#not to mention the music and al's voice <3

[subtle-as-an-earthquake]

Alex Turner chainsmoking & making beautiful music [x]

[soulofstarsandink]

FORESHADOWING IN ACOTAR YOU MAY HAVE MISSED

*Spoilers*

1. Feyre painted the night sky on her drawer in the cottage.

2. Feyre had heard of Rhysand long before she met him. She recalled hearing of “One High Fae that could turn your bones to dust from a hundred yards away.”

3. One of the first things Lucien says to Feyre is that her eyes “are like stars.”

4. When first arrived at the Spring Court, Feyre unknowingly dresses herself in Night Court colours. (A dark blue tunic, another tunic “one of purple so deep it could have been black.”)

5. When Lucien and Feyre encounter the Bogge, Feyre distracts herself by thinking of “a starry, unclouded night sky, peaceful and glittering and endless.”

6. Rhysand appears as a “shadow I could never quite glimpse” in Feyre’s nightmares before they met. “Behind me - a shadow lurked - no, watched. I didn’t dare turn to look at it, to see who might be within the shadows, observing.”

7. Amarantha appeared in Feyre’s nightmares before she knew of her, as a “A pale, faceless woman dragging her bloodred nails across my throat” - a nightmare of Rhysands perhaps?

8. When the Suriel told Feyre to “Stay with the High Lord”, it didn’t specify which High Lord.

9. When Tamlin takes Feyre to see the pool of starlight, she describes the setting filling her with “both longing and mirth…it just seemed…right.”

10. Despite only having heard and not seen the Attor, Feyre manages to paint its exact image “a tall, skeletally thin gray creature with bat ears and giant, membranous wings.” How would she have been able to do this? Possibly an image from someone else’s mind?

11. During Calanmai, Feyre disregards Tamlin’s order to stay in her room as “there was a string - a string tied to my gut that pulled me towards those hills, commanding me to go, to hear the faerie drums…” “but a wild wicked voice weaving in between the drumbeats whispered otherwise. Go, that voice said, tugging at me. Go see.”

12. The first thing Rhysand ever says to Feyre is “There you are, I’ve been looking for you” before telling the three lesser faeries, “Thank you for finding her for me.”

13. During Feysand’s first encounter, Feyre thinks to herself Rhysand’s words “were tinged with an arrogance that only an immortal could achieve” to which he “laughed under his breath” having heard the insult.

14. When Feyre first drinks faerie wine, she describes it as “like a million fireworks exploring inside of me, filling my veins with starlight.”

15. Still intoxicated she states she wants to swim in the night sky, “to bathe in its colours and feel the stars twinkling between my fingers.”

16. Tamlin and Feyre had their first kiss during the shortest night of the year.

17. Rhysand states “only my prisoners and my enemies call me (Rhysand).” It’s then interesting that Feyre refers to him as ‘Rhys’ in her POV in moments when she can see beneath his villain mask. (And EXTRA interesting when she refers to him as such during their first kiss.)

18. When Rhysand senses Tamlin and Lucien have hidden Feyre “a flicker of excitement - perhaps disbelief - flashed across his features.”

19. Rhysand was the only person Under the Mountain that bet on Feyre slaying the worm.

20. Feyre’s bargain tattoo is similar to the Illyrian tattoos that are given for luck and glory.

21. When Rhysand dressed Feyre under the mountain he crowned her with a “small golden diadem imbedded with lapis lazuli” - a stone that inspires confidence and is worn by royalty.

22. When Rhysand informs Amarantha of his bargain with Feyre, it’s also an act of defiance as he mentions the bargain is “for the rest of her life”, hinting he believes she will survive the remaining tasks.

23. Before the second trial, Rhysand dresses Feyre in a ‘blood orange’ gown - a colour symbolising good fortune.

24. During their first mind convo, Rhysand says “Good girl.” (Not a fact, just hot tbh.)

25. When Rhysand sends the music to her cell, she unknowingly imagines Velaris and “a palace in the sky of alabaster and moonstone, where all that was lovely dwelled in peace…everything I wanted was there - the one I loved was there-“

｡･:*˚:✧｡

[depressed-monarch]

Hands Off What’s Mine

(Tartaglia, Al Haitham, Kaeya, Zhongli)

Where the reader saves her dear husband from being sexually harassed by a random woman

(Drunk women, Mentions of alcohol, very strong language, sexual indos *nothing to descriptive*) reader is a badass but that’s not much of a warning :)

Fem!Reader

Tartaglia

It had been such a long night for this fatui harbinger and all he wanted to do was get home to his beautiful wife and cuddle with her like they would both die at midnight

But he then remembered that his beloved wife worked tonight, Tartaglia mentally sighed to himself. He lodged himself over to his wife’s bar where he would have to wait out her entire shift before they both could go home and cuddle

Tartaglia walked into the bar loud music playing and men and women grinding up against each other, he knew that at least 3 kids would be conceived tonight. Tartaglia looked around the bar looking for his wife, but he couldn’t find her anywhere

He sighed and sat down in a random booth hoping that she would see him and come to serve him, but she didn’t, a random woman walked up to him instead, tartaglia looked her up and down and his eyes rolled. The lady scoffed and sat down in his lap

“Walk away lady. I’m married” Tartaglia scoffed, showing the woman his ring and shoving her off his lap, the lady whined and persistent that she stay on his lap. “Oh come on… that never stopped a handsome man like yourself” the lady winked.

Tartaglia huffed, resting his hand against his cheek and he continued to try to get the lady off his lap without brute force, but this lady would not budge “Ma’am please get off. I’m not looking to piss off my wife” Tartaglia said, again warning this woman that he indeed had a wife

“I dont see your wife anywhere” the lady slurred, “turn around whore” a voice said behind the two, tartaglia whipped his head around and beamed with joy when he saw the figure of his wife in her uniform holding his signature drink. “And I suggest you get off what’s mine before I put my foot up your ass” His wife spoke darkly

The lady looked at her with fear in her eyes before she quickly got off Tartaglias lap and rushed to her group of friends across the bar, they quickly rushed out the bar before their stupid friend would start a fight with a bar tender, “oh my saving grace has arrived” Tartaglia smirked grabbing his wife by the waist and sitting her on his lap

“This is your rightful place” He added while kissing her neck, “thank you baby” She smiled kissing tartaglias forehead, “now come on, I’ll get you set up in my break room so no other whore comes up to you”

Al Haitham

‘This isn’t how today was suppose to go’ Al Haitham thought. He knew that he was a pretty decent attractive man, but he never thought another woman would try to make a pass on him even though his married

And to an amazing woman might he add, right know he was currently shopping with his wife, they both were planning to spend a few weeks in Fontaine to get away from Sumeru ever since the akademiya had fallen into shambles

So obviously by his wife’s words ‘she needed new clothes’ even though the ones she already had were perfectly fine, though Al haitham had suggested she look better with no clothes but he just got smacked with a book instead

But he never would have guessed that a woman, a drunk woman might he add, would try to seduce him in a clothing store. “Hey baby you free tonight?” The lady slurred barely being able to stand straight. Al Haitham looked around and he saw another group of girls across the store staring at them, almost silently cheering this girl on

Al Haitham sighed “No i will be spending this evening with my wife” the lady looked up at him with stink eyes, “come on… ditch her… she doesn’t have to know…” the lady persisted “oh don’t worry I’ve already found out” Al haitham smiled and looked behind the lady, their stood his wife in the most stunning emerald green dress he’s ever seen

The lady looked at his wife and rolled her eyes, “roll your eyes at me again and I’ll shoved them down your windpipe” his wife threatened, the two widened  their eyes the lady left in a hurry and Al haitham just stared at his wife not knowing what to say, “what? You know I don’t let anyone treat me like that” she defened

“Yes daring but you don’t have to threaten the poor woman”

Kaeya

Kaeya knew damn well the affects he had on most women, and even men. And that’s he even met his now wife, a one nightstand turned into a 3 year relationship and then eventually, marriage. Which kaeya was completely fine with, he loved his wife and wanted to spend every waking moment with her

Even if that meant he had to quit his manwhore ways.

It had been a long time since he’s seduced men and women alike, he and his wife were out on a date to good hunter when his wife was needed at the adventures guild, she excused herself and walked over to katheryn

Kaeya nodded and started playing around with his food when he heard shuffling and assumed it was his wife so he smooth talked “looks who back I think I might need to punish you when we get home” Kaeya smirked, “oh you can punish me all you want” an unknown voice said

Kaeya whipped his head up and saw a woman who was obviously intoxicated, “oh no I’m sorry that wasn’t meant for you” Kaeya quickly said “than who was it for?” The lady said, slouching in the chair

Before kaeya could answer her his wife showed up behind the woman, “that was probably meant for me. So I suggest you move” Kaeya smirked and leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms, the woman looked behind her and scoffed, “and what if I don’t?” She hiccuped

His wife chuckled and walked over to him, she then took a seat in kaeyas lap, making sure to sway her hips on kaeyas lap, “Then I’ll just wait for you to leave” she smiled, resting her chin in her hands, waiting for the woman to leave. Kaeya just enjoyed the show in front of him, meanwhile resting his hands on his wife’s hips

The woman stuttered, “w-why are you sitting on my husband you bitch?!” The woman slurred, kaeya looked at the woman wide eyed, his wife smiled again and grabbed his hand with the ring and then showed the woman in front of them

“I do see a ring on his finger” she stated, she then lifted her hand with their wedding ring, “but he’s mine, whore” She said, “so like I said, and I don’t like repeating myself. Leave before I sock you” She darkly smiled. The woman huffed and walked away.

Kaeya smirked while kissing his wife’s neck. “Seriously need to teach you how to interact with people darling… maybe I’ll give you a lesson when we get home”

Zhongli

Zhongli has been around for almost 6,000 years and just now he’s gotten married? I mean… he just hasn’t found the right person yet, and in this life time he met the most perfect woman in his entire life. A beautiful former opera singer, so he courted her and later married her

They’ve been married for almost 8 years now and Zhongli has never been happier, today was their anniversary of their marriage so Zhongli decided he would cook dinner for his lovely wife

He would make his famous Bamboo shoot soup which he knew his wife adored, so he asked Tartaglia for money and went out to purchased only the finest ingredients for his wife, he expected everything to happen but he never expected to get hit on even after he married his wife

“Hey cutie <3” was written on the meat he had purchased, he went back to the meat vendor to confront her “I’m sorry ma’am but I’m afraid this might have fallen into my order and I wanted to return it back to you” Zhongli said, so innocently, the woman working the stand blushed

“N-no that was for you…” the woman said, Zhongli looked at the woman confused, maybe she didn’t know he was already married? “I’m sorry ma’am but I’m happily married…” Zhongli coughed, sliding the paper back to the woman

The woman stuttered but took back the note, he walked away calmly and continued with his shopping still very unfazed about what just happened, he’ll make sure to tell his wife once she gets home from work…

!Authors Note!

Thank you for reading this! Sorry Zhonglis part was a bit short I just couldn’t think of anything for Zhongli since he’s such a gentlemen 😭

Anyway have a wonderful day!

[pal1cam]

Support Palestinian Musicians & Artists :

Here is a list of Palestinian musical artists, musical groups & bands, to make it easier for you to stop supporting musicians and artists who support genocide and occupation…

Faraj Sulieman : a solo musician who makes musical works that are very piano & jazz infused with a hint of rock n’ roll. He has performed in many countries in Europe and the Middle East. He has released 10 albums in the last 10 years, one of them being a children’s musical album called “Faheem” that found major success with the voices of the 2 kids, Faheem Abu Hilu and Hala Qassis, that were very dominant in the album alongside the sound of classical piano played by Faraj Sulieman himself. He also made the soundtrack for the Palestinian movie “200 meters” directed by Ameen Nayfeh. (Recommended Works : Better Than Berlin / Second Verse / Upright Piano)

DAM : a rap band founded in 1999 by the 2 brothers Tamer and Suhel Nafar along with their friend Mahmoud Jrere, the 3 rappers who came out of the city Lod [a mixed city that has indigenous Palestinian citizens & zionist Israeli settlers] make songs mostly about the inequality in the authorities’ treatment towards Palestinians, and songs criticizing the Palestinian society living in occupied territory under the Israeli Government… They primarily rap in Arabic, yet they sometimes use English & Hebrew as well. In recent years the female artist Maysa Daw has joined the band replacing Suhel Nafar and adding a feminine perspective to the band’s niche. It’s also important to mention that DAM was the first ever hip-hop band in the entirety of the Middle East. (Recommended Works : Ben Haana Wa Maana / i don’t have freedom)

Tamer Nafar : as mentioned before, he is a Palestinian rapper and actor and one of the founding members of DAM. Besides his works with DAM he also produces music under his own name, sometimes collaborating with various Palestinian & international artists. He also participated in making the soundtrack for the film ‘Junction 48’. (Recommended Works : The Beat Never Goes Off / Johnnie Mashi)

Maysa Daw : a solo musician, singer & songwriter, and as mentioned before the freshest and newest member of the band DAM, and a member of the newly formed female group called Kallemi, She was featured in Vogue Arabia 2019 as one of 5 Arab stars setting the world of art, culture and entertainment. She is also the daughter of the actor and director Salim Daw. (Recommended Works : Asli Barri / Between City Walls)

47SOUL : a group of four men who are all originally from Palestine that have created a new music genre called “Shamstep” which is an electronic dance movement mixed with the sound of Palestinian & Middle Eastern folklore. The musical group was formed back in 2013, and since then they’ve become pioneers in that unique style of theirs and have been on tours all over the world from the US to the UK and of course the Middle East. They’ve performed in NPR’s tiny desk in 2019 which helped them gain even more international recognition. (Recommended Works : Shamstep / Semitics / Shireen)

El far3i : he is a Palestinian-Jordanian rapper, singer, songwriter, and percussionist. He is currently a member of the Shamstep band 47Soul, and was formerly a member of the Arabic rock band El Morabba3. He started his career in 2012, and has since released six solo albums. (Recommended Works : Tghayarti)

Shabjdeed : Straight out of the restless town of Kufr Aqab, Palestine, emerged a talent by the name of Abu Othaina. With his controversial takes and raw skills Shabjdeed was an instant addition to the Palestinian rap scene. After gaining traction from his self-titled track, he caught the attention of Al Nather, a local producer, and worked with him to create the alter-ego Shabjdeed; an act that can easily be considered one of the most influential and popular in the region. The duo developed their own niche dark hip-hop and trap style combining Shabjdeed’s nihilistic and daringly personal delivery style with Al Nather’s colourful and rhythmic instrumentals. From the beginning they have been able to build a dedicated fanbase, grossing over 1.5 million total streams on Soundcloud across two years whilst only relying on word-of-mouth advertisement. The duo have created together a record label and named it BLTNM Records which was brought to it’s biggest success with the release of Shabjdeed’s first full length album called “Sindibad el Ward”. And today Shabjdeed’s music is the modern voice for not only the Palestinian revolution, yet for the entire revolution in the Middle East caused by youth that dream of a better future and go against their capitalist and money hungry governments. (Recommended Works : Fi Harb / Aadi / inn ann / Ko7ol w 3atme)

Daboor : A Jerusalemite rapper to the bone, Daboor’s debut single “Liter Black'' was released in 2020 to much fanfare and critical acclaim. His unique style and raw talent cemented his status in the rap scene and he was soon signed to BLTNM Records. Daboor’s words touch on the violence of the occupation, and his delivery mimics it with brutal bursts of staccato. (Recommended Works : Inn Ann / Dolab)

Lina Makhoul : an independent American-born Palestinian singer-songwriter & producer. She was raised in the city of Acre in occupied Palestine since the age of 4 and according to her she has showed interest in music and dance since a young age. She started her career in 2012 and has since released 1 full length album as well as a number of hit singles, She also opened for Queen+ Adam Lambert in 2016 and toured with Little Mix in 2017. (Recommended Works : Shway Shway / Fish Masari / 3 sneen)

Elyanna : a Palestinian-Chilean singer-songwriter who started her career in 2018 and has since released 1 full length album and a number of singles, and she has collaborated with artists with significant recognition such as Massari. She performed in Coachella 2023 to become the 1st ever Middle Eastern & Palestinian artist to perform in Coachella in Arabic. (Recommended Works : Ana Lahale / Ghareeb Alay)

Noel Kharman : She is best known for doing mashup covers where she mixes Middle Eastern and Western music, creating a unique bridge between these two worlds through her powerful and angelic voice. She started her career on Youtube with covers of viral songs, but her big breakthrough happened in 2015 when she published her first mash-up cover which was a mix of ‘Hello’ by Adele with Fairuz. The cover went viral overnight and since then, she became an instant internet sensation. The cover has gained over 30 million views on YouTube. Today she has released many songs of her own after being signed to a record label and has collaborated with various artists and went on tour in many cities in the Middle Eastern region. (Recommended Works : Ya Lali)

The Synaptik : This Palestinian-Jordanian artist based in Palestine started making music at the age of 17. The Synaptik studied medicine for 7 years and graduated. His stage name is derived from his fascination with the nervous system, neurotransmitters and his personal experience with ADHD, which led to calling himself The Synaptik: “…because that’s where things happen.” The Synaptik has pioneered a new wave of sound for the Arab youth. His honest and potent lyrics are highlighted by his songwriting style that merges singing and rapping effortlessly. With a tsunami of a first album under his belt, dozens of local, regional, and international shows and a much-anticipated second album, The Synaptik has cemented his status as one of the pillars in the Hip Hop scene in the region. The Synaptik has collaborated with numerous artists from all over the Middle East such as rap superstars Abyusif, Wegz, Marwan Mousa, Chyno with a Why?, Shabjdeed and more. (Recommended Works : Sabelek)

Apo & The Apostles : Apo & the Apostles started out late 2013 in Jerusalem-Bethlehem with their first release in March 2014. Since then, they've been taking their music to whoever and wherever they are welcomed. The band is known for their energetic performances that turn to parties and after-parties. (Recommended Works : Baji Wenek)

[outivv]

— dance with me! —

Synopsis: they want you to dance with them :)

Warnings: not proofread

Characters: Al haitham, wanderer, Candace

Pronouns for reader: gender neutral/ not mentioned

A/n: hello hello!! This took me soooo long to finish, I don’t know why either!! I just kept forgetting to return to it which sucks. Anyways, hope you enjoy, and take care of yourself!! <3

— Al haitham —

You groaned as you kicked off your shoes, you had a long day… and now you want to have a long rest, with your boyfriend. “Oh hey y/n you look like garbage.” Kaveh said as he walked out of the kitchen, while eating something from a bowl. You sighed, “thanks kaveh. Where’s Al haitham? In his office?” You ask, just wanting to go shower him in love, and then pass out. “No I’m right here, now let’s go.” Al haitham’s voice suddenly booms from behind kaveh, making the both of you jump. “You spill that and you’re cleaning it up.” Al haitham says to kaveh, in reference to his food. Kaveh just rolls his eyes, and you groan once again at the feeling of putting your shoes back on. “Where are we going” and in response Al haitham shrugs. Does he… not know??

