#if you like even one (1) of them i'll consider it a job well done

[angelsanarchy]

Alkaline: Euronymous x Y/N Series CH 1

Tagging: @ophelialaufey @madamemaximoff06 @forever-not-gonna-sink

Euronymous saw her everywhere. She worked for the local grocery delivery service during the day and his favorite food place in town. He wishes he could say that it was his favorite only because of the falafal but he enjoyed the banter that they had with one another. He was too focused on Mayhem getting a new singer and getting some shows under their belts to even remotely consider the idea of courting anyone but if he had, Y/n would be the first person he would look up.

"Oystein! Make sure you take that dead plant to the garbage before you leave!" He grabbed the now brown plant and shoved it under his arm as he walked down the front steps. He noticed the grocery bike parked across the street but no sign of Y/n. He tossed the plant just as she came through the gate of the neighbors house and smiled when she saw him.

"Hi there! Heading off to make the devils music?" Y/n knew he was in a band and that metal was his favorite genre. He never understood why she wasn't afraid of him like most normal people he ran across but he wasn't going to question it.

"Of course. Just doing my part to crumble the edification of society." Euronymous said confidently with a smirk.

"Sounds like a busy day. I'd hate to interrupt." She threw her leg over the bike.

"You want a ride? You can put your bike in the back-" He gestured to the empty trunk and she shook her head.

"I'm done with my deliveries for today so I'm heading home, thanks." She appreciated the offer but she knew that wherever he was heading wasn't anywhere close to her house.

"Ah so you don't want me to know where you live? I thought we were kindred souls." Euronymous teased.

"Atheist is not the same as Satanist, Oystein. Not exactly kindred but I'd hate for you to be caught with a poser like me riding shotgun." He had never mentioned he was a Satanist but the band also frequented the Falafal joint and he's sure she's heard them discussing the direction he wanted to take Mayhem in.

And still, that didn't scare her off.

"Euronymous. My name is Euronymous." He corrected firmly. She smiled, scrunching her nose at the name like she always had.

"I'm sorry but I won't ever call you Euronymous. I just don't see it." He paused at the statement.

"See what?" He inquired.

"I know the origin of the name. You just don't give off flesh eating spirit dwelling in the underworld. Your eyes are too pretty for that one." She complimented making him cough into his hand to hide the blush creeping up his neck.

"You don't know me very well. Maybe you should come to one of my shows and you'll change your mind." He tried to sound menacing but Y/n knew just as much about Oystein as he did her.

She knew he was a good son and brother. She knew he used to get pretty decent grades when he was in school and that he's been playing his guitar since he was 10 years old. She could never see him as some cannibalistic nightmare of a person. He might think highly of himself but she had seen such a softer side of him when delivering groceries for his family.

"Maybe." She shrugged. She had often responded to his show invites with a maybe and he was always disappointed when she never showed but he understood how busy she was. She worked two jobs to take care of herself and her family.

"I'll see you around, Y/N" He held his hand up and she mockingly gave him the devil horns she had seen his sister do so often when they were listening to the loud metal music blasting from the upstairs bedroom window. He chuckled and returned the gesture.

"See you around Oystein." She watched him pull down the street and didn't even notice he was already looking at her in the rear view mirror. He would never understand how two people who were so insanely different could have such a good rapport.

[vodika-vibes]

Can you write a Crosshair x reader and him with his shaky hands like we saw in season 3 and maybe reader comforting him...

For The Love Of A Bounty Hunter

Summary: Crosshair goes missing while dealing with your family. You have opinions about it.

Pairing: TBB Crosshair x F!Bounty Hunter Reader

Word Count: 1919

Warnings: Mentions of torture

Tagging: @trixie2023 @n0vqni @imabeautifulbutterfly

A/N: I decided to make this story a sequel to one of my Event Fics, I'll add the link so people can find it easily. Also, there are no spoilers here, because I haven't watched TBB at all. ^-^

For The Love Of A Sniper - Part 1 of this Mini Series

You stare, blankly, at the calendar on the datapad in front of you as you draw another red X over another day.

Three weeks.

It’s been three weeks since Crosshair went to deal with the PI who was looking into you on behalf of your family. Three weeks since he vanished.

You carefully set the datapad down on the table and release a shaky breath. Carefully shoving the burning rage down, for now.

Crosshair would sooner cut his own hands off than betray you. You know this. You know him. He would never tell your parents where you are. And, the fact that they haven’t shown up at your ship, is proof enough that Crosshair didn’t tell them anything.

The bigger question is, is Crosshair still alive.

Stars, you hope so. You’re not sure the galaxy will survive your rage if he isn’t. You’re not sure you’ll survive your rage if he isn’t.

You jerked out of your thoughts when your holo chimes. 

For a moment you consider ignoring it, you’re not in the mood for chatting. But, in the end, you cross the room and hit the button to answer the holo, “I’m not accepting any jobs at the moment.” You say bluntly.

“It is me.” Tech’s image flickers to life above the holo, “I have the information you asked for.”

You blink, “Oh. Sorry.”

“No harm done, I know that you are stressed.” He looks down at his datapad, “I am sending you the information I have.”

You pick your datapad back up as it chimes with the information he sent you. “Are you sure this is accurate?” You ask, as you see the information, “Last I heard the people who took him are wealthy.”

Tech sniffs, “Very sure. According to what I have found, they used to be wealthy. But then spent most of their fortune looking for their missing child.” He pauses, “That would be you, I am guessing.”

“Right in one, Tech.” You reply with a grimace.

“I am sure you had your reasons.” Tech says after a moment, “If Crosshair is anywhere, it is there.”

You scan the image that Tech sent you. Figures, it would be your childhood house. Not home. Never home. “Thanks Tech.”

“You are welcome.” He pauses, “Are you quite sure that you do not require aid? We can be there in a couple of days.”

“I have it.”

“They are your family.”

“Not all families are created equal, Tech. And this,” You hold up the datapad, "has been a long time coming.”

Tech sighs, “Comm when you have him back. And if you should think that you need our help-”

“I’ll be sure to let you know. Thanks for the intel, Tech. I mean it.”

“You do not have to thank me. Crosshair is my twin brother. I want him safe just as much as you do.”

“Even so. I know you’re not my biggest fan.”

Tech is quiet for a moment, “I will concede that, perhaps, I was too quick to judge.”

“Yeah, well…so was I. Water under the bridge.”

Tech smiles at you, a small smile, but a smile all the same, “I think I am beginning to see what Crosshair sees in you. Happy hunting.”

You flash a small smirk, “Yeah. Right back at you.” And then you kill the holo. You look back at the datapad, and swipe through the information.

“Hold on, Cross. I’ll be there soon.” You whisper to the empty ship.

“It’s a simple thing,” Crosshair rolls his eyes at the massive Devaronian looming over him, “All you have to do is tell us where the little mistress is.”

“I told you the truth weeks ago,” He drawls, “I can’t help you.” He grunts in pain as a large fist slams into his stomach, “Kriff-”

“Mistress,” The guard says with a frown, “I’m beginning to think that he’s telling the truth.”

‘Mistress’ is a slender woman with white blonde hair and piercing green eyes. Though slender isn’t really the right word. Crosshair would personally call her skeletal, but the first time he asked how they managed to make a corpse walk and talk, he was electrocuted, so he’s learned to hold his tongue.

“He has to know,” The woman’s voice is cold. “Why else would he have gone to the PI?”

“Because you’re offering a hell of a lot of credits, lady.” Crosshair lies.

“You do not speak to the Mistress,” The guard snaps, taking a menacing step towards Crosshair.

“No. Leave him. I tire of this.” The woman says, before she turns to the side, “What do you think, darling.”

‘Darling’ is her husband. Just as thin and skeletal as his white, though his hair is more of a golden blonde than the silvery blonde of his wife. If Crosshair had to guess, one of them bleaches their hair, though which one isn’t something he cares about.

He’s also crueler than his wife. 

Crosshair will likely have scars from the stun batons that ‘Darling’ used against him. If he hates ‘Mistress’, then Crosshair absolutely despises ‘Darling’. How either of these people could parent someone like his Princess is beyond him. Maybe she’s adopted.

He glances to the side when the door to the dungeons slams open and a trembling twi’lek hurries his, “Master! Mistress!” He gasps, “The Little Mistress is here.”

The room falls silent, “Are you quite sure?” The Mistress asks. 

“Yes ma’am,” The Twi’lek bobs into a bow, “She consented to a DNA scan. It’s her. Would you like me to bring her down?”

“No, we’ll-”

The door slams open again, “No need. I thought I’d come and say hello.”

Crosshair has always thought that his Princess is stunning, but seeing her standing in the doorway, clad in tight leather, and with her short hair falling into her eyes…she looks like an avenging angel and he’s never been more attracted to her in his life.

Impressive, since he can hardly keep his hands to himself as it is.

“Sweetheart!” The Mistress takes half a step towards her, “Your hair…your face! Why are you so fat?”

Princess closes her eyes for a moment, and then she turns and blatantly ignores everyone in the room, “Are you okay?” Her voice is soft, and for a moment, Crosshair can pretend that they’re on the ship and it’s just them. 

He slides his arms through the bars of the cell, and holds out his trembling hands, “Better, since you’re here.”

Her sharp eyes linger on his trembling hands, on the burn marks on his arms, chest, and stomach. Her gaze lingers on the bruises covering his face and his torso.

And her eyes go cold.

“Sweetling, why are you talking to that-” His Princess’ father says as he takes a step towards her, reaching out to touch her. 

There’s a flash of silver, only noticed because he was looking for it, and then there’s screaming as ‘Darling’ falls back, clutching his blood soaked arm. His Princess carefully uses a cloth to wipe the blood off the blade. 

“You took Crosshair.” Her voice is flat, emotionless. 

She’s clearly pissed.

“You know,” She continues, some emotion returning to her voice, and she directs her comment towards him, “I really only considered two options when coming here.”

“Oh yeah?” Cross asks as he leans against the bars.

“Hm. Option 1, they took you and killed you.” She continues lightly, “And if that was the case I was going to kill them all, burn this place to the ground, and then throw myself at the Empire until they managed to kill me.”

“Dramatic.”

She shrugs a single shoulder, “Option 2, is that they took you and were using you as bait to make me come here. In this scenario, you were uninjured, just annoyed, and I just threatened great bodily harm and we carried on our way.”

She casts her gaze over him again, “Somehow,” She continues, “The idea that they might torture you never crossed my mind.”

“They are still your family, Princess. I’m not gonna blame you for not wanting to believe the worst of them.” Crosshair says lazily.

She turns to the cell door and effortlessly picks the lock and swings the door open, “Well, you’re the injured party, Cross. What do you want?”

“You have a blaster?”

She smiles and wordlessly passes it to him.

Even with nerve damage, and trembling hands, he’s still the best. 

Three shots. Three blaster rounds. 

Three dead bodies. 

His Princess takes the blaster back and slides it in her holster, before she helps him with a shirt she brought him, “Are you ready to go?” She asks.

“More than ready.” He leans against her, needing her support to make it back to the ship, “Let’s get out of here.”

A week later, you step into the bedroom on your ship, your gaze lingering on Crosshair. He’s sitting on the edge of the bed, glaring at his shaking hands. Nerve damage takes weeks to heal, even with bacta.

His hands will be shaking for a while.

Maybe you’ll take Tech up on that offer for a 3 month long vacation on Pabu.

But first-

You enter the room and kneel in front of him, taking both of his hands in yours and pressing light kisses against the palms of his hands. “Do they hurt?” You ask.

“It’s mostly just an ache,” He admits, bitterly, “I’m not going to be able to-”

“Shh,” You release one of his hands and reach up to cup his cheek, “Crosshair, your only responsibility right now is to heal.”

He scowls at you, though you know he’s more annoyed at the situation than at you. “I feel useless.”

“Nonsense. You could never be useless.”

“You’re biased.”

“Mm, perhaps. A little.” You stand and settle on the bed next to him, “But I’m also honest. You will heal. You will get back to 100%. It just takes time.”

He scoffs.

“Don’t be like that.” You say as you lay your head on his shoulder, “After that Wookie broke my leg in three places, you didn’t accuse me of being a burden or of being useless, even though I felt like I was.”

Crosshair shakes his head, and then leans his head against yours, “You gonna use my words against me?”

“If I have to.”

He huffs out a laugh, “I suppose you did pay for the best doctors to see me.” 

“Yes, I did.” You reply smugly.

“Alright.” He turns to look at you properly, “I’ll be patient.”

“You’re a sniper, patience is your thing.” You tease him, throwing his words back at him.

His arms, strong and steady, hook around you and he pulls you onto his lap, “Yeah, yeah.” Crosshair leans in and kisses you hungrily, nipping at your lower lip roughly enough that you squeak, “So. You gonna tell me what you and Tech have been talking about?”

“...he’s invited us to come to Pabu until you finish recovery. I’m thinking that agreeing might be a good idea.”

He’s quiet for a moment, and then he sighs, “If you think it’s a good idea, Princess, then I won’t argue. But I refuse to stay with my siblings.”

“Of course not, we’ll be staying here or in an inn.” You brush your fingers across his cheek, “I’ll go let him know.”

Crosshair tightens his grip around you, “You can tell him later. I want you for myself right now.”

You beam at him, “I think that sounds like a great idea.”

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

s2 episode 17 thoughts

whispers softly. man... i need a minute. shaky breath.

okay. i'll start at the top like always. AUGH THE TEARS. fighting them. okay. need to put on some sad songs to accompany the 45-60 minutes it will take to type all this up

so, i sat down ready to see where this was gonna go. in fact i noted that i was incredibly locked in. which i continue to believe that i was.

we see a submarine, which is a type of craft i just do not trust. even before all that went down last summer. too scary for me. but they see something giving off a signal. and despite being a cartographer ship, they have missiles. and they're gonna go towards the thing they see on the radar, because they were told to. which seems wrong.

but then all their power is knocked out!!! and they are ordered to surface. but how will they do that under a ton of ice?!?!

title sequence. i was expecting different than the usual "the truth is out there" but i guess it's just business as usual over here despite it all

back to where we left off: scully's on the phone with real mulder and fake mulder is in her room. she hangs up on real mulder and tells the fake one that it was a wrong number, which had to be confusing to real mulder.

she tells him to put his hands on the wall, and he makes some quip about being shot before and not caring for it, and for a minute i'm like oh shit, that's a very mulder thing to do- what if he is, in fact, real mulder, and it's fake mulder on the phone? but that theory didn't make much sense anyway and also it was quickly put to rest by the fact that he started beating the hell out of scully.

so time skip: real mulder shows up to the scene with his "sister", who says the alien hit man is gonna call and ask to make a trade: scully for his "sister", and yeah, quotes are verbatim, i was still not buying this whole family relation thing

but his "sister" says that she knows how to kill the alien hit man: you have to hit the base of his skull. maybe. she isn't 100% certain. and also you can't miss because their blood is toxic. which we actually did already know!

and he's getting suspicious. why won't she explain exactly where she has been all this time? and what's this deal with her "father"? he's yelling at her at this point and i get it because it's not adding up to me either

she says that the aliens have been trying to establish a colony on earth since the 1940's, and:

"it's their belief that the stewardship of the planet is being forsaken" <- okay yeah. can't argue there. some of us are trying, aliens. i am not one of the mega companies pouring nuclear waste into the ocean. but maybe y'all could do a better job. and she continues:

"and that by default they'll someday become the natural heirs" <- well hey. you were sounding reasonable but now you are not. have we considered that maybe the people already here could give it another go free from the shackles of the 1%? you're acting like it's an estate sale and buddy we're still living in the house. you lost me there, and i was willing to hear you out.

she says that all of the clones worked at abortion clinics to gain access to fetal tissue, so they could combine human and alien dna. which i imagine had to be a good pr boost for abortion clinics (heavy on the /s here)

and the killer is after them because their experiments with mixing alien with human dna were not sanctioned, so they're "diluting the race", which i guess seems like the thing they would be worried about.

he doesn't seem to fully buy it, because he says "that's a good story, but i've heard a lot of good stories lately" which is true!!! our old worstie ambrose chapel was a liar, remember? or at least someone impersonating him was doing some lying!

