacrifice

Unlike the others I decided to say this world shows both. In the past, Hiro's brother separated from him when he sacrificed himself to try to find and save the teacher. This is also reflected in the past when beymax also stays behind to sacrifice himself so Hiro can then leave.

It helps shows the connections that no matter how far they are away, the people you love and care for will be in his heart. This shows that to help save everyone he used his connection to his friends to bring them that. It furthers that he won't be alone in the Quadratum and that Riku was able to go to him in MOM because of this.

PoTC: Separation

Finally in the pirates world, we show separation. After Will gets stabbed and he is made Captain of the Flying Dutchman, he faces separation from the one he loves Elizabeth. Only every 10 years are they able to see each other.

This foreshadows both being separated from the ones Sora loves and bringing back all his friends' hearts when Will's life almost gets taken when he gets stabbed. Being apart for 10 years also could lead to how it will take at least a year to find Sora in the Quadratum.

[paradoxcase]

Gideon the Ninth audiobook, through to the end of the book

I finally rebooted into linux again and finished listening

New voice:

The text says John's voice is "bittersweet" and "scratchy", I'm not sure if this voice matches the description and it also doesn't say " trying to be a cool goofy dad" to me, either. I dunno, maybe I'll get used to it during the next book

Other stuff:

Camilla: "[Palamedes] doesn't get distracted" with the narration adding, "as if this had caused difficulties in the past." Haha

Anastasia's note says "ask EJG", which obviously stands for "Emperor John Gaius"

Judith says "no one should ever have to watch their cavalier die" which mimics Gideon saying the opposite during the pool scene

Ianthe says that none of the challenges could be completed by yourself (without a cavalier), but that wasn't actually true of the Sixth House challenge, was it? The one with the molar. That could be completed by a necromancer alone, and that's also the one that Cytherea completed and retrieved the key for without anyone else's help

Also according to Ianthe, Babs didn't help her solve any of the challenges, and she said that it was harder working them all out by herself. I wonder if that's just because Ianthe didn't want to let Babs in on anything she was doing or because Babs refused to help for some reason. Teacher claims he gave the facility key to Babs, but Babs didn't say anything about them having one after the first murders, and I feel like he probably would have if he knew, and also he definitely would have told Corona about it

Ianthe thinks Lyctorhood is "the same thing" as soul siphoning, but more humane. I am honestly really questioning now what it is about soul siphoning that makes it so heinous to these characters when most of them are perfectly fine with things like Lyctorhood, the life siphoning, and all the Weekend at Bernie's stuff. Like, if it's because souls are sacred, then why isn't burning a soul inside yourself as an energy source for eternity also wrong?

Colum seems to come back to himself briefly before being possessed by the devil thing. I'm not sure how this fits into what we've been told about soul siphoning or the devils, honestly. Is Colum able to come back on his own? He was objecting to being siphoned in this scene. If he did come back, how was the devil able to possess him if he was alive and occupying his body?

I'm not sure when Palamedes leaves to go confront Cyhtherea. The last we see of him before that scene is him examining the YOU LIED TO US message and coming to the conclusion that Cytherea has been there before, but Gideon doesn't know where he is when the fight between Ianthe and the Eighth House starts. Harrow claims she saw him come out of the room after Camilla, but I think she's the only one to claim that she saw him at that point and Harrow's observations can be suspect. I can't think of a reason for her to hallucinate Palamedes still being there, but maybe it was just because she expected him to be there. Palamedes also later says in The Unwanted Guest that he didn't personally witness Gideon fighting and only got information on that from Camilla, but Gideon definitely did some fighting after Colum was possessed by the devil. Then again, Gideon also had that brief scuffle with Camilla back when we first meet her and Palamedes

Prior to Palamedes exploding himself, the text says "Five people had died that day." I'm not sure if the fifth person after Marta, Babs, Mayonnaise Uncle, and Colum is Teacher, who is arguably not really a person, or Judith, who did not actually die

I think Ianthe gloating about how she became a Lyctor probably helped Palamedes figure out that Cytherea was one, and that Lyctorhood had preserved her in an almost-dead state for 10,000 years, which therefore helped him realize that he could just manually advance her cancer to kill her. Before Ianthe spelled it out, he didn't believe that his hypothesis was actually correct, because he thought John was better than that

Cytherea says that one of her goals was to destabilize the Empire by killing off the heirs to all of the Houses. Since that actually did happen, and all of the heirs and their cavaliers either died, ascended to Lyctorhood, or were abducted by BOE, I'm now wondering if that plan worked and things really were destabilized by this. The Ninth House got an influx of new population and their heir actually became a Lyctor/Saint, but at the cost of there now being no one to continue Anastasia's line. I'm not sure if that counts as a positive or a negative for them (before the devils showed up, anyway)

Cytherea claimed that Teacher scared her. Like I said previously, I'm not sure I actually believe her. Based on the room that had the Teacher-related stuff in it, I believe he would have been Cassiopeia's project

Wait, now I'm wondering if Teacher's death, and the subsequent release of all of the souls that made him up had something to do with the first appearance of a devil like 30 minutes later

Cytherea's voice when she announces her true name is very different than how she's been voiced so far, but she does switch back into the "Dulcinea" voice several times during the subsequent fight, mostly when addressing Gideon

"Cytherea" is pronounced with a voiced th, which is the way it's pronounced in the English word "cytherean", but that word has different pronunciations for the c and second e than in the Locked Tomb

Harrow strapped Gideon's sword to her back when she brought it to her here, just like she later does in Harrow the Ninth

The "we do bones, motherfucker" line is even funnier when Moira Quirk says it

This final battle was over an hour long, wow, I thought it felt like it went on forever when reading the ebook, but it really does go on forever. This is officially a Peter Jackson approved audiobook

Cytherea compares both Gideon and Camilla to Loveday during this battle, and talks about how she'd like to have them as cavaliers. This feels kind of weird and offensive both to Gideon and Camilla, and also to Loveday?

I think it's interesting to note that there's a moment where Ianthe saves Gideon from getting killed by possessed!Colum, and another moment later when Ianthe saves Camilla from getting killed by Cytherea. It's kind of weird to think of Ianthe playing the role of the cavalry in this book after reading the other two, and seeing Ianthe responding to Harrow almost getting killed by G1deon by saying "yikes!" and leaving immediately

Cytherea: "I always wanted a little sister" Ianthe: "I've tried the sister thing already, and I wasn't any good at it." She really did come off as being a little at odds with Corona in this book, but after reading the rest, I'm not sure she actually means it?

Ianthe eats her own hair and flesh during this fight and the one with Colum and Mayonnaise Uncle, but I don't think we see her doing this at all during Harrow the Ninth. I guess it's like Harrow and the bone chips - after becoming a Lyctor she eventually figures out she doesn't need to do that anymore

Cytherea says that Gideon is as brave as G1deon, but prettier, which lines up after having read the other books

When Gideon is getting ready to kill herself, Harrow says "what are you doing?" and Gideon says "the cruelest thing anyone has ever done to you." I think it's interesting that she can understand that here, but doesn't seem to remember it when she reappears in Harrow the Ninth and thinks that Harrow tried to remove her because she hated her

John tells Harrow that Cytherea was his most loyal Lyctor - but wouldn't that have been G1deon?

John somehow knows the Ninth is dying here, and it's not explained how, and I don't think it is ever explained how in the other two books, either. John didn't know that Harrow's parents had killed 200 children, so how did he know it was in need of more citizens?

[cetaitlaverite]

Can we maybe see jealous Rosie? Maybe during the war or whenever you think it makes sense. Maybe some new guys don't know Freddie is with him. Whatever you think. Thank you!

absolutely you can!! this is set a few days after freddie returns to thorpe abbotts after she and rosie got married. it got just a little bit suggestive at the end - hope you don't mind!!

this is the first of the requests i've gotten to so far but if you've sent one in, rest assured it is on the list/in progress!! and as always, the masterlist is here <3

Freddie was back at the piano. She’d had an urge to play all day. After arriving back at Thorpe Abbotts, the last few days had been a whirlwind - being filled in on Operation Corona efforts from her stand-in, getting everything planned and prepared to pick up seamlessly from there, filling out all the necessary paperwork to get her last name changed on her WAAF profile - and she just hadn’t had time for music in the chaos it had become. But she was a married woman now and there was so much she wanted to say and yet hadn’t properly been able to, not through her music. When Rosie left after the wedding she hadn’t had too many songs left in her, not between all the worrying, but she was full of them now. Love songs, songs full of passionate crescendos and beautiful, twinkly beginnings. Rosie had inspired so many emotions in her from the moment she’d laid eyes on him but never more than now, when he’d come back from the dead and married her the next day.

No one had made it to the officers’ club just yet - it was too early in the evening, Freddie supposed. But she had finished work early today and had gotten ready early. Now, her hair was placed in pristine curls and her makeup was freshly reapplied, her uniform ironed and her earrings in, and yet there was no one here to appreciate it - save for Atley the barman, that was, who had jokingly complained when he had accepted Meatball’s water bowl from her but filled it up for free nonetheless.