You make your way… away from sumeru city which is strange. And into the nearby forest, where you can see lights up ahead. Strange, Gandharva Ville is in the complete opposite direction, and there’s no other settlements nearby, at least there shouldn’t be. Getting closer, and moving the leaves, and branches in your way, you make out… lights hung above, and someone’s dinner sprawled out on a blanket. “Al haitham?” You say turning to him, but he’s already looking at you. “I thought it’d be nice for you to get out of the house.” He’s not usually one for romantic gestures, in fact that’s more you if anything, so this, all of this, comes as a surprise to you.

You sit down and eat your dinner, when suddenly he takes your hand. “Would you want to dance?” You were in the middle of stuffing food in your mouth, and with his words you almost choke. “I’m sorry?” His brows furrowed, “I asked if you’d like to dance.” You tilted your head, this is so unlike him!! Not that you’re upset, but- wow this is a shock. Maybe kaveh made fun of him for not being very romantic… ehh likely, but doesn’t warrant a reaction like this from Al haitham. “I mean- yeah!! Of course!!” You said, standing up way to fast, and excited.

Al haitham smiled at your response, standing beside you he took of his headphones and placed them onto you. “This is so you’ll hear the music, it’s one of my favorites so I already know it well.” You felt yourself smile wobbly, and nod. You felt your legs were gonna go out, and the music hadn’t even started. Al haitham took you hand, and held you close, and the song began. Lights above you swayed in the gentle breeze, as you and Al haitham looked at one another, he always had a bit of trouble with eye contact, but now his entire focus was on you. The song was near ending, when suddenly Al haithams attention went to a group of trees. You couldn’t hear anything because of his headphones, and instead summoned your weapon, just as al haitham did the same.

Suddenly, kaveh came out of the trees. Yelling something at Al haitham, you got half of what he said when you put Al haithams headphones on your shoulder. “Ok!! Well you told me if you weren’t back by midnight to come and get you. And it’s 12:30 am!! What the hell have you guys been doing for 4 hours!!” Was it really 4 hours? Huh… well to be fair you didn’t know there was a curfew. Al haitham simply walked away from the screaming blond, placed all of your stuff into a bag, and then, walked past him, your hand intertwined with his. Walking back to your house kaveh of course spoke up once more “did you guys save any of that cake you had…” you snickered, as Al haitham rolled his eyes, as he does every time kaveh speaks.

— Wanderer —

“This is stupid.” Wanderer said between gritted teeth. You tilted your head, and held your weapon close, “how so? I think it’s very clever.” You were meant to be sparring, but the catch was, you were behind a theater in liyue. So you got to hear the wonderful opera music, while also being in the comfort of… not being in the theater!! Win win for the both of you honestly. “The music will only distract us, it gives absolutely no gain to sparring.” You rolled your eyes and huffed, “why can’t it be the gain of actually enjoying something for once. Plus, the music helps me focus.” Wanderer pulled out his weapon and sighed, “fine.”

A few sparring rounds later, and you were already sweaty. You had to shed a few layers of clothes, now only being in your shirt, and pants/shorts/skirt/dress. To be fair, wanderer didn’t look any better, he had to put his hat to the side, as well as a few of his accessories as well. You of course were ogling him, not on purpose!! But uh… you know. I mean traveling with the puppet for so long, you’ve had feelings for him for a while now, just… refused to act on it. Which is valid considering- it’s wanderer. “We should take a break for now, you don’t look so good.” He said snapping your eyes away from him, and folding up his clothes he took off. “Yeah and you look in tip top shape.” You chuckled, wanderer did not though, he looked over at you a heavy glare on his face.

A few minutes passed, wanderer sat next to you, enjoying the sound of the music, when suddenly he stood up, and stared down at you, anger (you think?) plastered on his face. “Get up.” You did as you were told, keeping an eye directly on him as you did so. “Do you know how to dance.” It was almost a statement, not a question, “yeah?” You responded. “Ok.” He said, forcefully taking your hands, even though you went along with whatever he was doing. You swayed along to the beautiful opera that was being sung, the instruments flowing with the singers voice like water. It was truly beautiful, but not as beautiful as the sight in front of you. Wanderer staring at you, a scowl of concentration on his face, while he tried so desperately to not look down at his feet. He didn’t know how to dance.

You’re not surprised you just find his current… predicament, to be rather endearing. You took the lead with the dance, “hey what are you doing?!” You laughed at his surprised expression, “taking some pressure off of you.” You smiled, and pulled him a little closer, so your chests were touching. His face now a bright red, he forcefully pulled away and out of your grasp with a groan of frustration. “We’re done, let’s get back to the hotel.” He said, putting his discarded unnecessary, layers of clothes and accessories back on. “I’m sorry… did I do something wrong?” You asked, voice small and yet full, and clearly concerned and apologetic. “No… let’s just get going.”

— Candace —

“The stars are gorgeous tonight.” Candace says while her head is tilted towards the sky, she starts poking out constellations to you, telling you their stories. You and Candace usually sneak to the highest point right near the village, almost every night, to gaze at the stars, and just be with each other. It’s rather romantic, which is something you wouldn’t have initially expected from Candace. Mostly because of how village duties consume her time, but every once and a while, you have a free night, where you can easily sneak away and enjoy the company of one another.

You suddenly see Candace turn around, and extend her arm out in front of you, “care to dance? It’s a perfect night.” Her sweet smile consumes you, and draws you in to grasp her hand, and begin swaying in perfect rhythm with a song that doesn’t even exist. Candace typically isn’t very sappy, but tonight she wanted to be… close. Minutes pass, but they feel like an eternity in the best way possible, “Candace!! The village chief needs you!!” A small child says, running up to the cliff you were at. Candace looks at you, an apologetic, and sad smile on her face, “I should probably go, it might be an emergency.”

You smile, and nod in understanding, and as Candace lets ho of you, and begins to walk away you grasp her hand, and kiss her. “Just meet me back home when your done, I’ll have dinner ready and we can relax if you want.” Candace smiles at how you understand her, and agrees before running to the chief’s house, to get her work done quickly, and return to you.

[hansolmates]

the leak | 03

banner by @theluttleprince

summary; hansol vernon chwe is crying at his doorstep like a taylor swift music video, and you’re for some reason there to help  pairing; hvc / reader (f) genre/warnings; neighbors to friends, friends to lovers!au, slice of life, fluff, angst, tw—cheating, mentions of pregnancy related to cheating, profanity w/c; 1k a/n; i dont know how i feel about the added *issue* in the story—a very handsome issue, but here u go! [masterpost]

You’re now acutely aware of the fact that there is another living, breathing body behind the walls of your apartment. 

You really took for granted the fact that your neighbors were quiet (which in fact, were not neighbors at all because it’s been empty for the past year) because now you feel nothing but self conscious as you pad around your home. 

If it was any other neighbor, sure, you’d be dandy! However, it’s Vernon, and because you had a teeny tiny noncommittal attraction to him in college, it’s manifested into full blown self-consciousness. You really just can’t get over yourself. 

Lo-fi hip hop blends through the walls, invading your space as you absentmindedly stir the fresh pasta you bought on sale at the market. It isn’t your music, it’s Vernon’s, muffled by the wall that connects your kitchen. 

This hyper awareness is killing you. You haven’t spoken to him since that morning when your sleep was interrupted by his rush to move in, simply because you wanted to give him space. It’s been a week and you feel like your space is closing in on you. 

You know you want to talk to him, that little pesky voice in your head sings, you want to ask if he’s okay. 

“Ugh!” you tap your wooden spoon against your nonstick pan, flicking the water away. Your eyes float over to your simmering sauce on the stove, a cream sauce with a little squeeze of tomato paste. It’s almost done thickening. 

Distracting yourself from your neighbor with the pretty brown eyes, you grab your phone, scrolling through your missed messages. 

[3:08] Jihoon: hows the leak? 

[4:02] You: still dripping

[4:11] Jihoon: I can come over tonight and fix it

With a snort, you grab the tongs and start scooping the al dente pasta from the boiling pot into the simmering sauce. 

However, your sink is perfectly fine. That's because Jihoon is an efficient landlord.

(The only thing dripping is you, and you’re the only leak he’s planning to fix tonight.)

Haha, ha. You could cringe at how silly this whole situation is. 

If you told yourself ten years ago you’d be hooking up with your landlord, you’d laugh yourself to death. Lo and behold here you are, having a casual fling with your grumpy yet unfairly skilled landlord. 

To be fair, your sink was leaking the first time! Whether or not it was on purpose so that Jihoon could come see you, is a secret Jihoon refuses to tell. 

He is pretty, yet masculine. There’s something feline about his gaze, the way his skill in both the bed and his practice intrigues you and mollifies you to his command. Like that one time last week when he did that thing with his fingers—

“Fuck me,” you curse yourself, plating your completed pasta. After emulsifying your sauce with the perfect amount of pasta water, you occupy yourself with dinner. 

Jihoon is a good distraction, but not as intrusive as—

“Ow!” Vernon’s muffled voice echoes the wall between you, and you wince at the pain that lines his voice. Did he just drop a barbell? Does he lift? 

Belatedly realizing you cooked too much pasta to fit on one plate, you grab another ceramic plate a second scoop of pappardelle. 

Blowing at your stray hairs, the question stabs you in the brain: invite Jihoon to dinner, and have everything work out as it always does? 

Or—or? 

Five minutes later and a very demanding pep talk from your conscience, you have a plastic wrapped plate of pasta and you’re waiting for Vernon to answer his door. 

After a few seconds of hearing shuffling and more things falling to the ground, your new neighbor finally flings the door open. “Oh, hi!” His face is rapidly changing, going from surprised, to confused, and then a big D-mouthed smile when he notices what you’re holding in your hand. 

You’ve seen that Youtube Shorts girl who exchanges meals with her neighbors, and you wonder if she feels just as awkward as you do. 

“Hi,” you breathe out, “did you eat dinner?” 

You couldn’t even let out a “how are you?” because you wanted to cut right to the chase. Say yes and eat, or say no and you can ask Jihoon if you can move to the bottom floor. 

You squirm under his gaze, your bare feet feeling cool on the bare tile and your fingers hot due to the plate being under the stove just minutes before. He’s looking unbearably soft, his caramel hair bouncy and his grey sweat suit big and bubbly around his frame.

“Nope,” he pops the ‘p’, eyes still clinging to your hands, “did you?” 

“Oh, no. I just finished making this,” you proffer the plate up higher to meet his eyes, “and was wondering if you wanted some.” 

Instead of taking the plate and saying thank you, he replies, “you love pink, don’t you?” 

“Huh?” 

“My Melody clock, pink Crocs, and now pink sauce,” he bobs his head back and forth, “unless that’s just a coincidence.” 

“Oh, well—”

“I bet if I come into your apartment right now, the pan you used to cook this pasta is pink.” 

You huff, and if you weren’t holding the plate you’d be crossing your arms. Who knew he could be so cheeky? When you don’t answer right away he says, “I’m right, am I?” 

It’s mauve, actually. Instead, you retort, “I guess there’s only one way to find out?” 

Vernon’s irises soften, and you wonder how long it’s been since he’s eaten a meal with somebody. Taking the plate you’ve made out of your hands, he reaches a palm out to hold open your door, “Thanks.” 

Letting yourself in, you watch as he steps into your apartment gingerly. He gets a really good look at it this time, compared to last week when he was only concerned about getting out of a bad relationship. His eyes float over your walls, probably looking for all the pink things in your apartment. 

He sets himself at your table, and before you sit down next to him, you send out a quick text. 

[5:06] You: raincheck, i have a friend over for dinner tonight

[megumi-fm]

this week on megumi.fm ▸ coding and coffeeshops

📋 Tasks

💻 Internship ↳ lab meet!!! got to learn about the other projects in the lab ↳ got work from home approved!! ↳ optimize protein seq code // account for missing residues ✅ ↳ add on a binding site identifier function for code using 4.5A distance threshold ✅ ↳ optimize binding site code // reducing time complexity for large PDB file inputs ✅ ↳ download and extract alphafold human protein repository and analyze pdb file formats ↳ set up progress tracker and upload code on colab ✅ 🎓 Uni ↳ Final Project: update images quality according to changes mentioned ✅ ↳ renew uni email for extra credit classes ✅ ↳ extra credit classes started this week! 🩺Radiomics Projects ↳ call with teammates to discuss next steps ✅ 📧 Application-related ↳ finished masters application form for 1/1 Uni (waiting on my referee reports) ✅ ↳ finalize referee report from my profs ✅

📅 Daily-s

🛌 consistent sleep [7/7] 💧 good water intake [5/7] 👟 exercise [5/7]

Fun Stuff this week

🍻 met up with my bestie @muakrrr <3 it was a stressful tuesday so meeting him for lunch was super comforting! he bought this cute purple drink and I got myself some ginger ale and the waiter served us the wrong drinks (gender and expectations something something) and it was amusing to watch them get confused when we corrected them 🎂 mom's b'day this week!! went out for dinner with her!! 🛒 went shopping with relatives who I haven't seen in years. bought myself a book! (rip my bookshelf) ☕ went out for coffee and dinner with my girlies (the same besties who I exchanged mugs with). we're trying to spend as much time together as possible before we leave to different countries for our masters 🎮 continuing the beginner's guide 📺 ongoing: Marry my Husband, Cherry Magic Th, Last Twilight 📺 binged: KinnPorsche The Series

📻 This week's soundtrack

Love Wins All by IU (been crying over this music video for days now. it's beautiful) KinnPorsche theme by Slot Machine: Kinn's theme [aka Phiang Waichai; TH] | Porche's theme [aka Free Fall; Eng] (first of all this is one of the catchiest theme songs to exist second only to SPECIALZ aka the JJK s2 op i'm also particularly losing my mind over how the two themes are love letters to the main characters from each other... the narrative parallels of it all are driving me insane sldkhlaksjkshs) Dum Dum by Jeff Satur + the Live Unchained version where his vocals are heavenly (maybe im so drawn to this song because the chorus is similar to the melodic motifs of the KPTS themes/soundtrack, either way, the show introduced me to him and god. I've been voraciously consuming his discography.) Ghost by Jeff Satur (on repeat all week. thoroughly obsessed with this song- the lyricism, his voice, the storyline in the MV, his acting, everything. wow. truly.)

---

[Jan 22 to 28 ; week 4/52 || I. love. my. internship. like. I have been having the most fun time problem solving and troubleshooting. it's also super satisfying to see the outcome of my code. it's been a while since I used python (I've been coding on C) so I forget that python has a lot of inbuilt functions that would do the same tasks I inadvertently entrust my nested loops with, and finding out about them is always so joyous (although it means I have to scrap off several chunks of code). i am a bit annoyed though, because the other intern isn't really doing any work that we're entrusted with so I'm having to carry the team and it's taking me too much time. but oh well. I've suggested we split tasks from next week, hopefully that'll make things better.

I've also been procrastinating a lot when it comes to my masters applications and it really hit me this week when I had to run to uni several times to get things approved and completed. Now that I'll get to work from home I need to set up a proper schedule to get application work completed wayy in advance. also need to resume my GRE prep from next week.]

[itsleroyposts]

today I woke up with the clear goal to make a rating of Olympus snorers (it will include the 7 male olympians and Hades cause I don’t have much thought about others yet)

so from top to bottom

#1 Poseidon

as I already mentioned he is the loudest snorer over here

in my imagination big men always snore and Poseidon is quite tall and muscular so he is like a bear

the loudest snores come out when he passes out because of tiredness ,,,

like when he sleeps soundly his body relaxes and he doesn’t control any muscles or processes

a few times he snored at the top of his voice and caused several earthquakes :///

Amphitrite was laughing hysterically and teased him when other olympians had been constantly asking what was wrong and why he was so mad???

Poseidon made a pact with Amphitrite to never reveal the real reason

#2 Zeus

the only top he got the second place and not angry about

the main reason Zeus snores is because he is big

like Poseidon his snores are loud and kinda massive

I also like to think that during the Titanomachy he broke his nose and from that time he had some nose issues which he never solved because Hera never complained

Nevertheless Hera still loves to tease him because of loud snoring

She always says that just like kouretes made loud noises to hide baby Zeus the grown man is just hiding something from his wife

Zeus isn’t concerned about his loud snoring so surprisingly he usually laughs when other gods mention that

#3 Hephaestus and Ares

it seems to me that both Ares and Hephaestus snore from time to time

like their snores a medium volume and happen when their are really unconscious

Ares hates himself snoring mostly because Aphrodite can’t sleep in such noise right above her head (she is overreacting saying that Ares’ snores a FUCKING LOUD and poor man believes her)

Hephaestus only snores when he is lying on the back which happens not really often

but he is really ashamed of it because he count that as another “flaw” (Aphrodite was a reason of a such perpective) and still didn’t sorted this issue (both mentally and physically)

#4 Dionysus

it’s pretty obvious but when Dionysus is fucking drunk he snores

but in comparison with Zeus and Poseidon he has these kinda cute little snores and he even drooles

Ariadne sometimes founds it lovely but other time when Dionysus oversteps with vine it looks disgusting (other olympians think so)

Dionysus honestly can’t care less about snoring so he don’t even try to solve this

once he passed out completely wasted but somehow he didn’t snored and his Bacchantes and satyres were terrified

for a moment poor folks thought that he finally reached the edge

#5 Hermes

Hermes practically never snores at least other olympians do think so

but George and Martha (or just his snakes if you are not into pjo) caught him snoring a few times after extremely crazy party

yes he also snores when he is drunk

but he kinda snortes-snores if it make sense to you

so he accidentally snortes-snores once in 10-15 minutes and that makes sleepy Hermes fucking hilarious to others

#6 Apollo

poor boy is totally sure that he never snores

but the muses regularly catch him snoring like a little baby when he passes out after a long musical or poetry session

needless to say as soon as he finds out he is terrified

he desperately tries to solve this problem because he is the god of medicine and perfection (as he insists)

after his total loss and all 5 stages of grief he asks Asclepius for help

100% overdramatic about this

#7 Hades

lucky man who never got this problem

actually never cared about snoring unless Persephone said somethering like “thanks to the fates you are a quiet sleeper”

from now on he is a proud man

always chuckles when both Poseidon and Zeus mention their little issue and claims that he has the most perfect nose out of the family

his younger brothers not really jealous of it but they still like fake complaining

mostly they do that when Hades starts to annoy them like all elder siblings do

[winter-leftovers]

Til The End Of Eternity ||

Chapter one: Strings (1/?)

