#it extended all the way up. then sideways. and then its like 3/4 of the way in.

[lilredghost]

ok but chapters 2 and 3 of emperor obi wan au made me 😭😭😭. please can you give us a morsel. a smidgen of kindness. just one fluff for the gays

I wanna say don't worry, but ch 4 is gonna be named "Disjointed", and Obi-Wan is such mopey narrator. Honestly, the gays deserve a little fluff! Here's a piece from around ch 6. The first time Obi-Wan braids Anakin's hair:

(750 words)

It’s after a spar, the both of them panting and exhausted, that Anakin runs a hand through his hair and grimaces. “What a mess," he huffs. "I really need to tie it up next time.”

Maybe it’s the laughter that’s gotten to his head—the light atmosphere and companionable mood spurring Obi-Wan on. “Or braid it,” he offers. “I could do it for you if you’d like.”

Anakin freezes, and Obi-Wan kicks himself, backpedalling immediately.

“I mean, I just know it can be a pain to do it on yourself sometimes. Not that you aren’t capable! I only meant—”

“Okay.”

Obi-Wan is relieved at the interruption, until he registers the answer. “...okay?”

“You offered, didn’t you?” Anakin stands, extending a hand to Obi-Wan. “Come on, let’s go.”

He… hadn’t really meant right now, but he’s not going to argue when Anakin has that look on his face—like he’s just daring Obi-Wan to change his mind.

Still, there’s something about seeing Anakin sit down at the vanity in their bedroom. Something about the look he casts at Obi-Wan—heavy and meaningful—over his shoulder.

He draws closer and Anakin holds out a brush. In the mirror, the omega’s expression looks halfway between nervous and irritated.

“I want it like this,” his husband says, tracing a horizontal line on his scalp. “Moving backward from above the ear, one on each side—Think you can do that?” His voice returns to its usual snarky sarcasm partway through speaking, like he’d suddenly remembered he needs to antagonize Obi-Wan at all times.

Obi-Wan takes the brush, parting his husband’s curls and seeing to it in sections. It’s just as soft as he’d expected.

His fingers graze the nape of Anakin's neck, and Anakin’s breath hitches. His scent curls thicker around them, a mix of something spicy and sweet.

But the sweet addition to his scent doesn’t go away, so Obi-Wan just rolls his eyes, hiding a smile.

He sections the hair out on one side and begins braiding, adding more strands as he goes. It’s more difficult than he expected, with how long it’s been since he braided anything—the last being Ahsoka’s hair, probably, before her own wedding.

He works slowly, but he manages, finishing the left side and doing the same on the right, and then pausing with a frown.

“Anakin?” he asks tentatively.

In the mirror, he can see his husband’s eyes shoot open. They'd been closed in such a gentle expression that, honestly, Obi-Wan had been half-afraid he’d fallen asleep.

“How do you want me to do the center?”

“Oh, um—” His husband’s voice is rough in a way that makes Obi-Wan shiver, and he almost misses the gesture Anakin makes towards the top of his head. “Just make sure this part tucks neatly in the back, and mix the two braids together. You can let the rest fall the way it is.”

He nods, obediently combining the sections of each braid together to create a thicker one. After tying it off, it nestles into the center of Anakin’s curls.

Obi-Wan lingers, loathe to let the moment end. He tries not to sound too hopeful when asks, “Anything else?”

Anakin turns sideways in his seat, portioning out another small section of hair. “Another one here,” he says quietly.

Obi-Wan sees to that part as well. It’s simple compared to the others, and he has to wonder why it’s separate.

As if hearing his thoughts, Anakin decides to elaborate. “They’re marriage braids.”

Obi-Wan’s heart stops. “They’re what?”

“Marriage braids,” his husband repeats. “The whole style can vary, but this part is always the same. A braid behind the right ear is done by your spouse, as a symbol of your marriage.”

Obi-Wan finishes the braid with trembling fingers, not meeting Anakin’s eyes.

Afterwards, his omega examines Obi-Wan's handiwork with a disappointed frown, and he does his best not to feel crushed. If he’d only known, he’d have been more careful, would have been neat and meticulous and—

“Alpha.”

—parted all the sections more evenly, taken his time—

“Obi-Wan.”

He startles, blinking at his husband— who is now standing, is reaching a hand out and rubbing his wrist against Obi-Wan’s neck.

Obi-Wan tilts his head reflexively, trying to give him more room.

Anakin smirks. “I expect you to do better next time.”

Then he turns, sweeping quickly out of the room.

Even hours later, the faint smell of caf and cinnamon seems to linger on Obi-Wan's skin.

[creampuffqueen]

Ranking Songs from Noah Kahan's Album 'Stick Season (We'll All Be Here Forever)'

i fucking love this guy. this album gives me feelings no other. i am going insane. anyway here's how i rank the songs

Dial Drunk- god. this fucking song. ibegyousirjustletmecallillgiveyoumybloodalcohol. i'm never gonna be the same. i scream this one like a crazy person even though i've never been drunk much less driven drunk or called someone drunk. all the same though it's so fucking good

2. You're gonna Go Far- so pack up your car. put your hand on your heart. say whatever you feel. be wherever you are. i can't even with this song. obsessed

3. Orange Juice- god i just. the way it goes from soft and welcoming to just grief filled, like telling a story with flashbacks, just everything about it. a masterpiece

4. All My Love- genuinely considering learning acoustic guitar just to play this. i want to scream this song around a campfire. you've got all my love

5. New Perspective- i just adore the tune with this one. i can jam so hard

6. The View Between Villages (Extended)- usually not a huge fan of songs with talking in the middle but it does it so well. the extension just adds a lil something more and i fucking eat it up

7. The View Between Villages- still love it, just love the extended version more

8. Call Your Mom- i love it. it's like such a good friendship song honestly. the way you'll do anything for your friends. you want them to be okay, you'll do anything

9. Stick Season- so good. so good. i don't have a huge comment i just really like it

10. Homesick- i'm mean because i grew up in new england- the way i scream this verse as someone who grew up in the south lmao. but i like the way this turns 'homesick' on its head. he's not missing his home, he's sick of it. he's sick of his home. but he also can't leave because it's his home. musical masterpiece

11. Everywhere, Everything- i do really like this one. the most adventurecore of the album. but it got overplayed on tiktok so it's a bit lower

12. Northern Attitude- a good opener for the album, just a solid song. not much to say otherwise

13. She Calls Me Back- good to jam to. love the beat on this one

14. Growing Sideways- i like how he's talking about how he feels like he's not on the same level as everyone else, like maturity or life stage wise. i enjoy it

15. No Complaints- the feeling where you feel awful but you're trying to convice yourself that you don't have it that bad but it's not working

16. Your Needs, My Needs- the guitar in this does it for me. again, a total jam

17. Come Over- kinda chatty, if that makes sense? it's fine, i like it enough

18. Paul Revere- no comment. it's decent

19. Strawberry Wine- i like this, but the end is just like humming and going oooooh for a solid minute so that brings it down

20. Halloween- meh

21. Still- the only skip on the album. idk why, i just don't like this one

OKAY I DID IT

anyway everyone go listen to this album it's a fucking masterpiece. i'm feeling shrimp emotions listening to it it's so good

[aestheticvoyage2023]

Day 13: Friday January 13, 2023 - “He Just Needs Love”

My current hobby: learning all I can about how to have really exceptional Dad days with a busy toddler.  From wake up to bedtime, being mindful every step of the way, stacking one piece at a time.  Audrie wants to put a beautiful spin on it that makes it seem so simple - and maybe thats why she’s such an effective Mom. “play, eat, change diaper, repeat. As for me, Ive got to work a lot harder!  Where I am not a natural, I need to be skillful.  I’ve learned the importance of having a plan, and staying a step ahead, having distractions in my back pocket ready for when things get sideways on me.  Its a big responsibility and I can’t just wing it.  I got him.

Today, after only about 4 hours of sleep, we were up and watching some Bluey.  Until 9am when I had to get on a work call. I got the butter noodles and Signing Time queued up to help me out so I could juggle both. It worked, enough = Win.   I got him down for morning nap after a little struggle - no Mom milk available buddy, going to have to do this right or risk not getting that break at all!  Got the right combo of songs, and toys, and cuddles and he was out at 10:45.   

Time to hustle now.  I figured I had 20 to 60 minutes to be productive and I used it to clean and reset the house...nothing is more helpful to my mental health on these days than that.  Clean slate.  Time to breathe and clean up the chaos. When he wakes up, we’ll have our fresh start.   We’ll have gotten over the biggest hurdle - the “Thursday night / Friday morning tornado.”  Ready to start over.  

At one hour, on the dot, he started quaking from his bed.  I quickly scooped him up, bopped him across the house, and settled into our bed.  I figured Id lay and cuddle him, extend his nap, and take as much bonus rest as we could get.   He laid there with me, drooling on my shoulder, for another 75 minutes.   Big win!!!   Day=shortened.  Win. 

Just after 1 and I had to listen in on another work call - A+++ for whomever invented the bluetooth headset.  I have to imagine it was for working Dads and moments like these as I chased and entertained William all through the house and even outside while multi-tasking....where we both enjoyed how nice and warm that sunny sky felt!

As soon as my call was over, the next step of my plan was ready to go.  Lets go back get outside!    Drove down to the Zoo for our first visit to the giraffes in 2023.  Lots of other people to watch as we made our way around to see the Peacocks, the Rhino, an elephant, meerkats, Lemur, the flamingos, the lion, and even the big bear up close!   William, in his cute little romper, was happy to say hello and wave at everyone.  Happy boy.  Daddy was doing good work.   And I was ready for my reward.  Zoo Fries.  Yum!  Win for us both!

Great time to facetime in with Mama (who was settled into New York City for the rest of the day) - check in time=check.   Good for mama’s heart to see her happy baby boy mow down some ketchup and ice.   But this is where my planning was important.  Knowing he had that late nap, I knew Id need to do more to run out some energy and not just drive home.  So we walked Reid Park, and saw the ducks, visited a playground (he had little interest today). I could see the ball fields were busy and William noticed to.   All week, William has been pretty obsessed with his baseball and we wondered if he connected his “baseball” (a special one from Cooperstown) with the sport he hasn’t seen on TV for a few months....and then he answered it as he stood in his stroller, pointed at the fields off in the distance - “baseball!” I guess he does know.   So we wandered around the outfield fence trying to learn the way to the diamonds next to Hi Corbett Field where the UofA plays.  Covered some ground together finding our way around this place.  Should be spending more time here! What awesome soft green grass!  We found our way in, under a beautiful sunsetty sky and found 3 different travel high school games being played between the Tucson teams and a team from Washington state.   Very cool.   We stayed for over an hour watching the games (a long time for a Toddler!). Win again!  

I pushed William right up behind the dugouts so he could get a close up view of the boys, and hear the sounds of the game and the coaching and the cheering.  He loved it. “Baseball” became the word of the rest of the day, and as soon as we got home, thats what he wanted to find.  He definitely connected the dots.   And for me it was fun too, to think about coming out here to watch more baseball this Spring -”I should look up the UofA schedule!”  I looked affectionately at the other baseball Dads there keeping track of the runs and the pitch counts.  I let him play in that great grass and he took advantage of that time to tackle me over and over and over....burn that energy buddy.  It was my favorite part of the day. 

We strolled our way back to the car, and started the commute home, and he was asleep in his car seat before we were out of the complex. I watched in the rearview mirror as his head started to bob, glad I was able to push that out to get it logged as a really solid sleep. Successful Afternoon Nap= Check.  

Whats next?  Home stretch! But my work isn’t done yet.  If I could get through the next 2.5 hours Id have a successful Dad day.  Had the quiet drive home to vision it out and reset again. Groceries, dinner, Spartans Basketball, bath and bed.  Lets have fun with this last little bit and get to the finish line!  Engage play and enjoy.  The secret weapon?  Butter and Noodles.  Take me home Noo Noos.

Before we knew it, he was fed, bathed and ready for a baba.  I whipped up a good combo that include butter and heavy cream, and he drank that right down as we looked at the Trucks book and read Booby Moon together as we talked about wanting to get some good sleep tonight.  It wasn’t the easiest goodnight.  Every time I put him down he was right back up like he hadn’t been out cold moments before! He’s been doing that a lot the past week for both of us, but I stayed calm and patient.  “You having trouble going to sleep?” I asked.  “yass” he answered.  “Its ok, Im here with you, for as long as you need. And even when I step out, I’ll come right back if you call me.  We’ll do this together.”   I bopped him to the finisher song, I’ll Be Around, and laid him down quietly.  He held still. I think I got him this time. ...  waaaiiittt.....  He quietly whimpered “mama” then “night night” - deep sigh, and that was it. Id made it to the end.  Check.  Win!

Donald Miller writes about a “good story” having a very simple formula:  A character that wants something and overcomes conflict to get it.  My fatherhood story here hasn’t been easy or natural. We’ve had some bumps.  But here we are, the story still being written.   I haven’t just left it at “this is impossible” - that wouldn’t be a very good story at all, for anyone; most of all William.   So as the plot takes shape, Ive had to work harder at it and these weekends on my own are the inciting incident(s).  As each Thursday night rolls around, its time to accept the invite again.  If I am going to have good days. - happy days - successful days, like today, its going to take a lot of effort. And I am sure as soon as I have it figured out, I’ll have to figure it out again.  I got great advice from Deni (Grammee) last week after the Friday morning tornado wiped me out;  “don’t get frustrated, just try something different.”  It takes a plan that is flexible enough to shake with his frenetic pace, and time to think of new and different things.  It takes more than just saying “that didn’t work” - but instead “what am I going to do if this doesn’t work?” - its not enough for me to know the play, its about “whats the next play?”  

Each weekend, I learn a little more and add some more skill. And the most important skill, is the importance of sequencing.  Its not enough to hope for an easy good night but what do I need to do from A to B in order to set him up to have an easy goodnight.   Audrie, in her love for both of us, simplified it down to “he just needs love.”  Sounds easy enough.  But knowing how I am going to deliver that love step by step through the day to keep up the positive momentum, thats the real game.  Before she left yesterday, we started something that I asked be a part of our weekly routine.  The pep talk.   We vision cast each of the days until she was back, including “what do you want for dinner Sunday night?”  We talked about whats been working recently and maybe what some new ideas are for play and for food.  I am not good enough at this to just be able to run out the clock, and take it easy.  At least not yet.  Maybe one of these weekends in 2023 I’ll put together the perfect weekend, and get through from start to finish without even so much of a raised blood pressure.  Im not there yet, but I am getting there.  Days like today make me believe that I am on my way.  And who knows, maybe when I am done putting together this great story, I will be apply everything Ive learned to my own every day life and then we can laugh about the cliche, “who was teaching who?”

Song: Kenny Chesney - Get Along

Quote: “Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy—the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.” ― Brene Brown

[arundolyn]

forgot the hilarity of fighting game characters with katanas. the act of sheathing/unsheathing is a suggestion at absolute best

[kohanayaki]

.:Time and Time Again:. (Marauders Era x Reader) Ch 5

Harry confronts you with a familiar piece of suspiciously folded parchment, and you tell him the story of how you helped create it (mostly told through flashbacks taking place in the Marauders era).

LINKS:   CH 1   CH 2    CH 3   CH 4   CH 5   CH 6   CH 7   CH 8

___________________________________________________________

Ch 5 .:Narrow Spaces and New Alliances:. 

Your eyes drifted open slowly, the bright streams of sunlight coming in through your window strangely unbecoming of 12 Grimmauld Place. It took you a moment to get your bearings as you rubbed the sleep out of your eyes and remembered where you were. As you sat there, looking around Sirius' guest bedroom, last night's events all seemed to flood back to you at once. You groaned into the comforter, feeling your face burn as you recalled blatantly staring at his lips just minutes after crying into his shirt for at least half an hour.

Come on, get it together, you thought to yourself, you're here because Dumbledore summoned you, stay on task.

However, as soon as that memory left your head another replaced it, this one weighing heavier on your chest. You found yourself thinking back to your encounter with Severus. Well, as much as you could call it an 'encounter.' Even when you couldn't see him, you could feel him when you reached out to him with your mind. Severus was good at blocking legillemency— too good, in fact, because you would know the familiar force of his mental shield anywhere. You'd never felt it as powerful coming from anyone else. You almost laughed at the irony of it; the very thing he was trying to use to keep hidden was exactly what had given him away. That, and the smell of him, which took you back to the moment you'd first smelled that damn amortentia potion. . .

You tried to shake off the thought as you properly got out of bed and changed into some casual clothes. The next Order meeting wasn't until tomorrow afternoon, so you had the day mostly to yourself, but you knew the next time you were all in a room together you would have to address some things privately if you had any hope of working together efficiently. You gently padded down the wooden stairs, the door to Sirius' room still closed. He never was an early riser.

As you reached the kitchen you began to put a pot of coffee on when you heard someone approach the room, stalling in the kitchen entrance. You turned around to see Harry in the doorway.

“Morning,” you grinned, turning back to the counter and using your wand to bring some water to a boil, “Coffee? Tea?”

“Oh,” Harry said, a bit embarrassed you'd caught him in mid-thought, “no, I'm okay.”

“What's on your mind?” you asked.

“Um, I was wondering if you could tell me, I mean, if you have the time. . .” he trailed off, reaching for his back pocket, “well, the thing is, a few years ago I found—”

“Kreacher heard sounds coming from the kitchen and did not expect (Y/n)'s return,” Harry jumped at the house elf's sudden arrival, but you seemed unphased.  

“Though master's half mudblood godson remains here,” the elf muttered to himself, “How many more days must it be?”

“Hello, Kreacher,” you greeted him, “nothing nasty about Harry, now, alright? Don't forget he's my godson too.”

“Of course,” Kreacher said, thickly sarcastic but with respect for you in his tone nonetheless. His permanent frown seemed to deepen, however, when he saw you next to the coffee maker. “(Y/n) of house (L/n) should not have to be using the kitchen. Mistress Black would have wept to see a pureblood use muggle equipment. If (Y/n) requires refreshment Kreacher will have it ready.”

“There's no need for that,” you said, “Besides, it's done already, see? You can go on now.”

Kreacher squinted at the cup you poured for yourself. “Always peculiar,” he grumbled, stalking away at your request and muttering to himself all the while.

“He's oddly. . . nice to you,” Harry said, green eyes quizzical behind his round-framed glasses.

“He is,” you chuckled.

“But, well, you're—”

“A blood traitor?” you gave him an easy smile when you saw his expression, easing his fears that he'd actually offended you. “I know,” you said, “he's been through a lot, it's complicated. Trust me, he wasn't always like this to me. It takes time. And it doesn't hurt to be nice to him either.”

Harry decided against bringing up that the nicest person that he knew to the house elf was Hermione, who Kreacher regularly called a 'mudblood wench,' but decided to focus on the 'taking time' part of your statement, wondering  just how long this kind of progress took with the spiteful elf. Besides, you seemed to have some sort of history with him.

“Anyways, what was it you were saying?” you asked Harry.

“Oh, right,” he said, reaching back around him, “um, my friends Fred and George, you've met them?”

“Molly and Arthur's twins, of course,” you smiled, “little imps, they are. Those two could give your father and Sirius a run for their money.”

“Right!” Harry said, “well, that's sort of the point. They're the ones who gave me this.”

As you turned around to face him you stalled mid-stir, nearly dropping your mug as you did. Even as a piece of blank parchment you knew what it was, the distinctive accordion folds that met in the center giving it away.