Meatball was keeping Freddie company, as he tended to, by lying beneath the piano bench. He had heard her play the piano so many times by now he knew exactly where to go and what to do with himself, and was able to tune it out and fall asleep. And he was so sound asleep, and Freddie so deep in her playing, that neither of them noticed when the club started to fill up with wireless operators and American Red Cross girls, American airmen and ATA pilots alike.

Freddie’s fingers lingered over the keys when she finished playing a song she was happy with, a song she would have written down had she had any paper. She peeled her eyes open with a smile. Rosie would love that one, she thought. Well, Rosie loved all of her songs, but he would especially love that one. He had always uniquely understood what she was trying to communicate in her music and she knew he’d understand the depth of her affection for him after hearing that song.

With a grin, Freddie turned on the bench to face the door, hoping Rosie might enter through it any moment now, but gasped and pressed a hand against her startled heart when she was met with four unfamiliar faces instead.

“Buy you a drink?” one of them asked, an expectant smirk on his lips.

Freddie’s eyebrows furrowed. These must be new arrivals, she thought - presumably, they had arrived while she was on R&R. She didn’t think she’d ever seen them before and she was sure they’d never seen her - if they had even the slightest idea of who she was they certainly wouldn’t still be standing there.

“No, thank you,” Freddie managed to reply after a few beats. Before she could say anything more she found herself being cut off.

“Aw, come on,” one of the other airmen spoke. “Playing all those tunes has gotta take it outta ya. And it just ain’t right for a pretty lady like yourself to be sittin’ all on your lonesome, and with no drink at that.”

“Let one of us keep you company,” chimed in one of the others.

“Better yet, let all of us keep you company,” added another.

“Four drinks and four dates, how’s a lady gonna say no to that?” asked the first.

“I’m married,” Freddie said, holding up her left hand to display the two rings on her ring finger.

One of the men smirked. “I don’t see a husband.”

“You will soon,” Freddie said.

The airman closest to her lifted one eyebrow. “He work here?”

“Major Rosenthal is my husband,” Freddie explained. She raised both eyebrows. “Will you take my no for an answer now?”

Three of the men’s faces fell. Fear briefly flickered through one of their eyes. The fourth, however, didn’t bat an eye. “Major Rosenthal ain’t married,” he said, flicking his wrist as though batting away her rejection. “Now don’t be difficult. All we’re asking is to buy you a drink, maybe dance a little.”

“Major Rosenthal is recently married,” Freddie corrected, turning on the piano bench to face the group properly. “To me. The day after he came back here after his fort went down.”

The same doubtful airman scoffed. “You expect us to believe the first thing Major Rosenthal did after being carted across Europe with a sprained wrist and damn-near hypothermia is marry you?”

Freddie rolled her eyes and sat up straighter. “Believe it or don’t believe it, I really don’t care. But my answer is still no. I don’t want your drinks and I certainly don’t want to dance with you.”

The airman sat back into one of his hips, tilting his head back with a dramatic roll of his eyes and smoothing out his eyebrows with one hand. He shook his head briefly, then stepped forward and bent down until he was at eye level with Freddie. No longer was he smiling and smirking. His gaze was hard. “Fucking difficult broad,” he snarled. “Should think yourself fucking lucky we’re trying so hard to loosen you up -”

“We got a problem here, gentlemen?” Rosie interrupted. His voice was light and casual on the surface but its hard edge was undeniable. Immediately, Freddie stood and hurried into his side, less out of fear and more to prove her point, but Rosie was all too happy to lift his arm for her to snuggle up under, his gaze unwavering on the group of airmen currently staring back at him with jaws agape.

“They don’t think you’re married, Major,” Freddie said when none of them replied. She was looking up at him from beneath his arm with wide, innocent eyes. “They think I’m lying when I say I’m your wife.”

Rosie’s eyes found hers and now there was a twinkle of amusement in them. “That so, honey?”

“Yes, my love. And apparently I’m a ‘fucking difficult broad’ for telling them I don’t want to dance or have a drink with them, and I’m ‘fucking lucky’ they would even try.”

“Filthy language,” Rosie disapproved, turning back to the airmen. Now his eyes were hard, his lips drawn in a thin line.

He was greeted with four sets of eyes filled with horror, four Adam's apples bobbing as lumps in throats were swallowed.

“I ever catch you speaking to any woman like that again you’ll be grounded and on latrine duty so fast you’ll mistake the toilet bowl for your bomb sight, you understand? And if I ever catch you speaking to my wife like that again you’ll be court-martialled so fast you won’t know what’s happened ‘til you’re sitting in the damn cell. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, sir,” chorused all four voices at once.

“That ain’t how you boys have been taught to treat any woman and it’s certainly a problem that you tried it out on my wife,” Rosie responded. His voice was still casual and yet authoritative. His arm around Freddie’s shoulders was protective. “Now, if I were you I’d call it a night and we won’t have any more problems, gentlemen. But that’s up to you.”

“Yes, sir,” they all replied once more.

“Fantastic,” Rosie said. He flashed a smile at each of them in turn. “Glad we see eye to eye on this. Make sure you hand what’s left of your drinks back into the bar, see if they can be refilled and passed on to someone else. You want one, honey?” Rosie directed this last question at Freddie, looking down at her with a small smile.

“No thank you, my darling love,” Freddie answered him sweetly, pushing up briefly on her toes to beg a kiss which he promptly gave her. She didn’t drink beer and he knew it, but she knew he was feeling protective and wanted to flex his muscles a little bit. He had earned it, she thought. And it wasn’t often she got to see him jealous, not when everyone on base quickly learned that Freddie was Rosie’s girl and thus made sure to keep a wide berth. She was rather enjoying it. She thought the two of them would probably have to cut their night short, too, though for entirely different reasons to the group of airmen currently nodding, eyes wide like deer in headlights.

“Alright,” Rosie agreed. He turned back to the disciplined airmen. “Dismissed.”

They scattered like a handful of marbles dropped on a hardwood floor, hurrying over to hand their drinks back into the bar before scurrying out of the door with their tails between their legs. The last in line threw one final glance back over his shoulder as though he expected Rosie to follow them. 

As soon as the door closed behind them Freddie turned into Rosie completely, wrapping both of her arms around him and nuzzling into his chest. “Thank you, Bärchen,” she said softly.

Rosie’s arms twined around her in turn, holding her close. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head before answering, “Not a thing, honey. I don’t think they’ll give you trouble again but let me know if they do, alright?”

Freddie hummed her agreement.

“You want a drink?”

“I want you,” Freddie replied simply. She withdrew her head from his chest to look up at him with a coy smile. “Can I have you?”

“Now?” Rosie asked. He was starting to grin.

“So big and strong and protective,” Freddie said, tilting her head to one side. She moved her hands to his biceps and started rubbing slowly up and down, gazing up at him from beneath her lashes. “Yes now. Millie and Jem will look after Meatball and I happen to know for a fact my office is empty.”

“Oh?” Rosie humoured her. “That’s convenient.”

“Isn’t it just?” Freddie mused. “So what do you say, Major? Gonna let me take you on a date?”

“Absolutely I am,” Rosie decided, his eyes all lit up with stars. “Whatever my princess wants.”

Freddie laughed, taking his hand and starting to cart him towards the door with her. “And they thought you weren’t married.”

[stephenjaymorrisblog]

Neo-Burlesque Era of the 2020’s

Stephen Jay Morris

6/29/2020

©Scientific Morality

            So, here we are in the year of our Lord, 2024, via the Twenty-First Century. This is very similar to the era known as “The Roaring Twenties”—the only difference being is the economy. During the 1920’s, the economy was in prosperity mode. It was party time, with nonstop divine decadence, bathtub gin, and screwing a “Flapper” in a Model T.  All was centered around sex, jazz, and booze. In response, the fundamentalists and evangelical Christians wanted to halt all sin and implement “God’s laws” across the nation. To them, it was viewed as the “End Times” because “young America was reviving Sodom and Gomorrah.” The White racists were worried that America’s borders were being invaded by illegal aliens who were mostly comprised of Anarchists and Communist spies. Is this sounding familiar?

Well, the Christians succeeded in outlawing alcohol by government-implemented “Prohibition.” However, that only served to ensure that organized crime became powerful and filthy rich. The 1920’s didn’t end well. The U.S. economy crashed in 1929 which ushered in The Great Depression. The rich got richer, and the common people got fucked. They were dirt poor.

So, how will the 2020’s decade end? Here is my educated guess.

            The American people suffered from a global pandemic between 2020 and 2022, known as Corona Virus, or COVID 19. Conservative and Christian coalitions expressed their state paranoia by claiming the federal government was forcing citizens to wear masks, quarantine themselves, and take emergency vaccines. The political right was feeding fear to the masses with one alarming exaggeration after another.

            Donald Trump, then President of the United States (until January 2021), was a B.T. Barnum type who cared only about himself; specifically, his money and popularity. Somehow, he paid off churches to promote him as the second coming of Christ. It worked. His base was comprised of right-wing fanatics who believed in conspiracy theories. To date, 30% of the America population are Trump cultists. At the time of his election (2016), he had zero government experience. He was a real estate tycoon whose six businesses had failed. He was the worst businessman in history. Despite all this, he got the stamp of approval from Christian churches across the country, which designated him a decent guy. The most popular thing for which he was known was a TV reality show called, “The Apprentice,” which aired from 2004 to 2017. At the time, the Millennial generation’s mentality was based on computer technology and the Internet. They had been weaned on cell phones and computers. A TV reality show host was not impressive to them. Many were a-political and anti-religion. However, many other generational types, like Gen X and Baby Boomer conservatives, were bound to Trump. President Trump knew how to manipulate Americans, particularly working-class, white people. He came out of the entertainment industry. Americans are entertainment addicts and hedonists.