(Douxie Casperan x f!reader)

Summary: Y/n is trying to figure her life out but is going to be hard since her brother is the new trollhunter and she is plagued by dreams and feelings she doesn’t understand.

Chapter Summary: Jim is acting weird. Douxie buys guitar strings. Y/n finds a friend.

Word count: 1352

Warnings: mention of a dead animal, my summaries are awful, english is not my first language so tell me if something sounds weird ╰(▔∀▔)╯

(Season 1 Episodes 1, 2 and a little of 3.)

Song?: Enchanted by Taylor Swift

Previous — Next

Masterlist

“Good morning, Arcadia Oaks. It’s still 6 AM.”

The voice of the radio woke up Y/n of her short slumber. She had fallen asleep on top of her college books, again. She took the semester off from college for studying, or at least that’s what she told her mother after she found her sleeping on her desk last month. But if she was honest with herself she hasn’t been reading. She hasn’t even opened her books since she came home. Strange dreams were plaguing her nights; war, monsters, people she doesn’t know but love and a strange but familiar darkness that hugged her.

“Good morning, Y/n!” Downstairs she found her brother Jim making breakfast.

“I told you I could make breakfast” she laughed. Her brother was always eager to help.

“Well, I already did it” he set a plate for her.

“Thanks! Are you sure you don’t need a ride?” She asked as she saw him pick up his backpack.

“Nah, I’m good” he said before disappearing into the garage.

“Okay…Bye! Say hello to Toby!” She screamed.

“Bye!”

As she started to eat her meal. She heard Jim stumbling on the trashcans.

“Ugh! Racoons”

She laughed at his screams.

-

The shifts at the music store could be slow and exhausting. A lot of parents ask her what’s the best instrument for their child like she could know. Even with her favourite music in the background the walk home felt eternal.

A small yelp interrupted her routine. She looked to both sides but nothing seemed out of the ordinary, so she kept walking. She heard another yelp but this time it sounded like a…meow? She looked in the dark alley and suddenly, a set of familiar amber eyes were looking back at her.

“Wait” she murmured to herself “Al?” She crouched and extended her hand.

The cat meowed in response. Y/n remember that meow.

“Oh love, it is you! Do you remember me?”

Slowly, the cat walked out of the darkness and smelled her hand recognising her immediately.

“Hello, my little baby” she laughed once the brown cat threw herself at her, purring, just like he did the first time they met.

Y/n walked all the way home holding Al, he was as light as she remembered. She couldn’t let him go and risk losing him again.

A year ago, after Y/n went to another town for college, Al ran away. She had lost her hope of finding her a couple months back when she came home from college and heard about a brown cat being run over by Dr. Muelas.

“Jim! Jim! Look who I found!” She screamed at the seemingly empty house.

“Jim?”

“Meow?”

No answer

“Maybe he went to Toby’s”

Al licked her nose in response

—

The next morning, Y/n woke up to her brother shaking her

“Y/n! Y/n!”

“Mmh, Jim! What?” She put her pillow on her face.

“I need to talk to you!” It sounded urgent.

“Ugh! I’m up I’m up” she sat up on the bed and looked at her brother, he was pacing not paying attention to the cat next to her feet.

“Okay, okay. Last night the craziest thing happened. I was home and I looked at the…”

“You were home last night?“ she looked at her brother’s bewildered face “Keep going. Never mind”

“So…I heard a noise in the basement and I thought it was racoons but there was these huuuge things, with eyes that…”

Jim looked back at her sister and saw the confusion on her face.

“Ha! I think I’m losing my mind. Never mind. Forget it”

“You sure?” Y/n said before falling asleep again without listening to the answer.

—

While Y/n scanned a record for a band she didn’t care about she thought about her brother and the chat they had this morning, if you could call that a chat. Was her brother also having nightmares? Was he having trouble at school? Is she not doing enough at home?

“Hello” A voice brought her back from her mind.

“Welcome. How can I help you?” She looked at the man and felt the blood rushing to her cheeks.

“I’m looking for guitar strings” said in an english accent that sounded so sweet to her ear

The guy smiled and Y/n just stared. There was something about him.

“He doesn’t know how to negotiate!” A distant scream distracted her.

“Toby?” She looked out the window.

“Emmh no, my name is Douxie. Remember?” he laughed.

“Oh, yes. Sorry” she blushed “I’m Y/n…but you knew that…Sorry about that. Electric and acoustic are over that wall”

“Thanks”

Y/n couldn’t stop looking at Douxie. Every time she saw him she would get lost observing him. The way he moved and talked. There was something about him that made her dizzy but she didn’t know what it was.

“If you keep looking at him like that you’ll make a hole in him” Randy, the manager of the store laughed.

“Ha ha! very funny. You should be a comedian” Y/n rolled her eyes “There’s something about him. I think I know him from somewhere”

“Suuuure”

“Come on! Where did I see him before?” She tilted her head and mumbled “Have I ever seen him before?”

Randy sized her up for a second. He has the tendency to think she’s lying.

“He works at Benoit’s”

She looked back at him with at smile.

“Of course! How did I forget it?” She lied.

Yes, she remembered him from Benoit’s. That was the first time she can recall seeing him.

It was an afternoon, Y/n was waiting for her brother and his friend to meet her outside of Benoit’s. They just had a big exam and she wanted to do something nice for them. She was laying against a pole looking at her phone when she heard him.

“There you are! I thought I lost you” He lifted her in the air.

“What are you doing?!” She hits him in his ribs with her elbow.

“Oh, fuzzbuckets!” Douxie put her down and grabbed his stomach.

“Do I know you?” When she turned around and saw him. He was crouched down, his hands across his stomach and his face was partially covered by his black and blue hair.

She felt the world slow down when his hazel eyes met hers. She almost forgot that she was mad at him for touching her without her permission.

He seemed disappointed and that made Y/n chest hurt. She had to mentally slap herself and remind herself that this random man just hugged her from behind without her consent.

He apologized and quickly explained that he thought she was someone else. Y/n chuckled. The red on his cheeks and the big distance he had put between them made her agree that it was a mistake. He even paid for the food she ate with Jim and Toby at Benoit’s when she sat at one of his tables, which y/n thought it was too much. Her boys eat a lot.

Y/n’s ringing phone distracted them from Douxie and his guitar strings.

“Ow, mom is coming to pick you up?” He joked.

“Shut up! your mom actually picks you up” She chuckled.

Randy laughed.

“Hi, mom. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah! One of Jim’s teachers is here and I think you should come by” she whispered.

“Okay, I’ll be there” she smiled at her phone.

“Love you”

“Love ya”

“Can I help you with something more?” Randy spoke.

“No, thanks, '' Douxie smiled, making Y/n’s stomach turn. She doesn’t get nervous with customers anymore, they don’t seem humans to her, but something in Douxie made all the words get stuck in her throat.

“Thank you. Bye, Y/n”

“B-bye Douxie not Toby”

He left the store smiling.

Before she could completely recover Randy spoke again.

“You know, he came for strings last night”

“So?” Y/n didn’t follow.

He laughed “Unless he playing with a knife no one needs the amount of strings this dude buys”

She turned ever redder.

A/n: hi! This is an absolute first for me so im kinda nervous. I hope you liked the first chapter!!! If you think you can guess where this is going let me know👀

~I don’t own the characters or trollhunters :)~

[jack-kellys]

i said i'd do this today so here you all go. disclaimer this is not every single question, just the ones i cared about (so the fun ones)

notes from the most recent uk fansie night q&a:

i was not there but i was sent a video lmao

FOR DAVEY: how much free range have you been able to build on with your character?

answer: ryan said they all basically started with a blank canvas, but davey has rly grown since december. specifically davey's gotten “weirder”, and he hopes that “he will get even more strange.”

LONDON CAST RECORDING?

nothing is confirmed but the whole cast really wants one lmao

dance class from ireland came :) asked abt dance tips and industry ins

fav dance moves/moments in the show 

box jump for ross <3

sam demonstrated the leg pats as his fav

matthew loves the role call triangle lmao

michael demonstrated a front kick they do holding a rolled paper

have you ever hit anyone w something thrown into the audience?

archie tells on jack bromage (who isn't there to defend himself) and how he kicked a paper ball into a kid’s FACE LMFAO

jacob called out matthew for his slingshot hits into the audience 

biggest malfunction during a show?

ryan and michael acted out waiting for bronte and a les to enter during WWH reprise’s scene- “and that is what you call a beginning! ………….chill out, man!” “…you got a problem?” HELLO??

box jump update

if you could put your character into another musical what would it be

davey for mean girls 2023

splasher for matilda

OSCAR FOR B+C???

jack for wicked lmao “him and fiyero might fight”

specs as one of the annoying kids in charlie and the chocolate factory 

kath for sylvia!

ritz for young frankenstein (bc putting on the ritz heh)

CRUTCHIE FOR MOULIN ROUGHEJH PLS matthew ily

mush for annie

ike for something rotten

elmer for WSS

al for a rocky musical (fights.)

romeo for grease!! “kinicky vibe”

how do ur jumps get so high

ross: "i’ve been jumping for.. a long time"

what are the hidden personal gems that audience members might miss during the show?

albert pickpockets one of the theatergoers in medda’s theater. holy shit. and sometimes the actor leaves jacob and actual object to steal in his pocket PLSLOKFSF

crutchie sees snyder from his perch by the soundboard and reacts in fear

how long is fight call and do you call every stunt

this is interesting to me so. depends on the day bc of swings so they do the big fight and child actor stunts every day.

EVERYONES FAV GAGA SONG

ryans is bad romance

poker face ross

applause for sam

matthew is not a gaga person oops

“thank you for that question <3”

how do you approach making roles individual?

“determined early that its a diff version of jack and kath” (bronté)

purposefully ignore things that have come before!!!!

bronte and michael talked a LOT abt their jath 

“can only do the best version of your version” <3 (michael)

doing what you think is the right way, “offering your voice into the discussion” of a character’s legacy/existence. MICHAEL ONCE AGAIN FCUVKING GETS IT THIS IS !! WHAT I WAS FUCKING SAYING. fyi. we understand each other

fav character and why!

ryans is kath heheh

ross’s IS FINCH!! he loves damon and thinks he’s made finch special <3

owen (oscar) rly likes racer!

michael rly likes davey, “unsung hero”

sam likes kath <3

bronte likes the brooklyn newsiessssss, especially stray and mentioned the art piece of stray with a stray :) @chimeofthecomet YOURS BRO SHE MENTIONED YOURS !!!

lucy likes specs

matthew thinks pulitzer is cool to find nuance in

kai’s fav is lillie’s spot!

archie thinks finch is best bc he’s mysterious

damn bradley likes finch too! “always trying to come up with a solution” OKAYYYYY GO DAMON!! gets an a+ in characterization

jacob on his pulitzer villain moment stuff again

spencer likes davey’s contrast!! “one of the strongest characters in the group”

fastest quick change you’ve done

the oscar immediately laments his changes lmfaoooo

michael was morgrim??? in lion witch wardrobe??? a wolf??

preshow rituals

RYAN WATCHES STREISANDS IM THE GREATEST STAR LMAOOO??

interesting he was given her as a reference for a fast talking new yorker so heavy city accented davey jacobs truthers rise up we won (its just me) we won! 

the new kids dressing room does the wolf of wall street chest hitting thing lol

michael listens to two diff revolution speeches i think?

bronte’s is seeing ryan :)

THE GIRLSIES PLAY HIDE AND SEEK BACKSTAGE DURING THEIR BREAKS PLS

matthew talks abt what alex hatton used to do, look at a pic of his gf and grandparent pls aw

archie used to jump on a chair at the five before he. hit his head. bro

jacob does a diff riddle for each mic check!!

that’s all the best ones i could catch!!

[viviennevermillion]

Amusement Park Date

notes: chaos ensues. also expect more writing in the next few days as I am the dancing queen, young and sweet, now in quarantine. my stepdad has covid so I'm doing social-distancing extreme rn

characters included: deuce spade, floyd leech, kalim al-asim, malleus draconia

contains: character x gn!reader

warnings: none

Deuce is so hyped to go to the amusement park with you. He's been to amusement parks with his mum when he was younger and he loved them. He especially adored the rollercoasters. So he was super excited to experience them again with you.

He gets you stuff at the souvenir shop from his allowance. A nice plushie or a keychain. And candy. He blushes when giving them to you

Holds your hand while walking through the amusement park with you

He gets spooked in the haunted house and makes you promise to never mention this in front of Ace. Or anyone else for that matter. Let's out a little high-pitched scream and his voice cracks a bit. He instinctively reaches for your hand. Acts like you're holding it because you know he'll protect you

Bumps into at least 3 mirrors at the fun house mirror maze

Enjoys all the street food that's sold at the amusement park with you. He lets you try from his and takes pictures with you that he uploads to Magicam.

Loved the rollercoasters so much as a kid but now that he's on one again he's realizing too late that he's now actually kinda scared of them. Clings to you.

His legs are wobbly when he steps out of the rollercoaster and you chuckle and hold him.

Loses orientation. He has a map of the amusement park but he's struggling to properly read it. Goes in circles with you at least twice

Doesn't mind doing your favorite attractions in the park over and over again if you like them a lot

You get him a cute hat from the amusement park souvenir shop and he wears it for the whole trip

Also likes the slower rides. He does a small boat tour with you or walks through the indoor garden and butterfly house. He takes a photo when some of the butterflies land on your shoulder and hand and makes it his wallpaper

He watches the sunset with you while there's romantic music playing and you eat ice cream and look at the Merry-go-round that's illuminated by lights and absentmindedly watch the people pass by. Deuce holds your hand and rests his head on your shoulder. "I love you so much", he says quietly and squeezes your hand

He took you to the amusement park specifically on the day there was a fireworks show. You kiss when the fireworks go off.

Just say you want the most chaotic date in the history of mankind....or fishkind

Literally I don't even know where to begin with this one

He's the scariest thing in the haunted house

Literally finds the haunted house boring and makes it his personal mission to scare the crap out of everyone else in it, including you. Though he's still lenient with you. He will spook you a couple of times and then cackle and kiss your cheek when you shriek. "Aw Shrimpy got scared", he grins and then turns around the corner with you, smiles at another stranger in the haunted house with wide eyes and like he's going insane. Then Floyd starts cackling like an evil demon and charges after the stranger at full speed. He stops eventually after the strangers have run away

Gives you the smile he has on the header. "Look, now we're all alone in here, that's romantic isn't it?", he says and kisses you. "Yeah....Floyd....you literally made everyone else leave."

Exits the haunted house like "This was fun :)"

Also turns the fun house into a haunted house.

Makes sure you are soaked by the end of the water coaster. Literally throws himself into the water when the coaster comes to a halt and either pulls you in it with him or turns into his merman form and splashes water not just on you but onto everyone else in the coaster. They almost called security because of the giant eel lurking in the small pool at the coaster exit

You buy him a balloon in the shape of a shrimp and he's so happy about it. He carries the balloon with him for the whole trip and also puts it in his room at NRC and carries it to Mostro Lounge when he has to work

He buys the most useless trinkets at the souvenir shop and brings them to you like a little treasure

If you leave him in the souvenir shop unattended he'll end up walking around with a shirt of the amusement park, a hat and one of those giant foam fingers

Makes the gondola on the ferris wheel move left and right at a dangerous height by throwing himself against the sides of it with his full weight. When the instructions specifically said to avoid a lot of movement on the ferris wheel.

Cackles on the rollercoaster and when you exit it turns out he accidentally removed his safety belt during the ride and was still just vibing in there

His favorite thing is the bumper car place and his objective is basically to bump into everyone else with his cart as hard as possibly.

Another one who couldn't be more excited.

Kalims family actually owns the amusement park you go to and he's been there multiple times as a child. He always brought Jamil along and Kalim was excitedly introducing you to all the attractions and waiting for your reactions to them

You have to wait at the entrance to the park and in the waiting line, Kalim makes at least 5 new friends, accidentally starts a flash mob and ends up dancing with all the people to Scalding Sands music

Buys a cotton candy bigger than his head. He shares it with you and repeatedly stops during the walk through the park with you just to give you a hug.

He wants to try out all the attractions, even the ones that are for children. Has the time of his life on the Merry-go-round. He tries to hold your hand on it.

His favorite attraction is the chairoplane. It always plays fun and upbeat music during the ride and especially after it has gotten dark, it's decorated with all sorts of colorful lights

Actually scared af in the haunted house. Clings to your arm and flinches at every minor thing.

Has the most fun at the fun house. He's so excited about everything in there and INSISTS you take pictures with him in front of the image-distorting mirrors

He's like a Golden Retriever on a parkour

Takes lots of pictures with you and Jamil checks his phone at NRC and receives like 120 messages from Kalim. All of them are pictures he took at the amusement park. On some he literally just took a photo of the pigeons on the street.

Actually tries not to hit anything with the bumper car. Apologizes everytime he does.

They have a pond with swans on it at the park and Kalim gets hissed at by a swan and it follows him and he's calling out to you to help him

Buys ice cream and accidentally drops it. He's like "oh no :(" and you wait in line to get him a new one because you can't say no to his sad puppy eyes

Totally hyped for the tunnel of love thing with you. Kisses you repeatedly and snuggles you. And he tells you that he loves you at least 20 times.

