#n so we can reference level 5-

[oh-meow-swirls]

love writing stuff for me rewrite of 2 when i'm not even done with my rewrite of 1 yet. </3

[starkidmunson]

glitter & crimson

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7

“Marry.”

“What?”

“Marry. He’s hot, I’m not gonna kill him.”

“Eddie, we’re not playing FMK; you’re supposed to be telling me his name.”

“Oh. That’s…. Joe Jonas.”

“…he’s literally from Hawkins. And he’s holding a hockey stick.”

“Nobody from Hawkins is that hot, man, no way.”

~~~

Gareth posts the clip to his personal TikTok. Before he can get around to reposting it on Corroded Coffin’s band account, it has more than 100k views. Things only spiral from there, because once the band shares it, the video goes more viral and ends up on the screens of the right people.

chiblkhwks: harrington94 is social media challenged, but we’re going to make sure he sees this. Will keep you posted.

The comment is immediately overshadowed by a busy day of PR. A photoshoot to an interview to a radio show to the green room at the Fillmore in Boston, before an intimate pre-album release show for members of their fan club. Eddie has completely forgotten about the video entirely, but Gareth’s phone pings with a text notification.

“A response has been issued!” He declares to the room, still grinning down at the screen of his phone.

The rest of the band shares a collectively confused look, all seeming pleased to find they’re not alone in whatever they’ve missed.

“What?” Jeff asks for the group.

In lieu of an explanation, Gareth just flips the phone in his hand around to show a TikTok, stitched with the clip they’d made earlier that morning.

~~~

“Marry. He’s hot, I’m not gonna kill him.”

#Stitch

“Is… is that supposed to be a compliment?” Steve asks, making a pinched face as he laces up his skates.

“You watched the whole video. He compared you to Joe Jonas.” The girl behind the camera responds, but he levels her with an unimpressed look. She doesn’t respond, and after a beat, he sighs.

“Yeah, alright, I guess Joe Jonas is hot. I’ll take the compliment.” He huffs, standing to his feet and moving from the bench he’d been suiting up on toward the ice. The girl follows him, gliding toward the net once they're in the rink, never falling out of pace with him.

“Do you know who it is talking in the video?” She presses, and Steve looks unimpressed again.

“You mean the other hot guy?” He asks with a grin, then nods. “That was Eddie. I’m surprised you don’t know him, the Party listens to Corroded Coffin all the time.”

The video loops back to the stitched clip from Gareth’s initial TikTok then. Everyone in the room processes what just unfolded.

“The Party? Did… did Steve Harrington just make a reference to DnD? Or is that some sports thing I dont understand?” Jeff asks.

Freak raises his hand, indicating he’s next to speak. “Not only that, but his nerdy DnD friends listen to us all the time?”

“Did King Steve call Joe Jonas hot?” Eddie asks, visibly still trying to connect the wires in his brain that fried at Steve’s agreement. “Did he call me hot?”

All three turn toward Eddie, whose face is still reflecting the long form math equation his brain is trying to work out, and Jeff sighs.

“Well, boys. I think we’ve officially lost him.” He says, bowing his head. Freak and Gareth join him solemnly, making Eddie huff and cross his arms over his chest.

“You’re all so dramatic.”

“Gee, I wonder who encouraged us to be this way,” Freak exaggerates through a grin, before shoving a guitar into Eddie’s chest, just in time for Paige to open the door and summon them.

“We can have a meltdown over Harrington after the gig,” Gareth promises with a pat to Eddie’s back as everyone moves around him, exiting the green room and heading for the stage.

~~~

Riding his post-show high, Eddie makes a bold move in the CC band TikTok, commenting under the video Steve had stitched.

corrodedcoff!n: we’ll be in chicago 1/26 if harrington94 and ‘the party’ are free 🎫

He only gets about 20 minutes of peace before Gareth is jumping around, proclaiming himself the greatest wingman in history.

“It’s an offer for free concert tickets made over social media, and he hasn’t even answered, Gare Bear.” Eddie tries to get him to relax, but he, too, is eager to see how the other reacts to the offer.

He wakes up the next morning to the answer he’d been waiting on, and his stomach flips as he reads it over.

harrington94: only if you guys come to the home game 1/27 🏒

__________

Steve doesn’t even bat an eye when Max shoves her way into the locker room, b-lining straight for him.

“Can I help you?” He asks without looking up, unhooking the padding from his calf and letting it drop to the ground in front of his locker.

“Are you using TikTok to publicly flirt with Eddie Munson?” She asks, voice quieter than he’d typically expect from her, but he just scoffs.

“I’m just being friendly! You’re the one who started this in the first place! What, you didn’t expect me to log on and check if they’d responded?” He asks in response, freeing his foot from the skate, before placing a cover over the blade and letting the boot drop into the lower shelf beside his locker.

“I’m just confused because you’ve been super weird about coming out, and now you’re out here hitting on a rockstar all over social media, that’s all.” Max says, and Steve freezes for a moment.

“Do you…” he trails off, before closing his eyes and rubbing a thumb into his temple. “You really think I just accidentally came out?”

“You called Joe Jonas and Eddie Munson hot, encouraged this rockstar to come to your game when he’s in town and also accepted tickets to see him perform, Steve.” Max was monotone, and held her hands up defensively when he groaned. “I’m not starting anything, I’m just saying that this could get blown out of proportion now.”

They discuss a little further, deciding neither of them will publicly acknowledge anything that’s been posted to the account for now, until they actually come up with a plan.

Once he’s in his car heading home, Steve calls Robin.

“Dingus,” she greets, as always, and he lets out a grumble. “Uh oh. What happened?”

“I think I accidentally came out on the internet, and it’s Eddie Munson’s fault.” He’s met with several seconds of silence as he starts his car on the path to him and Robin’s shared apartment.

“Eddie, the drug dealer from high school?” Robin eventually asks, confused, and Steve groans again.

“Yeah. He uh, also is in a band?” He supplies, and Robin’s quiet for a moment as she processes. Then, he hears the tapping of a keyboard. “What are you doing?”

“Looking Eddie up, obviously.” Steve can practically see her eye roll, even though they’re not FaceTiming. “You’re nothing if not consistent, I guess. Doe-eyed curly brunet.”

Steve scoffs. “You say as though you’re not the one currently waking up beside Nance every morning.”

He’s met again by a short silence, before Robin lets out a little puff of air, in a small laugh. “Thank you again for being so cool about that, by the way.” She says, before he hears clicking on her end. “Apparently, Eddie is out as bi. Corroded Coffin does a charity show for the Trevor Project every year, and he’s been to a lot of Pride events.”

Steve’s stomach twists with each new bit of information she provides, because a part of him wants to be that out, wants to be like Robin or apparently Eddie, freely sharing that part of themselves with the world and having no one give a shit. But that’s not how it works on so many levels for Steve. Beside the shit he’d have to deal with on the ice from certain other players, he had no idea how it would impact the team overall. There’s no way to gauge how fans would react, when there’s never been an openly gay player in the NHL. And that didn't even begin to touch on how his parents would react.

“Hey,” Robin breaks him out of his spiral and he realizes he’s been chewing a hole into his cheek. “I can hear how loud you’re thinking right now. Do you need me to come home?” She asks, gently, and he sighs.

“Please.” He mumbles after a long pause, and is grateful when he hears the jingle of car keys from the other end of the phone.

~~~

Robin scrolls through article after article once she gets to their place, pulling Steve onto the sofa with her and laying his head in her lap. Her fingers twist through his hair, doing her best to keep him calm as she reads up on the situation playing out to try and help gauge how big of a hole he’s dug himself this time.

“I don’t think there’s really anyone who thinks you were flirting with him. Not seriously, at least.” She tries to assure him, but he’d already seen the twitter posts to contradict that before she came over. He sighs and rolls onto his back, so he’s looking up at her, and shrugs.

“I kind of don’t think there’s any avoiding it, at this point.” He mumbles. “I’m not… I’m not ready to come out, not like this. Not on this scale. I think the only thing I can do is carry on and hope it doesn’t get turned into any bigger of a deal.”

Robin hums down at him, and continues to brush his hair back out of his eyes. “Okay. So you don’t come out yet. But don’t overcompensate for it, okay?” He scrunches his face up at her, and she types something into her phone before turning it back into his face. He immediately pales, met with a photo of him out with Heidi last year. With a black eye on full display, he looks miserable behind a fake smile.

“Low blow,” he grumbles, pushing himself away from Robin to sit up beside her, and she raises her eyebrow at him, still holding the photo pointed in his direction.

“‘Maybe they won’t notice or ask why my literal teammate punched me in the face at practice if I take a fucking supermodel out to dinner.’” Robin’s imitation is a little too good, a sure sign of too much time spent together.

“Hey, it worked, didn’t it!” He asks, taking the phone off of her and closing out of the image before locking it. He drops it back into her lap with a sigh. “I just don’t know how many times I can keep getting away with hiding it.”

“Well, it helps that Billy got traded out to LA. He would be insufferable about this, and would absolutely make everything 10 times worse.” Robin muses.

Steve sighs and hesitates for a moment before dropping his head back into her lap, curling into her. “I just want it to be on my terms, when I’m ready.”

“We’ll figure it out, and it’ll all be okay, no matter what. Okay?” She assures quietly, leaning down to press a kiss to his cheek.

His phone dings with a new notification; Max texted him a screenshot from TikTok.

corrodedcoff!n: you’ve got yourself a deal 🤝🏻

[joojeans]

&team hyung line: top 5 kinks

request: sorry idk if u answered this b4 but what kinks do u think &team would be into? >.<

a/n: if you follow my multi writing blog you're probably familiar with this format lol

p.s. the kinks are not necessarily in order

k

dumbification - i talk a lot about k tying his ego to his sex life a lot and that's just because i'm right ok. it's like the one area he's allowed to get a big head without worrying about it being toxic. and seeing you a literal mess because of him? he makes you feel so good and so overwhelmed that you can't get your words out and you're either literally or figuratively drooling for him? yeah. that does it for him.

finger sucking - the stars in his eyes and the smirk on his face when you so willingly open your mouth for his fingers and suck on them. what wouldn't you let him do? this is just one of many ways he reminds you both that you're his, even at the most subconscious level.

quickies - k gets random bursts of very high energy and he needs an outlet for them. his favorite method is draining himself by fucking you like an animal in heat for a hot second. (obligatory ha ha animal in heat reference)

temperature play - tbh, it's just fun watching how you respond when he drops hot wax on your stomach or holds an ice cube in his mouth and traces a line down the front of your body. he loves anything that pulls a reaction out of you.

orgasm denial (giving) - this one is a twofer. he likes denying your orgasm because of how you beg him to give it to you. oh, you want him that bad? you need him that bad?

fuma

pet play - i mean... duh. we all saw this coming. fuma loves everything about pet play: how cute you look, how well you behave for him, how trusted and reliable he feels. he'll take it very seriously, too. i'm talking regular trips to buy new accessories, even toys. regular walks, of course. love of head pats for his best pet.

body worship - fuma likes this both ways. when he's feeling particularly lovey, he'll take his time cherishing every part of your body. and when he's feeling like he wants to be in control, he'll talk you through how to worship his body properly–the way he deserves.

breeding - this man will not hesitate to put a baby in you omg. of course, he wouldn't do this with just anyone or under any circumstances, but if you're right and the conditions are right, you don't have to ask twice. even if neither of you are wanting an actual baby, he will be breeding you as if you'll be getting one anyway.

restraints - sometimes he just wants you to lay there and take what he gives you. he takes such good care of you, after all.

roleplay - he is too good at this. he doesn't get giggly and drop character–he's taking his role seriously. he likes that he gets to figure out how to fuck you differently depending on the context of your characters.

nicholas

praise (receiving) - don't get me wrong, nicholas will be praising you too. but hearing you praise him? otherworldly. he could almost live off the high of that alone. he wants to know that he's your most special, most perfect boy and how much you enjoy being with him.

phone sex - hhhhh nicholas's deep voice. if there's one thing about nicholas, he knows his strengths. he knows his voice is one of them. he loves knowing he can make you squirm just by talking to you. and he loves frustrating himself because he always wants more, but he gets off on forcing himself to settle for just this.

choking (receiving) - nicholas likes to be completely and totally bare with you. he wants vulnerability in its entirety. what is more vulnerable than symbolically putting his life in your hands? he gets intoxicated by the feeling.

voyeurism - this isn't something you two get to do often because of the nature of it, but it's hot. he likes to watch other people fucking while he whispers in your ear, asking if you would like it if he did this too. if you would moan for him like that if he did that too.

lingerie - let him play dress up with you just so he can task himself with the delicious challenge of making love to you without messing up his masterpiece.

euijoo

dry humping/clothed sex - two reasons for this other than it just feels good tbh. 1) euijoo is sensitive so sometimes he gets aroused in a big way pretty quickly so everything can move a bit fast. 2) this usually doesn't come with a direct initiation from either of you. it just kinda... happens. he loves that.

marking - he likes to be marked more than he likes to mark, but both happen. when he marks you, it's like a proud little "look at what i did" moment and that's so cute dsfsaf. when you mark him (somewhere he doesn't have to hide it, please), he gets literal goosebumps every time he admires it in the mirror. instant arousal.

overstimulation - this also goes both ways. like i said, he's sensitive. it's easy to overstimulate him. he likes letting go of the control and the perfection he strives for every day like this. it forces him to. and when he does it to you, it's a huge boost to his self confidence. i'm being so serious when i say that overstimulating you in the bedroom translates to more confidence in his everyday life.

size kink - euijoo is always trying to grow as a person. he wants to be more self-assured, more assertive. his size over you is one of the ways that he feels like a man. he knows it would be easy to impose himself on you. he can see it in your eyes. any time he's able to use his size to his advantage with you, it's like a switch flips.

hair pulling (receiving) - telling him he's doing a good job with a nonverbal communication like this that also feels good? yes please. don't be shy to pull harder.

cr. cafekitsune for mdni banners ♡

[reidsdimples]

Strictly Professional | Part 5 {Finale}

18+❤️‍🔥 MDNI ‼️

Spencer Reid x BAU!Reader

Time to confront the truth. Will you and Spence sink or swim?