“How in the world. . .” you trailed off as Harry handed it to you, “but Filch—”

“Didn't do a very good job of hiding it, apparently,” Harry finished, “I thought you might want to do the honors?”

You nodded wordlessly, a pang of unexpected emotion hitting you as you pressed your wand to the map's center.

“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”

The faded, brown ink showed itself as its protection charm was washed away, revealing the nostalgia-inducing inscription scrawled in your respective handwritings:

Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, Prongs, and Fangs are proud to present: The Marauders Map

“Do Remus and Sirius know you have this?” you asked Harry, who nodded.

“Professor Lupin gave it back to me third year before he left Hogwarts,” he said, “but he never told me anything about it after that.” he seemed deep in thought for a moment before looking up at you. “If everyone else is who I think it is, you're Fangs, right?”

It was your turn to nod now.

“I always wondered, how did you do it?” Harry said, hardly containing his curiosity, and you couldn't help but think how much he looked like James in that moment. “How does it work? What sort of magic did you use? All the secret passageways, how did you find them?”

“Alright, slow down,” you laughed lightly, giving in, “I suppose there's no harm in telling you.”

Harry brightened at that, bounding into the living room and taking a seat on the couch as if to say 'we've got all day,' which you did. It warmed your heart to see him so excited, this was one of the only ways he could get to know his parents— through the stories that remained from the people who loved them. If you could help the picture of his family in his mind become a bit clearer, you would tell him any story he wanted to know. He deserved that much after everything he'd been through.

You took a seat opposite him, still nursing your cup of coffee.

“Well,” you said, “it's a long story, starting with how bad those lot were at keeping secrets. . .”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   1974   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Run!” James half shouted half laughed as Filch hobbled after the four of them. Sirius nearly bit his tongue trying to keep in his laughter as the Caretaker slung insults and promises of punishment their way, cat ears and a tail freshly sprouted from his body.

“I can't believe we actually did that,” Sirius cackled, keeping easy pace with James.

“I can't believe you dragged me into this,” Remus panted, his current body not lending itself well to physical activity. For once he actually wished he was a werewolf right about now.

“I don't know if I can keep up,” Peter wheezed, falling behind.

“Oh come on,” James said, grabbing his sleeve and helping him run, “we can out run a gummy-legged old prat like him.”

“I don't know, he's faster than he looks,” Remus pointed out as Filch rounded the corner behind them.

“Damn,” James cursed under his breath, “we'll lose him if we can make it to the one-eyed-witch passageway.”

“We'll never activate it in time,” Remus countered.

“The hallway behind the third floor tapestry?” Peter suggested.

“No, Filch knows about that one now,” Sirius said.

“Why the hell didn't you bring your cloak?” Remus huffed.

“Well getting caught wasn't supposed to be part of the plan, but someone had to let out a laugh before we could get out!”

“Just save your air and sprint!” Sirius hissed.

The extended run time was starting to catch up to all of them now, and when they'd made a wrong turn to a blocked off corridor they thought they were done for.

“Hey, morons, over here!”

Four heads snapped towards the sound of your whisper, but you were nowhere to be found. Suddenly, one of the light pillars began to shift, revealing a large crack in the wall just big enough for them to fit sideways.

No questions were asked with no time to waste, and the four boys clamored after one another so they could fit inside. Your magic moved the pillar back in place just in time, and you watched from your hiding spot as Filch reached the walled-off passage in surprise, grumbling as he looked around for the culprits behind you. You had to stifle a snicker as his cat ears lowered; was that growling coming from the back of this throat or did you imagine that? Eventually he stumbled off in frustration and you sighed.

“Alright, the coast is clear,” you said.

“Why did you help us?” James rose a brow, that signature shit-eating grin back on his face like it never left, “you haven't fallen in love with me since our truce, have you?”

“Dream on, Potter,” you rolled your eyes, pushing him out of the crevice and smirking as he tumbled to the floor.

“It seems like I'm always saving you nowadays,” you said, stepping out of the wall yourself with the rest of the boys following.

Remus was thoroughly confused, looking pointedly between you and Sirius. He knew you and James were pretty much friends now, but he also noticed that the hostile air that always seemed to be present with you and the elder Black had diminished. He'd even seen you two talking in the halls lately. Sirius gave him a look; he would explain what happened in the forest with Lucius to Remus later. Mostly he didn't want to admit that Remus was right about you not being so bad if he gave you a chance; you had actually been getting on pretty well since that night.

“You do realize it's no fun winning the house cup when you four practically make Gryffindor ineligible every year with all the shit you get up to, right?” you chuckled, “some competition would be nice for a change.”

“We'll see if you're singing the same tune when Quidditch season rolls around,” James said smugly.

“You're right,” you said, squaring up against him, “guess that's a new competition we've got going for us.”

It had recently been announced that you and James had both been selected to play Seeker for your respective houses next year. It was an arrangement that had the whole school talking, your rivalry turned (mostly) friendship now infamous, even if it was a recent occurrence.

“Hold on, how did you know that was there?” Peter asked you, pointing to the moving column, “even we didn't know about it.”

“Oh?” you crossed your arms, “and are you four supposedly some kind of all-knowing secret masters? Because clearly there's things you don't know about yet.”

Sirius slapped a hand over Peter's mouth before he could retaliate and give away what they've been working on.

“Yes, well, apparently,” he said, ignoring Peter's muffled protests.

You looked at them curiously, all four boys looking suspiciously nervous.

The next day at breakfast, James had brought up the idea of 'hiring' you to help them finish the map.

“I'm telling you, I think we can really make progress with their help,” he pitched, “they clearly know what they're talking about, and we know they can pull a hell of a prank from all the times they've gotten me.”

“How do we know they won't tell anyone?” Peter countered, “I don't know what's up with you, but you're trusting them too fast, James.”

“They're not the type that would tell,” Remus admitted.

“Oh, not you too!” Peter whined.

“I'm just saying, they'll likely appreciate what we've gathered so far and have a fair bit to add,” Lupin insisted, “it could be worth a try if you really want to finish it before we graduate—”

“Finish what?”

The four boys jolted upright, turning to see you and Lily.

“Are you guys okay?” Lily asked, concern written across her features.

“Of course!”

“Never better!”

“Why wouldn't we be?”

Remus just groaned at his friends' panicked answers. This was hopeless.

You and Lily shared a knowing look off the the side.

“Alright, whatever you say. . .”

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

Harry laughed heartily,

“Wow, I mean, I know you said they were bad, but that bad?”

“For being expert pranksters who hardly ever managed to get caught, they were remarkably terrible at hiding things,” you said, chuckling along with him, “It didn't take us long to figure out they were up to something, although they seemed to think they were brilliant at covering it up, Remus had to burst their bubble eventually.”

Harry shook his head, smiling fondly and imagining all the scenes in his head as you continued your tale.

“So that was when they were first starting to put the map together,” you continued, “but that wasn't even the biggest secret they were hiding. Of course, I wouldn't find out about that for another year, but we'll get to that part of the story later. . .”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   1975   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“This tastes awful,” Sirius complained, trying to ignore the plant prodding the under-side of his tongue.

“Well if you were expecting treacle toffee I'm sorry to disappoint,” James rolled his eyes, equally nauseated by the bitter tinge of the Mandrake leaf in his mouth.

“There's no way someone can do this for an entire month,” Peter said, “How do you brush your teeth? What if you accidentally swallow it when you're eating?”

“You three have fun with that,” Remus chuckled, flipping through an old library book and his mouth gratefully leafless.

“How about some gratitude, Moony?” James said, “We're doing this for you.”

“Please, you just want to see if you can turn into a dragon or something,” Lupin chortled, “and you don't actually have to go through with all this. Who knows if this animagus stuff will actually work.”

“Well, a dragon would suit me,” James mused, “but of course we're going to see this through, mate. You know we'd do anything for you.”

Remus smiled to himself, not responding and not needing to. He knew.

“Hey guys,” you grinned, walking up to the Gryffindor table.

Peter gulped suddenly in surprise as you came up behind him, and his eyes widened in horror.

“Shit!” he coughed out, “I-I swallowed it!”

“Your. . . food?” you questioned, glancing over at the boys who all had that same, vaguely panicked look about them.

“Okay, it was funny at first, but you guys have been acting weird since last year and now it's worrying,” you admitted.

The four looked between themselves and came to a sort of silent conclusion. Maybe in this scenario it was better to tell one secret to keep the other. And so, later that night, they told you to meet them after lights out so they could tell you what was really going on. You snuck out of your dorm room and made your way through the secret tunnel to the Gryffindor common room, a route you'd taken plenty of times to mess with James.

You pushed a loose panel of wood open, coming into the warmly lit space through one of the cabinets. You pushed an armchair that was half blocking your path out of the way as you crawled through the space.

“Blimey!” Sirius jumped, “give us a heads up, would you?”

“Sush,” Remus scolded him, “you really don't understand the concept of an inside voice, do you?”

“Alright, well I'm here,” you said, brushing off your robes, “now what's this big secret? This better not be a trick because I've been working on a new hex.”

“Nothing like that,” James assured you, “we've been working on something we think you might be interested in, if you're willing to contribute.”

He stepped to the side so you could see the floor where they'd been huddled around and your eyes widened.

“Merlin,” you said. The red and gold carpet was covered in at least forty different pieces of parchment. Pages upon pages overlapped with each other, each messily detailing a different part and level of the castle in scribbles of smudged ink. “This is. . .”

“The entirety of the Hogwarts castle and surrounding land,” Sirius said proudly, “complete with secret passageways.”

“This is our lives' work, (Y/n),” James said, “be impressed!”

“What impresses me most is how none of you have any sense of scale,” you said, sifting through the papers, “you should really condense this. Kind of hard to make any use of a map if you have to flip to page thirty-three to find the kitchens.”

“Point taken,” Remus said, “it could do with some reorganization.”

“And probably a bigger piece of paper,” you mentioned.

“Right, that. . .”

“That's not all there is to it, though,” Peter said, “Sirius?”

The curly haired boy stepped forward, pressing his wand to the center of the floor.

“Revelare Popularis,”

You watched in wonder as hundreds of names suddenly appeared across the pieces of paper, all students and faculty you recognized. They were scrawled in Sirius' handwriting, as if he'd written them himself.

“This spell shows where everyone in any location on this map is at this very moment,” he said, “It's not exact, and we've been working on variations.”

“So you can plan ahead without getting caught,” you mused, “how'd you learn something as advanced as this, Black?”

“I get around,” Sirius shrugged, unabashedly showing off. Peter rolled his eyes.

“So, the only drawback, of course, is that the spell doesn't work in real time,” Remus said, “so by the time you get where you need to go. . .”

“People will have moved,” James finished, “we're willing to share this little trove of knowledge with you if you're willing to give up all the secret rooms, passages, and hiding places you know.”

“And we thought you may have a solution to our timing problem,” Remus said, “I could tell from our study sessions you quite enjoy learning ahead of your year.”

Your eyes scanned the pages, and you were admittedly impressed. There was ton of stuff on here you had no idea about, but you knew a fair amount was missing as well. It seemed like a fair trade.

“I'm in,” you said.

“What?” Peter blinked, “it was that easy?”

“This is a useful tool you've got,” you said, “I think we can all benefit from it being improved. And now that you mention it, I actually do think I've read about a similar spell to that paper charm. It was in some Gaelic tome in the restricted section on ancient magic. I'm not even sure it used a wand. It was called the Homunculus charm. From what I read it sounded like it acted as a live feed for people in any given location, clan leaders used it to plan ambushes and keep track of citizens. If we could link it to the entire castle. . .”

“We'd be able to see where everyone is—”

“And what they're doing—”

“—At every hour of every day!”

“True, albeit a bit stalkerish,” you quipped, “you let me in on this if I add in what I know, and you got yourself a deal.”

James put out his hand, and as tempted as you were to turn it green or make all the bones in it disappear, you reached out and shook it.

“I do believe this puts us in a formal alliance, Potter,” you said cheekily.

“I believe so,” James smirked.

“Terrifying,” Remus chuckled, “This school won't even know what hit it.”

“Well, what are we waiting for?” James said with a cheshire grin, “let's steal ourselves a book, shall we?”

Read chapter 6 here!

Taglist:  @sleep-i-ness, @blackpinkdolan, @parker-natasha, @ornella0910 @undertaker1827 @thatwierdo-koemi @nxstalgicnxbxdy @calaryssia @aleksanderwh0r3 @mialupin1

[variousqueerthings]

Daniel LaRusso: A Queer Feminine Fairytale Analysis Part Three of Three

(another massive, massive thank you to @mimsyaf​ )

part 1

part 2

8. Queerness and femininity and masculinity and the colour red and *record breaks*

If we spin the record aaalll the way back to this paragraph: “…looking at what it is girls and women in fairytales have/don’t have, what they want, and how they’re going to get it. It’s about power (lack of), sexuality (repressed, then liberated), and men.” Reading Daniel as a repressed, bisexual boy in a society that doesn’t accept his desires it’s interesting looking at how he moves through the world of the Miyagi-verse, at how threatened other men are by him, at how obsessed they are with him.

He’s out in the symbolic woods and these large boys and men see him and decide for whatever plot reasons to come for him. And they are large and violent and attractive and apart from Johnny again, they don’t have the nebulous excuse of fighting over a girl and even that excuse dies by around the midpoint when Johnny kisses Ali just to get a rise out of Daniel. He’s not trying to “win her back,” he’s not even really looking at her. He’s just trying to get a reaction. They don’t have any of the fighters in Rocky’s excuse either of Daniel being a macho opponent. 

You can read whatever subtext into TKK1 and TKK2 (which becomes especially tempting once CK confirmed that the guys he fought at seventeen have been thinking about him ever since – for thirty-five years), but TKK3 is where it’s really At in terms of obsession and lust and forbidden desires.

Silver is presented as both a handsome prince who saves Daniel and mentors him (where Miyagi is undoubtedly cast in a fatherhood role) and later on becomes twisted into a dark secret that Daniel has to keep, while he turns that thing that Daniel loves (karate, it’s… it’s karate… it’s also men, but it’s definitely karate, because karate makes him feel… things...) into an abusive, violent version of itself.

A wolf in sheep’s clothing.

But he’s also offering him something liberating. Whatever is going on in that nightclub scene is about something other than breaking Daniel down. Even the bloodied knuckles aren’t just about revenge. It’s about giving him something that he isn’t, in the end, willing to receive, at least not from Silver. In that roundabout, strange way of these feminine fairytales, it’s exploring hidden desires through the metaphor of karate.

Daniel wears red because it’s his colour. In the movies he wears red a lot. Often in scenes with violence in them (the beach/the hilltop in TKK1 and the date/the destruction of the dojo/the final fight in TKK2), but he also has a variety of shirts (and in TKK3 pants) that pop up all the way through the narrative. He wears a red jacket when he accepts Terry’s training, when he punches a guy in the face, and when he tries to get out of the training again (as badly as that goes).

Did anyone consciously think about red’s link to desire, obsession, and violence when they made these? Eh. But is it there symbolically? When he meets Johnny, when he fights Chozen, when he’s in emotionally fraught situations with Terry? Hell yeah.

Probably the most lust-and-violence infused red is that aforementioned punching-board-until-knuckles-bleed bit – not that I thought Terry was going to pull him in for a kiss, because I knew, logically, of course he wouldn’t right? There’s no way… is there? Or later on when Daniel punches that guy and ends up with blood all over his shirt and Terry once more grasps him, euphorically. Blood is violence. Blood is also desire. Red is Daniel’s colour, even though he doesn’t acknowledge it come Cobra Kai. (Maybe he just needs someone else - cough Johnny Lawrence cough - to inspire it in him again).

Daniel LaRusso’s narrative is exploring that most feminine of fairytale tropes: To want and be wanted by monsters and having to hide those desires.

“Maybe this time that strange churning in my stomach that feels like a mix of anticipation and fear will turn out good for me.” - Daniel’s mind.

At the end of the story, Daniel saves himself, with all of the strange mixed narratives around it, and the acknowledgement that the end of The Karate Kid Part Three isn’t satisfying and its aftermath will likely be delved into in the next season of Cobra Kai.

Nevertheless, he saves himself. Not from Silver or Kreese or Barnes, and not entirely, but he makes a decision not to give in to fear (and he continues to try and live by that decision, making it over and over again for the next thirty-five years, even when the return of Cobra Kai makes that difficult for him). 

He doesn’t do it by being the strongest in the land or even through a lucky shot (although that too). He does it by refusing to be like the male antagonists that surround him, by telling them they have no power over him. The narrative isn’t just his getting lost in the forest and all the monsters he finds there, it’s about how he redefines power for himself within that forest. 

He’s a man who isn’t violent, whose victories include helping out a girl whose ex-boyfriend just broke her radio, successfully doing the moves to a cultural dance he’s trying to learn, sitting with his father figure while he cries over the death of his own father, telling a girl that she’s just made her first friend, and breathing a sigh of relief that a tree that got broken has healed. 

Daniel LaRusso is a good boy is the point!

Karate is a metaphor. It can turn into many things: A series of lessons learned about how to be his own man and take care of his own house, a respect for the history of the father teaching him and sharing his home and story with him, fear, desire, masculinity (and the different forms that can take). 

When a tall, handsome stranger offers to teach him karate in the dark, without Daniel’s caretaker knowing how to help him, and twists that karate into something that hurts him - when he reclaims that, over and over, that means something too. 

This man is fine and definitely isn’t carrying the weight of buried karate-based queer trauma - could a traumatised man do this? *stares blankly at a former tormentor as blood runs down his forehead*

9. In Conclusion Daniel Has Kissed Dudes… Symbolically… But We Can HC Literally:

So there’s Daniel and his coded feminine fairytale narrative. It’s all a series of fun coincidences.

1. Ralph Macchio is just Like That

2. Red. All the red. 

3. large portion of his storyline is about lack of power. Yes, he regains that power by the end of the first and second movie through A Fight, but generally he is framed as powerless opposite these almost monstrously physically powerful boys/men. And in the third one it’s barely even about physical prowess (he’d still lose a real fight against Barnes or Silver) and more about regaining lost autonomy off the back of a manipulative, abusive relationship with an older guy.

4. The third movie in particular is narratively a mess, but if reimagined as a fairytale makes a lot of sense (because it’s secretly all about how karate is bisexuality and Daniel gets manipulated through that desire to be better at karate).

5. Queerness and femininity and themes about hidden desires that can only be approached sideways through couching those desires in symbolism: Handshake meme.

6. The fact that the more I think about it, the more feral I am for a Labyrinth AU.

7. To sum up over 5000 words of text: The inherent homoeroticism of wanting to be slammed against a locker by a bully, but extended over three movies and ever-more inventive ways of hurting pretty-boy-Daniel-LaRusso.

Johnny’s not going to be happy when he realises Daniel’s got other ex-rivals buried in his closet...

10. Some Other Stuff Aka The Laziest Referencing I’ll Ever Do

Further reading on trans Matrix

Further reading on masculinity and rape narrative in The Rape Of James Bond

Youtube Video from Pop Culture Detective (Sexual Assault Of Men Played For Laughs)

Some film/TV references in this: Dracula (Coppola), Princess Bride, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Labyrinth, The Matrix, Rocky, Princess And The Frog, Cinderella, Enchanted, Shape Of Water, Swamp Thing, Phantom of the Opera 

Some fairytale references: Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, The Wolf And The Seven Little Kids, Alice in Wonderland, Wizard of Oz, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Company of Wolves (Angela Carter), Through the Looking Glass, Princess Bride

Also referenced is Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel and the subsequent musical Funhome. Further thoughts on this by @thehours2002​ and @jenpsaki​:

https://thehours2002.tumblr.com/post/650033577171533824/daniel-larusso-and-fun-home-click-to-enlarge

https://jenpsaki.tumblr.com/post/650530225997971456/cobra-kai-fun-home-inspired-by-goldstargirls

My list of Cobra Kai meta posts

I wanted to delve into fairytale movies more, but then I was like “fuck, I have actual work to do,” but I was interested in the ways male and female characters are written in these stories:

The Last Unicorn, The Never-Ending Story, The Dark Crystal, Legend, and Stardust.