Now, before you two go on this trip, Malleus actually has no idea what an amusement park is and even after the explanation he can't really imagine it before he sees it and let me tell you, it's one of the most fascinating experiences of his life.

You buy him cotton candy and he's so surprised at the texture of it but he loves it. It's one of his favorite foods now.

Just imagine how cute he'd look with a surprised facial expression and repeatedly putting cotton candy in his mouth

He's staring at everything with his surprised Malleus face™ and he asks you like, a million questions. "What is this? What is its purpose? Why do people scream on the rollercoaster? Why does the park want money from me for using the toilet?"

Doesn't really get the rollercoaster. Or the haunted house. He isn't scared of the haunted house at all because of how powerful he is and he's used to the feeling of flying so the coaster and the chairoplane don't really do anything for him

Loves the water coaster though. Splashes you with the water and tells you your facial expression is cute. He presses a kiss to your cheek and tells you he could make a tornado with his magic on the water. You cup his cheeks and softly whisper "don't."

There's one coaster that's indoors and completely in the dark and he makes fireflies appear around you to impress you. It's really beautiful

Doesn't really get the love tunnel but is convinced he has to show you all his love and affection so he just kisses you for the whole ride and holds you close

Also gets a shirt of the amusement park at the souvenir shop. Really just loves unique, colorful shirts from different places he's been at.

Likes the songs they play at the amusement park and you show him that you can use your phone to find out what the song is. You might compile them on a playlist for him

There's a dragon on the Merry-go-round that looks similar to his GaoGao Dragon-kun, so he wants to try it out. Just imagine this 2m tall man of on a Merry-go-round with a bunch of children

Takes some photos with a polaroid camera so he can show them to Lilia later

Marvels at all the street food they sell at different parts of the park. Wants to try a lot of them. He makes a mental note to ask you to find a recipe for his favorite ones online so you two can make them together

This was the most fun day he's had in a long long time. Everything was so new and exciting and he was glad to get to experience it with you. You were both basically glowing with happiness and he's clinging to you for the rest of the day

[kaysfanficcorner]

Out of This World Chapter 3: Bittersweet Symphony

Author’s Note: Hi everyone! Thank you so much for the support thus far, and for your patience! It took a moment for me to find the groove with this chapter, but it’s finally here! Looks like I was just in time with the return of our beskar-clad love on the 1st. This will be the first chapter with a tag list, so if you’d like to be added going forward please let me know!

Summary: As complicated feelings persist, the Mandalorian and his new ship mate continue to learn more about each other as they head off to Nar Shaddaa for one more bounty.

Pairing: Din Djarin x Female Earthing Reader

Warnings: cursing, mentions of sex, and mentions of emotional childhood trauma. This story is eventually going to have NSFW scenes so please no one under 18 interact. If you are under age, you are prohibited from this work of fiction.

Music Inspiration

AO3

*****

As Din Djarin is coming out of the fresher on the Razor Crest, feeling a little like a new man after taking a much needed shower, he hears a soft melody coming from the second floor. The kid’s nowhere to be found, nor are you and nor is the cat. Curious, he climbs the ladder to see what you’re doing up there and the light music grows louder the closer he gets.

Now he recognizes your voice, singing along to one of the songs on your primitive personal device with the accompanying music softly playing in the background. He finds the sound of it to be one of the loveliest things ever to grace his ears, despite the fact that the music itself is unlike anything Din has heard prior to meeting you.

Din is also acutely aware that the tone of your voice sounds very sad, and disquiet washes over him. 

He enters the cockpit, eyes immediately landing on the back of your head. You’re sitting in your usual spot with both feet on the seat and both knees hugged to your chest, looking out at the unmoving, purple tinted star field and rocky asteroid belt. You hair is pulled up into what you call a “messy bun”, and you’re wearing Cara’s hand me down clothing. A long sleeved black tunic with diagonal straps going across the chest and a red line going down the side of each arm, as well as a pair of grey pants with dark red pockets and straps going down each leg. Black boots sit beneath your chair, but your socked feet are obviously not in them. These clothes have seemed oddly fitting on you as of late, making you look more like a citizen of the galaxy to Din, while still looking entirely like yourself. It’s a good look, if he’s truly being honest. 

You stop singing when he comes further into the room, and Din finds himself disappointed by it’s sudden cut off. Even dispirited, you sound so beautiful. The device playing the music remains to do its job, laying nearly forgotten on the floor beside your boots. The kid and the cat are both sleeping together in the other passenger seat, nestled against one another. 

“Hey, Chrome Dome,” you say with even more sadness in your voice. 

Din moves in closer, coming to face your right side. You don’t look up at him. 

“Is something wrong?” He asks, genuinely concerned. 

“I don’t know how to answer that,” you reply with a shaky voice. 

Din feels incredibly uncomfortable seeing this sudden change in your otherwise pleasant demeanor. You don’t sound like the you he’s come to feel so friendly towards, and it bothers him. In this current moment he can’t explain to himself as to why, but he wants desperately to take the sadness away from you. To see a smile grace your plump lips again. He knows logically that he can’t just remove an emotion from another person to just to replace it with another, but he wants to all the same.

It’s because you care for her, a voice that sounds a lot like his says in the back of his mind. He ignores it and focuses his attention back to you.

Moments like this have always been awkward for Din Djarin. The tight-lipped bounty hunter has rarely showed this much emotion in front of another person, not at all since entering into adulthood, and seeing someone else openly wallowing in throws of despair is uncharted territory for a man like him. He has no idea how to conduct himself, but in spite of this he still feels this tugging urge to help you feel better coming from somewhere deep inside his belly. 

“You’re clearly upset,” Din says, mentally kicking himself for how unhelpful that probably sounds. 

You sigh, “I just get like this sometimes. I think a lot of it comes from having a lack of a normal childhood and growing up in a generally unaccepting society. At least that’s what I’d been trying to figure out with my therapist back on Earth.” There’s such a lack on enthusiasm in your voice as you speak, shrugging your shoulders as you say the last sentence. 

“What’s a therapist?” Din inquires with a slight head tilt to the left, ever curious about the world you come from. 

“A mental health doctor, or healer rather. They try to help you figure out what’s going on in your head and give you healthy ways to deal with it.” You explain, adding on with, “I don’t know how to explain why I suddenly feel like shit. I don’t feel like I’m at my lowest or anything, but I don’t feel great.” You begin to hug your knees even tighter, burying your face into your thighs to try and hide your obvious tears from him, but Din sees them. 

He’s at a loss for words. He has literally no idea what to say, but maybe saying something isn’t what he needs to do right now. Perhaps what you need is to get these feelings out of you, to know that someone is there and someone is listening. 

Without truly understanding himself, the bounty hunter succumbs to an impulse and removes his gloves, letting them drop to the floor before kneeling beside you. Tentatively, he places a bare hand at the base of your exposed neck. You flinch slightly, before relaxing into his warm touch a little by pressing back against his palm. Din takes this as permission to keep his hand where it is, your soft skin driving him mad somewhere deep inside. 

Then words seem to come to him after all. Not many, but enough to communicate the necessary information. “My childhood was ripped away from me without my consent. I may not experience the same feelings that you do, but I might be able to understand. You can trust me.” As he says this Din begins to gently squeeze your neck, lightly massaging around your vertebrae. His other hand turns the music on your device down a little so that he can focus on your voice. 

You take a deep breath, “I wasn’t treated with a lot of respect as a child. I was born to parents who got pregnant by mistake when they slept together at some party and I was the end result. They got married because more often than not in my culture if you got a girl pregnant it was your responsibility to marry her, even if you couldn’t stand each other. So they grew to hate each other, like a lot. Whenever they fought I always felt to blame for existing, even though I never asked to be a part of their shitty little lives in the first place. To them I was just this constant burden they had to bare and I was the reason that they never got to have the lives they’d dreamed of. Which is such bullshit. They could have done anything they wanted to with their lives, I was just an easy target for blame.”

Pausing for a moment, you catch your shaky breath again and continue, “My grandparents on my dad’s side might as well have been non-existent. My grandmother on my mom’s side is horribly judgmental and controlling and I could never be myself around her. If the family as a whole was not meeting her standards then she would rain hell upon anyone and everyone to get her way. Everything had to be perfect on the surface with her, even if all of us were dying inside. The only person in my family that I’ve ever felt close to was my mom’s father. My grandfather was a great man.” Your voice hitches every few words as you softly weep out this explanation.

Din’s hand never stops rubbing circles into your neck and the other grabs hold of one of yours. 

You squeeze it for dear life. 

“You said your grandfather was one of the few who got to break your planet’s atmosphere,” Din says, letting you know that he remembered your mention of the family’s patriarch. Letting you know that he’s listened to every word you’ve ever said to him with respect.

Nodding, you continue to tell Din about the father figure you’re clearly missing. “He worked for my government’s space program until they kicked him out for theories about human life in other parts of the universe. They thought he was crazy, and so he lost everything. My grandmother left him and I was forbidden from seeing him anymore. But I broke the rules all the time, and I spent a ton of time at his house until I finally got caught one day. After that I had zero freedom until I was old enough to move out on my own. I started seeing him again once I detached from the rest of my family. I was pretty much disowned at that point, so he let me move in. Shortly after that he disappeared and then five years went by without a trace of him. I looked everywhere. Well, at least I tried. He was eventually declared legally dead, with a funeral and everything. I refused to go because I wasn’t ready to admit that he probably is truly dead. I refused to think that he would just abandon me on purpose. The only person who ever understood me, who didn’t make me feel like I had to pretend to be someone else, left me without a single word. I’ll never see him again.” 

Your crying becomes increasingly more emotional, shoulders shaking violently as your voice takes on a new layer of pain. “Fuck, I just wish that he could have at least found out that his theories were correct. He’ll never get to know he was right and that everyone else was wrong.”

“That is unfortunate,” Din agrees, still feeling uncomfortable and unaware of what to say. 

“Screw those assholes. Screw my family. Screw Earth. Part of me doesn’t even want to go back there, Mando. I’ve barely got any friends, and the ones I do have are out living their best lives. Marriage, kids, careers. It feels like I blinked and suddenly we were all thirty and I couldn’t relate them anymore because my life didn’t keep moving forward past school. I don’t have a real family to go back to. I don’t even know who I am anymore, Mando. Maybe I never really knew to begin with.”

Sharply, you sit up then and Din’s hand slides down your back. While letting out an uninhibited noise of frustration, you gesture to the cockpit window where the stars and small asteroids sit serenely in space. “Why the hell would I want to go back to a boring life without this?” 

Then your voice dips down to nearly a whisper, outstretched fingers slowly curling back down into a tight fist that you slam against your own thigh. “Fuck, its so fucking beautiful that it tears me apart inside.”

“You don’t have to go back,” Din says after a beat, meaning every word even though it scares him a little to say it out loud. He’s not sure where he finds the words, but they come regardless. “You could start over, make a new life here. Go anywhere in the galaxy. Become anyone you want. It wouldn’t be easy, but you could do it. There’s nothing stopping you.”

You look at him then, cheeks wet and nose slightly runny, and even so he’s struck by how raw your facial expression is. Although wrought with hard emotions, Din thinks you look stunning. 

“I feel like I’m stopping me,” you say with a small sob, whipping your nose on your sleeve and your cheeks with your palm. Your other hand is still clutching his tightly. “I can barely do anything for myself here. I’m completely reliant on other people. On you. I have to let you do everything. You hunt, you make credits, you fight, you cook, and you fly the ship. All I’m good for is watching the kid. Back on Earth I was completely self-sufficient because I had to be. Sometimes I love it here and I never want to leave and sometimes it’s so frustrating not being able to take care of myself.”

Din moves his hand back up to your neck, pressing his thumb and forefinger to the base of your skull. Your eyes slip closed as if experiencing a small moment of pleasure. Din argues, “Why do you have to be completely reliant on me? You can learn how to do anything that I can do. I’ll teach you, or at the very least I can try.” 

“I already intrude on your life enough as it is, Mando. Ugh, fuck, I’m literally a burden on everyone I ever meet. Maybe my parents were right. I know you had no interest in taking me on, and I’m sure I’ll overstay my welcome at some point.” You huff, prying your eyes open to look at him again. 

There’s so much pain behind your irises that something in Din’s chest crumbles at the sight of it. The need to fix this becomes entirely too strong to control but he can tell you're not done expressing yourself, so he lets you finish. 

Your voice is laced with the same pain from your eyes, “Then I’ll just be on my own again. I’m so fucking tired of being alone.”

Din decides to be honest and firm, but in no way intended to hurt your feelings. “It’s true, you may overstay your welcome one day. It’s also true that I didn’t want to accept this arrangement and I feared that this would quickly become tiresome.” 

Your face contorts into a tiny look of agony so he squeezes your hand tighter, taking on an even firmer tone of voice as he says your name to really get your attention. “Don’t focus on the pain, focus on me.” He’s not sure if what he’s saying is helpful, but he feels as if he’s got to say something. As new and strange as this is for him, he truly wants to help his friend. 

Din waits for you to blink at him and nod slowly before going on, “I do not regret this. It didn’t become clear to me that I’ve missed having a friend around until a few weeks ago. I’ve been alone for a long time, and I’m tired of it too.”

When Din says that final sentiment, your face softens considerably and you let out a new kind of sob that almost sounds like relief is lacing its tone. You dive into him with such speed and force that he lets out a surprised yelp as he’s knocked on his ass. You’re clinging to him with nearly crushing force. Arms around his waist, your face burrows into him as the rest of you curls up on the floor between his sprawled legs.

At first he just lets you squeeze him with his own arms awkwardly outstretched on either side of you. After a moment, Din’s arms tentatively come to circle your upper back, one hand cradling your head slightly. This is all so foreign, but at the same time he can’t help but think that it feels entirely right to be in this position with you in his arms. 

“I’m here,” he soothes, and you sob until you have nothing left in you.

Somehow Jupiter and the kid sleep through all of it.

*****

When you finally calm down enough to dislodge from the mandalorian, you scoot back until your back is pressed to the side of the red seat. Throwing your head back with inflamed puffy eyes squeezed shut, you rub at them with your hands as you start to take more even breaths. You know a splitting headache isn’t going to be far behind a good cry like that.

“Fuck,” you exclaim. “Sorry that was kinda intense.”

“You don’t need to apologize for expressing yourself.” Mando says sternly. 

You feel incredibly awkward after being so vulnerable in front of someone so stoic like him, but he let you get out several months worth of pent up feelings. “I just feel like that was a lot,” you say, feeling as if it’s necessary to make further excuses for yourself.

Looking back over at Mando, you watch his silver helmet shake in the negative as he speaks. “Well you don’t have to. Thank you for trusting me.”

“You’re welcome, near bursha. Did I say that right?” You demeanor is shy as the foreign words leave your mouth.

“It’s ner burc’ya, but you got close.” He pronounces it slowly, tone low and warm.

“Ner burc’ya,” you repeat softly. 

Mando stands then and holds a bare hand out to you. You sniff a little, trying to clear your stuffy nose as you look at his skin and stop to really register that it had been exposed for most of that interaction between you. The way in which he’d rubbed your neck while you cried your eyes out  had been so soothing, but you’d been so caught up in your feelings that its not until now that you really realize how long you were feeling his warm skin touch your own. 

You take Mando’s hand and let him pull you up easily, wobbling a little as you come to your feet. A hand on his beskar chest plate steadies you, his own hand holding your elbow for extra support. 

“I feel woozy,” you say with your other hand to your forehead. The throbbing in your skull is already beginning its painful rhythm.

“You need to hydrate,” Mando says matter of factly while leading you to his seat at the front of the cockpit. “Sit. I’ll get you water.”

You comply, sitting in the pilot’s seat of the Razor Crest for only the second time since the ship became your sort-of home. It definitely feels more worn than your own seat, having way more give in the cushion. Obviously your mysterious friend didn’t have a lot of passengers prior to you. Pulling your feet up and laying your head on your knees, you breathe in the comforting aroma of the Mandalorian surrounding you for a few moments as you look at the stars and asteroids surrounding the ship. 

Behind you the baby stirs and makes a little yawning noise. 

“You slept through a shit show, green bean.” You say, turning to see his huge black eyes blinking awake at you.

“Language,” Mando’s voice reappears in the doorway, “His first word is going to be something awful thanks to us.”

You roll your eyes with a small grin, “You are dramatic. Is that a mandalorian thing or just a you thing?”

He hands you the cup of water, shaking his silver head at you. “Just drink.”

As you take a few sips he comes to stand next to you, leaning slightly on a buttonless section of the control panel with his arms crossed at the wrists just at the base of his abdomen. His right hand is holding onto his left forearm slightly, and even in the state you’re in you can appreciate how attractive he is to you. The visor fixes on you and you feel slightly unnerved by it, your system still all over the place after coming down from the extreme state of dysregulation. 

Feeling an awkward need to break the silence, you say, “So we’re landing on Nevarro soon?”

“Yes. Before we get there, would you like to practice flying the ship?” His voice is even as he says this, and you’re dying to know what his face is doing on the other side of the beskar. He can’t be serious, can he?

“Uh, what?” You say almost dumbly, features scrunching. “Don’t think I heard you right.”

His head tilts to the side slightly and his arms shift. “You heard me right. If you want to feel more self sufficient, you’re going to need to learn how to live in this galaxy, not just exist in it. That includes flying. Besides, it would take some of the strain off of me if you could man the controls as well.”

Some of your normal snarky personality is starting to resurface as you quip back, “I was just thinking the other day that if there was an emergency and you needed me to fly the ship we’d be screwed.”

“Exactly,” Mando agrees.

“I was being sarcastic, but that’s cool too.”

“Would you like to learn to fly or not?” His tone, although playful for him, has a seriousness laced within it.

You decide to take the hint, looking at him seriously. “Yes, please.”

The Mandalorian shows you a few very basic controls and how to steer. Watching his gloveless fingers dance across the controls effortlessly is mesmerizing. Maybe its because his hands are the only part of him you ever get to see, but damn are they lovely. 

As he explains navigation and thrusters, you realize how intimidating a ship like the Razor Crest really is. So much goes into flying these ships, but seeing as the craftsmanship is far beyond anything Earth has ever come up with you're not really surprised. It’s definitely not like driving your shitty old Honda, that’s for sure. This vessel is designed for deep space, not driving to the mall to get cheese fries and a new t-shirt from Hot Topic. 