"i'm your sister, fox, you have to trust me" UM PROOF?? have we done a dna test??? you can't just show up like that!!!!!

skinner knocks at the door... but is it really him? or the shapeshifting hit man????

"why are the lights out?" skinner asks quite reasonably "orders from my ophthalmologist" he says, lying very easily for a man for loves the Truth. but it did make me giggle.

sister approves that it is really skinner! only after they set a trap to get him just in case it wasn't. again i ask why she can tell if it's the man or not but okay. we move past that.

he makes introductions: "this is my sister, samantha mulder" to which skinner replies "WHAT"

and yeah. i would react the same!!!!

(also weird to hear mulder used as a last name. to me that's just the guy. you know?)

NOOO his phone rings. it's scully calling from a payphone. "he says he's gonna kill me if you don't give him what he wants" oh. okay.

there's no time to explain to skinner what is going on so!!! just please trust me, he says!!! and he does. another point for skinner, who is like a strange uncle or cousin to me.

they go to do a hostage trade: "samantha" for scully. and is this the same bridge where they did the hostage deal for mulder at the end of s1? do they only have one bridge for hostage deals. might be a bit much to have 2 in one city.

skinner has a sniper in the bush, ready to shoot at the base of the alien hit man's neck during the exchange. okay save the day mister sniper please.

AUGH HOSTAGE EXCHANGE. it's so tense. i paused here to write how tense it was, which did not ease it in the slightest. the hit man has a gun to scully's head and it's recalling mulder's early trauma with hostage exchanges. they're waiting for the right moment to shoot....

scully's in the car!!!! but samantha tried to use the needle that kills the aliens and she MISSED and the sniper shot was messed up and then there's firing and is it the sniper? or is it the hit man? who is hit? it is very unclear!!!!! both hit man and samantha tumble into the cold water beneath.

he's still at the bridge, staring down into the place he last saw her. scully comes out to join him, and he says "you should be at the hospital" (she has gauze on her head and says she was just discharged)

he's staring into the water, trying to come up with different ways she might have lived

"why didn't you tell me on the phone that it was her?" "i couldn't tell you 'cause you'd never let me go through with it" AUGHHHHHHHHH.

(and knowing how the episode ends. i am glad this happened. but in the moment. this was a gut punch)

she asks how he knew it was really his sister (valid question, one i fear he should have asked as well) and he snaps about how could she ask that, and she's like, dude someone with your face and body just kidnapped me???? so the whole who is who thing is a little murky??

(she actually calmly explains this. without any judgement. judgement added was my own. but you can imagine that after this experience, hearing "he's an alien" might still be a bit of a hard sell)

okay, mr. mulder is on the scene. he has to tell his dad he lost his sister. I lost her, he says. emphasis on the I. as if it was an action that he took. fuck.

and his dad hits back with a "you LET this man take your sister?" and son mulder is CRYING. what the HELL this is too much. the man has suffered too much. i'm given flashbacks to the last time we saw him cry when he thought he lost scully forever.

PAUSE. i just know the actors were eating up these lines. ohhh i know they were sinking their teeth into them the way that good dialogue allows you to. when you tap into the soul of a character, a whole person who isn't even real, because the writing cuts to their heart. yeah yeah yeah i knowww they were rolling with it and it felt Good

back to the scene. his father is giving him a guilt trip about how his mother is going to deal with "losing her again". and he's apologizing and crying when his dad pulls out an envelope

"your sis- SAMANTHA" told me to give you this.

the implication that he lost the claim to be considered related to her????? is sooooo entirely messed up?? that is the kind of thing that ruins a person???? holy fuck??

he's sobbing while opening the letter, and it gives an address where she says they can meet up if they are separated... so maybe she's really still out there??? hope has been installed back into "she's not actually dead" camp

he rolls up to the address and parks in an area labeled "NO PARKING". grief will do this to a guy.

but just as he arrives, scully calls and says they found her in the river. NOOOOOO THE NEWLY RETURNED HOPE.... "whatever you're feeling, you can't blame yourself" she says, knowing that he must be putting his whole soul into Blaming Himself

but... her body is melting??? is it an alien body??? is the melting gonna turn into toxic gas?? scully don't stare at it you're gonna get all thick blood!!!!

back to mulder. this man is experiencing all stages of grief at once on the steps of a women's clinic. he goes in and pulls out a gun and boy i sure hope there are no women inside.

someone is in there. it's... someone with samantha's face??? saying that she knows "she's dead"????? "it was all a lie", he mumbles as he realizes he was played

YESSSS I KNEW IT. i knew that was NOT his sister. i knew it was too weird and coincidental to be true. this makes the grief of losing her dissipate entirely so i do consider this a win beyond me just being able to guess where the plot was going

and i'm thinking, how the hell is he gonna explain all this to scully? like, to mom and dad, you will have to play along with the whole "she died" thing, and while that is by no means easy, it is a concrete thing you can say and do. but scully??? how is she going to react to "someone pretended to be my sister and then got killed"

(i suppose mulder could tell his parents that DNA testing on "samantha's body" proved no relation, but that would still be complicated to walk through, because there was no corpse to prove that, you know, because she dissolved- maybe scully could make some paperwork to make it look real?)

back to the matter at hand: these aliens with the same face are saying that he must save their original source. and he says "i am not your savior" which- tea. set your boundaries king. in fact, had i been there, i would have done the opposite of protecting, and instead start blasting these aliens that pretended to be my long-dead sister.

but they have leverage... they know where she really is...... so he doesn't walk out....

hit man arrives!!!!! armed with his needle!!! and mulder goes to confront him, but he knocks him on his back, and sets a fire- mulder's weakness!!!!!!

scully is making a report. she cannot substantiate his claims of aliens. and she's got a cut on her forehead from hit man taking her. my poor queen :(

back to the fbi agent that died in the last episode. he has nasty cuts allllll over. like he was carved with designs. sorry for that imagery but i saw it and must describe it.

she thinks she can solve this case with the power of SCIENCE!!! what killed this guy, exactly? maybe if we can figure it out, the other pieces could fall into place

so the virus that causes the blood to thicken is inhibited by the cold.... which explains our earlier scene of mulder in the ice tub and her yelling about him needing to be cold...

DEEP THROAT 2.0 ARRIVAL? (sidenote does this dude have a real name? like while this was airing what were y'all calling him...)

he tells mulder that the last alien- the one who was sent to kill the clones, our shapeshifting hit man- has been tracked to alaska, and that you have to pick your battles to win the war. telling him not to go to alaska. can you imagine.

scully goes to his place and knocks but no one answers. and his newspapers on at the doorstep. so she busts out her keeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey..... heart still melts that she has this.......

and HE KNEW SHE WAS GONNA INVESTIGATE???? he sent her an email..... and he's saying how he wouldn't let her risk her life... nooo don't you weaponize the earlier drawing a line thing, that was about chasing a very vague alien lead to an agent's death, not about investigating ur sister...........

she bursts into skinner's office. and then apologizes for doing so.

(i love this so much. such a tiny detail that tells us a lot about her character. that Need to be good and do the right thing and please those whom she looks up to. ohhhhh)

he asks to speak to her off the record, and it seems at first promising... but he won't help her get in contact with mulder. EVEN after she says please!!!! she is gonna cry!!!!!

skinner's bitching about mulder's actions being a violation of his oath, and she's saying that he saved her life, and he comes back with a "if he wanted or expected you to do the same, he would have told you where he was going"

skinner being a jerk... at this point i began to revoke the point i earlier gave him...

he looks deeply troubled though, and i was like, ohhh, mulder must have promised him to not tell her where he was going... i see into your plans, mulder (<- this is not what happened)

back at mulder's place. scully's searching for clues. there's an x taped to the window again, which must be something he just does sometimes. and there's ominous music.

she falls asleep on his couch, and i swear i actually felt my heart melting at this moment. the way she was curled up. subconsciously trying to hold onto a piece of him. only finding rest where he did. i can't even wax poetic about this because i can't put the words into the right shape. but it is gonna destroy me.

someone is knocking... but who?

DEEP THROAT 2.0?!?!

he tries to act like he just went to the wrong room, but she isn't buying it, following him and demanding to know where he really is

SKINNER IS HERE? GETTING ON THE ELEVATOR????? SKINNER ATTACKING D.T. 2.0??? the girls are fighting!!!!!!!

he makes deep throat 2.0 tell him where mulder is, even when skinner is pinned up and deep throat 2.0 is the one holding the gun, and he said "i've killed men for less", but skinner says that if you kill him, he'll be killing 2 men....... this gag seems to have worked

SKINNER is AT THE DOOR to mulder's place where scully is staying. and he is bleeding from MANY wounds. tells scully where he is without elaborating on the blood pouring from all over. okay skinner. you're real for that. you get that point i was tossing around back. and a bonus one, in fact.

so mulder's out on the ice, and usually him wearing a big jacket would spark joy in my heart. and i won't lie, it does a little. but there is also a LOT of tension going on, so it's very brief. feels wrong to rejoice in the simple pleasures of man in big funny coat when he just had to lose his sister and then learn it wasn't even her.

but he sees some sort of tower and he's going in!!! and a dead guy is spotted.

pause. at this point i am sitting here thinking, man, these episodes are good, definitely among the best i've seen so far. who let these men cook? can we get them back in the kitchen with more regularity?

someone is leading him deeper and deeper into the maze of this... station? sub? and i fear he is being led into a trap. but he finds a very very scared man and having a big man point a gun at him doesn't help with the fear, i'm sure. but is it really a sniveling coward... or the hit man???

and JUST as he almost had me fooled and wondering if mulder was gonna really shoot an innocent guy, BAM! hit man reveal.

mulder keeps asking where his sister is, even while being pummeled by this alien with super strength. and he says "she's alive. can you die now?"

mulder shoots at the alien and he misses the back of his neck, so his toxic blood is filling up the space, and things are not looking good at all. and the alien takes him out and drops him on the ice!!!!!

he's going to break the ice and let him freeze or hit him with the sub as it goes down, both very bad endings........

CUTSCENE TO WHERE WE BEGAN!!!!

scully is bursting in, telling this doctor that he has a virus that can only be slowed by keeping him cold, and he isn't buying it, but just as he tries to get her kicked out of the room, his heart stops, so she intervenes.

and she's calling all the shots- get 100 grams of this and that and a drip of this- and this doctor has had his shift hijacked by a better doctor. he implies that mulder might not make it, and she refuses to hear this out.

and she's.... gently stroking his hair... while this is going down........

and sitting by his bed while he's getting better...

(so are the counts for who has been in a coma now tied? justice is served)

and now she's doing the case conclusion:

"several aspects of this case remain unexplained, suggesting the possibility of paranormal phenomena" <- OHHH??? is this what makes scully a believer? are we gonna see some character changes?

"but i am convinced that to accept such conclusions is to abandon all hope of understanding the scientific events behind them" okay!!! we are getting a deeper look into her philosophy here. yes yes yes give me more. and more i was given:

"many of the things i have seen have challenged my faith and my belief in an ordered universe, but this uncertainty has only strengthened my need to know, to understand, to apply reason, to those things which seem to defy it"

and i love it. i love it so much. seeing how she understands the world, why she knows that there has to be an order to it all, and if it seems there isn't, it's just because she hasn't figured it out yet... and science did allow him to get better... the need to fight a good fight in the way she knows how... yeah... that's lovely...

and she's CRYING at his bedside and holding his arm when he finally opens his eyes. her smile. her gentle "hey". it's so innocent, seeing that he is okay, that he made it through the worst part of getting better.

"thanks for ditching me" aughhhhghhhhh.......

he says he didn't find what he was looking for, but he did find the faith to keep looking. ohhhhh. ohhhhhhh...

the way his faith was gone at the start of season 2, but now it's back, there's something worth fighting for, his sister is out there, there is a world worth figuring out..........

man.

at this point my friend was sending me texts and i was like queen i need a minute. i need a minute. to put these things in order. and honestly i STILL do!

it was an absolutely amazing duo of episodes. i truly loved the writing, seeing them pushed to the brink with each other and with themselves. seeing skinner come into fruition. seeing what motivates them both and how they see the world and how it is entirely different but still driven by hope and faith and a need to learn the truth. and the tenderness of it all. of her sleeping on his couch in his absence, thinking maybe he'll be home soon. of running her fingers through his hair while he was being revived. the fury of being blamed for the loss of his sister, the fury with which she screamed at deep throat 2.0 to tell him where he went off to, the fury of mulder realizing he had been lied to and that his sister had never come back at all. but there still being hope despite it all. because there are things worth searching for. and they can do it together.

man. it was a very good episode but your girl is gonna go watch a silly video because it definitely hit me right in the Feelings!!

[cherrybombfangirlwrites]

OC Questionnaire

tagged by: the lovely @kaylinalexanderbooks thank you!

tagging: Open Tag as usual, and softly tagging @thegreatobsesso | @mysticstarlightduck | @winterandwords | @chayscribbles

Your OC interview questions are: 1) What's your go to coffee order (or equivalent for a fantasy/sci-fi world)? 2) What is the first thing you notice about your appearance when you look in the mirror VS the first thing other people notice when they see you? 3) Who would you consider to be your closest friend and why?

My questions: 1) What is your stance on lying? 2) Do you enjoy people watching? 3) What is the best decision you ever made?

I'll answer with two OCs that are my absolute faves and two that I need to develop more: Princess Snow (FSF), Nickelle (TCIO), Astra (GD), and Tris (FSF).

Responses under the cut cus this is long XD:

Snow (Fractured Stars Falling WIP)

What is your stance on lying?

Snow folds her arms and says firmly, "Even if it's for a good reason I don't like it. My stepmother used lies to hurt me and others, I won't use them unless absolutely necessary, and even then I'm going to feel terrible about it the whole time. I refuse to be that kind of queen."

Do you enjoy people watching?

"No, not really. It feels weird to watch people without a reason to be doing so. It feels dishonest and sneaky to me."

What is the best decision you ever made?

Snow swallows harshly, clenching a fist as she holds back tears and avoids looking at the person who asked the question. "I finally saw through my stepmother's lies. I took over the throne and had her thrown into the deepest dungeon of the palace, after years of giving her excuses and too many second chances. But I was too late to... to save my best friend from getting killed by her because of my stupid mistakes..."

Nickelle (The City is Ours WIP)

What is your stance on lying?