The Last Unicorn is an interesting one because she’s not really human, until she is. It’s more like The Little Mermaid (the fairytale, not the Disney film) in tone, and of course there’s a pretty substantiated rumour that Andersen wrote that one as a metaphor for falling in love with another man (who eventually got married). 

Andersen in general is just fun to analyse as someone who popularized so many fairytales and exists as an ambiguously queer historical figure – might’ve been modern-day gay, bi, ace, but we’re just not sure. All your favourite fairytales can be read through the lens of queer loneliness and ostracization. Just like horror.

Anyway I didn’t go into the whole Little-Mermaid-Last-Unicorn transformation bit so much as the Monstrous-Desires bit, but I think there could be something to that too, with monsters representing otherhood and all. Stardust is a kinda-almost-this, except she sticks to her human form and all is okey-dokey by the end, she’s allowed to marry the handsome man and be a star.

The Never-Ending Story has Atreyu and Bastian and because of a lack of female characters, an interesting bond between the two of them, but mainly Atreyu is absolutely a go-gettem Hero Type and it’s just interesting to see how Bastian relates to him as both an audience insert, but also eventually as his own character in that world.

The Dark Crystal contains certain… androgynous elements of feminine and masculine coded characteristics in the main character because of how he’s not human, but also they do have a “female” version of his species that he needs to go save (and bring back to life) by the end, so in a way it’s both more and less heteronormative in its characters.

Legend sees another example of a monster (literally called Darkness and looking like a traditional devil) trying to seduce a princess through promises of power, and she “goes along with it” in order to trick him and succeeds in that trick, but is ultimately saved by the male lead. 

In conclusion: I don’t even have Shrek in this.

[passable-talent]

Part 7 of the Dai Li series please!!! Excellent work again, as usual- I'm DYING XD

guess how long it took for this request to come in?

eleven minutes!! thats a new record!!

and so we return... ANOTHER whole month later!

| part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 |

“I need you to tell me what happened to Iroh.”

Zuko kept your gaze, his eyes almost wide. You didn’t look away, couldn’t let yourself. A few heartbeats passed, and he looked away, shame clear on his face. 

“He was put in jail,” Zuko said, closing his eyes. “I visited him often, but when I went to help him break out during the eclipse, he was already gone.” Slowly, his gaze returned to you. “I wish I could tell you I knew where he was.” It made sense, what he was saying, and you knew he wasn’t lying. You had hoped something else had become of Iroh, that day, that maybe he’d escaped after securing yours, but some part of you knew that he was likely jailed in the Fire Nation, if not dead. 

Broken out, though. He had made it out- just like Zuko. Maybe, someday, they’d see each other again. 

But for now, you were satisfied. Zuko, though responsible for Iroh’s imprisonment in an odd way, was ashamed of it. And you wouldn’t hold against him actions that he was paying for. Your heart beating, yet stinging like a raw wound, you fell back into his chest, spending any long moment you could in his arms, the sky darkening around you and revealing its stars. 

The days before Sozin’s Comet just felt odd. 

Four days from the comet, you went to a play, which didn’t mention you at all. That pissed you off- you were instrumental to their escape from Ba Sing Se! Who the hell else would’ve protected Katara from Azula if not you? Not to mention Zuko died in it, which surprised all of you, most of all, Zuko. 

His upset from the night before bled into the next morning, when he attacked Aang. The terror in your chest, when you saw the fire struck toward the avatar again, was thick and visceral. You never thought you’d see him attack Aang again, not after Ba Sing Se, and you didn’t understand what had happened that made him so violent, so suddenly. 

But when you attempted to come to Aang’s aid, and stood between the avatar and the prince, you caught his gaze. That malice that you’d seen in Ba Sing Se, that you’d hated so much, that you expected to see now, in a prince gone mad- it wasn’t there. 

Zuko wasn’t doing this out of hatred for Aang. 

It stunned you enough that the prince slipped past you, continuing his attack. You watched as a spectator, until they dove into the attic, your mind swimming. What could Zuko be thinking?

Okay, so he was confused at Aang’s complacency. Real interesting decision making process there, Zuzu, attacking him to resolve such an issue. 

Three days from the comet. You run a drill- which didn’t make much sense as an actual plan, you had to say, but not many of these other teenagers had the benefit of actual military training like you. Your job was to draw fire with Sokka and Suki- and, though Sokka didn’t admit it, to be an earthbender who could throw up a shield at any time. It was fun training, which you hadn’t really gotten to be a part of for a while. 

Two days from the comet, and Aang is missing. 

Which is really, really, really bad. 

Like, sure, the kid wasn’t exactly super ready to face Ozai, but he’s still the avatar, right? That’s still got to count for something. And he’s missing, leaving a very gifted and still extremely underqualified gaggle of teenagers to face the Fire Lord. 

So you went to the Earth Kingdom. Zuko took you to an old friend named Jun, who seemed to go way back, back to before you’d met Zuko. She seemed like she’d be helpful, but then revealed even more deeply unsettling information- Aang was gone. Which was much, much worse than missing. 

So, facing the Fire Lord without the Avatar. How fun. 

And yet, there was a glimmer of hope, in the form of an old, smelly sandal, which really made you wonder why the hell Zuko still had it. And, really, now that you thought about it, how Zuko even got it. The Shirshu could definitely catch a scent from that- anyone with a half working nose could. 

One day from Sozin’s comet, and most of it was already gone, spent chasing a shirshu across the Earth Kingdom. Appa was the best, letting you sleep on a massive paw, and though he was itchy, it was much better than taking the time to set up your beds. Though, your rest didn’t last long- quickly you were ambushed, a ring of fire surrounding you. Four men looked down upon you, and though you didn’t recognize three of them, you did know King Bumi, and assumed that the others must be friends, if he were in league with them. 

“Well, look who’s here!” Bumi said, a snorting laugh following his words. You saw relief and joy on Sokka and Katara’s face, and so you knew that your assumption was true. It seemed like, for the first time in a few days, you were about to catch a break. 

“What’s going on? We’re surrounded by old people.” A smile cracking your face, you had to be grateful for Toph, and her outlook on the world. 

“Not just any old people. These are great masters, and friends of ours!” She bowed to an old man with long white hair. “Pakku.” 

“It is respectful to bow to an old master,” he said, returning her bow, “but how about a hug, for your new grandfather?” You raised an eyebrow as the siblings reacted with surprise, but not too much, like that was a normal thing to say, if exciting. Following their conversation, though, you picked up enough details to figure out a bit of the history that they must’ve had. 

“And this was Aang’s first firebending teacher!” Katara explained, and Sokka went on to explain the name of the third. 

“Master Piandao,” he said, and you smiled brightly, even if it was to yourself- this was truly a lucky day. 

“So, wait, how do you all know each other?” Suki asked. 

“All old people know each other, don’t you know that?” Bumi said with another snorting laugh. 

“We’re all part of the same ancient secret society,” Piandao explain, causing your gaze to shift to the matching uniforms they each wore. “A group that transcends the divisions of the four nations. 

“The Order of the White Lotus,” Zuko interjected, and you looked sideways at him, wondering how he knew that. He had a smile on his face- he looked hopeful. 

“That’s the one!” Bumi answered.

“The White Lotus has always been about philosophy, and beauty, and truth,” Jeong-Jeong began, and as you crossed your arms over yourself to protect them from the wind, you were glad that such a society exists in such a war-torn world. “But about a month ago, a call went out that we were needed for something important.”

“It came from our Grand Lotus,” Pakku said, diverting his eyes to Zuko. “Your uncle. Iroh of the Fire Nation.” While Zuko’s expression softened, yours brightened- Iroh was as trustworthy as you had always known him to be. You were glad to know that he kept peace just as much as he preached it. 

“Well, that’s who we’re looking for,” Toph said. 

“Then we’ll take you to him.” Reaching Jun and her shirshu, it felt sure that you were going to see Iroh again. But when you followed her for a day, the inevitability of it dribbled away. Yet here, again, your hope renewed, that you could see him again, and be reminded that there was at least one adult in the world that you could really, deeply trust.

“Wait,” Bumi shouted, shoving himself to the midst of the conversation, “There’s someone missing from your group. Someone very important... where’s Momo??”

“He’s gone,” Sokka said, clearly deeply troubled by having Bumi’s nose pressed to his face, “and so is Aang.”

“Oh well, so long as they have each other, I’m sure we have nothing to worry about!” Bumi said, prompting you to wonder what the king had seen and experienced to allow news such as a missing avatar to not startle him. “Let’s go!” 

It was a surprisingly far walk to the Order’s camp, in which the old masters caught up with their friends, and filled each other in on details. You kept quiet, having not personally known any of them. 

The sun came up as you reached the camp, and Zuko entered his uncle’s tent, to wait. You sat outside with Toph, but decide not to practice your seismics- whatever was happening between Zuko and Iroh deserved to stay between them. 

A nice stew was your breakfast, the gaang all sitting around its pot, with Iroh sitting at the head of the group. You’d sat between Zuko and Toph, one leg propped up on its foot with the other extended in front of you. Iroh had given you a long hug when he saw you- delighted that you had continued your path alongside the avatar, and secretly even more delighted that Zuko’s path had also lead him back to you.

“Uncle, you’re the only person other than the avatar who can possibly defeat the fatherlord,” Zuko said, and though you heard his mistake, you only smiled into your stew. 

“You mean the Fire Lord.” Because you could count on Toph to do it for you. 

“That’s what I just said,” Zuko snapped, but it was merely his temper, not true anger. “We need you to come with us.” Iroh seemed to consider for a moment. 

“No, Zuko, it won’t turn out well,” Iroh began, and you lifted your head, ready to hear true, unfiltered Iroh wisdom. 

“You can beat him,” Zuko insisted, before looking sideways across the rest of the group. “And we’ll be there to help.” You gave him a smile, but ultimately turned your attention back to Iroh.

“Even if I did defeat Ozai,” he began, “and I don’t know that I could, it would be the wrong way to end the war. History will see it as more senseless violence: a brother killing a brother to grab power.” Slowly you brought another bite of your stew to your lips, but once you had, your chopsticks slowly maneuvered around your fingers, finding a way to fidget as you considered. “The only way for this war to end peacefully is for the avatar to defeat the Fire Lord.” You let out a quick breath, recognizing the sense in his words, but feeling worry reveal itself. Wasn’t Aang... gone? Off world?

“And then... would you come and take your rightful place on the throne?” Zuko asked.

“No,” Iroh said, quickly, like he’d been prepared for such a question. “Someone new must take the throne- an idealist with a pure heart and unquestionable honor.” He was speaking directly to Zuko, and you understood before he’d had to say it. “It has to be you, Prince Zuko.” 

In all the time you’d known Zuko, you had known him as a lot of different things. Refugee. Waiter. Friend. Crush. Traitor. Enemy. Prince. Fire Nation. And in all that time, you’d realized his lineage, as the eldest child of the Fire Lord, and certainly most sane. Yet, in all that time, you’d never considered what he was poised to become: the Fire Lord himself. 

In that moment, you nearly felt the need to bow, or scoot away, as though you were reminded of his royalty, the true meaning of the term ‘prince’. Wasn’t the bloodline of the Fire Nation royals considered to have been made royal by the spirits? 

Inferiority didn’t even begin to cover it, but you’d worry about that another day. 

“Unquestionable honor?” He asked, looking away from his uncle. “But I’ve made so many mistakes.” At long last, days after you felt like you had finally forgiven the prince, you were put in a position where you could accept or deny the way he had hurt you in the past. But you weren’t just an earth kingdom citizen, not anymore. You were world-travelled, a soldier, a warrior, a friend to the future fire lord and the avatar alike. You knew the mature and good and right thing to do. And in that moment, it wasn’t to hold above him the things he’d done to you, but instead to recognize the way he’d overcome them. You shuffled closer to him. 

“Yes, you have,” Iroh admitted, his gaze briefly meeting yours. “You’ve struggled, you’ve suffered.” Gently, you took one hand from your bowl, and laid it on his, where he’d left it on his knee. He didn’t look at you, but his fingers slid around yours slowly. “But you have always followed your own path. You have restored your own honor. And only you can restore the honor of the Fire Nation.” 

“I’ll try, uncle,” he promised, and you knew he would make good on it. 

“Well, what if Aang doesn’t come back?” Toph asked, and you once again thanked her for saying the things you couldn’t seem to get past your tongue.

“Sozin’s comet is arriving, and our destinies are upon us,” Iroh declared, using his chopsticks for emphasis. “Aang will face the Fire Lord. When I was a boy, I had a vision that I would one day take Ba Sing Se. Only now do I see that my destiny is to take it back, from the Fire Nation, so the Earth Kingdom can be free again.”

“That’s why you’ve gathered the members of the White Lotus,” Suki said, her words prompting you to look around at the dozen other old masters, who would be more than capable of pulling your mighty home city from the grasp of a few Fire Nation soldiers. 

“Yes,” Iroh agreed, turning his gaze back to the prince. “Zuko, you must return to the Fire Nation, so that when the Fire Lord falls, you can assume the throne, and restore peace, and honor. But Azula will be there, waiting for you.”

“I can handle Azula,” Zuko said, malice written across his face, but this time for your first real enemy. 

“Not alone,” Iroh insisted, “you’ll need help.”

“You’re right,” Zuko admitted. “Katara, Y/N. How would you like to help me put Azula in her place?” A devious smile spread over Katara’s face.

“It would be my pleasure,” she said, and you couldn’t help but smile as their gazes turned to you. 

“She’s had it coming,” you said, cracking your knuckles of your free hand into your thigh. 

“What about us?” Sokka asked, from between Toph and Suki, “What’s our destiny today?” 

“What do you think it is?” Iroh asked, halfway to his next mouthful of stew, and for a moment you saw Mushi again, being cheeky back at the Jasmine Dragon when he suggested you do something that would put you in Zuko’s path. 

“I think that,” Sokka began, considering, “even though we don’t know where Aang is, we need to do everything we can to stop the airship fleet.”

“And that means, when Aang does face the Fire Lord, we’ll be right there if he needs us.” Toph’s attitude, as though she would take on the comet herself, and win, filled you with a sense of hope. You could win the day. 

You rested your back against Appa’s saddle, leaning over the side to say your goodbyes to the Order. 

“So if I’m going to be Fire Lord after the war is over,” Zuko said, once again reminding you of such an insane fact, “What are you going to do?” 

“After I reconquer Ba Sing Se, I’m going to reconquer my tea shop!” You couldn’t help but laugh, remembering the place you’d fallen in love with Zuko, back before the world had fallen down around you. You could imagine going back there, when it was all over. “And I’m going to play Pai Sho every day!” His happiness, his hope, was infectious. 

“Goodbye, General Iroh,” Katara said, and you leaned down on your elbow, as though you could give him one last hug before you left. You already had- but that didn’t curb the impulse. 

“Goodbye, everyone. Today, destiny is our friend. I know it.” You could believe him. For that moment, you were filled with strength, and the feeling that though the day would be hard, it would be won. It had to be. 

Appa kicked off from the ground, and you crawled to the front of the saddle, closer to Zuko. 

“Hey, Zuko?” You asked, taking a deep breath. 

“Yes?” he didn’t look away from Appa’s path, but turned his head toward you. 

“When this is all over, I...” you swallowed, hard, but kept yourself from putting it off any further. “I’m ready to love you again. I think I already do.” 

And then, in that moment, for Zuko, there was a thousand more reasons why he needed to win the day. 

-🦌 Roe

stay tuned (aka request) for the series finale... 

edit: | part 8 |

tag list: @lammello @kittyddandnyla @aangsupremacy @qquell @caitff @coldlilheart @sleeping-with-the-fishes @duh-dobrik @dxcter @furblrwurblr @eridanuswave @bernadineisreborn @angxlicwanda @lmaoashley-blog @celamoon @mywigglybaby @silentwhispofhope @the-girl-in-the-box @mavix @eury-dice3 @ninipoo1 @bigbuckyenergy @lucensei @srgania @uncovered-mad-man @11mb0 @deansbbysblog @pillowjj @ilovespideyyy @heavensgaymenace @thearachna-kid @llama2264 @anime-simp @akariblue @lostgirlheart @kacchasu @ctrl-alt-jeon @tadpoledancer @i-bitch-you-bitch @wetleafwrites @annie-17 @vintageroses10 @oddment-niwit-blubber-tweak @smol-vy @lana-isabelle @doomedcampesinos @luleck @izzieserra @little-miss-sleep-deprived

[nasa]

10 Ways the Webb Telescope ‘Trains’ for Space

The James Webb Space Telescope will peer at the first stars and galaxies as a cosmic time machine, look beyond to distant worlds, and unlock the mysteries of the universe. But before it can do any of those things, it needs to “train” for traveling to its destination — 1 million miles away from Earth!

So how does Webb get ready for space while it’s still on the ground? Practice makes perfect. Different components of the telescope were first tested on their own, but now a fully-assembled Webb is putting all of its training together. Here are 10 types of tests that Webb went through to prepare for its epic journey:

1. Sounding Off

A rocket launch is 100 times more intense and four times louder than a rock concert! (That’s according to Paul Geithner, Webb’s deputy project manager – technical.) To simulate that level of extreme noise, Webb’s full structure was blasted with powerful sound waves during its observatory-level acoustic testing in August.

2. Shaking It Up

Webb will also have to withstand a super-bumpy ride as it launches — like a plane takeoff, but with a lot more shaking! The observatory was carefully folded into its launch position, placed onto a shaker table, and vibrated from 5 to 100 times per second to match the speeds of Webb’s launch vehicle, an Ariane 5 rocket.

3. All Systems Go

In July, Webb performed a rigorous test of its software and electrical systems as a fully connected telescope. Each line of code for Webb was tested and then retested as different lines were combined into Webb’s larger software components. To complete this test, Webb team members were staffed 24 hours a day for 15 consecutive days!

4. Hanging Out

After launch, Webb is designed to unfold (like origami in reverse) from its folded launch position into its operational form. Without recharging, the telescope’s onboard battery would only last a few hours, so it will be up to Webb’s 20-foot solar array to harness the Sun’s energy for all of the telescope’s electrical needs. To mimic the zero-gravity conditions of space, Webb technicians tested the solar array by hanging it sideways.

5. Time to Stretch

The tower connects the upper and lower halves of Webb. Once Webb is in space, the tower will extend 48 inches (1.2 meters) upward to create a gap between the two halves of the telescope. Then all five layers of Webb’s sunshield will slowly unfurl and stretch out, forming what will look like a giant kite in space. Both the tower and sunshield will help different sections of Webb maintain their ideal temperatures.

For these steps, engineers designed an ingenious system of cables, pulleys and weights to counter the effects of Earth’s gravity. 6. Dance of the Mirrors

Unfolding Webb’s mirrors will involve some dance-like choreography. First, a support structure will gracefully unfold to place the circular secondary mirror out in front of the primary mirror. Although small, the secondary mirror will play a big role: focusing light from the primary mirror to send to Webb’s scientific instruments.