            Today, the work ethic in America is dead. Over the decades, Americans have wondered why they should work hard at all. Hundreds of businesses go bankrupt every month. The truth is, you only work hard for your boss so he can get rich. The plan is that you, the worker, are so occupied with working hard that you haven’t time to rebel against the capitalist system. After their long, 8-hour day, Americans want to have fun. We live in an entertainment society. It’s all silliness and sick jokes. A burlesque society predates a fascist society. Consider the 1972 American movie, “Cabaret,” a fictional movie depicting Germany’s era during 1920’s decadence: sex, cross dressing, and drunkenness. The Nazis promised German Christians they would put an end to it, and they did.

In America, people want to escape economic hardships by having fun. But the Evangelicals want to control all primal urges and create a clean-cut society. They loath sex unless it's purpose is to make more white babies. They hate sex, but they love violence against “evil people;” that is, whomever they perceive as evil.

At this moment in time, it’s all about fun and recreation. It’s not about wholesome entertainment. It’s about action movies and energy drinks. Video games about war and violence are still a hot item for the younger set. So, I declare this time in American history, “The Age of Neo-Burlesque.” That is my label for the decade.

            Now, what will happen in the 2030’s? I predict that the pendulum will swing to the left. The moderate left will have to compete with the ultra-left. They will have to offer rational programs to help struggling Americans. The ultra-left will need to reorganize and try again. The political right will be despised by working class Americans and become a pariah to them.

At last, a Hollywood ending!

[yourgamemasterthewhiterabbit]

One year of living here

[and what it looked like when I moved in]

Gremlin update: supplemental

Well it has officially been a year since I moved in here and maybe I should do a year end review...

Last year on June 1st the situation was this:

I had recently been pushed to tell my landlord about my roommate assaulting me because my other roommate was threatening consistently to move out and leave me alone with him, and in response, within the month, my landlord decided to sell the house we were renting, to a private family, prompting our immediate eviction [a decision he claims is unrelated]. So after a struggle to find a place at all and agreeing to pay 1000 of my 1200 pension in rent to finally secure a place, and another 1000 in moving expenses, I found myself standing in the entry to what looked like a tightly packed storage unit with my cat in his carrier and a narrow passage to the bathroom door.

And I mean so full of stuff there were things pushing up the tiles of the drop ceiling, the kitchen was fully buried, you could not tell it was an apartment. Imagine everything in a 3 story house and garage packed haphazardly into a 10X15 space... Or imagine a can of sardines. And the shelf had been partially ripped off the wall between me viewing the place and me stepping in the door...

And despite an outlet right at the door, one in the kitchen, and an explicit request not to bury my freezers because it was all of my food and I wanted to be sure they were plugged in and have access to food to eat... The movers insisted the only outlets they could find were all the way at the back of the apartment, so all I had -that I could conceivably unbury- was the can of beans and hot sauce that the previous tenant had left sealed in the nearest cupboard... Which I only knew was there because I had just enough time to drop off my plants and move anything left in the cabinets to the cabinet over the stove before having to lock the place back up. I hadn't even had the time and energy to wash down the apartment before the movers crammed everything in there.

And they had done other things like leave all my book cases empty and facing the back of the apartment so I couldn't put things in them to clear space. They had put my dresser facing the back with the drawers pulled out and stacked on top in a random pile so I would have to be able to unbury the whole thing with elbow room to condense the drawers back into the frame. They left a pile of my things outside next to the building, including things I explicitly told them not to. They had moved me in like they hate me personally for some deeply unforgivable crime and wanted me to fail and then charged me 1000$ after having quoted me 300.

I had to sleep on top of a wooden chest that was crammed at an angle through the bathroom doorway for the first week while I had to puzzle my way out of it...

Here are some photos, the way the movers left it [It doesn't look like this now, to be sure]:

And how I had to set up my phone charging, music player and a source of light in my bathroom... I cannot stress enough that this was all tidily arranged in boxes, totes, bags and a taped up clothing rack for them when they took it from the house. Yes that is my Piccolo plushy and jacket with my cane at the door where I had to put them... And 2 brooms, not some huge handled contraption, just 2 brooms... And my crutches because OH YEAH I MASSIVELY re-fucked up my ankle during the apartment searching and was back to being in a boot and crutches because I could barely fucking walk...

At this point I had been super run down by apartment hunting all over the place in a desperate scramble to not be homeless for even one night because Corona meant shelters are unsafe for me, a near guarantee of dying every night I would have to stay in one... It had already been stressful 3 months, and expensive. I have cfs, I had just gotten over the worst of a bunch of long covid bullshit when this all started going down.

So I am standing there in the 2 square feet at the door, looking at this, and thought to take a photo at least, anxious about trying to fit in the rest of my stuff from outside before someone started stealing something expensive and important or before it all got utterly ruined by rain, or before the landlord got pissed off... Having just paid 2000 for first and last and another 1000 on moving expenses, trying to tell myself I will probably get CHOB and if not I can make 200 and a food bank work...

I had no one to help me and even if I did it wouldn't have been safe due to corona. For years now I have been 'on my own' financially and in terms of help with anything, usually even despite having friends or family that I helped out when they need it... But losing everyone I had left due to corona complicating my ability to go out, and my new found inability to safely meet new people means I had, well the apartment, and no extra space or vehicle to work with... Just the storage box in front of me and myself [and Pumpkin to worry about]...

I think most people would have cried. [I'll cry about it later]

I think a lot of people would have given up.

Some would have done a violence. [still time to do that maybe]

I have this amazing ability to:

a) Not process stress or distress while I am actively experiencing it, leaving me open to critical thinking [I'll have my breakdown after the danger has passed and when I am alone and feel safe]

b) never feel bad about myself for having ended up in a shit situation thus removing guilt or same or low self esteem from the equation

c) Tell myself, after years of experience and -repeated- practice, that I have the capacity to dig myself back out of problems, physical energy permitting, speed variable

These are the bruises and injuries, some of them, I got in the first week climbing over under and around furniture, carrying other boxes and furniture to try to organize my way into having room to move.

And I ate a lot of cold sandwiches in the first couple months because I had no kitchen and OH YEAH IT WAS 50 DEGREES IN HERE [120F]... I have pots, which is made infinitely worse by being too hot... And the one tiny window that opens I couldn't even open because my neighbour wouldn't stop smoking right under it out out his front door that is right next to it and I am allergic.

One of the first things I did after making the place survivable and setting up everything Pumpkin needed in the bathroom, was start digging out my book cases so I could -at some point- unpack all my book boxes into them and get them out of the way. Having my book cases makes me feel slightly more sane and grounded. Usually they are the first thing I unpack, that was NOT the case this time.

Usually when I move I get the keys as early as I can to go over and do preliminary cleaning of shared spaces and my own space. I take measurements during the interview process and have a floor plan mapped out, and so by the time I get there everything is in the right room and roughly not horridly arranged and everything under my stuff has been cleaned of other people... Not this time.

But I did, before long, set up my book cases so I could feel like a person again... and have somewhere to put my tea. It took me till the 17th of June -last year ofc- to get this far:

Here is they, with nothing else pictured because nothing else looked like anything but pile of storage.

The first thing I had to do was dig out my freezers, confirm they were plugged in and get them halfway across the apartment, and dig out the kitchen.

And I did, one grueling and stupid step at a time.

... But yeah, that's what June a year ago looked like.

I think one of the first things I did, maybe in June idk was stack 18 or so totes into a platform in the corner and get my mattress up on it so I had somewhere to sleep... Okay actually at first the platform was in the middle of the room and a whole row higher [the artist sleeping on a stack of things about 2 feet from the ceiling was foreshadowing for my own actual life something fierce]. This platform would spend most of the next year slowly collapsing in on itself until I finally accepted failure and set up the bunk bed properly.

And then I spent July, August, and September organizing things one at a time into the next better arrangement. Then I had to rush to get all my winter groceries done before I had to shut myself in here without leaving for 6 months on account that I can't get my cart through the snow and can't get in transportation with other people due to corona...

And then I spent the winter recovering and organizing.

I should have taken more pictures of the various hellish and unconventional between steps, for sure.

June of 2024:

This place looks so different.

I can't even clearly remember how I got from there to here, it was just so much finding the next thing to move and moving it, for just months.

I can't get you pictures because my phone's cord won't stay connected to the computer long enough to transfer anything and I need to buy a new one... But Imagine it looks like there is less than 1/3 as much stuff, simply by being better arranged. And imagine it arranged in a way that looks organized.

And it looks livable.

It looks like an apartment and not a storage unit! [Or it will once I move the chairs again]

I took apart one whole desk, got rid of that green drawer plastic unit, and someone stole my bike [not the trike] is mostly what I got rid of but I also brought -in- everything from outside.