Nickelle bristles at the question, looking at the person who asked suspiciously. Then she shrugs, picking at the glove of her superhero suit. "If it's for a good cause, I'd say it's fine."

Do you enjoy people watching?

She thinks about it for a moment, fiddling with the patches on her leather jacket. "From a distance, in the city yes. If you can get up to one of the rooftops and sit on the edge it's a great spot to watch people go by."

What is the best decision you ever made?

Nickelle looks around to see if anyone is watching or listening in. "I made a choice to protect this city and my team. Other people might not like my methods, but I'm doing what I have to. Hence why I have to do it under another identity, since other people might have... more negative feelings about my methods. I don't like it either, but this has to be done."

Astra (Galaxy Destroyer WIP)

What is your stance on lying?

Astra shrugs, and says like a true thief and space pirate, "Oh yeah it's fine. Sometimes it's the only way to get what you need. Especially in a galaxy where P.I.E. made everything so damn expensive. If I need to lie and steal to live, I'm fine with that."

Do you enjoy people watching?

Astra looks around for potential targets. "For a chance to make a little money off of an unsuspecting idiot? Absolutely, it's not just enjoyable, it's how I make a living."

What is the best decision you ever made?

Astra thinks for a minute, going through all the things she's done and stolen as a space pirate, and all the times she made a not so smart move. "Well one of the worst decisions I ever made was trusting another pirate on a job, he stabbed me in the back and left me high and dry. I don't know about the best decision though, maybe becoming a thief despite the mixed results? Mixed results yes, but I can't imagine being anything else, and the benefits outweigh the risks- in my opinion."

Tris (Fractured Stars Falling WIP)

What is your stance on lying?

Tris presses her lips into a thin line, her hand tightly gripping the hilt of her sword at her side. "Only if it's for a really good reason, and no one gets hurt. Otherwise, lying is just wrong."

Do you enjoy people watching?

She shrugs, the cloud of tight coils that make up her hair bouncing with the movement. "I never really thought about it. Kaye and I prefer to keep to ourselves most of the time. Watching people for no reason has never really interested me."

What is the best decision you ever made?

Tris thinks about it hard for a minute. "I'm not sure, maybe entering the fighting tournament for the prince's hand to get out of my stepfamily's... well it's my family's house but they were going to kick me out at some point anyway. Anyways, joining the tournament to get away from them... well it got me away from them, but I saw and did things in that area that I wish I hadn't... but on the other hand, if I hadn't done that, I probably wouldn't have had the chance to see Kaye again and spend more time with him. Despite the terrible circumstances..."

~

(apologies for the weird formatting on the taglists, I'm trying to make sure everyone gets tagged bc I think I figured out why tumblr was being weird with tags earlier)

FSF Taglist: @rose-bookblood @chalcid @evethenovicewriter @writing-is-a-martial-art

@mjjune @fiercely-raging-writer @wildswrites @corishadowfang

@surroundedbypearls @serenanymph (send me a message to be +/- from the taglist <3)

TCIO Taglist: @friendlyneighborhood-writer @jessica-writes22 @rose-bookblood @yejidoesthings

@space-writes @cljordan-imperium (send me a message to be +/- from the taglist <3)

GD Taglist: @fiercely-raging-writer @aesa @writeouswriter

[chaiiitime]

It Happened One Summer Night

Summary : It was meant to be straight-forward, right? Catch a ride with Daniel Ricciardo to her sister's wedding, try not to kill each other, say thank you when they get there and never have to see each other again. Fate, however, loves to play games.

Pairing : Daniel Ricciardo x OC!Fem

Word Count : 3,800

Masterlist | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4

Chapter 2

OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD

Adriana could hear the blood pounding in her ears, her heart working hard to escape her ribcage.  They were both breathing hard, but hers were choppier than Daniel.

Daniel wrestled with his seatbelt, leaning across the console to switch off the engine.  She was on the verge of hyperventilation and hadn't realised the car was still running.

Dear God, she had run over something.

Daniel got out, rounding the front and bending down to look at whatever damage she had caused.  She knew she had to follow him, but she didn't have the heart to see whatever poor innocent animal she had run over splattered all over the car's bumper.  She slowly climbed out, the hot tarmac burning the sole of her bare feet. The breath she was holding left her in a whoosh when she saw no blood or gore over the front of the car. Daniel was lying belly-flat on the ground, as he tried to dislodge something from underneath the car.

"What is it?" she asked with trepidation.

Daniel grunted as he grappled with whatever it was. He looked up at her, squinting against the dying sun. "It's a branch. A pretty big one. I'm trying to get it out, but it's stuck." 

He gave it a few more tugs and he finally felt something give. Hell yeah. He pulled the branch out and held it out for Adriana to see.

It wasn't just a pretty big one, it was huge, and Adriana hadn't seen it because she had been too busy arguing with Daniel.

Daniel tossed the branch to the side of the road, lying down once again to check the floor of the car.  "Well, it looks like we are not going anywhere. The branch ripped a pipe or something and there's an oil leak."

"Can't you fix it?" Daniel looked at her confused. "Well, you're an F1 driver. Aren't cars kind of part of your job?"

Daniel tried to hold back his sigh of exasperation. The lady sure had her ideas about whatever she thought an F1 driver was all about. 

"I just drive the car, I'm not a mechanic. If I knew how to repair the car, I would have done it already." Or even better, he thought inwardly, he would have built himself a fast car instead of spending a big part of his career in slow cars.

"What are we going to do now?" Her voice was anguished.

Daniel knew he shouldn't take any perverse pleasure in seeing the distressed look on her face, but he was, even if he was as much stranded as her.

"Get in the car." He motioned to her. "I'll try to push it to the side as much as I can while you steer."

~

ROUND AND ROUND, DANIEL reminded himself as he rubbed his thumb against his index finger.

The constant circular motion had been his self-soothing mechanism ever since he was a hyper anxiety-prone kid. It was his way of calming himself down, to not give in to his anxious tendencies and bite his nails. He also didn't want to show Adriana he was anything other than cool and composed.

The setting sun had turned the sky orange, and even the remaining colour was quickly dissipating. In the last hour since they'd realised that there was no network signal, they'd considered every single option — from trying to repair the car themselves to maybe walking to the nearest civilisation. They had no idea how far the nearest town was — because of said no network — and their last option of hitching a ride hadn't exactly panned out yet. The few cars that had passed them on the highway so far hadn't bothered to stop.

He was sitting on the cooling hood now. Adriana was sitting sideways in the passenger seat, her feet dangling out of the open door. She looked far from the well-put person that had walked out of the airport this afternoon. Her blouse was rumpled and there was a streak of grease running down her skirt from when she had tried to look under the car earlier.

Daniel cleared his throat. "What comment were you referring to earlier?"

They'd been sitting in tense silence.  Might as well use the opportunity to clear the air.

Adriana lifted her head from where she was lolling on the headrest. "Don't pretend like you don't remember what I was referring to."

Daniel tipped his head back and pushed out a grunt of frustration. He tried to loosen the tendons in his neck. He didn't think his neck had ever felt this tired even after his toughest race as it did now from the stress of the last few hours. 

"Adriana —" Her name sounded so foreign in his Australian twang, his tongue wrapping around the vowels to give a slight inflection at the end. "I'm really trying here. I'm not being an asshole. I'm asking honestly so that I can apologise."

Adriana looked up at him.  There was a look of vulnerability lurking in her eyes that Daniel had not expected. She looked back down, her hair covering her face as she rubbed at the grease streak on her skirt. 

Her voice sounded a bit rough when she finally spoke. 

"It was George's birthday party. George and you, you guys were in the kitchen getting beers or something. Anyway, George asked if you would be interested in dating me and you said —” The rubbing got more frantic, as if she could make the grease streak disappear. "And you said that —" Daniel could see her throat work convulsively, as if she was holding back tears. "You said that I was so cold — colder than a witch’s tits was what you said actually — that your balls would freeze up if you tried touching me.”

Dan felt his face flush hot. That sticky sickly feeling inside of him was hot shame as he faintly recalled that conversation. 

He truly was an asshole. 

"Adriana, I —“ 

He remembered that one time in high school when he got suspended for scratching something he shouldn't have on that girl’s locker and how disappointed his mom had been in him. But he wasn't a kid anymore, he didn't need his mom to tell him off to know he'd done something bad. He shouldn't have said that, whether Adriana had overhead him or not, whether she’d been rude to him or not. 

He got down from the hood, ready to get down on his knees if that was what it would take for her to forgive him. "Adriana, I’m sorry." She looked intent to avoid his gaze, staring straight ahead at an invisible point beyond his shoulder. "I, I ... " 

God, words were hard when you were a world class idiot.

All of a sudden, Adriana got up. Did his rambling apology have an effect already? But no, she was staring, almost excitedly, at something behind him.

"Is that a —" 

Daniel turned around. Yep, that was indeed a truck. A good old-fashioned one at that, all dusty, its red paint faded with the sun.

Adriana rushed past him, waving frantically to get the driver's attention. Daniel sighed as he followed after her. 

She didn't have to wave so frantically to get the driver's attention, he thought moodily. That tight skirt she was wearing would have been enough to stop traffic.

The truck came to a trundling stop before them. The driver was an old man, his wispy white hair peeking out from under the beret he was wearing. His sun-beaten face creased into a smile as he looked down at Adriana.

"Hola, Senor." The Spanish rolled off Adriana's tongue. She pointed to Daniel and their car as she appeared to explain their situation. The man nodded along, leaning out of his window to look at their car before speaking. Dan could only assume whatever the old man said was positive because Adriana had a wide grin on her face as she profusely thanked him. 

"Gracias. Muchas gracias."

She turned excitedly towards Daniel. "He says he lives in a small village not too far from here.

He can take us there for the night, and tomorrow he can have the village mechanic come get the car for repairs."

Daniel cleared his throat as he stepped closer to her. "Are we sure we can trust this man?" he asked in a lower voice.

Adriana rolled her eyes at him. "Look at him," She gave the man a little smile and wave as she gritted her teeth at Dan. "He's harmless. Anyway, at this point, I am so desperate I would get in a car with the dodgiest of men if that means I get to reach my little sister's wedding in time.”

"Fine, Fine" Daniel held up his hands. "I was just being cautious.”

~

DANIEL AND SENOR GONZALEZ HAD MANAGED to secure their suitcases with rope in the bed of the truck. Now, Adriana was faced with another problem. She stared at the driver's cabin, wondering how she was going to get up there – her pencil skirt didn't allow for the kind of movement that would allow her to vault herself up there.

"Come on," Adriana could feel the heat of his body as Daniel came up behind her. "I'll give you a boost. Just grab on to the door handle once I lift you up." 

She didn't have the time to process what was happening before Daniel was placing his hands on her hips. His hands moved down, curving around her bottom to lift her up.

Adriana flushed hot.  A million butterflies erupted in her belly – Daniel Ricciardo had his hands on her ass. His beautiful veiny hands with the rose tattoo and the discrete "3" inked there. She felt his hands flex. A slight squeeze of her ass.  Was it a trick of her mind? It was definitely a trick of her mind because why would Daniel Ricciardo be squeezing her ass? She landed quite inelegantly on the seat, her skirt riding up as she slid across the bench to the middle seat, giving Daniel an eyeful as he hoisted himself up.

The cabin was much smaller than both of them had anticipated. They sat flushed against each other, their knees touching. Daniel sat very still, careful not to make any movements. The tiniest of movements, as he had discovered, and his arm would brush against the underside of her breast. He sat, staring straight ahead, not daring to look at the smooth golden expanse of skin exposed by her hitched-up skirt. Not daring to take too deep of a breath because he could smell her, even over the old leather smell of the cabin — something citrusy and sharp, softened with hints of floral.

The palms of his hands tingled from where he’d touched her. It had taken a lot of self-control to not draw her closer to him as he had lifted her up. To not let his hands linger for longer than needed. To not mould his hands over her curves.

Fuck, he needed a cold shower. Maybe a reality check as well, because the last thing he needed right now was to start something with Adriana freaking Montero Mundt.

~

THEY CAME TO A STOP IN front of a small house. Adriana peered out but couldn't make out much of anything in the dark. She felt slightly disoriented — it had gotten completely dark once they got in the truck, so she couldn't tell which way they had been driving all this time. It felt like they had been on the road for hours when at most, it must have been only a little bit more than an hour. She didn't refuse the hand Daniel offered her to get down – the strain of the trip was finally catching up to her and she felt like she would keel over if she didn't get into bed soon.

Senor Gonzalez — or Miguel as he had said to call him — ambled across his gravel driveway to his front door, beckoning them to follow him. He had talked almost non-stop since he had picked them up, with Adriana sometimes acting as translator for Daniel. He'd told them about his little village by the sea, how it was the place with the best seafood in all of Spain, how it was protected by the sea on one side and the Pyrenees Mountains on the other — all in all, Adriana had realised, they could have done much worse as a place for an overnight pitstop.

"Cayetana!" Miguel bellowed as he hung his beret on a hook by the door.

"Si, si," A woman appeared in the doorway. She had grey hair, carefully braided. Her small frame was wrapped in a floral housecoat and she looked ready to turn in for the night.

"Caye, mi amor," Miguel walked over to his wife, placing a hand on her shoulder. "This is Adriana and Daniel. Their car broke down on the highway. We can spare a room for them for the night, si?" He explained in Spanish.

Cayetana pushed her glasses up her nose as she looked at them. Great, she was going to throw them out because they looked a bit worse for wear, Adriana thought. Well, not Daniel — he still looked his suave self. She, on the other hand, looked like she had been through the wringer.

"Ah! Claro que si! Si!" She exclaimed as she gestured for them to follow her.

They went up a narrow staircase, with Daniel juggling both their suitcases — he had shooed her away when she had tried to take hers. Cayetana showed them to a small room at the end of the hallway. 

Clean bed linens, she explained. She bustled around, handing them clean towels, showing them how to turn on the faucet in the ensuite. All through this, Adriana tried to tell her that Daniel and her were not a couple and that they would need separate rooms, but every time she tried to interject, she was met with a torrent of rapid-fire Spanish that even she had trouble keeping up with.

Then, Miguel and Cayetana were wishing her and Daniel goodnight, leaving her alone with Daniel in the small room with the lone bed.

Daniel was looking at her with something close to indignation on his face. "You didn't tell them we need separate rooms!" He whisper-shouted as soon as the door closed behind their hosts.

"I tried!" Adriana lifted her shoulders in defence. "She just wouldn't stop talking to listen to me!"

"Well —" Daniel walked over to the right-side of the bed, placing his phone and wallet on the bedside table there, "I'm not sleeping on the ground or in that sorry excuse of an armchair to protect your chastity or whatever it is they call it."

"Oh, how gentlemanly of you." Adriana was still stood in the same spot, her hands on her hips as she watched him get comfortable. He kicked off his shoes and before she could tell him off, he bent down and carefully placed them to the side.

He opened his suitcase, turning back to look at her as he riffled through his things. "Nah yeah, I'm not fucking up my neck just for me to the play the gentleman for you."

Adriana bristled at the way he said it — did he mean that he would have done the gentlemanly thing for any other woman but her? He looked pretty unbothered by their sleeping arrangements all while she was on the verge of combusting at the thought of sharing that small bed with him.

