#pre-orders will finally start moving soon ^^ thank you everyone for your patience!

[thatmightyheart]

the sleepy shukita stands + p5s sticker sheets are prepared and ready to go, i will be shipping out the pre-orders that contain these items soon! :D

(if you think you need address changes pls contact me asap via shop form! ^^)

[nerdiel-has-no-braincells]

Good day!~

OMG! Thank you sooo much for these crush headcanons! I love them a lot! Can I request Reo, Nagi and Rin headcanons bout how their crush (or s/o) unintentionally makes them blushing mess/ frustrated?

Thank you so much! Love you and your blog!

I am so so so sorry for the delay in getting this out! I’ve been obsessively playing Honkai and it took up so much of my life (⌒_⌒;) But I’ve finally put it down (mostly because I have to level up my trailblazer level once more in order to move forward)

Your patience has been so appreciative and I hope you like this! ❤️

What Makes the BLLK Boys Blush

Ft Nagi Seishiro, Rin Itoshi, and Reo Mikage

cw: cuteness

******************************

Reo Mikage

Out of the three of them, Reo would be the easiest to blush

You wouldn’t have to do much to make him blush either

Reo fully believes he’s this super suave guy who can maintain his composure but what he didn’t know is that when it comes to his crush, he finds his cheeks getting hot just by looking at you

He’ll start a conversation with you, but his entire body will be hot and he’ll be blushing just by hearing your voice

The one thing that makes him go wild is when you see him in the crowd and you run up to him yelling his name

Because he didn’t notice you at first until he hears you say his name

His face immediately turns red when he hears you say his name

He has to maintain his composure before he turns around with a smile that was specially for you

I fully believe he’s a tsundere and even when he’s a blushing mess, he’ll deny it hardcore

After you two become official, the one thing that always ALWAYS makes him blush is when you run to him and hug him from behind

You two are meeting up for a date and Reo gets there early? Your heart fills with joy seeing him so you end up quietly sneaking up behind him only to throw your arms around him while yelling “Reo!”

It not only scares him, but as soon as he feels you behind him, he blushes like mad

He’ll immediately turn around to hug you and hide his face in the crook of your neck so that you don’t see him blushing

But you know

He’ll also have moments where you two are talking and he just looks at you full of love and adoration, his only thoughts are how beautiful you are and how lucky he is and his heart is so full of joy and love that he just has that genuinely soft smile that’s reserved for you and only you, his cheeks dusted red as he just looks at you

Because you’re in the middle of a conversation, you’ll notice that he’s zoned out just staring at you. Once you do, you’ll end up staring at him and end up with the same expression and you’ll stay like that for a while

Of course this also happens when you’re hanging out with Nagi who just groans because of how cringe you two are

Nagi Seishiro

Because he maintains such a lack of emotion on his face, he’s almost the master of composure

Almost

He’s never crushed on anyone before because he never had an interest in others no matter how lonely he was

Then boom! You showed up in his life the moment you and him were assigned to be partners for a lab

I live my life fully believing everyone is my height (170cm/5’7”) because the top of my head reaches his shoulders and tall people just SKSKSKDNDMDL (⁄ ⁄•⁄-⁄•⁄ ⁄)

ANYWAY

For this you are my height

One of the things Nagi noticed about you was your height

I fully believe he has a secret kink when it comes to height like he LOVES when his s/o is shorter than him

For once in his life he took notice of another person (pre-Isagi) so rather than listening to the teacher talk about the group project, he was more interested in looking at you, studying your features

Not only were you shorter, you were extremely beautiful, your hair looked soft and your skin looked so smooth. He could also get a look at your figure with how your school uniform hugged your curves

Once the teacher was done speaking and you turned to look at him with a smile, he felt his heart skip a beat and for the first time, he felt his cheeks heat up

But because he’s so composed, it’s only a slight blush that you don’t even notice

After that, he was always watching you, getting further and further attached to you

Even Reo noticed because this guy is so observant when it comes to his treasure

The second Nagi hears you, he looks up from his food and just watches you

Reo, who watched the entire thing, teases Nagi relentlessly to which Nagi just goes back to his food with the tip of his ears and cheeks burning while mumbling “Shut up”

Little does Nagi fully realize (he’s suspected but then believed it was a figment of his desire), you were crushing on him bad

You two were mutually pining for each other for so long that Reo and your friends started to get so frustrated that they end up working together to get you two together

And it worked! Nagi confessed to you afterwards and you confessed as well!

After you’ve become official, cuddling is 100% a thing! As well as nap dates

Nagi usually wakes up before you. Usually he finds you holding onto him tightly with your head on his chest, sleeping soundly

He’ll watch you sleep with a gentle smile on his face and the tip of his ears bright red. He’ll tuck the stray hair that’s covering your face behind your ear so that he can see you better. His heart is pounding and he always prays you don’t wake up to it

After some time, you’ll stir in your sleep and will flutter your eyes open only to stare at him

His smile just grows wider and the blush reaches his cheeks as he looks at your sleepy expression. It’s when he finds you beautiful to the max

Basically whenever you’re around, he will blush, but only slightly. But when the two of you are staring into each other’s eyes, the blush will be more prominent because he’s with the one he loves

Rin Itoshi

Just like Nagi, he’s not an easy one to make blush because of how composed he is (Sae broke his poor heart)

Even when he met you and you two became official, you’ve never seen him blush. Smile, yes. Blush, no.