The next time I get you pictures you will actually be able to see the layout of the apartment, for one, there is mostly just one tidy stack of storage near the door and the rest is pretty well arranged. I still need to downsize but I am now in a position to safely go through everything at my own pace and actually decide what to get rid of. Also in a position to repair things to actually use them, and getting to a point where I can focus on finishing projects to downsize the scraps that are left when I am done them.

The situation now is more:

-The hair I lost from stress [or potentially being poisoned] is all growing back at various rates and I have baby bangs again at 36... But also bangs and a lot of hair that's 1-10 inches long that's all fresh growth.

-The smoking neighbour moved away or something

-I got CHOB after all -it was not a super certain thing- and am now back to 'securely' having finances to manage instead of scrambling to make 200 work for food and supplies [and I am very good with money so I have savings again].

-I'm a full day of work away from having this place in shape enough I wouldn't consider it a disaster if the landlord had to come over [and they have to give 24 hours notice]

-I have my health card and ID renewed and I am sure they were already expired by last June, so that's new

-I have an air conditioner and inclusive rent and I don't have to worry about roommates being stupid with it and running up bills.

-I have been marveling all year at just how much roommates were making my life hell and how amazing it is to live alone. My dishes are done! When I clean it stays clean! No one fucks anything up or breaks anything! There's no FLIES! There's no bugs! There's no old food! There's no mold problem! There's no icky little fly spots on everything! [I don't have to deal with Fine just letting her cat pee everywhere and not cleaning it up because she's too dense to realize the yellow staining is bleaching from urine and not "puke" or leaving things on the floor by the door which is the one way Pumpkin will pee on something]

-I haven't had a severe allergy attack or been infected with anything since having my own place and my physical health is steadily recovering to the point where I can now tolerate being a little hyperthyroid without it destroying me

-I have a switch now so I can play BOTW and TOTK to my heart's content and find all the koroks... [silly but we need whimsy]

-I have a neighbour who keeps checking to make sure I'm alive

Maybe it seems silly but the last offline friend I had and my mother both, when I asked them to check in on me with a daily phone call because I was having heart attacks -that the hospital wasn't taking seriously because they were cardiac spasms and not from clots- and I was worried I'd lose consciousness and die on my floor before someone found me, couldn't be bothered to actually do it, they both called or texted me 1-2 WEEKS later with a passive aggressive "So are you still alive or what >:("... And Yeah, I don't speak to them anymore, I don't have friends or family in my life at all anymore because everyone kept treating me like that...

So to lose everyone the moment I have to ask them to do something as simple as check in on my when I know I am in crisis [which is a very rare thing for me, most people are convinced I don't know how to ask for help]... To have my roommate/'friend' hear my book case fall over on top of me when she knew I was having heart problems and not bother saying anything or checking in on me for a whole week either... I can sit here and know it's not a reflection of my objective value all I want, but it doesn't change the fact that I had no one in my life who could be moved to act like they gave one iota of a fuck about me...

And now I have a neighbour who just noticed I was unusually shut in and alone and worries when she or her partner don't see me or Pumpkin after a while. She tries very hard to do things like text me compliments about my weird little garden [that I know is very sad actually, I haven't really gotten to the flower part more than just the green part... but she is very sweet]. Having a stranger go very out of their way past me being cranky and reclusive to respect my boundaries and leave notes in my box and text me as requested, in order to make sure I am okay is good for my mental health. I needed this. I needed it from my friend and family, really, but getting it from a complete stranger is so much better than not at all.

This week I started getting to repairing things with epoxy that had broken and getting them put in place.

I'm not as productive in winter as i tend to be in summer months in part due to SAD, not so much outright depression but just being lower energy due to a lack of sunlight, and usually being too cold, though this year it was due to being too warm due to old heating controls, but now I am set up for a summer of not overheating with the apartment looking like it's in a good starting point. I'm set up to be able to take out and address one thing at a time while I have a clean and relatively nice apartment to do it in, without overheating and having to stay laying down.

There are wildflowers in a vase on the counter! I have little packages on the way! I have a little man screaming at me for his gravy meats!

I'm starting to put up decor as I find and repair it. I'm starting to be able to decorate.

I have a full kitchen to cook for myself now! [I did not in the last place because I was isolated to the basement]

There's empty open floor space!

Everything is clean on a regular-ish basis or daily!

This summer I will undoubtedly make so much progress.

This fall I should be able to do the winter shopping at a leisurely pace.

This winter I should be 100% set up to start batch cooking and baking again, but also with the AC unit I can cook in here in the summer and fall without dying.

Still not talking to any family and I don't really have offline friends, but I have a neighbour who notices when I am too quiet or when I decorate my door or garden, or window.

I'm going to get a full sized recycle bin and organize my paperwork!

This year I am probably finally going to get a decent graphics card!

I have my noise machine and Myst music on on a regular basis now, I took out my candles and incense this week because it's safe now!

I am still so tired but nothing looks daunting anymore and the more I get done the more approachable everything looks.

By the end of this summer I should know what my "new normal" looks like and get to enjoy it.

Maybe I'll check in again June next year to recap everything I got done? I have a regular-ish blog anyway...

[foxymoxynoona]

Amended Drabble: Taehyung & Kristin: Friends

Ok, someone sent in this drabble request idea ages ago but I can't find it in my inbox, so I suspect it was part of another thing I already answered. But here it is now!

Request/Summary: "Btw a drabble on Kristen and Taehyung from Amended, I recall she was into him for a long while and I think Itd be nice to explore that dynamic, maybe from her pov … him not being interested at first and then they end up together… it’s really fascinating to me that she actually remained open to him especially after he ignored her feelings for so long even when they lived together and from what jk said would regularly bring other women around…"

Story: Amended Characters: Taehyung & Kristin CW: denial, some dirty jokes

Kristin failed to catch the bag of chips Anna tossed at her, taking the bag of tortilla crisps right to the face. Her complaint turned into a yelp as Anna acted like she was going to throw the bottle of Corona as well only to laugh and set both down on the coffee table –no coasters– between the salsa and guac.

“Limes?” Kristin asked.

Anna’s face scrunched up, “For… what?”

“The beers? Damn, I forgot you’re not a beer drinker–”

“Hey I’m trying here!”

“You don’t have to try to drink something you don’t like, but if you’re gonna to do it, you should at least do it right. Who are you trying to impress though? Not me.”

Anna admitted, “Well, to be honest, I fucked up the sangria.”

“How?!”

“Salt instead of sugar…”

“Damn you make me feel so competent.”

“Hey!” Anna’s laugh was punctuated by a kick to Kristin’s ankles. Kristin, unlike Anna, was a beer drinker, though less enthused about drinking a Corona without the requisite lime. Who had taught her that? She tried to recall, then backpedaled from the memory –Taehyung had taught her about Coronas with lime, the first summer she’d gone tubing at the river with her then-roommates Jimin and Jungkook, and Jungkook’s cousin Taehyung. 

“It’s fine without a lime,” Kristin assured her. 

“I got the good guac at least!”

“You did! Good girl!” Kristin teased. She settled the chips as Anna pulled up the entertainment of choice for their “self care” day: binging as much as they wanted of the latest season of Love Island. They didn’t often laze around this hard, but why not, when they both had the day and the desire and plenty of snacks?

And then, several episodes in, her phone buzzed. Kristin wasn’t always the most timely texter, but it buzzed while she was already holding it, reading Twitter reactions outloud to Anna as they bickered about the on-screen drama.

[Taehyung]: hey I need a bj

Kristin couldn’t stop the snort, the eye roll, and apparently that was enough to make Anna’s eyes narrow suspiciously.

[Taehyung]: I mean a trip to bj’s

Kristin knew the smug grin he was wearing as he sent the texts. He thought he was so funny. Every fourteen-year-old got a good laugh that the big-box discount store was called BJ’s, but leave it to Taehyung to still be making the joke into his twenties. Leave it to Taehyung to make the joke to a girl who– well, whatever.

[Kristin]: I’m sure you do but I’m busy beg someone else

[Taehyung]: I’m begging you

Kristin sighed through her nose. He knew the things he said. He was such a flirt when he wanted something and it was both an aggravating and endearing trait of his. She suspected he had already pestered Yoongi and been turned down. His own parents had a membership too,  though, so why her?

Not for the reasons she had wished for long ago, that was for damn sure. And that was fine. Fine! Even if Anna’s expression made it seem not fine.

“I can tell who it is by your face,” Anna smirked.

“Oh really? The annoyance is that clear?”

“Annoyance? That’s what you’d call it?”

Kristin glared.

Anna sighed, “Kristiiiin…”

“What? I didn’t say anything! It’s just Taehyung asking to use my BJ’s membership.”

“And you want to go. On this, our sacred Love Island–”

“I didn’t say that. I’m not going.” At Anna’s arched eyebrow, Kristin defended, “I’m not going!”

“You always go.”

“I do not. You’re going to piss me off. I tell him no all the fucking time.”

“Ok ok, I know.”

“That ship sailed years ago,” Kristin continued.

Anna nodded, “I know, I know.”

“It’s just friendly. He’s just mooching off my membership.”

“Are you telling me or yourself?”