Part 4 | Masterlist

“Hotch, what’s going on?” You hear Spencer say as he opens the door. You’re still in the running shower. “I have company so…”

Good, maybe Hotch will leave and not ask any questions. You decide to leave the shower on and start drying off and getting dressed. You were completely baffled, you had no idea what to do with yourself.

“I’m finalizing this case report and need more information on this part of your statement,” you hear them murmuring outside of the door.

A few minutes pass and you hear him leaving.

“Oh and one more thing,” you hear Hotch pause outside of the bathroom door. Your stomach sinks. “Y/N come on out,” he sounds exasperated.

Shit.

Fuck.

He knows, of course he fucking knows.

You open the bathroom door slowly, you’re pretty sure your face is flushed white as a ghost. Hotch looks between the two of you, his brow furrowed and his mouth set in a hard line.

“Do you understand this could jeopardize the professionalism of this team?” He shook his head, not angrily but more disappointedly. “The two of you need to have a conversation about what you’re willing to risk for one another. We will discuss the next steps back at Quantico.”

With that he turns and exits the room. You don’t know who is more stunned, you or Spence.

Spencer was about to tell you he wants more and now this. You could see his walls shooting back up, detachment becoming ever present in his eyes. He had made a home in solitude, grown cozy in loneliness’ embrace. Perhaps you had too.

“What are we-“ you start.

“There can’t be a we,” he levels his eyes on you, his tone stern. “This has to stop.”

“Are you serious?” You scoff at him. “We’re already caught Spence, we can’t undo it.”

“No but he can transfer or fire one or both of us. We can’t have sexual or romantic relationships with other members of the same unit. You know that,” he retorts.

“I get that it jeopardizes the team, you don’t think that worries me too?” You approach him and grab his arm as he turns from you. He jerks his arm away. “I think Hotch with work with us on this,” you plead.

“No. This is just too much,” he snaps.

“Fine,” you scoff. “I’ll see you in Hotch’s office tomorrow.”

With that you storm out of his room, with what little dignity you scavenge.

Tears sting your eyes when you crawl back into the far too big hotel bed. Why were you so stupid to think you could actually have him?

-

“Come in, sit,” Hotch’s stern face sends fear up your spine.

You glance at Spence who walks ahead of you, pulling his shoulder bag off and placing it on the floor. The two of you sit in the chairs facing Hotch’s desk, intimidated wasn’t a strong enough word.

Could your future at the BAU be in jeopardy? Never mind a future with Spence.

Hotch sits and looks between the two of you for a moment. Is he expecting on of you to speak?

You dare a look at Spencer, who by the looks of it, hardly slept either. At least he dozed on the jet.

“How long have you known?” Spencer asks.

“A while,” Hotch answers and scribbles something on a pad. “I realize I’ve paired you two up a lot this year. So I’m going to start there in the spirit of remedying this situation. First, the two of you will be partnered with other agents when we’re in the field,” he sighs.

“But you said yourself that we work great together,” you argue in reference to your recent evaluation.

“And I stand by that. This is about ensuring that your loyalties also lie with the other members of this team, not just one another,” his eyes bead into you.

“The manual says that it’s only forbidden once it proves to impact our job performance, it hasn’t,” Spencer says coldly.

You stare at the side of his head, was he actually fighting for this?

“It only says relationships are discouraged, but this is not a terminable offense,” Spencer adds.

“I’m not here to terminate either of you,” Hotch swears. “I’m here to ensure that this” he gestures between you. “Does not impact job performance in the future. I’ve been meaning to address this for a while.”

Spencer sighs, you do too. At least no one was losing their job.

“Now, apart from separating you two in the field…” Hotch pauses. “The team most likely already knows something is up. But don’t make it a thing, don’t make it obvious. I don’t need Strauss or the brass coming down on me about this. What you do in your off time is your business,” he says and writes something else on his notepad.

“Of course,” you nod when he glances up at you. Spencer just nods too.

“This also means no disappearing together into filing rooms or old offices,” he places his pen down and latches his fingers together. “Is that clear?”

Your face reddens. Oh fuck, he knew about that?

“Crystal,” Spencer swallows. His jaw twitches and feathers. Sex at work was definitely a terminable offense.

“Should I have to address this again, the consequences will be grave. Do not let your personal lives effect your job,” he says with finality.

You’re shaking, but you place your hands under your legs to stop it.

“Reid you’re going with Rossi and Prentiss to Dallas tonight to consult on a case there. Y/N you’re staying here with the rest of the team to work on a kidnapping in DC,” Hotch instructs and stands.

Both of you scramble to your feet like two kids in the principles office and confirm your understanding of your orders.

You leave first with your head down. You just way to focus on work, focus on the kissing kid. You meet JJ, Garcia, and Morgan at the round table to get started.

-

“Just come over,” Garcia whines later that night.

“Fine,” you laugh.

“I want to know all about what happened,” she smiles but rubs your back sympathetically.

The kidnapping case closed pretty quick, luckily the child was found safe and the unsub was taken in. You were thankful for an easier case after the last few darker ones.

Spencer would be in Dallas by now and you probably wouldn’t hear a peep from him until they got back. The two of you rarely texted, and you didn’t know where or how the two of you left things. Everything was up in the air.

Then again, you pleaded with him last night to fight for you. To some degree he did in Hotch’s office… or he was just fighting for his job. You sighed, you had no idea where his head was.

You just knew you felt sad, heavy. You wanted him, you wanted him to want you back. The whole thing sucked. Somewhere along the way you began wanting more from him while he seemed content just to have sex. The whole thing was getting messier.

You also knew you shouldn’t be telling Penelope any of this, per Hotch’s orders. But you trust her, she hadn’t told anybody when she found out.

“So he didn’t say anything to you when he left for Dallas?” Garcia sat on the couch and handed you your own ice cream.

“Nothing, barely even looked at me today,” you frown.

“I think he’ll come around. Especially since Hotch gave you guys specific parameters to operate within. He’ll work it all out in that big brain of his and come running back. I just know it,” Penelope huffed.

You hoped she was right. You weren’t sure. A big part of the excitement for both of you was the thrill of getting caught. What lay outside of that meant confronting the possibility of more, of a real relationship. Not just fun and games.

You and Penelope spent the rest of the night getting wine drunk and watching cheesy scary movies.

The following days drug on slowly with no contact from Spencer. You finally had a day off though and you were determined to make the best out of it.

You treated yourself to a massage, a mani pedi,a new hair cut, and new highlights.

By the time you got home you were pampered and worn out. You made short work of feeding your cat before wrapping your hair and getting in the welcoming hot shower.

When you had time to think, you always drifted back to Spencer. In your head though, it was Spencer without those damned walls up. The sweet and caring one, the fearlessly unafraid to be loved version of him. It was a side you rarely met. But you saw it, lying below the surface. That part of him that craved love, hoped beyond all hope that love would find him.

You found yourself hoping he found it one day. After everything he had gone through, after so much heartbreak, he deserved it. You just needed to be okay with the possibility of it not being with you. Selfishly, you weren’t there yet.

Steam billowed out of the shower as you dried off and wrapped your towel around you. You frown at the bathroom door, not recalling closing it. Weird.

Upon stepping out of the bathroom, you nearly have a heart attack.

“Fuck Spencer!” You scream. He’s sitting in the arm chair across from your bed, flipping through a book. “That’s it, give me the key,” you hold your hand out.

He looks up at you and smirks.

“No welcome back to Virginia?” He jokes.

“Na uh, nope. I’m still mad at you,” you reach down and snatch his keys from his lap. “Why are you here?” You cross your arms.

He looks devastating, he’s still wearing a FBI jacket, a tie, a checkered button down, and slacks. His hair is artistically messy, and he’s looking up at you with those big eyes.

“I-“ he hesitates, all humor gone from his face. “I don’t want to lose this.” It’s the most honest he’s been about ‘this’.

“And what is this Spencer? Huh? You don’t want to date me, but you kind of want more? I don’t get it,” you throw your hands up and walk away from him into the living room.

“I was afraid,” he grabs your arm and turns your towards him,

“Of losing your job?” You let breath hitches because of the physical contact.

“Partially, mostly because the way I feel about you is…” he trails off as he stares into your eyes.

“Completely unprofessional,” you smirk.

“Completely,” he exhales.

“What do you want?” You ask him.

“I want you to be mine, I want to take you out, and date you but in secret so the team doesn’t know. I want to stop pretending like I don’t care about you. Like I don’t spend every moment away from you hurrying to get back. It’s maddening,” he pushes his hand into your hair, caressing the side of your head. You blink as you try to take in the words you’d longed for for so long.

“This whole time I’ve just wanted you,” your voice is hushed, choked with the threat of tears.

He pulls you into him and crashes his lips into yours. You get the peculiar feeling that you’re kissing the real Spencer Reid for the first time. He’s gentle, vulnerable, soft, and starving for you. He’s not holding back, he’s running his hands up your body and discarding the towel. He whimpers when you pull his hair and push him into the wall.

“Will you be my girlfriend. Please,” he begs with his hands on your hips.

“Yes,” it’s breathless and you kiss him harder.

He hoists you up and wraps your legs around his waist before carrying you back to your room.

You giggle when he lays you on the bed and begins trailing kisses down your body. His soft lips clamp over your nipple, pulling a moan from you. His strong hands squeeze your thighs as his body hovers over your center.

He plants kisses down your stomach, on your hip bones, and then to your inner thighs. Your body comes alive for him, as if reaching for the deepest expanse of the universe, needing and needing more.

“Please,” you whimper as he kisses around your pussy teasingly.

“We’re not in a hurry this time baby,” he shushes you. The word baby feels like a sweet caress and has you whimpering for him.

You feel his middle finger run down from your clit to your entrance, spreading the wetness between your folds, before he pushes in into you. Those perfect fingers, you couldn’t get enough.

“Fuck,” you whine.

At which point he pressing his tongue into you as well, your whole body shuddering in response. He drags its upward, slowly until he finds your clit. He flicks and sucks at the sensitive bundle of nerves while he works a second and third finger into you.

You’re so wet that you’re soaking him, but he loves it, he devours you. He curls his fingers upward and starts lumping you harder and more violently.

“Cum for me, show me that you’re mine,” he begs. You glance down at him, his perfect fucking face between your legs and you’re done for.

You grip his hair, grind yourself against his face, and cum hard until you’re practically crying his name.

“Yours baby,” you whimper.

Then he’s climbing on top of you, still clothed but he’s undone his belt and pulled his cock free.

“Wait,” you whisper and start undoing his shirt. You both laugh at how clumsily you undo the buttons but you finally manage to strip him of it. “You’re so sexy, Spence,” you place your hand on his chest where you feel his heart hammering.

Somewhere in all of your hooking up you picked up on him not loving his thin frame. You wanted to make sure he knew that you did. He smiles shyly as you pull your knees back for him.

He hovers over you for a moment, as if just to look at the girl he now calls his. Then he slowly pushes himself into you, allowing you to stretch to his size, your walls tightening perfectly around him.

“Mine,” you arch your back and moan, feeling every inch of him.

It’s a declaration that means the world to him. He begins to roll his hips into you, more passionately and needy than he ever had before.

This was more than just sex, more than just fucking. He was relishing the feeling of you more than usual, he was taking his time. His hands held you close as though he were afraid he’d lose you, his lips couldn’t cover enough of your skin as if he needed to mark you. Then he did just that, he bite and sucks at your breasts while thrusting into you until you were coming apart for him.

He flattened himself on you, pushing deeper, needing to be closer until you were clawing at his back, until your legs wrapped his hips. You latched your mouth onto his chest and marked him for yourself. You greedily did so three more times, enjoying the sound of him sucking air through his teeth and locking eyes with you while he absorbed the pain.

You knew he was close when you came around him a second time. He pushed himself up on his palms, focusing with his mouth open, as he angled his hips to hit that sweet spot inside of you a few more times.

“Spencer,” you were practically begging for mercy.

A fourth orgasm would shatter you. But he wouldn’t accept anything less tonight. You both needed this.

He took one of your hands and laced his fingers between yours as he flatted it to the mattress next to your head. You watched his hips move as he pleasured you, as his cock moved in and out of you. Fuck, you would never tire of this, of him.

“Cum with me baby,” he breathes.

You do, your eyes roll back as the sensation seizes you, until you’re wound so tight that stars explode in your vision. You crescendo with him, shaking and screaming as he pumps into you.

“So good, you’re doing so good,” he’s moaning but you barely hear him. You feel out of body, you feel unreal, you’ve never felt so good is all you can think as your body starts humming.

When he pulls out of you and drags you against him, your limbs are jelly and you’re trembling.

You latch onto him and lay across his chest, listening to the sound of his heart, lost in the afterglow.

He gathers your hair from your face and pushes it back as he kisses the top of your head.

“You did so good baby,” he whispers again. You take his hand and kiss his palm gently.

“I like when you call me that,” you admit.

“Get used to it,” he smiles as his hand rubs lazy circles on your back.

“You get used to it. You’re stuck with me now Spencer Reid,” you smirk and kiss his chest.

He sits up suddenly.

“Is that rain?” He pulls back the curtain, then gets excited. “Throw something on, “ he smiles as he puts on his undershirt and pants.

“Why?” You groan.

“This is perfect,” he smiles and drags you playfully out of bed.

“Fine,” you laugh and tug on a tank top. “Where are we going?”

He grips your hand and pulls you behind him.

“Wait we’re not wearing shoes!” You squeal as he pulls you out of the house.

“Even better!”

He pulls you into the grass just outside, the rain coming down starts to drench you both immediately.

You try to run back to shelter but he seizes you around your waist and spins you around.

“Spence,” you squeak out a laugh. He turns you towards him, he’s smiling hard, his hair soaked.

“I’ve always wanted to kiss my girlfriend in the pouring rain,” he says and kisses you sweetly. He kisses you until you don’t care about the rain, until you know that you’re his and always will be.

A/N- thank you guys for following and loving on this fic 🫶🏻 it means the world to me that you guys loved it enough to keep asking for more!