So you make it your life goal to get him to blush just once

You try and fail so many times because of his stoic expression

He laughs at your efforts though and finds it really cute

What you don’t know is that the tip of his ears and the back of his neck turns red before his cheeks do so when you attempt to make him blush, the back of his neck turns red

But he won’t ever tell you this. He would die of embarrassment

He loves it when you hug him, give him a peck on the cheek, cuddle, and even just say his name. He loves that you support him in football

When he sees you in the stands cheering him on, a sense of pride and love bursts in his chest and it takes everything he can to just not show any change in his body

But when he’s being interviewed and is asked if he had anyone special in his life, the back of his neck turns red while proudly claiming that he has a significant other

You’re there standing in the sidelines when you first notice the back of his neck turning red

So later when you ask him about it, he denies it so hard that the gears in your head start turning because you don’t believe him for a second

Now you test this

You start hugging him from behind, kissing his neck, and other cute things that you thought wouldn’t make him blush only to find out that his neck and the tip of his ears turn red every time

When you confront him, he gets embarrassed and the blush just increases the more you tease him

The day you first told him you loved him, it took him by surprise and it’s the first time you see his face beet red

It took you by complete surprise and he ended up looking away while telling you to stop looking at him, but instead you put your hands on his cheeks and gently move his head to face you, his cheeks still burning red and his eyes glaze over

He tells you he loves you too which in turn makes you blush and you two just end up smiling at each other all cute-like

I hope you like this and I’m so sorry again for how long it took for me to get this done. I swear I go from one obsession to the other that takes up my time with no in between

I love you and promise I didn’t forget you! (ಥ﹏ಥ)

Blue Lock is created and owned by Muneyuki Kaneshiro and Yusuke Nomura

©️nerdiel-has-no-braincells Please do not copy and post without approval. Reblogs and comments are ok with me!

[ningningxx]

blueming - choi beomgyu

summary: pre relationship au! m/n is a tired college student that falls in love so easily. beomgyu is the cute barista that he falls for.

word count: 3k

now playing: blueming – iu & i’m so pretty - nature

notes: first in a series

m/n stumbles into his least favorite coffee shop exhausted, with a migraine, clutching an ice pack, and a gloomy disposition, wondering why everyone is so happy. it's not his fault, honestly it's not.

it's minju's.

she dragged him out last night to go shopping, which ended in disaster. he tripped over jewelry laying on the floor, got pushed into a wall and got slapped in the face, hard. not only that, but he got awoken by freaking justin bieber of all things and the starbucks across the street from his study hall is closed, and now he has to run all the way across to the other side of campus just to get a cup of freaking coffee.

wait, he also got knocked out after being hit by a trombone at orchestra practice.

he's internally yelling at minju in his mind before deciding to actually let her know how he feels via a strongly worded text message (she'll probably be fuming that he woke her from her sleep but he's too angry to care) just as he reached the front counter. still pounding away at his phone, he grunts out his order, dropping the exact amount of money for his venti-frappucino-with-three-espresso-shots. yeah, he's definitely not having the best morning.

"sorry, could you repeat that?"

m/n looks up, ready to glare viciously and direct his bad mood at the barista who obviously pays no attention... but instead gapes at him because the barista is actually really cute and damn maybe he's already got a crush. and, oh shit, he's the guy who minju tutors sometimes on weekends.

the barista (beomgyu, m/n remembers) stands there with an uncomfortable smile, awkwardly standing there behind the counter. (m/n would be lying if he said that wasn't one of the cutest things he's ever seen.) "your order?"

m/n gapes a little more before regaining his composure, a polite smile gracing his features. "yeah - right, sorry. um, a venti frappuccino with three espresso shots." he pushes the coins forward, waiting awkwardly.

beomgyu smiles again, this time an actual smile gracing his features (m/n will never admit that he swooned a little), appearing amused if anything. "right," he quickly scooped the change up before yelling behind him. "yein! large frap, three shots!" he registers m/n's change and hands m/n his drink. "thanks for coming to golden swirls! have a great day, m/n-ssi."

m/n blushes because beomgyu actually knows his name and he may or may not be screaming inside because of it. someone behind him coughs, interrupting his inner emotions and m/n is so glad that he's not in high school because he so has a schoolgirl crush.

"thanks- i'll be going-" m/n runs out of the door before he could embarrass himself further, almost dropping his coffee as he goes and accidentally knocking his laptop bag that's swung over his shoulder into the wall outside. he looks at beomgyu through the large window, watching how he serves the next customer before quickly heading off towards his next class.

not even ten seconds later, he's managed to almost break his laptop, spill his coffee over a random stranger and he just wants the ground to swallow him up. his patience has run thin and he finds himself swearing because of how awful this one morning has gone. fuck today, fuck his life, just fuck

.

most of the time, m/n's lucky to have minju in his life. they share an apartment together with minju running a home business as a pastry chef, she helps him with all of his assignments and they've known each other forever. but today, he really hopes that he has awoken her from her sleep (he doesn't want anything horrible to happen to her, he loves her too much) because it's her fault that he's injured. (maybe not completely her fault, not that he'll ever admit it.)

after getting back to the apartment and telling her of his god-forsaken awful day, she has the audacity to laugh.

she laughs so hard that she ends up falling off the couch, her makeup smudging which he's sure she'll be upset about. he doesn't really appreciate that she's laughing and he thinks that maybe he should take photos or a video because she laughs like a horse on crack. he chooses the third option which is attempting to make her spontaneously combust with the power of his glare.