Next, Webb’s iconic primary mirror will fully extend so that all 18 hexagonal segments are in view. At 6.5 meters (21 feet 4-inches) across, the mirror’s massive size is key for seeing in sharp detail. Like in tower and sunshield testing, the Webb team offloaded the weight of both mirrors with cables, pulleys and weights so that they unfolded as if weightless in space.

7. Do Not Disturb

Before a plane takeoff, it’s important for us to turn off our cell phones to make sure that their electromagnetic waves won’t interfere with navigation signals. Similarly, Webb had to test that its scientific instruments wouldn’t disrupt the electromagnetic environment of the spacecraft. This way, when we get images back from Webb, we’ll know that we’re seeing actual objects in space instead of possible blips caused by electromagnetic interference. These tests took place in the Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) Lab, which looks like a futuristic sound booth! Instead of absorbing sound, however, the walls of this chamber help keep electromagnetic waves from bouncing around.

8. Phoning Earth

How will Webb know where to go and what to look at? Thanks to Webb’s Ground Segment Tests, we know that we’ll be able to “talk” to Webb after liftoff. In the first six hours after launch, the telescope needs to seamlessly switch between different communication networks and stations located around the world. Flight controllers ran through these complex procedures in fall 2018 to help ensure that launch will be a smooth success.

After Webb reaches its destination, operators will use the Deep Space Network, an international array of giant radio antennas, to relay commands that tell Webb where to look. To test this process when Webb isn’t in space yet, the team used special equipment to imitate the real radio link that will exist between the observatory and the network.

9. Hot and Cold

Between 2017 and 2019, Webb engineers separately tested the two halves of the telescope in different thermal vacuum chambers, which are huge, climate-controlled rooms drained of air to match the vacuum of space. In testing, the spacecraft bus and sunshield half were exposed to both boiling hot and freezing cold temperatures, like the conditions that they’ll encounter during Webb’s journey.

But Webb’s mirrors and instruments will need to be colder than cold to operate! This other half of Webb was tested in the historic Chamber A, which was used to test Apollo Moon mission hardware and specifically upgraded to fit Webb. Over about 100 days, Chamber A was gradually cooled down, held at cryogenic temperatures (about minus 387 F, or minus 232.8 C), and then warmed back up to room temperature.

10. Cosmic Vision

When the Hubble Space Telescope was first sent into space, its images were blurry due to a flaw with its mirror. This error taught us about the importance of comprehensively checking Webb’s “eyes” before the telescope gets out of reach.

Besides training for space survival, Webb also spent time in Chamber A undergoing mirror alignment and optical testing. The team used a piece of test hardware that acted as a source of artificial starlight to verify that light would travel correctly through Webb’s optical system.

Whew! That’s a lot of testing under Webb’s belt! Webb is set to launch in October 2021 from Kourou, French Guiana. But until then, it’s still got plenty of training left, including a final round of deployment tests before being shipped to its launch location.

Learn more about the James Webb Space Telescope HERE, or follow the mission on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

[ey8508]

Words and thoughts

Rumors and Secrets: Li Zeyan (李泽言) | Victor

Li Zeyan SSR: 寸步 | 言思合缝

【Following the handwriting, he will definitely find the place to start 】

Note:

R&S for this card (CG above)

Chapter SPOILERS up to Season 2: Chapter 10-13 (read at your own risk)

Contains 5 chapters

Translation isn’t 100% accurate (or include grammar errors)

Every part for LZ’s dialogue would be in “this setting”

Do not repost to any other site (reblog is fine)

Chapter 1

Page 1

Early in the morning, president Huarui's office.

"President, this is the main agenda for today, do you think there is a need to add other arrangements?"

Looking at the president's back in front of him, Wei Qian fixed his glasses. He lowered his head and glanced at the notebook he was holding: there was a contract signing and a negotiation in the morning, two meetings in the afternoon, and a business meeting in the evening, not to mention there are many documents and reports that needed to be reviewed and signed...

The president has always handled such a busy and high-pressure work schedule in an orderly manner. It is indeed the style that the "king" he has admired since his school days can have.

Page 2

The "king" recognized by Wei Qian is now standing by the window and looking out. After listening to Wei Qian's schedule reminder, he responded with a low voice: "That's it for now."

"Understand, Mr. President" Wei Qian paused "By the way, the producer of Time Media has been in the small conference room. Do you think you should sign the contract now, or..."

The man by the window finally turned around. He looked calm, wearing a black ironed suit with white pocket squares and even his hair seemed to be rigorous and pleasant. Today's weather is very good, the sun shines brightly and glisten through his side profile.

Page 3

Turning his gaze to the door, Li Zeyan nodded imperceptibly: "Let's go."

Time Media has been in the limelight in the recent years. They had planned and produced many popular variety shows. The cooperation with Time Media this time is a rational decision made by Huarui after examining various data and estimating the return.

Page 4

In the small meeting room, the producer of Time Media held up the contract that had just been signed and the ink was not yet dry. His eyes were sewn up with satisfaction. Finally reached a substantive cooperative relationship with Huarui, and with this large capital support, he can finally flex his muscles and plan his "genius variety show".

Probably people are easy to float on happy occasions, the producer carefully put away the contract, while cheerfully and subconsciously complimenting: "If Mr. Li is free, you are welcome to come to the recording site of the program team at any time. If you can be a guest, the ratings will definitely increase!"

Li Zeyan's movements clearly paused for a moment. After a few seconds, he faintly said: "Absurd"

Page 5

But his sudden deepness and silence naturally viewed differently in the eyes of the producer. The air pressure in the conference room seemed to become invincibility colder. The producer couldn't help but regret: After all, he is the president of Huarui with a busy schedule. How could he have time to entertain the public as a variety show guest?

Just when the producer was hesitant to say something to fix the situation, Wei Qian smiled in time to clear the situation: "If you have no other questions, I will send you downstairs." Li Zeyan nodded tacitly and watched them disappear at the door of the meeting room.

Page 6

He knew that the producer had misunderstood. His momentary pause was not displeasure, but a daze caused by an unannounced impulse. As the producer's voice fell one by one, the words ‘HBS’ suddenly flashed in his mind. It seems that in another real time, someone initiated an invitation to him to be a guest on the show.

He frowned slightly, wondering where this vague feeling came from. It flashed out of thin air and there was no more information, but a seed was planted in his heart.

Chapter 2

Page 1

When Wei Qian sent the producer back, Li Zeyan was sitting sideways on the chair behind the desk. The spring sunshine fell on his shoulders and his hands were gently clasped together, not knowing what he was thinking.

When he saw Wei Qian coming in, Li Zeyan asked him in a deep voice: "Wei Qian, do you know HBS TV?"

"HBS, do you mean that TV station that has the highest ratings for variety shows in the United States for 50 consecutive years?"

Li Zeyan gave a low "Hmm", and seemed to say to himself: "In my impression, there should be no company in Lianyu City that cooperates with HBS."

Page 2

Wei Qian quickly gave an affirmative response: "You remember correctly. Although many companies have extended their arms to HBS, they have not received any response for the time being."

It is as expected. So just now...

Li Zeyan bent his elbows and raised his hands, rubbing his temples. He slept very restlessly last night, he should be fatigued.

Seeing Li Zeyan frowning and closing his eyes, Wei Qian hesitated for a moment: "Why Mr. president suddenly ask about HBS if you wants to cooperate with the other party? If necessary, I will make confirmation about it."

Page 3

"No need." Li Zeyan opened his eyes, his face has returned to calmness, and his eyes are repainted with seriousness and sharpness. "It has been half a month, how is the acquisition plan of TEC Pharmaceuticals progressing?"

"The report is on my desk, Mr. president wait a moment."

"Wait." Li Zeyan called to him, "Bring in a cup of coffee on your way back here."

Page 4

After processing the two documents, Wei Qian returned with the coffee and the rich aroma was floating in the air. Even with the mellow smell, Wei Qian began to report seriously to Li Zeyan about the progress of the acquisition of TEC Pharmaceuticals.

"Over the period of time, according to the previously formulated plan, we have carried out two negotiations with TEC Pharmaceuticals with the letter of intent for mergers and acquisitions..."

Page 5

The hydrogen-containing coffee mist rose up as Li Zeyan took a few sips from the cup of coffee while listening to Wei Qian's report. The coffee flowed into his throat, and he twisted his eyebrows slightly. It was clearly the same coffee beans. From when, he gradually felt that the taste of the coffee seemed to be something missing. Sometimes he even had an inexplicable conviction, as if it was because he was missing a person to drink coffee with him.

Li Zeyan squeezed his eyebrows a little irritably.

Page 6

At the same time, Wei Qian's report came to an end. "... TEC's company representative said that the conditions given by Huarui had not yet reached the best expectations, and also cryptically revealed that a century-old company in Europe is also approaching them. So at present, the other party's attitude is not clear, and it is in an ambiguous wait-and-see stage."

Li Zeyan spoke a long time after the voice fell, and his voice became lighter than before: "I see."

Page 7

In fact, Wei Qian had already noticed the strangeness of the president during the report. As a meticulous assistant, he couldn't help but care: "Mr. President, are you uncomfortable?"

Li Zeyan shook his head, and handed the documents that he had just processed to Wei Qian: "It's just that I didn't sleep well last night." After saying that, he glanced at his watch and said, "It's getting late, get the materials for the negotiation meeting, see you downstairs."

Chapter 3

Page 1

The time bar of a week suddenly passed by.

For a whole week, Li Zeyan has been busy with the acquisition of TEC Pharmaceuticals. With Li Zeyan's resolute and personal efforts, just now, Huarui finally succeeded in advancing its acquisition territory one step further.

In the car, Li Zeyan was looking at a work report that he had just received before getting on the car. Li Zeyan sighed softly when thinking of her bad habit of submitting something and being tired of teaching. The report was about the progress of the charity sale next month, and he quickly scanned it. He still remember last week, under his agitation, she confidently bet that she would win the support of the city government. In this report, she did it.

Page 2

Li Zeyan put down the iPad and curled his lips in relief. He remembered the bet he had made before: if she really did it, he would pick her a small gift. Of course, Li Zeyan didn't intend to break his promise. What's more, although he always commented on ‘boring and naive’ about choosing small gifts for her, he subconsciously felt that it was natural to do it.

The breeze of spring blew in from the gap of the car window. It was rare to feel the breath of spring easily. He cast his eyes out of the window casually. Suddenly, he seemed to catch a glimpse of something...

‘parking.’

Page 3

After letting Wei Qian leave first, Li Zeyan walked to the door of the store that had just been polished ​​and opened the glass door.

This is a gift shop that looks bright and exquisite, with a dazzling array of gifts and goods in an orderly manner. Li Zeyan walked around the shop carefully, and the clerk always followed him politely and kindly.

Although these gifts looked exquisite, there was nothing he would have liked at a glance.

Page 4

Just when he was a little disappointed, a humble keychain suddenly broke into his sight.

The keychain itself is not special, but the wrapping paper underneath it attracted Li Zeyan's attention. The wrapping paper painted a red telephone booth with a British atmosphere.

Perceiving Li Zeyan's pause, the clerk quickly asked: "Mister, do you like this keychain?"

Li Zeyan responded and took the keychain to look closely.

Page 5

"This is a classic British feature," the clerk smiled graciously. "It seems that your feelings for London should be unusual, right?

"...Mhm"

It seemed that the clerk had finally met a usual person and said in a low voice: "I wish I could go to London someday. I heard that there is a great Christmas atmosphere there. I don’t know if it’s true."

Page 6

In fact, in Li Zeyan’s opinion, Christmas in London is nothing more than something that people are familiar with, but it’s nothing special.

But just as he was thinking this way, a red phone booth suddenly jumped into his mind, just like what he was holding in his hand at the moment.

It was as if there was a snowy winter, he looked anxiously at the telephone booth near Big Ben, looking for the ‘her’ who held his heart.

Page 7

Li Zeyan was in a daze for a moment. The feeling of the sudden attack was so real, it made him feel completely empty, as if the snow in London had really drifted from memory to the present. Snow fell into his heart, making his heart fall and contracting in an instant.

When did he experience this memory? Who was the ‘she’ he was looking for?

He was shocked for only a few seconds, and the clerk did not care about his speechlessness but politely extended his hand: "Are you sure you want to buy this? I'll wrap it for you."

Page 8

Li Zeyan handed the keychain over. There was an unreasonable certainty in his subconscious: she would like this gift very much, because...

What is it for?

In front of the cashier, recalling his inexplicable and determined feeling just now, Li Zeyan looked at the little gift that the clerk was holding in his hand and carefully scanned the code.

Chapter 4

Page 1

The ‘Mid-Month Charity Sale Event’ finally kicked off the sale scene. The location of the opening event was set at the street park with the largest daily flow of people.

As the planner of this event, the girl came to the park early for the final inspection and preparations. Not long after, as the sponsor of the event, Li Zeyan also appeared at the Charity Sale Event and delivered an opening speech with the municipal staff.

"...Huarui is a company rooted in Lianyu City. It is the goal and code of conduct for Huarui to pay back this city that has given us warmth and support in various ways. Finally, I wish today’s charity sale a complete success, thank you."

Page 2

After a while, the charity sale officially began. The citizens who had seen the news on the internet enthusiastically gathered around the venue, and the scene was more lively than expected. As soon as Li Zeyan turned his head, he saw a proud smiling face, probably infected by her, and he also slightly raised the corners of his mouth.

Now that the activity has started smoothly and the reporter's on-site interviews are over, he intends to walk around in the park at will, and she naturally follows him. They didn't know that after turning a few paths, there is a forest with swaying branches in front of them. Accompanied by the soft sound of the rustle, the fragrance of the leaves and the smell of earth came to their face.

Page 3

It's rare to be able to walk away leisurely outside the annoyance of official business, they just stop and walked aimlessly, laughing and chatting casually.

It's strange to say that they didn't know each other for a long time, but the relationship between him and her was extraordinarily natural and comfortable from the beginning, as if they should be like this.

Sometimes he even feels unfamiliar, as if he had walked a lot with her a long time ago.

It also includes dense woods as they are now.

Page 4

The sudden phone call made her pouting. It seemed that there was something wrong with the Charity Sale Event. She patted her chest and said that she would be able to solve it, and hurried away confidently. Li Zeyan stared at her back, with a faint smile on his mouth, but somehow, he suddenly felt that the scene before him seemed familiar.

It seemed that at some time, he had also watched a slender figure from the back in the woods. And a sourness mixed with fatigue slowly condensed in his heart. In the vagueness, he vaguely felt that he seemed to have crossed thousands of mountains and rivers in confusion and anxiety, spanning an uncountable amount of time and space of light years, just to see this figure again.

Page 5

In the forest mist, he saw the back in front of him turned around, and the girl gently called out his name.

He also responded with a chuckle, and then tightened his grip on the girl's hand: "Dummy... it’s not name-calling it's confirmation."

"... Confirmation?"

But the forest mist blocked the girl's face, and he anxiously didn't know how to confirm it. At this moment, the wind in the woods suddenly blew, blowing away a corner of the mist.

There was no one in front of him.

Page 6

But when the fog disappeared, he heard a playful question. The girl asked, how did you find me afterwards?

Li Zeyan was stunned. He didn't remember what his answer was or whether he answered.

But subconsciously, a place appeared in his mind -Souvenir.

That seems to be where the answer opens.

Chapter 5

Page 1

With the ‘Closed’ sign in Souvenir, the brightly-lit dining room seemed to be empty, except for a slight noise from the kitchen.

In the spacious and clean kitchen, Li Zeyan is wearing a white apron, making pudding attentively. Pouring the boiled sugar juice into the pudding mold evenly, then pour the boiled milk on a low heat into the stirred egg mixture, stir evenly, and finally slowly pour the pudding into the pudding mold, and then put it in the baking pan.

Li Zeyan picked up the baking tray and put it into the oven. When the time and temperature were adjusted, the oven made a button sound, which was particularly clear in the quiet Souvenir. But Li Zeyan was leaning on the side of the table platform, but he was extremely calm. In Souvenir's back kitchen, he can always find the peace in that corner.

Page 2

Looking at the oven with the built-in light on, his eyes gradually moved farther and farther.

Those recent seemingly sudden and unattainable feelings are like a bunch of woolen threads scattered on the ground, but he never believes that all stories can always go to the source, and these woolen threads must be from a certain source. The person who could lead the other side along, a name had already surfaced in his heart.

Page 3

Messy thoughts thrashed in Li Zeyan's mind. For the first time, he decided to abandon the so-called rational analysis and chose to believe in his own heart. Because he later realized that in addition to the beating of the heart in his left chest, it turned out that there seemed to be inexplicable feelings and emotions.

"...ting!"

The oven makes a crisp sound, it should be the pudding. Li Zeyan stood up straight and was about to take it, but a slight footstep suddenly heard from the door. The owner of the name in his heart was walking towards him on high heels.

Page 4

She probably smelled the scent of pudding, she sniffed her nose and her eyes lit up. Holding a souvenir-like thing, she came to him in three or two steps, opened the box triumphantly, and then raised the small crystal lamp in front of him. The moment she turned the switch on the bottom, the orange starlight immediately appeared from the small crystal lamp.

Almost at the same time, a similar orange starlight was gradually awakening from his long memory. It seems that Souvenir is full of Christmas atmosphere. In the little light, a girl raises her head with a smile-

That face is so familiar.

Page 5

It turns out that the girl really exists in those vague memories that are not clear.

In the kitchen at this moment, the scent of pudding diffuses through the oven. Just as some distant but clear fragments are slowly rolling in.

Memory and reality, the past and the present, overlap closely. Li Zeyan stared at the smiling face in front of him that was dyed softer by the orange starlight.

________

[framecaught]

[S] Cascade After the Death of Flash

Most of us familiar with Homestuck are familiar with [S] Cascade. This seminal flash animation concludes Homestuck’s fifth act and is still considered by many fans the most important, climactic animation in the comic (even ahead of its successors [S] GAME OVER and [S] Collide).

Many of us may also be familiar with the extraordinary circumstances of the animation’s release. A user called Vivi on the now-defunct MSPA Forums made a commemorative comic documenting the occasion, which, to my view, really captures the essence of the release-mythos. In short: On October 25th, 2011, Homestuck updated after a year-long hiatus with a thirteen-minute flash called [S] Cascade. As fans raced to watch it, the influx of pageviews crashed Newgrounds, the site where the flash was hosted. Hussie temporarily uploaded the flash to megaupload.com. Megaupload.com crashed. The Homestuck website crashed; the Homestuck forum crashed; livestream.com crashed as fans who had “gotten in” tried to stream the video; and, finally, the Homestuck fandom crashed Twitter. [1]

Today, it is hard to imagine Homestuck fans crashing Twitter. Back in 2011, Twitter was a lot smaller, and Homestuck was a lot bigger. But it wasn’t just the long year of building anticipation and the mad scramble to watch the flash which cemented [S] Cascade as one of Homestuck’s most iconic pages. The Flash itself is aesthetically ambitious beyond any previous flash in the comic [2]. Not only does it combine detailed illustrations contributed by fan collaborators with an absolutely fire soundtrack; it manipulates the traditional Homestuck “panel” in a completely unique way. 