Check out the master list on my page for other stories 🫶🏻

[biibini]

Hiii! I love your hcs! Can I request a scenario of going on a date to an arcade with Mizu? (and possibly winning her a Snoopy plushie??)

fluff modern!mizu x reader at an arcade date (request)

tags: fluff, arcade date, modern!mizu, reader & mizu are already dating, date nights, snoopy reference, sweet kisses, author loves love, author wishes that was her with mizu,

a/n: thank YOU for reading my hcs! that one mizu & snoopy post is so adorable i just want my girl to be happy :,) also i’m starting school AGAIN i can never catch a break w this damned quarter system

modern!mizu & u are already dating in this scenario

but every other week would be a date night

it didn’t matter if it was a simple or extravagant date

it was always a designated time to catch up, spend quality time together, and experience new things

even with the busyness of college and classes and homework, it was still a night to look forward to

this upcoming friday was a night at the arcade

u had been there with friends before but it had been a couple months since ur last visit

it wss also mizu’s first time going to the arcade w u as a date

u had already talked ab the games u wanted to try together such as the mario kart, a few shooting games, airhockey

modern!mizu would def let her competitive side come out with some games

she already gets competitive with taigen when it comes to sports

she totally doesnt rock his shit in basketball

if she’s against you, she’ll go easy on you

doesn’t mean she won’t back down from a fight

You and Mizu were hand in hand, checking out the games available at the arcade. Going down one of the aisles, you found yourselves at the some of the newer arcade games. Skimming at some of them, you hear a familiar sound.

Hadoken!

It was soon followed with a grunt and fighting groans. You turn back to find a Super Street Fighter game, patiently waiting to be played. Your eyes widen as they found the perfect challenge.

You playfully tugged at Mizu’s hand, pointing at the retro machine.

“I bet I can beat you at the Street Fighter.” you said, lightly jabbing at her competitive spirit. You knew she would put her all in it. However, you wondered of its limit.

Mizu glanced at you, and then looked back to spot the machine. Her eyes ignited, seeing the challenge put right in front of her by her

“You in?” you say, defying her in a playful tone.

“You bet.”

so um

turns out that was the WORSE POSSIBLE GAME YOU COULD CHALLENGE MIZU TO

u played a little bit with friends and family but mizu was on another level

how exactly did mizu beat ur ass for 5 rounds straight???

old man eiji.

he was a retro arcade go-er during his prime

even had the game console to continue his practice at home

if he wasn’t welding or fixing up someone’s bike, he was definitely spending his time grinding on the game

so modern!mizu end up playing games with him bc he got sick and tired of the computer bots

Player 2 Wins blinks again on the screen while her character, Ryu, celebrates another round of victory. You slowly turn to face Mizu to find a grin forming on her face.

“Wanna go again, baby?”, she taunts, hugging your hips closer to her.

You blankly stare into her eyes, your orbs empty from defeat. Mizu already knew your answer.

“Let’s find one we can both do.”, she said as she gave you a quick peck on the cheek. Her arm wrapped around your shoulder, beginning your hunt for the next game to win together.

modern!mizu would def try to win u a prize

actually no not one

all of them. yes she will try.

do not let her in a round1

iykyk

that is plushie heaven and credit/debit hell

her poor card will be spent trying to win u a prize

she wouldn’t outright announce her achievements

but she would attempt to sneak away from u, hoping to get lucky and win a plushie or two

u loved and appreciated the sweet thought

but

there was no room on the bed, the bookshelves, the desk, the couch

mizu even brought a couple plushies back home but her old man started to complain about mizu and u coming by just to drop off plushies and not see him

(he likes the plushies but bro is alone with his craft and misses his girl sometimes)

if u eyed any specific prize, modern!mizu would stop for nothing to earn it for u

at the arcade, u eyed a snoopy plushie, stuck in a claw game (for a little too long) and pouted at how cute it was

like cmon it was rlly cute

he had a puffer and a lil hat

mizu immediately saw ur reaction and locked in

Mizu’s arm slides off your shoulder. You look back, hoping to find the missing arm. No arm, no Mizu.

Instead, you find her striding over to the claw machine you just stared at with a goal in mind. Snoopy was coming with you, one way or another. The thought of Snoopy being in your arms was nice, but there was no way she was going to get it.

First off, your bedroom was already filled with plushies. Peace and love to all of them. They were practically your babies. However, every flat surface or shelf had a plushie. Every. Single. Surface.

The bed was crowded as well. No way there would be space for another plushie. There was also no way that she would go back home to drop off more plushies. Eiji was at his limit with the amount she dropped off during the last time.

Secondly, she had already spent so much money trying to get twinning plushies for the both of you. Her poor credit card was taking hit after hit after hit. Mizu drastically failed after every attempt and you had to basically pull her away from the machine after her 11th time.

Third of all, the both of you were getting ready to leave the arcade for dinner. After getting demolished by Mizu 5 rounds in a row at Super Street Fighter, you didn't have much energy in you to play more games.

But once Mizu gets set on something, it's hard to pull her away from it. It was already difficult separating her from her failed claw games earlier. You just decided to accept the outcomes of this claw machine this time around.

On the other hand, Mizu was in the zone. She studied the position of the plushie, focusing on how far back Snoopy sat. She slid the arcade card, starting her future attempts to retrieve the plushie. She bit the inside of her cheek as her hand carefully held the joystick. The machine jingled, starting its countdown.

0:30

Mizu took a deep breath, closing her eyes.

Focus Mizu.

0:29

You can get this for Y/N.

0:28

Mizu opens her eyes, pushing the joystick to the right in hopes of aligning the claw with Snoopy. She then pushes the joystick forward, nudging it as it gains proximity to the dog plushie.

0:23

The claw seemed right above Snoopy. Although it made you satisfied, Mizu couldn't agree. Something felt off.

0:21

She nudged the joystick to the left once.

0:20

Still unsatisfied, she pushed the claw back. Her eyes squinted, hoping to gain a clearer view of the claw and its alignment.

0:18

She continues to stare at the placement, studying it. Almost watching it like prey.

You watch from behind as you hear the faint sounds of laughing and other arcade games being played go off. In front of you is complete silence and concentration.

0:10

Mizu nudges the joystick forward.

0:09

She gets closer to the game. At this point, her face is practically smudging her view.

0:07

She nudges the joystick to the right once again. She sees the claw fully aligned with the plushie.

0:06

Should I press the button?

0:05

Mizu's eyes glance up and down, hoping to draw the line between the claw and your future prize.

0:04

You watch as her right hand is sitting on top of the collect button. Her fingers are so close to pushing it, practically edging the top of the button. They're ready to take the chance yet her hands refuse to commit.

0:02

"Drop it, Mizu."

0:01

She nudges the joystick one more time, bringing it slightly forward.

0:00

You come up next to her, watching the claw machine slowly descend down to the gigantic pile of plushies, a mix of Snoopy merchandise. Yet only one got your heart.

The claw extends, closing in on the plushie you stared at earlier. Its thin, metal arms wrap around Snoopy's head. It tightened its grip, securing Snoopy in the arm.

You watch the plushie slowly ascend. The both of you carefully watch the claw bring the prize. As the claw continued its journey to the drop-off corner, it slightly swung back and forth. You grab Mizu's right hand, holding it in anticipation and fear. She squeezes it once.

You look up to meet her gaze only to find a reassuring smile. You mirror her, giving her one back. You hear a small thud below. Mizu bends down to find your beloved Snoopy, handing him to you.

Your eyes widen. Snoopy was much cuter up close, especially with his little hat and baby blue puffer jacket. Looking up, you spot a proud Mizu. You simply get closer to her and give her a sweet kiss on the lips.

"Thank you, baby."

"Of course," she answers. "Anything for you, my dear."

She backs away and extends her hand out: an invitation to lunch.

You smile, accepting the invitation. With intertwined hands, you leave the arcade with another plushie in hand.

[ughgoaway]

playing on my mind

content warnings: swearing, referring to Matty as tall (look we all lie for plot purposes okay), dilf Matty and rushed writing... i think that's it? word count- 3.3k ish

a/n: woah this was quick but I am nothing if not impulsive!! this is just a one-shot but if y'all want a series I might do one?? idk it depends on how inspired I am lol. but yes this is just my little blurb-thing from yesterday fleshed out into an actual story!! I'm so glad people liked the idea, I hope this doesn't disappoint <333

(I didn't proofread this so I apologise if its utterly shit </3)

“And off you go! If you need your pencils sharpened or help, make sure you raise your hand! I’ll come to see you!” You say to the group of 30 little balls of energy in front of you. 60 eyes looking up at you might seem intimidating to most, but when it's a hyperactive group of 5-year-olds; the fear wears off slightly.

It was family tree week in your classroom, and you had given your little ones the usual task of drawing their family, each set up with pieces of paper and various pencils and pens to create their masterpieces. Seeing them smile and talk about their older sisters and brothers or how much they love their parents always warmed your heart. 

You originally got into teaching with every intention of working with teenagers. You were sure you shouldn't be moulding such young minds - you were never sure your mind was a very good example. But one test week in a year 1 classroom changed your outlook entirely. Seeing the pure, unadulterated joy on a young child's face was something beyond comparison. 

Getting to watch them grow and develop into little people brought you so much happiness that it could never compare to standing in front of a group of grumpy teenagers. Each teen boy clearly trying to get you over to their desk to “flirt” with you, well as much firting as a 15-year-old boy can do.

Seeing a child come out of their shell, make friendships, and discover their passions made your heart warm in a way nothing else did. So as soon as you qualified you jumped at the opportunity to teach these little ones, this class might be your first but you are sure it will always be your favourite.

And of course, despite what every teacher tells you, they have a favourite student. You were adamant when you began that you really wouldn't have a favourite but then little Annie Healy came bounding into your classroom with a mop of curly hair, untamable energy and the cutest slightly wonky smile you've ever seen. 

She very quickly stole your heart, always wanting to tell you stories and going off on tangents rather quickly, organising tea parties but soon getting distracted leaving you at a small table surrounded by teddy bears giving a toast. Her little body seemed to be filled with enough energy to power the world 3 times over, and you couldn't love her anymore. The idea that she would be leaving your class broke your heart every time you thought about it, despite people telling you not to get attached - you did,

You had just settled at your desk after explaining for the 4th time to Zach that sticking pencils up our noses isn't a very good idea. You ended up telling him if he pushed too far, he'd touch his brain, and soon after that, the pencils stayed firmly in his hand rather than up any nose. If any student was the problem child, it was him. You couldn't hate any student, but let's just say he's given you one too many impromptu haircuts this year to be in line for your favourite.

Soon your real favourite student stuck her arm into the air and wiggled it around in an attempt to get you to see her sooner, little Annie Healy was ever impatient- a trait that is only endearing on her. You quickly nodded and started wandering over, trying not to laugh at her large toothy grin back at you.

“Hi sweetheart, do you need some help?” you say, crouching down to her eye level, flashing a sweet smile.

“Hi miss y/n!” she began, her eyes flittering around your face before landing on your hair, and soon, her hands were stroking your head.

“Wow! I like your hair! It's got sparkly clips in it! You know I asked my daddy for some like that, and he said-” you gently placed a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to stop the tangent before it started. You knew she'd somehow end up keeping you there for 20 minutes, giving you a detailed list of all of her Barbie dolls and their jobs if you didn't redirect her quickly enough.

“Thank you, Annie! I saw your arm wiggling in the air earlier. Did you need some help?” her eyes light up as she remembered why she called you over here.

“Oh! Yeah, I want to write what's in my daddy’s hands, but I don't know how to spell it. Will you help me?” she says, bringing her attention back to her drawing and grabbing the black pencil to continue her work. It's the first time you actually looked at her drawing, and to say you were concerned would be an understatement.

Most drawings of family consist of the same basic elements; a mum, a dad, a sun in the corner, and a house that is wildly disproportionate to everything else.

So imagine your surprise when you look down to see 4 men in what seems to be leather jackets, holding various musical instruments, and a very tall dog next to them.

You blink a few times. Just checking what you're seeing is right. The lineup starts with a tall man holding a guitar, next to a slightly shorter man also holding a guitar with a mess of black scribbles on his head. Next up is a very tall man with drumsticks in his hands and a kit behind him, and finally another very tall man with a beard and a bass. The concern briefly melts away as you consider how impressive it is she knows the difference. In the bottom left corner is a black dog with very long legs and a big pink tongue sticking out, the dog was almost as tall as the first man but you're aware kids aren’t known for their skill with proportion.

No one had prepared you for this in teaching school, there was never a lecture about what to do if one of your kids does a mildly troubling family drawing of 4 men in leather jackets and a horse dog. You try to stutter a response to Annie, but no real words are leaving your mouth. Just a jumble of sounds, each one sounding more confused and stressed than the last.

You flash a look at her only to be met with a confused head tilt and sad eyes. Oh god. She thought you hated her drawing. Shit.

Time for damage control.

You make the decision then and there not to ask her about the details of her drawing, desperately trying not to make her cry. 

Maybe you could go and see her mum in the playground? Yes, that's what you'll do. You'll walk her out, have a brief discussion with Mum, and make sure Annie knows her family isn't 4 men in a band and then leave her be. That sounds like the professional thing to do.

You take a deep breath and smile at Annie, and soon her downturned lips flashed that cheesy grin you knew so well. You tighten your hand on her shoulder and grab a pen, ready to help her any way she needs. 

“Do you mean the word ‘guitar’ Annie?” she gives you an excited nod as you continue speaking, “Ah yes, that's a really hard word for even grown-ups to spell. Let's work it out together, hmm?”

With your mind racing you help her sound it out and label her drawing, even stopping to sharpen her black colouring pencil for her- there's a lot of black for young girls drawing but she's committed to an aesthetic, and part of you respects that.

On the walk back to the desk, you begin practising your speech in your head, trying to figure out how to ask why she’s drawing a band as her family without unknowingly offending mum. Maybe she just really likes music?

You run through your memories trying to think of her mentioning a band before, but nothing comes to mind, Annie doesn't even stay on track long enough to talk about her family. Always seeing something shiny and discussing that instead. 