After he shows you what you need to know for very basic maneuvering, Mando steps back and picks up the kid. Jupiter has since jumped down from the chair and is circling between Mando’s legs. They come to your side, the foster father and son who are slowly winning your heart, and and any nerves you felt up until this point slowly fade away. You feel a little more confident as you reach across the controls, clicking on the few buttons he’d showed you before grabbing the left and right joysticks meant or steering.

Just as the ship begins to move, your forgotten iPad changes over to the next song and “Bittersweet Symphony” by The Verve starts to play. It’s so faint you can barely hear it, but you can’t imagine a more fitting soundtrack to this moment. 

You steer left, then right, feeling the Razor Crest glide exactly where you direct it. You speed up a little, dipping up and down then back and forth. A feeling of joy rises to your chest, and if you hadn’t just cried out everything your body has to cry, tears might have formed again at the experience of getting to fly a spacecraft for the first time. But they don’t, so you just allow yourself to enjoy this moment. This confident feeling of freedom is unlike anything you have experienced, like you really could tackle anything you put your mind to.

“How do you feel?” Mando asks as you slow down to a stop and release the steering, grinning up at him with bright eyes.

“Like I can do anything,” you reply honestly. “I could get used to this.” 

The kid reaches for you then, so Mando passes him over. Your bare fingers run across his as you take the child into your arms, skin tingling where his touch had once been. 

*****

The stop on Nevarro is intentionally quick, with Din demanding that Karga give him the biggest payout bounty on his list as soon as he arrives in his office. You’ve taken the child off to see Cara and visit with her until Din comes to retrieve you both. 

“Well hello to you too, Mando,” Greef Karga says with a raise of the brow.

“I need to focus on the mission. On the child. Hunting that last round of bounties took up too much time.” Din says matter of factly. “If I could get one big payout, enough to last us a couple of months, then I can take care of the matters at hand.” 

Karga shakes his head, “You know better than most that the biggest payouts are the most dangerous. Are you willing to put the child and the girl at risk?”

“If I do my job correctly, there will be no risk to speak of.” Din replies evenly, unappreciative of Karga’s tone. “I’d like to be done with this for a while.”

“There is always a risk, Mando. But frankly, with Nevarro becoming such a prosperous and respectable planet I’d like to move away from this kind of work myself.” Karga agrees before changing the subject all together, “How is the girl doing on the Razor Crest, anyway? You never dropped her off back here and it’s been well over two months, so I assume that I was correct and the arrangement has been beneficial for you both.”

Struck by how much the idea of just dropping you off and likely never seeing you again truly bothers him, Din doesn’t answer right away. When he first met you he’d been willing to do that at a moments notice, but now the thought of it isn’t something he’s willing to consider. After learning more about you he’s aware of how cruel it would be on his part, and he would miss your presence. He would miss the feeling of you making him laugh. 

But Din knows that a part of Karga is just trying to distract him in order to haggle, so Din decides to change the subject back. “She’s well, and the arrangement is indeed beneficial. Now about the bounty.”

The two of them do this verbal dance for a little while longer.

*****

At the same time the Mandalorian is arguing over bounties at the desk of Greef Karga, you’re sitting across the desk of Marshal Cara Dune. She’s playing with the child as you fill her in on the events of your life since you last saw each other. 

After a few minutes of letting you ramble, Cara suddenly stops waving her hands in front of the kid’s face to grin widely at you. It’s distracting enough that you forget what you were just saying. 

“What’s that face for?” You ask.

“You have feelings for him,” she replies, completely sure of the statement she’s making. 

“What?!” Heat floods your cheeks, “I have feelings for who?”

“Don’t play dumb, it doesn’t look good on you. You like him. It’s clear as day when you talk about him.” Cara looks so pleased with herself that you want to throw something at her. If only this were Earth and she had papers strewn about on her desk, you’d wad one up and chuck it at her face.

Instead you just sigh and hang your head, “Is it really that obvious?”

“Painfully so,” the warrior woman says, still grinning. 

Between you both, the child is looking back and forth at each of you with a curious look on his tiny face and you briefly wonder if he understands what you’re talking about.

“Why are you so happy about this?” You groan out, sinking into your seat.

Cara shrugs, “Because you have a pleasant air about you that I’ve never seen before. It’s nice to see.”

You look over at her to confirm that her face looks as honest as she’d sounded and it does. “Aww, that’s actually a very sweet reason. I’m a little less embarrassed now.”

“You’re embarrassed?” She asks with a slightly raised eyebrow, “Why?”

“Because I feel like an adolescent with a crush. What if its just a result of being cooped up with him for over two months or I’ve just gone too long without sex?” You ask with a groan, leaning your head back to look at the ceiling. The baby makes a noise and your eyes flick back down to him, remembering that he’s there and he’s listening to you. “Whoops I shouldn’t have said that last part in front of the kid.”

“I’m sure he’s scandalized,” Cara quips sarcastically. She leans both of her elbows on the desk and rests her chin in her hands with a smirk playing at her lips. “Do you really think that’s the reason, or is it possible that you’re actually compatible with each other?”

“I mean, I like his personality. He’s funnier than I would have ever expected him to be. His voice is sexy, he’s got a nice laugh, he’s been teaching me how to do stuff around the ship and that’s been nice. I’d like to learn more about him, about his life. He’s my friend, Cara. This is so conflicting and complicated. I don’t know what to do.” You answer your friend honestly.

“Does it have to be complicated?” Cara’s question is blunt and to the point. 

You shrug, “I guess not, but when it comes down to the fact that I’m not from this Galaxy it feels like it does.”

Cara fixes you with a serious stare before asking, “Do you even want to go home anymore? From what you told me, your life back on Earth wasn’t much of a life. Instead of focusing on trying to get back to a place where you weren’t happy, why not build a better life for yourself here? Your chances of going back are slim to begin with. Would you really want to waste your life looking for something that could never happen and miss what’s going on around you?”

You counter with, “Honestly I don’t want to leave the galaxy anytime soon, but a crush on man is a dumb reason to build my life here. I wasted a lot of time on men back home and I promised myself I’d never make decisions about myself for a guy again.”

Brow furrowed, the little tattoo by her left eye wrinkles while she narrows her gaze and looks even more stern with you. “I’m not saying stay because of him. It would be because of you. Sure, see where things with Mando go if you want to, but if you stay in this galaxy do it for yourself. You need to live life for you, and you alone. All I meant was that a connection with someone can’t hurt either.”

“You make excellent points, Cara.” Her words ring true for you and you can’t help but agree with your friend, nodding. “When I first came to Nevarro I was desperate to go home because I’m so out of my element here, but now I’m starting to realize that I don’t have to be. Maybe I can find a new element. I don’t know if or how I’ll act on my feelings for Mando, though. Can Mandalorians even,” you pause while making eye contact with the kid so your voice drops down a few octaves while you wave your hands around, “you know what I mean?”

Cara shrugs, “ From what I understand, yes. As long as you never expect him to take that helmet off. And as for making a move, just let it come naturally. It’ll feel right when it’s supposed to. He might even make the first attempt if he feels the same way. Do you think he does?”

“I don’t know. He’s not cold towards me anymore, that’s for sure. I expected him to barely talk to me at first but we actually talk quite a bit. He’s opened up around me a lot in the last few weeks.” Thinking back on earlier that morning, laying in his arms as you’d cried your eyes out, you add, “He’s been there for me when I needed a friend.”

“Well that sounds like a start to me,” Cara approves of this, nodding.

“A start to what?” The Mandalorian’s voice is suddenly behind you and you stomach does a flip inside your body. 

Dread fills your brain as your heart speeds up, but Cara stays cool and recovers for you. “Our friend here was telling me that she’s been learning some new skills thanks to you,” she says.

“Yeah I told her that you’ve been teaching me to shoot a blaster,” you add, turning to look back at him. Seeing him just solidifies the conversation you just had with Cara. You want him. Badly.

“She’s not awful,” Mando says with a nod.

“Gee thanks,” you reply sarcastically with an eye roll and a laugh.

“Just being honest,” he quips back with a shrug.

Cara looks back and forth between you before sending a smirk in your direction. “I think it’ll end up working out,” she adds this just for your benefit and you wonder if Mando is confused by her phrasing. 

Oh well, you think. He comes to stand beside you, a hand coming to the back rest of the chair you’re in. Cara waggles her eyebrows at you and you fight the urge to wave her off. Instead you focus on him, and ask if he’s done with bounty business.

“Yes, I settled it. We are going to go grab one last bounty and the payout should last us long enough to focus on the kid for awhile.” Mando looks down at you and nods his head towards the doorway, “Is it alright if we get going? You two can catch up more when we come back. This one should only last a few days, a week tops.” 

You nod back, standing at the same time as Cara. She comes around the desk to give you a hug. “Thanks for the advice,” you say. 

“Of course. Be safe out there. See you soon.” Cara says, nodding to Mando as you grab the child and turn to follow him back to the ship.

Outside, Mando waits so that you are walking in stride together. “What advice did she give you?” He asks sincerely.

“I was telling her that I’m not sure if I want to leave this galaxy any time soon.” You say honestly, and he stops for a second to look down at you.

“Was her advice useful?” His tone takes on a certain vulnerability for a split second, but you hear it.

“Yes, I think so.” You reply with a smile, and the walk back to the Razor Crest resumes.

*****

The bounty turns out to be hiding on Nar Shaddaa, the moon of Nal Hutta. The Smuggler’s Moon. Nal Hutta being a green marshy planet with rings on which a race of large slug-like beings called Hutts reign. The moon, where your little group on the Razor Crest are now headed, is covered completely in urban sprawl and criminal activity. Making it the perfect place for a very wanted person to lay low. 

Yes, of course you have to make a Pizza Hut joke when Mando explains all of this to you. The two of you are standing in front of the little weapons locker on the first floor of the ship, and his confusion is adorably worth it.

Then he hands you a spare blaster, and tells you that he is hoping that you’d be willing to help him hunt the bounty. Both terrified and thrilled, you take the blaster and hold it in both of your hands as you look at him with skepticism.

“‘Smuggler’s Moon?’ This place sounds incredibly dangerous. Is me tagging a long such a good idea?” You ask genuinely.

Mando nods at you, “This place is very dangerous, but the worst of it is at nightfall. During the day, the street market that we are going to is fairly harmless. I want to try to lore him out, and I want your permission to use you as a sort of bait.”

“Bait?!” Exclaiming incredulously, you narrow your eyes at him and hold the blaster back out to him. For a moment you imagine yourself dangling on a fishing hook. “I thought we were friends, Mando.”

“We are,” he says pointedly, gently pushing the blaster back towards you. “I would not ask you to do this if I wasn’t sure I could protect you. I promise.”

You look at him and huff, “If I die I’m allowed to haunt you.”

“Deal,” Mando sticks his gloved right hand out to shake yours and you begrudgingly take it. “I have a theory about something. If I’m right, this could end the hunt that much faster.”

You shift your footing and cross your arms over your chest. You’re nervous but he’s trusting you a lot, so you want to hear him out. “Okay, shoot. Tell me what this idea of yours is.”

“The bounty is an Anzat.” He says this as if you know what he’s talking about, and you roll your eyes so hard you nearly get dizzy. Mando must notice this, and continues speaking before you can take the opportunity to be a smart ass. “The Anzati are a humanoid people who survive on soup.”

No you’re sure he’s fucking with you, so you scoff. “Like potato soup because their planet can only grow potatoes?”

He sighs, “No. Soup is what they call the brains of the living beings that they murder for food.”

Stomach dropping to your feet, your mouth forms an “o” and you do not interrupt your friend again.

Mando goes on, “They look like normal humans most of the time, but they have these proboscises that retract and extend from their cheeks. They snake up the nostrils of the victim and suck out the soup.”

“You’re not making a good case as to why I should be involved. This brain vampire guy sounds terrifying.” You say, growing somewhat anxious.

“They can smell the soup even from miles away, and the Anzati only ever go hunting for the most delicious smelling soup. Or the most rare. Even though you are human, your body chemistry is going to be slightly different than mine, or that of a human from another planet. Your brain will likely smell unique to an Anzat.” Mando explains this cooly, and you can’t help but think that it makes sense.

“Alright, go on.”

“So the plan is we go to the market during the day, in the area he was last spotted, and just pretend to shop around for an hour. Then we come back to the ship, I lock you inside of it so tightly that nothing can get in, and then when he comes sniffing around I grab him. They don’t need him brought in alive according to the puck, so worst case scenario I kill him and we just freeze the body.” The Mandalorian finishes telling you all of this by placing a hand on your shoulder and sighing heavily. “This does sound like a stupid idea now that I’ve said it out loud. I’ll just hunt him the old fashioned way.”

“What if we land the Crest closer to him than you think and he can smell me anyway?” You counter, looking over to where the kid is happily eating something with tentacles. “And what about the kid? He’s got a rare brain too, Mando.”

“I thought about that. We’re going to put him down for a nap and we’ll keep him locked up in the cot until things are safe.” Looking off into a corner of the ship, Mando sighs again before adding, “I regret this idea. Karga was probably right about it being too dangerous with the both of you involved. Even five years ago I would have taken this bounty with a small team, I don’t know what I’m thinking trying to do it alone.”

Your nose wrinkles as you think about it for a moment, and then you look into the T-shaped visor nestled between the beskar covering Mando’s face and you square your shoulders thinking that the two of you could be a team. A great team, even. That has a really nice ring to it. “If I am going to consider living here for the foreseeable future I need to learn what it’s like to be in possible danger. Let’s try your plan. An hour at the market, and then I lock myself in with the kid until you get back.” 

The helmet turns sharply to look at you, his voice sounding surprised. “You’re sure?”

You nod, “Why not? I trust you. I can be your team for this one, at least a little bit.”

The Mandalorian visibly relaxes slightly, tense shoulders loosening as his arms drop a little. “Thank you, ner burc’ya.”

Feeling braver about your feelings after your conversation with Cara, you place a hand to his forearm just above the vambrace. “You’re welcome. I know I’m probably crazy for agreeing to this though.” 

“Perhaps,” he chuckles, and your heart swells at the sound of it. You might follow this man anywhere just to hear that pleasant noise rumble out of his armor plated chest.

You think for a moment and then you recall something that Mando just said. Excitement suddenly floods your system. “Wait, hold up. You said Nal Hutta has rings? I’m going up to the cockpit to look at it. My favorite planet in my solar system has rings and I think it’s the most gorgeous thing ever.”

“You’re going to love this one, then. It’s a handsome planet.” He says, and from the tone of his voice you like to think he’s smiling. 

*****

Din is attuned to your presence every moment that you are out of the Razor Crest on Nar Shaddaa. Things are going as planned thus far, but he is on high alert all the same. He knows how much of a risk he’s created and he intends to keep his promise that you’ll be safe. To your credit, you’ve listened to his every instruction and followed them perfectly. You’re taking this extremely seriously, causing a newfound respect for you to blossom within his already blooming garden of feelings regarding you.

You’re dressed in galaxy fashions a la Cara Dune, and your face is hidden behind a low hanging black hood. The old blaster he gave you is strapped to your right thigh. You’ll blend in perfectly in the impossibly huge moon-city. 

Din looks you over as you finish coming down the ramp of the ship, glad to see that you’d followed his advice on how to dress. “There are so many people here that it doesn’t matter who you are in a place like this, unless the wrong people are looking for you. Good call with that hood. You’re a beautiful woman, you might draw too much attention to yourself with your face fully exposed.”

Beginning to fan yourself, you throw the other hand to your forehead while donning some sort of terrible accent. “Why, Mr. Mandalorian, did you just call me beautiful?” 

“I did,” He says matter of factly, tilting his head with a hidden smirk.

Batting your eyes at him a bit you respond with, “Well thank you. I bet you’re handsomer than hell under that beskar, but I’m fine with never finding out.” 

Din’s eyes widen, a smile creeping up his cheeks in place of the smirk. “I like to think so,” he says honestly.

You put a hand to your chin and pretend to think for a moment. “So the man who hides his face from the world is vain after all?”

“All I’m saying is that I don’t have a problem with the way I look.” Din just shrugs, and the little giggle you let out guts him with a jolt of joy.

The little smile playing at your lips also does Din in a little as you speak. “Your confidence is nice. I wasn’t sure how you felt about yourself in that regard and it never seemed polite to ask.”

Din looks you up and down, deciding to open up more of the wall he has put up around others for most of his life. “My choice to become a Child of the Watch and wear this helmet never came from a place of dissatisfaction with my face. I wanted to be a part of the people who saved my life when droids destroyed my home and killed my parents. I wanted to be a part of The Tribe, to know The Way of The Mandalore.”

“I think its nice that you were able to find a group of people to rely on after your parents died, and something that you feel so strongly about to help guide your life forward. It’s beautiful in its own way,” you say this sincerely, “I am sorry about your family, though. And I meant what I said, I don’t care about not seeing your face. As far as I’m concerned, this is you.” You gesture up at the helmet.

Din didn’t realize that this little banter would turn so serious, but he’s genuinely thankful for how much respect you show his way of life. He dips his head in a nod, “Thank you for saying that.”

“You’re welcome. Thank you for opening up to me.” You grin up at him before covering most of your face with the hood again. “You ready to go shopping?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” Din shuts the ramp of the ship, making sure she’s locked up tight with the precious cargo inside. He then turns and holds out a hand to you. “Hold out your wrist.”

You comply and he fixes a small watch-like device to your arm. “Is this a com-link?” You ask.

Din nods, “Correct. If, and I mean if, we get separated we’ll be able to communicate with each other. Hopefully you won’t need to use it, but I’ll show you how it works.” 

*****

Nar Shaddaa is gorgeous in your opinion. Sure, it’s definitely got a crime infested shithole kind of vibe, but its like New York City only ten times bigger and ten times more interesting. You’ve always been a city person, so you can’t help but see the charm in this sprawling urban moon. It reminds you of Bladerunner and The Fifth Element, being practically out of a big Hollywood movie. Neon lights everywhere, even in the daylight. Sky scrapers so tall you can’t really see the top. Thousands of people from all kinds of species wandering around either on foot or little hovering vehicles. Some even walking strange little creatures clearly meant to be pets on leashes. Droids scattered here and there. Seedy or not, this place is full of life and it fills you with a little bout of excitement.

