#if this did actually happen i’d blow everyone up but he should still do it

[thekidsarentalright]

since the show has been so gay patrick should pull out it’s not a side effect for the medley. as a treat

[theminecraftbee]

the summer before THE END...

(this fic contains @hotguycomiczine spoilers! go read it first! i'll wait!)

It’s midday. The sun is heavy and hot, bearing down against the asphalt and visibly making the air shimmer over the road. Summer in Hermitopia can be miserable, and frankly Cuteguy thinks it’s far more miserable than the bruises. The humidity makes his feathers stick together and itch in awkward ways, he’s sweaty twice over because he hadn’t had time to actually wash his costume between the last major villain attack, his recent part-time line cook job, and then this fight.

He’s in his early thirties and he’s becoming an old man, he thinks. His knees should not hurt this much, and yet here they are. Vigilantism is going to give him early arthritis.

They’ve driven off the villain. Didn’t manage to catch him, though. He wasn’t even from Hermitopia. That’s been happening more lately; people who see Hermitopia as some lawless wasteland where they can come visit, avoid drinking any water, and live out their dreams of being a comic book character, damn the consequences or collateral damage. It’s frustrating. Sometimes, deep in Cuteguy’s soul, he sort of thinks the Soup Group has a point in calling out all this bullshit.

Of course, they do all that murder about it. So. Not much better, really.

He leans against a building and tries to breathe. Normally he has a water bottle with his costume, but this guy had homemade napalm. Luckily, not real napalm! The water did work for putting out the fire! Unfortunately, it’s ninety-seven degrees and humid and Cuteguy has just done enough cardio that he’s honestly worried about the odds he passes out. 

Out on the street, Hotguy is chatting with every civilian he comes across. He’s grandstanding. He’s giving blow-by-blows. He’s acting like his sweat doesn’t stink like a mere mortal’s. He has a water bottle, and he’s taking sips of it between chats with reporters and posing for cameras. There are enough cars and civilians that Cuteguy isn’t all that worried about the TCG yet. Hotguy’s still pretty damn wanted, what with the whole possession thing that they don’t exactly have the means to prove to the public, so Cuteguy’s got to keep an eye out for them, but with this many cameras on him? The TCG isn’t about to arrest him on camera. Despite everything, he's still too charismatic; he'd still make them look too bad. 

Cuteguy wipes his forehead again. He does notice when someone starts approaching him; he might be exhausted, but he’s acting as Hotguy’s situational awareness while he’s busy playing up crowds. He can’t afford to be that exhausted, so he isn’t. That, and the woman approaching him is hardly as stealthy as the Bleeding Hart. Another thing he might have to give to the Soup Group were he willing to give them credit for anything: he’s never been able to fully stop noticing where everyone is around him. Hotguy had winced and called it “hypervigilance”. Cuteguy had said that he wasn’t any better, he just calls it a superpower. Hotguy had said it is hardly his fault his superpower promotes vigilance. Cuteguy had—

“Uh, good fight. Thanks,” says the woman.

“Oh, uh. You’re welcome,” Cuteguy says.

She’s tall and blonde. Also, she has four arms. Cuteguy should have probably noticed that first, but he didn’t, and that’s on him.

“Bit of a mess, especially in this weather. Hotter and they’d issue a heat advisory, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Cuteguy says.

He is not good at post-battle smalltalk. That’s why it’s Hotguy’s job. He’s good at causing chaos if needed, but chaos is the opening the TCG would need to get to Hotguy. Cuteguy glances in his direction. He’s posing and signing autographs still. He can’t help but sigh. They’re going to be here all day.

The four-armed lady follows his gaze.

“You know, I’d always wondered why you stick to him,” she says.

“Sorry?” Cuteguy says.

“I just mean—I watched the fight. Yeah, he’s good, but you’re decent at range too. You can get enough height to really not need perfect accuracy because you’ll be hard to hit. Wings are, uh, a pretty overpowered combat tool, really, especially when most of your enemies are on the ground. But you’re good at close range, so, uh, inside isn’t awful for you either, really.”

“I mean, you’re right, I am pretty good,” Cuteguy says, interrupting her. “I don’t really get—”

“Look at him,” the woman says. “You ran around more than him and he took the water bottle.”

Cuteguy wants to defend Hotguy for that one; it’s hardly his fault that Cuteguy dumped his water bottle on napalm like it would do anything. It did, which is convenient, but still. Not Hotguy’s call. He doesn’t quite get the chance.

“Even after everything last month, he’s still grandstanding too. Sure, he’s stopped shooting people for not being grateful enough, or holding rescues hostage for cash, but look at him. Hardly any better, is he. Sure, he says he was possessed—”

“He was,” Cuteguy snaps.

“—but like, is the guy he is now actually all that different? Just saying.”

Cuteguy stares at the man trying to get extra photo ops out of a group of passing runners. They’re topless to account for the heat, which is probably why Hotguy wants photos with them. Cuteguy can just barely hear the man asking to trade phone numbers. Is it worse or better, Cuteguy wonders, that the phone number Hotguy gives out just goes straight to Cub’s inbox? Is that catfishing or just good sense?

“He’s trying to help,” Cuteguy says.

“He’s desperate for attention,” the four-armed woman says. “You know, you’d probably be better without him. After everything that happened, your reputation would be better too. A little more in the shadows, a little less associated with his crimes.”

“He’s…”

“I just want the real reason, really,” the woman says. 

“What do you…”

“Why would you stick with him when you’re so much better?”

Hotguy waves goodbye to the runners. He takes another sip of the water bottle. Really, there’s so much that Cuteguy can say here, watching that. He could say something about how, in the terrible days when the Soup Group had first come onto the scene, Hotguy had barely left Cuteguy’s side until Cuteguy started pushing him away. He could say that Hotguy is earnest, that he really does want to save people, despite the fact he also wants attention. He could say that he knows the man behind the mask now, and he’s seen his films, and frankly getting a little recognition as Hotguy kind of makes up for not getting recognition for his decent acting talent. He could say something about playing Mario Kart on the couch, or learning to aim a bow, or fights with Doc, or secrets shared that Cuteguy wants to make sure Hotguy never has an incentive to spread. He could say something about how dangerous fighting alone is. That’s probably the more sensible thing to say, actually; Cuteguy knows exactly how dangerous fighting alone is.

What Cuteguy says is this:

“He makes me happy.”

There is a long not-quite silence as sirens and cicadas fill the summer air.

“Huh,” the woman says.

Cuteguy doesn’t say anything else.

“Well. I mean. I don’t really know how to save you from that, so I guess I’ll just leave you to it,” the woman says. “Consider if he’s really worth it.”

She leaves. Cuteguy stares after her a moment before shaking his head and going back to scanning the crowd for any known TCG elements.

“Birdie!” Hotguy crows, running over from the reporters. “We’re on the 5 PM news!”

“Really? An out-of-towner with questionable pyrotechnics made it?” 

“I got it worked out,” Hotguy says confidently. “But, uh, with that said, you look like you need some AC and a drink. I have so much Gatorade in my fridge that it isn’t even funny. All the labels are pulled off because it’s for that one football movie I did, right? And for some reason they didn’t want to give Gatorade the product placement, so they made all these sports drinks without—”

“Not in-costume, Hotguy,” Cuteguy says, but he doesn’t put any heat into it.

“—oh, you know no one’s listening, lighten up! Anyway, so the movie ended up somehow ordering far too many bottles, and you know what they say about underpaid actors and free food—or, I’m not sure it’s actually an expression, but let me tell you, I have never turned it down. And with the number of ele… electo-mites? I think? You know, all the sweat we’re sweaty about—come on Cuteguy, I don’t want you passing out on the pavement, I really didn’t mean to get caught out that long!” Hotguy says, grabbing Cuteguy’s hand to take him back to his apartment.

Miserable heat or not, Cuteguy can’t help but smile slightly.

“I don’t want to pass out either, that’s why I’m not running, Hotguy,” he says, and he lets himself be tugged along in that man’s wake once more.

[hollowed-theory-hall]

Normally, I post theories on this blog, and what I usually do is solve plot holes, but I'm currently rereading Deathly Hallows, and I honestly forgot how stupid some decisions there are. So, I'm compiling some of them here to maybe theorize and solve these plot holes later. But for now, I'm baffled.

1. I just reached the part where they started camping in the woods, and Harry just started being hungry, and I don't think I can adequately describe how dumb that is. Like, I can get wanting to stay hidden and stuff, but why not call Kreacher?

I mean, Harry showed in HBP he can just call Kreacher to him:

But the question was, how to call him? What did you do? Quietly, tentatively, Harry spoke into the darkness. “Kreacher?” There was a very loud crack, and the sounds of scuffling and squeaks filled the silent room.

(HBP, 419)

Why not call Kreacher and tell him to bring food to the tent? He's a house-elf, so he could apparate through their wards with no problem. They could've had Kreacher's cooking still, I just don't get it.

2. They didn't actually need to leave Grimmauld Place at all. The book explains it like this:

“Harry, I think he can. I—I forced him to let go with a Revulsion Jinx, but I’d already taken him inside the Fidelius Charm’s protection. Since Dumbledore died, we’re Secret-Keepers, so I’ve given him the secret, haven’t I?” There was no pretending; Harry was sure she was right. It was a serious blow. If Yaxley could now get inside the house, there was no way that they could return. Even now, he could be bringing other Death Eaters in there by Apparition.

(DH, 271)

But Yaxley wouldn't be a Secret Keeper, he couldn't bring other Death Eaters inside. This isn't how the magic works.

After Dumbledore dies, everyone he told the secret to becomes the Secret Keeper. Hermione is a Secret Keeper. She can reveal the secret to Yaxley by appparating him, but that doesn't turn Yaxley into a Secret Keeeper. It's just one Death Eater who knows how to get in that Harry and Co can kidnap, obliviate, or kill if they're really stressed about it. Yaxley couldn't bring anyone else inside regardless of how much he wanted to. He isn't a Secret Keeper, so all the other Death Eaters would've had to wait outside and watch the place the house should be in like they did up to this point.

And sure, Snape is a Secret Keeper but considering he somehow lied his way out of telling them the secret, even though we see Death Eaters stationed outside Grimmauld Place, I think it's safe to say, he wouldn't tell even after Yaxley knew and potentially returned with this information. I mean, the fact the Death Eaters are watching outside Grimmauld Place tells us Snape didn't tell them, and it should tell Harry, Ron, and Hermione Snape didn't betray the secret, as otherwise, the Death Eaters would've just broken in to search for them.

3. If we're talking of the Fidelius Charm and Secret Keepers, I don't get why Bill and Arthur Weasley have to be their own Secret Keepers. Why create this plot hole so late in the game? I mean, up until book 7, I didn't question why James and Lily had to have a third party as their Secret Keeper. It was just how the spell worked. Well, not anymore.

So, now I have to wonder why they were convinced they needed someone else, someone outside the house? Perhaps it was out of paranoia? So that if something happened to them anyway there'd be someone outside who could bring help?

4. And don't even get me started on the Battle of the Seven Potters. I mean, apparition or side-along apparition are completely viable methods of transportation, so why brooms? Wtf?

I mean, the Order makes this same ludicrous decision in OotP, when they transport Harry from the Dursleys to Grimmauld Place on brooms, so at least they're consistent in their stupidity.

Like, I could make an excuse for the use of brooms if they're trying to evade the Trace. According to how I believe the Trace works, the Trace wouldn't pick up on a broom the same way it didn't pick up on the flying Ford Angelica. It's an item already enchanted, magic isn't being cast, so it doesn't pick on it. So, while the Trace would pick up on apparition, it won't pick up on broom flight.

The problem with this is that in OotP we see the Order cast magic inside the Dursleys' house, making any chance of avoiding the Trace moot:

“Don’t be stupid, it’ll be much quicker if I — pack!” cried Tonks, waving her wand in a long, sweeping movement over the floor. Books, clothes, telescope, and scales all soared into the air and flew pell-mell into the trunk.

(OotP, 53)

And in DH, Harry is already 17, and the Trace shouldn't be a problem for him, so this excuse doesn't really hold water...

I'm sure I'll remember more as I continue reading, but these are the ones that really bother me now. Rant over (at least until I find a hopefully not super contrived way to make all this make sense in-universe).

[astrronomemes]

THE BAD GUYS : STARTERS

a collection of quotes, phrases, and sayings from the 2022 Dreamworks Animation film The Bad Guys. change & alter as needed.

“Seriously, though, you don’t like cake? Name one food better than cake!”

“Look at that. 4:00pm. Now I know the exact moment our friendship died.”

“These are the cards we’ve been dealt, so we might as well play ’em.”

“I just wanted a longer car chase. That’s the best part.”

“Keep running, [name]! One of these days, your luck is gonna run out!”

“I’ve made a lot of enemies in my time — I mean, a lot — but, out of all the people in the world... I hate you guys the least.”

“Wait, what’s going on? You’ve got that twinkle in your eye.”

“Are we all in this together?”

“Oh, [name], it’s not a competition! ...And if it were, it would really be more of a tie.”

“If you look closely enough, even trash can be recycled into something beautiful.”

“I am definitely going to lose my job, and I will not hesitate to take you down with me!”

“Thank you, dear. You’re such a good boy.”

“There is good even in the worst places.”

“Now let’s make like a wolf, and get the pack out of here.”

“Well... this just got a little weird.”

“Not everyone gets a second chance. Make the most of it, [name].”

“They say experience is the best teacher... and they are wrong. I am.”

“What, may I ask, are you good at?”

“I have never seen him so chipper. Has he been meditating?”

“Don’t you ever get tired of lying?”

“Maybe they will believe you, and maybe they won’t, but it doesn’t matter. Don’t do it for them. Do it for you.”