"What's that?" Adriana asked perplexed as she watched him open the case he had just removed from his suitcase.

"What do you mean what's that?" He looked at her as if the answer should be obvious. "It's my custom-made travel pillow." He said as he moved the pillow on the bed aside for his special one. "I told you, I need to take care of my neck." 

Adriana watched incredulously as he carefully fluffed up the pillow. 

"Also, could you please open the window behind you a bit? I can't sleep unless the room is in the twenty degrees."

"Of course, my lord!" She bowed mockingly. "Do you want me to also check if they haven't left a pea under the mattress?" She made a dramatic gesture towards the bed, blinking up at Daniel in an exaggeratedly slow manner. "We wouldn't want anything to mar your highness' delicate skin, after all.”

“Haha.” He said dryly. “You’ve got jokes.” 

It was pretty funny, but there was no way he was going to tell her that. 

“You know —“ he said as he slowly walked backwards, snagging a clean towel and throwing it over his shoulder. “You should check on that pea while I take a shower.” Then, he was hurrying to the ensuite, smirking at the sound of indignation she made.

That man was so childish. What did she care if he showered first? She fumed as she picked up the pillow Daniel had discarded and placed it in the middle of the bed. There, that was what the heroine did in the movies, right? Build a pillow wall to protect herself from the hero’s advances?

Satisfied with her brilliance, Adriana started settling in. She hung up the garment bag with her maid of honour dress in the small wardrobe, unpacked her toiletries and nightclothes. Thank God, she’d packed her modest pyjamas — not like she usually wore sexy stuff to bed anyway. She was shooting a text off to Carmen when the door opened.

Finally. 

“I hope you didn’t fin —“ The words died on her lips. Daniel was standing in the doorway — completely bare chested.

He was vigorously drying his curls with one towel and had another slung loosely around his hips. It sat so low, exposing his Adonis belt that Adriana feared one tug, and the towel would come loose. She could tell he had barely dried himself coming out of the shower, because she could see the sheen of moisture on his golden skin. She watched in fascination as a droplet of water coursed down from the base of his neck, over the ridges of his abs to get lost in his happy trail. The soft hair there swirled around his navel to disappear into the unexplored underneath his towel.

“Left you some hot water.” He was smirking as he looped his towel around his neck.

Oh God, his neck. His big beautiful neck.

Don’t show him you’re flustered. Adriana cleared her throat, carefully averting her eyes from all that male exquisiteness in front of her. “Thank you.” She said as she gathered her things, making sure she kept a safe distance from him on her way to the bathroom.  She closed the door quietly behind her and leaned against it. 

She needed a cold shower — or maybe to douse herself in some holy water. 

~

DANIEL LAID DOWN on the bed.

For some reason, the pillow he had discarded was in the middle. He kicked it to the foot of the bed and settled down more comfortably, propping his arms behind his head. He smiled slightly as he remembered the way Adriana had checked him out coming out of the shower — she thought she had been inconspicuous about it, but he’d seen the self-conscious way she had touched her throat, the blush on her face.

He could hear the water running in the bathroom. He imagined the water running over her curves. The water droplets glistening on her skin. Those slim hands slathering the soap all over her body. 

Calm down, he reminded himself. So what if the attraction between them was mutual? He was not going to do anything about it. She hated his guts and he had already offended her once. He wasn’t going to do it again by making a move on her. Just then, the door opened and Adriana came out, fumbling with the light switch to the bathroom.  She was wearing a striped pajama set.

Very proper. Very sexy.

The steam from the shower had brought out the curls in her hair, a few ringlets framing her face rather enticingly. She looked soft, fuckable.

Adriana skirted the bed, her eyes quickly darting to where Daniel was sprawled out. Thank god he’d gotten dressed, even if the sweats and T-shirt he was wearing did nothing to hide the hard lines of his body, the soft material of the old sweats cupping that part of him just so, leaving nothing to the imagination.

She was mad at herself for being attracted to him because she knew if she got involved with him, it would only end in heartbreak for her and she didn’t think she could handle having her heart broken twice. 

She frowned when she saw her pillow wall had somehow ended at the foot of the bed. Wordlessly, she picked it up and placed it back. 

Daniel was looking at her quizzically, one of his eyebrows quirked in question. She mirrored his expression, lifting one of her eyebrows in challenge. She had to hide her smile of triumph when he shrugged, seemingly accepting not to question why she wanted to have a pillow between them. 

She got in bed, pulling the covers up to her chin.

They both laid in the dark, their breaths falling into sync in the silence. Adriana willed herself to sleep, but even with the pillow between them, she could feel the heat from Daniel’s body. She wanted to burrow into his warmth, but all the things they’ve said stood between them. 

Daniel was bone-tired, he knew he had to sleep, but just like how it was after a bad race, his mind kept replaying that moment – Adriana sitting so forlorn in the car, looking hurt. Colder than a witch’s tits. He was truly an idiot.

He knew from her carefully measured breathing that she was still awake. He could feel the same tension he felt in his body radiating from hers. 

“I’m sorry.” He said softly into the silence.

His only indication that Adriana had heard him was the slight hitch in her breathing.

“I shouldn’t have said that. I’m not going to hide behind any excuses and pretend I am not blameless.” He shifted on his side, his eyes roving on her face. Even in the dark, he could make out the beauty mark near her upper lip. “Will you forgive me?”

They stayed suspended for a moment, Daniel’s breath fanning the hair at her temple. 

Adriana’s heart stuttered. How could she tell him that her supposed animosity against him was her self-defence mechanism to protect her heart from him? That deep down, she knew it would be so easy to fall in love with him and in the end, she would be the one with the broken heart while he would leave unscathed? 

Without answering, she turned on her side, giving him her back and shielding herself from his eyes. Daniel didn’t move for a moment. Then, Adriana felt the bed shift as he turned on his other side with a sigh. After a few minutes, she heard his breathing becoming deeper and slower — he’d fallen asleep. 

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[300yearschallenge]

Part 1 I Part 2

Théo sat in the dark and cried.

She was so happy for Eugene! Wasn't it wonderful for him to find love like this? Her beautiful, kind son now had a life partner. Perhaps she would soon even be welcoming a grandchild or two to the family.

She kept trying to choke down her tears, sniffling pathetically, but now that the crying had began she found no way to end it. She hated it. The crying. Herself.

"I figured I would find you here," a soft voice rang out from the darkness and Théo flinched, desperately trying to hide her face.

She tried to wave her hand at 'Tine, to get him to leave, but he ignored her half-hearted gesture so he could sit down next to her.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

She opened her mouth to try to speak, but the moment she tried to make any sort of noise all that came out was another wretched sob.

"There, there," he hushed, taking on the same tone their mother had used on them as children, "Hush, hush."

"D-don't--"

"-- It's fine, Théo. You can cry, it's just me."

"I-it's noth…," she tried to speak again, voice shaking with effort, "N-nothing."

"Doesn't seem like nothing to me," he said and Théo scoffed at him. Stupid, patient Tine and his stupid endless kindness.

"S-stop--"

"Oh, don't be silly," Tine said, "If it bothers you so much to have me comfort you, then just consider it a debt of comfort to be repaid once one of mine get married. I'm sure I'll be a blubbering mess then too."

Théo tried to shake her head again.

How would he know?! At least his children were all his. Truly his. 'Tine never had to worry about them being driven away by the other parent, because there was none.

No other parent to be the favourite or the enemy, to one by one take all of your children away from you.

All except Eugene. And now she had to let him go too.

"He'll still be living with you," 'Tine said and Théo frowned.

"Stop that," she managed to say, very weakly, and he smiled.

"I won't." He said, reaching out to wipe a tear-stained cheek. The skin around her eyes was puffy and sore from all her crying.

"I feel--" she said, tenatively, "Pathetic."

"It's the first time one of yours get married. It's bound to be an emotional moment. There's plently of mothers who cry at weddings."

Théo pouted, "Because they're happy."

"And you're not happy?"

Théo shrugged.

After a moment of silence, the wind rustling through the trees, Tine spoke up, "Can I guess? Is it because of Joseph?"

Théo sighed, and looked around.

Not too far away from here was the tree where they had shared their very first kiss, all those years ago. It felt like a different lifetime altogether.

If she had known how everything would go, would she have done things differently?

Kiss Theodore first instead?

Become the poor, hard-working wife of a farmhand, surrounded by a litter of kind, hard-working children.

She wrinkled her nose slightly. Would that have been better? Or would it just have given her some other grief she couldn't predict?

"Do…," Tine hesistated, "Would you like to come stay with us for a while? You know you're always welcome with me and the kids."

Théo shook her head.

"No," she said, "No, I… I need to be there for Eugene and Iliana. They need someone in their corner."

"Doesn't Eugene have that now, though?" Tine said.

"I-Iliana then," she said, her voice wavering.

"And what of when she marries?"

"T-then--" She stared out into the darkness, trying to think of something.

Émile and Charles Elias were so far away now, too far away. Eugene married. Iliana probably not too far behind in marrying as well.

What if there were no grandchildren for a long time?

What would she even do then?

"You know what I think?" Tine said, laying an arm around her, "I think you've done such a great job being a mother that you forgot about everything else.

Remember all the projects you used to do as a kid? Cross-stitching, knitting, mastering every craft you got to try?"

"Maybe," Tine said, "It could be time for you to make some sort of project that won't depend on your children. If you put all of yourself into others, who will take care of you?"

Théo snorted, "You, apparently."

"Alright, alright," 'Tine said, "All I'm saying is this - if you pick up a project just for yourself after all these years of raising your children, who could blame you? I know my own twin well enough to know you've never been the idle type."

"Maybe."

"Maybe," Tine pulled her closer to him, "Now. Shall we return to the party?"

Théo shook her head.

"Just a little longer here," she said, breathing in the fragrant summer air, "Please. Just a bit more time."

Part 1 I Part 2

[eryiss]

[Fraxus] Multifaceted- Part 4

Or: The 5 Times Laxus Learned of a New Skill Freed Possessed, & The 1 Time He Fell Victim To Them

Summary: For the rest of the world, it had been seven years. For the members of Fairy Tail it had all been in the blink of an eye. But, for Laxus, that was more than enough time for his closest friend to seem like an entirely new person. This self assured, competent Freed was something new to Laxus, and he found himself enjoying it. Perhaps a little too much… Note: Laxus' feelings have started to grow, so it’s horny time. This has some sexual content, so only read if you want it. Links: Ao3, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

4: DIY

Freed had his shirt off, and he was sweating. Wonderful.

Laxus' growing attraction to Freed had been a slow and steady thing. Freed, since Laxus had returned to the guild, had proven himself to be more open with himself, less willing to hide his emotions and smother his smiles. His openness had allowed him to be more himself than he ever had been before, which was why Laxus had been privy to the slew of talents Freed apparently had.

That had all been fine. He'd always had a competency kink - not his preferred phrasing, but it was true nonetheless - and Freed was showing himself to be more and more competent by the day. And yes, he was handsome, but that wasn't new. This weird little crush Laxus had been harbouring was going to die away eventually.

Except Freed was shirtless and sweating, and in their bed.

What the hell was Laxus meant to do with that? Intellectually, he was aware Freed had a good body. His job required athleticism, and if his dancing abilities were anything to go by, he was incredibly fit. But knowing something and seeing something first hand was entirely different.

The damn man was shredded. He had abs that looked to be cut from steel, yet not with the same bulk that Laxus had. Freed's muscles were well defined, but housed in a perfectly slight body; like he wasn't intending to have a killer six pack, and yet he'd ended up with one anyway. His pecs were firm, yet not overly pronounced, and his nipples small yet demanding of attention. His hip bones were sharp and led temptingly downwards.

For a moment - one mad, ridiculous, lousy moment - Laxus considered dropping to his knees. Just for a second. Just to see what happened. Just to look up at Freed as he unbuttoned his fly and pulled out his-

The asshole was drinking, too. Cold looking water that dripped down his jaw and down his throat. Because, evidently, he wanted to kill Laxus.

"Hey," Laxus found himself saying. It was for the best, better than being found staring anyway. "You working out here now or something?"

Freed lowered his water bottle, frowning for a moment. Then he looked down himself and chuckled. "I've decided to be somewhat more proactive about our living situation."

Laxus wanted to say that if shirtless Freed was staying around, their living situation had been improved considerably, but he didn't. Instead, he said "By covering the sheets in your sweat?"

"It's my turn with the bed, and I'll wash them before you use them," Freed dismissed, standing up and walking past Laxus. He glowed in the light, and Laxus watched him go. Dear god, his back was perfect. There was a lack of scratches, but Laxus would amend that if given the chance. He shook the thought away, adjusted the slightly growing bulge between his legs, and followed Freed as he started up talking again. "I'm sick of the radiator not turning off, so I decided I would fix it myself. Once that was done, I was in the mind to fix other things, so I've spent the afternoon working around the house."

Laxus glanced around. He should have noticed before, really, but there were many little differences. The table and chairs were all now even legged, there were shelves screwed into the wall over the kitchen counters, and the door had opened easier and without a squeak.

Another thing Freed was good at, then. Wonderful. Another thing for Laxus to digest and obsess over when his mind wondered. He certainly had been lacking in that for the past few months of living with him…

"Wow," Laxus mused, then frowned. "If you fixed the radiator, why's it so hot in here?"

"Oh, after I fixed it, it got considerably worse. Hence, this," he gestured to his sweating, rippling torso. Was he flexing, or did his abs just look like that? "Turns out, I'm not too good with radiators. I'm terribly good at handling wood, though, so it balances out."

He must have known the innuendo he just said. He must have!

"So we live in a sauna now?"

"No. I've contacted the landlord."

"That didn't work before."

"Yes, well, this time I threatened him. He's coming tomorrow."

"You threatened him?"

"With castration."

"Freed!"

"Blunt force, using a hammer, to be specific," Freed hefted a hammer and ran his finger against the nail removing end. His grin was twisted, and Laxus gaped at him. "Calm down. I almost definitely wouldn't do anything."

"I'm not liking the almost there," Laxus grumbled.

Freed laughed, and Laxus all but groaned. There must have been something wrong with him, because finding a man threatening another man with brutal castration should not have been anything close to a turn on. Yet, for the second time, Laxus found himself shifting his stance so there was nothing conspicuous happening below the belt.

He watched as Freed crouched down, fiddling with a mess of wood which, upon further inspection looked to be a half built coffee table, upturned and unvarnished. Laxus had been complaining about not having anywhere to place his mugs and rest his feet. Now, Freed was making one for him.

The urge came back. Not to kneel, this time, but to haul him up and push him against a wall.

God fucking dammit. This was ridiculous.

But not ridiculous enough, apparently, because as Laxus found himself unable to look away from Freed - who had picked up a saw now, which made his shoulder blades shift and his biceps flex unfairly - Cana walked in. How she had even found out where they were living, Laxus didn't know.

"Hey man, your grandpa said he wants to-" she cut herself off, watching the room for a moment, then turning to Laxus, then bursting into laughter.

Both Laxus and Freed turned to her. Laxus had so much venom in his gaze that anyone with any sense of self preservation would run for the hills, but Cana didn't seem even remotely affected. Freed, in turn, had narrowed his eyes slightly and was staring her down.

"Is that at my expense?" He asked, calm but threatening.

"Nah man, it's at the blonde's."