Despite this, you remain very serious as you stay close to Mando through the crowds. This is not the time nor the place to be cracking jokes at the risk getting yourself into trouble.

You stop at a few stands here and there. The Mandalorian instructs you to shop and act naturally. He even gives you a few credits to buy some items you need just to make it seem even more natural. So shop is what you do. 

It’s more soothing than you expect it to be. Shopping like this reminds you of going to street fairs back home to look at crafts, or the farmers market on Sundays to get fresh produce.

You do end up looking at the fresh foods first. Being somewhat of a vegetarian, you buy yourself a few things from the produce stand before moving on to meats of all kinds of alien varieties that do not look appetizing. Mando grabs a few of the meats for the kid, and you buy yourself some sort of grilled vegetable on a stick from a street cart when you realize how hungry you’ve become. It’s odd, but tasty all the same.

Then you move on to clothes and handmade items, trying not to get too friendly with anyone while also being polite. At one stand you pick out a black sweater with bell sleeves, cropped at the waist. At another you grab a set of dark purple leather-like suspenders with a removable blaster holster, and a pair of what look like an odd kind of cargo pants. Black, of course. Purple and black are your two colors of choice when actually given one.

It’s coming up on one hour when a particular item catches your eye. It’s a necklace on a small, thin gold chain. The tiny pendant is only one centimeter long, and it’s clearly a small rendition of Nal Hutta as some sort of obvious touristy product. There’s a light white-green stone with a gold band wrapping around it as the planet’s ring. You could care less about having a souvenir from this place, but damn is it a pretty piece of jewelry. You’re not the biggest jewelry person, but you know for a fact that if you had that little planet necklace it would never leave your neck. 

“A pretty necklace for a pretty girl?” A croaky feminine voice pulls you from your small trance. You look over to see the shop owner sitting on a little chair behind the table of jewels. She’s definitely some kind of alien, but what kind you do not know. Instead of hair, she has two very long fleshy tubes attached her head like pigtails. Her skin is green, and she seems rather elderly.

“Oh, me? I mean I love this piece but it costs more credits than I have unfortunately.” You say, grabbing for Mando’s forearm to push him along. For reasons you don’t understand, you get a weird vibe from her and you don’t care for it. 

“Why not let the gentleman buy it for you?” The old woman persists, and you feel uneasy still. 

“The gentleman has already spent enough on her today,” Mando replies cooly, noticing your discomfort and scooting you forward in front of him. Under different circumstances you would have been titillated at the slightly possessive way in which he spoke of you.

This unpleasant old woman gives a sneer and her once kind face morphs into one of ugly distain. “Suit yourselves. I would have cut you a deal, you know.”

“Yeesh,” you say once far enough away, unaware that she can hear better than you think. “I didn’t like that lady.” 

“Neither did I,” Mando agrees. “That necklace would have suited you, though.” 

“Why thank you, Mr. Mandalorian,” you say in that terrible American southern accent again and he actually groans a little. That’s a new one for him.

“For kriffs sake. Let’s get you back to the Razor Crest.” 

You sincerely hope that he’s rolling his eyes as you fix him with a little smirk. He nudges his shoulder lightly into yours and squeezes your hand for a moment in a gesture which you take as a slightly intimate one. He’s letting you know his physical presence is there with you, even in a huge crowd where he’s probably not willing to do more than that.

*****

Ranik A’kazz, the same Anzati man with a very steep bounty upon his head, notices your presence on the moon of Nar Shaddaa shortly after the moment that you set foot onto it’s surface. He is struck suddenly with a scent that he’s never once in his long life ever experienced. Ranik has travelled through all of this galaxy’s outer rim and through most of its inner rim planets, and not once has he ever smelled a soup such as yours.

It’s absolutely foul.

Ranik is disgusted by the rank scent of it, fighting back the urge to gag the closer he gets to the human woman it belongs to and her Mandalorian companion. It’s a powerful scent to be sure, but even more powerful still is the faint scent that accompanies the one which he finds so offensive. 

This second scent is utterly delectable.

“The force,” he finds himself whispering with a small gasp when he’s able to pinpoint why his mouth is watering so much. He’s dipping in and out of shops, stealthily following the two individuals who do not carry this scent themselves, but have faint traces on their person.

Thanks to the rise of the Empire and the fall of the Jedi, it’s been so long, decades even, since Ranik has been lucky enough to feast on a force sensitive individual and enhance his own force sensitivity. This one feels powerful. Unlike anything he’s felt before. His skin tingles at the thought of ingesting such a meal, and so he follows the unpleasant scent until the trail goes cold.

He doubles back to the jewelry stand where he saw the woman admiring a necklace, and he goes straight to the elderly Twi’lek sitting behind the table.

“The Mandalorian and the girl. Where did they go?” 

“What’s in it for me?” The old crone asks with a skeptical eye.

Ranik drops a small sack of credits in front of her, and the old woman snatches it up faster than a woman at her age normally moves.

“They went back to their ship. I think I over heard the Mandalorian call it the Razor something.”

“Crest. Razor Crest. Ex-military gunship and patrol model. Thank you for your services, madam.” Ranik says, dipping his head politely as he exits the jewelry stand. 

Then he heads for the docks, the hunger in his belly growing all the while.

*****

Next Chapter

Previous Chapter

Masterlist

*****

Taglist:

@luc-k-y | @theslytherinwriter |

[strawberryblondebutch]

Back by unpopular demand, it's my top albums of 2023! While 2022 suffered a dearth of good artists that made it impossible to cobble together a top 10, I struggled this year to whittle my 50(!!)-album shortlist down to my top.

Same rules as always: everything on this list is a full-length album (no EPs) of largely previously unreleased material (no reissues, no cover albums, no Taylor's Version) arranged in an intentional manner (no B-sides or rarities albums). Now, behold!

10. DOG PARK DISSIDENTS - THE PINK AND BLACK ALBUM

I hope I'm not the only punk frustrated with the decline of queer rage in the music scene. Everyone's sad and no one is angry. If you're sick of being well-behaved, this is the album for you. I've been a Dog Park Dissidents fan for years now, and I'm thrilled to see them put out an LP, especially one as great as this one.

9. SINCERE ENGINEER - CHEAP GRILLS

Something everyone needs to know about me: I love a girlflop. There is nothing more endearing than an absolute disaster of a woman, and no one is flopping through life quite like Deanna Belos. Her third album brings her scratchy-voiced brashness into her early 30s, and as much as I hope for an end to her crisis, at least she has a good soundtrack going.

8. ALL GET OUT - ALL GET OUT

Wouldn't it be easy if I didn't listen to any albums? If I just put my favorite bands in the top ten and said "that's enough hard work, I think"? Well, I don't, because sometimes there's a surprise. All Get Out has frustrated me for a while, as their Southern-fried brand of rock and roll is something I should like, but they never seemed to put it all together... until now.

7. BLONDSHELL - BLONDSHELL

Sabrina Mae Teitelbaum showed up at the eleventh hour to wreck my rankings. I was unaware of Blondshell until they opened for Liz Phair a month ago, and I was intrigued enough to follow up and listen to her debut. Her stage presence needs some work -- unlike, say, Foxing's latest album, which I learned to love once I heard it live, I think Blondshell is better recorded -- but if this is her first effort, I can't wait to see what she does next.

6. ZZ WARD - DIRTY SHINE

2023 was the year of blues rock artists going independent, and their music was all the better for it. The Record Company was a late cut for my honorable mentions, but ZZ takes the sixth spot here. There was a lot riding on Dirty Shine: she was independent and had been mostly silent since the pandemic. With some of the tightest production I've seen this year, she hasn't missed a step.

5. QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE - IN TIMES NEW ROMAN...

Talk about someone who's been through the wringer since their last album. Josh Homme battled cancer, alcoholism, and a bitter divorce, and his band's latest release is one of pent-up rage. It bears strong shades of 2007's Era Vulgaris, which was divisive in its own time, and as a result, some might hate In Times New Roman... for its looser, crunchier sound. For me? It's exactly what I like to hear.

4. SPANISH LOVE SONGS - NO JOY

I have a confession: I'm a terrible album reviewer. It takes me weeks or months to listen to something new, even for my favorite artists, like Spanish Love Songs. I didn't get around to No Joy until just before I went to see SPL open for Hot Mulligan, at which point I felt like the time had come. This album was an acquired taste, smoother and more polished than 2020's Brave Faces, Everyone, but like Frightened Rabbit's 2016 Painting of a Panic Attack, the sparser sound lets you focus on what Dylan et al. are trying to say, and you can soon tell No Joy is an album that needed to come out for his own sake.

3. HEART ATTACK MAN - FREAK OF NATURE

Speaking of "late on the draw," behold Heart Attack Man, a band I should have loved... if I ever got around to listening to them. They hang around all the same scenes my other favorite bands do (in fact, Hot Mulligan also brought them along on their most recent tour), and yet I never got around to exploring them until this June, when they played in Philly for $20 tickets. Good thing my impulses won out, because this album is what punk should be (and something it's been sorely missing).

2. HOT MULLIGAN - WHY WOULD I WATCH?

After shouting them out in the last two entries, I have to give Hot Mulligan their flowers. They're a strange band, having more in common with Dance Gavin Dance than, say, The Wonder Years. It's progressive post-hardcore for Midwest emos, and although the individual songs on Why Would I Watch? are on par with any individual song from a previous release, they do something here that elevates them above their other work: put out an album, rather than a collection of songs.

1. FIREWORKS - HIGHER LONELY POWER

It was always going to be Fireworks. They released this album on January 1 after a long hiatus, giving me an entire year to have this LP rattle in my brain and linger in my bones. Higher Lonely Power combines several trends found on the rest of this list -- a new sound that needed to grow on me, a need to shake off the rust of a hiatus, a band I took far too long to get to know. They're my favorite band's favorite band for a reason, and Higher Lonely Power is a gorgeous mediation on love, death, and aging. A worthy album of the year if ever there were one.

[maebird-melody]

Thoughts on AI

Opening Remarks

I am by no means the first to share my thoughts on AI, nor will I be the last, I am sure. Yet as I’ve watched this discussion grow, I’ve been trying to pin down my own thoughts and feelings on the matter.

Because they aren’t universally positive, but neither are they universally negative. Rather, I am stuck in this dissociative limbo between wonder, anger, and anxiety. How beautiful and terrible, how marvelous and dreadful this synthetic, eldritch mind we’ve birthed into the world! I have struggled in articulating these feelings both to my (mostly non-artist) friends who are very excited about the possibilities of AI art, and to my (mostly artist) friends who feel threatened, disrespected, and undermined by the way AIs were trained and what they are designed to do.

So I hope to put into words both my thoughts and my observations about AI in this post.

(General disclaimer: I am an artist, writer, and composer, but not someone of any notoriety. I do not make a living off of my creations. I have one self-published book, which I wrote and illustrated, and a bandcamp where I finally started sharing my music earlier this year. Everything surrounding AI hits a little differently for someone like me who is just now trying to break into the art economy and feels like the rug’s been pulled out from under them before even getting their foot in the door.)

AI and Ethics

On the one hand, I am awestruck by the possibility of this technology. How strange and wonderful that we can tell a machine what we want to see, and it has the capacity to create it? Or that we can ask for music in a particular mood or style, and it can synthesize the sound in real time? These machines are astounding, and I don’t want to diminish that fact. To get where we are today required decades of work and effort by engineers, coders, and scientists. That effort is not lost on me.

However, AI is fraught with ethical and humanist concerns, many of which I don’t think were taken into account during its inception. Much of AI is trained from datasets made up from privately owned, stored, or copyrighted data, like medical records (1) and watermarked artwork (2). Some AI companies are explicitly marketing their products as a replacement for the people who used to create those things (3, 4, 5, 6). And while an AI music company like Harmonai kept copyrighted music out of their training datasets (7) — a common quote referenced from this article mentions how “diffusion models are prone to memorization and overfitting” — the same cannot be said of most image-based AIs that trawl the internet for data, or music AIs that explicitly generate audio in the styles of known musicians (8, 9). The latter applies to deepfakes of people’s voices, as well.

Existing online is not an invitation for exploitation. Posting an image, sharing a video or song, or publishing your writing should not equal implicit consent for an AI to leverage your creative work for profit.

We live in a world now where AI is capable of synthesizing images, music, video, and writing — creative pursuits that were formerly the sole domain of human capability. I think it is important to ask, for what reason did we create AIs that are capable of taking our place in creative professions? Why turn to AI to generate an image or a song instead of turning to a human artist, or developing the skill yourself?

If we approach AI from the position of creating the best possible world for all people, a world in which human beings can flourish, I do not believe that AI, as it currently stands, brings us closer to that ideal. So long as AI is exploitative, it necessarily worsens the lives of those whom it exploits. Existing online is not an invitation for exploitation. Posting an image, sharing a video or song, or publishing your writing should not equal implicit consent for an AI to leverage your creative work for profit. And disregarding the legitimate concerns artists have about their livelihoods, all for the sake of progress, will only serve to harm us, not help us, as collective humanity.

Common Arguments and Questions

There are certain questions and arguments I’ve seen surface with some regularity surrounding AI. There is an excellent video by Steven Zapata which covers a lot of these same arguments, I recommend giving it a watch (10).

How is an AI learning and synthesizing ideas from what it sees any different from a human doing the same? How is the influence of an artist on an AI any different than that same influence on a human?

The reason behind this common misconception is that the data used to train the AI is viewed as a purely visual influence, much in the same way that humans are influenced by the art they consume. But this neglects two factors:

Humans and AI do not process information the same way. Human brains do not work like machines, and machine learning does not follow the same conventions as human thought.

Humans and AI do not improve skill in the same way. While a human requires practice to grow their understanding of theory, composition, form, etc. with regard to their craft, an AI ‘practices’ by consuming more data points to flesh out specific qualities that it can reference when building an image, such as “roundness” or “apple-ness” or “tree-ness.” It can only copy what is has seen.

When one views an AI’s consumption of data as nothing more than how a human learns from visual references, understanding that the art was stolen becomes harder to accept.

But one must remember, the AI is nothing without the data it was fed (11). Being influenced by an image and building your entire neural network on a foundation of data are entirely different things. The comparison between human and AI is a faulty one, because humans and machines are fundamentally different.

Now everyone can make art, everyone can compose music, everyone can write stories. Why don’t you want that?

As someone who does all three, I would argue back that it was always possible for everyone to make art, compose music, and write stories.

What this statement actually means is that AI levels the playing field when it comes to skill and mastery. Now, everyone can ‘make’ art, music, and stories at a near-professional level. (Well, everyone with access to the internet and a computer-like interface, but that gets into an entirely different issue.)

To create is human. Good or bad, simple or complex, we are all wired to make things — stories, art, music — you name it, we make it. You learn and grow through making things, and the more you create, the greater you develop your aesthetic sense and an understanding of the medium.

Perhaps what bothers me is that AI art ignores the process. The point of art is not only the end result, the ‘product’ that you end up with after you’ve finished. The process of generating the art, of discovering it, of honing your skill, this is all just as precious as the art itself. It is not to be tossed away, disregarded, considered passé.

There is so much more to art than what you ‘get’ at the end.

AI artists are real artists because you need an aesthetic sense to know which images are good and which ones are bad.

I do not disagree that aesthetic sense is incredibly useful for curating the images that the AI generates, but I do disagree that aesthetic sense alone makes an artist. Nor do I believe that the skills required to generate images from an algorithm are comparable to the skills of an artist.

...we must inevitably come to the question of whether we place AI-based communication in the same skill category as producing a work of art with your own hands from scratch.

Merriam Webster defines an artist as “a person who creates art (such as painting, sculpture, music, or writing) using conscious skill and creative imagination” (12).

The point of contention I have here is over what constitutes “conscious skill” and “creative imagination.”

If we take conscious to mean “done or acting with critical awareness” (13) and skill to mean “a learned power of doing something competently: a developed aptitude or ability” (14), then we must inevitably come to the question of whether we place AI-based communication in the same skill category as producing a work of art with your own hands from scratch.

If we take creative to mean “marked by the ability or power to create” (15) and imagination to mean “the act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality” (16), then we must ask if there is the capacity for imagination beyond the prompt itself in the AI image generating process. To call the AI capable of imagination makes the same mistake as in the first argument — an AI is not human. And likewise, the AI cannot generate anything it has not already seen in its training dataset.

To use an AI robs the user of the chance to imagine for themselves how they might represent, say, a cityscape at night, or a chicken wedding. While it is fun to see what the AI generates based on the data it can reference, I believe it is a misstep to then label the user an artist for telling the AI to produce those images.

I am much more comfortable with the term “AI collaborator” than “AI artist,” because, in truth, that more accurately describes what is being done when a user inputs a prompt into an AI and then attempts to guide the AI based on their personal aesthetic sense. This separation of terminology also helps to clarify when an image required years of study and days of work to create vs. when an image required a few words and some careful curation.

As an added note, I think that images generated this way could be useful for artists who want help with ideation. But it is an important step — in my mind at least — for the artist to take what the AI created as inspiration, not as the final product.

AIs aren’t going to replace real artists. It’s just a fun tool that people are using to make silly memes.

AI is already poised to replace artists in many fields, or will likely do so in the near future (17, 18).

...for many artists, it’s the mundane work that pays the bills.

There are AI composers trained on vast libraries of audio that can generate film, video game, or commercial soundtracks (19, 20). There are AI writers that can produce drafts of “SEO-friendly” articles for the web based on article titles (21). There are AI storytellers that are only serviceable as writing assistants at this stage, but at the rate that natural language processing is developing, it isn’t hard to see them creating stories all on their own in the near future (22). The Atlantic has already used Midjourney to provide the illustration for one of their newsletters (23) and an AI art piece has already won first place at an art competition (24).

Now anyone can make music equivalent to that of a professional composer with the click of a button (25). Why pay for the libraries of human-composed soundtracks, or commission a musician to score your indie video game, when an AI could just do it for you for free, and instantaneously (26)?

Now anyone can generate art with a few select key words entered into an image generator (27, 28, 29). You don’t need to pay an artist you like, you can just tell the AI to mimic their work. You don’t even need to ask a more affordable artist to copy their style because the AI can do it for free, and the result is immediate.