Among the various stunning moments in the flash, I find Bec Noir’s dramatic release of the red miles one of the most memorable. The YouTuber Precision F-Strike captures my same reaction when I watched [S] Cascade for the first time in this video around 1:20, exclaiming: “My screen is getting bigger! My screen is getting bigger!!” What made this “expanding panel” trick so dazzling upon my first watch? The release of the red miles marks the first instance in which [S] Cascade modifies the traditional size of the Homestuck panel. By no means does it mark the first time the comic as a whole has deviated from its own standard panel size; elongated panels, multiple panels, and links-to-panels have all been regular features of the comic up to this point. However, [S] Cascade is the first page to modify the panel size during a Flash sequence, changing in motion. This novelty, combined with the surprise of the effect, sets the reader up to expect a flash of epic proportions—and [S] Cascade delivers.

After expanding for the red miles, the panel never quite shrinks down to its original size. For the rest of the animation, the plot unfolds within an extended panel-space ripe for dramatic exploitation. At 2:53 the panel shrinks back down to show Bec Noir’s journey to post-reckoning earth, then grows again to get back into the action. At 4:22 it shrinks and breaks into multiple panels to illustrate Bec Noir wreaking destruction in the troll’s session. The proliferation of these moving rectangles mimics a film reel, reminding us that we have technically already seen these events, but underscoring their importance as a conglomeration of memories for the trolls. 

Transitioning to the human sessions’ Derse at 4:38, the panel blows up again to its traditional size and adopts an exterior “wallpaper.” This “wallpaper”, as I’ll call it, shifts with the content of the Flash for the next few minutes. It shows the exterior of Derse as Rose and Dave fly through, then it takes on the red and yellow colors of the quest beds; the black and white colors of The Tumor; the red and blue colors of the “mass of two universes” device; and finally the fleur-de-lis pattern of the Felt mansion. During the sequence between Sn0wman and Slick, at 6:08 Slick’s bullet actually pushes out the corner of the traditional frame, extending it back into the full extended-panel space. Then again, during the climactic moment at 10:02, panels grow and shrink and replace others, flashing in time with the soundtrack, drawing the plotlines together and anticipating the finger-frame with which Jade creates the Fenestrated Plane. The animation finishes with John and Jade busting through the Fenestrated Plane, which cycles through the comic’s own panels, culminating the meta-referential panel distortion with this final act of “escaping” from and through the Homestuck panels themselves.

As a result of the extended panel-space established at the release of the red miles, we get to experience the majority of [S] Cascade’s action (and gorgeous artwork) on an enlarged canvas. Just as we go to the cinema to see movies on the “big screen,” Homestuck deploys its own big screen at the start of the flash. Then, all the growing and shrinking between segments contributes to the narrative flow of the flash. The “shrunk” portions leave room for the panel to blow up again once the next climax comes. I think the “wallpaper” effect employed mid-flash is especially effective, as it allows Hussie to continue utilizing the extended panel-space while keeping the frame small in advance of the Sn0wman’s death, at which point it expands again. It’s also important to note how Hussie manipulates our other preconceived expectations, aside from panel size, to enhance the animation’s drama. The website itself gets a special [S] Cascade color scheme and header. In the unfamiliar layout of this Cascade-ified website, readers prepare themselves for the best and the worst—then their expectations are thrown off balance again, for good measure, with the expansion of the panel and the big-screen execution of the flash. With all of this in mind, it’s easy to see how [S] Cascade generated such a massive response.

As you may be aware, as of January 2021 Adobe has discontinued its support for Flash Player, with all major web browsers following suit. This means it’s near impossible to run flash content on any normal computer, and it won’t be long before flash only exists in archival projects. Luckily, the new denizens of the Homestuck website have worked to keep all of the story intact despite the changing media landscape, with some interactive flash pages broken down into videos or screencaps and animations converted to embedded YouTube videos [3]. If you are interested in experiencing Homestuck’s flash content as originally released, a fantastic project called the Unofficial Homestuck Collection has worked to archive the entire comic in a custom browser which natively runs Flash (all you need is 4GB of space on your computer and some time for the assets to download). This archive has been invaluable for my art historical investigation into the comic [4].

As it stands, though—unless forced by a concerned friend to download The Unofficial Homestuck Collection browser—new readers to Homestuck can’t experience the Flash games and animations in their original format. The same goes for folks rereading the comic. In the case of [S] Cascade, significant losses must be mourned. The effect set off by the red miles (the surprise and novelty of your “screen getting bigger”) is hampered by the embedded YouTube format. When you open the [S] Cascade page, now, it presents you with a mid-flash thumbnail, a YouTube play button, and YouTube framing elements such as a watermark and title (pictured above). You can’t avoid already seeing the extended panel-space of the flash page with this new format. Even though the panels within the embed begin in their “shrunk” state and grow to fill out the video frame, the expansion can never be a surprise to the same degree it was in the original Flash format. Flash animations were unornamented by watermarks, titles, and scrubber bars. They were so indistinguishable from regular static panels and gifs in terms of size, image quality, and framing that this gag (pictured below) actually worked. The indistinguishable quality of flash animations from regular gif panels created the necessary environment for [S] Cascade to surprise us by suddenly growing and filling the screen. That drama is inevitably lost in the flash’s new format.

On the other hand, the YouTube format presents some obvious benefits for readers. For one thing, you can now scrub back and forth in the animation, pause it, and even see its timestamps. This is beneficial to any reader who wants to revisit key moments and enormously helpful for someone like me analyzing the animation in detail. I would argue that the inability to pause the animation in its original format contributed to its monumental quality—readers couldn’t pause to breathe, and the comic took merciless control over the pacing—but of course the inability to pause something is also terribly inconvenient. Furthermore, the video format solves an issue that plagued Homestuck readers (including myself) throughout the comic’s lifetime: it’s inaccessibility on mobile devices. Adobe Flash famously failed to transition into the world of mobile touch-screens after Steve Jobs decided not to support it on the iPhone, writing a letter denouncing the software for its errors [5]. With Flash no longer functioning, the reformatted pages in Homestuck are all compatible with mobile devices, meaning readers can now enjoy the comic while lying sideways in bed like we always dreamed. Among other considerations, Adobe Flash was a complete pain to work with [6] for many large-scale projects, and its technical limitations cannot be ignored. On the whole, the death of Flash speaks to a greater evolution in our 21st century media sphere—the growing importance of mobile browsing, the shift from web-hosted games to apps and game launchers, and the increasing “convergence” of platforms into all-purpose devices. While much of Homestuck’s impact and charm resulted from its innovative use of Flash, like the example I’ve given in [S] Cascade, the unique bubble of history in which Flash existed should be fondly remembered and effectively preserved as we continue to navigate the comic’s legacy. 

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Happy 4/13! If you liked this post, you can follow the blog on tumblr for updates or, if you don’t frequent tumblr, sign up for the mailing list to receive an email whenever I publish a new mini-essay!

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[1] I unfortunately can’t say I was around for the original [S] Cascade release (I started reading the comic about two years too late). However, even during the Gigapause, what I’ve called its “release mythos” was still widely retold. The events themselves are documented here: https://fanlore.org/wiki/Cascade_(Homestuck). Thank you to @imploder for having saved Vivi’s comic on tumblr!

[2] Hussie wrote about the making of [S] Cascade on his tumblr, now archived here: https://wheals.github.io/tumblr/tumblr.html#about-eoa5-part-1. This gives some insight into the massive undertaking. Previously, the longest animation in Homestuck was [S] Descend, an animation which Hussie calls “Cascade Lite” in his author commentary in Homestuck Book 3. [S] Descend was the first animation to significantly incorporate multiple plotlines moving along at once. Hussie describes this narrative style as an “action-collage” (also in the Book 3 commentary). [S] Descend was also (to my recollection) the first time Hussie significantly incorporated assets from contributing artists into an animation, which he explained was partially to keep the production moving faster. Ironically, during the production of [S] Cascade, organizing contributors turned out to be much more of a hassle—but ultimately Hussie deems the myriad of captivating art styles “a big plus” in his post.

[3] Although some are completely broken, now :(. RIP silly flute refrain.

[4] I seriously cannot overstate how grateful I am for this project. 

[5] This article does a great job of explaining the history of Adobe Flash and its eventual demise.

[6] Hussie goes over some of the issues he had with the software in the post referenced at [2]

[millytempesta]

Save me.

Chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 4.

Paring: Asahi Azumane x reader

Rating: Fluff, love at first sight (?).

Summary: Asahi is a marine biologist, who is in charge of taking care of the strange creature that they found.But what happens when he discovers that other biologists are experimenting on his precious sea treasure, leaving it a shaky, scared mess?He'll need all the help from his friends to rescue the little fish and take it back to his blue house.

Warnings: This story will contain SMUT, MENTION OF DARK THEMES (Y/n past), MAY BE TRIGGERING TO SOMEONE.

A/n: Hiii, I tried my best, this was the story of a comic that I wanted to draw from a long time, but because I can't find myself taking the pen in hand, I decided to try and write it down.I hope you'll like it.English is not my first language, and I don't usually write, so I'm sorry if there is any spell or grammar error.

The sea has always been a place of peace for Asahi, a place where he could submerge and forget, even for a little, all the anxiety that the surface was full of.

When he put his diving suit on, and his mask, it was like he was back into the court, full of energy and excitement, but instead of judging eyes, screams and fakes rumors around him, there were calm, silent and colourful fishes who happily swam through the blue water.

Here he could be himself, showing all his love for the sea creatures, and saving those who were sick or hurt.

Thanks to his natural talent, the Seto Marine Biological Laboratory, offered him one of the most important tasks in his entire career.

Saying he was excited was a euphemism, they discovered a new species, who could apparently communicate in some sort of way with humans, and they chose Asahi as the only person who would be in tight contact with it, taking care of the creature.

What they asked was easy, feeding it, playing with it, stimulating it to see its reactions to the various situations and objects and finally finding a way to let it share its knowledge of the sea with him.

The fact that he was the one chosen for this job made him feel proud of his hard work until now, by what really got him, was that he would have been one of the first people to interact with a new entire species.

They didn’t give him much explanation of it, saying that it was best if no one, excluded the chosen one for this job, knew about it existed before they could understand better its origin and its role in the big blue mass.

Turning the small key under the red button, the colour green appeared in the last level of the elevator, allowing him to push it. After mere seconds -that seemed like hours for the poor brunette- the door finally opened, showing a long corridor full of cameras.

Gulping he started making his way through the dark walls, coming to a stop in front of a metal door. Sliding  his personal magnet card, , the door of the most restricted area of the lab opened for him.

With a new wave of excitement he moved fast to the final door, adorned with a shining targ saying “Doctor Azumane Asahi Office”.

Opening it thanks to his magnetic card, he stood shocked on his track.

The room was big, on his left was a huge bookcase that took up the whole wall, in front of it there was a big desk, with a computer, a laptop and a modern desk lamp. 

On his right there was a whiteboard and a big table filled with lab equipment that he could use during his research.

In the middle of the room were two armchairs facing what left Asahi shocked;

All the front wall was missing, letting space to a window that faced the huge aquarium that lighted the room of a light blue colour.

The aquarium was deeper than his eyes could see, not letting the light reach the bottom of it, he supposed that the huge tank was the house of the unknown creature… Talking about the creature…

He tried to search for it, but he arrived at the conclusion that it was hiding in the bottom of it.

A ‘bib’ sound was what woke him up from his trance like state. Turning to the door, the head of the project was now standing in front of him.

“Good morning Doctor Asahi, I hope you didn’t have problems finding the office”.

Doctor Furukawa has been one of the kindest people in the lab, always believing in Asahi’s potential, taking him in his lab the day after his graduation.

Bowing respectfully, a shaky smile formed in the brunette's smile.

“Good morning Doctor Furukawa, the walk was fine, I found the office pretty easily, the targ helped a lot thank you”.

Chuckling, he patted his back “Good! Now, I bet you are dying to see it, should we go upstairs?”.

A sparkle of excitement passed through his eyes, nodding eagerly in response.

Laughing at his response, Furukawa pointed to a door situated on the right wall, next to the whiteboard.

“That door will take you directly upstairs to the top of the tank. Is your special entry to the more open side of the aquarium. Other operators in the project will have a separated entry, that will land them in a more closed area, where they won’t be able to be in a more than necessary contact with the creature. We want for it to get used to you, we know how stressful it is for a wild creature to be put in a restricted place, we don’t want to put even more stress on it with lots of new faces every day.”

Walking in the water room, a light music was playing in the background, making Asahi’s nerves relax. 

The Doctor reached for a bucket full of fish.

“Apparently it likes music, that’s how we first find it”.

Furukawa passed the buck to the younger Doctor.

“I was with the rescue team near the relit, a poor dolphin got stuck in one of the fish nets on the bottom of the boat.”

Throwing the fish from the buck into the water, both men stilled, waiting for the creature to emerge.

“To celebrate we put some music on, and that’s when it appeared, like a curious child.”

Bubbles picked on the surface, indicating the arrival of something.

“We were, to say the least, shocked.”

Asahi froze.

‘What…’

Colour drained from his face.

He fell on his knees to the ground, staring at the creature.

A very human head picked from under the water, watching with curious eyes the man, making the older man next to him chuckle.

“We thought we were hallucinating.”

A webbed hand emerged, taking hold of a fish. (E/c) eyes studied the dead animal, bringing it near what seemed to be a nouse, as to test its safety.

With a happy hum, the creature opens its mouth revealing sharp pointed teeth, who cut the fish in half so easily, that make it look like butter.

Finishing the fish in only two mouths full, the creature moved quickly to another fish, startling Asahi.

Turning to the Doctor, a shaky finger pointed to the human head in the water.

“I-it’s… It’s… What is it?”

A hum leaves the old man’s lips.

“We don’t know, the bottom half seems to be (Favourite fish -I personally really like the betta fish), but the top half… Well it’s very human like.”

Gulping down, the brunette tried to gather his courage, slowly making his way back up.

The creature looked up at him, moving slightly closer to the edge.

Taken by surprise, Asahi stepped back, making the half fish’s head tilt slightly sideways, curiously looking at him.

Looking around itself, it quickly spotted an untouched fish.

Cautiously it moved again slowly to the edge, purging the fish to the young man, making him confused.

With a light nudge of his elbow, the doctor motioned for him to get closer.

Holding his breath, he lowered to the ground,extending a shaky hand toward the creature.

At the movement in the water, he shut his eyes. 

‘OH GOD IT’S GOING TO EAT ME! I WON’T EVEN HAVE TIME TO REACT, WITH THOSE SHARP TEETH, IT’S GOING TO EAT ME IN TWO MOUTH FULL, JUST LIKE THOSE FISHES! Oh Suga, Daichi… You’ve been the best friend ever, I’m sorry I won’t have time to say goodby one last time… And Noa! I still have to give back the film that he gave to me… And I also need to give him back those 500 ¥… I’m such a horrible friend, I deserve to be eaten by an unknown creature who is putting something on my hand- Wait…’

Cracking an eye open, he peeked at his hand.

A fish was now placed on his hand.

Confused he looked at the creature, who was looking back at him with what seemed to be an excited expression.

Sensing his confusion, it took hold of another fish, quickly taking a bite from it and showing it to him.

Looking down at his hand he slowly looked back at the half human, still confused.

Throwing the last piece of fish in its mouth, he cautiously moved closer to Asahi, giving him time to move away if wanted.

When the man didn’t move, a cold webbed hand made its way over his warm one, nudging it  toward his face.

“W-What do you want me to do?”

The other hand made its way from under the water, pointing a finger to the fish.

Following its movement, he quickly understood the fact that it was trying to communicate.

Looking back to its pointing hand he stated “The fish…?”

The hand moved again, now pointing at its mouth, showing off its teeth.

“...Oh! Eat?”

With a final swing the finger was now pointing directly at him.

“Me? You want me to eat it?”

A huge grin spread through the creature’s face, who nudged again his hand, motioning again to its mouth.

Feeling even more confused, he looked at its eyes.

“But why?”

Pointing at him, it made a shocked face, faking to faint, falling under the blue liquid.

Coming back from under the water it pointed at him, then the fish, to finally point to its face who was showing a big smile.

The creature watched patiently at Asahi, who tried to connect all its movement.

Like a light who turned on in his head, he quickly looked back at it.

“You want me to eat it because you saw me shocked and you want me to feel better?”

A loud happy chirp escapes the half human, who was now swimming happily in a circle around the pool.

Feeling like every fear washed away, Asahi finally let out the breath that was holding in his body, letting his shoulders relax and moving even closer to the water.

With a sweet smile he left the fish fall in the water, pointing with his finger to him.

“I can’t eat it”, pointing his finger to his tummy, faking to feel bad. “It will make me feel sick”.

He then started searching in his lab coat’s pocket for the small snack he always carried with him.

Showing it to the creature, he then pointed at his tummy and then to his smile “This is good, I can eat it.”

The creature quickly understood, taking the fish and throwing it far away from Asahi.

Turning back, it beamed up at him.

Without any fear left in his body, he gives time to his eyes to study the creature more closely.

Its tail was long, swinging into the water absently, reminding him of the absent swinging of the legs that people do when bored or when thinking.

It was covered in shining (F/c) scales, who covered most of its body melting with the (s/c),.more humanlike, skin under its belly bottom.

The upper part was recognized as a woman-like shape.

Her breast was covered by an intersection of sea shells and pearls, holded together by some seaweed.

Her (h/c) hair was neatly pulled up in a sideways ponytail, graced by pearls and shells, like her top.

He noticed just now, how gorgeous the creature really was.

With a blush he looked away, making her curious.

Putting her hands on the edge of the pull, she leaned her head over them, staring inquisived at him.

“It seems it likes you.”

A small yelp escapes Asahi’s mouth, who forgot the presence of the older male behind him.

With an apologetic expression he turned to look at him.

“I-I… Do you think?”

Crossing his arms over his chest, he proudly looked at him.

“It never got this close to anyone on its own initiative. It looks like you two have now a bond.”

Looking down at her eyes, he let out a relaxed hum. 

Slowly he moved his hand to her face, not wanting to scare her.

When he reached her head, he waited for her to get closer, responding to her inquisitive stare with a warm smile.

She slowly closed the space, testing the warm feeling on her cold skin.

A purr escapes her, nuzzling closer into his hand.

“It’s a she…”

Looking back up at him, a smile brighter than the sun appeared on her features.

Responding with a just as warm smile, he finally stated “And her name is (y/n)”.

Hope you did like it,

Leave a kudos if you did!

Leave a comment if you didn't, telling me what was wrong, so that I can get better!

Leave also a comment if you did like it, your opinion is very important to me.

[technofantasia]

A little thing I really appreciate about Rise of the TMNT is just how subtle the writing can be at worldbuilding and characterization!

Like... a very common problem in all kinds of fiction, let alone kids' shows which tend to think their audience is too stupid to put 1 and 1 together, is telling over showing. How do you let your audience know how your world works, what characters' names are, how they know each other, all that kind of stuff? Usually, the answer is to find some way to shove in exposition. Have the characters introduce themselves to someone new so the audience can be introduced to them, or have the information come up in (hopefully) natural conversation, or find some other way to tell the audience exactly what they need to know. While writers can get creative in how they deliver that exposition so it isn't outright immersion breaking, depending on how much they need the audience to know, a little bit of immersion breakage can seem like kind of a necessary evil. Exposition is still exposition, no matter how you dress it up; it's always going to be the writer telling the audience what they need to know through the characters' mouths instead of showing it gradually through their actions.

...If you notice, despite being ostensibly a kids' show, Rise doesn't really have any exposition!