Kristin huffed, “Well if you’re going to be like this–”

“Sorry, I’ve had too many beers,” Anna frowned, trying to slide across Kristin’s lap even though Anna wasn’t typically a very physical person.

“You’ve had two!”

“Which is enough to buzz me enough to tell you that I just don’t want to see you slide back into sad puppy Kristin just because he seems to be texting you a lot lately.”

Kristin held her breath for a moment as Anna slithered to get comfortable, before pressing carefully, “You think so?” She thought so, but she didn’t think it was anything remarkable enough anyone else would notice. But yeah, though she’d been friends with Taehyung for years now, the last month or so she did think he’d been messaging her more than usual. Not anything important, just to tell her… a band they liked was coming to town, or to make sure she knew they were all heading to the bar, or to ask her to fact check this or that ‘white girl’ thing he’d seen a TikTok meme about. It wasn’t like texting between them was unusual. It just seemed like he was doing it… you know, a little more often.

But that didn’t mean anything and she knew that. How many years of her life had she wasted pining after this guy who saw her as nothing more than his cousin’s former roommate at worst, “one of his bros” at best? Anna knew the whole saga, which Kristin had done her best to downplay over the years. She really had boxed up those feelings and put them on the shelf. Everyone lived with former feelings for at least one of their friends, right? And hers was Taehyung, but it had only ever been friendly with him, and she’d understood years ago that wasn’t going to change. She’d dated other people. Sort of. A little bit. Ok, maybe it was true she didn’t have much luck with guys, which included Taehyung, but she wasn’t just sitting around pining for him. Not anymore! 

And he has sure dated other people. 

“Just go,” Anna said, stretching to reach for the remote and nearly falling off the sofa. “I want to take a nap anyway. Beer makes me sleepy.”

“I’m not going to go. I’m not going to change my plans just because Taehyung needs toilet paper or whatever! We’re just friends and friends can tell each other no. I tell him no all the time.”

“Mm-hm.”

“I do! I’m busy. Start the next episode.”

**

“Ahhhh they keep it so nice and cold in here,” Taehyung sighed, throwing his hair back, running his fingers through it like someone was taking pictures. Someone ought to be.

Kristin knew she seemed casual and cool. That’s who she was; Taehyung had said so himself before. He had no idea of her feelings, she was pretty sure of that too, that most of their friend group didn’t except Anna. At least nobody had ever said anything to her. Or maybe they thought she was just kind of pathetic, crushing on a guy who didn’t have a whiff of romantic feelings towards her. Maybe she really was pathetic to have spent so long getting butterflies under the sunbeam of his attention, platonic though it was. At least she could say she hadn’t let her heart get too broken up over it. She had known better than to hope for anything. After all, her crush had begun in high school when he was way too cool to even look her way at the next locker over, making the limits of his attraction to her obvious from the start –long before he helped Jungkook move in and she realized her mistake in agreeing Jungkook could have the third bedroom in her place with Jimin.

“That stuff tastes like shit,” Taehyung scowled and literally took the box of Blueberry K-Cups from her hands to put back on the shelf.

Instantly she huffed, “It’s not for you!”

“Yeah? Well you can’t drink it.”

“I can drink whatever the fuck I want.”

“Your breath will smell like it.”

“What do you care what my breath smells like? You don’t even like coffee,” she scowled, because the thing that sucked about being Taehyung’s friend when you used to have a crush on him was that sometimes he said things like that. Who said things like that to their friends?! She’d never figured out whether he couldn’t help flirting with her because he was so charming with everyone, or if it didn’t even register to him that it could sound like flirting because it was her. Kristin. Pumpkin-spice-latte loving, riding-boot-wearing, former marching band trumpet and varsity volleyball playing Kristin. Generic Kristin. 

That was another thing about hanging out with Taehyung. He was just so exceptional –in looks, in personality, in style– that sometimes you felt insignificant next to him because he looked like that, and other times he made you feel great about yourself because of his attention, his friendship, and because he was so damn nice. He wasn’t an asshole and he could have been, everyone would have understood if he turned out to be an asshole, looking like that. Instead he was casual and cool and nice and Kristin felt so fucking plain. Not that she was usually so down on herself, usually. She was fine! She did ok! She liked herself overall, she was comfortable in her skin. 

But then you stand next to someone who looks like that as he eases a giant box of Coca-Cola off the shelf above his head, forearm muscles twitching, chin lifted and eyes narrowed in concentration, and…

“You aren’t going to help at all,” he realized with a laugh.

“You’ve got it.”

“At least move the paper towels?”

“You’re putting it on the bottom? No, put it in this part–”

“The paper towels can go on top of it.”

“On the bottom of the cart together? There’s not room!”

“I’ll make room, just move it.”

“You can’t just make room–”

“Kristin, just move it!”

“God you’re bossy,” she huffed and tugged the bulk pack of paper towels out of the bottom of the cart so he could finally set the Cokes down with an oomph. She thought it was cute how strong and weak he was at the same time. Sometimes they arm-wrestled when they were drunk and she felt great pride that they were pretty evenly matched. He had no reason to let her win. He was a good sport about losing, yet another positive feature. He had flaws… she just couldn’t remember what they were right now…. Oh yeah, he was stubborn as shit…

She stood back, arms crossed and amusement on her face as she watched him do his best to wedge the paper towels in on top of the Coke box. It didn’t fit, just as she’d warned. He kept trying, clearly determined to prove her wrong, until she couldn’t help laughing.

“So fucking stubborn!” she teased, pushing his arm. “Move, let me show you.” He scowled but let her rearrange the cart to make things fit: the paper towels, the Coca-Cola, the Red Solo cups, the gallon of Goldfish, the 250-count of freezer pops, 120 gallon ziplock bags, 250 yards of tin foil, and so on.

“Wowww,” he said, unclear whether he was teasing or sincere. “Tetris master, huh?”

“You make that same joke every time we come here.”

“I don’t repeat jokes. Sorry, you’ve got me confused with the other guys you do BJ’s with.”

His repetition of another joke made her laugh. She hated laughing, hated that he could make her laugh so easily, hated how smug he looked about it.

“You’re an idiot,” she laughed and began to walk again.

“What part of that was idiot? You don’t mean I’m the only guy you bring to BJ’s.”

“Obviously not,” she quickly answered. “Are you kidding? This membership is a great way to pick up guys.”

“No, don’t let guys use you for your BJ’s membership!”

“Isn’t that exactly what you’re doing?” she pointed out.

“Well I mean except for me,” he quickly corrected. “I’m special.”

“Uh huh.”

She walked along, hands pulled into the cardigan she’d stolen from Taehyung’s car because it was always so fucking cold in BJ’s. Taehyung pushed the card, gaining some momentum and riding on the bar of it until they reached the end of the aisle.

“What, you didn’t bring… what was the guy’s name… uh…”

Kristin raised her eyebrows, genuinely not sure who the fuck he was talking about.

“That guy you went on a couple dates with.”

“Adam?”

“Yeah.”

“What made you think of him? I only went on like three dates with him.”

“Three dates is a lot for…”

“For me?” She gasped and shoved his arm. “Asshole. It’s a lot for you.”

“Maybe it is,” he admitted. “I don’t know, I don’t see the point of getting past date two if I can’t see myself just spending an afternoon at BJ’s with a girl, you know?”

See? Sometimes he said things like that.

Kristin awkwardly pointed, “Ah, raisin bread! I don’t need two loaves of it though.”

“Throw it in, we can split it,” he suggested, so she did, and thankfully the dating conversation got dropped. She didn’t know what had made him think of it, but Taehyung’s mind was a funny one to try and track. You didn’t always know where he was stepping next but he expected you to keep up, he wasn’t going to explain the connections.

They reached the end of the aisle and Taehyung sighed, “Ahhh, should we go through the bakery part?”

“Obviously.”

“But I’ll want to buy everything. I fucking love bread and stuff.”

“So buy some bread and stuff,” Kristin said. “Isn’t that why you came?”

“Not for cinnamon rolls! I need like… Spam, and pasta sauce and Pizza Rolls and–”

“Wait, have we not gotten anything on your list yet?!”

“Coke and paper towels. Anyway, I don’t have a list, I just get whatever I’m moved to get. I know it when I see it.”

Kristin shook her head and led him to the bakery section, where they spent a great deal of time debating cookies or brownies or cinnamon rolls and who would take how many of each home. She grabbed the 48-pack of Hawaiian rolls, which Taehyung never left without, and rolled her eyes when he fluttered his eyelashes at her and teased her for remembering that. 

They wandered down the toy aisles without it needing to be said, and teased each other over being drawn to completely unnecessary things: big boxes of chalk, a plastic tower of off-brand Hot Wheels cars, Nerf guns. Kristin grinned when Taehyung took the pack of bubble wands from her hand and put them in the cart. When she grabbed a toy space gun and pretended to open fire, he grabbed a baseball bat to use as a light saber and ducked around the aisle, their game continuing until two actual children wandered past and Taehyung solemnly handed one his bat ‘to protect yourself from the space invaders.’

The thing Kristin liked about Taehyung is that he never made you feel stupid for being playful, or getting something wrong, or indulging yourself. Other than his tradition of pretending he wasn’t going to load the cart up with bread, Taehyung believed you ought to enjoy life and fuck anyone who bothered you about it. Kristin hadn’t adopted that philosophy completely, but on occasion found it very freeing.