When natural language processing catches up with humans, AI will be able to create novels without a human writer, though I don’t see editors ever going away. Publishing houses can keep on their editors, but you don’t need a writer in that equation anymore.

The most optimistic view says that AI will free up artists to do the more fulfilling types of art and avoid the more mundane forms of it. The commercial jingles, the company logos, the ghostwriting for convenience store fiction—those can be done by AI, leaving the art galleries and bestseller lists and symphonies to the human artists. This view neglects that, for many artists, it’s the mundane work that pays the bills. Not every artist can attain an elite position, and the prevalence of AI taking up lower level work makes it even harder to rise to the top for those who do have the requisite skill. (This also neglects that many artists do enjoy that kind of utilitarian work, but that is another issue entirely.)

AI art is the next evolution in art. This is no different than how photography replaced landscape painting, or digital art replaced traditional art, or 3D animation replaced 2D animation, etc.

While this is true to a degree, in that each advancement in technology has shifted the artistic landscape, often relegating old forms of art to a smaller subsection of the art world, I do not think the comparison holds up under scrutiny.

In each of the above instances, the creative force was still with the artist, not with the tool. With AI, you can tell the AI what you want to see, but ultimately you have very little control over what image is produced.

Photographers can stage their shots, alter the lighting, introduce set pieces or props, and so on. They can choose the locations where they shoot, and make use of several different tools both during and after the shoot to alter the images.

3D animators build the models they use and often paint over the digital landscape they’ve built. Lighting, color, sound design, object interaction physics, and so on, all influence the final product. You are still building the images, frame by frame, and you have much more control of the final product.

I think there is an argument to be made for using image manipulation with AI-generated images. Transformative works are an important part of the art ecosystem. But, in the same way that a photograph of a painting is not considered a replacement or an evolution of the art form, I do not believe that an AI-generated image built on the works of un-credited, unpaid artists can be called an evolution of art. It is a tool, not an art form unto itself.

Blue Sky Thinking

I am hopeful that there can be a place for AI in the art world. Not as a replacement for the artists (30), but as a tool which enables people to expand their imaginations and develop their skill.

However, I do not think there is any way forward without first making sure that:

Artists have the power to choose whether an AI gets trained on their images.

Those who do choose to include their art in the dataset are fairly compensated for their contributions.

We have legislation in place which protects artists from frauds who would pass off AI forgeries as belonging to those artists.

Companies must use a specific ratio of human-made art to AI art, one which favors the human artists, to protect the livelihoods of those artists and keeps open the paths to career advancement.

The above list is likely not exhaustive, and I imagine even more needs will arise the longer that AIs exist.

But there are many applications of AI that I could imagine benefiting artists. In this section, I am imagining how a fully developed AI that is not plagued by the problems of its infancy could be used.

Imagine using AI to determine where the anatomy is off on your figure drawing. An AI that has been trained exclusively on how multiple types of bodies look in 3D space could potentially compare your drawing against thousands of examples and highlight where the elbow might be in the wrong position, or the foreshortening on the foot isn’t quite right. The AI could help train the artist’s eye to better see where they need to grow.

Or in an animation studio, where uniformity of style is important for a consistent-looking film or series, an AI that has been trained on character models and short animation reels, along with all previous episodes of the show, could help identify where artists are running into specific problems with replicating the characters. This could help animators grow in their understanding of how to identify where they tend to go off-model.

Or for an illustrator stuck in a rut on how to design a character. Putting in a few  descriptors from the book they are illustrating could help with the ideation process before they set down the final character designs. Many illustrators already use reference material to help spark their imaginations. With an AI, finding the examples you need becomes that much quicker.

For a digital artist who is very prolific and in high demand, having an AI collaborator that helps them with the more tedious parts of the drawing, parts which require very little skill, such as laying down flat colors or copying a repeating pattern across a canvas, could be done by the AI to speed up their production time.

For a video game designer, having an AI that can turn hand-drawn assets into usable objects for a game could be very useful. Imagine an AI that can bridge the gap between human-made images and the integrated video game world, knowing already how to apply real-world physics to the objects because it understands “bowl-ness” and “weight.”

And for hobbyists who just like to play around with an AI image generator, it could be another source of income for artists who choose to design art for those image generators. Just like artists build the character options for a character building engine in a video game. AI image generators as they function now, I think, are best if considered as video games.

And if I think about music, it does seem as though AI models for music may already be trending in a hopeful direction. Imagine using AI to generate sound samples for electronic or experimental music. Or letting AI help you come up with that missing lyric that you just can’t think of. Maybe you want to create a your own set of unique midi instruments. You could use an AI to create the sound you’re looking for and then turn it into an instrument by adjusting the tone. You could use this new instrument in your DAW, or integrate it with notation software. Maybe even turn that sound into a synth that you can pull up on a keyboard and play at a concert.

There are many possibilities, and not all roads lead to exploitation.

Closing Remarks

I want to believe that this technology does not mean that work which would otherwise have been given to writers, musicians, and artists will instead be given to AI. I want to believe that rather, this technology will enable people who otherwise would never have been able to afford writers, artists, and musicians to have access to good writing, beautiful music, and astounding art. I want to believe that when those people come to a place where they can afford to hire creative people, they would choose that over AI. That AI would be a stepping stone. Much like with composers using virtual instruments for their music, or novelists using royalty-free images for their self-published novels, the specificity of human performance and creation is preferred, but out of reach. 

Ultimately, I think the feeling I have is one of futility rather than hope. What was it all for? Why spend years of my life honing my skills as a pianist, a composer, an illustrator, and a writer? What was the point of sinking thousands of dollars into a degree in music composition? Or the years of lessons on music theory? The hours spent researching storytelling models? The closet full of sketchbooks and classes in figure drawing, painting, art history, and design? What purpose does all that training serve now?

But then, who am I to complain? I can’t afford to hire musicians to play my music, so I use virtual instruments instead or record in my bedroom on the few instruments I know how to play. I can’t afford to hire cover artists for my albums, so I do my best to design them myself. Is it not the same for any small content creator? How is leveraging the royalty free stock images available online any different from clicking a button to generate an image from an AI?

I don’t know the answers to these questions, and I think it will take time for us all to work them out, together.

AI has potential for good, but it also has a lot of potential for harm. And I don’t see us avoiding the harm (to not even speak of the harm that has already been done) without serious intervention. The future is up to us.

I am still learning about this topic, and will probably continue to learn as the situation changes. I’ve linked throughout this post the resources that I referenced during my research. I hope that this post will also help others process their thoughts and feelings on AI, and maybe even find some of the resources useful, too.

Sources:

1 https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/09/artist-finds-private-medical-record-photos-in-popular-ai-training-data-set/

2 https://kotaku.com/ai-art-dall-e-midjourney-stable-diffusion-copyright-1849388060

3 https://stability.ai/blog/stable-diffusion-announcement

4 https://soundraw.io/

5 https://boomy.com/

6 https://www.ampermusic.com/

7 https://wandb.ai/wandb_gen/audio/reports/Harmonai-s-Dance-Diffusion-Open-Source-AI-Audio-Generation-Tool-For-Music-Producers--VmlldzoyNjkwOTM1

8 https://sensoriumxr.com/articles/what-is-ai-music

9 https://www.inverse.com/input/tech/open-ais-jukebox-generates-music-that-sounds-like-dead-artists

10 https://youtu.be/tjSxFAGP9Ss

11 https://www.aimeecozza.com/ai-art-what-is-it/

12 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/artist?src=search-dict-box

13 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/conscious

14 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/skill

15 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/creative

16 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/imagination

17 https://www.cartoonbrew.com/comics/dall-e-midjourney-ai-illustrated-comics-220166.html

18 https://www.dacs.org.uk/latest-news/dacs-warns-that-new-text-and-data-mining-exception?category=For+Artists&title=N

19 https://www.unite.ai/best-ai-music-generators/

20 https://filmora.wondershare.com/audio-editing/best-ai-music-composer.html

21 https://ai-writer.com/

22 https://www.codingem.com/best-ai-story-generators/

23 https://newsletters.theatlantic.com/galaxy-brain/62f28a6bbcbd490021af2db4/where-does-alex-jones-go-from-here/

24 https://www.vice.com/en/article/bvmvqm/an-ai-generated-artwork-won-first-place-at-a-state-fair-fine-arts-competition-and-artists-are-pissed

25 https://builtin.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-music-examples

26 https://medium.com/@1jonathankao/how-anyone-can-create-music-with-ai-725821f2f25c

27 https://creator.nightcafe.studio/

28 https://www.makeuseof.com/how-to-use-midjourney-create-ai-art/

29 https://openai.com/dall-e-2/

30 https://ebenschumacherart.com/will-ai-replace-artists/

Other Resources:

Society of Illustrators: https://societyillustrators.org/

Concept Art Association: https://www.conceptartassociation.com/

Equity (UK-based Creative Union): https://www.equity.org.uk/

Proko on AI Ethics, Artists, and What You Can Do About It: https://youtu.be/Nn_w3MnCyDY

The Met on AI Art: https://mymodernmet.com/ai-art-2022/

CNN on AI Art: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/21/tech/artists-ai-images/index.html

ArtStation Protest:

1 https://kotaku.com/artstation-ai-art-generated-images-epic-games-protest-1849891085

2 https://www.vice.com/en/article/ake9me/artists-are-revolt-against-ai-art-on-artstation

Check for your art in databases used to train AI: https://haveibeentrained.com/

[stormy-seasons]

thoughts on Thousand Autumns

I forgot I’d written a full on part by part commentary on episode 1 of Thousand Autumns/千秋 donghua edition. Well, here it is!

Oh wow someone got the good... guzheng? Something in that family of instruments anyway. They got the good music for that. And the animation is beautiful and beautifully synchronised to the clip excerpts.

And the imagery! The opening with the symbol of the Tao, and then main character number 1, Shen Qiao, all in white, in a fantastically and subtly ornamented outfit - I love the textures of the cloth they put in on the animation here, cloth and clothes textures are so easy to get wrong and they’ve done it beautifully here. I think this is supposed to be Shen Qiao’s original sect leader/zhangjiao outfit and he looks properly leaderly in it.

And this, followed by a closeup of Yan Wushi’s hand holding the that ring of contention, and then Yan Wushi himself, very handsomely rendered in 3d animation - and again I have to voice my appreciation of the cloth textures. That’s actual subtly 3d brocade textures they’re rendering there, with the correct flow for how cloth hangs on the body, and the correct variances of light on the areas with thicker brocade and it is, frankly, very impressive. And they didn’t lose colour saturation doing it either, making that purple robe look suitably luxurious. The shiny hair ornament and one sidebang in white is a nice touch as well. As are the hints they set right in the opening that Shen Qiao and Yan Wushi are ... opposites, and complements, in a sense, as the Tao complements itself.

So much love for this opening song it’s so good. Also going to be a pain to translate accurately with a proper sense of the poetry of it, but so good.

Alright episode 1 proper, 风雨欲来. The coming of the wind and rain, literally, I think. Maybe even the foreboding or oncoming storm, if you’re going for the feel of the term instead of literal translation. Oh. Oh that opening montage with the bird’s eye view and the fog and the high mountains - I was so taken by this scenery I sketched and tried to paint it at least 3 times. It’s a very moving shot. Also very much in the grand tradition of xianxia/wuxia, and also, even without a word, hinting at the traditional stance of the Mt Xuandu sect - to 出世， to remove themselves from the world to cultivate in the seclusion and clarity of the literal peaks above the clouds and dust of the world.

Oh. Oh that opening shot. The challenge to combat by Kunye to Shen Qiao. The.. subtle and ornate embroidery and brocade and patterning on Shen Qiao’s sect leader robes so awesome. The wave motifs repeated in the 3 layers of robes, even on the hair ornament/冠 in his hair, the resolute look on his face! The closeup shot of the 山河同悲 sword - and what a name for it. A sword named for, if I may be excused poetry in translation - compassion and pity and fellow feeling for the griefs and pains and trials of the world as encompassed by the mountains and rivers - what a blade, and what a name, and what a bearer that would be worthy of it. A very good hint, at the kind of person Shen Qiao is, even before they have him open his mouth.

The contrasting costuming decision for Kunye et al is also very nice, hinting at the cultural differences between, say, the peoples that live on the central plains and the more nomadic groups living on less kindly land, shown in the different materials available/preferred - leather, furs, etc  vs cloth, silk, cotton etc

And the fight choreography! So nice! the 3d animation works really well here,in that there’s no limitation to the capabilities of human bodies and it’s possible to really show in the visual medium the knock out drag down fight between 2 people who’s martial - and quasi magical - capabilities are already at potentially mountain splitting levels. Not to mention also, showing that a Shen Qiao who isn’t being handicapped by sabotage... really can wipe the floor with Kunye if he wants to. And then, of course, once the fight gets to Half-step Peak and they’re out of sight of inconvenient witnesses, the signal for the ambush. And then the effects of the sabotage take hold.

Ah, flashback to 20 years ago, to provide the audience with the world info we need to understand the rest of the story. Not to mention informing us why Hulugu would even bother. Or why Kunye coming in to challege Shen Qiao is so narratively important. And also introducing the ring that so mny would fight over later.

Yan Wushi’s character introduction.. is quite something. As is Yu Shengyan’s. Ah, Shizun, congratulations on exiting your 10year cultivation seclusion, would you like the highlights on the changes in the world in the past 10years? But also a good show of character, because they have him not even looking at Yu Shengyan, but looking away in the distance, and telling him to only tell the most important bits, he’s not interested in useless words. Also serves as a nice introduction to some people who’ll be important later, and giving us a time marker for when Shen Qiao ascended to the sect leader post - 5 years ago, after the death of his shizun Qi Fengge. Ah Yan Wushi, your characteristically arrogant attitude - aside from Qi Fengge, who in life was worthy of being the first among all the wuxia world, the rest are not worth even mentioning. And here too a little hint that Yan Wushi might care a little bit in some way for those who are his, including his disciples - He tells Yu Shengyan that this location, this Half Step Peak that they’re at, because of its physical characteristics, is good for him to cultivate to the next level of understanding/enlightenment of the martial arts used by Huanyue Sect.

I love it whenever they hint that the more... developed characters whose martial arts are very good have improved senses. A little flow of blood in the water, Yu Shengyan notices something is wrong, looks at his shizun, and receives a nod of affirmation that he perceived correctly and should take action. And then after that, they come upon a body of one of the Mt Xuandu disciples, and Yan Wushi’s verbal remark that today, Mt Xuandu is troubled and not pure and clean. And then Shen Qiao literally falls from the cliff top - and the pan up makes it very clear that for most people, this is a lethal fall.

And then the surviving ambushers attempt to finish the job when Yu Shengyan checks whether Shen Qiao is still alive... and Yan Wushi takes the training opportunity when he sees it, and tells his disciple to use his strongest techniques to take on the remaining assassins. And then, when Yu Shengyan can't quite wipe the floor with them... criticizes his lack of growth, as might be expected of Yan Wushi, and steps in to really wipe the floor with the assassins, as might Not be expected of Yan Wushi. Also doubles as a really nice display to the audience of his level of strength. In fact.. listening to the voice, I think one of those assassins appears, unhidden, in later episodes. Heh. Plot continuity, a nice one. As is the assassins having common sense, recognising Yan Wushi's infamous technique, and running before they're cut down.

Ahahahaha yes Yu Shengyan, your shizun really had you pick that fight for training, and he's really about to pick up Shen Qiao and have him rescued on a whim. Also nice to review, on rewatch for the details, that part of this whim is perhaps curiousity as to Shen Qiao's ability to survive and/or recover, as hinted by the thin thread of strength provided by the Zhuyang Ce, that Yan Wushi identifies as the thin strength keeping him alive, despite the aforementioned lethal fall.

Heh. Yu Shengyan – and maybe Huanyue Sect's other job – information gatherers aka spies.

Ah, Yan Wushi, you really are fascinated by people's reactions under stress, aren't you.

Shen Qiao awakens! Oof, the amount of damage – can't see, amnesia – damaged or even broken meridians – the donghua doesn't mention how much time passes, but given that Yu Shengyan mentions that Shen Qiao's broken bones have only just finished healing – could not have been a matter of days. Weeks, maybe even a month, minimum. Unless Yu Shengyan meant that the bones have only just been set – which could mean a few days. And then the mindscrew from Yan Wushi, telling poor amnesiac Shen Qiao that, yes, your name is Shen Qiao, oh, and you are one of my disciples from Huanyue Sect! Someone sure is hasty to put his poke the injured person plans into action! Ah Yan Wushi, if you could please give Shen Qiao a break, he just had a near death experience! But also – the scope of the injuries – yes, it benefits Yan Wushi's plotting but also – Shen Qiao was injured beyond the scope of ordinary medicine? Yu Shengyan has to be stationed to basically care for him until he is able to awaken – and presumably recover – appropriately!

Alright, time marker, 3 months after previous events.. okay. Shen Qiao can walk, some, though the animators were careful to make it a clearly pained walk, in comparison to how he was moving pre-Kunye fight. And then of course the blindness, which may also explain how they've animated him moving with more cautious steps. And the coughing, and the eyes that can't focus – all in all, a detailed and careful show of how badly injured Shen Qiao still is. Can't help sniggering at every 'shidi' I'm hearing him say though. And Yu Shengyan... yes, really, even though you and your shizun can't quite believe it, there really is a person this kind and considerate of other people.

The appearance of the weiqi board motif! Strategy, and planning, and part of the arts of the refined gentlemen..and the hint of how Shen Qiao is perceiving/visualising the input that he hears, since he can't see right now. And the hint that he might be using qi to help sort through what he hears – well enough that he can identify it's a weiqi board, and even the piece being placed. Very Awesome. Especially when they show Yan Wushi possibly testing Shen Qiao's capability to perceive the world around him by hesitating and purposely not putting down his piece.. and Shen Qiao very naturally picking up the piece – black, the correct colour and the one Yan Wushi was about to play – and putting it in the correct position on the board that Yan Wushi was about to place. Is it any wonder that the next thing Yan Wushi checks is the state of his recovery?

And then we have Yan Wushi's characteristic multipronged planning – creating trouble for Hehuan sect, training for Yu Shengyan, testing opportunity for Shen Qiao. Very excellent, any and every outcome has benefit to Yan Wushi.