You flick your eyes to her one more time just to see her animatedly talking with another little girl on her table, her hands gesticulating wildly and her curls bouncing as she tells her story.

The sight calms you slightly, seeing the little girl you know so well acting exactly as she should be. You have the fleeting thought that you might be overreacting, but eventually, you collect the drawings to see Annie had dated her work “1975”. Yup, that discussion with her parents was definitely happening.

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

The bell rings, and you manage to catch Annie just before she runs off into the playground without you, “Hi Annie! I have your drawing from today. Should we show it to mummy and daddy together?” her eyes light up as her curls bounce from her excited nods. 

You walk hand in hand out onto the playground, crouching down you make eye contact with Annie before asking, “Can you point out your mum or dad Annie?”

She nods and begins scanning the playground. You stifle a laugh at the look of concentration on the young girl's face. Her nose is scrunched along with her eyebrows, one hand pulling at a curl by her ear and the other holding yours. Soon, you see her face brighten, and her eyes fill with joy. 

“DADDY!!” is the scream that comes from the little girl as her hand shoots from her head to point to the corner of the playground, she starts dragging you before you even look up but as you do, you feel your heart drop.

As a student teacher, you'd definitely seen some hot dads, but they were still dads. Most were slightly creepy, partially balding, and talked about nothing but golf and their “annoying” wives. You were used to that kind of dad, not exactly this kind.

Standing nonchalantly in the corner of the playground was a tall man. A pile of salt and pepper curls sat on top of his head; untamed but effortlessly and obnoxiously cool. The white t-shirt he was wearing did nothing to hide the patchwork of tattoos that snaked up his arms. The low neck of the top even teased the top of his chest tattoo. Sunglasses sat on his face, they gave him an "I'm too cool" rocker vibe that, for some unknown reason, made you dizzy.

In one hand, he had a lit cigarette, something that was not allowed on school property, but the way his cheeks hollowed as he took a drag had you forgetting that rule completely. He dropped the butt of the cigarette to crush it with his heavy boots before taking a sip of the can of coke that was in his other hand. 

As he noticed you coming over, a dazzling smile broke out on his face. You felt your knees weaken as you tried to brush off how hot he was. 

You then realised you actually had to speak to this man. Fuck. You're not sure you even have a voice currently. If you opened your mouth, you're sure incoherent noises would come out, followed by wild hand motions trying to explain your insane behaviour.

The closer you got, the less you stared at him, feeling too intimidated to keep looking in his direction. This did mean you almost tripped 3 times, but you would rather fall than risk making eye contact with this intimidatingly attractive man.

Annie dropped your hand as you finally reached the man, and she jumped into his arms. He grunted at the force but soon began pressing kisses all over her face, smiling at her uncontrollable giggles.

Quickly, the man noticed your presence and stuck a hand out to introduce himself, “Hi! Sorry about that, you know what it's like when kids miss you. I’m Annie’s dad, Matty.” 

And this is where a normal person would introduce themselves, stick their hand out, and shake Matty’s. Maybe even say their name and start talking, but oh no. Not you. You stood there motionless and just said “Matty” breathlessly to yourself 3 times over.

Time dragged on in the 10 seconds Matty stood there with his hand out. If you weren't aware of how time worked, you would swear you stood there in stilted silence for 10 minutes. 

By some grace of god, little Annie Healy saved you and introduced you, “Daddy. This is Miss y/n. She wanted to come and show you my drawing." 

Matty retracted his hand and pushed the sunglasses that sat on the bridge of his nose up to his mess of curls, just as wayward as his daughters. His deep brown eyes met yours as he tilted his head questioningly at your behaviour. His smile remained wide at you, his tongue swiped over his bottom lip, and you felt your heart stutter. A litany of inappropriate thoughts swirling through your mind.

He quickly diverted his attention back to his daughter, “Oh really munchkin? Is your drawing just that amazing? Is Miss y/n going to send it to all the museums?” he said whilst tickling her sides. You smiled at the pair of them watching Annie throw her head back with erratic laughter. 

Finally, you manage to right yourself and begin speaking, “Right. Sorry about that, long day,” you explain, looking apologetically at Matty, who only nodded and tried to hide his widening smile at your flustered state. 

“I'm just here to talk about Annie's drawing,” you pause briefly and look at Annie in her dad's arms. Not wanting to disappoint her, you form a plan in your mind. “Hey Annie, why don't you go practise some hopscotch! I'm just going to have a quick chat with your dad, okay?”

Before you’d even finished your sentence, Annie was wiggling out of her dad's arms and running off.

“She's got endless energy that one hasn't she?” you say wistfully, staring off in the direction she ran, watching her jump around and giggle with some of her friends.

“Ah like father like daughter, I suppose” Matty says, grinning at your clear love for his little girl. He feels his heart warm at your caring eyes. “So what seems to be the issue? I'm sure you're not over here because the Louvre has asked for Annie’s drawing?” 

You laugh at Matty's joke, perhaps a little too hard. Nervous laughter was one of your less attractive traits, but you try to shake it off and have an actual adult conversation with Matty. 

“Ah no, no phone calls from Paris yet,” you begin laughing lightly, you pull out Annie's drawing and pass it over to Matty and start to analyse his reaction as you finish speaking, “I was just coming over to ask why Annie's family portrait is seemingly a band? I wanted to make sure she knows her family isn't 4 tall men in leather jackets and a surprisingly tall horse dog.”

As you finish your sentence, Matty bursts out in hysterical laughter, folding over as his chortling laughter takes over his whole body. Your face scrunches up at his reaction, your eyebrows are pinched, and a small frown overtakes your features. 

Eventually, Matty catches his breath and looks up at you only to realise how strange his reaction appears. His hand shoots up to your arm and begins to stroke it lightly as he attempts to explain himself.

Each featherlight stroke of his fingers made your breath hitch. You felt your eyes fogging over, and your ears felt as if they were stuffed with cotton wool, the surrounding sounds suddenly becoming muted.

A shake of your head brought you back to earth as you fought to focus on the words Matty was saying.

“Oh I'm so sorry, once you know the story you’ll understand my reaction” Matty began explaining with wide apologetic eyes, “basically Annie's mum isn't in the picture, it's just me and my 3 best friends,” he said smiling.

You lightly laugh and say, “Ah I'm assuming they are the man with the guitar, the one with the bass and the other with the drumsticks?” You finish with a teasing tilt of your head.

Matty's fingers encircle your wrist as that smile you've quickly grown to love appears on his face once again at your teasing.

“Yes those are the ones. You see we’re all in a band - hence all the instruments. I always tell Annie that Uncle George, Ross, and Adam are our family. So when you asked for a family drawing...”

“She drew her family!” You finish his sentence for him, staring at his hand and holding your wrist as you do. He quickly drops it, and you curse yourself for bringing it to his attention.

You wrap your arms around your stomach protectively in an attempt to hide your mounting embarrassment.

Matty smiles and starts to speak again, only to be interrupted by you, “Wait I understand that, but why did she date it ‘1975’?”

Somehow, Matty's smile grew again, “Our band is called the 1975. Weird, I know, but it comes from me being young and pretentious with a Jack Kerouac book.”

Before you could respond, Annie came bounding over and wrapped herself around her dad's leg, “Dadddd” she complained, pulling out the last letter to announce her annoyance to the world.

“Annieeee” Matty teased back in the same tone as her, picking her up as he did.

“Can we go home now? I want to see mayhem!!” she said, excitedly clapping her hands as she finished.

You shoot Matty a questioning look, and he quickly answers your silent query, “the horse dog” he says teasingly, parroting your earlier words back at you.

“Okay darling, let's get going then,” Matty says with a grunt, putting Annie down, grabbing her hand, and taking her backpack from her.

“Say bye to miss y/n Annie,” he says, smiling sweetly at you, but you can see the mischief brewing in his eyes.

His eyes keep your attention so long you almost miss Annie's sweet goodbye, “bye miss y/n! See you tomorrow! Can we talk about your sparkly clips tomorrow?” she asks with a tilt of her head.

“Of course, little miss Annie!” You say smiling at the young girl. You focus solely on her in an attempt not to get lost in her father's eyes again.

You watch them walk away but after a few steps they pause, Matty turns over his shoulder and waves with his free hand, “Bye miss y/n” he says with a teasing lilt to his voice and a flirty wink.

Before you can even process what just happened, he's strolling away casually, and all the mums in the playground are silently lusting after him.

A heavy breath leaves your chest as you start to watch him leave.

“Isn't he gorgeous” a voice behind you whispers, causing you to jump and let out a small scream. You hold a hand to your chest and look at your colleague with wild eyes.

“Oh my god, Amanda, please do not sneak up on me like that! I'm fragile” you say, now laughing at your ridiculous reaction.

“Sorry, sorry,” she begins giggling, “but isn't he just so hot? Annie was in my class last year, and I used to count down the days until parent’s evening! I mean, who wouldn't want to sit across a desk from a man who looks like that?” Amanda says, wiggling her eyebrows flirtatiously.

She begins to teasingly poke your sides at your awkward silence, and you quickly brush her off and straighten up, “Amanda! You can't talk like that about a parent!” You say, trying and failing to have any conviction in your voice.

“I can when the parent looks like that!” she says, smiling and watching Matty stroll away.

You huff at her behaviour and walk away, desperate to sit down and process what just happened.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Your desk chair squeaks as you sit down behind your desk. You spin the chair and pick up a pen to begin marking some spelling tests from last week, but before long, you give up.

Staring off into space with endless thoughts poisoning your mind, only one thing can come out of your mouth. 

“fuck."

[fantomette22]

A little something about the students dress

Alright so I was looking at references (to draw a character) and ended up doing a bit of research on academic dresses & graduations uniforms! I only find a couple of things so if someone have more infos I will be very interest!

So in Bloodborne we got those dear uniforms :

The one with the robes is very classic of what people in old classic university still wear for big events and graduations such as in the U.S.A or UK. A decades/century ago they did wore those uniforms of course way more often. Now we wear mostly casual clothes.

(This image always made me think of Byrgenwerth. With the balcony and all. That remind me of a post I made a while ago I have still no clue what those balcony were use for!!!)

At first, I discovered that between a bachelor/licence degree, master degree and phd/doctorate you aren't going to get the same clothes. Plus, colours can differ depending of : the level of the degree, the school or the field you graduate in (can differ depending the countries as well).

Bachelor outfits are the most simple ones with not a lot of colours for most of them. Sometimes they don't have hoods but depends. Sometimes they seems to have very large selves like the Byrgenwerth one. The master ones have a bit more colours and I read generally long sleeves but that depends? Then the phd/doctorate ones are generally very colourful! And like the last sources below v They even had even more beautiful outfit for very important members (so I guess Willem pope outfit still make sense XD)

As for the colors it really depends the country etc but I read red is often associated with medicine and surgery (what a coincidence!). White / purple or even red is for theology and blue could be for sciences (Byrgenwerth/willem researches seems to be quite a mixt with theology/sciences so make sense).

(@katyspersonal we did talk a while back on colours on clothes meaning but hey it had have academic significations that fit well too! So in the end, drawing Laurence with white & red clothes is even more accurate now! XD) Oh I wanna draw him in an entire red academic dress now...Future drawing idea ).

Also I forgot to mentions that there's the hat/trencher that's part of it as well. It's not part of the set in the game but ennemies have it.

Also little side note: some dress have stripes or ermine bands on the clothes that represents their grades and also "academic curiosity, academic honesty, and academic courage."

So i suppose the garb Micolash, Damian & co have would look more similar to a master degree one? I guess?

But I won't throw any rocks at Fromsoftware even if the ones we got might not be too much detailed/ accurate because they sure did their homeworks to find and design those clothes. They aren't historians and they probably found a lot more things than I here (plus Japan don't have those dresses too). They're not going to design like 5 different outfits in the game too XD. (Yes I want more details for my story bc making things way more complicated is way more accurate I guess...) We don't know how exactly those types of institutions fonctions in Bloodborne universe too. And it's a fantasy world after all. So it's free real estate

I dunno if you guys @pyro-madder @karnaca78 @secteel or others could know more about it 🤔

But for now it's all!

Sources :

PS : I found this piece of medieval scholar dress and it really look like the same as the guy in the cainhurst painting and cut content Beltran!

They are probably wearing a "simarre". Some magistrate/ university professor / religious clothes people would wear. So pretty oblivious and what we thought @heraldofcrow

[redclercs]

DELICATE✰ CHARLES LECLERC.

INTERLUDE: this is why we can't have nice things.

— the one where everybody's waiting to see the fall out.

warnings: this is basically like the INTRO chapter with all media, we're going to pretend publications and broadcast timings are not mistaken or fake, okay? ok. am i myself if i don't mention taylor swift in every chapter? no. foul language.

masterlist ✢ next

By Tom Gill // June 23rd

Vic Presley confirms y/n hasn't reached out to her even after Vic called asked her to in a publication a few days ago.

"I think she has blocked my number by now," Presley said, "I am devastated by this. I didn't think it was like her to discard relationships so easily."

Presley and y/ln have been friends since 2020, when they met at the opening of the SENSE Club in downtown Los Angeles and quickly became inseparable.

"y/n really was— is my best friend. I miss her and I want her to come back to me."

Vic Presley also commented on y/n's split from Aidan Kim in her own way: "I hate that she hurt Aidan. I was not aware they had so many problems, that's definitely the kind of stuff you tell your best friend."

y/n was spotted just a week ago with alleged (and constantly denied) boyfriend, Charles Leclerc on a stroll around Central Park. Victoria Presley couldn't help but speak her mind on this.

"y/n has changed so much since she met that guy. I met him in Miami and Monaco, he's not one of the good ones. He's managing to isolate her from everyone who loves her."

Once again, Victoria urges y/n to contact her so they can rekindle their friendship. "I am not angry at her, disappointed maybe. But I will always have my arms open for her."

SEE ALSO:

→ Victoria Presley and Mia Kim collab in new project promoting Presley Beauty.

→ y/n y/ln, a disaster waiting to happen.