Which was quite the set up for him suddenly pulling a large very floral shirt off the tables with affordable apparel and saying, “You should buy this.”

“Uh… why?” Kristin didn’t take it from him, so he held it up himself. It looked like something a middle-aged suburban woman would wear, which wasn’t a bad thing but it wasn’t Kristin’s style at all.

“It’ll look good on you.”

“Be serious.”

“I am! It’s stylish and you have that kind of feminine sporty leisure style to you.”

“What does that even mean?” Kristin laughed. She had never once in her life considered herself fashionable, and hearing such a lie from the lips of the very fashionable Taehyung was quite the joke.

“No, look, this size will hang off your shoulder. I think it’ll look good.”

“Might as well get that Winnie the Pooh sweatshirt too,” she joked.

“Yeah, why not? You like Winnie the Pooh? I think that’s fashionable too.”

“Wait are you just insulting my style?” she cried.

His face looked sincere as he insisted, “No, I’m serious! You have that look to you, you have that kind of vibe where you can make something like this look trendy and cool.”

Kristin didn’t know what to say to that. He couldn’t mean that, it was an absurd thing to say, but his telltale smirk didn’t creep out as she merely stared at him. She didn’t. 

“My style,” she said slowly, “is kind of just that I wear whatever the fuck I want.”

“Exactly, I like that about your style! So I think this would look good on you, that’s all I meant,” he said, turning away. He actually looked sulky about it now and Kristin got the distinct impression he’d been serious. “Whatever,” he continued. “I like it so I’ll get it for me and wear it.”

Quickly she yanked it out of his hands, “No, you said it would look good on me. Better.”

“I didn’t say better.”

“But you meant better.”

He laughed and argued, “I did not. It would look good on you but it would look great on me.”

“It’s for women.”

“Stupid rules are only for stupid people,” Taehyung argued. “Be smart.”

“Well I’m buying the shirt, so…”

“No, I’m buying the shirt,” he argued.

“We’re not getting matching shirts.”

“I guess we are if you don’t back down, because I’m buying the shirt.”

Kristin made a face, “No, I’m not matching with you. Just buy the shirt for me and maybe I’ll let you borrow it sometimes.” She’d said it all in jest. Taehyung was absurd and this conversation was absurd.

“Ok, deal,” he agreed and tossed it into the cart. And there was his smug grin, his eyes flashing as he began to push the cart again, as if this had just gone exactly the way he intended The whole thing was so confusing, but that’s how Taehyung was! He did confusing things, and it amused the hell out of Kristin.

“Wait, I need to buy you one too then,” she said.

“God no.”

“What!”

“Ah, my style is…”

She tried to pinch his ribs but he twisted away as she cried, “Are you saying I’m not stylish enough to pick a shirt out for you? What happened to being Taehyung Kim, able to wear anything?”

“Ah… yes, that’s true… I can pull off anything– that’s not a dare!” he laughed as she began to dig through the tables. “I picked out something actually good for you.”

Kristin yanked up a t shirt and tossed it at him: a vintage-y looking t-shirt that said Everything I know I learned on Sesame Street with several cast members.

“Fuck, this is really cool,” he admitted, looking it over with a pleased smile.

“See?”

“Ok ok and then we’ll get the Winnie the Pooh sweatshirts–”

“We don’t need those,” she laughed. “It’s June!”

“Come on, let’s get them to commemorate our day.”

For the briefest moment Kristin could have sworn he said date. But of course he hadn’t. Day. Because that was such a normal thing, to buy sweatshirts to commemorate a shopping trip to BJ’s.

“Not Winnie the Pooh. Something that’s like… more subtle,” Kristin insisted, reaching around him to dig. 

Taehyung snickered, “Ok yeah that’s funny, we could wear them and see if anyone notices….”

They wound up settling on a striped blue short-sleeved button up shirt, both laughing at how differently they would style it. It was silly. So was their next debate over whether to get a S’mores kit even though neither of them had access to a firepit, but instead they bought a two-pack of water bottles to split because Taehyung said he needed a new one but only one and Kristin had a hard time saying no to him even though she had a cabinet full of mismatched water bottles already.

At the checkout, Taehyung gave her his (annoyingly) cute boxy grin as she scanned her card, only to protest when she nudged him to pay.

“No, you pay and tell me how much I owe you,” he whined.

“You bought more stuff! You do the math.”

“I don’t do math.”

“Me neither.”

“Kristin. Don’t make me do math.”

“Yes. It’s time you learned.”

“Look, one of us was a nerd in high school–”

“Hey!” she scoffed as he stepped around her to pay, as if they weren’t still arguing. “Being a band nerd isn’t the same as being a math nerd and besides you have since admitted you wish you were in the band.”

“I did not! I said I wished I played saxophone earlier but not in the marching band.”

 “Why, too good for marching band?” she taunted.

She should have predicted his answer, “Definitely.”

“You’re such an ass.”

He gave her that boxy grin again as he accepted the receipt and offered, “Well since I’m the ass who’s stuck doing the math, I’ll let you buy me a slice of pizza and a Coke while I try to figure it out.”

“Oh, you’ll let me?” Kristin repeated with a roll of her eyes.

“It’s a good deal!”

“You should buy it, you’re the one piggy-backing on my membership.”

“Ah, that’s almost a good point,” he said, taking it upon himself to push the cart towards the small food court space. “But look at it this way, you got my dazzling company for an afternoon. So I guess you could say it’s not piggy-backing, it’s a symbiotic–”

“Nah, you’re a parasite,” she assured him. And the way his dark hair bounced as he shook his head was so annoyingly gorgeous that she tripped over the voice in her head reminding you don’t have a crush anymore; you’re over him; you’re just friends; this is not a date and you wouldn’t care even if it was because you’re over this and conceded, “Fine, I’ll buy the pizza and Cokes but then I want a coffee while we figure the math out together.”

“This late? You’ll be up all night!”

“What do you know about it?” she laughed.

“Well if you’re up all night you can come over and play games,” he decided. It brought her up short. She didn’t really play games, and it was an odd invitation.

“Oh you’re playing with who tonight, Yoongi? Not Jungkook, he’s so wrapped up with–”

“No, no plans, I don’t even know what I’m going to play yet,” Taehyung shrugged. 

The invitation was like a zap of electricity through Kristin. It didn’t really make sense. Like, ok, she and Taehyung were friends. They could go to BJ’s together, though they didn’t do that often. Sometimes they’d bum a ride from each other. They’d joke around at friend gatherings. Once they’d even gone to a movie together just the two of them, but only because Jimin had bailed at the last second. She’d been sleepless with delusions from that “not a date” for days. But they didn’t exactly just go to each other’s place to hang, just the two of them, ever. For Kristin’s self-preservation maybe more than anything, but it wasn’t like Taehyung invited her over to hang just the two of them.

But she knew it didn’t mean anything. Not the way she would have wanted it to mean anything –years ago. Not now, obviously, because now they were just friends and she was fine with that. Taehyung was a great friend. They could have fun together even just shopping at BJ’s.

Her determination to hold her boundary and prove to herself as much as anyone else that she was fine and over it led her to laugh, “Come on, it’s Saturday night, I already have plans!”

“Really? With who?” He carefully edged the cart to the side of a table to claim a spot before they went to get their food.

“None of your business.”

“Fine fine, don’t tell me about your dating life. Guess you won’t mind being up all night then, I’ll buy you the coffee. Meet back here?”

“You betcha,” Kristin grinned, and tried not to read into his curiosity. Taehyung was just a nosy person. It didn’t mean anything. 

They were friends, nothing more, and though once it might have been a painful disappointment, by now Kristin just felt lucky. Lucky that this goofy, playful, handsome, charming guy seemed to enjoy spending an afternoon with her. Lucky that she was the one who got to settle down for the greasy meal with him. Lucky she was the one his smile aimed at when she told him about the grease on his chin and threw a napkin and he threw it back. Lucky that when she sipped her coffee, she realized he had put just the right amount of cream and sugar in it, even though he didn’t drink coffee himself. Well, close enough anyway.

After all, Taehyung was the kind of guy it was better to be friends with than nothing. How great to be friends with Taehyung. Kristin was a lucky girl. 

“What are you smiling about?” he asked and her stomach did a painful twist.

“You have grease on your cheek,” she lied. “How do you eat like a toddler?”

“Wipe it off for me.”

“I’m not wiping your face!”

“I’ll just smear it around if I try to do it.”

Kristin grabbed the napkin and just slapped it against his cheek. He laughed so hard he choked on the bite he’d been talking around and hurried to slurp down his Coke. She didn’t understand why it was so funny but his laughter made her laugh, she couldn’t stop either. Just two idiots laughing at the BJ’s over pizza grease that wasn’t even there. Friends. 

[pitchblackkoi]

i’ve had this for ages but here is a piece of a wip i’ve had for over a year now. i’ve been working on it again and maybe posting will bully me into finishing it. so here’s some of my shadowgast childhood friends au

When the server has gone and Caleb has a hot coffee sitting in front of him he asks “So, what is it that you do these days?”