"what the actual fuck." if anything, she laughs even harder and starts rolling around on the floor. he grabs a nearby throw pillow and launches it at her.

(she retaliates, flipping the couch over and them sitting on his back, she tries suffocating him with a surprisingly lethal fluffy cushion.)

after she stops attempting to strangle him and they put their living room back to the original state, they return to their previous conversation. but he immediately wishes that she's still attempting to murder him, because she is smirking. (he's so going to be antagonized for another week)

"so what basically happened, is that you publicly humiliated yourself in front of a cute guy and now you've turned into a weeping willow." she almost bursts out laughing again after her summary, instead pinching his cheek.

m/n immediately recoils, covering his face with another throw cushion. "yes, thank you for reminding me of the possibly most embarassing period of my life."

"you could've been worse. you could've spilled coffee on him, you could've fallen flat on your face as soon as you walked through the door." she laughed while he blushes even harder than he thought possible. (leave it to minju to bring up previous events.)

"i hate you," he manages to squeak out from underneath the pillow, curling in on himself.

"i love you too," she pats his head affectionately. "now i'll order some chinese food and we'll spend the whole night watching cheesy rom-coms while i try to cheer you up with some horrible puns and jokes."

(m/n cracks a smile because he honestly couldn't ask for a better best friend.)

--

after finally managing to finish his music assignment and edit another three essays as well as helping minju with baking cupcakes, m/n skypes kangmin. kangmin (the same person who chose to go in china instead of staying in seoul, the traitor) has been the third member of their group ever since the beginning of elementary as well as the exact reason for m/n's sexuality crisis. (which may or may not have included a temporary relationship and a lot of making out.)

it's not like m/n can hold it against him, but of course he still wonders why all of his friends have to be so damn good looking and adorable.

kangmin, unsurprisingly, doesn't answer the phone the first time but the second time yejin had picked up the call. yejin was the last member of their group and was the most creative and independent of the bunch. she was the first person that m/n had met that he loved within the first five minutes of meeting. of course, sometimes she was over-dramatic and hyperactive but it didn't really matter, she was still one of his best friends.

"hey m/n!" yejin smiled, flashing her pearly whites. "kangmin is currently busy working on that huge programming or digital project that he got a week ago."

yejin faces the camera towards kangmin, showing him with his head in buried in his hands. there were papers strewn all over the desk while his computer was closed. she subtly takes a picture of his distress before tapping him on the shoulder. kangmin's head snaps, a grimace present until his eyes lands on m/n's face appearing.

"m/n!" kangmin yelled, snatching his phone off yejin. ignoring her rude remark, he positions the phone in a way that both yejin and himself appear on the screen while still being close enough to hear. "sorry, i love you but this stupid piece of code is giving the biggest trouble ever and i just can't take it anymore."

he groans dramatically in his hands while yejin rolls her eyes at him, patting his head fondly.

"you'll be fine." she coos at him, rubbing his hair affectionately. "what's up m/n?"

"i may or may not have met someone..." m/n trails off, laughing at their reactions. yejin starts clapping excitedly and squealing while kangmin's head snaps up with a bright smile on his face.

"who is it? it's not that creepy guy in orchestra is it? if it is, you could do so much better.." yejin rants, not stopping even when kangmin covers her mouth with his hand.

"and i may or may not have also embarassed myself in front of him." yejin shuts up straight away, both her and kangmin starting to giggle.

"how bad was it?" kangmin inquires, a cheeky glint in his eye. "falling-flat-on-your-face-bad or peeing-your-pants-because-you're-so-nervous-bad?"

"neither,"

stares.

"maybe worse,"

more stares.

"it was clown-at-kangmin’s-eighth-birthday-bad."

long story short, kangmin’s parents had hired the wrong person and accidentally hired a drug dealer who tried to convince the kids that the cocaine he brought was sherbet. 

kangmin’s parents were mortified at the time but kangmin continues to tell the story whenever he gets the chance.

m/n eventually ends the call because yejin and kangmin are laughing so hard at him and, god, why does everything with him have to be so complicated and embarassing? (he may also have rejected the next two calls, accidentally)

minju, being the absolutely amazing best friend that she is, is so much more helpful than his other two friends. meaning that since she's already laughed at him, she's moved on to the point where she decides that she's going to be a helpful friend.

(m/n shudders at the thought. last time minju decided she was going to be a 'helpful friend', he ended up in the hospital for two weeks and failed two assignments.)

unfortunately, minju turns out to be his only option to call when he sees beomgyu again at the shop.

"please, please, please, come here right now. starbucks is closed, beomgyu's on shift and i need someone here to make sure i don't embarass myself."

turns out, this is the one time that minju isn't available.