"Very well, continue," Freed hummed, then turned back to his work.

Cana beamed, looked back to Laxus, then burst out laughing again. Laxus grabbed her by the arm, yanked her out of the apartment, and slammed the door closed behind them. Cana's laughter got even louder, and seemed never ending. Eventually Laxus got sick of hearing it, and sent a small shock into her elbow, which cut off her laughter and she glared at him.

"Was that necessary?"

"Was the laughing necessary?"

"Oh yeah, totally," She grinned, nudging him. "Come on, you'd laugh if it weren't happening to you."

"Oh shut up," He snapped.

Of course, this was his own fault. Everyone knew you didn't drink to the same levels as Cana and get away unscathed. Laxus had been feeling cocky and matched her drink for drink, and ended up spilling everything that was going on with his weird growing feelings towards Freed. During the conversation, he realised he'd found Freed hot for the last few years, but hadn't let himself come to terms with it. He stupidly voiced that, and Cana hadn't let it go.

To her credit, she hadn't told a soul. Previously that had gotten her a lot of respect in Laxus' mind, but all of that went away when she spoke again. "You literally walked into a porno situation with the guy you wanna fuck! That's funny!"

"No it's not."

"Trust me, it is," she laughed. "You gonna do it? Get his sword in your scabbard?"

"Tell me what you want and then leave."

"Oh, you wanna fill your scabbard without waiting then," she cackled at her own joke. Lightning flickered off Laxus' skin. "Fine. Your grandad wants to see you tomorrow, something about mission logs. I didn't really listen."

"Great. Leave."

"Sure," She shrugged, then patted him on the shoulder. "Enjoy the cold shower, dude."

"Get out," Laxus growled. Cana did as she was told.

Laxus faced the door to his apartment for a moment, then opened it and forced himself to go in. Cana was an ass, but she was right about one thing. A cold shower was the right thing to do. He made sure not to look in Freed's direction - who knew what he would be doing now - and flippantly said that he was going to take a shower while it was vacant. He almost got through it unscathed, if it weren't for the words that followed.

"Okay, I'll have one after you."

Of course, a torrent of images struck Laxus' suddenly overactive imagination. Freed, naked and lathering himself up under the spray of the shower they shared. Would his cock plump up? Would he tug and rub at it? Would he brace himself against the tiles the same way Laxus did?

His hand hovered over the temperature dial of the shower. He should turn it all the way down, freeze off the horny daze and have done with it. That was the right thing to do.

He didn't. He left it at the steaming temperature, stripped off, grabbed his hard, hefty cock and switched on the shower. Indulging in a fantasy where Freed joined him, controlling and strong and wonderful, he start to pump his cock, eyes flittering shut with pleasure as arousal flooded him,

Fuck, this was a step too far, but as he imagined Freed on his knees, he didn't care.

[nohoperadio]

The date for my annual performance review at work has been set for one month from today. The review day itself is not a big source of stress, it's the management's opinion that I'm good at my job, it's a mildly awkward thing to go through but it's very unlikely to "go badly" on the day.

However!

I gotta fill out the paperwork first, which consists of seven pages, each page representing one of the abstract work virtues ("teamwork", "initiative", "customer service" etc), and for each of these I have to write 3+ concrete examples of things I did over the past year that exemplify that virtue, followed by a description of how each thing I did impacted the business, followed by explaining what lesson I took from each thing.

This is a chore that combines several things I hate hate hate and am bad bad bad at:

homework (the paperwork doesn't have to be done at home, you can schedule work time to do it and this is considered fine, but this doesn't work for me at all for reasons we'll get to in a bit), I'm not even good at structuring my free time when the only things I'm trying to fit into my schedule are nice things I enjoy doing, let alone this

bullshitting, the whole thing is premised on an abstract dreamt-up-by-HR model of how people's jobs work that bears so little relation to reality that it's basically impossible to complete the form without a lot of bullshitting. You have to take utterly mundane and routine moments from your job that don't mean anything and write them up in a way that emphasizes how brilliant and special and passionate you are; also because they ask for an absurdly large amount of examples, you find you spend a lot of time and mental effort figuring out how to reword stuff you've already written elsewhere in such a way that it's not too obvious you're repeating yourself. I am extremely averse to bullshitting to an extent that I fully acknowledge is irrational and unhealthy but I don't seem to be able to do much about it: at uni I would occasionally miss deadlines because I couldn't figure out what my actual opinions were about the thing the essay was about, and I couldn't bring myself to just write an essay endorsing a conclusion I wasn't sure about. I hope that doesn't come across as even slightly a boast, there is no virtue there, it's an extremely fucking stupid attitude to have, I knew that at the time but I couldn't seem to change it. And I'm still kind of like that unfortunately, I can write bullshit but it feels horrendous and takes a ton of will power and progress will be comically slow.

expressing positive sentiments about myself, this one's self-explanatory I think

The result of these points is that I find writing these things so emotionally draining that it often takes like literal hours of psyching myself up/calming myself down just to find the right state of mind where I can even get started, and then often that leads to like, two or three bullet points worth of progress and then I'm exhausted. If this sounds dumb to you, well, yeah. That's why I can't realistically do it during work time, what am I gonna do request a whole day's worth of time and then produce like 30 words by the end of it? I'm not doing that. On top of these setbacks resulting from my unfortunate personality, there's also the fact that my particular role is quite different from most people's in the company but I still have to fill out the same standard form as everyone else, e.g. I rarely deal directly with customers so I have to really reach to argue that stuff I'm doing counts as "customer service", there's a lot of that kind of thing.

I'm not sure if I'm really conveying what I find horrible about this very well, but basically it's: 1] a lot of work, which 2] relies on skills I am extremely weak on and 3] aggravates my weird neuroses in various ways, and all the while 4] the whole thing is manifestly pointless and dumb. That's a recipe for aaaaaaaaaaaaa. If this year goes like the previous two years, I'll spend the weeks leading up to it feeling guilty and panicky for a significant portion of every day and doing that thing where I procrastinate the productive task constantly while not being able to really enjoy the things I'm using as procrastination either; I'll make ludicrously small amounts of progress on a handful of good days, but ultimately somehow force my way through most of it all in one go just before the deadline.

Maybe it won't be like that this time. My general being-a-person competence has been improving year on year for the past several, maybe this is the year I only moderately suck at this type of task. I shall let that sentiment have the last word here, not because it's especially plausible but because it feels virtuous to do so.

(I feel like it would be unjust to write this post and fail to say: I like my job. A lot! It's nothing very glamorous, I work in a bookshop and get paid marginally more than minimum wage, but: I find the work satisfying, I virtually never have the "ugh I can't wait till I can go home" feeling, and there's a small number of people there who I like very much and who like me in return. All three of those are things I literally could not conceive of being true of any job before I started here; when I said above that my being-a-person competence has improved the past few years, my job is a huge part of that. I have more positive feelings towards my work than a lot of people ever get to experience and I feel lucky for that. But this one particular aspect of it which comes once a year always kind of ruins my life for the better part of a month and I really wish it didn't exist.)

[mirrorhoppingdays]

not me and portrayal of twinship

Be forewarned, this is long as hell.

Normally when I think about writing about media depictions of twins (as a highly opinionated twin), two things stop me. One, nobody cares. Seriously, most people actively want to avoid understanding twins' point of view. It's my overwhelming experience. Two, it's just too much to delve into and I have thoughts about every little thing. I would digress until I became overwhelmed. But I think it might actually work to discuss this one facet. It might connect with a few people because fandom types are often actually interested in novel points of view and the emotional landscapes of others. And if I only talk about this one show that narrows things for me in a helpful way. So here goes.

As soon as Not Me starts with episode 1, there is an item on the balance sheet. We begin with the idea that twins can feel each others' feelings and feel when the other is seriously injured. We see this in Black & White's childhood and then again when White returns to Thailand after many years away. So, psychic twin connections. I'm both highly militant and oddly patient when it comes to twin depiction stuff. I don't love the psychic thing, but that's the variety of twinship media nonsense I'm willing to take on board *if* it's done well and it's worthwhile. When you begin a story about twins with a psychic connection and make it a central feature of your plot, you've essentially borrowed goodwill from me. If you squander it, then your balance will come due and you'll be left owing. If you use it well, I'll forgive the loan. So we start not on a bad note, but with higher stakes.

Pretending-to-be-one's-twin plots work okay for me. Why? Because as much as they might rely on twin resemblance, they can't work without the twins being different, whole people. That shouldn't be considered a positive because all characters should begin as whole people, but we know that doesn't always happen in general and it certainly doesn't always happen with twins.

We begin a whole big chunk of the story where the crux may be that White is sort of undercover as his own brother, but twinship isn't actually at issue much at all. It's about deception and risk, not twin connection or twinship. We do get constant reminders that White and Black are very different, and we get a lot of White trying and only kind of succeeding at pretending.

One thing that rings true to me is that he doesn't actually have to do all that great a job of pretending. If you don't know somebody has a twin, and to some extent even if you do, as a human being you'll default very hard to this-is-the-same-person. It's just necessary in every moment of our lives that we're not dealing with identical twins, so it's necessary to lean that way. Also, as a twin I know very well that the majority of people are highly unobservant about a great many things. And it's not like these guys have any reason to think this is some other guy, though it would have been a note of realism if at some point at least one of them had gone wait, is Black reporting on us to the cops or something because he's acting sketchy. They do point out that he's being weird, so that base is partially covered.

I did some Tumblr poking around before I was done watching, so I saw a few spoilery things. Thanks partly to that, I couldn't help but hope that Sean figured out comparatively early that White was not Black. That would have been kind of thrilling to see, honestly, as a twin. But I certainly understand how that might not happen, and I also see the efficacy (to the plot) of having him not figure it out too quickly. It's more interesting if he doesn't know right away.

Clearly Tumblr world loves memeing about how Black woke up from his coma when, possibly because, White hooked up with Sean (I'll be more coy in my wording than some). Twin-rep-wise, that's a wash to me, neither better or worse than the psychic connection trope. I'm already tolerating the psychic stuff, and I can't say it's not an interesting plot point. If you need Black to wake up, when else would it be? It probably borrows a little more goodwill, but again that's stakes rather than a deficit.

As someone who remains skeptical of the psychic twin connection trope, I will say this. The particular way Black wakes up kind of shows the absurdity of the whole conceit. I'm cool with it because this is melodrama and it *should* be bonkers, but it goes to show what you're playing with when you invoke that trope.

This is when stuff gets interesting, to me but I assume to everybody. White and Black are both running around in the world of the show, and crucially they're also interacting with each other. And some of what happens is honestly pretty great twin-rep-wise. I really have to hand it to writer/director Nuchy Anucha Boonyawatana—she must be a pretty empathetic, intuitive person. (Along with her cowriters.) She seems to have made an effort to put herself in both Black and White's shoes in a real human way. Like, well beyond what the story would require.

I wanted to avoid digressing too much, but I want to go back to the very first moment in the entire show. In that brief scene, White looks in a dark, foggy mirror and says these words in voiceover: “When you see somebody who looks precisely like you, every part of his body resembles yours, you must feel really strange. But for me, it’s special. I call that specialness ‘twins.’”

When I saw this scene, I won’t say I knew this would be a thoughtful treatment of twins. But I did find it promising. Part of what annoys me about being a twin is how non-twins, aka singletons, think that being a twin is great because on some level they think of their hypothetical twin as an extension of themselves. Your twin is not you, and your twin is not part of you. Your twin is a human being, and like any other human being in the world there are some moments and some ways when they can seem utterly unknowable, foreign, unfathomable.

Back to the point in the story where I left off.

There’s a big twin moment near the end of episode 9: White is confronted in Black's apartment by an unknown figure, only to find that it's his brother. White’s voiceover tells us what he's thinking, and he calls back to that brief beginning scene. Now that I’ve gone back to look at both moments, I can say that they’re very similar in length and rhythm. So I suspect our writer/director was not only deliberate about the echo but also exacting in how both moments play out.

White’s voiceover says: “I’d always imagined the day I’d see my brother again. It’s supposed to be a heartwarming moment. But now it’s happening. It’s surprisingly frightening. It’s as though I’m meeting my doppelgänger.” Of course this is a translation, but it’s worth noting that you can hear actor Gun Atthaphan saying “doppelgänger,” so you know there isn’t a ton of poetic license on the part of the translator here.

White and Black exchange some awkward pleasantries, and then Black echoes White, saying "You look so much like me, it’s creepy.”

If I hadn’t seen my twin in ten years (especially at that age), it would have been very surreal even if that person weren’t as menacing as Black seems to be. It’s just that there are dimensions to twinship that fade in your mind when you’re not actively engaged with them. I assume that regular degular siblings can experience this in partial ways or in flashes, but I don’t have any of those so I can only guess. Seeing your twin after a long time apart isn’t somehow magical in a good or a bad way. But your twin carries all the powerful associations of any close family member along with a similarly large number of associations to your own identity.

I chase catharsis in media, but I don’t usually experience it strongly. But there can be a catharsis in recognition of self, and that’s what I get from these moments. To be clear, I don’t feel some profound otherness when I interact with my sister. She’s a sweetheart and I feel very close to her. But the twin experience, for me at least, connects strongly and meaningfully to some very basic aspects of my human existence. The fact that one is a little bit alone even in the closest togetherness. The fact that other people are never fully knowable. The fact of my own identity and how its boundaries aren’t quite as firm and distinct as I might pretend they are. How much I need connection. The way so much about my perceptions and actions can be strongly influenced by others in ways I’m totally unconscious of. Some of this may sound hokey! But it’s difficult to express it any other way.

Moving on. White goes to meet their mother as Black, and just as their conversation is ending she makes it clear she knows who he really is. You might think that bit is meaningful to me, but it doesn’t strike a stong chord. Parents can tell their twin children apart, yes. Would it be harder after ten years? Assumably. What is it supposed to mean about her that she can? I don’t know; I’m not a huge fan of hers.

Black encounters Sean and is incredibly cruel to him, beats him, and it sucks. It annoys me to heap praise on actors for playing twins—actors play different roles all the time and that’s just doing two of them in the same project—but I have to admit that Gun Atthaphan not only does a great job playing dual roles, but a good job playing twins specifically. In a way it’s hard to understand now, having seen what we have as the audience, how Sean could fail to see that this isn’t “his” Black. But he doesn’t, because there’s no way anything else is possible according to what he knows about his world.

Sean sees White-as-Black again as White saves him from sketchy mercenary types, and then tries repeatedly to confront him. White doesn’t really explain and Sean doesn’t come to an obvious epiphany. But when Sean sees Black again, something has clicked. He attempts the trust fall White showed him and Black just stares on contemptuously. Black is smoking “again.” And we get to another big twin moment. This is episode 12.

Sean gets it. He says “You’re not the Black that I love.” He handcuffs himself to Black. They have an oddly realistic fight that involves various uncomfortable wrestling positions. And he says “You have a twin brother?” Black denies it, Sean insists repeatedly. And you see Black’s face change from contempt to anger as he says “Don’t you get close to my little brother again.”

This is a fun, climactic moment. It is, of course, adorable that Sean insists he won’t stay away from White, and honestly pretty adorable in an extremely grumpy way that Black is being protective. (Here again Gun is very convincing. For such a small, baby-faced guy he is genuinely menacing as Black.)