“This is your chance to write your own story. To find a better life for you and your friends! Come on, what have you got to lose?”

“Believe it or not, I’m rooting for you, [name].”

“No, it’s okay! It’s okay! I’m not gonna hurt you! I know you’re scared. I would be, too, if I were you.”

“Truth is, we actually have a lot in common.”

“I must say, you’ve really turned a corner. You’re really getting it.”

“I don’t waste time thinking about stuff that’s never gonna happen.”

“You know, if I didn’t know better, I’d think that you were avoiding me.”

“I have to say, I’m a little disappointed. I was hoping you were going to ask me to dance.”

“So... how does it feel, to have everyone not fear you for a change?”

“Tonight’s headline: change is impossible, you should always judge a book by its cover, and all stereotypes have been affirmed.”

“I’m tired of being scary! I’m tired of being an outcast!”

“Guess I’m still the best bad guy the world has ever seen.”

“Just like riding a stolen bicycle.”

“Now, instead of hurting people, I’m helping them. I’m still me, I’m just... me, on the right side.”

“You’re doing the right thing. And someday, your friends — if they’re real friends... I think they’ll understand.”

“You stole my car?! ...Respect.”

“You did a good thing! For me!”

“...Okay, yeah, it was a trap.”

“I’m starting to see why your friends dumped you!”

“When I woke up this morning, this is not where I saw the day going.”

“What happened? Did we blow up? ...Is this heaven?”

“I’m proud of you, [name].”

“You’ve got a good thing going here, [name].”

“Is he seriously going to get away with this?”

“Good luck out there, guys.”

[13ghostlytitties]

MHA has ended: how do I feel?

Well, if you wanted my exact reaction, this was what I sent my friends after reading the summary:

So, It’s been years since I’ve actually read the series. Still, I’ve kept up with what’s happened in broad strokes, and I’d like to read it all in one go now that I know it’s finished and what’s happened (can’t be disappointed if you don’t have your hopes up, I guess). I know enough and have read the reactions of others enough to see that this ended, and the whole final war saga and what’s happened with it, isn’t especially popular with fans beyond those who just read for cool fights and don’t delve any deeper. My thoughts?

Well, it ended how I expected. More accurately, it didn’t create any new problems because, to me, everything people seem to be picking at is just the endpoints of problems that have existed in this series for a long time.

Let’s go blow-for-blow here. There’s some aspects like the stuff with the LoV that I don’t feel as confident speaking about because I don’t know as much, so ill be sticking with what I’m pretty confident in saying. We’ll start with:

1: Midoriya lost his Quirk, became a teacher instead of a hero

I would like to start this with a touch of positivity and say that, if he really isn’t gonna be a hero, I think hero teacher is very fitting for Midoriya. He’s got the personality for it, he has the experience for it, and it’s kind of a nice feeling that he’s there to help the ones coming after him.

So, personally, I’ve never been that into the way OFA works. I love Quirks that stick to the theme and idea that these are biologically mutations, especially when they play on classic superpowers (Shiozaki, Iida, Tsuburaba, Shoji, Ashido, Asui, etc.). Whether or not you think Midoriya should still have his power or not, the fact that he lost it and thus didn’t become a pro hero is not a new problem. That’s what happened to Ragdoll, to Hawks, to Togata (temporarily), to Knuckleduster in Vigilantes. No Quirk means no superhero. We learned that in the first chapter. Sure, it ended with All Might saying to Quirkless Midoriya “you can be a hero,” but you then you turn the page to chapter 2 and we see what he meant - “you can be a hero because I’m giving you a Quirk.” Midoriya not being a hero after losing his Quirk shouldn’t that shocking as the idea that you can be a Quirkless hero has never been on the table. “But wait,” you say, “Midoriya got a special power suit at the end and got to be a hero again with everyone else. All Might did something similar against AFO, so doesn’t that count as being a hero with no Quirk?” Well, sure, but it took 8 years and apparently a shit-ton of money to make it happen. They’re the exception to the rule. And how did they become the exceptions? Connections and accolades from when they did have Quirks. It’s the same reason why Midoriya couldn’t have his full-circle “you can be a hero” moment with an actual Quirkless kid like he was: it’d be a lie, to the kid and the audience. Speaking of…

2: Plate Boy can be a hero too!

Like I said, they couldn’t have this be a Quirkless kid because that’d go against everything that we’ve been shown up until now. Because of that, this moment is severely handicapped, to the point where I wonder if having the lie would’ve been the lesser of two evils compared to wasting a lot of time of this ending on someone who’s anxious about a starting point that is, in essence, better off than Midoriya’s starting point. If you can’t actually complete the full circle, you can’t really have that full circle moment, and the fact that this story could not have that should make the disparity of where it started vs. where it went all the more clear

3: the class losing touch, drifting apart

This may be just me, but I never really thought of Class 1-A as that much of a unit. So many of them are kept to the sidelines, so many arcs just focus on Midoriya and a couple others, usually just Bakugo and Todoroki (another group I never bought as a real cohesive group), to the point where it felt rare to have them feel like a team. Can you really say, just reading the manga, that they’re in the same vein as the Straw Hat Pirates, the Stardust Crusaders, the Black Bulls, etc. It was only rare times that they all came together in a big way, and it usually kept things to little cliques. Now, I’m not saying that the solution would have been evenly juggling 20 characters and making them all having unique connections with each other. It’s not feasible for a professional, serialized manga that has to worry about pacing, audience interest, worldbuilding, characters outside of their class, etc. (Honestly, I think the best way would have been 4 classes of 10 students instead of 2 of 20, but that’s neither here nor there.). All I can really say is, can you really be so heartbroken about 20 people who only rarely were seen interacting and working all together mostly drifting apart?

4: the structure of the Hero Association and stuff like the rankings are still in place

Again, I must say, this is an issue that’s been deeply rooted in the series. To begin, a lot of time throughout the series has indeed been about how messed up hero society has become. Even in the first chapter, we get a lot of time to take in how commercialized it’s become, how many heroes see it as just a job or even as a fame contest for riches and glory. Mt. Lady in chapter 1 was the example given of someone out for fame and money, so much so that she’s placed herself in an ill-suited environment for her power (a crowded city where she can’t maneuver properly without causing serious damage) just because it’s where more people will notice her and where there’s more villains to fight. The function of Bakugo in Chapter 1, remember, was that he was an egotistical glory hound looking to ride his innate power to glory, fame, and riches.

And further in, when we first learn about Endeavor’s deal, we’re being introduced to him as the logical endpoint of this system. He’s obsessed to the point of extreme measures, including buying a woman to marry with a strong Quirk, forcing her to have enough kids that he’ll get a suitable heir, and harshly training that heir into someone who can take his place in the societal totem pole that is the ranking of heroes. So, with all that said, why am I saying that it’s not a surprise this stuff is still around in the epilogue? Well, it’s because all of this bad stuff gets a facelift as time goes on. Bakugo became popular, so his image was cleaned up for the reader, the whole “get rich” angle was dropped, and other characters started loving and respecting him without the need for his shitty attitude to change. Endeavor was given a long, screen time-hogging “redemption arc” where the people he terrible abused forgave him. Even Mt. Lady became more noble as time went on. MHA has a serious issue with retconning its traits and brushing aside heavy topics for the sake of easy solutions and appealing to who and what is popular with fans. And, sure, give the fans what they want, but don’t do it at the cost of your story. Anyway, this is become a ramble, so I’ll get back on track. Hero rankings and the institutions of pro heroes is another part of the story that gets this sort of easy solution. It’s still around, but it’s run by “the good guys” now (It’s not like power corrupts, right? I’m sure the guy who idolizes Endeavor wouldn’t have an issues with the idea that people in power can use that power for bad things). They’ve learned, really, for true, so everything’s gonna be fine now, pinky-swears it. It really is just like Naruto’s ending, in that sense. The structures of power that have been criticized from the start are still around in the end, but because certain issues (mostly unrelated to that institution’s issues) have been dealt with, and because “the good guys” are now in charge, we’re just supposed to expect things are fine now and will be for the foreseeable future.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve really got to see. I know there are more issues people are talking about, but those are the ones I have something to say about. So, what’s the verdict? Is it a good ending? A bad ending?

It’s an ending, that’s enough.

[pluto-the-chinchilla]

Here’s the thing with Mary. And this is purely a personal thing, but I still stand by it. I disagree with other people who don’t like her and couldn’t relate so I wrote my own feelings down just to scream into the voice. I could’ve probably have done a better job if I rewatched her scenes but I’d rather not subject myself to that.

I’m not looking to debate, I’m not looking for engagement, I just… really hate her. Lol

I totally support her decision to choose safety and stability over Arthur. I’ve seen other haters and was disappointed by their reasoning. This is rational, and I completely am willing to defend her on this one. She’s not cut out for a certain life and she recognizes that! Not everyone’s an Abigail, a Sadie, or even a Mary-Beth, Tilly, or Karen. And certainly not a Grimshaw. And if she can’t adapt then why would anyone want to force her? I don’t! Sure maybe some gang women could’ve taken her under their wing, maybe they could’ve even gotten along with her and she could’ve saw her father for what he is and start blowing him off. But she still has a little brother to care for, and Jamie is a sweet soft person. They’re soft people but Mary, for all the vitriol I harbor for her, is not one to back down or get pushed around… with one deal breaking exception but we’ll get through there.

Asking for Arthur’s help despite all of the baggage between them… again, no harm no foul. Her little brother who both she and Arthur care about is in a bad situation. It’s the kind of situation where being a big scary outlaw comes in handy, and maybe she thought he needed sense from a man he looked up to. They certainly couldn’t ask daddy to be that to Jamie. And while it is audacious it’s still a fair favor at that point. Again, I think it’s endearing how she’s taken charge for Jamie. At this point in the game I feel disinterested in her but overall ambivalent.

The mission with her father and the resulting date is where I take a nosedive with Mary. I’m sorry but from start to finish she’s unfair, unreasonable, and outright does not care about Arthur or his feelings in this situation. Arthur already writes himself off continually in such a way that is barely challenged until he realizes he’s dying. So. First of all Mary is asking for Arthur’s help with a man who did nothing but undermine the relationship and talk shit about Arthur and devalued any merits he might’ve had and continued to do so during the mission — and got upset whenever Arthur talked shit back — and not nearly as much defend Arthur — and sorry but gameplay wise she is up Arthur’s ass and intrusive and nagging — like right up until that family heirloom is being pawned off she’s undoing the very thing Arthur got called to do. Just!!! Stop coddling your father while shitting on and wrist smacking the man who came to help you reel in this obnoxious disorderly pissant! And again, I know Arthur is an outlaw, but stop riding him when he’s trying to help and if DADDY is allowed to shittalk Arthur then Arthur should be allowed to throw anything he wants in his face.

I’m sorry but by the time it was over and done with I just don’t care about her anymore and any allusion to her for the rest of the story just pisses me off more as I wish for someone who actually shows consideration towards Arthur to talk to him more.

I wasn’t mad at her giving the thing back, I’m mad she didn’t do it sooner.

I’m mad they had that stupid “will they get back together” moment when they simply don’t have chemistry.

And with the date, maybe there’s just a certain expectation for women in the setting but watching the show with her especially after everything was a chore. But then…

Abigail acts kinda the same way at the picture show before John proposes? Like maybe if the mission hadn’t just happened I wouldn’t be bothered by it.

Anyway, I kind of don’t want any sort of decade with whoever reads this. I just needed to get my feelings out while I’m raw. I just finished watching my boyfriend play high honor yesterday and I’m still going Thru It.

[cafecourage]

Pinky Isn't Suffering

Chapter 6

Previous chapter - Next Chapter

Reminder these chapters happen between Enno cant get their crap together on @luimagines

                Finally, the group was blessed with a few days of peace after one fight after another. They were in Warrior’s Era and near the kingdom's capital. It still wasn’t enough to bring up the moral. Everyone was tired. Plan and simple.

Well... Some people seemed to be emotionally tired. Between the changes in realities, the story of the Fierce Deity, and for Twilight, finally realizing how he was acting towards Pinky while with Greyson, it was a lot for everyone involved. The two of them couldn’t really find time to sit down and talk. There was just never a time to get her alone.

He still felt the stinging sensation in his right forearm.

The mark…

There was no doubt in Twilight’s mind that he did the right thing, if only because he knows everyone is safe. He’d rather be the one marked than anyone else.

Yet.

  Twilight’s mind wanders to the Skyloftian. Does he have a mark? Why did Enno ask about the voice? If Time heard the voice, wasn’t it a common thing then? Twilight should ask. He really should. But in side-eyeing the knight of Skyloft during these few days of chaos, he noticed Sky looked like he could go into hibernation.

Except he was sleeping this whole time. Ennohasn’t been sleeping at all either. He knows this for a fact. Despite Wind’s and Hyrule’s efforts during their cuddling sessions, they were always up, taking the night shifts letting everyone else sleep. Of course it didn’t take long for everyone else to figure that out. From what he saw, the Veteran had sat with them at the fire, the mask still at their side. 

Time was still suffering from the blow to the head. He had been getting better but there were days where the head pain got too much for him.

  Twilight hated this.

He hated that his family was so tired. In so much pain. And that there isn’t much for him to do to fix it.

  Twilight’s spiral was cut off by the Captain, who took charge in Time’s stead. “I think this actually might be closer to Castle Town I thought.” His eyes scanned the field they’ve been walking through.

“Good.” There was a checklist of who was hurt, what needed to be purchased, and how many rooms they may need. “Our main concern should be getting whoever is wounded to an inn or something. We are lucky Hyrule could heal anything major.”

“The Queen can help us there.” Warriors never really talked about his Era, other than that it had a pretty chaotic war. “Let’s just hope that there aren't any events.”