"you should've asked me before. i'm too busy. i've got to juggle six different pastry orders and they all have to be done in a couple of hours because i'm catering for a wedding."

well, fuck. m/n looks inside the coffee shop again, noticing that this time beomgyu is looking back at him. beomgyu smiles and waves, while he leans against a broom. m/n can't help but smile back, pocketing his phone and walking through the door.

as soon as he's in the door, he sees the broom that beomgyu is leaning on slips and makes him fall over. he rushes over to beomgyu quickly, helping him back up. beomgyu blushes a bright red while m/n helps him back over to the counter despite being told numerous times that he's fine.

"seriously m/n-ssi, i'm fine." beomgyu giggles. he fucking giggles and suddenly there's a hand on his arm and somehow all the oxygen has left his lungs and why is it so suddenly hot?

"are you sure?" m/n asks again, checking for any injuries. beomgyu nods again, walking awkwardly back behind the counter.

"venti frap, three shots right?" beomgyu's eyes shine, a small blush coating his cheeks. m/n nods, handing over his coins.

beomgyu scoops them up but accidentally drops a few on the ground. after all the coins are picked up, yein suddenly appears by his side with a coffee in her hand.

"smooth move, casanova," she nudges him playfully, before handing the coffee to m/n. beomgyu blushes brightly, moving over to start cleaning the counter.

"thanks, i guess." m/n says awkwardly. "i'll see you later, yeah?"

he runs out the door, waving to them as he goes. he's a few metres away from the coffee shop before he does a happy dance because he didn't embarass himself in front of beomgyu.

(this doesn't erase his bad luck however. he manages to keep his coffee intact, but someone else spilled their coffee on him, he got attacked by a rabid cat and chased by a group of dogs on the way home.)

--

the next time m/n sees beomgyu, it's in the comfort of his own home.

but that doesn't mean, he's ready to face his crush.

m/n's woken up by minju's banshee scream, her high pitched tone filling his entire room. he wishes his first instinct was to cover his own ears but no, his first instinct is to get up and make sure the bathroom door is closed. (every time minju screams, the large mirror in their bathroom 'mysteriously' breaks. and the money that pays for it 'mysteriously' comes out of his own wallet.)

he walks into the living room and he knows he looks like a mess.

his hair is strewn everywhere, making him look like he just got zapped with lightning. he's wearing a plain white shirt but he's only one inside while the other half is wrapped around his shoulder, exposing his lower body. he's also wearing his rainbow briefs while he's got kittens on his socks.

m/n's barely got his other arm in the shirt before he hears a cough behind, where he's met with beomgyu's blushing face.

beomgyu looks like he's trying so hard to look away, he's got his face hidden behind one of his books but his eyes are visible at the top, (it certainly has nothing to do with the way his nose starts to bleed a little) while minju doesn't look much better herself.

she hadn't bothered to brush away her bangs and instead was trying to pour herself a cup of coffee, a large yawn escaping her lips.

"we, meaning me, wants you to make us breakfast," minju speaks like she doesn't know that she just embarrassed m/n in front of his crush. (to her credit, she probably doesn't. she occasionally leaves their apartment half naked because of her tired stupor.)

"uh, r-right." m/n stutters, running back to his room, locking gazes with beomgyu before his door swings shut.

minju eyes him weirdly as he goes. (usually he'd yell at her to stop being lazy and do it herself but he seemed to be too stunned to do anything. she'd have to bring beomgyu around more often.)

"is he okay, minju?" beomgyu puts the book down.

"he'll be fine," minju yawns again, wrinkling her nose. "i've already accomplished my duty as a best friend by bringing you here." she ignored beomgyu's questioning gaze, bringing her mug to her lips.

m/n walks out of his room, looking more presentable but also looking like he was going to cut a bitch. (in every case, minju.)

"give me that," m/n swiped minju's mug from her hands, taking a deep gulp of her bitter coffee. he ignored minju's scathing remark and turned to beomgyu, unstartled. "will pancakes be okay, beomgyu-ssi?" his voice took a much softer tone than when he spoke to minju.

"yes please, and i'd rather you'd just call me beomgyu, m/n-ssi." beomgyu smiled.

"then i would insist that you'd do the same, beomgyu-ah." m/n smiled, shooing minju out of his kitchen and getting the ingredients out.

minju huffs and takes a seat next to beomgyu, crossing her arms.

"are you ready to carry on, beomgyu-ah?" minju asks, wiping her face with a wet wipe.

"gimme a sec," beomgyu rests his head on his arms as he watches m/n move around in the kitchen.

m/n's got his headphones in his ears as he hums delightfully, flipping pancakes with ease. he dances his way around the kitchen, pulling out syrup and strawberries and eating utensils, preparing breakfast with a soft smile on his face.

beomgyu can't help but watch the other male with a dumb smile on his face, not looking away even when there's a steaming hot plate of pancakes in front of him.

"i hope you like them," m/n smiles, taking out his left headphone. he fucking smiles at beomgyu, who feels his entire being heat up. (beomgyu tries to ignore the way his heart pitter-patters in his chest. that traitor.)

when beomgyu takes a bite, he moans in delight. m/n pretends to not notice, shoveling his food in his mouth. (his blush totally does not give him away.)