Essek perks up at this. “I’m at the Marble Tomes Conservatory. Mostly I teach classes, but I do have some time dedicated to research. I’ve been able to invent a few spells of my own, actually,” he tells Caleb, speaking with an energy that is incredibly familiar.

“I am happy for you, friend,” he says, a genuine smile on his face. “It’s all we ever dreamed of as boys. I assume your area of expertise is dunamancy?”

“Yes, graviturgy specifically,” Essek answers. “When I started school here I got access to so much knowledge about magic and dunamancy, in particular, was fascinating. Using magic to manipulate the workings of the universe. It really was beyond any of our imaginings as children.”

And just like that Essek is off talking about magic theory, enthusiastically gesturing with his hands as he explains complicated concepts that he clearly understands very well. Caleb is listening intently, filing it all away to be examined alongside what else he knows of dunamancy at a later time. Mostly he is focusing on Essek himself, the way his ornate earrings sway as he talks, how bright his eyes look as he talks about his passion, and the way his sleeves are rolled up to show off his forearms. Even when their food arrives (sandwiches with a small bowl of soup that reminds him of meals they ate in his little house as children) he only pauses briefly to take a bite of his food before he’s off again. It’s endlessly endearing and makes him smile.

Caleb realizes the danger of this, of course. It would be so easy to fall back in love with Essek. As far as he can see he is close enough to the boy he knew and loved that it wouldn’t even be difficult. He’s never been good at letting things go. But it would be doomed to failure from the start because he would have to tell Essek about what happened after he left and he would never feel the same way after that.

Essek seems to catch himself after a while. “Ah, but I have gone on for a long time. What have you been doing? I do wonder what landed you in Rosohna.”

He sets his sandwich to the side, trying to decide what to disclose while he finishes chewing. “My friends and I are renting a house on the edge of the Gallimaufry. A lot of us are just doing odd jobs. Jester spends her days working in a bakery, Veth is at a small apothecary, things like that. When money gets tight sometimes we’ll do bounties to make ends meet, whatever we have to.”

“Bounties?” Essek asks, eyes wide.

“Ja, usually someone needs to get rid of a monster for some reason or another, and my friends and I became adept at killing them as we traveled together,” he says with a shrug. “We get by and usually it’s good money. We would rather not if we can help it, but it doesn’t always work out that way.”

“I must say it surprises me to hear that you adventure for money,” Essek confesses. “I always imagined your pursuits would be of the more… academic variety.”

Caleb gives him a wan smile. “Unfortunately it is not always easy to focus on academics and pay the bills. As it is I can only spend some of my time teaching magic to some children in the Coronas.” His smile turns genuine at this. “It doesn’t pay much but I enjoy it too much to stop. If I have to use my magical capabilities to kill monsters so that I can continue to teach, so be it.”

“So what is your specialty? I had always wondered which school you would land on,” the drow asks.

“Transmutation magic is my specialty, though I have some skill in evocation as well,” he answers, feeling much more comfortable discussing magic. It is well-tread ground between the two of them as well as something he feels confident discussing.

This makes Essek give him a fond grin. “I should have known. It is the school with the most flexibility, the most room for creativity and change. It is perfect for you.”

The words send a feeling of relief flowing through him. It’s a confirmation that though he has changed much, maybe some of the boy he once was still lives on in him. His oldest friend recognizes him in even the way he does magic, which is the closest thing to his soul that he has. It’s almost a validation that he chose right when he tried to pick back up the pieces and relearn the art.

“Ah, Danke, Essek. It has done well for me and given me the tools to tinker with spells where I can. All magic is personal, but I find that understanding the intricacies of transmutation lets me make bigger changes than those that come naturally. It just takes a bit of working through,” Caleb begins to explain.

The drow just looks at him with a smile, lunch set to the side as he looks at his friend affectionately. The expression on his face makes Caleb pause in his explanation.

“Ah, sorry. I don’t want to bore you with things that you already know,” he says, blushing a little bit. He can’t believe he’s trying to explain basic magic theory to someone who actually finished their schooling and teaches at a high level, in a lesser-known and complex school of magic no less.

Essek waves away his worries with a hand. “No, that’s not it. It’s just nice getting to watch you get excited about magic once again. I missed it. I missed you.”

Something in Caleb’s chest melts at the words and he smiles warmly. “I missed you, as well. I am glad fate has brought us together once again,” he replies.

This, however, causes Essek to make a sour expression. “I don’t know if I subscribe to the idea of fate,” he admits. “My time in the dynasty especially has put me off of it. Not just because I practice dunamancy, either, but because of how it is talked about as fact here, an absolute.” He pauses, considering. “But if some grand design has brought our paths together again I cannot help but find myself grateful.”

[clericofshadows]

find the words! these will mostly be from WIPs I have in my drafts :)

tagged by @breadedsinner

tagging: not sure who to tag, so if you see this and want to participate, feel free!

your words are fear, risen, victory, insight

Word 1, Dark: (from a WIP)

Regis shut off his omnitool and sat down at his desk, head in his hands. Seeing Chakwas and Joker for a moment felt like a victory, finally someone he could trust on his side, someone who he knew had his back.

But a small, dark part of him despised that they thought Cerberus was the answer after everything that had happened, everything that they witnessed.  He doesn’t know if he could even trust them, truly.

It was a terrifying thought.

The only man he could trust right now was supposedly still with the Alliance, but Regis was afraid to contact him onboard this ship, knowing that his picture sat innocently on his desk.

A threat, a reminder, and a way to say that Cerberus knows about him. A way to say that they know who he loves and will do anything for.

If he finds out who put that picture there, who gave them that moment between them, they will meet the Butcher of Torfan.

A picture taken by Tali before Ilos, of Regis and Kaidan touching their foreheads together, temporarily switching their scarves for the mission.

Something only his crew should have, and yet, it ended up in Cerberus's hands...

Word 2, Fluffy: (from a WIP)

There was something so pleasant about waking up with Kaidan's arms wrapped around him, even knowing that the mission that awaited them could be their last.

Regis didn't want to move, didn't want to disturb these beloved moments of peace, but Kaidan started to stir anyway, slowing opening his eyes with a groan.

"Is it already morning, Regis?" he asked, not letting go of Regis just yet.

"Afraid so." He moved to run his hands through Kaidan's curly hair, fluffing it out before moving in for a kiss. "Ilos awaits."

Word 3, Embrace: (from a posted fic: late night conversations)

“I never made that decision lightly.” He looked away.  “I embraced it, but ultimately, it has pinned me as someone who will get the job done, no matter the cost.  While that may be true sometimes, it’s something I try to avoid.”  He sighed.  “But yes, I imagine he had a certain image of me.”

“I gave the order knowing damn well it was the only way out.  I took the fall so everyone else would survive, while I became the monster.  The demon.  The Butcher.  But the families of the dead know what I did for them, what I sacrificed to make sure they got what they deserved.  The thing is?  I wasn’t the only one in support of it, but I made damn sure that the Alliance thought it was only me.  And look what it gave me.  Scars, a path to N7, and a title that makes my mother hate me even more.”

Word 4, Slow: (from a WIP)

“Listen, you know what I want out of you.  Either you tell me where I can contact Kaidan, or I will find some alternative way to contact him,” Regis said, leaning against the railing in the office.  “I have no allies, no one I can turn to, and it is utter hell for me knowing what logo is debasing my ship.”

“You know I cannot do that.  The mission he’s on is classified, and you, for all intents and purposes, are now someone that the Alliance cannot trust,” Anderson replied.  “My hands are tied.”

Regis frowned.  “Then what the hell am I even here for? I didn't accept the Normandy, hell even the Spectre position, to be stuck unable to do a goddamn thing."

Anderson gave him an unimpressed look.  “You are on your own, Shepard, whether you like it or not.  Unless you turn yourself in, there’s nothing I can do except let you do what Cerberus wants you to do.�� Regis felt his corona rise underneath his skin.  “I just woke up from being dead for two fucking years, Anderson!  I was dead!  Meat and goddamn tubes!  And somehow, I’m here, not knowing if I’m even still the man who I claim to be!  I have my armor, yet it feels wrong.  My biotics are more responsive than ever, but I feel so fucking slow and sluggish while using them, as if I was back at BAaT!   And I will die before letting the Illusive Man use me as his personal dog.”  He growled out.  “I’m only doing this because the Collectors are a clear threat, and I’m going to burn every resource Cerberus gives me to make sure my mission succeeds and try to destroy them in the process.  So, I’ll say it again: Either I contact him and jeopardize him, or you get me in contact with someone who can.”

[gryffindorkxdraws]

I saw your post about a Taylor Swift Jackunzel story (and I jumped lol). Can you do "Everything has Changed"? I saw a sun and moon au vid from Hermuna Moon of yt that used that song. I wonder how'd you do a one-shot on that AU! I'm interested on reading the climax of that story where the Sun and Moon finally meet ^^

Song: Everything Has Changed

Word Count: 721

Summary: What would happen when the sun and moon meet?

Notes: i tried my best to follow your request, but i also wanted to make it a little bit different. just a little bit. but i kept in mind of the reunion and this short thing happened. enjoy! also i didn't edit this aha

video anon mentioned here

Rapunzel has heard stories of the Moon. Or rather, the boy who represents the Moon Kingdom. Every night, he would splatter the dark night into the sky and pull out the twinkles of the stars to accompany it. So the children wouldn’t be scared of the dark, she thought to herself, though she’d love to hear the boy’s own thoughts on it.