The first episode drops you right into the turtles’ life, without any foreknowledge or expectations or anything really, and proceeds to not really try to explain anything. You can clearly see they are not human, and can assume that they are turtles by the title of the show and the shells on their backs; at no point is it actually explicitly said they are turtles (at least, at no point is the audience told they are turtles. it comes up sometimes, but more as flavor than exposition). The same way, at no point in the first episode do they really say the characters’ names; it comes up in conversation sometimes, as names often do, but there’s no “these are the character’s names!” part of the conversation where they all consecutively say each others’ names or anything like usually happens in first episodes. You just have to pay, like, minimal attention to figure it out, which the entire audience can easily do.

Actually, a thing I REALLY like is that, throughout the series, they almost never say their full names? Which makes sense, because why would they ever say their full names, they’re long and unwieldy. It makes them seem a lot more realistic. But that’s particularly noteworthy because the audience is never explicitly clued into the fact that they even have full names at all! If you legitimately knew nothing about TMNT going into the show, you’d need to figure out through context clues that “Mikey, Donnie, Raph, and Leo” are nicknames at all, let alone what they’re nicknames for. Then again, it’s not exactly impossible to find out through context because they have multiple nicknames for each other (which is a thing you’d only do if someone has a particularly long, nicknamable name)! Just in the first episode, Leo is called both Leo and Leon, which clues you in that Leo is probably short for something. Combined with later episodes where Donnie calls him “Nardo”, it then would become pretty clear that his full name is Leonardo even without having to hear it spoken out loud! The same thing holds true with the other characters; sometimes their full names come up, but when they do, it always feels completely natural and like it only so happens to be revealing information to the viewer. It trusts the viewer to understand and put together the subtle context clues it lays down so it can just tell a story without stopping to explain everything, which feels just fantastic!

And that’s only one example of the writers doing this. They do it for everything. Like, just going back to the first episode again, first scene. What happens? The turtles zipline over some shady crime stuff to canonball into a pool which April got them access to, They come across Mayhem, they fight some jogger guys who turn into magic horsemen or whatever, they lose and the bad guys get away with Mayhem and April. Cool. Now, what does this scene let the viewer know about without ever explicitly saying anything?

They’re ninjas (they’re in the shadows, doing cool flips and stuff)

They’re not very good at being ninjas, presumably because they’re teenagers and not fully fledged heroes (They ignored the shady deal going on on the roof, they completely failed the fight and showed very little skill, they act like teenagers who care about things like jumping in pools)

They’ve known April for a long time (dialogue shows them being very close, close enough that she doesn’t really need to ask anything or say anything in order to be understood)

The basic personalities of all the characters, just through dialogue

Donnie has some kind of high tech stick that has lots of cool features, but they aren’t very well implemented, presumably because he was hasty in adding them (nice little nugget of characterization there, showing he’s more of a scatterbrained scientist type than an exhaustively-pedantic one)

Donnie also has some kind of a backpack thing that can let him fly!

Mikey can pop into his shell, but none of the others do that, leading to the conclusion that he might be the only one who can (which is kind of up in the air anyway, but at least for the most part hes the only one who DOES)

...plus a bunch more. But all that is expressed more through stuff just happening and you getting to see it than any kind of easy to digest exposition. If you really aren’t paying attention, you could miss all of that! It’s surprisingly subtle.

Then there’s stuff like how none of the turtles’ weapons are ever really explicitly named in series (again, as anything more than an aside), Donnie’s battleshell is never officially named OR introduced, the fact that Donnie has multiple battleshells with different functions is never really explicitly brought up, what exactly it is that any of his inventions do AND how they work AND that they’re controlled by his wrist doohickey are all left up to the audience to notice, a good number of important side characters (Hueso, Hugninn and Muninn, the foot guys, FOOT RECRUIT,,,,) are never really explicitly introduced, like, with names and everything, the fact that Raph is the oldest and Mikey is the youngest and Leo + Donnie are the middle children only comes up in passing... so much of the show’s details and lore is never brought up in exposition form, and as a result needs to be just. Noticed, and put together.

It even does this with major plot stuff! Like, you learn that the Battle Nexus is 1) controlled by Big Mama, 2) in the Hidden City, 3) incredibly popular and basically a cornerstone of the city, and 4) Big Mama as a result basically controls the city, all through context clues without ever needing to be told. Or, most of Splinter’s backstory, the biggest continuing mystery of the show, is NEVER actually talked about at any point! It’s only shown to you, never told except in the most sideways fashion (like in Goyles, where, despite being ostensibly an origin episode, Splinter and the turtles aren’t even the focus!)

Heck, thinking about it, most of the show’s mysteries are only mysteries because the writers decided to put some context clues in that hint to there being more to the situation, even if not everyone would realize that! The viewers are TRAINED to take every bit of information given by the text and try to work it into their internal sense of the world and characters, because that’s just how the show works. The writing is consistently INCREDIBLY subtle like that.

And in a way, it makes sense that it would be written like that, even if TMNT isn’t usually known for its subtlety, This is a show all about teens being teens and doing stuff that teens would do, if they were ninjas and also had magic and enemies and stuff. Despite being a very wacky premise, the show relies on a certain amount of realism and groundedness in the characters in order to ground all of the crazy circumstances they get into. Even if they’re being forced into eternal 80s makeover montages by a magician hippo, the characters still act like people, and more importantly, like relatable, semi-realistic people, with realistic reactions and realistic interests and realistic insecurities. The characters are supposed to feel, in a sense, like real people.

How much do you know about any real people other than yourself?

The writers just dropping you into these characters’ lives and not explaining them to you is a way to make them feel more real, I think. It forces you to try to understand them and what they’re all about like you’re meeting them for the first time, getting to know them through their actions more than anything else. It makes the show and especially the characters feel a LOT more personal and, in a sense, real, which is a feeling the show absolutely benefits from and uses to its full extent.

But anyway, this has gotten really long, soooo... Rise is a show that always treats its audience with respect, and it’s just so nice to realize that respect even extends to trusting us to figure out lore as basic as the characters’ names. That kind of subtle writing really makes the show stand out!

[inventors-fair]

Club Decks: What We Play

Fifteen decks, fifteen archetypes, fifteen strategies. For my students, not everyone can make a good deck, and/or they don’t necessarily have the resources to make what they’d like. Commander and stuff is the most difficult, but they enjoy Oathbreaker with the inexpensive and more or less accessible planeswalkers, and they don’t usually worry about Standard, Modern, or Pioneer. 

Club decks have a number of cards of different rarities that I use to model them off of my first starter decks, back in Alara. There’s a fair amount of repeats and a good chunk of power, and they’re easy enough to model so that students can make their own.

Depending on the year (2020-21 being pretty disruptive), there are different criteria for “leveling up,” which means beating a number of students and then beating me to get a booster pack and a level in my ledger. There’s no limit, except you can’t level up more than once a week. Hey, I make enough to make kids happy, but not enough to give them a zillion packs.

Below the cut are my club decks, some notable cards, and why I made them the way that I did. Enjoy this little slice of Magic! If you’re looking to start similar programs or you’d like details as to how things are run, let me know and I can provide extended decklists and explanations.

1. White Equipment Voltron

Notable cards include:

Healer’s Hawk

Taj-Nar Swordsmith

Strata Scythe

Little things turn into big things. With a little bit of destruction and a whole lotta keywords, this deck is all about building up to a single aggressive Voltron creature that wrecks shop. It’s good about teaching different card types and keyword interactions, and hey, it feels good to swing with an 11/11 creature that started off as a 1/1, right?

2. Blue Tempo Control

Notable cards include:

Pestermite

Everdream

Tidespout Tyrant

This is the deck for advanced players. The big blue comes out with a lot of disruption, and this is the deck that often gets described as either “unfun” or “my favorite deck.” Bounce it, counter it, bounce my land to cycle, return your threat, disrupt, and so on and so forth. Not every deck has a difficulty curve like this, but it’s satisfying to say the least.

3. Black Sacrifice Everything

Notable cards include:

Butcher Ghoul

Whisper, Blood Liturgist

Priest of Forgotten Gods

“Synergistic” is an understatement. The number of death triggers and sacrifice triggers can easily win someone a game if they know how to interact properly. Forcing decisions upon your opponent and exploiting some awesome stuff from your side of the field makes this deck easy to play if you want to have things die and VERY easy if you know how to manipulate the board.

4. Red Discard into Madness

Notable cards include:

Spinehorn Minotaur

Dragon Mage

Glint-Horn Buccaneer

I’ll admit, this deck is a bit of a pet project and one of my favorites. Ditching cards to draw cards feels great to me! I love madness, I love looting, and I love throwing a bunch of stuff away to make big things before getting it all back later. As much tuning as it needs, this deck is another advanced joy for people that love to make niche ideas work to the best of their ability.

5. Green Lands & Boys

Notable cards include:

Timbermaw Larva

Howl of the Night Pack

Kalonian Twingrove

Sometimes you just want an easy ramp deck. The small end of this gets lands and has some landfall, and the big end just wrecks shop with the big and powerful creatures that we all know and love from green. It’s easy to play and it’s easy to win with and sometimes, stomping is all you need to do. A great card for the Tim-Tams of the world.

6. UW Fliers Beatdown

Notable cards include:

Squadron Hawk

Watcher of the Spheres

Windreader Sphinx

I recently got my butt handed to me with this deck, and it’s not to be trifled with. Each deck has its own kind of evasion and whatnot, but this deck has got the early-game down and the late-game? Unstoppable. It’s designed to massacre you in the air and that’s what it does. Pumps, beats, and more. One of the first decks the kids loved.

7. UB Surveil Control

Notable cards include:

Notion Rain

Price of Fame

Thief of Sanity

“Really?” Yeah, well, here’s the thing: I built this deck when I didn’t have a whole lot of spare cards sorted, and that’s why I did it. As a block mechanic, though, surveil really is fun, and as a control player, the deck is pretty darn sweet. It’s beefy, powerful, and great flavor for the city. Fun fact: the Thief of Sanity I had is actually a misprint! It’s missing the rare sticker.

8. RB Goblins Snarl Rage Win

Notable cards include:

Goblin Instigator

Fodder Launch

Weirding Shaman

And this is another deck that the kids absolutely love. Fast fun, and furious, Goblins is a great tribal introduction that people go to when they want to show how easy and cheeky it can be. Burn ‘em out, make ‘em attack, turn ‘em sideways. This isn’t necessarily an easy deck, but if all you know is attacking, then you’re golden. Or, you can kill someone only through noncombat damage!

9. RG Monsters of the Jungle

Notable cards include:

Ruination Wurm

Footfall Crater

Mina and Denn, Wildborn

This is, surprisingly, the deck with what I feel is the lowest barrier to entry. You give big things trample. Now, there IS a fair bit of complexity in the number of combat tricks, with some buffs and some bloodrush cards along with it, but everyone knows that big things are big. The difference is in the variety of strategies available to you with access to red mana. 

10. GW Token Swarm

Notable cards include:

Raise the Alarm

Selesnya Guildmage

Growing Ranks

If you can be fast with this deck, then you can run someone over faster than they could ever react. If you can be slow with this deck, you can build up enough life and army power that you literally can’t be beat. There’s a lot to love about this deck and it’s not as easy as it might seem. Tokens are popular with a subset of MTG players, and I’m glad that they have lots of support.

11. BW Ghosts of your Past

Notable cards include:

Pillory of the Sleepless

Vizkopa Guildmage

Ethereal Absolution

Basically, this is in the same vein as the surveil deck, but like the surveil deck, this has been modified so you get the best out of the deck. There’s a little nasty sacrifice, some draining, lots of good stuff. This is a deck for players who want to be mean, but with the option to beat down as well. After all, the best games are one you play in good spirits!

12. GB Elves Reclamation

Notable cards include:

Eyeblight’s Ending

Shaman of the Pack

Immaculate Magistrate

Everyone loves elves. Except for the people that hate elves. You get them out, go wide, or go narrow. Either way, you’re beating in face. This deck can be impossibly fast and I love it, but without breaching the barrier of being overpowered. Heck, I’ve won and lost with all of these decks, but elves put up a struggle, and I love that for them.

13. UG Defenders and Butts

Notable cards include:

Axebane Guardian

Assault Formation

Feed the Pack

I’ve been 100% blown out by this deck before by a student who I underestimated. That’s fantastic. This is the kind of deck that students don’t understand until they see it being played, and that’s honestly great. It’s fantastic to watch them learn and I love watching them pull out all the stops to get the biggest butts possible. Can’t beat seventeen angry wolves!

14. UR Spellslinging Recursion

Notable cards include:

Thermo-Alchemist

Thoughtflare

Call the Skybreaker

Flashback, Jump-Start, and Retrace: people love to cast spells. There’s so much fun stuff that can happen in a stormlike brew, and though it’s definitely not storm, it encourages playing spells, and that’s what makes it fun. It appeals to burn and control players alike and makes them feels skillful to the max. It’s Izzet in everything but perfect flavor.

15. RW Combat Control

Notable cards include:

Thatcher Revolt

Intimidation Bolt

Citadel Siege

I actually let my kids down with this deck before. It was an underpowers Firesong and Sunspeaker deck, and it just wasn’t working. What else can you do? Blow things up and make ‘em big. This deck is a powerhouse of unimaginable proportions and I love playing with it. Smart combat makes for some tricky strategy, and it’s humbling for the reckless opponnent.

That’s all for now! Ask me about questions and I’ll tell you no lies. And hey, if you know any kids, play around with ‘em and see how they engage with MTG. What do they lean to? How can you use that to teach them? It’s an amazing game and I’m glad to be sharing it with you, too.

—Abelzumi

[btswishes]

Love me for who I am now

Bucky x Reader ( Chapter 3)

Previous / Next (4)

Summary: You apply for the Stark internship and end up getting it, so now you have 5 months to make a good impression to continue working with the Avengers.

A/N: Ok Chapter 3 here we go, things are moving 10 000+ words later XD. Sorry for any mistakes made, hope you enjoy it even a tiny bit.

Word count:  3,997

Warmings: fights, harsh language, not part of the original MCU

Y/N- Your name

Y/L/N- Your Last Name

Tag list: @vicmc624​

                                    ----------------------------

   Two men dressed in dark fancy suits helped Captain America sit on the bench next to Dr. Banner, while one more presumably, also an agent rolled in 2 stretchers. From the voices you could distinguish Natasha Romanoff and Sergeant James Barnes. Not too far, with a confidant step followed Tony Stark keeping the splint around his left hand, covered slightly by the expensive material of his jacket - throw casually over his shoulders. Poor Pepper having her husband come home almost dead all the time- must be just awful.

“What happened?” Bruce barked out intensely checking Natasha in a hastily manner, making sure there wasn’t anything too major

 “HYDRA fed us the wrong information, long story short caught the link in time and no one died.” Tony explained, pulling a squished protein bar from the inside of his pant pocket

“I almost saw the light for a second time Tony.” Captain hissed when you began disinfecting his wounds, reacting to the cold cooling yet irritating feeling of the clear liquid on the cotton ball.

“I am sure that was the explosion.” Natasha snickered at the blond man. ”Next time don’t look at it, ok?” One after the other injured agents flooded the lab making motion difficult. Most of the equipment was on the other end of the packed room. Talking and a mix of incoherent sounds filled your head, causing you to go into overdrive. You had no idea how people could work in such an environment. Hospital work was part of your curriculum, as weird as it sounded, since you were dabbling in human body functions. Even there you never had so many people on your head, there was order- obviously lacking here.

  Some were very badly injured, near-death was a correct way to say it, but for sure not 90%. Looking around you couldn’t find a shorter way towards the bandages and irrigation solution. Tables and people were placed like chess pieces in a game you were losing because of panic. Tony kept his eyes on you, biting down on the crumpling snack, waiting to see what you would do. It could have been all a test for what you knew, yet it flew over your head.

“Dr. Banner.” You yelled out patching up the Cap and moving onto one of the stretchers “Can you pass me the small bag behind you please?” he nodded and did it all without even taking a look away from Natasha’s wounds. Professional or just slightly overconfident?

  Rising your right hand you caught the bag making its way towards you. The flap flung open and you pulled out the 4 bottles of vibranium dust onto the table, right next to you. A hair tie emerged from the same place shortly after. Bucky looked up at the changing expression on your face, interested in silence maybe also in a bit of pain. Your fingers raked up your scalp, gathering as much hair as possible to imprison with the elastic. Tony ever so silent but focused, a good judge of character.

  The lids of the bottles rolled onto the desk, discarded without a thought. Your hands cupped all of them and spilling piles of metallic dust on the floor. Stark rose an eyebrow and stopped chewing for a second. Taking a deep breath the oxygen gathered all your thoughts into an anxiety suppressing pill, shooting in waves through your bloodstream. You didn’t waste any time, your eyelids swung up letting your lashes almost hit your brows. Both your elbows bent in, positioning themselves next to your waist line snugly. You could feel your back muscles clench and tighten before extending. They shot your arms to the sides, dust cloud forming two plates pushing agents to the side. 

“SILANCE!” the room granted your wish, even the atoms could be heard moving with the shock engulfing the field “This is a lab NOT a playground! If you are able to cause such ruckus you aren’t hurt enough to be here. If any of you insist on doing this, I will give you a reason to scream. If you are patched up leave! Got a paper cut or bruise- leave! Unless you crawl to me, I don’t want to see you.” hunched over your body didn’t move from its metal bending pose, arms spread like a bird in flight, eyes looking forward “Now, out.” the words vibrated fearless in your throat

  It wasn’t surprising that almost all people in black suits left in a rush, accept some that were actually getting treated from the mission. Sergeant Barnes was still laying on the stretcher waiting for his turn, taken back from the scene that unraveled above him. Almost in a Dr. Strange hand motion you pulled the vibranium back.

  The silence continued making your confidence evaporate and let the anxiety condensate back into you. Eyes roaming around the room till a loud and audible clap pulled the strings of your head towards it. Tony was doing his best not to mess his arm up more, but to him this deserved praise.

“Well done Miss inter, I am pleasantly surprised with your actions…” his footsteps creeped up, letting his body lean onto Bucky’s current bed, ignoring the man’s grunt of discomfort “…and that.” his finger made circles pointing at your arms covered with the metallic dust shaped slightly like a gauntlet

“It’s amazing isn’t it?” Banner, back still facing the rest of the room, scoffed proud like a father witnessing his child’s grades 

“You know about it?” Tony crushed up the plastic of the protein bar, tossing it in the trash in the corner of the room

“Yeah.” The doctor was finishing up with Natasha “We were actually talking about that with her before you rushed in. I was lucky enough to get a special demonstration as well.”

“So what is it Miss intern ?” his head tilted, showing a new angle of his goatee

  It didn’t take you long to notice that the sergeant couldn’t get up because he was shot pretty badly. Your desk had turned into a makeshift surgical table with all kinds of things on it - soon to be used. One of the gauntlets flew off your soft skin and pulled up the soldier like he was made of feathers. The wound seemed to be closing up fast, the super serum did give him abnormal healing. This was proof that not everything is a good thing. The bullet was still lodged inside his body, which wasn’t the optimal place for foreign matter.

“It’s vibranium dust. I am sure Mr. Stark knows about it. It was in my application papers.” You began disinfecting the area, applying a small dose of lidocaine onto the open cut, just to numb it as much as possible. Somehow you didn’t want this man to feel any more pain that he already had endured, past or present moment.