The moment is also true to my experience, though the only direct connections I can make aren’t exactly similar in circumstances. If your social world intersects heavily with that of your twin, there really are particular moments in many romantic relationships and even in many close friendships where the other person will sort of take a twin inventory with you. They don’t go on a spiel about how you’re cooler than your twin (unless maybe they suck as a person), they probably don’t even compare you exactly. But each person has to come to their own realization because (often at least) while they knew you and your twin are different people, they had to learn it all over again on another level. And they want you to know they perceive it.

There are smaller iterations of this phenomenon where people will emphatically tell you that while they have been able to tell you apart in the past, *now* they don’t even think of you as looking the same, now they can’t imagine how anybody *ever* confuses you. It’s not like this happens every single time I get to know every single person, but it’s so common in its broad strokes that I feel confident saying that the people around me and my sister share some common experiences in how they perceive us. And a change comes at a certain point that’s compelling enough that people are motivated to talk about it, try to make you understand.

Anyway, while this is a phenomenon that happens around me rather than to me, Sean’s insistence strikes a chord.

Sean finds White. White does a totally accidental trust fall, and it’s pretty cute.

White... decides to halfway drown himself to “remind [Black] of [their] connection”? Which makes some intuitive sense in the moment even if it sounds a bit silly. And is a little. Black finds him, they talk, Black concludes that he can’t stop White from staying with the group, going on their mission, and being with Sean. White stops Sean from going to the drug warehouse alone, at which point he says something that rings true for me as well. He explains why he hesitated to stay part of things, and says “I thought it wasn’t my place.”

When Black returned and demanded his phone, demanded White go away and not see the gang anymore, White went along with that because in a real way that was valid. White had genuine reasons for essentially stealing Black’s life, but that is what he did. White is an empathetic sweetheart so while he did get used to Black’s world he does feel guilty and out of place suddenly. But now he sees that things have changed, and he can’t go back to before all this happened. And of course he’s in loooove, so there’s that as well.

Then White tells the other dudes who he is (except for Gumpa, who knew the whole time) and it takes them a while to believe him. But when they do, they immediately do the twin inventory with him, saying how did I not see this earlier, etc.

They do their attempted heist, loads of shit goes wrong, they fall from various frying pans into various fires for a good while. They get away, things settle down. Sean does the twin inventory with White again and insists he’s completely able to tell White and Black apart now.

Then we have my final twin moment. White says he knows Black won’t be returning to the group. “Nobody wants to live in someone else’s shadow,” he says. “My brother sacrificed this role for me.”

This rings true for me. As a twin, you never want to think of yourself as interchangeable with your sibling. But at the same time many relationships and groups don’t have room for each of a pair of twins to feel comfortable. It’s not like you have to come up with some legalistic scheme for who “owns” a social group or anything like that. But at least in my sort of twin relationship, you’re never going to have a symmetrical relationship with a third person or a social circle. Even if you each have the same degree of connection to the same person, it’s different. And I can’t say it’s ever really been the same. One has always been closer, or more comfortable, or something.

Well, if you can believe it that’s not everything I could have said. But it’s a lot, and if you made it to the end I thank you. In case it doesn’t go without saying, I did find it worthwhile to indulge the psychic twin trope. What I got out of Not Me was worth the latitude.

[thebestbooksaround]

okay, first of all, thank you for your service! your recs are amazing

i just wanted to ask if you could rec as many rewrite fics as possible? episode rewrites, season rewrites that kind of thing? and if people could keep adding on itd be great?

theyre my fav genre tbh but they can be so hard to find :(

thank you so much!!

Oh boy, I sure can Anon!

I'm going to assume you mean 9-1-1, if you meant another fandom, let me know and I'll search for those. Some of these are rewrites by proxy? As in all the events happen but some are text fics so you only hear about them. If anyone has some to add, please do!

Without further ado...

We All Fall Down by kristen999 (@thekristen999)

He’d done this before. Inside the well. Trapped forty feet underground instead of in a tin can, rising water the constant threat.

Eddie stared at the radio, knowing this time there’d be someone on the other end to hear him if he needed to say something. If his time his second chances had finally run out.

He wouldn’t die alone. Not really. His team would be there. Just inches away. He could tell them, tell Buck….

*

glue by ProsperDemeter

“It’s just…” Connor shrugged. “No offense, man, but… you’re twenty-five. Do you really want to be spending so much time falling for a guy with a kid?”

“I’m not falling for him.”

--

A month away from graduating the LAFD Academy, Evan Buckley gets introduced to new recruit Eddie Diaz and things certainly change for both of them after that.

This author is also writing a s2 rewrite!

*

Firefighter Buckley's Unauthorized Ride-Along by slipperywordcrimes

Buck spends most of his probationary year with a bun in the oven, and doesn't realize it.

*

One Wrong Number by calinaannehart (@calinaannehart)

When Evan Buckley meets a man in a bar and gets his number, he couldn't possibly imagine how one wrong digit could lead him to his fate. Because sometimes wrong numbers are the right numbers.

bro·ken by kristen999 (@thekristen999)

Forced to take shady side jobs to pay his bills, Evan Buckley doesn’t think he’s ever seen such rock bottom. Until he meets Eddie Diaz, a man even more desperate and alone. Season 3 AU.

*

if it weren’t for second chances by alasse (@alasse9)

When Buck doesn’t save Daniel, the Buckleys put him in foster care. Seventeen years later, Bobby meets a tall, lanky kid who can’t stop eating his pancakes at a church breakfast, and he gives him a phone number and an unconditional offer of help.

A story about how Buck finds a chosen family, and with a few twists and turns, eventually gets to the 118, meets Eddie Diaz, and maybe finds himself a second and a third (or, an Evan Nash story).

*

Our story's been heartache and wonder by Tails89 (@tails89)

Fuck.

Buck scrubs a hand down his face. He’s got no idea what he’s supposed to do here.

He knows what his parents are like. He has his own childhood to draw from, and Isaac doesn't deserve that. He deserves to grow up surrounded by love, and if nothing else, Buck can give him that.

But Buck is also a twenty-six year old probationary firefighter, living in his girlfriend’s apartment while she travels the world. He’s not exactly in a position to look after a kid.

“Okay.” It comes out in a rush of air. “I’m gonna come get you."

*

no one quite like you by hammersmiths (@henswilsons)

Hen has added +1 213 555 to Firehouse 118

Hen: This is Eddie!

Eddie: Hey everyone :)

Buck: Why would she add him to our private groupchat

Chimney: I’m literally sitting right next to you

or, Buck and Eddie’s progression through texts.

*

Tighten Up by ok_thanks

It’s probably considered getting off on the wrong foot when you have sex with your coworker before they start their new job, right?

Buck would think it’s probably not a good thing, and definitely something that shouldn’t be repeated. Especially when he becomes best friends with them. That’d be particularly stupid.

*

Close My Eyes and Stumble (Right Into Your Love) by HMSLusitania (@hmslusitania)

Eddie's PTSD is just that little bit worse and when he moves to Los Angeles, instead of joining the LAFD, he joins dispatch.

Which is all good and fine, except for this one firefighter he keeps ending up talking to.

*

we were born with nothing by chromatophorica (@chromatophorica)

Until the 118, Evan had never had a family.

---

Evan saves Daniel when he's a baby; he still manages to find his way to the 118, forging a family there despite being given up by his biological parents.

*

I Didn't Know I Was Lonely 'Til I Saw Your Face by HMSLusitania (@hmslusitania)

After the ladder truck and the blood clot and the tsunami, Bobby makes Buck go to therapy before he does something stupid(like sue the city). Buck's not totally comfortable being alone with a therapist, but fortunately he makes a friend and ally who's willing to help him out - Eddie Diaz from the 136 who's just been caught in an illegal fight club.

OR

Total strangers Buck and Eddie go to couple's therapy together to get out of the therapy requirements their captains have placed on them.

*

i want your midnights by allyasavedtheday (@littlespoonevan)

Eddie grins. “Yeah I get that. So can I ask why you applied for the room? No offence but you’re not exactly the kind of candidate I expected.”

Buck laughs, ducking his head. That’s probably true.

“I, uh, I’ve been staying at my girlfriend’s place while she’s travelling but um, my sister moved to LA recently and sort of made the point that I could be overstaying my welcome? Or, well- actually she tried to tell me my girlfriend’s cheating on me and I need to get over it and move out of her place.” Buck shakes his head, eyes widening at what he just implied. “She’s not! Cheating, I mean. She’s just- trying to find herself after losing her mom. She just needs a little space, y’know?”

At least, that’s the excuse Buck’s giving Abby for why she hasn’t called him in over two weeks.

Eddie nods with a vague sort of expression on his face like he hadn’t expected him to overshare that much. Which, oops.

In which Eddie decides to rent out his spare room to help with mortgage repayments right around the time Buck decides to move out of Abby's place after some not so gentle prodding from Maddie. It's a coincidence. Or serendipity. Or maybe just really good timing.

*and of course we can't forget:

Those Two Firefighters by DarkFairytale

#thosetwofirefighters starts to gather a following on social media, as everyone tries to figure out if those two cute firefighters from the 118 in LA are a thing or not.

[starlightshadowsworld]

The Fallen King Part 5: Constantly Pushed To The Past Part 1

Part 4

Atsushi sighed as he put down another record.

He'd long since forgotten how many he'd looked through. Or even how long he'd been looking. All Atsushi knew was that none of them had anything of use to him.

But that was too be expected given Atsushi had so little to guide his search.

Dazai had mentioned two organisations while on the rooftop. But he hadn't given Atsushi and Akutugawa any information on them, only their names. And that sometime in the future they would invade Yokohama.

The Rats and The Guild.

Atsushi hadn't heard of either of them before. He told Akutugawa as such after the other had calmed down after the news about Gin. "I asked Kunikida, I said I overheard those names during the raid." Said Akutugawa to Atsushi's suprise.

"He didn't know about The Rats but the Guild are an organisation of ability users in North America. Operating from the shadows in positions of politics, finance and the military." Explained Akutugawa as he finished his tea.

"Apologises, it's not much but that's all Kunikida could tell me. He said he wasn't sure they were even real, apparently they're an urban legend." Atsushi nodded, it would make sense for such a shadowy organisation to have that kind of reputation.

It really showed what they were up against. Did Dazai truly believe that he and Akutugawa could beat such a force? And that was just the Guild, who knew what the Rats were like.

Atsushi had shook those thoughts away, now wasn't the time to question Dazai's judgement. "No, that actually gives us a start to work from." He reassured Akutugawa, it was definitely more information than Atsushi had.

And every legend had some truth to it, no matter how buried that truth might be.

"If they are that high up in the world chances are the Port Mafia have dealt with them. I'll search the archives, see if there's any records of our involvement." Is what Atsushi had said that day.

But unfortunately for him, he was learning that was easier said than done.

He hadn't been to the archives before. He had been part of the Port Mafia's security, he'd never had a reason to come up here. And Dazai always had any records he needed delivered to his office.

The archives of the Port Mafia were kept in some unassuming building. One that doubled as a front company for the Port Mafia. No one expected to find the most important documents of the Port Mafia in a cat cafe.

The records themselves were meticulously organised and well kept. Dazai had always been rather strict about it. Ensuring that any report was completed to high standards.

The target could blink at 8 second intervals instead of 6 and Dazai would want that recorded. Ironic considering he'd never completed any paperwork in his life.

It was useful but it also meant a lot of work for Atsushi to sift through. There was also the fact that the Port Mafia has dealt with so many organisations, both foreign and local.

Not to mention it was only recently this change was implemented, with many old accounts missing information.

Atsushi hoped Akutugawa was having better luck on his end.

He had to call it a day for his search. Ace was in the process of taking down a smuggling ring and Atsushi needed to check on his progress with that. As well as the many other things he needed to do today.

And that was without counting the paperwork.

With that in mind Atsushi began re-organising the documents and filing them away.

"Boss, I appreciate the help but you don't have to do that." Atsushi looked up from his filing to see an informant standing nearby. "I know but it's my mess, I should be the one to tidy it up" Said Atsushi.

The informant looked at him suprised before nodding. "If you say so, but don't feel obliged to. It is our job after all." He seemed to be mulling something over. "Is there anything you need?" Asked Atsushi, slotting the last file in place.

"I don't mean to overstep but I've noticed you coming in here for a while. Is their anything I can help with you find?" Atsushi thought it over before shaking his head. He didn't want to get anyone else involved.

"It's classified, but I appreciate the offer" Replied Atsushi before realising he didn't know the others name. "Oh, I'm Atsushi Nakajima" he paused, realising his mistake and resisted the urge to face palm. He was the Port Mafia Boss, of course this Port Mafia member knew who he was.

"... But you already knew that." Great job Atsushi, great first impression.

The informant smiled a little "I do, but it's always nice to properly meet you. I'm Ango Sakaguchi, but I'm sure you already knew that." Atsushi chuckled "it's nice to meet you, Sakaguchi."

His name sounded familiar but Atsushi couldn't place why.

"It's nice to meet you" said Atsushi, getting to his feet. "Likewise, I hope you have a more luck the next time you come here." Said Ango, bidding Atsushi goodbye. Atsushi crossed the room and headed to the door before he froze.

"Everyone get down!" He yelled as the building began to shake. Was it an earthquake? Maybe? But the shaking was gone just as quickly as it came.

Atsushi was the first to get up from his hiding place, heading to a nearby window. Instead of a view of Yokohama, Atsushi saw a pink space with a checkboard floor that looked decorated for a birthday party.

Instantly Atsushi was on edge. From what he could tell the entire building had been bought into this space. It had to be the work of an ability user.

"Boss?! Are you alright?!" Asked Ango, rushing over to him. "I'm fine, are you?" Ango nodded, shaken but surprisingly calm given the situation. "Does this building have a speaker system?" He asked, Ango nodded and asked a scared co-worker to grab the microphone for the speakers.

"Attention everyone, this is your Boss speaking. This building has been taken hostage by an enemy ability user. I want everyone to stay inside until you recieve further instructions." Said Atsushi, knowing that if everyone ran out in a panic this situation could get worse.

This was a front building, everyone here were mostly civilians and low ranked Port Mafia members. Even the informants were not particularly skilled at combat.

Either the enemy wasn't aware of that or they were trying to use this as a message. Whatever the case, Atsushi was going to make them regret it.

He descended down the building with Ango in tow. Promising to pass on his message to the lower floors, given the speaker didn't work so well down there. Atsushi just hoped he looked and sounded more confident than he felt.

"Naomi?! Where are you?!" Was the first thing Atsushi heard as he left the building. He knew it wasn't any of his staff because they were still inside. And yet that voice sounded oddly familiar. Just who else had been caught into this web?

Before he could ponder on it a clap echoed throughout the space. Atsushi's attention snapped to a red haired woman who was smiling gleefully at him.

"Welcome to Anne's Room. Oh what will I do? So many people all staring at me from these windows. I'm so terrible at talking to strangers." The woman looked so excited it was sickening. Despite her bright demeanor her words felt like she was reading off a script.