→ Aidan Kim is 'almost done' with debut solo album

By Paul Dean // June 28th

Aidan Kim has been in the spotlight since 2012, when he debuted as a member of boyband phenomenon Star-5 with their hit single "End Of The Day". After the band's dissolution in late 2018 due to creative differences between the members and rumored jealousy disputes that included Aidan himself, the Korean-American superstar decided to pursue a career in acting, in aims of expanding his horizons.

'Supercut' in 2019 was the start of a a succesful career followed by '1922' (2021) and 'Conversations with Friends' (2022) plus the series 'Crimes of the Academy' (2022) before Netflix decided to cancel it.

While it is true that 'Supercut' was a box office hit and sent Aidan Kim and co-star—and former partner—into a whole new level of stardom, Aidan Kim might be regretting ever making that movie.

"Supercut holds a special place in my heart," Aidan commented, politely. "It was my first real movie." Of course Aidan doesn't count the "3D Concert Experience" he starred with his other four bandmates as a real movie. "But I carry the consequences of making Supercut with me to this day."

The whole world is aware of such consequences, as y/n y/ln is keen on having the last word when it comes to the breakup from Kim. It wasn't enough to leave him humiliated by turning his marriage proposal down.

"Someone was looking out for me that night, I think," Aidan has tried his best to let go of such bitter memories by turning them into something positive. "At the end of the day, I'm glad y/n said no. I can't imagine spending the rest of my life with her. You're witnessing how unstable she is."

"It's quite shocking honestly," Aidan Kim didn't expect his ex-girlfriend to act like this. "I helped her however I could. Talked to producers, casting agents and journalists to give her a shot. And she says I never did anything for her."

Kim couldn't help but take the chance to refer to his ex's new lover: "But I've moved on. And I hope she does the same soon. If I were Charles Leclerc, I'd be worried my new girlfriend is thinking about her ex-boyfriend so often."

Lastly, Aidan teased his upcoming album, "I've worked very hard on it. I missed making music and I hope you'll like this new sound I'm trying after leaving Star-5's commercial music behind."

"The thing about music, is that it lets you tell your side of the story too. I hope you support a man doing this the same way you root for Taylor Swift, because double-standards are so 'in' right now."

SEE ALSO:

→ Mia Kim, the talented sister of Aidan Kim, set to make big screen debut.

→ Were Mia Kim and Victoria Presley mocking y/n y/ln in new Youtube Video?

→ Mia Kim: "y/n should have kept her mouth shut, there's still shit to be exposed about her."

FROM THE DREW BARRYMORE SHOW — JULY 6TH

[Y/N]: ❝(...) What matters to me right now, is that people now I am nothing of what they're calling me. I am not perfect, nobody is. But I have never cheated on a partner or used someone else as a 'toy' and most importantly, I built my own career.❞

[Y/N]: ❝It gets exhausting, you hear things about yourself you never even thought possible. It could be laughable if it wasn't so cruel❞

[Y/N]: ❝My relationship ended in February, but I believe it was over way before that. I acted in a way that was not fair to my ex-partner nor to myself, and I expressed my regrets about it. He had the right to not accept my apology, but not to make stuff up about the whole situation.❞

[Y/N]: ❝He's feeding his ego, he's a man, after all. But doing it at the expense of my work and my reputation is disgusting. I want one producer or casting agent to come forward and say they gave me a role thanks to my ex-boyfriend's input, just one.❞

[Y/N]: ❝I have surrounded myself with different people. They have been a great support system, always motivating me, and holding me back when I'm about to do something stupid. This also means I have left some people out of what's going on with me, and it's for the best.❞

[Y/N]: ❝Taylor Swift, bless her soul, has given me a lot of advice. She's the sweetest person ever and since the same guy that is trying to drag me has gone after her in a few interviews, she wants this to be over as much as I do. I think he made a mistake by messing with Taylor too.❞

[Y/N]: ❝Rumors will keep running, but I am finally at peace with knowing who I am and who I can trust. But those 'sources' should know my patience is running out.❞

By Jenny Highland // July 20th

Mia Kim and Victoria Presley are the hottest topic right now, but not for the reasons both influencers wish, as they are in trouble!

Both Los Angeles locals have received a 'Cease and Desist' letter from recovering actress y/n y/ln this week, per her team's advice. This was confirmed by both Presley and Kim on Twitter, saying they are 'flabbergasted' that y/n is accusing them of defamation.

While y/n is far from gaining her place back in the public's heart, we are not blind to what Victoria and Mia have done for the past month, riding the wave to get views and followers talking about their shared time with y/n. Who has every right to ask them to stop, as she has done in several interviews throughout the month.

For many people, this makes it more evident that it was either Presley or Kim who contacted tabloids to get their five minutes of fame and sink y/n deeper.

Actions have consequences for everyone, and if y/n decided to pick this fight at this point in her downfall/rerise/wherever it is that we are with her, it's because she knows she can win, right?

─── team principal radio: ❝thank you for reading! please let me know your thoughts! I know I'm ending your patience with this slow burn thing but I promise you we're getting there! Charles is back next chapter and you'll see haha. again, your interactions mean the world to me and i'm sorry if sometimes i don't reply to your comments, i'm just awkward but i love you all♡❞

✰ paddock club members: @sassyheroneckgiant @flowerchild-96 @fangirlika @shegotboreddsoo @roseamongthorns13 @cissyp @chimchimjiminie16 @saturnsrinqs @roni-midnights @gayyvodka6 @studioreader @its-ash-not-grey @lu-morningstar @ferraribabe @reidsworld @feelslikestrawberries @celestialams @kosmosgalore @heeseung-baby @missenclod @buendiabebeta @mycenterfold @aces-tattooartist @burningrred @you-bleed-just-toknowyouarealive@rainybabe25 @ru-kru @lazybot @teenagedreams-cl @cool-ultra-nerd @kuskumu @formulakay3 @bisexual-desi @somanyfandomsbruh @icarus-nex @haziefairy @xjval @xoxoloverb @sainzleclercs @headinthecloudssblog @incoherenciass @bookophiliac @torrie421 @nooshytushie @azxulaa @steephanie07 @anonymous8462 @tbisloneely @pukklv @bn7921 @be-your-coffee-pot @fdl305 @lovely-blackinnon @landonorizzz @ruleroftheuniverse @ivegotparticulartaste

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[street-smarts00]

I have a request for a drabble or headcannon style thing, whatever you prefer. Where spencer and reader are very close (friends or dating you can decide) and he makes a fatal mistake on the job that gets reader killed 😳 if that is something you will do 🥰 thank you

(Long) Drabble: Doubt Comes in

Spencer Reid x Fem!BAU!reader

A/N: Thank you so much for requesting! Normally I don’t like sad endings lol BUT this request gave me the motivation to write something with this idea I’ve had. I almost made it a full one shot but didn't know how. (if you like Orpheus and Eurydice, see if you can catch the hadestown references)

Warnings!: Sad ending/ANGST, Murder, death of a loved one, mentions of kidnapping, anxiety and questioning reality

Its kinda long for a drabble but not long enough where I would call it a one-shot, i got carried away but hope ya'll like it!

The team was working on a case with an unsub that was targeting couples. The team didn’t realize that the unsub had been stalking them since they arrived. He quickly learned of your relationship with spencer. 

You were leaving the precinct to follow up with a victim's family member when the unsub had snuck up on you. After you went missing the team went into a frenzy and tracked your location to an abandoned warehouse. 

When they arrived on the scene they had the unsub on the phone. He claimed that you were safe and unharmed. 

He said you were free to go but only one member of the team could go get you. He demanded they send in her boyfriend. 

Hotch was hesitant to send Spencer in. He was in shambles ever since you went missing that afternoon. His mind was scattered, he couldn’t think of anything but you. 

They figured while this was exactly what the unsub wanted, it was their best chance to get you out safe. 

Spencer was handed the phone and headed towards the warehouse. The building was dimly lit, it was so dark he could barely see 5 feet in front of him. The place was filled with storage and pallet rack shelves turning it into a maze. 

As he made his way through the building the unsub would give him directions if he strayed too far from the path. It was like the unsub had eyes everywhere, he must’ve either had cameras or was positioned on a hidden upper level. 

While Spencer was walking the unsub would taunt him through the phone. Asking questions about your relationship. 

It made him sick. He never said anything to the man on the other end of the line; didn’t want to give the unsub the satisfaction of knowing he was in shambles.

It felt like he had been walking for forever when he finally reached you. You were curled up in a corner of a dead end. When you saw him you jumped up and landed in his arms. He felt you trembling against him and it made his heart crack. 

“You said you would let her go if I came to get her,” he spoke into the phone with a shaky voice. 

“And I intend to keep my promise. You both are free to go. Except, she must walk behind you. You cannot not turn around under any circumstance until you both are out of the building.” 

“What will happen if I do?” 

“Let’s just say you’re wearing a kevlar vest and she’s not. If you turn around, speak, or hang up the phone, I shoot.” Spencer's stomach dropped. “And don’t even think about being a hero and giving her your vest.” 

“That's all we have to do? And we can go?” You asked, voice horse from not speaking in hours. 

The voice on the phone spoke again. “You’d be surprised how many men can not resist the temptation. The worst temptation you’ll ever meet, the one that lines between your ears and behind your eyes.” 

It seemed like a simple enough task. To walk out of the building. Spencer trusted you to be there and you trusted him to keep his eyes ahead. 

He placed a hand on your cheek. “I promise I-“ 

“I know. I love you,” You interrupted. 

“I love you,” he spoke softly before leaning forward to capture his lips with yours. The kiss was desperate, like he was trying to savor every last bit.

You both separated from the kiss and started your journey through the warehouse. This time the unsub wasn’t giving him directions to find his way back. At first he didn’t need them, with his eidetic memory he could recall the pathway he took. 

But as he kept walking the anxiety started to eat away at him. The darkness was messing with his eyes and the silence was deafening. He started to make wrong turns, forgetting which path to take and doubting himself. Either he was getting lost or the building was getting longer. 

The only thing that brought him comfort was the sound of your footsteps behind him. Or was that his footsteps? He didn’t know anymore. 

It felt like his senses were working against him. He already felt like an idiot with his mind not being able to think straight due to your disappearance. But now your life was in his hands and they’ve been trembling since he walked in. 

The logical part of his brain told him there would be no reason for you to not be behind him. But the anxiety running around in his head was questioning if you had ever been there at all. Or why would he let him win? Why would he let her go?

He had thoughts pounding in his mind of “Is this a trap that's been laid for me? Is this a trick that's been played on me?”

After what felt like a lifetime he made it to the front door. His footsteps picked up and he grasped at the handle to feverishly push the door open. 

Spencer walked outside as a wave of relief washed over him. They finally made it. 

He turned to face you as the corners of his mouth perked up. He met your eyes, shining with glee that you made it out safe. 

Then it got loud. He heard gunshots vibrating against his eardrums. Your eyes went wide as saucers. You grasped at your abdomen before you crashed into Spencer. 

How could this happen? They made it out. He said he would let them go. And Then Spencer saw it. 

You hadn’t made it out yet. 

He turned to look at you before you crossed. You both didn’t make it out. You got hurt, and it was his fault. 

He held you close to him. The surrounding sounds all blended together. Morgans screams for a medic, the officers breaking into the building. That all fell on deaf ears. 

It seemed as though his whole life fell apart when he saw you mouth his name as the light disappeared from your eyes.

Your life was in his hands, and he let you slip away.

“Eurydice, dying now a second time, uttered no complaint against her husband. What was there to complain of, but that she had been loved?” ― Ovid, Metamorphoses

[boccher]

Space bulletin: First of all, geomagnetic activity reached Kp7 (G3) levels last night with the arrival of a CME, and apparently people were able to photograph aurora between the clouds using their phones from here in sydney around 7:15pm. Which I missed because I was watching a movie at that time last night!!! (˶´⁠╥︿╥`) It was a good sappy movie though

Second of all, comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is just a couple of weeks away. Closest approach to the sun is 27th september, peak brightness is 9th october, closest approach to earth is 12th october. Today we have an updated forecast for the comet's magnitude:

TL;DR: Observations suggest that forward scattering will play a very significant role in enhancing the comet's brightness. Joseph N. Marcus (one of the main academics studying foward scattering in comets, whose studies form the basis of many predictive models) reports that forward scattering will brighten the comet from magnitude 2 or 3, to magnitude -4 or -5. This table from the article specifies magnitudes for each date around when the comet is brightest:

Lower/more negative magnitude equals brighter. For reference, comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE peaked at magnitude 0.5, and was visible to the eye in the early morning, 15 degrees from the sun. Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS will be about 15 degrees away from the sun on the 5th and 13th of october (though its altitude above the horizon will depend on your latitude). At it's peak brightness on 9th october, it'll be just 3.5 degrees from the sun, making it only visible during the daytime, but still possibly bright enough to see, as long as you can block the sun using a building or some other structure. Don't stare at the unshielded sun trying to find the comet please!

The visibility of a comet depends on time and location, so use a digital planetarium such as Stellarium to figure out when and where it'll be visible for your location.

[corazondebeskar-reads]

well it's love, make it hurt - chapter fourteen

well it's love, make it hurt series

fourteen: we can't go back

series masterlist | prev chapter | next chapter

dom!Din Djarin x sub!f!reader

Words: 1.9k

Summary: your past comes back to haunt you in your new life.

Warnings: discussions of genocide, the purge of mandalore, descriptions of grief, survivor's guilt, bounty hunting, gratuitous batuu references, canon-typical violence

a/n: i just want to say thank you. yesterday's chapter had some of the loveliest comments and y'all have warmed my cold little heart. it was very short and so is this one, so here it is early. I almost made them into one chapter but thirteen needed to end where it did.

(if you make it past the first line without cursing my name, i love you. if you don't, well, i still love you but I'm not sorry 😂 i am, however, hella anxious)

also on ao3

dividers by @saradika

5 Years Later: 9 ABY - Fall

Din Djarin climbs up to the cabin of the Razor Crest. The Kid is still asleep, drained from the confrontation with Gideon, but Din is restless without a destination. Fortunately, the comm is flashing with a message, sure to be Karga with a lead. He hits the blinking button, and Karga’s holo flickers into view.