“Events?”

  “He means that the nobles would want an excuse to party.” Legend popped up on his other side.

“How’s everyone holding up, Vet?” Warriors asked, seemingly planning out their best strategy for any answer given.

  “We’re ok for now, but it’s your hyrule. So it’s your call what to do.”

That seemed to not be what Warriors wanted to hear. He sighed. “Ok.” He covered his face, rubbing his temples. “We’ll go to the castle. Just- expect the nobility to throw a ball as soon as we step foot in castle town. No one other than me I’d required to join.”

Legend scoffs. “While I would love to do that, I know from experience how nosy nobles can be. They won’t leave us alone if we didn’t go.”

Twilight didn’t know much about high society. His Zelda purposely left him out of a lot of the politics and appearances because of his background. The amount of balls, galas and masquerades he has been to can be counted on one hand.

Twi knew that he was there to support Warriors, but it ended up being the fact that more than half of the group was still healing or resting that made Twilight considerably anxious.

Why must nobles be so nosy and picky about who the Hero of Courage hangs around? They don’t have any say with what happens in this adventure despite what they think.

Yet here he was, making an attempt to touch shoulders and socialize. He is happy to have a break. Twilight wondered if he could just leave, thinking back to Zelda and her crash course on high class customs. Honestly the only reason he was still there was to see the darling girl he couldn’t seem to stop thinking about.

 And… and maybe a dance… or two…

“Who’s got you looking like a love struck puppy?” Enno joined him in the corner looking just as tired as he was with socialization.

 “Wouldn’t you know by this point?” Twilight had given up keeping this crush a secret at this point. It seems like the whole world knew about his crush even before he did. “There’s a lot about her that is making me go love sick.” 

“Go off, I guess,” Enno leaned next to him on the wall. “Please tell me all about it.”

“You're just using me to ignore your own relationship issues.” Twilight wasn’t about to be teased when someone was just as bad as he was. He figured he was better off pointing out what he sees. Enno just rolled their eyes and stuck out their tongue. Twilight ignored their childish behavior and looked back out to the crowd. 

“Where is the mask?” He whispered, crossing his arms. 

Enno paused, almost like their brain was trying to process the info. “It’s…safe. Why?”

“I don’t trust it.” It was as plain and simple as that and honestly- “Frankly, we should get rid of it.”

“It’s just a trapped God.” They yawned out. “He can’t be that powerful.”

“You never wore the mask.” He tsk’ed at the audacity. “He is a lot more powerful than you think. He knows about all of us.” 

Did Twilight have proof of that?

No.

No, he didn’t. But that's besides the point. Twilight didn’t want Pinky anywhere near it.

Enno sighs. “You worry too much Twi.”

“Who else is going to worry if I don’t?” He shot back sarcastically.

“Cap was getting annoying ‘bout it.” They physically began to nod off.

“Hey.” Twilight gave them a small shake. “Don’t fall asleep on us.” 

Enno slapped his hand away but he didn’t stop holding them up. “You should take care of yourself.” 

“Don’t point a finger at a mirror now.” Enno focused their attention back in the crowd. “Instead, maybe you should play hero and save a princess or something.”

Twilight was confused at their words. Not understanding the reference, he looked out into the crowd.

And goddess above, his breath hitched at the sight.

There she stood, looking straight from one of the fairytale books he would read for the kids. Twilight's jaw goes slack and he didn’t realize he was staring until Pinky was right in front of him. He even didn’t register she was walking because the dress she was wearing made it seem like she glided across the ballroom. 

“You look…” His brain wasn’t working at this point. He tried to scramble to find the right words. “Wow…”

She blushed and bashfully began twirling a piece of her hair. “Thank you…”

A cough breaks the bubble as Enno starts to inch away. “I’m gonna dip.” 

Twilight was completely far gone. Enough so that he almost didn’t register Enno had spoken at all. “Don’t die.”

Pinky rolled her eyes but wasn't able to quip back. Twilight gently took her hand, bent down and kissed the top of it. “May I have this dance?”

“I…” She glanced down at her feet then to the dance floor, not knowing what to say. “I… don't know how.”

“Trust me.” Twilight gave her the softest smile. “I won't let you be embarrassed in front of everyone.”

That seemed to melt her as she finally relaxed and nodded. Twilight had a plot in his mind and slightly in his head. Slowly, he guided her away, away from prying eyes and listening ears.

Twilight felt lucky that the gardens were open. Through twists and turns, Twilight saw that when they got there that evening in the basking of the setting sun, there was a fountain in the middle, surrounded by bundles and bundles of rose bushes. Under the starry night, when he turned back to Pinky, the moon hit her in a way that made her look like she was glowing. For the second time that night, Twilight’s breath was stolen away. Twilight pulled her closer, placing one hand on the small of her back and the other taking her hand. The orchestra was far enough away that they could still hear it.

Twilight took the lead, letting the music guide him. The fountain’s water and muffled music were the only sounds that filled the area.

It was only the two of them that existed at that moment.

…The world.

…The adventure.

Nothing mattered at that moment.

“You look absolutely gorgeous in that dress.” Twilight slipped out a small growl. “Ravishing even.”

Red dusted her cheeks. “Well, aren't you just laying it on thick?” She lightly teased back.

It was his turn to turn red. “It’s the truth though. I’m just saying it how I see it.”

“Oh…” Pinky looked away shyly, before glancing up at Twilight again.She brushed off some of the dust on his shoulder. “You also clean up quite nicely. You're very handsome in that suit.”

“Warriors did it.” Twilight sighed, twirling her before bringing her back in.

“Well then… I’ll be sure to thank him later.” She was getting more confident with teasing him, but her face fell. “But… Twi?” Pinky looked down as if to find the right words. “Can I ask about what happened a few weeks ago?”

Twilight tilted his head as he pulled her into a slow spin. What exactly was a few…

 Oh…

“You mean with Greyson? Or the mask?”

“Both if I’m being honest.” Pinky’s blush only grew. “You called me your mate.”

Those few words made Twilight pause. It felt like ice water was dumped on him. “I- uh… Look, if your uncomfortable with that-“

“No!” Both of them were shocked at her outburst. “I mean… I don’t- I don’t mind…”

Hope quickly bubbled up and brought back warmth in him. He leaned in. “You don’t?”

She nodded and relief just flooded back into him. “Thank you” Twilight dragged Pinky into a hug. “I swear I’ll do things right.”

“You don’t need to do things right.” She whispers. “Just hold me.”

 Twilight could do that…

 He could do that with no problem.

[zirawrites]

Could you do companions reacting to sole breaking down and confessing to having a weird unique pipboy with a saving/loading function (like having the game mechanic in the real life)? They'd try to use it for good, loading back to get the best outcome in dialogs and quests, or to keep their companions from getting hurt in battles, but it'd make them go mad with time, so they'd start lashing out, hurting people, doing horrible things to them before loading back and being kind to everyone again. They'd regret the things they've done later, but still snap and do these things sometimes.

One of the tropes thst I like really much for some reason lol. Horrors of being a god.

Cait: “If I had one of those Pip-Boys, I’d be doin’ the same thing.” Cait shrugged dismissively. “We all need to blow off some steam. Long as you’re not actually hurtin’ someone, I don’t see why anyone’d get their panties in a twist.” Cait wasn’t sure why Sole felt so guilty. As far as she was concerned, Sole could vent their anger and no one would be the wiser. She just asked Sole not to kick her ass and then rewind time. The idea felt embarrassing.

Curie: “I cannot believe that such technology exists. Is there a way you could prove it to me?” When Sole explained that only the person wearing the Pip-Boy could rewind time, Curie insisted she try it herself. She used a marker to draw on Sole’s cheek (since she’d never hurt Sole, even for science), then reversed time with the Pip-Boy. Even after she watched the colorful mark disappear, Curie wasn’t sure if it was an elaborate prank. “Maybe we leave powerful technology to the experts, yes?”

Danse: “That’s abominable, soldier.” Danse’s face was red and twisted with raw fury. “Your Pip-Boy is the exact kind of damning technology the Brotherhood seeks to eradicate from the Commonwealth. And for the very reasons it is corrupting you.” He held out his hand. “Give it to me so it can be destroyed. I won’t ask again.”

Deacon: “So, how many penises have you drawn on my face? C’mon, don’t be shy.” Deacon didn’t believe Sole one bit, nor did he have any desire to try the Pip-Boy himself when they offered. When Sole wouldn’t let up or admit they were teasing him, Deacon was more worried about their mental health than the inconceivable power they wielded. He asked Sole to start leaving their Pip-Boy behind on missions, even if it meant needing to consult a good old fashion map.

Hancock: “Punching down is still punching down, even if the little guy won’t remember.” Hancock didn’t need convincing to believe Sole really had a time-warping Pip-Boy. He could tell by the anxiety on their face that they were telling the truth. The mayor focused more on explaining to Sole that any act of cruelty was wrong. And, in a roundabout way, hurting someone innocent was hurting yourself.

MacCready: “Have you used it on me?” MacCready felt sick when Sole nodded. “Was it to help me in a fight? Or did you ever, you know...” He couldn’t come out and ask if Sole had ever killed him. Their friendship would be ruined. Instead, MacCready glared at the Pip-Boy around Sole’s arm. “Never use it again. Or we’re through. Got it?”

Preston: “If I get hurt on a run, just use a Stimpack on me. No need to reload my life and try again. How else will we learn from our mistakes?” Preston was gentle with his attempt to get Sole to ditch the Pip-Boy. Even if it put their friends in danger. He just didn’t think it could lead to any real good.

Piper: “And you never stopped to wonder if the Institute made that for you? What if every time you reload something else horrible is happening? There’s no way you can just time travel without repercussions.” Piper was more angry with Sole using technology they didn’t understand than hurting other people. It wasn’t like Sole’s victims would even remember. “I bet it has some fancy tracking device. I dunno, Blue. Just get rid of it.”

Nick: “If things do not turn out as we wish, we should wish for them as they turn out.” Nick didn’t care if quoting Aristotle was pretentious. He was worried Sole would lose their ethics. Morals. Grip on reality. “You’re playing god, Sole. That’s never worked out for anyone. You’ve already let it go to your head. Don’t let it go to your heart, too.”

X6-88: X6 deeply enjoyed the possibility that time could be rewound. How many people could be saved from a stupid decision? The Commonwealth was filled with errant bullets, bad calls and careless people. “You aren’t doing anything I wouldn’t do myself with one of those.” X6 pointed at Sole’s Pip-Boy. “With technology like that, the Institute cannot fail.”

[catkin-morgs-kookaburralover]

@monthly-challenge 2024 | 12. Compliments

I used this prompt for my original characters, Nathan and Patience: the story is under the cut.

Word count: 1,085

Patience tied up her hair, squinted at it in the mirror and tried it again. It was still crooked, and didn’t sit nicely, like she’d hoped.

“Do you need a hand?” asked Rhona, as she entered the room. She seemed on the tail end of a laugh, as if there had been something very funny just said.

“I would love one,” said Patience. “I really need about three, one to wield a hairbrush, and one to tie it up, and the third to hold it to be tied in the first place.”

“Let me try it.” Rhona wielded the hairbrush and elastic with expert hands, and presently produced an extremely passable-looking ponytail. “Why do you want to be particularly pretty today?—Don’t tell me, it’s Nathan.”

“Yeah.” She grinned. “We’re getting not-engagement photos done.”

“I cannot believe you didn’t tell me this until just now. You did say not engagement, right? He still hasn’t engaged himself to you?”

“He has not.” Patience laughed and pushed a satin-sleek lock of hair back. “Nor do I anticipate it any minute now.”

“You sure this isn’t actually an engagement photoshoot that he just forgot to mention? Sure he isn’t whipping out the ring during it?”

“Well, if he does, then it’s not something I anticipate at all.”

“Why aren’t you wearing your hair down? It looks so pretty when you do.”

“Don’t flatter me! It’s simply not voluminous enough; not like yours.” “Yours is gorgeous! I’m sure—” She cut herself off. “Never mind, that joke didn’t need saying.”

“Okay, then…?” Patience replied, a little confused. “Anyway, I figured I’d tie it back because then it won’t get in my face.”

“It’s going to be so beautiful.” Rhona removed the elastic despite Patience’s protests, and began to brush her hair. “Should I come with you so you can have it properly brushed just before you enter the studio?”

“‘Enter the studio’… that sounds so frightfully posh.”

“Frightfully,” agreed Rhona lightheartedly. “Terribly. Amazingly.”

“In answer to your question….” She ignored the ribbing and subsequent laughter. “If you put the brush in my bag probably Nathan will brush it again.”

“That sounds awfully romantic.” Rhona sighed softly. “What do I have to do to land a boyfriend as nice as yours, Patience?”

She shrugged broadly, nearly knocking the brush from Rhona’s hands. “Blowed if I know. He just showed up one day and wanted to marry me.”

“Wanted to marry you—!”

“Okay, I may be summarising. He wanted to go out with me, so I said yes, just to see how it worked. Turns out it works real well.”

“You’ve been dating for over a year now, because it was around Christmas last year, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, so that makes it—what, coming up on fourteen months now?” “That’s a long time to be dating, you know.”

“Eh, not so long as you might think?” Patience put on a necklace—a delicate silver thing which had her name on a small silver bar—and smiled perfunctorily into the mirror. “Yes, we know each other a lot better than we used to, but that still doesn’t mean that we’re ready to get married. Far from it, in fact. I don’t think we’d be ready to be married in a year’s time. Though if he asked me, I’d probably say yes, even if it came with conditions.”

“All your best years!” bemoaned eighteen.

“I have plenty of better years to come,” said wiser nineteen.