"so m/n-ah," minju starts, taking back her mug and refilling it. "when's your next class?"

"i'm free today. my chemistry professor called in sick so he just emailed everybody their latest assignments. i'm going to die." m/n cringed, taking a sip of his water.

"i bet physics is looking pretty good right now, huh?" minju had a triumphant look on her face.

"people who take physics usually don't have a life, or friends." m/n flicked her forehead, distracting her long enough to steal her coffee again. "no offense, beomgyu-ah."

"none taken, m/n-ah." beomgyu shrugged his shoulders. "what do you study?"

"i'm making my life hard by majoring in dance with a minor in chemistry." m/n put his two thumbs, his entire being oozing with sarcasm. "commuting to two different campuses four times a week, what fun."

"that's like me!" beomgyu's eyes were a little wider. "i'm a vocal major with a minor in physics. moving between the two campuses is such a pain."

"does that mean you know soobin-hyung? i think he's a vocal major as well?" m/n asks.

"bunny-hyung?" beomgyu's eyes glaze over in realization. "he takes care of me, you know, being one year older. does that mean you're friends with yeonjun-hyung? he still owes me twenty dollars."

"soobin-hyung owes me fifty!" m/n almost yells. "but it's okay because he buys me lunch every other day."

"oh my god, they're perfect for each other." beomgyu rolls his eyes, stabbing his pancake with his fork.

"they're disgusting. i hate seeing them meet up, like they haven't seen each in a million years when in reality it's been like four hours." m/n agrees, wrinkling his nose.

minju looks between the two males, wondering how they could be so oblivious towards one another.

"they're idiots. idiots who hopelessly crush on each other." minju complained under her breath. she held up her phone, pretending to use it as a mirror, only to snap a pic of m/n and beomgyu interacting with each other, bright smiles on both of their faces.

m/n briefly looked at her, a weird look on his face.

"you'll thank me later." she smiled innocently, tapping her phone with a wink.

[nad-zeta]

Match up! ^̮^

Heya can I get a match up for a ikevamp guy? I am 4’9 petite girl, with pink dyed hair! I’m really insecure about my thighs so every week I try to watch what I eat and exercise~ I am also a INFJ and Pisces who loves to travel and explore. My goal in the future is to become a interpreter and hopefully be able to travel the world! I am kind, hardworking, and always keep myself busy~ With school i am always extra by taking harder classes and being pres in 2 different clubs. (I’m in like 5 clubs with a part time job on top of that) I love to read, sleep, eat, and play otomes on my switch hehe~ I also free write from time to time because I use it as a outlet to express my creatively and control my feelings when I am mentally not at my best. I dislike my strict parents, and all the standards they expect of me. I know they disapprove of my plans for the future but it’s what I want to do, and what I believe will make me happy, rich or not. I also hate bugs and escalators with a burning passion. I will literally start screaming when I see tiniest of bugs. (Sorta the same with escalators but it’s just in my head lol) While I am the shortest of my friend group I am either the mom friend or the sassy one but I don’t mind being both :) I love and care for everyone but myself and usually always put others before myself, and will always make sarcastic remarks to my friends because they know I truly care. I’ve only dated once and it was because of peer pressure, but I sorta play hard to get because I don’t want waste my time with a fling. When I have kids, I want them to be able to leave comfortably and want to make sure the man I marry will constantly be there for not only me but for them. My real parents divorced and my real dad decided to give up his rights, so I want to make sure when I start a family he will stay with me through life so my children won’t have to deal with going between homes and moving from one place to another. Thanks in advance~

Hi hi, love! ☺❤Thank you so much for the request and sorry for taking sooo long with it! I hope you enjoy it, 🦋dear and I hope you have a super good day! ❤🦋🌻☺

So I match you with............ Napoleon 

The first time you arrived at the mansion, you practically ran into Napoleon while looking for the exit back to the Louver. Napoleon swiftly grabbed hold of your hands and pulled you through the halls back to the magical door only to find it shut. The two of you pulled at the handle to no avail. That is when Comte appeared out of nowhere to explain your situation to you. You were honestly so shook and scared. You low key shut yourself in your room for the first few days venting out all your negative thoughts into your journals.

The residents started to get worried that you had basically shut yourself in your room. Napoleon, who had been the first one to find you when you first arrived, decided to take you under his wing. For some reason, he felt responsible for you. He came to your room the next afternoon (cause lets be real both of you most likely slept in until noon) carrying a stack of freshly made pancakes. He knocked on your door, and when there was no answer, he slowly opened it to peek inside. He was almost so shocked at the sight before him that he nearly dropped the plate. 

For in the room you were busing doing some leg exercises with your music on full blast. He waved his hands around to get your attention when finally you noticed him. To say you went as red as a beet would be an understatement, "Silly petite nunuche, just what are you up to." He curiously eyes you as he placed the pancakes down on the desk. As the two of you sharded the bruch, you had explained to him that you had always been insecure about your thighs so you would eat and exercise in order to get them to a place that you would be satisfied with. Napoleon couldn't help but burst into a fit of laughter, he couldn't see anything wrong with your thighs. He simply shook his head and then offered to teach you fencing as a way to tone up your legs.