“There’s a man called Gor Koresh who allegedly knows where to find Mandalorians. Abyssian, a real shifty sort, runs Carnita Arena. Sorry I don’t have more for you, but he keeps his tracks covered.”

Din grins. Perfect. He doesn’t need more than that; he’ll find Koresh easily enough. He goes to turn off the holo before it repeats but freezes with his hand hovering over the button as Karga begins to speak again.

“There’s one more thing. And you didn’t hear this from me, understand? But there was a bounty turned in two days ago on Batuu that might be something you want to investigate.”

The loop resets, and he hits the button. His heart is pounding so loud he thinks he can hear it reverberate in the helmet. He checked Batuu. But when was the last time he was there?

Kriff, it’s probably been a couple of years.

At first, he’d done everything short of commissioning a fob or taking out a bounty. It wasn’t that he hadn’t considered it. But if you were hiding from him? Or at least, if you had left not knowing, if you had decided not to stay, then tracking you across the galaxy would be a betrayal you’d never forgive.

In his most desperate moments, he thought about—and once came very close to—slicing into the guild database. But in the end, as always, duty won out. He couldn’t wager the job that supported what was left of his people over one person.

As the years passed, he found himself fatigued, the search less of a cuff around his chest and more of a string tied around his finger.

It hurt to think about, but like the ache of a once broken bone in the cold rather than the maw that used to be in his heart.

He still took bounties in every crevice of the galaxy, still looked over every crowded market and every booth in every cantina, but it was more of habit than hope.

Something very akin to hope burns in his gut now, boiling the acid until it crept up his throat and threatened to smother him.

There was no place in the life of a Mandalorian for the kind of cowardice he was considering, so he swallowed hard against where his heartbeat battered, shook the static from his fingertips, and programmed the nav.

Raga Bua has bounty hunting figured out. The rest of the guild needs to catch up, you think. The drop-off system is so much more efficient than carbonite freezing, and the tiny guild’s presence is so subtle that mid-level criminals keep thinking they can hide out here. After all, Black Spire has a reputation.

Lots of places for seedy types to lay low.

She has one rule—never take a bounty on a Batuuan. The locals are more than happy to keep the operation quiet for protection. Of course they are. The bounties are their competition.

It’s consistent, and the credits are steady. It took you a couple of years to get on the good side of things and get into the inner circle, but now, things are almost stable. You have your own place. An apartment, not a room in a shitty inn. Not an abandoned cargo unit. Two rooms and a fresher, all to yourself.

You don’t have friends, exactly. You think you could, since no one is afraid you’ll turn on them for a wupiupi, but you can’t bring yourself to try. You’re friendly, and on a first-name basis with almost everyone who runs a stand in the market.

It’s just. Despite the relative peace here, something never quite settled right in your bones after. You’re quick to anger, and you don’t fancy losing your cred because you pulled a knife on a drunk who got a little too close.

So you keep to yourself. You hunt. You train with new weapons, since the Batuuans prefer that the blaster fire be kept to a minimum. You spend most of your time outside the outpost limits, sitting on the banks of the Surabat River, or throwing knives at the old petrified tree trunks.

It’s a weird place. But it grows on you.

You almost start to think of it as home.

When you apprehend today’s bounty, it’s too easy. You’re too skilled, too dangerous, and he gives himself over to you.

“Thanks for not shooting me. I’m just glad you weren’t that Mandalorian.”

You jerk to a stop, yanking the Heptoonian to a halt with you. “What did you say?”

“There was another hunter, a Mandalorian, at the market earlier. Gave him the old slip, though.”

“There are no Mandalorians left.”

“Then someone got their hands on a full, shiny set of armor. Bet those go for a lot now.”

Your knife is at his throat. “Shut up,” you snarl and drag him into the nearest drop spot, heavy automatic lock sealing him in.

After scanning in and swapping his location for your credits, you go home. You change into something less equipped for hunting and better suited for blending in before sneaking through your neighbor Moshi’s apartment. Your apartment isn’t close enough to reach any of the huge beams that cut through the adobe, but you can swing over from Moshi’s window from the back of the building to hoist yourself to the roof.

Most of the buildings here are either connected or close enough to jump between, though your knees won’t thank you later. The idea that there’s a surviving Mandalorian isn't something you really consider. No, you're much more seduced by the idea that there's some scumbag with stolen beskar. It makes your vision get fuzzy around the edges, that sickening rage that you haven’t been able to shed threatening to spill out. You almost hope it’s true, because then you’ll get to slit a throat tonight.

It doesn’t even cross your mind to hope. Your Mandalorian has been dead for five years, and part of you with him.

From your vantage point, he’s not hard to find. He thinks he is, holed up in the ruins of the old outpost, a few klicks from town. You wait, and when night starts to fall, he leaves. It’s a mistake a lot of the outsiders make, thinking the outpost has a nightlife, that their target will be getting pissed at the cantina or stealing from the market.

But the streets are quiet, and they are yours.

The beskar is all silver, shiny and spotless. Not pocked and scratched with battles won. You grin. It’ll be an easy kill.

He doesn’t even see you until you jump, but the ease at which he defends himself is a bit troubling.

It doesn’t take long before he’s on the ground, your vibroblade to the cowl around his neck. You’re strong, but you know that you wouldn’t have been able to take him down that easy if he had any idea how to fight back. You don’t fancy cleaning blood off the beskar when you peel it from his corpse. (What you’ll do with it after hasn’t come under consideration yet).

Instead, you dig your knee into his lower stomach, where the plate doesn’t cover. “Take it off, or I will,” you hiss.

“Going to kill me, cyar’ika?” says the man wearing the metal face of your dead lover. He glances quickly to the pod, making sure the kid isn’t waking up to choke you out for threatening him.

You follow his gaze and seem to notice it for the first time.

“Is that a pram?” you ask, but you’re already up and off him. Your eyes are wide, moving between the ghost and the apparent baby.

He raises his hands in supplication, sitting up and nodding.

You run.

You’re off before he can even register it, leaping over the gate of a stall and through the back.

He swears and gets up, forced to follow your path because he can’t remember where it would exit, where you will go.

When he pushes through the curtain into the street, you’re gone.

Your leather shoes barely make a sound as you flee. You can’t go home. You can’t go anywhere that might put someone between you and what you’re starting to think is a nightmare you’ve summoned into reality.

You’ve lost him for now, but—and it makes you sick to consider this—but if it is a Mandalorian, you know their abilities. You slow down and let yourself be seen, looking around you before going into Oga's Cantina. Slipping into the refresher, you’re relieved to see the vent panel already open. You go into a stall, and then another, and another. You double back to the first stall, walking backward to further confuse any tracking capabilities in the visor, and pull yourself up to the top to straddle the divider.

It’s really un-fucking-comfortable, but you manage to open the ceiling access panel and leave the covering on the top of the toilet to set a second trail. Then, you stretch over to swing to the next dividers before pushing off and tumbling through the open window. You close it behind you, climb up the side of the roof, and ease your way down the back of the apartments that connect to Oga’s.

You figure you’ll head to Peka and lay low for a few days, maybe a week or so. You’ve got a few connections who might let you crash in a barn. There’s an open valley through the forest between the Outpost and the small town, but it runs along the most direct route, so you stick to the trees along the edge.

Now, you’re alone in the dark in an area you’re not very familiar with. The wildlife here are mostly harmless, and you’re fully armed, but it’s irritating. And you’re mad at the Mandalorian about it.

Their modulators must all sound the same, you decide. And he never told you what cyar’ika meant, but it was clearly a pet name. It was a coincidence. Your Mandalorian had red armor. Your Mandalorian didn’t have a jetpack.

Your Mandalorian was dead.

There's one logical answer, and so the question was, how did you end up with a bounty on your head?

You’re losing your nerve. Every noise makes you jump. You're mad about that, too. So one piece of bantha shit shows up in Mandalorian armor, and you fall to fucking pieces?

Your heart had finally stopped leaping into your stomach every time something shiny caught the sun about two years ago.

Kriff. The sooner you find a pile of hay to sleep in, the better. As it is, you’re pretty sure you’re going to cry.

You’ve managed to talk yourself down, and you’re more than halfway through the valley. Once you pass it, you’ll have another hour’s hike to Peka, but you’ll still have the cover of darkness. As dark as you can with both moons overhead, anyway.

That’s when you see it. A flash of silver. You freeze and consider if you should run or climb. He has a jetpack, you remind yourself, but you haven’t seen him use it. And the branches would be a good obstacle.

Quietly, you scale the tall, broad tree and find a sturdy branch. Silver catches the moonlight again, and you peek down through the leaves to nail down his location.

But it’s not a suit of beskar. It’s a ship.

Someone has parked their ship at the back of the valley, cradled but not covered by the dense canopy.

It’s the Razor Crest.

*title from "Error Operator" by Taking Back Sunday.

[mylordshesacactus]

Suncrest Campaign Wrap-Up: The Duality Of Session Titles

Our player-notes document is a communal Google Doc, where everyone (including the beleaguered DM) can hop back to check details from earlier sessions--highly recommend this system, honestly. And, for ease of reference, every week after the session wraps up I go in and give the session a title, so that we can use the gdocs Table of Contents feature to easily jump between entries.

In general, I try to make these at least somewhat informative--I try to match the tone of the title to the overall tone of the session, and reference something that'll make it clear in six months what the hell I'm talking about.

So, in honor of the party reaching the campaign endgame: A final write-up of all our session titles over the course of the campaign.

A Long Time Ago In A Campaign Setting Far, Far Away (Level-1 Adventures & The Doppelganger Arc):

1: You Meet In A Tavern Fire 2: Patience Is A Virtue (in which the party got what was meant to be mid-campaign reveal information in session 2 due to excellent restraint and investigation, and also met long-term NPC Virtue Chirelli) 3: Secrets Of Shroudpost 4: Nightfall 5: Jumping At Shadows 6: Teamwork Makes The Dream Work

Both Parts Of The Name (Abandoned Temple Quest Arc)

7: Stories & Stoves (the party meets Arlette, who runs a magic-and-general-store called Staves & Stoves, and is given a quest) 8: Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Realistic Consequences 9: D&D A-Bridged 10: This Temple Is Weird (the party fights a water weird) 11: Big Fucking Dragon 12: Max and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Campaign, or: The Gang Gets Obscenely Rich

Night Hag Arc

13: Once More Into The Breach 14: #WWFD? (What Would Farrah Do--her player was absent that week) 15: The Power Of Friendship And These Tits I Found 16: GAH, Or: Wake Up There's Hags 17: Now With 33% Less Hag! 18: Hag-gling Over Loot 19: Good Thing We Didn't Leave Those NPC Guards Unsupervised

Werewolf Arc

20: Trouble In Thistledale 21: Family & Forestry 22: First Blood 23: There Wolves 24: Protectors 25: Assassin's Creed This Shit 26: The Silverlight Hounds 27: Overwhelming Force 28: New Moon 29: Firelight Festival

Election Fraud Arc

30: Political Theater 31: Landlords & Other Bloodthirsty Monstrosities 32: Hashtag Escapism 33: Of Mortgages & Murder 34: A Dish-tressing Discovery (a friendly NPC was almost murdered via sleep deprivation using a cursed goblet) 35: Jackoff And The Giant Beanstalk 36: The Key To Success

Requiem Arc

37: Directionality 38: Brought To You By The Letter 'N' 39: Long Rest 40: Please Do Not Bother The Violet Guard 41: Crimes 42: MASQUERAAAAAAAAADE 43: Everything Goes Completely Tits-Up 44: Breadcrumbs 45: A Suspiciously Well-Maintained Passageway 46: Foul Water 47: Several Discussions Of Traps 48: In Memoriam (the TREATY puzzle; the party learns everything about the day the world ended 50 years ago) 49: This Is Fine 50: Sax And Violince 51: You Have [36] New Messages

The Siege of Suncrest

52: Storm of Vengeance 53: Andromeda Gets Drugs From The Cops 54: Mindboggling (the party fights boggles) 55: The Siege Of Suncrest 56: What, Like It's Hard? (the party defeats what was meant to be a session-long boss fight in two rounds) 57: Breach 58: Your Stunned Silence Is Very Reassuring (death of a beloved NPC; the party was so stressed that nobody took a single note in the doc) 59: Tallyho 60: Release The Hounds

Faewild Arc

61: Crossover 62: The Tortoise And The Almost Perfect Aesop Reference (the party rides a dragon turtle and meets rabbitfolk) 63: Warren Of The Shining Wires 64: The Next Step 65: Perfect Time To Get Stoned (party fights a gorgon) 66: The Feathered Serpent 67: Plan C: Jo [the DM] Kills Us In Real Life 68: Frostfire 69: Wolves of Winter 70: Do It For The Vine

Endgame

71: [Preposition] The Hedge (the party begins infiltrating the Palace of Summer, which sits at the center of a giant hedge maze) 72: The Dread Gazebo 73: A Wolf A Goose A Cabbage And The Concept Of Summer Walk Into A Bar 74: Domination 75: In Which Nobody Touches Anything (the wizard, after spending the entire session of sneaking through several different trophy rooms frantically trying to keep the party from touching anything, pockets a legendary item off a display case without telling anyone) 76: The Hand Of Fate 77: Hold Fast 78: The Fall Of Summer 79: The Distant Light

[jacksonholtenthusiast]

monster high fans!! especially monster high fans who like jackson and holt!!

so, it’s come to my attention that a lot of people don’t actually understand the canon reasons that the transformation takes place, and that’s okay, don’t worry! not everyone has a musical education, so i’ll just write you guys up a post so that you can understand the same way that us musicians do! <3

first of all, let’s recap the exact reason for the transformation, stated multiple times in canon material: music with a 4/4 time signature played in excess of 90 decibels.

let’s break this down!

starting with the 90 decibels, so we can leave the more complicated stuff for later:

90 decibels is the noise level at which you are advised to begin wearing protection. it is about the sound of a leaf blower or an average concert (the writers did a good job googling for this one!).