“Isn’t nineteen the best age to have children, though?”

“Biologically, maybe: socially and all the rest of it, including maturity level, probably not. There’s always an age at which you can be more something, or something else. Ultimately, I’d be not looking to have children immediately if I was to marry now, which I’m not.” She emphasised the last word, smiling at Rhona.

Rhona sighed. “At my age, you were only three months away from finding a steady boyfriend. I don’t see any of that happening anytime soon.”

“And that’s okay,” said Patience firmly, then hugged her younger sister. “Everyone’s timeline is different. I will say that at your age I didn’t expect to find a boyfriend anytime soon either, and it was out of the blue: but also, consider Paul.”

“I knew you were going to say that,” she said, sadly.

“Of course I was! The thing is, dear heart, easy as it may be for me to say (and I know it’s not easy to do), you need to try and be content in whatever stage of life you’re in right now. Having a boyfriend isn’t all kisses and sweet things. There are hard conversations, and you carry the other person’s burdens as well as your own, sometimes. I can’t tell you what, of course, but that’s very much true. Please don’t feel like you’re unwanted, Rhona. You’re very much wanted, despite the fact that no boy has yet noticed this of you.”

Rhona sighed and hugged her. Patience returned the hug. “It’s just hard,” she said.

“I know. And I’ll pray for you.”

“Thanks.”

“The time is such that I should scram,” said Patience, suddenly noticing the aforementioned time. “Cram that brush in my bag, and I’ll skedaddle.”

Nathan was picking her up in his new—secondhand—car, and Patience came in a whirl of blue satin skirts and satin-smooth hair, sliding hurriedly into his car. “I’m sorry I’m late,” she apologised.

“Hence why I left fifteen minutes extra in the planning phase, in case you were,” he said, sparkling-eyed. “You’re looking beautiful today, Patience.”

“Thanks.” She had had a year of acclimatising herself to his compliments, and while they still made her want to retreat inside her shell and freeze him out over it, she was more and more used to just accepting them at face value. For whatever reason, Nathan actually cared about her.

Which was just as well, because she cared about him, too.

“You’re looking very dapper also,” she added, taking in for the first time the sight of her boyfriend in a spotted blue bowtie. “I love your bowtie.”

“Thanks, I love it too. I colour-matched it, even.”

“Impressive. How’d you know I’d wear this?”

“It’s the thing that looks prettiest on you. I thought it was likely enough. Also I bought six others just in case.”

She stared at him. “You’re crazy.”

“I know.” He smiled, charmingly. “And you love me for it.”

“Well, yes,” she admitted, and just before he started up the car again she kissed him quickly.

Tagging @stealingmyplaceinthesun @graycedelfin @pilgrimsofworship@noisette-tornade and @choasuqeen

[polikszena]

Ficlet advent calendar - December 8

Title: You’re a mean one, Mr Hands

Fandom: Our Flag Means Death, The Full Monty

Characters: Lucius Spriggs, Stede Bonnet, Edward Teach (Blackbeard), Black Pete, Izzy Hands, Wee John Feeney

Relationships: Lucius / Black Pete

Word Count: 899

Rating: Teen and up audiences

Warnings: Stronger language

Songs: You’re a Mean One, Mr Grinch; Last Christmas by Wham!

Summary: This is another installment of my Our Flag Means Death - The Full Monty AU in which the Revenge's crew are unemployed steel factory workers who decide to put together a chippendale show. In this chapter, they are preparing for a Christmas show, but not everyone is happy about it. All of it told by Lucius Spriggs himself.

Notes: This chapter is related to a one-shot I wrote in April , and since I enjoyed writing it a lot, I knew I would get back to it sometime. Also, I love the dynamics between Lucius and Izzy, but I don't ship them romantically.

And this one sets in the late 1990s, so way before Backstreet Boys did actually release a cover of Last Christmas. (Apologies to everyone who loves that song, by the way.)

December 8 – You’re a mean one, Mr Hands

Lucius Spriggs’ diary – Thursday

Fun day at the (Blow)Job Club! We were planning our Christmas show, The Naked Santas (we might need another title as this one is way too revealing), and I can tell, it’s going to be absolutely gorgeous! Although there are still some arguments whether the Santa costumes should be all red or have different colours. Stede wants to keep it colourful, but Edward wants to keep them red. They tried to make the others vote, but it doesn’t really matter as all the clothes will be taken off. I just hope they will be made of some nice fabrics, because the Santa costumes you can buy in Tesco, for instance, are one: ugly as hell, and two: I have allergic reactions when they touch my skin. Trust me, it's not a nice sight.

All in all, the Christmas show is going to be a blast. Too bad we’ll probably have to dance to Last Christmas, which is so boring, but we can’t really skip it as it’s a classic. I hope Frenchie can mix it up a little, but honestly, it won’t help much. I mean, what can you do with a song that goes like “Last Christmas, I gave you my heart, / but the very next day you gave it away”? Ugh. The only good thing about this song is that postcard that starts playing it once you open it. I sent one to Jerky Jeremy two years ago after our breakup. Such a shame that I couldn’t see his face when he opened the card!

Anyway, we were listening to Frenchie’s mixtape, when our personal Grinch turned away from the computer (on which he was adjusting his CV) and started a long monologue about how stupid Christmas was and how pointless was taking our clothes off to cheesy Christmas music. I’m kind of glad that it happened when Stede and Edward were out to check the venue and didn’t hear it.

“You’ve never been taken to a sleigh ride, and it shows,” I told him, walking to his chair. “But it’s never too late for one,” I offered, because it’s obvious how badly this guy needs to blow off some steam. Otherwise he’ll explode and we’ll all be covered by Izzy Hands’ organs which would be more disgusting than Backstreet Boys doing a cover of Last Christmas. I mean, they are cute, but this would make an already horrible song even worse.

“I’d rather be run over by the bin lorry,” Izzy said, looking at me as if I was some chewing gum he accidentally stepped into on his way home. Or as if I was responsible for the existence of Last Christmas.

“We can arrange that,” Wee John said, looking up from the ‘Puzzles for Kids’ section of the newspaper.

I had an even better idea.

“Frenchie, please rewind the tape to the previous song,” I told him. “I want to try something.”

While he was doing that, I made some head circles and hip moves to warm up a little, and once Frenchie pressed play on his cassette player, I started dancing. I did a performance just for Mr Hands to the song You’re a Mean One, Mr Grinch, but of course, changed “Grinch” to “Hands” as I lip-synced to it. I didn’t take off any clothes (yet), as the things I’m currently wearing are not exactly stripper friendly. Not to mention, the floor was hella dirty and full of germs. No way I’m throwing my white knitted sweater there. But I pretended to take off everything. All eyes were on me, and I absolutely loved it.

Of course, before I got to the part where I’d do a little lap dance, Dizzy Izzy knocked the chair over, told me to eff myself, then ran out of the room. He almost crashed into Stede and Edward who had just came back.

“Where are you going?” the latter asked.

“That was wonderful, Lucius!” Stede exclaimed. “We should add it to the show, don’t you think?” he asked, looking around the room.

The others all agreed with him, so I can proudly announce that I got my solo number! I still have to work out the lap dance parts, but I guess I’ll ask for some help.

“Look at this nice plant I’ve found hanging down from the ceiling on the corridor!” Edward said, pointing at the mistletoe pinned to his coat. “So cool, isn’t it?”

Honestly, someone should explain to this man how Christmas traditions work because this is an outrage. Especially because we put up that bloody mistletoe for him and Stede to finally kiss, and what does this moron do? Pins it on his coat! I swear to God, this is unacceptable!

However, before I could have said anything about it, Black Pete stepped to me.

“That was so hot,” he told me with a smile forming at the corner of his lips, “that I want to kiss you and I don’t care who sees it.”

I couldn’t hide my grin anymore. I kind of knew this was coming.

“Please do,” I said, and he didn’t have to be asked twice.

Needless to say, we spent the rest of the day in the cupboard in the back of the room.

TO DO:

Finish my solo number

(Ask Pete to be the test audience)

Explain to Edward what mistletoes are for

Read it on AO3

[princesswithabraidedcrown]

I posted 4,343 times in 2022

48 posts created (1%)

4,295 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@dimondlite

@biconic-rosa-diaz

@softcannoli

@lynati

@vyther15

I tagged 330 of my posts in 2022

#for future reference - 17 posts

#the blogger rambles - 16 posts

#the blogger watches - 15 posts

#kinnporsche - 14 posts

#about the blogger - 9 posts

#kinnporsche the series - 8 posts

#the untamed - 6 posts

#anyway - 6 posts

#jeff satur - 5 posts

#wow - 4 posts

Longest Tag: 133 characters

#anyway my mom’s thing makes me twitchy because i mostly just try to remember to eat enough in a day and don’t fuss about the contents

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

The streaming session of the KinnPorsche world tour I was participating in kinda fell off the rails during the English version of Why Don’t You Stay, which was very sad. Hopefully it turns out okay for the rest of it tomorrow.

My thoughts in no particular order:

Dang, Slot Machine is awesome and I should go look them up. (We amazed a random discord member who randomly wandered into the stream about Mile having previously been just a filthy wealthy dude that played the guitar)

Oh my goodness, Jeff!!! Said multiple times, by multiple people.

The VegasPete scene was chef’s kiss. Gonna wax dance show critic here but Bible has some amazing physicality and charisma. Like I’m pretty darn ace and I still can tell that he’s hot and does amazing work as Vegas. I’m in the middle of episode 10, so I haven’t fallen headlong for Pete/Build yet…but it’ll probably happen.

So highly amused that Barcode made up for the clothing deficit amongst everyone else singlehandedly. Pretty sure I missed the main brouhaha about the song he performed to, but nobody mentioned it was a cover of a Blackpink song! I love Blackpink!!!

The chat punched the air when Tay slapped Time. It’s possible to do polyamory ethically. Whatever Time’s deal is…isn’t it. On a sidenote: more Tay centric fics please.

I was highly amused that the mom got a sarong for her little thing with Chay/Barcode. The subtitles were on a horrendous delay, so I don’t actually know what all went on, but it’s cute that she was momming him.

As for the KimChay…I don’t quite see how that ending was horrible? Slightly more open ended than it could have been. But the flipside of forgetting the bad times is remembering the good ones. Obviously there were some good times or else Chay would not have been devastated by Kim’s betrayal. And…then there were technical difficulties and we had to stop the stream in the middle of Jeff’s performance. So that was lame. But Jeff did a good job before technology decided to pitch a hissy fit.

I concur with the person that said they hoped Jeff had gotten cleared to sing by a doctor. I’ve only listened to a few of his live performances and I could tell his range was a little rough. Don’t let them force you back into singing before your vocal cords have healed!!! That’d be awful if you permanently damaged them.

Anyway. Looking forward to the final half and all the Magic Mike bits.

14 notes - Posted July 31, 2022

#4

I’d like to give Jackson Wang and whoever else is on his creative team congrats for having an excellent track record on music videos. I just watched the one for Cruel and my gosh that was neat. I like the through line of vapory lifeforce from Blow. That was cool.

My writing fingers might be slightly inspired…so who knows what’ll come.

17 notes - Posted August 5, 2022

#3

Finished the second half of KPWT!!!! Once again in no particular order.

Would it have killed them to fix the subtitles before releasing the rerun tickets??? Like seriously, I thought youtube subs could be iffy, but these were…special. They could have held off on letting people do the rerun viewings long enough for them to fix the timing and the quality. Yeah, live subtitling is super labor intensive…but afterwards…you get to pause and rewind to make sure you’ve got it correctly.

Anyway. The Minor family thing was entertaining. I would probably strain something in my back if I had to do flips in the air. It’d be fun…but yeah…I’m not nearly as athletic as Bible.

Build playing the saxophone amused me to no end.

I’m excited for the MileApo flick and hopefully they plunk it on iqiyi or something so I can support BOC with my watching.

I’m very impressed at how many parents were there…because if mine were at such an event…I’d change my name and move to the Southern hemisphere.

I must give JJ’s arms and shoulders an honorable mention because he has obviously worked hard on them. I certainly would not want to get tackled by him.

I snickered when I saw how tall the heels on Jeff’s boots were during the final…clubbing moment…or whatever we are calling it. Finale of some sort. Anyway…Jeff is tiny and Barcode is definitely taller than him and I am delighted. I say this as if Jeff isn’t possibly taller than me by a couple inches. Crap. I’m gonna have to look that up. Anyway, Jeff is all the gender in a pint sized package. Except for where he’s still probably above average height.

Ahem. Lovely experience, would watch again if they fixed the subtitles.

22 notes - Posted August 1, 2022

#2

Oh dear lord, if the infantilization of Apo that’s going on on twitter by some people also has a side of ableism…I will riot.

I haven’t exactly watched a lot of interviews with him but the ones I have watched screamed possible adhd. He could just be very energetic. But if he does have adhd…infantilizing the grown man is doubly aggravating.

Anyway, glad I don’t go searching for stuff on twitter.

24 notes - Posted August 23, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I wish I remembered who wrote the fic with Kinn comparing his accent in English to Vegas’ and lamenting the fact that nobody was gonna send a second son to an international school and that’s why there’s a difference. Because it lives in my brain rent free and I wish I’d made a note of the fic.

26 notes - Posted July 25, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[coffee-at-annies]

What if we NYI swept us in the regular season so we can sweep / take the series vs NYR because who knows? Before the doomers rise: we still can easily catch NYI in the standings w 18GP to go and a 2 pt gap in their favor. hard to imagine that scenario when after the Oilers game we were outside of a playoff spot because Detroit was hot only 2 weeks ago. Also erasing a 4-0 deficit vs a Metro team two games ago was already huge in case everyone forgot

Oh I’m not dooming and glooming. It was a disappointing loss to an otherwise good game but I’m not letting it get me down. This team is looking way better than it did before I took the time off. Unlike the oilers game this looks like a team that wants to win. That’s important. If we don’t want to win then we can’t scrape wins out of games that should have been losses.