What he did was in contrast to hers. Where she represented the Sun Kingdom and threw the light back into the sky. A way to wake nature up and greet the day with a brand new tomorrow. So everyone gets energized to live their life, she giggled to herself, but, again, she’d like to know what the boy thought of it. Of her.

She’s heard so many stories of the boy that she felt like she already knew him. Met him even though they’ve yet to cross paths. It was like her mind had latched onto him, onto this moon boy, and didn’t want to let go. Always needing to be fed with any information she could get of him. She wondered then if the boy ever got curious about her.

Rapunzel snapped out of her thoughts when a rabbit hopped along the field. The sunset over the horizon was beautiful, but sad at the same time. It reminded her that her day time was almost up. But instead of slowly disappearing back into the Sun Kingdom like she normally would, she stayed. She stayed.

Questions undoubtedly ran through her mind as night slowly took over, but her guts told her to start running instead. So she did. Across the field as fast as she could. Towards what? Towards who? She didn’t know. At least until she saw someone running from the other end of the field. A boy with such striking white hair, and eyes so blue she felt she could fly in its hue.

The boy.

Jack.

The boy was Jack all along? Rapunzel held her breath, unable to bring herself to believe it at first.

With just one look at each other, a thousand memories flooded in their head. The very memories they both kept hidden in the dark because their people have told them it was useless to dwell in the past. Once, they were simply a shepherd boy and a princess of the Corona Kingdom from long ago. A shepherd boy and a princess who broke traditions together with their friendship. A friendship that should have lasted a lifetime, but was cut short when the boy drowned in the lake.

And now, here they were.

Both Rapunzel and Jack took a step forward, then another, before immediately making a run for it towards each other. Rapunzel could feel the pull of the Sun Kingdom now, and like hell was she going to disappear before she could reach him. In their last few steps, Rapunzel leaped forward with a yell, her heart bursting at the seams with how full it was from reaching him.

Years and years of mourning for Jack gave her this unnameable weight on her shoulders, and now she felt free of it from this very moment. Jack, on the other hand, thought she had long passed as a human, and to suddenly see her here made his heart full. Of life, of love, of everything he’s ever wished for if given one more chance.

"Jack!"

"Rapunzel!"

The two crashed into each other, their worlds finally, finally colliding, and Jack didn’t want to let her go. Not when he finally has her in his arms. Though he fell backwards from catching her and the two rolled on the field, laughing and crying and everything in between. Until Jack noticed she was fading when she pinned him down.

“I’ll find you again, I promise.” Rapunzel whispered, holding his face with both hands.

“Not if I find you first.” Jack whispered back, smirking as a way to make her smile, and she did.

He sat up and held her close before pulling her in for one more hug, breathing her in like she smelled of sunshine and flowers (she did). As Rapunzel slowly faded away just as the sunset was closing in on fully setting for the night sky to take over, the two made promises to find a way to meet once more.

[dancing-coyote]

❤️‍🩹 ft. corona & umbra ( for drabble emoji ask )

(HEY THIS IS SPOILERS XDD)

(NOT THAT IT MATTERS I GUESS THE END OF THIS STORY WON'T BE WRITTEN FOR... A LONG TIME SLDKFJSDL)

(ANYWAY.)

----------

Venting a shuddering sigh, Corona dropped to her knees in the sand and surf, pressing her hands to the shell of the stasis pod; it was certainly the worse for wear after spending who knew how long in the guts of the Vindicator, on the ocean floor...

Please be okay. Please be okay.

I don't know what I'll do if you're not okay.

Slender silver claws glinted in the moonlight as she pried open the control hatch. Relief washed over her like the cold waves when she was greeted by a panel of steady green lights.

She could have sobbed, if she'd had the time, but she'd already waited so long...

Tapping in the access codes, she waited with trembling hands as it processed... and processed... and...

And the seal of the hatch broke with a hiss, prompting her to rise to her feet and take a few quick steps back, still watching the pod intently, waiting, barely venting.

(Almost as an afterthought, she deactivated her chameleon module, feeling her frame shudder as it reverted to its root state. She'd been in disguise for so long that it felt disorienting, but...)

The stasis pod's hatch was shoved open with a metallic squeal as a massive dark figure lurched up out of its cramped confines with a ragged gasp. Massive claws dug furrows into the outer shell, and red optics flickered online in the dark, blinking as they adjusted to functionality after being so long offline. For a long moment, the only sounds where the rush of the waves, and the mech's labored venting as he looked around at his surroundings... and then at her.

Corona managed a small, uncertain smile. "I could've sworn you said that you were gonna find me..."

His finials flicked, and he pushed himself to his feet...

And then, in an instant, he'd crossed the space between them and caught her up in his powerful arms, almost crushing her against his chest as he whirled her around beneath the stars, kicking up sprays of frothy seafoam and pressing his cheek to her helm.

She was caught off-guard only for a split second, until the weight of their millennia apart finally can crashing down on her and she wrapped her arms around his neck, clinging so tightly to him that her joints ached even as she buried her face against his plating, tightly shuttering her optics against the tears that threatened to overflow.

"I knew you would find me," Umbra rasped, his gravelly voice hoarse with disuse.

It was still the most beautiful sound in the universe to her.

[twotangledsisters]

Anybody want a sneak peek at my prequel the Adventurer and the Prince?

Cause I don't actually care what you want. Here's a first draft of a scene I quite enjoy (read it or don't, there are a few small bits missing if any jump feels unatural):

Arianna hated her dress.

She regretted not listening to Frederic when he told her she'd look as stylish as a stable boy in a five-star restaurant. She thought he was being mean, and he was, but he was also right.

The table was full of royalty and high-ranking nobility, dressed in silks and other materials Arianna didn't even recognize. Those dresses probably cost more than Arianna would make in a lifetime on her current salary, but that was the point, they were making a statement.

Frederic sat next to her, a medallion of gold with the symbol of Corona around his neck. A symbol of wealth, but also a reminder that Frederic belonged to Corona.

Arianna recalled Frederic's explanation: "Corona is not mine, any day they could overthrow m father and send me to work on the farm. In fact, I wish they would. But I belong to Corona. As the only heir to the throne, I cannot leave. If I tried, my father would have my head."

And for some reason, Arianna thought that last comment was far more than a joke. King Henfrey was many things, things Arianna would definitely lose her head if she were to say out loud, forgiving was not one of them.

Servants came out with bottles of wine. One bottle in particular was announced as a gift from some of the nobility at the table.

Frederic frowned. That specific couple came to the king with complains, being invited to this supper had been a way of dismissal. The wine was good, to good of a gift. It would have been more fitting to gift something cheaper to show their disapproval.

His father knew it too.

Of course, getting a poison tester in would be extremely would.

Frederic hoped it was poisoned and his father dropped dead, it would be a fitting end to his reign, killed by his own citizens.

"Frederic, Son."

The young prince flinched, not knowing what he'd done wrong.

"Come here," the king gestured.

Frederic slowly walked up to his father as he poured a glass of the wine.

"Here, for your friend."

Frederic looked at the purple almost black liquid in the glass. He looked over at Arianna.

She looked uncomfortable but otherwise had no idea the danger she may be in. She offered him a soft smile.

Frederic accepted the glass from his father. He began to walk over.

Arianna held out a hand but then Frederic took a chug and put the now empty glass down in front of him, sitting down.

Arianna pulled her hand back to her chest, glaring at the rude prince. She wasn't surprised Frederic would find the wine too good for a mere horse girl such as herself, but to refuse it to her in front of everybody in such a way, she intended to give him a piece of her mind later.

Arianna was so concentrated on using the correct utensils, saying the right things, not getting any more attention that necessary, that she didn't notice how Frederic's hand was ever so shaky; how his skin paled how his hair stuck to his side as a thin layer of sweat covered his face.

Nobody, not even the king, bothered to say anything.

Allowing the young prince to suffer. It was a well-deserved punishment for not using Arianna as a test subject for the wine.

Arianna was the last at the table to notice, but she was the only one to react.

Jumping out of her seat. "Frederic?"

"I'm fine," he hissed, hoping she would sit back down.

"Like hell you are!"

"That is no language to be using at this table," the king stood up.

Frederic quickly stood up to, intending to stand between the king and Arianna, but his head spun and he fell straight to the floor.

Arianna paced outside of the infirmary.

She constantly wished misfortune on the Corona's prince but not of this nature!

"Serves you right..." the voice of the king made her blood boil but she kept on pacing and din't barge in.

"Your Majesty, we do not have an antidote for this point on hand. We could send somebody but it's at lest a day's travel away, they won't make it in time."

She heard words unfitting of a king from the king but she didn't care as she finally entered the infirmary.

"Tell me where. I'll get them."

"You?"

"There's no faster way to travel than horse and I am Corona's best in that sense. Now tell me where," she left no room for argument and wasted no time in giving orders.

She didn't care if it wasn't her place. She wasn't going to let Frederic die.

She'd wasted far too much time teaching him the basic of horse riding for this to be his end.