(HoH!J&H headacanoners, come get your food 😉)

however, since this is a requirement for the transformation, jackson can listen to any 4/4 music that is under 90 decibels! which is cool, but also contradicts webisode and movie material… i mean, come on, clawd’s phone is at most, an iphone 5, which only plays music at 81.5 dB (though modern iphones play up to 115 dB, so I guess that we can just call their technology ahead of their time? lol).

headphones can reach up to 100 dB, so i’m not surprised that j&h’s transformation is triggered using them.

anyway! most of the time, music is not played in excess of 90 dB. therefore, jackson can listen to anything he wants without jeopardizing his existence so long as he remains within a certain degree of sound. yay! jackson can still be an emo boy

secondly! a 4/4 time signature. now, what does this mean?

a lot of people get confused and figure that a time signature is referring to the BPM (beats per minute) of a song. while BPM is used in music, it is not used in this way. common BPMs for modern music are between 60 BPM (reggae) to 290 BPM (charleston dance music), though the average top range of BPM is around 160-180 BPM.

none of that matters to jackson! the BPM of a song has zero affect on whether or not they will transform, so again, jackson can listen to whatever music he wants to.

now, what is a time signature, then, if it isn’t the BPM.

well…

the time signature is the amount of beats by the kind of beats in each measure. so, for jackson, it would be four (numerator) quarter notes (denominator) per measure: a 4/4 time signature!

most songs are in 4/4 nowadays, because it’s just very common and easy to wrap your head around. however, there are some popular songs that are in other time signatures, for example:

- Nothing Else Matters - Metallica (3/4 Time Signature)

- When the Party’s Over - Billie Eilish (3/4)

- Idontwannabeyouanymore - Billie Eilish (3/4)

- I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll - Joan Jett and The Blackhearts (2/4)

- Baa Baa Blacksheep and The Wheels on the Bus ;) (kidding, but they are in 2/4)

So, i just guess that my point is that Jackson does not need to go completely without music. He has a lot of music that he can listen to in a lot of situations, as per the laws of canon.

I hope you enjoyed and that this was maybe a bit informative! Feel free to come scream about J&H with me at any time :)

[jokertrap-ran]

(光与夜之恋 Light and Night) Main Story Chapter 4-5 : 爱德华之旅 The Journey of Edward Translation

“Now, I wonder… When have I ever said that?”

*Light and Night Master-list *Spoiler free: Translations will remain under cut *Join the Light & Night Discord (＾▽＾)~ ♪ *Main story tag will be #For Light and Night

I returned to Warson with the notebook and circled all the important information about shoemaking before modifying my design draft accordingly.

MC: Pity that I couldn’t find the shoes that granny used to make, else I would’ve disassembled them for better understanding.

Li Man’man: (Y/n), I'm heading to the showroom to find some shoe references. Want to tag along?

Oh right, I may not be able to disassemble the shoes there, but observing the real thing up close is second to none.

MC: Sure.

❖☆———————————★❖

With notebooks and cameras in hand, we headed straight to the 36th floor. The showroom was a place that I’d only seen once from afar on the day that I’d successfully entered Warson. 

Li Man’man: I'll be going to the one in front, but we can head back together later.

❖☆———————————★❖

Pushing the doors open, we saw glass display cases filled with classic works from major brands. Tops, dresses, shoes… Everything was neatly organized and arranged according to their respective categories.

MC: Isn’t that the feather heel over there a limited product!? There’s only one pair of it in existence!

MC: Promise’s runway’s crystal shoes! And the latest spring/summer Mirror collection!

Excited to see these designs that I’d only ever seen in magazines and the internet, I quickly took out my camera and notebook, earnestly snapping pictures of the works and penning down the details.

It was at this moment that a click sounded as a girl that I didn’t recognize walked in.

Her eyes slightly widened upon seeing me, but her expression soon leveled into an icy one. Chin raised, and she walked right up to me.

Figuring that she was also here to see the exhibited products, I moved aside to make way for her. However, she was staring at the notebook in my hand.

??: Did you draw this?

MC: Yeah.

??: I'm Jiang Lai, a designer from Team B.

MC: Nice to meet you, I'm (Y/n).

Jiang Lai: I know. You're the 2nd runner-up for the Warson Prize. Gao Cheng came in 2nd.

Jiang Lai: And the winner was named… Wu? 

MC: Her name's Wu Yue.

I don’t know why she was bringing up the Warson Prize now, of all things, but I still corrected her with a frown.

Jiang Lai: Yes, I’ve heard that the development for her personal brand’s not going well, but I suppose that’s normal.

Jiang Lai: Given how the standards of the winners of this year’s Warson Prize aren’t really all that, I mean.

MC: !?

Jiang Lai: I’ve seen all of the works that got submitted for the finals. What Wu Yue and Gao Cheng made was totally unoriginal.

Jiang Lai: And you… That black chiffon hat of yours is ridiculous. That thing had absolutely no design sense to it,

Jiang Lai: Had I not missed the registration date, I would have won the Warson Prize.

▷Choice (SUN): Question her intentions

MC: What are you trying to say? Jiang Lai: I challenge you to a competition. Are you game? Jiang Lai: Why don’t we compete with each other to make black chiffon hats? I’ll say this first, but I’ll definitely come out on top. She looked at me with a haughty smile. MC: We could. But what are the rules? And who are the judges? She pauses, seemingly at a loss for words for a while. MC: Did you not think this through before proposing it…? Jiang Lai: Who said I didn’t? I’ve thought it all out! We’ll invite Deputy Director Mya and Director Qi to be our judges! MC: Sorry, but they were the ones who decided on the results of the finals. Therefore, that means that they’ve acknowledged our design standards. MC: So it looks like there’s no longer any need for us to compete with each other. If you’re not convinced, feel free to look for Director Qi to voice your grievances.

▷Choice (MOON): Defend your pride

MC: Ever heard of a saying? Jiang Lai: What? MC: A person who only thinks about the “what ifs” will never succeed. Jiang Lai: …You-! Jiang Lai’s eyes widened in anger, but I'd only glared back at her with twice as much venom. Thankfully, she turned away just as I was starting to feel the strain on my eyes. She blinked in disbelief and gave a small snort. Jiang Lai: You’re all bark and no bite. Why not compete with me? Only if you have the guts, of course. Jiang Lai: Why don’t we compete with each other to make black chiffon hats? I’ll say this first, but I’ll definitely come out on top. Are you game? MC: I won't compete with you. Jiang Lai: I knew you wouldn't have the guts to- MC: Not because I'm afraid to, but because there's no need to. MC: If I win, you will think it is a fluke because I've worked on this subject before MC: Likewise, if I lose, it will only serve to make you hoot even louder. Hence, there's no merit in competing with you because there is nothing to gain either way. MC: In any case, they were the ones who decided on the results of the finals. Therefore, that means that they’ve acknowledged our design standards. MC: If you’re not convinced, feel free to look for Director Qi to voice your grievances.

Jiang Lai’s expression twisted. She stomped her feet in anger and looked as if she was about to cry.

MC: If you are really that adamant about competing with me, then perhaps you should do well to prepare for this shoe-designing competition.

That kept her mouth shut until I finished collecting the materials I needed and pushed open the door to leave.

❖☆———————————★❖

Closing the door, I breathed a sigh of relief.

MC: That’s the last kind of person I want to deal with… Thank god no one’s here. It’d be embarrassing if someone overheard me bragging like that.

??: Unfortunately for you, I've overheard everything.

MC: !

I whipped around to see Sariel leaning against the wall with his arms folded. His golden eyes were firmly fixated on me.

MC: Director Qi! What are you doing here?

Sariel: This is the Design Center. What do you think?

He had a look on his face that said “What sort of stupid question are you asking?”

MC: …

MC: You didn't hear much, did you?

Sariel: Of course.

MC: Thank god for that.

Sariel: But I did hear you say that I've acknowledged your design standards.

MC: …!

Sariel: Now, I wonder… When have I ever said that?

Sariel: Care to remind me?

MC: Uh, what I actually meant to say was that… you have a keen eye, foresight, and insight!

Sariel: …Unbelievable.

Sorry, man. I knew that I was exaggerating, but I just wanted her to give up on the idea of a competition as soon as possible.

I was just about to explain myself a little more when I noticed that he was staring at the design draft I'd made on the notebook I was holding.

Sariel: Is this your design draft?

MC: No, no, no! This one's not a proper draft! It's something I just randomly sketched!

I quickly hid the notebook behind my back, shaking my head at having been caught red-handed.

MC: I lack experience designing shoes, but I'll work hard…

Sariel frowned ever so slightly, but the blank look in his eyes seemed to have softened just a little.

Sariel: You don't look particularly inclined to learn.

Sariel: Or, have you already forgotten about your mentor who was just announced this morning?

MC: You mean… I can just ask you directly about it?

I lowered my voice and carefully observed his expression.

Sariel: I will be in my office every day from noon till 2 PM unless there's an emergency.

I quickly nodded, fearing that he'd go back on his words a second later.

MC: Thank you, Director Qi! I’ll be sure to work hard on learning how to make shoes!

Sariel snorted and turned away.

Sariel: It’s not that I want to teach you. It’s just that Warson’s systems cannot be changed.

❖☆————— ⊹ For Light & Night⊹ —————★❖

Previous Part: (Chapter 4-3) | Next Part: (Chapter 4-7)

[jacenotjason]

Can we just get some rambles about your AU, like nothing specific, just like little details you haven’t had the ask or idea to express artistically? I just love any little details about this AU (Howdy’s little finger beans)

AAAAA oh my god YES here’s some rambles from the depth that is this AU! Random factoids and snippets and hehehheheh

(Oh hey and checkout the AU itself!)

Hiding this under a ‘readmore’ becasue FUCK I WENT ON A RANT HAUIDA- i tried to stop i swear

OPEN THE FLOOD GATES!!

I HAVE PLAYLISTS FOR ALL THE CHARACTERS!! Ive been thinking about how to share them for awhile bc I LOVE these playlists and they help my brain rot on this AU but mm! Just wanted to get that out there im holding onto these

Something people didn’t catch was that in this animation, which is supposed to take place around the time Eddie moved into the neighborhood, he had his mail hat! But, currently, he doesn’t! That’s not because he lost it, Howdy actually stole it! Howdy immediately attempted to scam Eddie when he first arrived, stealing his hat and trying to sell it back to him, but he did not know that Eddie would not give a fuck. Howdy thought Eddie cared way more about his job then he actually does. So, Eddie’s hat is still currently decaying under Howdy’s desk.

All the characters have trauma or something depressing about them… except Julie! I’m not sure why but I just.. never came up with something reasonable for her backstory. I came up with a lot of ideas, but a lot of them seemed to cliche and controversial? Like, one of my ideas was some sort of sex working trauma, but I thought oooh of course you gave the most feminine character the sex working backstory! Another idea was eating disorder trauma, but again, ooh i gave the fem one the ED! The same thing happened with SA trauma, it all just felt so… cliche. And I felt like I would get a lot of backlash if I tried to implement this. So.. im still working on it!

^ originally Franks backstory was going to be completely SA related, but I changed that. Still not spoiling how, though.

^^ also I really liked the sex working idea! Because I think it would be interesting if thats how Eddie and her met. Not that Eddie bought sex from her, but that they like worked together and slowly became friends! Eddie kept her safe n stuff, beat the shit out of ppl that didnt pay yknow? Explored a deeper level of understanding between them

Ive been daydreaming about attempting to make my own little bootleg “play fellow exhibition” not nearly to the extent that Clown did, but just some sort of fake “restored” things! Maybe even fake interviews with those that remember the show! Ive even recorded some lines, of my own voice, of fake voice clips restored from the show. I haven’t had the confidence to post any of them just yet aa. I think my Eddie impression is IMPECCABLE though. Maybe bc I have a southern accent

^ also if this isnt obvious this AU is still a show being restored by a team, the show is just the adult parody ive created here. Ill be sure to specify if i ever post something restoration-lore-related!

The number of fingers they have is inconsistent, and that is not lore related! I am just an idiot! You might notice that sometimes they have 5, sometimes they have 4. I.. have no actual reason for this. I literally just.. forget! Im literally currently drawing a piece with Julie and Sally where they both have 5 fingers. Why?? Bc the reference I used was of two human girls so!! Just wanted to put it out there, that is not on purpose

I hide a lot of secrets in my art. Bc its fun. If you ever see something in my art thats a little too dark, feel free to up the brightness and see what you find. Does something sort of look like Morse code? Feel free to try it out! I’ll give you a hint, I have used both of these techniques to hide secrets in my art already. The Morse code one is really hard to find, though, so props to you if you find it!

I like to think that the AU’s show is like Rick and Morty. It started out this comedic, very clearly adult-humored show, but slowly the characters had lore! People started watching not for the humor but for the interesting characters. Like when Rick was revealed to have a depressing story with his wife and all that, it was the same as when ppl first found out about Frank’s strange amnesia and PTSD. Like “?? Who put lore in my funny adult comedy??” Yknow what i mean

^ i like to think there was some mind-bending moment where it was revealed Frank doesnt remember anything about his childhood and everyone watching was like :O

Originally in the show, (like season one), the characters were the way they are to make fun of those things. Confusing, but what i mean is that Poppy was a trans woman to make fun of trans people, Eddie and Frank were to make jokes about gay ppl, etc. but SIKE once the show got more seasons and got lift off they became actual characters instead of just jokes! The creators just wanted to make ppl love the show before they made the gay characters actually have personalities, so they couldn’t get cancelled prematurely! HA SUCKERS!!