Since that day, every morning without fail, you would meet Napoleon downstairs, ready to workout together. He taught you all the basics of fencing, and soon you were a natural. The two of you would fence for hours and hours. Occasionally Jean would join the two of you and teach you a few new moves for you to use to over through the former emperor. 

After fencing, it had become somewhat a tradition for the two of you to have lunch together. As time went on you and Napoleon got to get to know each other better and better

For example, you found out that he had a rather big soft spot for children and would spend his afternoons teaching them. You being the overachieving hard-worker that you are, naturally decided to check out his school. You were amazed at just how much knowledge Isaac and Napoleon managed to pack into these young minds. 

As you were watching the two men in their element, a little girl meekly came up to you and asked you for help. As you explained the work to her, you found yourself surrounded by more and more children. And it wasn't long before you were teaching a class of your own. You low key thanked the fact that you had taken so many extra classes back in the future as it had enabled you to be rather knowledgeable. Napoleon couldn't help but smile in delight at the sight of you teaching the children and decided to offer you a position in his small makeshift school. Now in the mornings, you and Napoleon would fence, and in the afternoon you would teach together.

You loved sitting with the emperor during the breaks, simply just chatting about anything and everything. Although you never noticed it, Napoleon would often watch you with a fond smile painted across his face. He admired your the hard work, patience and kindness you would show to the children whenever you taught them. At this point in time Leon was absolutely smitten with you, but you, you were playing hard to get. He would often turn on the charm only to get no results, it was very push and pull between the two of you. And to the outside world, the chemistry and attraction between the two of you had been clear as daylight

When Napoleon found out you loved to travel he was over the moon, as it was a hobby of his to explore in his free time. Now whenever the two of you weren't busy, Leon would whisk you off to some unknown place for the two of you to sightsee. Oh how he loved to explore places with you, whether it is hidden caves or visiting nearby towns, he would always be wearing the biggest grin. One of his favourite trips, in particular, was the one where he had confessed his feelings for you. 

After a while, the man caught on that you were playing hard to get, so he decided that he was done beating around the bush. After your daily fencing match, he told you to meet him in the main hallway in an hour. You were beaming in excitement as you loved to travel around with Napoleon, the man just had a knack for finding the best destinations. You met him in the foyer, and before you knew it, he had swept you off your feet and plonked you down onto his horse. He had absolutely refused to tell you where he was taking you. At some point in the journey, he had placed a blindfold over your eyes as he continued to ride on. Once he had reached the destination, he carefully helped you down from the horse and gently took both your hands in his, to lead you further. With a satisfied nod, Napoleon finally allowed you to remove your blindfold. 

You were absolutely awestruck at the sight before you. He had taken you to a hidden waterfall surrounded by flowers. You looked down to see that he had even set up a romantic picnic under the shade of a great big willow tree.

The two of you chatted away when finally, Napoleon decided to confess his love. He took your hands in his and looked you dead in the eyes. However, before he could say anything, out the corner of your eye, you saw a bug crawling onto your picnic blanket. Without a second thought, you screamed your lungs out and leapt into Napoleon's lap, holding onto him like a scared cat. To say that Napoleon burst out into laughter would be an understatement. This man was literally in tears, laughing at your reaction as he slowly reached over to flick the bug off the blanket. He laughed, even more, when he saw that dissatisfied frown dancing across your face. Now cradled in his arms, Napoleon couldn't help by lean in and whisper a quick "I love you" against your lips before giving you the sweetest, tenderest of kisses. He poured all his love and affection for you into that kiss.

Since then you best be sure he would tease you mercilessly about your hatred for bugs. 

He honestly didn't mind your sarcastic comments, in fact, he found that side of you to be rather amusing. As this would spark a game of wits between you and Napoleon which, to be honest, usually ended in a tickling match.

Napoleon was in absolute awe at your strong personality and resolve. More so when you told him about your strict parents and their disapproval of your future choices. Napoleon, who had been the emperor of France, knows what you are going through in terms of having big expectations and standards placed on your shoulders. He would support you wherever life took you as he knows now that the true meaning of life is to do what makes you happy, not to do what others expect of you. And so he would support you in whatever choices you made. Just as you have brought a sense of peace and calm to his life, he tries his best to do the same for you.

Leon knows about your tendency to put other before yourself, so you best be sure this man will pamper you and shower you with love and affection. He loves that you are always helping the people around you, so he had made a vow to be the one that puts you first and protect and aid you whenever you are struggling. When he sees you have taken on more than you can chew and you are starting to burn out he will gently wrap you in his arms and kiss your cheek as he asks, "mon amour, what can I do to help.

Oooh, this boy loves that both of you are sleepers. His favourite part of every day is to wake up before you at noon and just watch your sleeping face. He loves those quiet, peaceful lazy mornings the two of you spend together. He will legit shower you with small little kisses to wake you up. He loves to cuddle with you, his favourite place to have you is nestled in his arms, as the two of you sleep the day away. He absolutely loves to spoil you with brunch in bed on the days he wakes up before you.