Ah the encounter at the medicine shop. Hm. Okay, the sharing of the medicine is clearly a hint to Yan Ziwen of some kind that he and his should be especially cautious tonight, perhaps even to run for their lives tonight. Though it's maybe a hint in the actions, and not the words, because the words don't sound suspicious at all. Neither do the actions, if you were watching as a observer and didn't know Yan Ziwen's paranoid character – a blind person would unsurprisingly wish to be extra careful where they put their hands. And at night, on the attack... for all that Shen Qiao can't quite see, and is currently relying on the rest of his senses... he can tell that something's off about Yu Shengyan's actions. And then... Shen Qiao remembers... the sword, and what Qi Fengge taught him. And then the confrontation, and the near strangulation by Yan Wushi... Shen Qiao has such a nice literary register to his speech. Four word phrases even under severe near strangled stress, with the right philosophical meaning to make his point to Yan Wushi. And then the reveal of Yan Wushi's plotting. Very nicely done.

And now, the first of Yan Wushi's many many invitations to Shen Qiao to forsake his daoist path and join Yan Wushi's ... evil sect is not the right word. Demonic path is technically correct but has moral overtones that don't fit. Join Yan Wushi's cultivation path, maybe. Join and get bloody revenge on everyone who's wronged Shen Qiao – and already there are so many of them. And we the audience wonder for half a second – is he going to do it? Is this going to be a revenge story? And Shen Qiao flat out refuses in words, in the first of many times. And then Shen Qiao walks away from Yan Wushi. Here the animation is a delight again – the audience gets to see the little micro expressions that flit across – he's actually walking away?! And then Yan Wushi does his dramatic gifting of the bamboo stick. And too, a few seconds later, the reveal of their movements being spied on by Duan Wenyang, and Yu Shengyan's orders to continue searching for .. something. Ah, the plotting in Thousand Autumns. Always a delight.

[globofchaos]

Shelter chapter 1&2

Plot

Karl sets out to find the truth about his crazy uncle Beethoven . It was never his intention to gain a new best friend. One that will watch over him when he is gone ...

Chapter 1

Late at night around 3 am  In the Vienna realm a young man name Karl van Beethoven poured a cup of coffee while on his laptop. His eyes were incredibly exhausted after the long day sheepishly writing on a note pad with red ink . Karl slowly started growing more tired as he drank the bitter drink . A massive lightning bolt struck , causing Karl to snap out of his sleepiness.  The Viennese eyes were sunken purple from the lack of sleep . "How does my uncle ..do all of this …" he questioned to himself.  Earlier that week his uncle Ludwig van Beethoven was behind on his composing because of a "realm tour " he was going to . Karl, being the "favorite nephew " decides to help his uncle out in the hopes of getting expensive gifts in the future and more music equipment.  The work was more than he bargained for but he needed to gain  favors.  Lightning struck again this time ringing in Karl's ears , "Aaaahhh i NEED to sleep" he screamed .  The lights started randomly flicking around the tenant prompting him to worry slightly.  He turned the light switch off and started making another cup of coffee, this time pouring an entire bag of sugar and heavy cream  in the pot ."I have to stay away for as long as possible " Karl told himself, drinking it straight from the pot .

"Hahaha how are you tired when it's only 3 in the morning "a cruel voice laughed at him . Karl's eyes turned into the size as pin pricks quickly grabbed a black pan . "Zeigen Sie sich als Eindringling! " he shouted blindly swinging the weapon "Ich kann auch Deutsch sprechen " the voice replied, turning on the light revealing to be no one other than Nikolas Tesla.  "Actually I can speak acht so do you wanna speak German or Valhalla ? " Tesla asked while doing his nails . "Well smart ass that's nothing impressive Mozart can speak fünfzehn ! " Karl bragged " Is Mozart in the room with us right now ? " Tesla looked around . "Yet again that's what happens when your dorky uncle has friends that are from Poland,  France,  Germany and of course Vienna…" Karl paused " Wait a minute ..why the fuck am I explaining any of this to you GET OUT "  . "Hold on, I'm looking for your uncle Ludwig,  I wanna perform an experiment and Hrist isn't telling me anything  ! I swear Ludwig is brainwashing her " Tesla felt worried.  "I don't care ! Get lost , Geh weg, bousculer, non è il mio problema , Ite invadendi domum alienam ! " Karl pushed Tesla out " If I see you again I'm calling Hrist byeeeeee " , "But my -  " Karl slammed the door on Tesla locking it . The moment the man turned around Tesla was right next to him . Karl started swinging the frying pan like mad , "Hold on I don't mean to be a threat " Tesla easily dodged Karl swings. "What do you want, man? I'm too tired for this bullshit " Karl rubbed his eyes .

"Why are you so tired god I barely know " Tesla smiled,  " I have a lot of files to organize because my uncle is an old man who doesn't understand the internet beyond liking Hrist's group human photos and making the corniest pick up lines ever…plus that secret  file of a certain goddess "selfies '' I accidentally found .   '' Karl  turned a light shade of green .  "Selfies !? You mean those awkward ones where Hrist covered her face in a mask and was cringe, " Tesla recalled.  "No …not those '' Karl grew light headed.  " I could help organize those files …for a price …" Tesla stated,  " I have no money " Karl mentioned.   "No something worth more than money…" Tesla laughed "knowledge ! ".  "What are you talking about…" Karl whined , " Being a nurse, have you ever wanted to make the world a better place ? " Tesla pointed out.  "No, I could barely do surgery on my uncle without him complaining every 30 seconds that I'm doing it wrong  " Karl rolled his eyes . "Did you give him any anesthesia  ? " Tesla wondered. " Wait, I thought that was for humans …" Karl stopped for a moment to think "Uncle has a high pain tolerance….he wasn't even in pain just bored " .  "Hmm I remember Hlokk doing open Intestine surgery on Edison…yelling at him for taking her twin to an illegal fighting ring "  Tesla recalled. "I don't know who either are, " Karl groaned.

"The point is you are changing humanity  for the better ! Tesla pointed out . " Do I look like I give a damn about humanity ? " Karl started pushing him out "I'd say  goodbye but there is no good in goodbye with you ! " he slammed the door shut .  "But you are helping a noble cause "  Tesla was right behind him again . Nickolas was basically a salesman that just wouldn't go away .  Karl turned around quietly grabbing a rubber chicken then cracking his knuckles  . Before Tesla could speak Karl tackled him resulting in a massive fight full of angry German swearing . After a few minutes Karl opened the door . "I'm glad we had a talk ! Just remember no more random visits at three in the morning.."Karl stated . "Noted "  Tesla had a rubber chicken wrapped around him clumsy walking away.

He slammed the door rubbing his eyes with a loud sigh.  He made another pot full of coffee, pouring another bag full of sugar and cream before drinking it while organizing for his uncle.  By the time it was in the morning he was finally finished , Karl stripped most of his clothing off . He slammed himself onto Ludwig's messy bed , "Damn you uncle " Karl hissed barely able to sleep despite working all night on the project . It was probably because of the caffeine style in his system but that didn't deter Karl.  He got up going through Ludwig's medicine drawer , "He wouldn't mind right if I borrowed his melatonin right ? " Karl grabbed a bottle of gummy bear sleeping medicine.  He shoved a handful in his mouth before putting it ,s fixing the unorganized messy . Finally the medicine did its work making Karl sleepy.

While waiting to fall asleep Karl looked through old photos of Ludwig .  They say gods don't age unless they hit their prime and with Louis it's still hard to tell . Ludwig didn't exactly like talking about his childhood or anything like that . All he mentioned was that Karl was just like him . In Fact Everyone said that exact statement.  Its gotten to the point were he is nicknamed   "Mini Luddy '' from Beethoven close friends . Despite being named after his father  Kaspar Anton Karl van Beethoven, people always questioned if Karl was Ludwig's son. Quite naturally his uncle was happy to claim Karl as his own while his biological father seethed with jealousy.  Kasper never said anything but Karl could tell so he stayed quiet while Ludwig was oblivious.  Now they were rumors of Karl being Ludwig's secret  child  . Thankfully his uncle denied stating that " If I  wanted a son I wouldn't steal my brother's wife  !  " and "Karl  his  my son in spirit " . At least Ludwig finally accepted his sister in laws  after he found his girlfriend Hrist. His mother and uncle still don't like each other for gods knows why but they are quiet about it instead of screaming  . Karl wondered if  Ludwig was secretly jealous because his father and uncle had a wife and he didn't .

" Some things are just better left a mystery " he  shook his head . It was getting hard to think because of the medicine  making him drowsy.  Karl took one last look of his uncle's picture.   Ludwig hair was much shorter and raven black instead of wild mane . Despite that he is still recognizable looking every calm and full of life . A few thoughts ran through his head  making him more and more tired . "Why...do I care so much ..." Karl questioned,  he didn't have time to answer himself as his head plopped on the pillow . A few seconds later Karl fell into a deep sleep , Tesla opened the door sliding himself near Karl . "So you do care about your uncle..." Tesla whispered, grabbing an old photo of Beethoven.  The inventor never fully got along with the composer due to their clashing personalities . It wasn't hatred at all, just disdain because Tesla couldn't understand Beethoven's cold judgmental personality and Hrist warm fluffy loving smile .Ludwig just spat too much venom for Nickolas to make an antidote.

How could his darling niece  love someone so crude , childish , hot tempered,  suspicious god with less  manners then a stray dog . Tesla asked Hrist a few times on what she saw in him but Hrist only spoke nothing but good about him . She talks about how romantic and kind he is then  showed him the many gifts he gave her. At the end of the day  Hrist is a grown woman who is capable of taking care of herself in witch Tesla had learned  to accept . Sasaki and Qin seem to have taken a liking to him . Alvtir questions on why Hrist would choose someone "so old" , while the youngest one Ou asked a million questions then demanded both Karl and Beethoven play with him . Simo was fine with Ludwig but stated that " If you break her heart I'll send you into a permanent slumber ".  Basically as long as Hrist is happy then that's all that matters . Tesla could easily see how deeply in love she is with him so he let his distaste for him go, replacing it with curiosity.  Maybe one day they could get along if he just understood Ludwig more.

 

Tesla  pulled out a smartwatch clicking it on Karl's right wrist. Finally, he plucked a black feather laying it on the watch that turned a bright blue then turned off.  Tesla put the photo in Karl's arm . "Until later Mini Luddy " Tesla slowly closed  the door allowing the much younger man to sleep …at least for now …

Chapter 2

Karl woke up tasting the leftover coffee from last night , he stretched up his wings back and forth scratching his molted black feathers all over his uncle's bed . This is common for winged gods who don't close their wings before they sleep, something Beethoven always told him or else molting happens . "Hmph ? " Karl noticed a strange watch on his arm. It looked no different from your average smartwatch that you would buy online . It was probably one of the smart watches Beethoven bought for Karl that the youngster wore on and off and probably forgot about.  Karl shrugged, deciding instead to clean his feathers off and change the sheets.  After that he took the watch off to shower then dress himself.  While brushing his teeth he randomly remembered that mad scientist rambling about nonsense he couldn't  completely remember.   Whatever Tesla was talking about Karl wanted to be gone before he came back . Karl opened a draw back pouch shoving peanut butter cheddar crackers inside of it along with a charger for his bluetooth headphones . He slid the bluetooth headphones over his head while the oversized shades laid comfortably on his horns.

"This should keep me away from him, " Karl smiled at himself.  Before he could take another step he still saw the old picture of Ludwig 2nd . Karl took a picture staring at it . It was during a time where people just loved wearing suits and dresses instead of casual clothes . Till this day Karl would often beg his uncle to wear something that isn't a suit especially when he has the hygiene of a "pig in clothing " .  Granted Beethoven didn't like being called that but to Karl it was simply the truth . His uncle  needed to learn how to wear clean clothes and learn basic table manners . Karl wondered what Beethoven was like thousands of years ago . A part of him was just curious, the otherside told him to fly away .  "How long are you going to keep staring at your uncle kiddo ? " a hologram spoke to him . *click *" What the hell do you want ? "  Karl turned around pulling out his pocket knife   . "Relax kiddo it's just me .." Tesla slid his hologram back to the smart watch . "Grrrr" Karl grabbed the watch, "Woah woah woah ! Would you really break the watch Uncle Ludwig gifted to you ? Tesla teased " I would understand if you did tho you probably pon it for new headphones anyway …"..

Karl wordlessly threw his watch on the bed . He rubbed his hair harshly trying his best not to grab his horns and just scream. "What ..do you want ..' he growled furiously.  "Hmm I thought I explained enough yesterday we needed to do an experiment and well you just happened to have the smartwatch to work it out" Tesla mentioned. Angered boiled over Karl's temple , the viennese  quickly grabbed a few boxes of cigars, throwing it on his sack .  He heard footsteps passing by the door , Tesla creaked the door open revealing his black and blue eyes . "We need ..to talk .." He grinned.  "I'm not asking of your intentions again, just get out " Karl spat out . I won't be here for long give me 5 minutes and if I'm not out just call the cops " Tesla shrugged.  "I don't think this is about my uncle but go ahead I'm listening " Karl furrowed a brow  . "Remember how I told you yesterday that I was looking for Beethoven  ? Well that was a lie I was looking for the entire  time, in fact I even went as far as borrowing a smartwatch about a week ago to testc Tesla mentioned.  "Why ? Do you even know my full name ? Why so I a regular 3,000 year old man Have  anything to do with you" Karl crossed his arms.  " I want to learn more about Ludwig and dissect his brain and I figured the best way to learn is through his Nephew Karl van Beethoven and what better way to learn than through time travel  ! "Tesla jumped up and down

. "Time travel  ? " Karl moved his head , "Yes my dear good fellow Time travel  ! Something that was only thought up in movies was now possible ! " Tesla clipped the watch back on . "And why should I trust someone I barely know with such a complex and dangerous subject " Karl pointed out the obvious.  "Because don't you want to learn more about Ludwig?  Where does he come from?  His past " Tesla shook his shoulder "Well how it's possible!  " . "No .." Karl shook his head " I don't give a damn about my crazy uncle or his stupid plans " . "Lying isn't exactly nice Mini luddy I mean I just saw you stare at his pictures and hug the stuff Tazzy do you clearly miss him just a little " . "That is none of your concern " Karl replied,  " Alright but I just saying that its a once in a lifetime event. Why not live a little and have fun ? " Tesla patted his shoulder "Summer is ending this month so ..you know ".

"It must be very lonely in such a stubborn apartment with no friends battling with your schizophrenia and personality disorder every once in a while but I bet you a friend could easily change that " Tesla whispered,  "Do it …do it …do it …." Karl heard a great force tell him to just go along with it . At least for now that is to keep his mind out of boredom . " Let's get this over with " Karl sighed , " Great ! I shall make this fun for us ! " . Later Karl and Tesla sat on a park bench,  and the gifted scientist showed him how to work the simple device . "Just for a few minutes  ?" Karl made it clear that he didn't plan on going on a wild goose chase . "Yes I  already set up the time date so everything will go into plan just press the button " Tesla recalled.  "Okay .." Karl pressed the button.  He immediately felt a red aura around him glowing, "Good luck Karl ! '' Tesla stood back.  Karl mentally panicked as a ball engulfed him . Everything around him is changing.  He felt a strain pin down on his chest until a sudden force jerked him causing a massive fall onto the middle of the street.  Karl laid there for a few minutes his body processing  air  sickness.  He would have vomited if  he didn't skip breakfast that very morning . He laid there for the next 15 minutes as if he was going into a deep sleep only to be woken up by someone ruffling through his sack .  "How much money do you think he has ?" A teen asked.

" I didn't see any, just a bunch of snacks' ' said another one . "Maybe we could steal it and get guilders from it ..hmmm I wonder how much these ear warmers are worth  " the young teen touched Karl headphones.  Finally Karl woke up grabbing the teens arm with his clawed hands ``Don't touch my stuff ! " . "Ah ! A god ! " The group ran out of sight, dropping Karl's bag . Then horse clops started ma,making, Karl hear again coming his way . "Sir it's probably not a good idea to lay on the road like that, '' the horse driver warned him . Karl stumbled around trying to find his footing , "What …city am I in ? " he grabbed the book bag.  "City ? How do you not know that ? You are in Vienna '' the driver told him ."Right ,..right ,,right ahem can I get a ride?  I've seen feeling wonky for the last 45 minutes " Karl explained.  "Are you drunk?  " The driver asked , "Nope, I can't handle alcohol, which is ironic coming from a guy whose family drinks nothing but wine. In fact if I recall my grandfather or great-grandfather owned a wine company but I can't remember which one though " Karl mentioned.  "Okay …you're clearly on drugs " the man thought but didn't say out loud,  he let Karl in the cart for a few guilders.  "Hmm this place has a lot more horses then i remember…" Karl started recording certain events . "So where do you come from, you seem kinda lost  ? " the driver  asked . "I'm visiting for my uncle Ludwig van Beethoven  " Karl answered " do you know where he is  ? " . "Beethoven? " the man rubbed his chin "I think i've heard of that name…" . "Yeah he is a world famous Composer and musician !" Karl mentioned.  "That's a funny way of saying trouble maker! all he does is get drunk and start fights at heuriger " the driver huffed .  "Do you know which one he might be in ? " Karl questioned putting a cloak over his body .

A while later Karl stood in front of a wine tavern , "Wine ….of course it's wine ..,"  he opened the door.  The strong smell of booze  , cigarettes and old cheap perfume made his nose burn.  "Geez, what is this place ? It looks like the rotting end of a shit stained train station…" he commented between steps "the tavern i go to looks much better than this …" . Karl's appearance got him unwanted attention so he sat down . He tapped on the table " Hey bartender…bartender " . "What do you want !?  " a middle aged man rudely commented . " Do you ..uh ..have any water ? " Karl questioned, "Water ? Does this look like a damn pre k center  to you?  " the bartender gritted his teeth . "Okay maybe grape juice ? Apple juice ? Root beer ? Lemonade?  I can't drink alcohol because of my -"  Karl tried to explain but was cut off with the bartender slamming a bottle of  orange juice  "now get out of my sight " the bartender growled.  Karl sat on a table far from the area where he was scolded . He then poured orange  juice onto the cup sipping on it . "I hope I see my uncle soon " he sighed in defeat .