FFUck okay i think i got it all out of me?? Idk feel free to ask again in like a month maybe more shit will have accumulated in my brain

[stellerssong]

Hi again. I'm on some level here to ask for a complete explanation of every aspect of Hawaiian culture that is even tangentially related to your latest fic because I know absolutely nothing and there is the ever present concern that the terms run through cursory Google Translate and internet searching will lose nuance and implications. There were definitely some references to divinities and myths and such that went over my unenlightened head. The story you wove was rich and intricate enough to be held in the mind of someone who knows less than nothing and still have great meaning and truth, but I know that it will mean yet more if I can see the threads you used to make it. (On another level, I'm asking for the explanation because I am abruptly deeply interested in a topic I had previously not thought about very much, and you seem to be significantly more of an expert than the average internet search.)

first off! well first off i am blowing you so many kisses for this very kind ask, thank you so much for giving me an excuse to ramble at (great, great, great) length.

so second off! i would just like to stress that i am very much not an expert in hawaiian language, folklore, history, culture, etc. i am neither kānaka maoli (native hawaiian) nor kamaʻāina (born in hawaiʻi although not necessarily of hawaiian ancestry), and i have not studied these topics formally/in a setting that applies academic rigor. i am an enthusiastic amateur with a personal connection to hawaiian culture, the kind of brain that likes to fixate on areas of interest, and a willingness to scrounge around for reading material. i have, i think, a decent sense of what some of the baseline texts in the field are, and a fairly good bullshit detector (and the understanding/ability to dig into things when i can't rely on the bullshit detector), but ultimately i am a layman and an outsider with corresponding perspectives and biases. i also, i will admit frankly, have a pretty sharp knowledge cutoff corresponding to the time of first european contact, just because of my own personal interests and reading preferences.

read that whole disclaimer? let your eyes glaze over while you skimmed it? good! here's my real quick (lmao) rundown of Sum Things U Should Know If You Wanna Close-Read Kīpuka:

ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi 101

Good grief when I put it like that I do NOT feel qualified to tell you any of this. Anyway. We can keep it basic just so you can get a sense of the mouthfeel of the words. And just fyi ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi is the proper name of the language; i'll be using "Hawaiian" as the adjective form, sans ʻokina, assuming an English-speaking readership.

ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi as it is commonly rendered today has 13 letters: 5 vowels (A, E, I, O, and U) and 7 consonants (H, K, L, M, N, P, W), plus the ʻokina or glottal stop (that little apostrophe-lookin' dude at the beginning of the word ʻokina, also the source of most of my typesetting woes). Pronunciation-wise, there are no silent letters and no though/through/enough-type surprises: every letter is pronounced, and all of the vowel renderings are approximately equivalent to how you'd pronounce them in Spanish or Italian. Hence, the word kuahine = koo-ah-HEE-nay rather than, like, kyoo-ah-highn, which made me feel gross even just typing it out.

The ʻokina is pronounced, and bear with me here, like the dash in the english nuh-uh. or, if you're a try-hard vocalist—reattack the vowel after the ʻokina instead of eliding it to the vowel prior. So the place-name Kaʻū is pronounced ka-OO, as distinct from the word kau which is pronounced more like kow (which is a bit of an oversimplification of the latter word, but I'm trying to be efficient here).

That leads us neatly into the other diacritical marking used in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, the kahakō or macron which helpfully appears in its own name. No worries here; the kahakō just serves as a stress marker, so you'd say kahakō = ka-ha-KO instead of ka-HA-ko, or from the example above ka-OO rather than KA-oo.

There are a couple of other little pronunciation tricks here and there. The letter W is sometimes pronounced as a V, and unfortunately I can't really describe the rules for that shift; that is one I must admit I know mostly from vibes. For example, the correct pronunciation of Hawaiʻi itself is ha-VAI-ee, but I've never heard the place-name Waimea pronounced as anything but why-MEY-ah.

Occasionally you will encounter the letter K pronounced as a T, which I believe is an artifact of the morphological shift from older related languages such as Tahitian and Samoan which do preserve the letter T as a unique phoneme. To my knowledge, the Kauaʻi dialect (spoken today on Niʻihau) also preserves the T, but most spoken ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi heard elsewhere is based on the Big Island dialect, which lacks the T. One notable exception is the word tūtū (an affectionate/respectful term for a grandparent or elder), which you really don't hear pronounced as kūkū.

Really, though, listening to Hawaiian music is how I got the language in my ear and imo it's the best way to get it in yours. Can't go wrong with Israel Kamakawiwoʻole (of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" fame), but I have a personal soft spot for Kealiʻi Reichel, Weldon Kekauoha, Amy Hanaialiʻi, and the Cazimero Brothers.

The Place-y-ness of Hawaiian Literature

This is more of a sidenote than its own heading, but I'm the one driving the essay, and I think it's an interesting thing to point out, just because it helps establish a particular perspective I wanted to keep in mind while writing this fic.

Something you might notice as you start to look at Hawaiian oli, mele, and myth is the high level of specificity of place. Hawaiʻi is, let's be honest, not that enormous of a place when you consider it on a global scale—but the specificity of localities within Hawaiian literature is kind of astounding. Not only are there loads of place-names referenced in any given work, there are unique Hawaiian names for landmarks, cliffs, peaks, hills, streams, waterfalls—even rains and winds of specific locations merit their own names.

"kīpuka" is very specifically set on the windward side of Hawaiʻi island, so I made an effort to focus my references to place-names on that region—Hilo, ʻŌlaʻa, and Waiākea are all locations on the eastern side of the island, and the one reference to Kona on the leeward side reflects the coming of someone bearing grievances (in addition to eia aʻe ka makani Kona being an existing idiom warning the listener to watch out for an angry person, the windward and leeward sides of Hawaiʻi island have a long history of territorial warfare and jockeying for control of the island). I'd also considered having the bird discussed in the fic be a different species, the kākāwahie—but that species is/was endemic to Molokaʻi, and quite honestly my knowledge of the history and culture of Molokaʻi as a separate polity is not that great.

(This is partly due to sample bias—my introduction to Hawaiʻi was within a Big Island-based context. At the same time, another thing you may notice about the better-known source texts is that many of them center around Hawaiʻi island and, to a lesser extent, Maui, thanks to the political supremacy during the unification/post-contact era of Hawaiʻi island and Maui aliʻi. Ross Cordy wrote a whole ass book about the Oʻahu chiefdoms that is simply not to be had for love or money no matter how I search for it. I am THIS CLOSE to straight up cold emailing the man and being like I WILL VENMO YOU $75 USD DIRECTLY IF YOU WILL SIMPLY JUST SEND ME A COPY OF YOUR BOOK. PLEASE. SAVE ME ROSS CORDY.)

Girl (Gender Neutral), I Cannot Explain Hawaiian Mythology, Poetics, and Mythopoetics As a Subheading in One Post

Honestly. I can't do it. But some tidbits to assist your further research:

A great deal of Hawaiian literature and oral tradition hinges on kaona, roughly "allusion" or "metaphor." In a description that is useful to precisely no one but myself, it's not unlike the complex plays on words, puns, and deep well of references used in Heian Japanese epistolary poetry. Some of it is easy to grok for newbies: for example, the concept of one's lover as a lei adorning the body, or being splashed or sprinkled with water as a euphemism for sex. Some of it goes a lot deeper, relying on historical or folkloric place-name associations, puns, and ancient practices and superstitions.

The Hawaiian "pantheon" I place in scare quotes because ancient Hawaiian religious practices and superstition were highly syncretic, often extremely localized, and more contradictory the more you read into it. In a very, very, very, VERY rough and off-the-cuff sense, though, there were thought to be four major gods: Kāne (associated with dawn, the sun, the sky, running freshwater, and irrigation-based agriculture, among other things), Kanaloa (associated with the ocean, sea creatures, and sometimes death, as an opposing or complimentary force to Kāne), Lono (god of fertility, agriculture with something of an emphasis on dryland agriculture, rainfall, and peace as embodied in the Makahiki festival), and Kū (god of war, the deified kingship, fishermen, sorcery, and quite honestly a ton of other things in various manifestations).

There were also quite a large number of "lesser" gods, the word "lesser" used just in the sense that they weren't honored to the same extent as the four previously named in state-sanctioned religious practice. Probably the most well-known of these is Pele, the volcano goddess. (I reference another in the fic, Niolopua, god of sleep—but the jury's out on whether or not that refers to an actual god or is just metaphorical in the same way that most people think of "the Sandman" as a euphemism for sleep and not a literal guy who comes into your house and puts crusties in your eyes.)

The gods were thought to manifest in a variety of forms, called kino lau (literally "four hundred bodies"). You can think of this in the sense of "Lono takes on the shape of an albatross or a tropicbird to interact with mortals, while Kanaloa prefers to manifest as an octopus," and in stories kino lau are sometimes represented that way, but in practice it's less of a Greek myth-style practice of shapeshifting and more of an animistic religious belief. The kino lau in nature embody the god and in a metaphorical sense illustrate the interconnection between divine and earthly and the presence of the divine on earth.

(HUGE OVERSIMPLIFICATION. HUGE OVERSIMPLIFICATION. PLEASE DO MORE RESEARCH AND DO NOT TAKE ONE TUMBLR POST AT ITS WORD ON THIS.)

The Endless, in the fic, are very easy to loop into the concept of kino lau, because of their canonical universality. Danny appears as a shark (a symbol of chiefhood), a pueo, or Hawaiian owl (an 'aumakua, or ancestral guardian), a manu-o-Kū, or fairy tern (a bird associated with the god Kū, likely in his aspect as a god of fishermen, navigators, and wayfinders), a kalo plant (a staple crop of ancient Hawaiʻi, a kino lau of Kāne, and a symbol of duality and rebirth), and a snowcapped mountain (a sacred site considered kapu, or forbidden, to all but the highest chiefly individuals). Despair, meanwhile, appears as an ʻalae ʻula, or Hawaiian moorhen (another ʻaumakua, but also an animal whose cry was thought to foretell misfortune), a stingray (for her barbed tail), a hāpuʻu fern (in contrast to Dream's kalo, the hāpuʻu was considered a famine food), a lava flow and its first growths (acknowledging Pele as both a destroyer and a creator of land, just as Despair also embodies hope), and a number of other things meant to embody the devastation of Hawaiʻi (rats, feral pigs, and mosquitoes have decimated endemic birds and insects; the kiawe is an invasive plant species that forms dense, thorny, and difficult-to-destroy groves; light pollution affects behavior and migratory patterns of both avian and aquatic species).

All pretty simple, obviously!

Further Resources and Recs

Okay, so, obviously I'm not going to be able to explain every single reference in this fic in a single post, though I obviously tried my damnedest. In lieu of that, I'll offer some useful resources for further reading:

Stephen Trussel's Combined Hawaiian Dictionary is a fantastic resource for vocab that incorporates several major Hawaiian dictionaries in a straightforward (well, as straightforward as this gets) text-based web page. Ulukau also has a searchable interface, which is a little easier to interact with, but I like having the Trussel for reference.

Huapala is everyone's go-to for translations of Hawaiian lyrics. I've linked to it in the endnotes of the fic for readers interested in more on "Ka Ipo Lei Manu," but it's got nearly any ʻauana-style Hawaiian song you please, and if I recall correctly even a few traditional oli. Again, another slightly old-fashioned text-based site—but we all know how to use CMD + F in a page, do we not?

Native Books is awesome if you, like me, prefer reading things in print but would prefer not to feed your dollars into the maw of the Amazon beast. A lot of the lit on Hawaiʻi was printed either a long time ago or in very small releases and is now out-of-print and difficult to find even in libraries, so it rocks that there's an independent bookseller that specializes in getting those works to an audience in hard copy. @ NATIVE BOOKS PLEASE CONSIDER GETTING ROSS CORDY TO RE-PRINT THE RISE AND FALL OF THE OʻAHU KINGDOM THANK YOU SO MUCH. University of Hawaiʻi Press is also a good source for academic texts, although their website is...mm...difficult to navigate, and do be warned that they charge academic press prices.

In terms of who to read, you really can't go wrong with Mary Kawena Pukui, a Native Hawaiian scholar, author, composer, and educator whose work is the backbone of just, a fuckton of writing about Hawaiʻi, both academic and popular. Her book ʻŌlelo Noʻeau: Hawaiian Proverbs and Poetical Sayings is worth at least a skim just to get the feel of the Hawaiian mindset; it also contains a healthy dose of myth, folklore, and history in the explanations of the sayings. Absolutely adorably, I've found two books she edited that I read the absolute FUCK out of as a child available as PDFs through Ulukau: The Water of Kāne and Other Legends of the Hawaiian Islands and Hawaiʻi Island Legends: Pīkoi, Pele, and Others. Definitely worth a quick read if you want more on the myth side of things.

As a non-specialist, I've really enjoyed Patrick Vinton Kirch's writing on precontact Hawaiʻi. For a field archaeologist, his writing is both highly engaging and very respectful of the peoples he studies, and trust me, I do get my back up easily when it comes to white people writing about Other Cultures TM, so I'd posit it means something that he passes my sniff test. A Shark Going Inland is My Chief is a great overview of the history of the Hawaiian chiefdoms from the first settlement of the islands to immediately precontact, and Kuaʻāina Kahiko offers a bit of a closer look at everyday life in a specific locality in the islands (in this case, Kahikinui, Maui).

Kamehameha and His Warrior Kekūhaupiʻo by Stephen Desha (trans. Frances N. Frazier) began its life as a serialized Hawaiian-language history of the rise of Kamehameha I. It's a dense read, and it WILL test your ability to remember who the hell all these people are to its limit—it mostly discusses the lives and times of the major players of the aliʻi class in the late precontact–early postcontact era, and when you remember that a) a hell of a lot of personal names in this tale begin with the letter K and b) the aliʻi class of Hawaiʻi practiced a mindboggling amount of political marriage, consanguineous marriage, and sanctioned adoption between blood relatives, the family trees get real complicated REAL fast. If you can hang on through all that, though, it's an intensely detailed and very vivid portrait of a culture at a tumultuous moment, it gives a great sense of how the Hawaiians viewed themselves and the world, and it's an interesting exercise in the mythologizing of the Kamehameha dynasty.

Okay, So...?

So...if you hung on through all that, god DAMN are you dedicated. Have what is quite possibly my favorite Hawaiian song for your trouble. It is, funnily enough, about a bird.

EDIT: I am retroactively making this post unrebloggable. I'm really, really glad folks have found it interesting and are looking into the resources I shared, but I absolutely do not want this getting passed around as Hawaiian Culture 101. If you want to learn more about Hawaiʻi, I must stress that you should look to a reputable source and not some schmuck on Tumblr rambling about her effortposting fanned fiction.