Napoleon knows the second you are not mentally or emotionally at your best. He knows that during those times he has to give you some space to write. Although Leon can be a little clingy at times, so he will definitely insist you sit in his arms while you write out your emotions. Will definitely drop a few playful kisses on your cheeks and neck in an attempt to cheer you up. If you want to talk out your feelings, he is always there to lend an ear, but he understands if you would want to write it out. 

This man will 9/10 times insist you read him your writing masterpieces. He knows you are an excellent writer as he may or may not have peeked at some of your stories.

He will reassure you every day of his love and devotion for you. The day he confessed his love, he gave you his heart, body and soul in an oath. A vow, mind you, that he renews every single year on your anniversary. He is madly in love with you and has found peace in life with you that he has never found with anyone else. He has devoted his life to caring for and loving you. 

You can 100% be sure that if the two of you cuties ever have children that he would be the greatest dad and husband anyone could ever ask for. After you had told him about your past and your family, he is sure to remind you every single day just how much he absolutely loves and adores you.

Often the two of you cuties, can be found snuggled up in bed together sleeping the day away, sharing in each other warmth and love. If the two of you aren't enjoying a peaceful day relaxing, you are off on some crazy fun adventure, travelling the world and exploring unknown places together.

Other potential matches.................. Comte 

I hope you enjoyed this dear and I hope you have the best day! @mioreos​

[skyneverthelimit]

UPDATE TO R.E.M/DREAM PROJECT ARTBOOK 2:

HELLO EVERYONE!

I want to apologize for not updating on my Tumblr page! I don't really use Tumblr beside posting my artwork that I collectively done over a period of time.

Since October my life has turned upside down, I had to transfer pretty quickly from one apartment to another because of a toxic living environment. Working full-time and dealing with my own mental stress I took counseling to help cope with everything that I was struggling with. I focus to make sure I had enough to pay the expense of my move. 

During this time I did finish my PDF for the publishing company, but to request a proof for my book I needed to meet requirements and this took more time than I expected. During Christmas I finally was able to make an order to print my proof and that to takes time in production. Due to the holidays my book took awhile to print and even longer to ship. 

My Charms are made from Zap Creative and because it is from the UK and since it is con season the charms also took time to create. 

THANKFULLY both the proof and charms came in the mail this week! and both look amazing! there are minor errors I need to fix but I'm sure I will be able to have it done by Friday this way production can start on my book by Monday. 

This is the main reason why I did not post a release date during Pre Orders  because I knew it would take awhile to create. I can honestly say once productions start on Monday it will take the production company about a week or two to print out the books and about another week or two to ship. 

So here is an estimate date: 

Books will arrive in February and depending on when it arrives I will start shipping either by late February or early or mid March! 

Zap was nice enough to add more charms than I ordered! so I'm going to sell the left over stock once I'm finished shipping all the orders. This also goes for the book as well!  last year when I made my first zine I was given 10 extra books I can't guarantee this will happen again but if it does those will also be going up for sell

Please feel free to message me anytime! for any questions or concerns! Im always here to answer and to make sure you feel comfortable with your purchase! I'm very excited about how the proof and charms turn out! I can't wait for you all to see and or have them in your hands very soon!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE AND SUPPORT

[blacksheepdolls]

hello everyone. it sure has been a while, huh?

as we move into a new year, I look back on how little I did with my dolls in 2019, and it makes me sad. I was hit by some pretty big setbacks this year, and I wound up focusing on a lower-effort hobby of mine and left my dolls to gather dust.

not to worry, though: I still have all of them, and I’m still very much attached. I took a good hard look at my collection recently, deciding if I wanted to sell any of them, or even the whole lot. I felt bad that I wasn’t doing anything with them. but now that the end of this whole mess is potentially on the horizon, I realize they’re still there, still waiting. and I can’t even imagine parting with any of them right now. (that doesn’t mean I won’t be paring down my props and wigs and such soon, because I very well might be.)

surprisingly, I have a new doll (a head, at least) coming in the next month or so. I ordered it way back in august, and I’m hoping that will help to reinvigorate my interest in the hobby. after Ohayocon this month, I think I’ll start saving toward finally completing the three dolls I have unfinished.

as for the shop, I’m going to be shutting it down temporarily this month, and reassessing how I want to do things. it’s very likely that I will move completely to an in-stock model, as opposed to taking pre-orders, and that I’ll cast items in small batches of 2-3 at a time.

for those of you still following me, and even those who came along during my long, unannounced hiatus, I thank you for your patience. I hope to be back in the swing of things soon.

have a lovely new year!

[oops-my-fingers-slipped]

A Little Braver (Ch. 1)

Genre: Pre-debut Trainee AU

Pairings: Jisung x OC, Felix x OC

Author: Lex

Part(s): 1, 2 —–>

Description: Trainees Kira and Anna are members of Girl Project Group and participants in the new JYP reality show ‘Stray Kids’, competing against Boy Project Group for the chance every trainee dreams of… a debut.