We’ve struggled really hard this season with beating teams that are flat out better than us - both in the standings and on the stats sheet. We can play down to teams easily enough - that’s what happened to CBJ on Tuesday; nice as the comeback felt, CBJ is the worst team in the league and this was always their game to blow. I don’t know if the isles are a better team than us but last night we looked like the better team for long stretches. That’s really encouraging. We’ve gone into games against playoff teams and did not look like we were even trying to win, just get out of the game. There’s no way we’re going to meet the islanders in the first round but I can see a playoff series with them going either way. That’s a good thing. It means the pens are shaping up.

The only place the isles looked consistently better than us? Goalie. I love Jarry. He’s my favorite player on the team. The better goalie on the ice was Sorokin. He locked it down in the third and Jarry couldn’t. Now it’s not completely on Jars. The defense could have done more to help. We could have scored on the empty net. We could have not let up two back to back 1 on 0 breakaways in overtime to end the game. The pk in the first could have stopped the puck from crossing the line by inches. I’m not badmouthing our goalie but as much as I hate to admit it the better goalie won last night.

As for the rangers? Who knows. I don’t. I’m actually incredibly terrified for my tickets on Sunday. I’d like by believe we have a chance to not get swept by them but who knows. All I know is the Pittsburgh fanbase is not classy so there’s gonna be Igor chants on Sunday and the little hater that lives in my heart and wants nothing more than the rags to lose will have to fight the good little girl who also lives in my heart and thinks goalie chants are mean and dumb and we shouldn’t do them. Inside you there are two wolves etc etc etc.

[lacemekers-new-master]

Chapter One Meeting your Master

TW!!KIDNAPPING and SUICIDE!!TW

I don’t have much to my life. All I do is make lace I can’t afford to wear. At the orphanage that’s what they had taught most of the girls. They had told us it was a good way to make money and support ourselves, but I hardly have the money to eat. I’d need to work faster and faster. I have no friends we were all separated once leaving the orphanage. Maybe they are achieving the success we were promised. I stand alone at the bridge the river below rushing underneath. I pass the bridge every day and every day I think of throwing myself down into the river. Today is the day when I actually do it. I have nothing left, no money, no valuables, no reason to live. I lean forward the wind picking up and blowing my hair into my face, but a noise distracts me. I see a carriage led by dark horses rushing towards me.  There’s no way the driver doesn’t see me. So, do I jump or come back over the railing? But I’m frozen. I don’t do anything. I feel my feet come off the ground, but I didn’t jump; I was swept off my feet. A strange man has his arms wrapped around me, and the next thing I knew I was on the floor of the carriage. I didn’t scream I just sat there staring.

 

“She sure is quiet.” Said the tall dark-haired man who grabbed me. His features were sharp with thick eyebrows and neat facial hair. He had an unusual accent like nothing I had heard before.

 

“We won’t even need to shut her up.” Interjected a stout and especially pale man staring down at me. His face was round, and he had brown somewhat short hair. What is this some sort of kidnapping? I wouldn’t be worth any ransom money. I just looked at them. I should feel something; fear, terror, or something. I sit on the floor of the carriage awkwardly.

 

“Don’t worry lady we have a catch-and-release program.” Said a boyish man still seated. His hair was light and his body thin. He spoke distinctly differently with an accent I did recognize he was French.

 

“So, I’ll be going back?” I ask. Is there anything worth going back to? Should I just finish the job once I’m back?

 

“You don’t seem relieved. You’ll be back in the morning.” He tries to reassure me. I just stare at him.

 

“Normally that gets some sort of reaction.” Says the pale man.

 

“I don’t know what you want, but I don’t have it,” I tell them.

 

“Well, you’re alive, aren’t you?” He asks me. What does that even mean? Clearly?

 

“I swear to god if we got an undead one, you’re taking the blame!” Said the man who grabbed me to his French companion. Undead? Is this some weird joke? I’m a little pale, but not a reanimated corpse. Now I look closer I wonder if these are men or some sort of creatures. They all look somewhat off. Not all of them are pale, but their skin looks grey and lifeless like sunken eyes.

 

“What is the meaning of this exactly?” I say strangely calm.

 

“You’ll see when we arrive.” Said the stout man. I stared at his mouth noticing his sharp canine teeth. Everyone was seated on the benches, so I picked myself up and sat down. There’s no reason to leave I have nothing waiting for me.  We sat for a long while riding into the countryside. The further we got the bumpier the ride got. I gaze out the window at the rocky landscape as the men speak to each other in a language unknown to me. Distinctly not French which I had heard many people around me speak. I just sit in silence. The Frenchman says something to the tall fellow. They look at me quickly and then turn to each other. They speak in a hushed tone which seems useless as I understand nothing they’re saying. The Frenchman pushes back his strawberry blonde hair and clears his voice.

 

“What’s your name?” He asks me.

 

“Isolde.”

 

“Well, Isolde do you happen to be looking for a husband?” I just stare at him blankly. I hadn’t even thought of it I was so focused on everything else in my life I hadn’t considered it. Is this what this whole kidnapping was about?

 

“Don’t tell me that’s why I’m here. Is this some sort of backward way you guys are trying to find a wife?”

 

“No, of course not. I just thought you were very beautiful and would be perfect for our master.”

 

“Oh, so I’m here to be a wife for your master?” I don’t know why on earth I’d be chosen as someone’s wife. Especially anyone of higher rank. I’m dressed plainly and am not particularly charming. The tall dark-haired man gives a hard look to the other two before turning to me.

 

“No, you’re not. You simply would not do. I’m sorry if these two got your hopes up.” I chuckle a little. As if it would be some great honor to be kidnapped as a wife for some strange man. That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard in a while.

 

“She is awfully strange.” Said the pale brunette. The carriage slows to a halt and I look out the window. There’s a stone castle right outside. It sits on a lake and it’s probably the nicest thing I’ve seen. They step out one by one and I follow. Once out of the carriage tall man and brunette take both my arms, but I walk willingly with them. We make our way across the suspension bridge. I think of the bridge where I’d plan to jump. This is a more picturesque place for suicide anyway if I do decide to go through with it.

 

We walk into the castle and it is beautifully decorated with the newest styles and colors with a French flair. I see strange things that I don’t recognize too some sort of lute and foreign instruments. I am taken upstairs into a dimly lit room. The whole castle is somewhat dark, but I can still see in the candlelight.

 

“Master, we brought you dinner!” Says the Frenchmen who had been walking alongside us. Dinner? They didn’t bring any food. Unless I’m the food… Is their master a monster who eats human flesh? This might be a fate worse than death. Maybe this was what it took to finally make me care. Was this my fate all along? I look into the dark and piecing brown eyes meet my gaze. Out of the shadows emerges a man rather than a beast. With long dark wavy hair and a thin mustache.

 

“Oh c’mon guys. This one is much too sad.” He says… what? “I either want them screaming in terror like ‘oh no don’t eat me!’ or excited by it like ‘oh please suck my blood!’”. He says his tone is silly and laid back with a thick foreign accent. Am I seriously going to be sacrificed to this man?

 

“She’s very pretty though. I know you love pretty women. Look at her face she’s just like a porcelain doll!” Says the blond boyish one.

 

“An emaciated porcelain doll.” Says the tall one.

 

“Well, doll are you good at anything? Are you good at singing or dancing?” He turns towards the other men. “Oh, wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could have a human to perform at my parties?”

 

“I’m not much of a performer. My only skill is making lace.” He seems somewhat let down by my response.

 

“Lace… well I do like lace.” He says unenthused. I notice that he does seem to have a lot of lace. His clothing is rich and colorful with white lace trim. “Oh well, the little doll I bet you’re dying to go home. You aren’t quite my taste so you can return.” I stand there. I have no reason to return. They’re rich this place is luxurious much better than anything where I live. I’d be willing to work for a monster. I already sort of do back home.

 

“You’re too kind for offering to let me go. “I say putting on a bit of an act. “But I a lowly lacemaker have nothing to return to. Won’t you let me stay here?”

 

“You mean you want to st-“ the tall man is interrupted.

 

“Oh, how sad! The dolly has no one!” Says the Master touched by my little act. “You can stay here as long as you like if you keep me company and make me lots of pretty lace.”

 

This must be the stupidest thing I’ve done…

[twilight-orchid]

How The Demon Brothers React After Fighting With Their SO

tw: some angst with resolution at the end, mentions of past arguments, insecurity.

Lucifer:

This man is petty as hell.

He doesn’t do the silent treatment, but he acts like you aren’t dating.

If you need to work on something together, you’re a co-worker.

At RAD you’re a classmate.

Around the house you’re just a housemate.

His poker face is immaculate and it will not crack when you’re around.

If someone didn’t know what was happening, they’d probably think you two barely knew each other.

However, you won’t notice, but as soon as you look the other way his eyes are on you.

He’s used to arguing with his brothers and is no stranger to explosive fights that end with he and the other person not being on speaking terms.

But you’re different.

He tries to go on with business as usual, but he can’t think about anything other than how much he misses you.

Yet, he lets it continue because he just can’t put his pride aside and apologize.

If you decide to sleep in your old room it’ll both hurt his feelings and royally piss him off.

He thinks you’re being childish and will be pretty rude about it, but that’s because internally his blood just ran cold.

It adds a degree of seriousness to the argument that he’s uncomfortable with.

Yes he’s mad, but he can’t lose you.

If you still sleep in his bed, he makes sure to scoot over to the very edge so he doesn’t cuddle you in his sleep.

In fact, the first night after the argument he’d probably put a pillow between you just to really punctuate the fact that he’s still upset.

I’d say it could go 4 days to a week tops without you making up.

After a point though, he just can’t function until the issue is resolved. He can’t sleep, he’s falling behind on his work, and he’s just generally not doing well.

You get called to his office one night and find him at his desk surrounded by piles of paper, disheveled and exhausted.

“MC, come sit down. I’d like to talk this through. Please.”

Mammon:

He’s so dramatic.

You dare defy him? The Great Mammon can’t believe this tiny fragile human would have the audacity.

The theatrics are just a front though.

His ‘The Great Mammon’ act is a mask for his insecurity, one he hasn’t had to use with you in awhile.

Even as the words leave his mouth he regrets them.

He’s going to be very uncomfortable with everything until the argument is resolved, but most of all himself.

He’s learned not to take his brothers too seriously when they toss insults his way, but words have a way of morphing to belief over time.

Internally he is going to be super hard on himself. 

Regardless of if the fight was his fault or not, he’s going to kick himself constantly for making yet another mistake.

He’s over the argument pretty fast. The anger quickly melts into anxiety.

Are you going to leave him? Do you hate him? Did he hurt your feelings? 

That being said, he doesn’t know if you’re still mad and he doesn’t know how to ask. 

As a defense mechanism, he defaults to how he treated you when you first arrived in the devildom.

Calls you human, disregards you, stuff like that.

If you decide to sleep in another room, before midnight expect him to be knocking on the door.

“Oi, MC. You awake? I just - I can’t - *sigh* Can we talk about this?”

If you sleep in his bed, he makes a point of sleeping with his back to you.

Less because he’s actually mad and more because he doesn’t want his image of you as he drifts to sleep to be a look of anger.

Though as soon as he passes out he’ll roll over and tuck you into his arms on instinct.

I’d say any after effects of an argument with Mammon would be resolved in a day, maybe two tops.

Leviathan:

Arguing activates his trolling the forums mode.

Goes back to calling you a normie and contradicts everything you say.

He’s less mad about the argument and more using the bitterness to cope with how upset he is.

He feels like a break up is less of an if and more of a when.

Why would someone as amazing as you settle for weird otaku like him?

Honestly doesn’t understand why you’re with him in the first place, so when there’s a serious argument he assumes its over.

Tbh don’t know how you and Levi would sleep together being that I doubt two could fit in a tub, but any deviation to your routine sends him into a panic.

It’s his reality check that the situation is serious and he needs to fix it NOW.

He’d have trouble apologizing in person. He can’t think of what to say, he stumbles over his words, and he feels like he’s on the verge of a panic attack.

Instead, expect a long ass text message.

He says how sorry he is, how much he misses and loves you, and legit begs you to forgive him.

If you sleep with him like normal, he’ll probably try to make up after laying there for awhile. His mind is going a million miles an hour and there’s no way he can sleep.

Still really has trouble verbalizing how he feels, so give the poor boy a break and take over the conversation.

He hasn’t had a serious relationship before and he doesn’t know what he should do to make it better.

So the after effects will last however long it takes him to read several mangas, watch some anime, and play a few games to see how the characters get over arguments in the story.

Satan:

Satan makes sure not to fight with you over minor issues.

He’s worked tirelessly to tame his wrath and he refuses to feed into it over a minor issue.

Thus, if you fight with Satan it’s a major argument and it’s explosive.

The aftermath isn’t much better.

He doesn’t want to risk blowing up again, so he’s frighteningly calm.

He’s an absolute master of the silent treatment.

He won’t say a word to you until he’s certain he’s calmed down enough.

For the first few days he’ll straight up leave a room if you enter.

For a good while the only way you can expect to communicate with him is through his body language and the expression in his eyes.

Satan’s biggest fear is losing control and lashing out at you. 

He couldn’t live with himself if he hurt you and he can’t stand the thought of you being afraid of him. 

He’s a whirlwind of emotions, so he isolates himself until he can figure out how to deal with it.

Not just from you, but from everyone else too. 

Satan will not share a bed with you for at least the first night.