“You did, about it being inside the body not throwing it like the pissed off Sand man.” The ever so playful with words Tony ladies and gentlemen 

“I might have skipped one or two parts, but they were something I was experimenting with on the side and not on the subject I was offering.” The vibranium took the elegant shape of a sharp scalpel. With a light hand, the pressure made the blade disappear into Bucky’s skin, making a big enough incision. Tweezers fit inside snugly, pulling out the bullet that looked almost destroyed in his body. “ This batch is under my willful control.”

“Transmitter?” Tony’s eyes went over your whole body trying to find something, still consciously making a mental mark, on the little knife you manifested from basically a pile of metal “Doesn’t look like they are voice triggered .”

“The only transmitter is my brain waves.” Placing your fingers over a cup of rubbing alcohol, you dropped in the tweezers and the scalpel, now turned into the same shiny mass as it was originally in its own jar “ Quantum engineered with quarks made from my own tissues.”

“Ssss.” The hissing sound that came out from in-between Tony’s teeth as he took a sharp breath in, send chills down his own back “Masochist aren’t you. Hey, we don’t kink shame here sweetie, don’t worry.” A playful wink flew towards you “Y/N right?” your head nodded, hands putting things in their original place, trying to give the room back its original look “Nice nice. Welcome to the team, glad to have you. Seems like you chose Banner to start off your training. I am deeply offended .” a big hand grabbed onto the fabric over his heart, in the most theatrical way possible “Most people go for the playboy billionaire. I guess not everyone has good taste, don’t worry I will fix it.” 

“Excuse me?” training? Well that definitely was NOT in the list of activities for you internship “Ugh…”

“Sweet cheeks, you didn’t thought I would give access to Avengers information just like that to an intern?” he scoffed at exactly what you were thinking. The rest of the members were observing the situation from the sidelines. It wasn’t yet their time to jump in.

“Look.” His thigh went over the desk, sitting half way onto it, head crooked at you. Tony was focused on the ever so slightly changing lines of your face. He wasn’t the only one holding a breath in in expectation “I went over you application, I was taken back by your idea. It was so outside the box I am kinda jelly I didn’t come up with it. Some more digging here and there... turns out joining my university was done on a whim - second shot to the heart sweetie.” his fingers back onto his chest next to the reactor core “ Lack of history before that, no future ambitions whatsoever. Heck -” Tony’s body slid off the hard flat surface, fixing the jacket slipping off his shoulder. His back was facing you as he began walking towards the exit “ Even your professors were worried about you- gave them a lil call. I just saw a bright cookie I wanted, so I got you.” With a sideways, look he smirked almost like a cat playing with a mouse

“And I plan to keep you here one way or the other, so I offer you this.” Arms spread sideways, garment now resting on the floor, gathering the dust and dirt from all the shoes in here previously “Training, knowledge and access to tech you would never have even in university or the government. Your choice. Become someone who you used to look up to, or go back after the end of your internship.”

  Your eyes moved from the floor, slowly towards his jacket, over it and straight up his body. The breath lodged inside your throat began moving in and out unnoticeable. The two super soldiers could practically hear you inhaling a storm around yourself and Natasha read your body language. To all of them you were as simple as an open brochure. Tony knew, he was just waiting for the moment you crack under. You were but a pile of clay with astonishing properties, ready to be turned into anything.

“I did apply to Stark university as a last choice. BUT! I applied to this internship for the sole reason of doing nothing but the best to build up a reputation and secure a position in the future.” Your voice snuck out from between your soft lips as a rising in octaves whisper. As confidence began to accumulate so did the need for you to prove your qualities “Even if you didn’t tell me this Mr. Stark, I would have still whipped my success onto your face. There is something I just gotta know.”

  The loud laugh echoing from inside his voice box made your whole body flinch, a blink opening your eyes wide simultaneously. “That is my girl! Exactly what I wanted to hear from you. I knew I chose you very very well. And call me Tony, I am not that old yet for Mr.” his heels swung his body like a ballerina to face you for a bit “ First round you have with green angry guy over there. Banner seems to like you already, but I want to see how true those PE grades of yours are. I expect you to take the gym in the building as serious as the rest do, little smarty pants. I would say don’t disappoint, but that look in your eyes shows me you don’t need cheesy lines. ”

  It felt like time froze the moment the owner of the building stepped out of the lab. The heartbeat in your ears was the only thing counting down the seconds passing by you, before a big and firm arm rested onto your right shoulder. Neck cracked a bit looking up at the huge yet gentle owner. He flashed you a smile almost as bright as his blonde hair.

“He tends to mess with newcomers, don’t worry your head about it too much. Was like that with me too.” Captain America looked down at Bucky and then back at you “I leave my oldie here with you, make sure you take good care of him. “

“Thank you sir.” You blurred out, out of respect towards your childhood hero and probably one of the few people who you felt you could talk casually with out side of ‘work’

“Please, call me Steve. Even if you are a baby to the group, you are still an Avenger in training so, no need for formalities with us.”  With a gentle patting motion he pushed himself off you and in the direction of his own room. ”Don’t stay too long and forget to eat, I know how you science people get.”

  Natasha jumped off the stretcher and groaned out, trying to reposition the shoulder that once more was part of her body and not just hanging by muscles and tissues.

“See you later.” She flashed you a smile, red locks of hair dancing like fire around her “Neighbor.” The word sung out playfully, in a teasing big sister manner

“You staying behind for the usual check up?” Bruce’s voice cracked, waves directed towards the super soldier sitting on the stretcher next to you.

“Yeah.” The word bass low almost pushed his head to the side, but he stopped half way- direction opposite from you

“Y/N would you be a dear and do it for me? I have to go and get Clint his meds.” His thin figure skillfully snaked around tables, chairs and desks out of the room - door sliding closed behind him. You could hear the pressured air whistled inside from the movement.

  Pushing the screen over to the Sergeant’s body made you paused. The scanner caught easily the interference caused by his weapons, plastered over his body in bondage style belts and bags.

“Um, you will have to take those off. Sorry.” Your voice but a whisper that only his super senses could catch. With a nod he reach up to the clasp. The straps were pushing into his strong and muscular body so much, the moment he pressed the button they popped off with a jump, landing onto this pectorals seconds later. As much as you tried to stay professional, your eyes kept drifting over his body. Bucky looked huge compared to the TV version of him. Everyone knew he was experimented on by HYDRA and made into an enhanced human, but this man was a walking tank. His biceps and thighs waiting to just bust out of the fabric. Going wide, your eyes connected with your brain, realizing you were practically having weird thoughts over an injured person. Shaking out of it, you pulled back.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y. ?” calling out, the interface answered practically before you could finish saying the name

Yes Miss.

“Do a standard scan and a nerve check please.”

Shall I send the results to your tablet?

“Yes, thank you.” The sound of the machine turning on led you to pull the flat screen and look at the image developing as pixels. Bucky’s body didn’t move, a bolder just sitting there and waiting. Yet his eyes caught a glimpse of your body slowly leaning onto the desk, focused on your work, unintentionally exposing your neck to him - the shapes your curves made. Somehow he couldn’t avert his gaze even if his head was empty from thoughts.

Done

“Ok...” the letters were prolonged. Biting your nail you noticed the inflamed nerve on his shoulder, pinched between his metal arm and the flesh of his body. “ Any shoulder pain?” you wanted him to say it, not you showing it

“None that I know of.” He responded, voice like thick caramel- sweet. Breathy as it was, the sigh left your mouth open, pulling your eyelids down over your irises. Your hips pushed you away from the desk and over to his left side. The cold vibranium under your touch felt refreshing. Soon as you found the spot, just the slightest pressure made him grunt.

“Hm.”an amused smirk followed the huff of air through your nose “Well I am sure this is something you know of.” Bucky kept his serious face, looking forward and not acknowledging the pain you pulled out of his extremity “Sergeant Barnes, come on.” He didn’t budge nor would he any time soon and you knew that without a verbal answer or marker

 Inhaling some air, you prepared yourself for a conversation that might just jab at more than his inflamed nerve. It could or couldn’t end up with you dead, but you weren’t getting anywhere with this. Pulling the chair on one leg, you swung it over standing directly in front of the tense man. It was time for a confrontation that no one wanted. With a push of your coat you sat down, crossing your legs and leaning onto the knee, elbow to palm.

“Look, I may not be the best person to have this conversation with or anywhere close to that, but you really need to start opening up at least to the people that care about you. Steve ‘cough cough’.”

  Bucky was still jumping from object to object but staying away from you “Keep your secrets to yourself soldier. Fighting inner demons and past trauma that you don’t even remember is hell, but that doesn’t mean you have to suffer on the outside too. No one would think of you any less if you said ‘hey my shoulder hurt’.” Leaning onto the chair’s back you let your head fall towards the wood behind . Diverting your physical eye contact let him eye you comfortably.

“What would you know about that?” ok he spoke, defensive and aggressive but progress- we are making it

“I don’t, I never said I did. If I could experience what you have, I would do it to understand you.” Side to side your head rubbed over the backrest, little splints tugging on your hair “Trust me, I would make this whole situation a lot better.”

“Is this part of your internship or something?” his words pulled your teeth to your bottom lip, squeezing away gently the remark you wished to make. Maybe a bit of Tony was rubbing off onto you.

“Babysitting problematic kids?” head shot up, as your fingers found your chin, placing your whole demeanor into a thinking position “No, I don’t think so.I don’t tend to brats, not my forte.”

“You seem to let your lips lose in bad situations.” Oh now, now he was mad. “Might end up biting you in the ass later.” You didn’t need superpowers or the bp of his heart to deduce it. Since we jumped over the acceptable line by a mile, no need to turn back now. There is one way to deal with an ass and that was bite back harder.

“Sorry for not walking on eggshells around you. Sergeant Barnes.” You saluted him in a mocking way, leaning back in the chair, basically feeling the waves of anger directed towards you. If this was the Winter Soldier he would have bitten off my throat, disgraceful. - the contractions of your lungs stopped at that thought, so rude...so you? Almost like you knew him personally. Ok, ok time to cool down before something happens.

“How do you expect me to help you if you don’t throw me a bone?” you sighed, feeling still how angry Bucky was about the whole conversation and situation in general. You were in the same headspace, if not in a weird yet familiar one” If the arm hurts, let people help, heck ask Dr. Banner or Tony.” It still felt weird using their first names - energizing no doubt

“They don’t understand, never will, nor will you.” This grown man was acting like a child, like the world didn’t have people who had similar levels of stress in their life. It was slowly crawling up your nerves and igniting a fire that could, if unleashed, burn him down so fast, only the metal arm would be left. But you tried to stay cool and calm, be the adult.

“Fine, do what you want.” Your body shot up as you threw your hands even higher. The lab coat fixed itself back onto you, fingers rubbing the back of your neck. The man sat there hunched over, arm stinging with the most dumbfounded look he could plaster over his stoic façade. “You can go, but if you don’t fix it you will be a burden on the next mission.” And you threw the hook, now all good ol’Bucky had to do is bite and this would be all over in the nick of time. There was a room with your name on it, calling.

  You waited and waited till you noticed the stars pocking inside from the window. Head moving towards your clock made you realize that it was already 9pm. With a jump in your step you pulled all the vibranium back in its original comfy home and inside the space in your new desk. Whipping dust off tech and trying to organize your papers, completely ignoring the tantrum little boy pretty close by.

“Fine.” Bucky’s voice was louder and deeper than before

“What?” your neck tugged on the muscles, letting you look at him with an unbothered look swimming around in your eyes.

“I said fine.Do what you gotta do.” And the verbal consent was given on a whim. Joy filled you up knowing you wouldn’t have to deal with him anymore. All happened in a blink of an eye - arms wrapping around his, a sudden loud and painful swing leading to the crack of his whole metallic prosthetic. This was probably the first time you saw such an expression on his face. His brain now activated to deference mode, reached to grab your neck. Any normal person would piss their pants, but you tried to stay calm. Tapping his wrist you played a small echoing sound, when his eyes landed on the full extension and rotation of his arm.

  The accumulating pressure left his muscles as it showed on his face. Bucky’s eyes were wide, roaming over his arm with the speed of light, pulling a light cough out of your throat.

“Sorry. “ he pulled back instantly.

“I just repositioned your arm you big brute. Next time swing gentle, no need to go through walls.” Palming your neck you pointed at the door

“Now leave me to my work.” A light jump and he was on his legs again doing as you requested, not being able to say anything. Leaning onto the door frame he mumbled something and left.

Sergeant Barnes was thankful Miss.

F.R.I.D.A.Y. informed you, pulling a smirk from deep inside. “Yeah yeah, I know. Tough nut that James Barnes. Such a kid.” One more giggle and it was off to finishing up for you.

[frostsinth]

The Bard’s Bounty - Pt. 10

Parts 1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9

Ahhhh! THE FINAL PART!! This features their theme song, “Just the Girl” by The Click Five. Feel free to listen to it, I feel like it really captures their whole relationship!

I always enjoying writing these. Hopefully I tied up all the loose ends nicely. I have a few ideas in mind for my next fic, but please; I’d love to hear from you guys! If you have a story you’ve always wanted to read (especially slow burns), let me know! I’m open to suggestions!

Hope you enjoy, and thanks for joining me on this wild ride!

“Iara!”

I heard Balam calling me, but didn’t bother to slow. I wanted to put as much distance between us and the city as we could. Half the night was gone, but still I hardly slowed our pace. Goda panted a little beneath me, her sides slick. We moved alongside a river now, its cool waters lapping lazily at its banks.

Despite the growing irritation in his words, the sound of the bard’s voice wrapped a warmth around me. Reassuring me that yes, he was still behind me. Still following me. Because I didn’t have the strength to look back and check. Every time the silence stretched, I felt the panic rising in my breast. That he had seen my true colors now. And they weren’t so appealing to him anymore.

I gritted my teeth and urged Goda on. She tossed up her head with a snort of complaint, her ears flicking back towards me. The moonlight gleamed on her sweat damp hide, trimming her in silver. But she obediently picked up the pace as best she could.

The sound of hooves beyond hers filled my ears, and suddenly a big meaty hand reached out and grabbed Goda’s halter. Balam’s mount squealed, and he pulled us both to a stop. Goda stamped her hooves and flattened her ears at the males, snapping her tail behind her like a whip.

“Iara! Stop!”

I spun, shooting icy daggers at the bard, my hands clenching into fists. He eyed me warily.

“What?!” I snapped, unable to keep the irritation from my voice.

“The horses are exhausted,” he replied, “I’m exhausted. Honestly, it's a miracle I haven’t fallen out of my saddle yet. We need to stop.”

“We’re not far enough yet.” I argued, but found my eyes skimming over him.

One eye was swollen nearly shut, and his lip was fatter than usual. He was covered in cuts and bruises, and I could only imagine the injuries I couldn’t see.

But I was afraid. Afraid of stopping. Afraid of facing him again. After what I had done. I wrung the reins in my hands. Goda’s breath came in heaving pants beneath my legs, and I felt a stab of guilt for driving her so hard for so long.

“We’re far enough for tonight.” Balam said, and with a grunt swung himself off his mount.

Taking the reins, in hand again, he led the dark gelding on foot over to the edge of the river. The water pooled within the rocks here, away from the current at the center of the river. A few large trees grew in a small cluster, their huge branches reaching out over the water. Balam unsaddled the gelding, hobbled him, and removed his bridle, resting the equipment over one low hanging branch. The horse eagerly dropped his head to the water and drank deeply.

I watched the bard quietly, fear constricting into a knot in my stomach. Goda jerked her head up, then moved forward without my signal. Approaching the gelding to his left, she snaked out and nipped him gently on the flank. He squealed again, and skittered sideways, making space for her. I glanced down at my hands for a moment, taking a slow, steadying breath. Then I slid off her back, slowly easing myself to my own two feet for the first time in hours.

I was taking off her equipment when I heard splashing. Dropping it on a rock, I turned to see Balam wading into the water until he was waist deep. He sighed, tilting his head back. His black dreads seemed to glint like an oil slick in the moonlight, and I watched the silver beams trace along the edge of his huge shoulders and broad back. The lump in my throat grew, and I swallowed nervously.

After a few moments, he bent down, splashing water over his arms, then his face and chest. I hesitantly moved closer, unsure what to do with myself. Just watching.

He seemed to sense my eyes, and turned at the waist to consider me. I dropped my gaze, turning back to the horses. Perhaps I should try to make some semblance of a camp. Even though we didn’t have much in the way of supplies.

The sound of splashing water diminished as he staggered onto the bank with a soft grunt. Frozen in place, I couldn’t find the strength to move away as he came up behind me. Despite the heat of his bare skin, I felt a few cool droplets of water hit my arms as he leaned over me.

“Don’t touch me!” I snapped, then winced at the edge in my own voice.

He dropped his hands. “Alright… But you should wash up too. You’re covered in…”

I shot a look at him out of the corner of my eye as he dropped off. “In what?” I hissed, anger constricting my throat. “In blood? Does that bother you, bard?”

He snorted. “A little, yeah…” Then he stopped, and I saw him reach up and rub the back of his neck with a little wince. “I… I know this can’t be easy for you.”

I closed my eyes, fighting the burning tears within them. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m fine.”

There was a pause, then I nearly jumped out of my skin when his hand lightly touched my arm.

“No… You’re not…”

I jerked away from him, spinning to face him as I took a guarded step back. “You don’t know me. You don’t know what I’m feeling.”

His big brown eyes seemed a little sad, even surrounded by puffy, bruised skin. I almost winced at the sight, but tightened my jaw instead. He shrugged his shoulders ever so slightly, rubbing his sore ribs with one big hand.

“Yeah, I don’t know you that well yet…” He met my gaze, and then reached out his hand, “But I know you’re not a killer.”

I looked down at his hand, then up at his face again. I shook my head, pursing my lips.

“..I am now… Twice over…” I saw his face grow a little confused, and I sighed, crossing my arms over my chest. “Warrick.”

“Ah…” He took a little step closer, hand still extended, still waiting. “... You didn’t have to do that for me-”

“I did it for me!” I snarled, recoiling back another step. “I wanted him to suffer, as I have! I wanted him to feel all the pain-... I wanted him dead!”

Despite my words, my voice hitched at the end, and I shook my head vehemently. Warrick had been a horrible person. He had made my life and so many others a living nightmare. The Sheriff had been no different. He had killed his own wife, had tortured Balam for fun!

“The world is better off without them... I shouldn’t feel guilty about taking their lives.” I voiced my final thought on the matter aloud.

Balam closed the gap between us again. “But you do… And that’s a good thing.” His hand still hovered in the air between us, and I glanced down at it again. “Because it means you are nothing like them.”

I found myself shaking a little. I reached up and rubbed my forehead with my palm. Still staring at his offered hand…. Finally, I dropped my own hand into it.

Slowly, gently, he wrapped his huge fingers around it. As delicately as if I were a faberge egg. When I didn’t pull back, he stepped closer, and carefully reached out his other arm. I squeezed my eyes shut, and took the final step. Burying my face in his bruised and beaten chest.

His big arm wrapped around me, and he lifted up my captured hand to press against his sore lips. I nearly cried for how tenderly he treated me. My legs almost shook and gave beneath me. I took a deep breath, swallowing chestfuls of his scent. I didn’t like the mixture of blood with his naturally muskiness, and reached to wrap my own arm around him gently.

“It shouldn’t have been your burden to bear,” He murmured softly into my hair, “... I should have been the one to kill him. Both of them, if needed.”

I laughed sadly, tangling my fingers with his. “You couldn’t have done it.”

“I could have!” He scoffed, then stilled for a moment, “...For you. I could have.”