"Ooh but I know I have to explain things to you. I know this puts you all in such a bind. You were bought to this familiar land without a single word of warning too. Why it would be enough to make my heart leap out of my-"

Atsushi had never cared for monologues. And quite frankly he had nor the time nor the patience for this. Fortunately that voice from earlier interrupted the kidnappers ramblings. "WHERE IS NAOMI!" Glared another red head and as he same to view, Atsushi realised why the voice sounded familiar.

And was that Akutugawa beside him? What were the Agency doing here?

The red haired woman tilted her head, clasping her hands in anticipation. "Oh I apologise. That should have come first shouldn't it? You're detective friends" she gestured to a door behind her. "Are over here."

Both of them ran to the door, staring in horror at the sight inside. "Kenji! Naomi!" Yelled Junichiro in horror, even Akutugawa looked shocked at the sight. Both of them immediately started trying to break it down to no avail.

"I'm afraid it needs a key" giggled their captor with glee. "My name is Lucy Maud Montgomery and this is my ability space. Don't you worry you can leave anytime you wish through the other door. But if you do, you won't remember anything from here. And your friends will be left behind."

Both detectives glared at her defiantly. There was no way they were leaving their friends behind. A sentiment Atsushi shared, he wasn't going to let any of his men be abandoned in this dreadful place.

"What're you trying to do?" Demanded Junichiro. Lucy simply grinned back at him "simple, I want you to play in this room with Anne."

"Anne?"

As if hearing her name, a giant doll like creature came running towards them. Akutugawa took a step back and Junichiro froze in shock. Atsushi grimaced at the twisted thing before him. It didn't look particularly strong but it moved fast.

This could be a problem.

A hand gently tapped his shoulder and Atsushi turned to face Ango. "I can go get help" he said. Atsushi frowned "if you leave this place you'll forget everything about it." Ango shook his head "that may be true but my ability allows me to see the memories of objects.

If you give me something of yours, I can read it's memories and so even if I forget I will be able to see what happened. And I can share those memories with others."

Atsushi considered it. If Ango escaped he could inform the executives. Perhaps she could be tricked to going back to get more "playmates" and could be caught from the outside?

At the very least it would mean the others would be informed and could devise a plan. And that was certainly better than nothing.

Atsushi considered his coat but it was too big to go unnoticed. His scarf would hold many memories that didn't belong to him. Atsushi stuffed his hands inside his pockets, taking out a pair of black gloves.

He hadn't worn them since Dazai died but he hadn't dared to part with them, until now.

"Take these to Executive Nakahara, he'll know." Said Atsushi. Ango nodded, bowing his head and leaving out the door. Lucy sighed at the sight but didn't stop him.

"How rude! Anne just loves to play! She's a little spoiled but sooo cute!" Cheered Lucy though Atsushi had to disagree with that. Well, the cute part at least. "The rules are simple, it's just a game of tag with lil old Anne here. If she touches you, you lose." Explained Lucy as a key materialised above Junichiro and Akutugawa.

"Before she does if you open that door with the key you win the game. And I'll return all the hostages." Lucy eyed them both curiously "so, who's going to join?" Both detectives exchanged looks "can the two of us play at once?" Asked Akutagawa.

It was a good idea to Atsushi. Akutugawa was strong and Junichiro could hide them with his illusions. They had made a formidable pair, and would so again.

Lucy smiled warmly, clapping her hands in joy. "Oh of course! It's more fun for us to all play together." Her smile became colder and sharper in seconds "and if that's the case there's one more player."

That's when Atsushi knew he had been spotted. He met Lucy's cruel smile with his own glare. He wanted no part in this but it wasn't like he had much of a choice.

He looked at Akutugawa and Junichiro who were surprised to see him. But nodded regardless, silently agreeing to work together to free their prisioned friends.

"Oh and one more thing" chimed Lucy with her ever present smile. "You can't break anything in this room got it? Good, are you ready?" Junichiro reached up and grabbed the key "yeah" he said, staring down Lucy with a look of determination

And in seconds Anne was right behind him.

[vvyvernicus]

Beginning of my Winter King x OC fic. Unsure if I'll commit to finishing it to full, but I'll leave it here in case anyone was curious.

Chapter 1: The Winter Star

When thinking of the coldest month of the year, December often comes to mind. All the winter decorations and holiday traditions are promoted most during this time of year after all. But in reality, the months that follow can have much harsher climates. Just like the weather that blankets Ohio in January.

The first snowfalls are beautiful and awe-inducing… for the first couple of days. Then people get sick of all the ice. It's cold, makes roads dangerous for travel and is just a pain to remove when more will just take its place a few hours later. Pure white snowflakes that first fell to the ground have now become coated with dirt and grime. And people will be wishing for spring to take over.

Not to mention when they block the view of the sky. Planes have to navigate through them carefully whenever a storm happens. And the people assisting the pilots from ground level have it even more rough. However these stresses really only apply to people like Yenna Lynn who are air traffic controllers.

With the weather being frequently abysmal, it made their jobs just that much harder. Knowing that lives could be potentially lost only added to the tension. So just what was there to be done about that stress? 

* * * * *

“Damn blizzards…”

The brunette scowled as she pulled her winter coat tighter across her body. Not only did these snow storms make directing the airplanes substantially more difficult, but they had prevented her from leaving her work premises. There had only been light snow that morning but no forecast predicting that the weather would turn into this. Then again, it was the snowiest time of the year. 

Yenna stared out the glass door which was getting battered by icy clumps from the other side. If it hadn't formed two feet of snow at the base, she might have been brave enough to traverse through it and get to her car. Normally there was equipment used to remove the snow buildup, but only during daylight hours. Unfortunately she was working a night shift. So for three more hours she was to be confined to her work environment.

“Ms. Lynnly, I see you've been taking in the scenery.”

She did not turn her gaze from the window as she knew who it was. One of her co-workers, one that she may or may not have indulged in a few risky acts with to fulfill a temporary way to relieve stress. Despite this, they were definitely not friends. At least not from her perspective.

“What do you want, Jeremy?” she groaned as she tore her focus away from her view of the world outside.

He stood taller than her, but considering she was 5'3, most men she came across did. Though not by too much, only by a couple of inches. It made it easy to make eye contact with him and look into his blue eyes that were eerily similar to hers. Thinking about it made her reminisce of back when she first got the job and people confusing them for siblings for that fact alone.

“You were looking a bit more anxious than usual so I thought I'd pop by to check on you. I'd offer you some of my ‘special candy’, but I know you don't operate that way,” he chuckled as she shot him an unimpressed glare.

While it was true that their job positions could be quite stressful at times, not once had she accepted one of his illicit methods of relaxation. Not only was it illegal, but she was pretty sure if her boss found out she would be fired. Unless he and the other staff were stealthily slipping them as well. Honestly it wouldn't surprise her if they had official doctor's prescriptions for stress relieving drugs. 

“We are literally snowed in. Of course I'm stressed out,” Yenna huffed before pulling her coat tighter. Even if they were inside, it still felt blisteringly cold to her. A grin flickered across Jeremy's face as he got a little closer to her.

“You know, we could always… have a little de-stressing in the bathroom. Not like we're on the clock so we have plenty of time to—”

“On second thought I do want some candy. Hand some over, will you?” she said as she gestured for him to slide some into her coat pocket. His eyes widened and he seemed to be in genuine surprise that she actually wanted to take them this time. “Just give me the damn smarties and I'll make sure I de-stress you thoroughly later,” she smiled at him as her fingers began to trail across his white dress shirt.

After that interaction, she found herself in possession of the alleged ecstasy candies. Though she grimaced at the thought of spending another time with him privately. She didn't exactly want the benefits he provided for her anymore. Not that she ever craved them the first time. But now was not the time for her to be thinking of the future.

With the bathroom door locked and secured, she reached into her pocket to take out the baggy. Inside were three round tablets, one red, one blue and one green. They really did bear a strong resemblance to smarties. Though she doubted they tasted the same. She popped the blue one first and was immediately hit with a bitter taste as she swallowed it.

Definitely not candy for kids. It went down her throat easily but then she pondered on if she was supposed to chew it up first. Suddenly panic set in as she worried that in the chance she took it wrong and that something bad could happen. Luckily Google came to the rescue and assured her swallowing it whole was the way to go.

“Thirty minutes to an hour, hm. I haven't eaten anything since lunch so it's got to be closer to thirty right? This waiting sucks,” she then groaned as her body slumped to the cool floor.

This is what her life had come to. Taking narcotics in hopes that life would suck just a little less. If only her parents could see her now. Though she never did care to meet them as they ditched her as a baby. With no familial ties, she was able to focus more on landing a good job for herself. However a six figure salary was starting to seem pointless if she was stressed all the time and had barely any time to do things outside of work.

Sighing, she leaned back against the wall as comfortably as she could. It was quite cold in the bathroom. Even with her hands inside her pockets she felt cold. Maybe the tablet also made one more sensitive to temperatures. No, it had to be because of all the cold outside building up. 

Her mind began to feel hazy and weak. The smartie was taking effect and now she could finally be at peace. She leaned down so that her head was flush with the hard floor. For some reason it felt like a cushion of softened snow. The faint sound of the winds howling away outside began to lull her into slumber.

* * * * *

Eventually she had to get up. There was a good chance that people would wonder where she was after being gone for so long. Plus it wasn't a very comfortable position. After all, she didn't want to keep touching the cold masses of snow beneath her. 

What a silly comparison for her brain to use to describe the bathroom floor. Sure it was cold, but it wasn't ice. Or wet. At least not last since she checked.

Her body suddenly jolted upwards as her eyes blinked themselves clear. As she gazed at her surroundings, one thing was clear. This was not the bathroom. Nor did it look close to the airport. She appeared to be in the middle of a forest that was covered thick with snow. This… had to be a prank, right?

“What the hell?” she spoke to herself softly as she stood to her feet. “Did someone seriously drag me out in the middle of the woods as some kind of… prank?”

She looked around for signs of people or perhaps cameras filming. It was a weird conclusion to jump to, but she wouldn't be surprised if that happened to be the case. She probably blacked out after taking the drug and a rival co-worker saw perfect opportunity to take the chance. Though this would have to be the most extreme prank someone had caused her to go through. Certainly a step up from putting salt in her coffee. 

Then a more likely reason popped into her head. Of course. This was a hallucination. Had to be, no doubt about it. Though was that a even a side effect of molly? She was no drug expert by any means.

“At least I didn't hallucinate my clothes being wet in this lovely weather,” she muttered as her hands started to dust off the snow clumps that had been forming on her clothes.

Touching the ice made her shiver more. Okay, maybe not a hallucination. But she was still holding onto the possibility. It would not be fun to have been stranded in an unknown location like this.

Oh of course! No need to panic since her phone was in pocket's reach. All she had to do was turn it on. Great, still has plenty of charge. Now to Google maps—

“Shit, no service,” she growled as she turned it back off and shoved it back into her pocket with unnecessary force.

Too far out into the wilderness that her phone wasn't able to get a signal. So much for that expensive data plan. As she looked around as her brain argued with itself on which direction to walk towards, she felt a certain pain in her chest.

Every time her heart beat, it felt like someone was sticking a needle right through it. One needle soon became several needles. And soon her hand found itself clutching at her chest. Though it did nothing to stop the pain.

She fell to her knees and doubled over, snow coating her pants once again. Now was no time to be panicking and yet…

It must have been a side effect of the pill she took. Anxiety welled up in her chest and was violently attacking her heart and lungs. She couldn't breathe. And it was too cold. Much too cold to think properly.

“Hey, over there!”

Her head perked up at the sound of the voice. It sounded like it could belong to a young, teenage girls. Even though she was trembling an in pain, she still did her best to pull her body somewhat upright. As she did, she saw too figures gliding towards her over the snowy ground. But as they got closer, she couldn't help but recoil backwards.

“A human woman?!” one of them blurted out in surprise as the pair stood only a few feet away from her.

As she stared at them in bewilderment, their pale blue eyes bore a similar expression. The two were completely identical in appearance. Each wore a blue helmet with a lightning bolt shape coming off the top, blue skirts and cyan blue hair that nearly came down to their waists. Their skin was also completely white and they had long, pointy noses. They also had swords which made Yenna even more wary of them.

“It can't be a human, they all got wiped out during the war remember? Our king told us that so it must be true,” the other said as she looked at Yenna with skepticism.

“Well, maybe not every human did. There had to be at least a few left that he didn't know about. Our king is great and smart, but I bet he doesn't know absolutely everything,” the first to speak replied as she lowered herself to Yenna's level. Yenna's eyes never wandered too far from their hands and weapons.

“Excuse me, but where exactly am I?” she spoke up as she tried her best to avoid showing weakness to these strange creatures. She had no clue what was going on, but for now she had to be cautious if she wanted to survive whatever this was. For all she knew, she could have been hallucinating and stranded in the snowy wilderness. “And dare I ask what you two are?”

Both of their eyes blinked at Yenna before they turned to face each other and then back to her.

“We are…” The two of them began to twirl before holding onto each other's hands. “The Winter Kingdom's finest Ice Scouts!”

The confusion on Yenna's face became more apparent as she watched them strike a pose. What in the world was she supposed to make of this? Winter Kingdom? Ice Scouts? Her reality seemed to be getting more bizarre by the second.

Before she could ask them more questions, pain filled her body once more. Her body felt like it was freezing from the inside out. She normally had a good tolerance to cold weather, so this was a threatening feeling. That stupid drug… she never should've taken it.

“Damnit… I can't feel—”

Her body collapsed onto the ground once again as her legs gave out beneath her. As she fell, the two Ice Scouts rushed to her side immediately. She couldn't quite hear what they were saying as everything became muffled. However she retained some consciousness and did not drift off so easily.

“Quick, Christina! We've got to give her the cloak!” one of them said while looking at her twin companion.

“Really? Her? But what if she ends up being a problem for the Winter Kingdom?”

“We'll figure that out later! But for now let's just wrap her up in it. Our king will know what to do when we bring her to him,” she replied confidently, having full trust in how he would handle the situation.

Yenna began to stir as she felt the coldness in her bones alleviate and her senses returning. Her eyes flickered back open and she immediately grabbed her arms, feeling new clothing on top of her work attire. It was soft, sleek and warm. A cloak that was now covering a good portion of her head and protecting it from the snowfall.

She did not waste time to question why this cloak felt like she was in the perfect climate and returned her gaze to the beings responsible for putting it on her. They seemed happy that she had recovered, but there was the slightest bit of wariness in their eyes.

“You said you have a king, correct? Could you bring me to him?” she asked them as they bobbed their heads in agreement.

“Of course, that was the plan!” They both spoke in unity as they took their places on each side of her. “Let us escort you safely. Then it'll be up to our king to decide what needs to be done.”

Yenna was not in any position to be arguing with them, so she went along with it. If there really was a king here and this wasn't a hallucination, it wasn't a bad idea to get close to someone who held power in this world. But honestly if she truly had the chance… No, terrible idea to try escaping from armed creatures she knew nothing about.

(Total word count: 2,578) If you enjoyed what you read, it helps motivation a lot if you like, comment on or reblog this post!

[apocalypse-cowboy]

Note: So I've decided to move some of my own fanfic work over here just for shits and giggles :) idk what else to say about it lol

Summary: A "normal" day in the firehouse for the Ghostbusters.