If he got worked up enough to actually fight, it’s gonna take him time to simmer down.

And he’d rather not risk doing or saying something he regrets in the meantime.

Once he’s ready, he’ll approach you when he’s completely calmed down and has thoroughly analyzed the situation.

He’s considered both of your sides, tried to pinpoint what caused the disagreement to turn into a fight, and made a plan of action to prevent it from happening again.

“MC? I’ve been thinking quite a bit about what happened. Would you please talk it through with me?”

He won’t apologize for the argument if he feels like he was right, but he will apologize for letting the disagreement escalate into a fight.

Satan could go weeks without making up if necessary, but he tries to resolve it within a couple of days.

Asmodeus:

Wants to give you the silent treatment, but is physically incapable.

He can’t stand to have you ignore him.

He’s the type to go back to normal then suddenly remembers you guys had a fight.

“Wait, no! I’m not talking to you! I’m mad at you!”

His biggest downfall is that he’s so stubborn.

If he thinks he was right, he will die on that hill.

There are arguments with his brothers that happened a thousand years ago and he could still tell you exactly why he was right.

But with you, he realizes that doesn’t matter too him nearly as much as it usually does.

If it means going back to normal, he’ll forget who’s right or wrong.

If you sleep in another room, he’s beyond offended.

“What?! Well fine! I don’t want you in my bed anyway!”

Laying in bed alone is a different story though.

He can’t sleep. All he can think about is you. Your face when you sleep next to him, your smell, the feeling of his arms around you.

He 100% cries.

Finally goes and knocks on your door with wet, glossy eyes.

“MC? Can we talk about this? I can’t get my beauty sleep and my tears are wiping off all of my skin care lotion!”

Will throw himself into your arms before you can answer.

If you sleep next to him still, he rolls over and watches you sleep.

It puts him at peace and he decides seeing your sweet, resting face every morning is worth more to him than the argument.

He’ll initiate the conversation the next morning.

I think Asmo could make it a few days if it was a really serious argument, but he will not function well until you make up.

Beelzebub:

Wants to make up immediately.

He doesn’t like to argue, even less so with you.

Whether he was right or wrong, he blames himself. He’ll take all the blame in the world if it makes you happy.

He’ll go make you your favorite food and bring it to you.

If he thinks you don’t want to talk to him, he’ll leave it outside your door and text you to let you know it’s there.

He’s honestly devastated if you decide to sleep in another room.

You guys migrate to your old room when you want privacy from Belphie, but you almost never sleep separately.

Seeing you grab your pillows and march out of the room nearly stops his heart.

He goes completely numb and silent as he just stares at the space you had just occupied.

Like Levi, he thinks this means the relationship is over and he genuinely does not know what to do with himself.

He can’t even bring himself to eat, he just wants to lie there, lost and trying to grapple with his emotions. 

He’s another one who will absolutely cry, but unlike Asmo he will make sure no one knows it.

If you still sleep in his bed, he’s very nervous about it.

He doesn’t know if it’s okay to touch you, what he can or can’t say, stuff like that.

He just lays there stiff as a board not even able to close his eyes.

Honestly the fight would probably have to be resolved before bed. His anxiety just can’t take it.

I don’t think he’d initiate the apology. Not because he doesn’t want to make up but because his confidence is rock bottom in these situations.

He catastophizes and honestly thinks you hate him.

If you don’t initiate the apology soon, Belphie will. He can feel what his twin won’t say, and he knows Beel won’t approach you about it for fear of making it worse.

Belphie will lock you two in a room if that’s what it takes for you to make up.

Belphegor:

The embodiment of if looks could kill.

He won’t talk to you, won’t look at you, basically pretends you aren’t there.

If he must interact with you he’ll roll his eyes and sigh the whole time.

Tries to sleep through any interaction so he doesn’t have to deal with it.

He feels almost betrayed by the fight.

He thought the relationship was stronger than to have such a huge divide, so he’s really insecure about it.

After the first day, the anger has melted away to guilt.

He ‘s not guilty that you fought, but he is guilty about how he treated you after.

Guilt and self-blame have become unwelcome friends at this point. Guilt over Lilith, over his plans to destroy the human world, everything.

But more than anything else, the guilt for the fact that he attacked you weighs on him every day.

He moved past it quickly after, essentially pretending he hadn’t killed you, but that’s because he just couldn’t confront what he’d done. 

He feels like the luckiest demon alive that you forgave him, let alone  opened you heart enough to love him, and now it’s all in tatters.

Another thing to regret.

If you decide to sleep separately, it’ll hit him like a bag of bricks.

“You - what? Where are you going?” 

It’ll take him a second to process what you were doing, but then he’ll roll over and let you leave.

“Fine. Don’t let the door hit you.”

No one will see him for awhile. 

Belphie sleeps all the time anyway, but he just can’t make himself get out of bed.

If you don’t approach him to apologize, Beel will tell you that he’s been nauseous and randomly emotional which must mean his twin is coping very badly. 

Will beg you to go make Belphie happy again. 

If you sleep in his bed still, the argument will be resolved by morning.

He can’t keep himself from embracing you in his sleep, and it’s hard to say you’re mad at someone when you wake up in their loving arms.

It’s hard to pinpoint how long it could last with Belphie. If you don’t apologize first, he won’t let himself be conscious long enough to approach you.

This is both my first hc post as well as my first obey me post so I’m sorry if le boys are ooc. I just got this idea and couldn’t stop thinking about it so here we are.  Especially Belphie, he was hard to me for some reason. Let me know if you guys agree or disagree and if you want to send a request or ask, my box is open! 

[paradisetemporarilymisplaced]

So I was being a basic bitch the other day and listening to my true crime podcasts when it occurred to me just how suspicious Nile’s “death” would look to everyone not in the Guard, leading me to a train of thought that, 2200 words later, absolutely got away from me but I can’t let go so I’m inflicting it on all of you!

To set the stage, we know the movie takes place over approximately a week. Here’s what happens to Nile from the military’s point of view:

She dies is very seriously injured

She heals without a scratch

Just before she’s supposed to be shipped out to Germany, she vanishes, leaving two men concussed (and presumably reporting being knocked out by a woman with short hair wearing civilian clothes)

She goes AWOL for several days

They get word from the CIA that she is to be reported killed in action (details unclear)

So, at the beginning of this very weird week, the USMC has to tell Nile’s family of her death critical injury. What her family was told depends on how long she was dead – a Google search tells me that family will be notified in person within 8 hours of a soldier’s death, but we don’t know how long her first death lasted. For an injury, however, they’d get a phone call to notify them and the unit would arrange for them to visit as soon as the soldier is transferred out of a combat zone. Like I remember when I was in high school, a guy from my church who was a Marine was really seriously injured in a helicopter crash in Iraq and from what I could tell, his parents were told immediately and were flown out to Germany to see him, so it stands to reason that Nile’s family would have been informed relatively quickly after her throat was slashed, one way or another.

And then, she goes AWOL. Her family would be notified while the USMC tried to figure out where she went, not least because the military would want to know if she’s contacted them. (And it’s possible that her family may have been on the way to Germany to see her since we know that’s where she was supposed to go!) So for several days:

Nile’s mom and brother have no idea where she is

They know she was seriously injured and most certainly should not have been moving around on her own

They can’t get a hold of her

The military can’t tell them anything

And the next thing they know for sure is that she was “killed in action.” After being injured and vanishing into thin air. And they presumably cannot produce her body or any concrete evidence of her death. In any case, something sketchy is going on, so they’re like. SMELLS LIKE A MILITARY COVERUP.

In a surprise to probably no one, there is a well-documented legacy of mysterious US military deaths, particularly of women of color (TW for sexual assault in these links). The cases of LaVena Johnson and Vanessa Guillenin particular have made national news because of their families’ persistence in seeking justice. Likewise, Nile is a Black woman, and her mom and brother are most certainly hypercognizant of (a) state violence against Black people and (b) these high-profile cases of suspicious military deaths. So her family are seriously side-eyeing the situation, knowing that (a) the military has a serious incentive (and a documented history) of covering up things that make them look bad and (b) nothing about Nile’s disappearance and supposed death are adding up.

And Andy’s right. Nile does come from warriors. And you know who else does? Her brother.

Don’t get me wrong. Nile’s mom would absolutely not back down. She’d know something was up and want to get to the bottom of it. But based on what I know about Gen X parents (mine), they’re not the most technologically savvy. Like they can use the internet, but they didn’t grow up with it the way we young millennials and Gen Z did. So Nile’s brother takes the lead. And what do zillennials do best?

Social media.

Nile’s brother starts going hard on any site he can, trying to get the word out to see if anyone knows what happened to his sister. He starts a Reddit thread. He starts a Facebook group. He reaches out to the media and true crime bloggers and podcasters à la Sarah Turney, getting loud and being a general nuisance in hopes of getting some answers. He gets his friends and Nile’s friends involved. Maybe eventually Dizzy, Jay, and others from Nile’s unit hear about it and reach out, telling him what they saw and how weird it all was. He’s drumming up interest, and soon “Nile Freeman” becomes a household name (at least among the true crime fans).

Copley is, of course, trying his best, but at this point there is just so much that it’s impossible for him to scrub everything. Sure, he can erase new footage of Nile and the Guard, but what can he do about Reddit threads and podcast episodes that are speculating something weird has happened? Maybe he could hack the sites and shut those things down, but honestly, that’s the last thing he’d want to do, because that only adds weight to the theory that Nile’s disappearance is a military coverup. So eventually he has to tell Andy what’s going on.

Andy, obviously, does not take the news well. However, she is also completely computer illiterate, because that’s Booker’s job and he’s the only one who ever bothered to learn what the internet is in any meaningful way. (She probably calls Booker for advice, and for the record, I think Booker would have no qualms about shutting down conspiracy threads, tinhats be damned, but Copley is too concerned about the consequences. He’s ex-CIA for crying out loud, he knows how it’ll look if they scrub every mention of Nile’s name from the internet.) Maybe she confers with Joe and Nicky but, let’s be honest, they’d be equally unhelpful. So at this point, she knows they have to bring in Nile.

But the thing about Nile is that she, too, knows how to use the internet (duh). Aside from her being a young millennial/digital native, we know from the cave scene where she’s giving Booker suggestions on how to track Copley that she clearly is even more computer savvy than the average person. And for that reason she almost definitely took over the day-to-day tech stuff after Booker’s exile. So I think it would be foolish to expect her to be unaware of what’s happening. She’s not contacting her family or posting on the message boards or anything, but she knows what’s up. So Copley and the team probably sit her down to “break the news,” but we know the girl does not have a poker face (see: literally shooting herself in the foot and not being able to play it cool whatsoever) and cracks immediately, telling them she’s seen everything about her case – she’s not interacting with any of it, she certainly didn’t instigate anything, but she knows. (And she is so goddamn proud of her brother.)

At this point, I’d like to pause and consider Nile’s role in the overall narrative of this movie. She’s set up as a foil to Andy, obviously, but she’s also a foil to Booker. Booker, who, like Andy, is a serious pessimist, but who, unlike Andy, still has very fresh memories and trauma associated with being the new kid, which have destroyed him. In his mind (and Andy’s), if Nile communicates with her family, she’ll become just like him in a century or two – bitter, alone, and stuck with her grief and memories of watching her family die and knowing they died resenting her. It’s a small sample size, but this is the only experience they have to go off of.

But it doesn’t have to be like that.

There’s been a lot of discussion of TOG being a fundamentally queer movie – a group of people brought together because of something inherent about themselves that is different, that must be hidden, that causes others to hate, fear, and reject them. Booker’s backstory is the archetypal traumatic “coming out” story – his family learns who he is, hate him for it, and attempt to cast him out of their lives. He’s stuck with his trauma, his pain, his loss, and it consumes him.

But what if Nile’s family would be the opposite? What if her “coming out” to them as immortal is met with acceptance, love, celebration? What if her family is just overjoyed to have her back, and they don’t care what the circumstances are? I'm reminded of this incredible post from @shitty-old-guard-deaths a while back, where Nile’s mother hits Booker with a frying pan because “my baby let me believe she was dead for FIVE YEARS based on your bad advice???” (which may or may not have inspired this whole tangent). Nile takes the advice of someone who did the same thing she wants to do because she doesn’t want to risk her family’s rejection. She wants the good memories with her family and is afraid that showing them her true self will bring her unbearable pain, forever replacing those memories. But, with high risk comes high reward.

Anyway. Nile and the team are trying to come up with a plan for how to handle this whole thing, but she’s not really participating because she’s too afraid to hope. Until finally, quickly, so she doesn’t lose her nerve, she suggests she reach out to them, knowing that, realistically, that’s the only solution before things snowball even further out of control. The team is shocked, but realize that she has a point. They decide that Copley should actually be the first point of contact, posing as a US government official to talk with them and test the waters.

So Copley goes to Nile’s family’s house to talk with her mom and brother. They’re probably distrustful and apprehensive, but nonetheless secretly ecstatic that their work has paid off. They talk and review all of the information that they’ve collected, including testimonials from the people on Nile’s base and recent sightings (along with photos) of Nile (with the same three people) over the last few years that people have sent them but they haven’t posted publicly. At this point, Copley’s like, yeah this is about to blow up, we gotta put our cards on the table. He convinces them to come with him to some safe house/black site/whatever he can get that is technologically impenetrable (I’m picturing them in like, an interrogation room at a police station kind of deal), takes their phones, locks the doors, and brings in Nile.

What follows is the most delightful reunion scene of all time, bringing Joe, Nicky, and even Andy to tears as they watch and listen from outside the room. With Copley’s help, Nile tells her mom and brother about her immortality and what’s been going on since she died (within reason, of course), and they are thrilled. They don’t understand why (because no one does) but they don’t question it and they see it as a gift from God – she’s been resurrected, she will live, and she has a purpose. Her mother and brother are so happy to see her again and are willing to agree with pretty much anything to stay in her life as long as they can.