I couldn’t bear to look at him, so kept my face half buried against him as I spoke. “You are a gentle soul, Balam,” I sighed, turning my head slightly to rest my cheek against him, “You are kind, and forgiving, and understanding… You could never take a life. Not like that.”

“And you aren't?” He grumbled.

I shook my head, and his arms flexed around me gently. “I have always been cold, and distant. I am a broken thing-”

I felt his hand, dropping mine and cupping his huge fingers under my chin. I leaned back, allowing him to gently tilt my face up to his. I opened my eyes barely, but kept my gaze dropped. Unable to look at him.

“Don’t say that,” I felt his warm breath across my cheeks as he spoke, “Don’t ever say that, Iara. You are a lot of things. But you are not broken. You are not cold.” His thumb brushed away the fat tear rolling down my cheek. “Not to me.”

I chuckled sadly again. “To everyone else then.”

He sighed, exasperatedly. “That’s not what I meant. And besides, who cares what anyone else thinks?”

I reached up, placing my hand on top of his. “... I care what you think.”

“Well then,” I could hear the smile in his voice, “I think you are strong, and brave, and dangerously clever, and possibly the most beautiful creature I have ever seen in my whole life.”

I managed to meet his eyes now, and his soft brown eyes gazed down at me. There was a hearth fire in their centers, so bright I could feel their warmth on my face as he looked down at me. He tenderly traced his thumb over my cheek again, cupping my jaw in his huge palm.

“Flatterer,” I scoffed, “You’re just trying to get in my pants now.” But amusement tickled the edge of my voice.

I saw those big brown eyes flick down to my lips briefly, and saw his own twitch into the tiniest of smirks when my own gaze found his lips as well. I almost rolled my eyes, but couldn’t hide the smile on my own lips.

“You’re not wearing pants.” His voice had grown husky.

I ran my opposite hand up his bare chest, skimming around his fresh injuries. He leaned in closer.

“No, I suppose I’m not.”

I closed my eyes again as his lips pressed lightly against mine. A warmth blossomed from his kiss, and wrapped me up in its delicate embrace. His tusks scraped against my cheeks painlessly as he worked his lips slowly in tune with mine. I felt my knees buckle, and I simply melted into him.

One big arm scooped gently under my knees, the other around my shoulders. Lifting me off the ground with a soft snort as he cradled me into his chest. I reached up, cupping his face with one hand, resting the other lazily on his shoulder. Finding myself in such mind numbing bliss. Completely unaware of him moving, or of anything else around us.

Suddenly, I felt myself falling. I shrieked loudly as I hit the water, sinking below the surface an inch until my bottom hit the river’s bed.

Sputtering, I scrambled back to my feet, wincing and whirling around in confusion. Balam stood over me, grinning like an absolute buffoon.

“You Bastard!” I shouted at him, still spitting water. 

I shook a fist at him menacingly, but he only laughed. It shook his whole frame, and crinkled the corners of his eyes.

“You were filthy. I said before you needed to wash up.”

I tried to push past him, furious. “My armor is soaked! You absolute ass!”

He scooped his arm around my waist as I tried to push past him. I would have wriggled in his grasp, but he quite efficiently pulled me up first. And planted another kiss right on my lips. I was so stunned, I remained silent even after he pulled back.

Chuckling, he waded out, placing my feet back on solid ground before going over to the hanging equipment, pulling down the horse blankets. He spread one on the ground, then began to shake out the other.

“What am I supposed to do now?” I snapped, finally finding my voice again.

He glanced at my angry scowl, smirking a little. “Well, I guess you’ll just have to go naked for a little while.”

I felt my cheeks go hot, and spun in mock anger to hide it. I stomped angrily around, gathering wood into a pile in a shallow pit I dug in the sandy shore. Once I had the fire started I hesitated, glancing back over my shoulder. Balam sat on the blanket, his big eyes watching me quietly. I saw the corners of his mouth twitch a little when he saw me glance at him.

I didn’t wait to see more, spinning back to the fire. I stood frozen for a long while, uncertain of myself. Then, slowly, hesitantly, I reached up and undid the buckles at my neck and under my arms. Careful to keep my back to him. I slid the already nearly dry armor off, hanging it on a branch near enough to the fire to feel it’s warmth but not so close as to worry about it catching a stray spark. Though the worn old iron and leather would not be easily kindling.

I reached for the belt at my waist next, my hands almost shaking as I slowly undid the clasp. I glanced down at my bare feet as I set my boots in the sand by the roots of the tree, then hung my metal and thick leather skirt beside my top. Behind me, I heard a soft shuffling. I stiffened as I heard his footsteps approaching. I felt his warmth behind me, and couldn’t suppress my quivering.

Then, I felt his big, warm hands on my arms, gently sliding up and down. I turned my head slightly, looking at his massive chest just behind my shoulders. I crossed my own arms over my chest a little self consciously.

“You know, I didn’t really think you’d go for that.” He mused, bending down so his hot breath was in my ear.

“Oh, shut up.” I grumbled embarrassedly, turning my head away from him.

I felt his smile as his lips grazed my neck, and felt my heart begin to race like a jackrabbit in my chest.

“Come on,” He breathed against my hair, slowly wrapping his arms around me, “Let’s try to get some rest.”

He led me gently back to the blanket spread on the ground. I saw his trousers in a heap beside it, and my cheeks burned hotter. He smoothed his hand over my back, between my shoulder blades, then slowly laid down, being sure to leave space beside him.

I couldn’t help my eyes darting down to his hips, but quickly brought them back up to find his lopsided grin waiting for me. He patiently lay there, his eyes slowly tracing over my bare body, waiting. Letting me make the decision to join him myself.

After a time, I did, dropping to my knees on the blanket beside him. He reached over and pulled the other blanket around us, and I slowly lay down in the crook of his arm. My nose wrinkled at the thick smell of horse that suddenly enveloped us.

“Not sure horse blanket is really how I imagined-”

“Beggers can’t be choosers,” he interrupted me with a soft chuckle. 

But the blanket was warm, and he settled his arm gently around my shoulders. The bard gave a deep sigh, reaching up his opposite arm to pillow his own head.

“You know, I think the gods are laughing at us right now.”

I turned, resting my chin on his chest to look up at him. “Why?”

His lopsided grin grew a few molars. “Because here I am, beneath the open night sky, free for the first time in so many years I’ve lost count, with the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met in my arms….” He sighed regretfully, “And bugger it all if I’m in so much pain I can’t even do anything with you.”

I laughed, whole-heartedly, and felt myself relax further into his arms. “I’m sorry,” I blurted, unsure what else to say.

He laughed softly too, stroking his thumb up and down my arm. “You’ve got to be still hurting too, I imagine. Wounds like that don’t heal overnight.”

I nodded, tracing my fingers over his chest. “And yet I still managed to storm two keeps to rescue your ass.”

Balam scoffed, shaking his head. “Hey! Don’t try to guilt trip me into making love to you before I can be absolutely certain it’ll be the most mind blowing experience of your life!”

I felt a blush rising into my cheeks again at his words, and hid my smile by burying my face against him again.

“Someone has a high opinion of themselves.” I teased.

Another soft chuckle that rumbled beneath my cheek. “I’ll give you an opinion or two for yourself… but not tonight, eh?” He sighed, and I felt his muscles loosen around me. “Tonight I am in heaven just having you in my arms-” A few moments of peaceful silence passed- “...Naked.”

I smacked him lightly, and felt him chuckle again beneath me. I smiled too, settling myself into his arms. My heart thudded loudly in my chest, and my mind raced. But I felt very comfortable laying beside him. The most I could ever remember being.

“...Perhaps I could offer you a song, instead?” He murmured, and I felt his thick fingers stroking through my short hair.

I closed my eyes, breathing in his scent again. “I’d like that.”

He cleared his throat, brushing my hair back with his hand. Testing his lips and tongue momentarily. Then he began, hesitantly, softly.

“You’re the song, in the trees, when the wind blows. You’re a flower, you’re a river, you’re a rainbow….” I stiffened at the familiar words, my eyes slowly opening again, “I loved you, the first time, I saw you… And I always, will love you… “

As he dropped off, I felt tears rolling down my cheeks. He rolled, tucking himself around me, bringing his hands up to my face.

“I’m sorry... “ He murmured softly, wiping them away with his thumbs. “Ever since you first sang it… I haven’t been able to get it out of my head…”

I leaned into his touch, sighing softly. “It’s ok…”

“You never told me where it’s from…”

I brushed my fingers over his hand still cupping my cheek. “... My mother used to sing it to me… before…”

He leaned down, pressing his forehead to mine. “... You said all you ever wanted when you were little was a family… I can’t give you much, but I can give you that… if you still want it…” He pressed his lip against my temple, pushing my hair back out of my face. “Maybe someday you can sing that song to our kids…”

I was shaking my head before he had even finished speaking. “I don’t want kids… not right now… I’m not sure if I’ll ever want them.”

He tilted my face up to look at him. “Your every wish is my command. Whatever you want, it’s yours.”

“But what do you want?”

“All I want is to see you happy.”

I tried to hide a smile by turning away, but he kept me gently cupped in his palms. 

“You make me happy...” I told him shyly, “You’re the only family I need.”

He grinned that stupid, lopsided grin, and leaned down. Pressing his thick, warm lips against mine again. I reached up, tracing my hand over his square cheek. Pushing back his damp dreads and burying my hand in the thick mass of his hair.

We lay intertwined like that for a while, and when we finally pulled apart, it was with bliss in our eyes and heaven in our breath. I sighed contentedly, then settled against him with my head tucked against his chest.

“How about one more song?” He mused, his voice sounding sleepy.

I smirked into his skin, wriggling a little closer. Ever wary of his tenderized skin.

“I like the sound of your voice.” I whispered back.

I felt his lips against the top of my head, and then his own great sigh. His body relaxed around me, and I felt safe and warm in my own little cocoon.

“I thought of this one when I first met you,” He murmured against my hair. 

I nodded, waiting patiently for the soft humming of honeybees to rise in his chest once more. Already starting to doze off.

“She’s bitter sweet, she knocks me off of my feet; but I can’t help myself, I don’t want anyone else; She’s a mystery, she’s too much for me; but I keep coming back for more…. She’s just the girl I’m looking for…”

...

THE END.

[blackssuunn-mandoandyodito]

Tabaco y Brea part 4

Pairing:Javier Peña x f! reader

Rating:T? IDK WHAT THE RATINGS ARE

Words: 2.0k

A/N:enjoy this because everything gets intende after

Warnings: eating? swearing, banter, use of the word gringo, fluff. If you think I'm missing something let me know.

Summary: soft moment between the boys and reader.

Part one part two part three

Connie must be a saint if she has put up with this idiot for years.

"Are you sure you're ready for this?"

This is probably the tenth time you ask Steve this, but judging by how he fidgets with his hands and rolls his marriage ring every single time, he's not sure about his answer, even though it's always the same. You can see his nervousness as he sits in front of your desk again.

"I've told you I am! Could you quit it already?"

To say your relationship with him developed a lot in the last few weeks is an understatement. You started to like him the second he helped you with paperwork but now that you know him more you realize he's a perfect balance that you and Javier needed. He's as crazy as you are, maybe even more, but at least he doesn't get to screaming match with either of you two.

Not yet, at least.

Your partner doesn't seem to have accepted him completely still. Every time you're working on your desk with Murphy, Javier huffs and rolls his eyes. Each time you try and include him in your new dynamic, he waves it off and says he has "better things to do". He narrows his eyes and presses his lips together when the two of you laugh about some idiot joke Steve said and a voice at the back of your head tells you it has something to do with the things Helena said to you, but you shrug it off. Diving too deep into those thoughts will only make things worse.

Despite this, you and Javier haven't fought so much the last couple of days, Steve interfering when things start to get heated. He stands between the two desks holding his arms up towards each of you as if either of you were about to jump the other. It's a funny visual, needless to say. He's the tallest of the three, so he towers above your heads and tries to calm you down.

Despite this, you can't help being a little protective over him. 

"Steve, we're going undercover, not shooting our way in"

He's a little hotheaded himself, that much you've realized from the stories he has told you about his job in Miami. And you may be quick to go into fight mode, but only when you see there's no other option. Javier, surprisingly, is the calmest. Who would've thought?

Steve groans, exasperated. He lets his head fall back and grabs at his hair, pulling slightly. Javier snickers at his reaction.

"Relax gringo, she's just pushing your buttons"

Well, he's not entirely wrong. Steve lifts his head to look at you with a raised eyebrow. You give him a sheepish smile and shrug.

"I might be, but your Spanish is shit and we need to speak a lot in it for this mission"

At that, Javi loses it, throws his head back laughing and grabs his belly with both hands, stamping his feet at the floor. You snort, trying not to laugh at the offended look Steve is giving you, his cheeks red with embarrassment and his arms crossed over his chest.

A glint of mischief appears in his eyes accompanied by a half sided grin.

"I will be staying at the hotel, remember? You and Javi are going to the dance club"

Javi doesn't seem to give a shit about his comment and keeps laughing his ass off. 

You're  not sure if Steve had realized about your feelings, he hadn't said anything directly to you yet. He made comments insinuating it, teased you about the "lust-filled" eyes you'd give Javi in the middle of an argument, but he had never asked you or mentioned it straight up. If he had, you couldn't help but think how ironic it was that everyone that got semi-close to your relationship could figure it out so quickly and Javi hadn't in the nearly two years you've been partners.

You feign annoyance by letting out a groan and hitting your head with your desk, but the truth is a knot makes its way in your stomach at the mere thought of going to a dance club with Javi.

"He doesn't even know how to dance!"

"Hey! I do know how to dance!"

He does, you just like teasing him about it. He demonstrated his skills pretty well at your first year's Christmas party, with one of the good-looking girls that the soldiers from the academy invited. It was an initiation of sorts for both of you, at one of the officers' houses close to the base. After dancing with almost all of the girls there, the soldiers dared Javi to take shots of Aguardiente and he was too happy to accept. Hours later, he was sick as fuck and spent the night throwing up at the communal bathroom. He woke you up as he started dry heaving, and you stayed with him until the sickness passed and took him to his room, all sweaty and green. You don't think he remembers a single moment of it.

Steve shakes his head, smiling. You smile too.

"Yeah, two-step, you good Texan boy. That doesn't come in handy this time though"

Javi gives him the finger by way of answer. You break down in laugher, covering your mouth to lower the noise. Javi may be skeptical about Murphy, but they banter like an old married couple already. At least their dynamic isn't as explosive as yours, theirs is easier going.

"You're gonna enjoy yourself one way or another Bera, don't play dumb" Javi says, amusement dripping from his voice. You shrug with a barely concealed grin in your face. Steve frowns at you.

"What do you mean?"

Javi turns to look at him, shaking his hands in front of his face.

"She goes there every weekend she can!" he raises his arms over his head and you have to bite your lip to not start laughing again "She takes the bus on Friday night, which is a 7 fucking hours long trip and stays there until Sunday night and leaves for another 7 hours long trip. And she goes to the salsa clubs, so she's familiar with the zone"

Steve looks at you with disbelief plaguing his eyes. You smile cheekily and extend your hand towards him. He grabs it and you pull him forward, making him bend over the desk and get closer to your space.

"If you saw the way they move Miami" you whisper, "you'd understand why I flee from here every chance I get"

Salsa in Cali is different from any other place you've been in. They move more the half down part of the body, they dance faster than others, sexier. Not for nothing they have the Cali Fair in December, where many salsa artists start their career. 

Javi clears his throat and you let go of Steve immediately, blushing. He frowns at Steve and he just sits back down in front of you, adjusting his shirt. Thank God he didn't use suit every day, you hated when every agent wore one. The three of you stuck with jeans and t-shirts. Steve was apparently the polo shirt kind of guy, which was fine by you. Bogotá was mostly a mild weather city, but this time of the year was the worst.

"So what's the plan again?" Javi asks. He had been distracted since you came back, and you understand why. The whole issue with Helena was not something he would forget easily, though after you helped him everything went smoother and she acquired the visa request pretty quickly. 

You extend your hands in your desk and do a show of being done with his attitude, but he knows it's just to bother him. 

"We're supposed to arrive and book rooms for one night." Steve frowns, seemingly not liking that idea "the club is close, so we will have to set up the base there and communicate with you through walkie talkies. If anything goes sideways," you point at Murphy, "you have to act the fuck up and run to save us" He chuckles.

"You make it sound so easy" Javier sighs. You wish Murphy could go with you, but unfortunately, the new Siboney Club doesn't let any man or woman that goes alone inside, and you can't go with him instead of Javi, he would stand out like a sore thumb. The club is not so far from the Comuna 3, and you're guessing that has something to do with why they're meeting there. Murphy will be 6 minutes away, so everything must be okay with him and the other soldiers as back up if anything goes wrong.

You hope it doesn't. 

"You want some?" Javi asks as he extends you a wrapped bundle of meat empanadas. He had left to go to Salomé earlier, returning with a sour look and bags of food hanging from his arms.You figured he had stumbled upon Alexander, Cata's grandson, whom he doesn't like one bit. He didn't say anything but came into the room mumbling under his breath about a"stupid pretty spoiled bratt". 

"Give them to me!" You shout as you jump to grab them. Both men laugh as you move all the papers and unwrap them in your desk. You probably shouldn't be eating there, the smell will spread all over the office and you'll have to deal with it all day.

You stop caring as you take the first bite. Steve gives you a funny look, his eyebrow raised. Then you realize he most likely has never had one and shove the bundle towards him.

"Pick one," you say, grinning at him. "And I assure you life will be different from now on"

He looks at you, doubtful, but grabs one nothingless. Javi stares at everything with amusement glinting in his eyes. His chest fills with warmth every time you get enthusiastic for something as simple as food. Every day he hopes you will stay that way, untainted by all the shit you have to go through in this job, and tries to take the hits himself.

As Steve takes the first bite, you can practically see sparks fly from his body, licking his lips as he represses a groan.

"This is fucking great" he says once he swallows. You pump your fist in the air.

"Of course it fucking does. It's Colombia, Murphy, live a little and try new things."

He bows to listen to you. Javi can already picture how you're gonna get him to try the craziest things just as you got him too. Mild jealousy invades him, but he shrugs it off.

You start eating, letting out obscene sounds at every bite you take. Heat rises from his chest and he turns around to read the reports you last wrote and check everything's fine. He can't concentrate though, his mind wandering to places he shouldn't allow at every groan you make.

Steve stands up from his chair, leaning over your food and extending his hand to take another one. You bat his hand away and pull the bundle closer to you.

"Give me more!" He demands, pushing your arms away. With quick reflexes, you wrap them up again and throw them to Javi, and he catches it mid air with an amused smile playing at his lips.

"Leave my food alone!"

"You have to share!"

"Go buy your own!"

You wrap yourselves in an easy banter about food, Javi chuckling from his desk as he looks at the two of you. The way you act so loose around Steve sets him on his nerves, but he's willing to try and accept this if it means you'll have an easier time around here. 

"Leave her alone Murphy" he finally says, command evident in his voice. Both of you turn to look at him, and you smile as he gets uncomfortable from the power of both your stares. Despite this, he doesn't yield.

Steve falls back into his chair without looking away. Now, Javi grabs the bag again and hands him a different bundle of empanadas.

"I figured she would want you to taste them," he says, nonchalant. Stunned, you take your own food as he hands them back to you and returns to read the reports.

You turn to look at Murphy with your mouth open. He only smiles and winks at you.

Now he's sure he understands what the thing between you two is about.

----

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