Warnings: a little angsty at the end but otherwise it's pretty happy. My Ghostbusters OC Scout belongs to me (obviously lmao) Egon also might be a little OOC idk I think I did pretty well :)

Nerds Of A Feather

It was a quiet evening at the firehouse. Which was rare considering the people who reside there and the nature of their job.

Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, Winston Zeddemore, Egon Spengler and his younger brother Scout Spengler.

Peter was a handful on his own, with his snarky personality and flirtatious remarks towards any woman who breathed in his general direction.

Ray was the heart of the Ghostbusters. His child-like wonder for all things paranormal and his love and loyalty for his friends was a nice thing to have around.

Winston was the most 'normal' of the group. He had laid back yet professional attitude. He was a good friend and hard worker, courtesy of being a former Marine.

Now, Egon and Scout...they were a little tricky. They both had a nack for anything scientific, yet they had atrocious social skills. Don't get them wrong, they have their goofy moments with the other Ghostbusters, they were just on the more serious side of things.

They were only a couple of years apart, but Egon always treated Scout like he was a baby. He is the OLDER brother after all. It's something that he uses to tease his sibling with on a daily basis.

Despite the clash of so many different personalities under one roof, it was a beautiful chaos that just felt right.

It was a slow day at Ghostbusters HQ. They had a few calls come in earlier in the day, but things slowed down after lunch. Sure there were still calls but they were few and far in between and they were just minor situations.

Egon and Scout were huddled up in a corner of the basement, each of them focused intensely on their respective hobbies. Egon was analyzing his spore, mold and fungi collection while Scout was nose deep in a book about various flora and fauna and taking heavily detailed notes.

It was a comfortable silence. They had shared it so many times ever since they were kids. The others were out getting some Thai food for dinner, so they wanted to bask in the silence while they still could.

The familiar sound of the Ecto-1's siren, Peter must have turned it on again, and the opening of the garage door was a sign that they were back. When Ray pulled in and parked the garage door shut obnoxiously, but it didn't seem to break the Spengler brother's concentration.

Peter was the first one to get out of the car with one of the bags of take-out "Honey! I'm home!" He said as loudly as possible, even though he knew well that the brothers were less than a few feet away. Ray and Winston get out of car after him and roll their eyes at Peter's actions "I'm surprised they haven't killed you yet." Winston remarked, holding a second bag. Egon and Scout share a mischievous look "Well, we were planning to." Egon said with a teasing tone still focused on his task. Scout nodded "We have a very detailed plan. We are just waiting for the right time to execute it." He gave a smirk over his shoulder to Peter who scoffed in fake annoyance. "I cannot believe what I'm hearing right now." He sighed dramatically and paused for more effect "My own friends...plotting my death so casually." He motioned to the bags of food and around the room "After all I've done for you...this is how you treat poor Peter Venkman?" The siblings only snort in amusement and shake their heads at his antics.

Ray chuckled and grabbed Peter, dragging him with them to the kitchen "Come on guys! Dinner is served." The two men nodded, though not moving just yet.

Egon finished up what he was doing and look at the younger man "You almost done?" He asked. Scout only nodded and motioned him to go ahead "I'll be there in a minute." He mumbled as he wrote down notes from the book he was reading.

Egon only nodded in response and patted his brother's shoulder. He knew it would be more than a minute, Scout had a habit were if he was invested in something so much, it would take him a bit to come back out of it. Egon silently walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table with the food for him and Scout.

Peter looked up and saw that Scout wasn't with him and sighed. "Rock, Paper Scissors for who has to go and get Scout?" Ray and Winston nodded. It went: Peter Vs Winston with Peter winning and then Peter Vs Ray....

Ray won.

Peter rolled his eyes muttering something about 'It's always me.' and he went into the garage seeing that Scout was still hunched over the desk still taking notes.

Peter didn't bother being quiet about it and walked quickly behind him and picked him up from underneath his arms.

"Okay NerdZilla, time to eat so you don't starve." He remarked literally dragging him into the kitchen and sat him in the seat next Egon, while said man slid the food in front of him.

They all joked and talk with each other as they ate. It wasn't the most ideal way of living, but it was worth every second that they all got to spend together. Just spending time in the company of a small close-nit family was always worth the stress of their daily life.

After they cleaned up their mess, it was late. They had decided to clean themselves up and change into their pajamas, and they watched a shitty movie while laughing at the horrible writing and acting.

Scout leand into Egon, finding comfort in his brother getting ready to fall asleep despite the boys laughing and joking loudly.

His long dark hair in his face slightly as Egon held his sibling close to him. He was the only one he was comfortable the most with showing physical affection to. Scout smiled at his beloved brother and spoke "Egon?" He whispered quietly, threatening to nod off to sleep at any moment. The taller man looked down at him, directing all his attention to his brother "Hmm?" He hummed in response. "Do you think we'll all still be like this in the future?" He asked quietly. The other's face dropped slightly, he didn't want to get any hopes up, but he also didn't want to upset his brother by saying no. So after debating in his head, he nodded "Yes, I think so." He tightened his grip on his brother and looked around at the others who were laughing and joking to their hearts content. "I think...there is a high probability that we will stay like this for a long time." He nods in reassurance, he wasn't sure if it was for himself or for Scout. Maybe both. Scout smiled and closed his eyes to fall asleep on his shoulder "I think so too." Egon smiles softly and turns his attention back to the movie and his friends, a small smile that was filled with hope for the future of his group of friends.

If only they knew what the future had planned for them. The heartbreak and hatred and loss that they would feel soon was going to be painful...For all of them..

[ckret2]

saw your recent reblog about feedback and, though I’ve been occasionally gushing in tags, you deserve to hear what I tell my friends! In general, your writing style is perfect at capturing the timing and delivery of the show itself. I’ve never read a fic i’ve been able to visualize more clearly than this one. You write each character so well that between chapters it feels like i’m right back where i used to be, waiting for new episodes again. I do think you haven’t *quite* solved your side-character-ification (applejackification?) of Dipper problem yet, but other than that you’re doing an astounding job at balancing all the characters and their interactions with each other and with bill in a way that feels natural (plus with these more recent chapters i’m seeing lots of good dipper stuff so you’re definitely getting there with him too! besides, it is nice to see Mabel get the spotlight after all these years anyway. healing, even.) You know exactly how to control an audience’s emotions, you know when to drag something out and when to shut it down, you know when to cut off a conversation and when bring up the fact it was cut off later. Little foreshadowings like the loose tooth are well-planted and plot beats like lucid dreaming are dropped and picked back up delicately and with precision, like pressing piano keys. i don’t doubt for a second it’s all a part of some grand instrument, though i wouldn’t be surprised if you told me most of it was improvised - another way you’re just like the show was. you’ve done the episodic-and-serialized thing better than at least half of all silver-age cartoons that have attempted to do so! I adore the way you show kindness to all characters in your scenes, from gideon’s characterless mother to the little freak himself. It truly feels as though you pick no favorites, and that’s something you do better than the show did tbh. Not that TBOB needed to hook me in with a marketing campaign, but hypothetically, in a universe where I didn’t own a hand-sewn bill cipher throw-pillow and yet somehow still found this fic, I would definitely be excited for it after reading! you’re gifted, and i hope this does numbers on AO3. I truly cannot stand hazbin hotel, but I may go back and read your other works once this one’s over, just to hear your narrative voice. it’s a voice worth hearing, and may it be forever amplified.

oh WOW thank you so much??? 😭 this is SUCH a sweet comment and it means so much to me that you took the time to write all this!!

APPLEJACKIFICATION... that made me laugh. Dipper will get some serious development before the end of the eclipse plot and he's key in the next plot, so I think that'll help him make some progress. But yeah—he's not gonna be as important as Mabel, but I do want to make sure he has a plot that stands on its own, smaller though it may be.

It's 2/3 planned, 1/3 improvised. 😁 I've got a lead time of about 15 chapters between what I've posted and what I've written, so I can do stuff like write the poppet chapter, write the tooth fairy arc, edit the poppet chapter, realize that as long as I'm giving him a bloody lip maybe I can loosen his tooth, edit the tooth fairy arc, have him mention that that tooth was loose. And many chapters I haven't written or outlined yet I have loosely planned in my head so I know how to aim toward them.

Wanting to show kindness to all the characters and wanting to give as many of them an internal life as possible is so important to me, and I'm so glad that's showing through so far!

And honestly I think "I hate [xyz] but I'll read it if you're writing it" is the highest compliment. 😂 All my hazbin fics were written pre-season 1 when all we had was the pilot, a couple comics, creator comments, and some Helluva to go by; but idk maybe you'd consider that a plus lol. (If you're interested, on ao3 I've also written Transformers, Godzilla, some Pokémon, and a smattering of other things.)

Thanks again for sending such a nice message!

[alchemiclee]

I watched the live action atla series and, looks like a very unpopular opinion in the sea of people whining and complaining about it, but I enjoyed it. I think they did a pretty good job with what they had and their limitations. the actors all did a good job and you can tell they enjoyed what they were doing and have a big respect for the show and their characters.

i'll let you in on the secret if how to enjoying something:

it's not setting high expectations or prejudging things. i'm a master of having low expectations and keeping an open mind so that I can enjoy things in life better. I went into this knowing for a fact that it would not match with the animated series. I knew there was no comparison at all. yes, there were some small bits I thought here and there that they shouldn't have cut out and could have fit if they tried,or things they could have done differently, which is natural to think when watching anything really, but I knew there's no point letting those overshadow the entire thing. if you care so much about little things, go produce your own series and make it perfect!

I went into it thinking of it as it's own thing. I asked myself is this enjoyable if I started watching without having seen the animation? without having the knowledge I do have? turns out it was enjoyable enough on its own. yes, seeing the animation helps fill in some of those gaps they skipped, and I understand why people are upset about things nit being added, but overall, it's a good stand alone if you dont sit and compare and nitpick the whole time.

if you don't go into it thinking "this is going to suck! i'm going to find every flaw! live actions always ruin things I love! I want it to match the animation 1:1! etc" then you'll be able to enjoy it. but if you insist on watching it with that mindset, then of course you will hate it. having an open mind and separating the two like I did makes it more enjoyable! I was pleasantly surprised by it.

I knew this mindset helped, because I did it with another series that had a remake. if you know eureka seven, you'll know that there are a few too many spinoffs. what us fans want is a proper remake and/or a continuation with the characters we know and love. instead we got several movies that retell the story in less appealing ways, the manga that has a few major differences, and a spin off series that's supposed to act as a sequel apparently, but it was kinda awful. because I loved eureka seven so much, I highly judged all these spinoffs and hated them all.

but when hi-evolution came out, I was really in the mood for new eureka seven. the first movie was mostly reused footage from the series. but they added some new stuff. I decided to start watching those as if they are their own stand-alone instead of trying to compare and fit them together. i think these spinoffs are supposed to be different universes that don't compare to the original, and I overly judged them because it's not what I wanted it expected as a kid. I watched hi-evolution with this more open mindset, and guess what? I enjoyed it! I thought it was actually a pretty good stand alone! if I never saw the anime series, I would have enjoyed these movies. I separated them in my mind and enjoyed them as their own thing! this is an extremely unpopular opinion and I haven't seen any eureka seven fans say they liked them. they got the sawn treatment as all the other releases. everyone just wants new content related to the original anime, so that's what they insist of judging by.

back to atla, it may also help that it's been several years since i've seen the animation. BUT it is one i've seen multiple times and have pretty good memory of it, I think, even if it's not so fresh in my mind anymore. I consider myself a pretty big fan as well. it's my second favorite series after fullmetal alchemist. nothing has compared to fullmetal alchemist for me, but atla is pretty damn close. you could say nothing has compared to atla either. solid second place and has never wavered. eureka seven being solidly 3rd. orphan black is 4th.....and I saw something about a new spinoff with all new different characters coming soon...so i'll have to try to apply this same technique to that as well.

conclusion: if you go into something being judgemental, nitpicky, comparing every little thing to something else, and overall having extremely high expectations, of course you're setting it up to fail you. you're basically purposely making yourself dislike it. you decided ahead of time you were going to hate it, so you do. if you have an open mind, low expectations, and let it be it's own thing separate from the original, it may not be your favorite thing ever, but you can at least get some enjoyment or entertainment out of it! appreciate it for what it is, rather than judge it for what it's not. this is for most things in life, not just a series on netflix.

[plutobutartsy]

more shared custody au hehe (part 3)

no i didn't forget about this au

part 1

gavin works as a nurse!! he's really good with people and especially old people at the hospital love him. a lot of them try to set him up with their kids/grandkids but they also just enjoy chewing his ear off while he washes them and stuff. he just puts people at ease :)

he's lowkey overworking himself, taking on extra shifts and jumping in for his coworkers when he can. vega doesn't like to admit it but he does get worried sometimes, especially after gavin takes on more responsibilities with school events

vega is a chef! he used to work at a really high end restaurant but he got sick of the attitude everyone there had. employers were arrogant and looked down on the staff, same with most of the customers. even though he didn't have much direct contact with customers, he still noticed how his coworkers were treated and it made him so unbelievably angry

now he works at a small family owned restaurant and he really enjoys working there

the family in question are the greers (stella try not to make everything about the shaw pack challenge FAILED), marie took it over from her parents. tank, david and asher have all worked there part time at some point and still help out on busy days if they can.

milo works there full time. he does a bit of everything; waiting, cooking, cleaning, delivering, whatever needs to be done. he also takes on security gigs from david from time to time

marie's restaurant is the type of well hidden secret that the locals try to gatekeep from tourists lol

vega loves working there so much and he's gotten really attached to the entire shaw pack but specifically marie like, he would kill for her. he tries to hide it but they all know, it's an unspoken rule to act like they don't. marie ignores this rule.

this goes without saying but of course vega is amazing at cooking. gavin always has caelum bring home a container with leftovers.

as much as caelum loves vega's amazing cooking, when asked what he wants for dinner he ALWAYS asks for dino chicken nuggets and it lowkey kills vega

vega comes over to gavin's place to meal prep when he can under the guise of making sure that caelum gets proper meals but he really does it to take some weight off of gavin's shoulders (again, he worries about gavin)

gavin isn't the best cook, he knows how to make a few basic meals and they don't taste bad but they're not amazing either. but they have that home made charm, it's like you can taste how much effort and love he puts into cooking meals for his loved ones

to make up for his average cooking skills he actually gets pretty good at baking after all those bake sales! when he drops caelum off at vega's place he also drops off a bunch of baked treats for vega specifically, to repay him for meal prepping.

vega doesn't like most sweet things so gavin mostly makes savory stuff for him

for vega's and pet's first proper date (because vega doesn't accept grabbing coffee together can be considered a proper date), he cooked pet their favourite childhood meal

pet teared up a little from the thoughtfulness and vega almost had a heart attack

huxley is a tattoo artist and helps coach the local highschool's football team in his free time

him and damien have matching tattoos that he designed (hnggg idk what yet but i'll come up with something lol also open for ideas :))

huxley has SO MANY tattoos, including, but not limited to: a frog on a skateboard, a bunch of dandelions, "love you" (twice, in both of his moms' handwriting), a birtday cake, a little ghost dude, damien's birth date and a bunch of lemons

caelum likes to colour huxley's tattoos in when he and damien babysit

i'm not set yet on what damien does for a living, i can see him being a professional photographer tbh but he also seems like somebody who'd have a regular office job? ahhhh i don't know