So. They set up some complicated agreement (they bring in the other three for support/intimidation as needed) setting the terms of their relationship. They swear Nile’s family to secrecy, maybe bringing up the lab to show how high the stakes are, and they readily agree. They come up with some cover story for Nile’s brother to share on the message boards (maybe that the government has opened an investigation but because it’s an open case he has to shut it all down? Tells people to direct their tips somewhere else? Something to that effect). There’s still speculation, of course, but without Nile’s brother at the helm providing the energy, the hype dies down as news stories are wont to do without any movement. And Nile’s family goes to work for the team. The experience has taught them that Copley can’t possibly do everything himself, especially when it comes to social media, so Nile’s brother takes the lead on the day-to-day tracking/social media while Copley and her mom focus on finding jobs and scrubbing their traces afterward.

So there you have it: Nile gets to integrate her biological family into her found family and spend the rest of their lives with them as it should be, Copley gets some badly needed help managing the reality of social media, the team finally has a positive narrative surrounding outsiders Knowing About Them AND about interacting with people from their previous life, and the audience gets the happy ending to this very lovely and very queer story to counteract the pain associated with Booker’s family.

Plus, you know, I’m a sucker for both a good government conspiracy theory and for Nile getting every good thing she deserves.

[roonilwazlibimagines]

the bet ch.6 - r.b x female reader

Blurb: regulus might actually have a conscious but it is still a grey area. everyone is excited for the upcoming christmas party.

Word Count: 5.7k

A/N: if my group decides to do the fucking group work due tomorrow then i plan to upload a big majority of this fic tonight :) Warnings - regulus and evan are a little misogynistic and by a little i mean a lot, sex is heavily referenced

Masterlist | ch.1 | ch.2 | ch.3 | ch.4 | ch.5 | ch.7 | ch.8 | ch.9 | ch.10 | FINISHED

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On Monday morning Regulus thought he was being spoiled. First the tight dress on Friday night and now today she was wearing that tight skirt again. Evan kicked the back of his chair when she walked in and Evan followed her movements, asking “Did you watch the game?” As she sat down, no doubt a ploy to be able to stare at her a little longer. 

“I did,” she said, a big smile on her face, “we won.” 

They began talking about the match until Louie came in and the conversation died down. 

Last Friday they had figured out a method for their unlucky potion, but they still didn’t have an incantation to try to make it unlucky. 

So they worked on the forms together at their own desks, until she got to the last page where she had to name any spells they would be using. 

“Should I just leave it?” She had asked as she leant over her desk to show Regulus. Regulus mourned the loose shirt she had worn last time, except the tight fitted one she currently had on was good enough for him. 

“Leave it for now, if we don’t think of anything by Thursday we’ll just test the potion to make sure it actually makes something and doesn’t blow up in our faces.”

She nodded and put the paperwork aside to get a charms textbook to hopefully find an incantation to use. 

When she got up, she felt Regulus’ eyes on her and when she turned around quickly, Regulus wasn’t fast enough to turn away without her seeing. She smirked to herself.

So maybe this weekend she had done some reflection. Regulus Black was attractive. It had been hidden by his arrogant and foolish demeanour, but now it was coming to the surface and she would feel confident saying that he was seeing her in a different light as well. 

Sure, she had made friends with the safety manager, and even Louie and the boss, and maybe even Evan, but she was much closer to Regulus and Regulus was much closer to her. Besides Evan, of course.

So maybe today she purposefully wore that skirt because she knew she looked good in it, and maybe when she got back to her desk, she accidentally dropped her quill and didn’t necessarily rush to pick it back up. 

When she finally sat down Regulus had his eyes trained on the parchment in front of him, but the tips of his ears were red and she couldn’t help but smile to herself. 

She wasn’t sure what was happening between them, but something had to be happening. Surely. And this was exciting for her because she’d never really had a crush. Not that this was a crush. She felt too old to call it a crush. But she was excited to see where this would take her and she hoped it would actually take her somewhere. 

It was the beginning of December and Regulus was getting angsty. He blamed it on the fact that he hadn’t done anything in over a month. He hadn’t been seeing other girls and then she shows up looking like a vision out of one of his many fantasies. He was losing his grip and Evan seemed to notice because when she went to the bathroom Evan turned around. 

“Mate, I don’t know what you’re waiting for, if I was you I’d have made my five hundred already.”

Regulus didn’t say anything, but Evan took this as an opportunity to continue. “Honestly, that skirt makes me lose all rational thought, if I didn’t actually like you Reggie I would’ve taken my chance with her and-”

“Shut up,” Regulus said, making Louie drop his quill and look over at the two boys. Of course, he loses his cool the one day Louie is in the office. Shit, he thought, did Louie hear what Evan had said? Surely Louie wouldn’t be able to figure out their bet just from one conversation, but Regulus’ stomach was suddenly tied in a knot. “Sorry,” he said sheepishly, looking over at Louie who continued with his work. 

“Mate, are you okay?” Evan asked, putting a hand on his friend's shoulder. 

“I’m fine, I just,” Regulus didn’t really know what was wrong and even if he wanted to try to figure it out, he didn’t want to try to figure it out with Evan and Louie present so he shook his head. “I’ve barely got two months left and I haven’t done anything, it’s getting to me.” 

That was something Evan seemed to understand. 

“Don’t stress, mate,” he said, patting his friend's shoulder, “your Regulus Black, remember?” Just as he said those words she walked out from the breakroom and gave him a funny look. Evan turned to her and then turned to Regulus and then back to her before he finally turned around and went back to his work. 

On Tuesday Louie came back in with a big folder for her and Regulus. 

“It worked,” he said and they both smiled at him.

“The healing potion?” She asked and he nodded. 

Reglus put his palm out in front of her and they high fived. 

“Good job,” he said. 

“But the hair removal potion hasn’t been a great success.” 

“Oh,” she said, visibly deflating. That was her first potion, she wanted it to succeed. Regulus wanted to tell her it was okay, they’d fix it, but Louie continued before he could say anything. 

“When the hair is removed it grows back, they want it gone forever.” “We’ll work on it,” Regulus said and Louie went back to his desk. 

Regulus thought that this was the most he had ever seen Louie in the office and he made a mental note to think before he spoke his usual rubbish to Evan. 

“What about caterpillar?” She said immediately and Regulus gave her a confused look. “It’s got shrinking properties, so once they do the spell for the target area, it should technically shrink the hair follicle and then hair won’t be able to grow.”

Regulus was once again impressed. He thought it would take them the whole week to figure it out, but it barely took her a minute. 

“Yeah, we could try that. But I think we should add some cowbane as well so the caterpillar doesn’t impact the boomslang skin.”

“Oh, good idea,” she exclaimed, getting her quill out and writing it down on a piece of parchment. She was excited and Regulus thought it was fun having someone who was just as excited as him about potions. 

Evan always lent an ear to listen to him ramble on about his potions, but she actually understood what he meant and got excited with him and he found himself smiling as he started filling out the paperwork for the potion. 

On Wednesday before the meeting, more unicorn hair arrived and Evan started putting it away. 

“I got it just for you,” he said to her as he came back from the brewing room.

“You’re so kind,” she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes at him and walking past him into the breakout room for their meeting. 

“Regulus,” he whispered into his friend's ear, “promise me you’ll get that stick out of her ass.” Regulus laughed. He had become accustomed to getting to know her without anything up her ass, but he understood that for whatever reason, she was still tightly wound up when it came to Evan. 

“I can’t perform miracles, mate.” She was sitting at the front next to the safety manager, and while they were whispering, they knew she wouldn’t hear them. 

“It’ll be a miracle if you get her to bed,” he said, “hence the five hundred galleons.” Regulus didn’t say anything, but when he looked around the room, he realised Louie was sitting behind them and he mentally cursed himself. And Evan. 

They were still whispering, so surely Louie hadn’t heard them. Regardless, that was twice this week where he may have heard, they needed to be more careful. 

After the meeting, Regulus couldn’t help but watch the way Louie came up to her and started speaking to her. 

It was lunch time, by the time the meeting finished so Regulus and Evan went out to get their lunch, only to come straight back in and go straight to the microwave. She was walking out with Louie and she gave him a small smile as she walked past. 

Regulus watched through the windows as she got her lunch, still talking to Louie as he got his from the other side of the room. 

“Are you jealous or something, mate relax.” 

“Shut up, Evan,” he scoffed, “just making sure there’s no competition.” But really, he was scared that Louie was telling her what he had overheard this week.

They both came into the breakroom which Regulus thought was weird considering Louie had never eaten lunch with them, but she sat down next to him forcing Regulus to sit across from her instead. 

She still smiled at him and she still engaged with his small talk that now ended with looks that lasted a little too long and a hint of playfulness that peaked through everytime one of them made a joke. 

When lunch was finished, they went back to work on the method for the hair potion and find an incantation for their unlucky potion. 

“You were always better at charms than me, so maybe you can continue and I’ll fill in the paper work for the hair potion trial?”

She laughed, she wanted to tell him that she was better than him at every subject, but she didn’t know how to make it sound nice and so she didn’t. 

“Sure,” she said, now sitting back at her desk, “but I can’t promise I’ll find anything.”

The paperwork took Regulus the rest of the day, but she still hadn’t had any luck finding an incantation until Thursday afternoon when she exclaimed, “I’ve got it!”

Regulus was already excited. 

“Well I don’t have it, but I have an idea.” She pushed the book to the middle where the desks touched and told him about this old charm that was said to cause the person to make the wrong decisions and resulted in unlucky outcomes. They had never heard of it, but it would be worth a shot. 

She finished filling out the paperwork and handed it to her boss. 

“I feel like we haven’t brewed a potion in so long,” she complained when she came back to her office. 

“I know,” Regulus said, “I’m looking forward to it.” 

“Me too,” she said because she was looking forward to it, especially considering their unlucky potion required an hour wait time and she was looking forward to the conversation they would have during that time. 

Regulus was also looking forward to spending more time with her. Whenever they spent time alone it always ends up working in his favour and the quicker he got this over and done with the better for him. Firstly, because he’d be five hundred galleons richer, but because he also felt like Louie somehow knew what he was doing and that didn’t make Regulus feel good. 

He was okay being a dick around Evan, but he didn’t want anyone else thinking he was a dick because he wasn’t. Evan just brought out the worst in him. 

On Friday they were finally in the brewing room, getting the ingredients ready for the potion. They were starting with the hair removal potion because they were confident with the method and it only had a half hour waiting time, so it would give them an opportunity to prepare for the next potion. 

This time, the potion finished with a dark pink appearance and they started putting it into vials. 

“I hope this one works,” she said. 

“Me too,” he replied, “but if it doesn’t, we’ll just do it again.”

“I like doing things once and getting it right.” She said and Regulus found it humorous that barely two months ago he would’ve rolled his eyes at that and said something stupid back, but this time he smiled at her. 

“Okay, little miss perfectionist.” His tone was teasing and she was suddenly quiet at his words. A funny feeling began forming in her stomach and she did the cleaning spell, mainly to give her time to think of what to say. 

It didn’t work, she still didn’t know what to say. Instead she said, “I’ll get the cauldron for the next potion.” 

Regulus had found his new favourite thing. Making her flustered. He was so used to her always having something witty and smart to say back to him, but he liked leaving her speechless, he liked having that effect on her. 

The ingredients were already prepared so they just had to put them in. Regulus was putting away the vials so she started putting the ingredients into the cauldron. She had put in the flobberworm mucus and valerian in and she was just about to put in the herbaria when a hand closed around her wrist. 

“What are you doing?” There was genuine curiosity behind his voice, but for some reason she still froze as if she had done something wrong. 

“Putting the herbaria in.”

“That’s not herbaria.” She went to argue with him but she turned the glass tube in her hand to see that it was actually mallowsweet.

“Oh,” she said, turning to look up at Regulus who still had her wrist in his hand. “Thanks, that would have blown up in my face. Again.” 

He nodded before he said, “Yes, and you would have found some way to put the blame on me, so I can’t have that happening.” 

“And then the whole office would think you have it out for me because two accidents are believable, but a third one? Forget about it.” He laughed before he noticed that he was still holding her wrist in his hand. 

“Sorry,” he said, finally letting go.

Merlin, he thought, why was that so awkward? She told him it was okay, but really, it wasn’t because the skin on her wrist was still tingling and she had to ball her hand up in a fist to stop it from shaking. 

She got the right ingredients and Regulus stood beside her and watched her. She double checked every ingredient until it was time to actually add in the mallowsweet. Regulus had the stirrer in his hand so she stepped away and he stirred it counterclockwise thirteen times. 

When he finished, they were in their usual position. Regulus leaning against the bench with his hands folded over his chest, and her standing in front of him. 

Regulus once more, began to admire her beauty. He hadn’t really thought about it until Evan had brought it up, but he thought that maybe she had always been beautiful, it was just a shame that it was hidden by her arrogance and pride. 

But Regulus always knew how to spot a pretty girl and he couldn’t help but be surprised that he hadn’t noticed this earlier. 

“Do you have any plans for this weekend?” She asked, bringing him out of his thoughts. 

“Might get started on some Christmas shopping,” he said, knowing that the only Christmas present he was buying was for his mother. And maybe something stupid for Evan 

“Oh that’s smart,” she replied, “I always leave mine to the last minute, I should really start thinking about it.” There was a pause. “Is your family big on Christmas?” 

“Yeah,” he said, “kinda.” She didn’t say anything so he continued. “My mother likes it because it’s a family thing so she always goes over the top for it and we usually go to my aunts, but it almost always ends with my brother storming out.”

She gave him a sympathetic look. 

“I’m sorry,” she said because she wasn’t sure what else to say. Regulus was cursing himself. He was only playing into his own theory. He was only making them closer by talking about his bad relationship with his family. 

It was fine for her to do it, because then Regulus knew she was interested in at least being friends, but him doing it was only going to lead her on and that was not part of the plan. 

“What about your family?” He said, trying to redirect the conversation. 

“Well it’s just me,” she shrugged, “I don’t have any cousins, so it’s just my parents and me.” Regulus could sympathise with that. He had his brother, but Sirius left when he was young and Regulus felt like the only child for a long time and he knew how isolating that was. “But we have an image to uphold so we still have our Christmas party, but on Christmas we just open our presents, eat lunch and then it’s just like a regular day.” 

He almost felt bad for her. Even if his Christmas always ended with his mother crying to him, the day began with high spirits as almost everyone was surrounded by people they loved. Or at least people they called family. 

“Ah,” he said, once more trying to redirect the conversation. “I’ve heard about your family's infamous Christmas party.” She rolled her eyes. 

“And how would you know about it?”

“What?” Regulus scoffed, a smile already on his lips. “Am I so beneath your family that you’re surprised I know about your Christmas party?”

She laughed, a cheeky grin on her face that Regulus was trying hard to memorise. 

“Yes,” she said, giving him a pointed look, “it is only for the most elite and noblest.”

“Wow,” he said, his head falling back ever so slightly, “well then,” he said sarcastically, “I’ve only ever heard bad things about it.” She rolled her eyes at him again. 

“I wish I could tell you good things,” she sighed once their laughter died down. 

“Not a fan of the Christmas party?”

“Not really.” For a second, she wanted to tell him how she hated having to talk to the most elite and noblest because they were always judging her and her choices. Of course, the daughter of two of the most respected people in the wizarding world was under constant scrutiny and she hated being thrown into the centre of it at these things. Instead she went with, “I don’t know, it’s a lot of pressure.”

“The party?” Regulus asked, sitting up slightly as she turned away to look at him. She’d never told anyone this so she wasn’t sure why Regulus Black was the first to hear this. 

“Yes,” she said, “it has to be perfect otherwise people will talk, but people also talk about me regardless." She said it so softly Regulus struggled to hear her, especially as she turned to look away from him. 

He knew that people spoke about her, Merlin, for most of his life he was talking about her and judging everything she did, even if it was completely normal. But she was so uptight and high maintenance that he never really considered how she felt. Honestly, he wasn’t even sure she had feelings until this year. 

“I’m sorry,” he said, repeating the sentiment she had given him when he shared his familial woes. 

“So,” she dragged out the last syllable, “what Christmas presents are you getting?”

“Probably just something for my mother, there was a new book she wanted so maybe that.” Regulus was downplaying it. He knew what he was getting his mother. There were a few new books she wanted and Regulus had been annotating a book that made him think of her for the past month. Then, there were the usual gifts. The massage voucher and the perfume that she loves as well as those chocolates that she never buys for herself even though they were her favourite. 

“That’s cute,” she said.  “I know what I want for Christmas, but I have no idea what I’m getting everyone else.” Regulus laughed. Of course she knew what she wanted for Christmas. 

They had 47 minutes left until they were ready to continue the potion and so Regulus told her to humour him and tell him what was on her Christmas wish list. 

And when they finished talking about Christmas the conversation naturally followed to New Years. She told Regulus how her family never really did anything for New Years and sometimes, they didn’t even stay up to midnight on New Years Eve and Regulus told her how Evan usually had New Years Eve parties at his house.

Regulus knew what this was leading up to. He didn't even have a second to consider it because he knew if he hesitated, it would make the invitation insincere. 

“You should come to Evan’s,” he said and he could see her blinking fast through her glasses. 

“Oh, that’s okay,” she said, “I don’t think Evan would want me there.” She felt weird accepting an invitation to Evan’s party from Regulus because even if she was friendly with Regulus and therefore friendly by association with Evan, she didn’t think Evan had warmed up to her the way Regulus had. 

“Who cares what Evan wants?” Regulus said. “He’ll be too drunk to notice if you’re there or not.”

“I feel bad,” she admitted. 

“Why?” She shrugged. She couldn’t explain it. She felt like she was pushing herself into their life when they had spent the last almost ten years pushing her out. “I’m inviting you, I probably spend more time at the house than Evan, it’s fine.” 

If she learnt one thing from her St Mungo’s visit with Regulus, it was that she liked it when people stood up for her. She had been doing it her whole life so it was nice to see someone else cared enough to do it for her. So when Regulus said, “and he won’t say anything if I invited you, trust me,” how could she say no?

“Okay,” she said. She was going to say that she’d have to ask her parents but she caught herself before she did so. “Okay,” she repeated more confidently. 

Regulus smiled at her. 

Good. 

There weren’t many situations Regulus could think of where they would be alone together for anything to happen between them from now until Christmas. Sure, there was the office Christmas party, but Regulus wasn’t sure if she’d be ready to get in his bed by then. Then, they had two weeks off over the holidays so there was nothing going on then and so Regulus would only have two weeks to get five hundred galleons richer. 

New Years Eve was a backup, that was all. It would be more relaxed, and if anything did happen at the office Christmas party, he could always tell her that Evan was sick and the party was called off. It would be fine. 

“What is the party like?” She asked, and Regulus explained how it was exactly how she’d imagine a party hosted by Evan Rosier to be. People blackout drunk and still drinking more.

He started talking about the past New Years Eve parties and when she started laughing about the time Evan somehow woke up with the inability to speak, the timer went off and they continued their potion. 

It was a dark shade of black which they took as a good sign as she cast the incantation and Regulus bottled it up. 

It had only taken two weeks and she was feeling good about it as Regulus cast the cleaning spell and they walked back out to the office. 

It was lunch time, so they made their way to the breakroom and met Evan who was already heating up his lunch. 

Regulus was used to chatting away his Friday afternoon. He and Evan usually talked about the game on the weekend or their plans to go out and meet up with various girls they’d met throughout their years. But today, he talked his friday afternoon off with her. 

Both of them had a textbook in front of them, trying to get inspiration for their own potion, until Regulus leant over and asked, “What do you know about lobalug venom?” To which she told him about this study she had read that said it might have aphrodisiac properties. 

Regulus, of course, already knew this, but he wanted to plant something in her mind and when she whispered aphrodisiac properties to him, he knew he had planted the seed. But then Regulus asked what the difference between that and moonstone would be. They talked about it and brainstormed, but then the conversation changed when they heard Evan’s heavy breaths and realised he had fallen asleep and then it changed again when she admitted that she struggles to stay up late and Regulus called her a grandmother for going to bed at ten. But she wasn’t going to stand for that and in the end Regulus admitted that his grandfather tendency was that he hates loud places because he can’t hear people speak. 

And the conversation flowed and ebbed from there until the clock struck three and Evan magically woke up, said goodbye, and apparated away. 

They laughed at that while they packed their things away and Regulus said goodbye as if he wasn’t going straight to Evan’s.

When he untucked his shirt, got a snack out of the fridge and sat at the dining table Regulus said, “I invited her to New Years Eve.” 

“Ugh,” Evan moaned, “is she going to ruin everything by telling us that it isn’t appropriate.” He said in a mocking tone. Regulus rolled his eyes. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep her away from your fun.”

“Ah, I see,” Evan said, taking a seat across from Regulus, “you’ll be keeping her busy.” He winked at Regulus and for some reason, something tightened in his chest. 

“That’s the plan,” he mumbled, looking down at the table. 

“That’s a great plan, actually,” Evan said, “start the new year with a nice five hundred galleon paycheck and then you won’t have to see her for another week. Although, it will probably be awkward when you get back, but I know you-”

Evan kept rambling but Regulus wasn’t listening. When he agreed to this bet he hadn’t considered that he’d still have to see her after they fucked. 

He’d have to go to work and see her in her pretty little outfits and he’d have to share his ideas with her and watch her chop up the ingredients and stand with her for however long it took for their potion to rest. 

For the first time, Regulus wished he had never listened to Evan.

He spent the rest of the weekend thinking about it. Merlin, he was such an idiot. He almost felt guilty on Monday morning when she came in wearing a tight fitted dress, saying good morning to Regulus as she took her coat off and put it on the back of her chair. 

“Good morning,” he said, not looking up from his book. 

“Are you okay?” She asked instinctively at the tone of his voice. 

“I’m okay, sorry, just a bit tired,” he said quickly, finally looking up from the textbook. He took in the dress she was wearing. 

Fuck, he thought, she has to know what she’s doing. 

She did know what she was doing. Her and Regulus had been sharing things she’d never shared with anyone and she was getting angsty with the Christmas break coming up. She was hoping something would happen before then and she was so anxious about it and Regulus’ words about doing his Christmas shopping that weekend were stuck in her head so she had gone therapy shopping on the weekend. 

When she saw this dress, she had one person in mind and she knew she had to have it. 

“Nice dress,” were the first words Evan said as he walked in, she was still standing, but at his words she sat down. She frowned slightly, this dress was not for Evan. 

“Thanks,” she said, “it’s new.” Evan nodded, but he wasn’t looking at her as he went to sit at his desk. 

Regulus saw the little frown form on her face from his friend's words and he wished Evan knew how to shut his mouth. 

But Regulus had to agree, it was a nice dress. Because when she lent over her desk to ask Regulus about nux mysteria, a new potion ingredient that had just been discovered, he could look down and see more than the piece of parchment he was meant to be looking at. 

He had been thinking about this view since the last time she wore a loose top and suddenly, he didn’t feel so bad about the bet. 

He had to keep reminding himself. It was just a quick fuck. That was all. He’d get it over and done with, get his money and move on with his life. And if she ever brought it up, Regulus would just tell her the truth. He wasn’t looking for anything serious right now. 

He kept convincing himself this, but ultimately, he was trying to push it out of his mind because he was finding it hard to have a conversation with her without feeling like the five hundred galleons were literally on his shoulders. 

She wished she could make a potion that could help you read someone’s thoughts. She knew exactly who she’d use it on and she thought that every time she looked up to find Regulus already looking at her. 

She thought she was going to lose her mind, especially now that they were back to working independently and there weren’t a lot of times for her and Regulus to be alone. 

But there was still the office Christmas party that they were reminded about on Wednesday during their meeting. 

“I promise you, it will be amazing.” Were the last words the boss said to them before they left for lunch. 

It was being held at a nicer restaurant in Diagon Alley and she was already mentally going through her wardrobe, trying to figure out which dress to wear, but her thoughts were interrupted by Louie coming up to her. 

“Good news,” he said, and when his eyes flickered behind her, she saw that he was also talking to Regulus, “your hair removal potion was a success.” She beamed at Regulus. “But unfortunately, your unlucky potion isn’t working. It makes them unlucky for half an hour, but then they fall asleep.” It was probably because they had started with ingredients in the sleeping draught, but she only frowned at Louie while Regulus promised they’d work on it. 

“That’s a shame,” she sighed. 

“It’s a difficult potion,” he said, “it’s bound to take us some time.”

“Maybe for you, Regulus,” she said, “but I’m usually good at hard things.” 

Regulus thought he was the strongest man alive. If that was anyone else he’d never let them live it down. If this was any other hot girl he was trying to get into his bed he’d smirk at her and probably ask her to show him just how good she was with hard things. But she didn’t seem to think there was anything wrong with what she had said. 

Regulus wondered if she really was clueless or if she was just trying to brush it off. “You’re usually good at hard things?” He questioned, a slight tease in his tone. She gave him a confused look that made Regulus realise that she was actually clueless. 

“Yeah, you know what I’m like.” And like most times, she was right. Regulus did know what she was like. 

But now he was starting to question it. Was she just that innocent or had she really never done anything?

If she was still a virgin this complicated things. It was one thing to sleep with someone for a bet, but it was a whole other thing to take someone’s virginity for a bet. Sure, it didn’t make a frequent appearance, but Regulus did have a conscience. 

He wanted to bring it up to Evan. If she was a virgin then unfortunately, the bet was off. But he had a feeling that Evan wouldn’t understand. 

“Mate,” he’d say, “why are you complaining? Virgins are hot, fuck, I’ll even do it with her and then you can complete the bet without a guilty conscience.” 

Yeah, he would not be telling Evan this. But how could he find out if she was a virgin, that wasn’t something he could come out and ask.

He figured he’d put it to the back of his mind and cross that road when it appeared, even if he could see the road coming up in the distance. 

They spent the rest of the day trying to swap out some of their ingredients, but it was difficult considering they were working from nothing. 

“We could try fanged geranium?” She had asked when they had been staring at a blank parchment for well over an hour. 

“They just did a study on it and it’s meant to have poisonous properties.” 

“Oh,” she frowned, flicking back through the textbook before she put a sticky note with that new information on it. 

“I think we should try niffler’s fancy because theoretically it should prevent the flobberworm from having sleeping properties, but should still slow down their brain which will help the potion act.” She didn’t want to admit it, but she thought this unlucky potion was making her unlucky because she was having no luck trying to figure out any good ideas for it. This was all Regulus’ doing.  

“That sounds good,” she said, not looking up from her textbook. Regulus wrote it down on their blank parchment, but that was all they had on it for the day. 

Nothing else came to them on Thursday either so there was no potion making on Friday so they instead, tried to think of more methods and by the end of Friday, their page was half full. 

“At least we have something,” Regulus said to her when they had packed up and were ready to go home. 

“Better than nothing,” she agreed. 

“So I’ll see you tomorrow night?” He asked, standing in front of her. 

“I’ll see you then,” she whispered before they said their goodbyes and apparated away.