Author’s note: ♥️Hello again! I know I’ve been very inactive lately and for that I’m deeply sorry. I still have many written and moodboard requests to finish and I can’t apologize enough for how late they are- I’m currently making progress and am really excited to finally post them ASAP😊💕! I appreciate your patience so so much~ thank you everyone♥️ But for now (since I already had this written) I figured I’ve been on hiatus for FAR too long!! 💙 Thank you guys for the constant support (it means the world) and I hope you enjoy this fanfic~ Have an INCREDIBLE day! 😂 I’m also sorry this is so long- let’s get on with the story~

ANNA’S POV:

“Very good! But, Eun, can you put more power behind your vocals at the bridge? I know the rest of us will be harmonizing but that means it might drown out your solo.” A young girl with dark bangs nods from across the table, mentally noting the correction.

To her left, Chae pipes up. “Shall we run that part again then? Starting from the bridge.”

She agrees, and the room in suddenly filled with Eun’s voice, stronger this time, and I’m once again reminded why she was chosen for this team. Though she auditioned later than most of us, Eun rapidly caught up and even surpassed some of the more experienced trainees. Her determination and ability to take corrections to heart is what drove her through training. It’s why she is 1/7th of our team’s beating heart, and we wouldn’t be whole without her. Without any of our members.

Eun finishes with a soft note held to the last second, right before the chorus is supposed to start again. Chae and I clap profusely as Eun’s smile stretches wide across her face.

“Alright! I think that just about does it.” I announce.

“Yes! I don’t think I can handle another all-nighter.” Chae sighs with relief, and I honestly couldn’t agree more. The past few weeks have been rough for all of us. Nights mainly consisting of endless choreography drilling and memorizing, days reserved for vocal training and technique.

“I think we are in desperate need of a break. Who else is starving?” I ask, rising from the table.

“I’ll tell the others.” Eun offers, smile still lifting her lips in excitement. And soon she gets up too, walking out of the room towards the practice room.

————————————————————————

KIRA’S POV:

“One and two, three and a four, five, six, and se-ven, eight, one-” My chanting echos above the sharp squeaks of tennis shoes on the practice room floor. Ahead of me, Ara, Ryung, and Li are going over the choreography and formations to the beat of my counting. They hit each move with unity and precision, however, they lack the energy they had a few hours earlier. Fatigue is starting to set in, I can tell, and i’m about to finally call it a night, but it looks like Anna beat me to it. Eun comes through the door and her giddy smile tells me she brings good news.

“Who’s up for dinner? We just finished. Do you guys still need more time?” She calls over.

I glance over at the dance line. They’ve stopped the routine and are breathing heavily, sweat beading crowns over their foreheads. I smile wide. “Mmhm. We’re ready!” Li pipes up from her current place in the formation.

“Umm, we might wanna wash up first. I doubt it’s a good idea to show up at a restaurant with sweat stains and wild hair.” She chuckles a little at the end.

“Let’s try not get kicked out of another diner this time.” Ryung laughs, remembering a time a few weeks ago when a total of 3 drinks were spilled and our booth was occupied for hours, chatting about absolutely nothing and everything. Being seven members, it was bound to get loud and it was only a matter of time before the staff politely asked us to leave. Yeah, better not risk it.

Ara giggles at the memory. “It will only take 15 more minutes.”

“We’ll meet you guys in the lobby.” I turn back to Eun. She nods and disappears from the doorway.

We quickly head to our bags set down in front of the practice room mirror, each pulling out a brush, a few hair ties, and a change of clothes. Unfortunately, Li calls the studio bathroom first, leaving the rest of us groaning in complaint. Ara and Ryung go for the bathrooms in the studio nextdoor and I decide to use the one upstairs. Our assigned studio is on the second floor of the building so I press the ‘up’ button and wait for the elevator to arrive to get to the third. As I wait, I tap my foot against the floor and let my mind wander.

The showcase is in one week.

Seven days…

Seven days until we compete for the opportunity of a lifetime. For the opportunity almost every trainee dreams of. A debut. An official group.

It’s what most of us have given up our lives for. Some might question whether or not it’s worth it. I have yet to find that out.

A light flashes above the elevator door, snapping me out of my thoughts. The doors slide open and i’m surprised to find it occupied. A boy stands centered in the elevator, arms filled with what appears to be take-out food. The bags are so big that all I see above the boxes are his short brown locks peeking over the edge. I quickly rush inside and offer some assistance. “Hey, um do you need some help?”

He responds from the other side of the boxes. “Thanks, but I think I got it.” I faintly hear the elevator doors close behind us.

“Are you sure?”

The boy is about to respond when one of the top boxes wobbles precariously. “Actually, maybe not.” He confesses.

I carefully hook my arms around the top half of the bags of food and lift them out of his arms and to my chest, making sure they don’t topple in the process. I’m about to ask why he has enough food to feed an army, considering how heavy the bags are, but when I look up the words immediately die on my lips.

The boy’s face is that of one I could recognize anywhere. From his ear dangles two small charms, one of which being a cross. His hair falls evenly over his forehead in tuffs of brown, barely skimming his eyelids. His lips seem to be parted in a small, grateful smile until he, too, realizes who I am. I’m staring at Jisung Han, Main rapper and Vocalist of Boy Project Group. They are our group, Girl Project Group’s competition.

We both hold each other’s eyes for a split second before diverting them elsewhere, the air suddenly tense. My mind races a million thoughts per second, faster than my legs ever could.

I internally kick myself for not piecing it together sooner.

Of course he would be going to the third floor where their studio is located. What else would a young man be doing here in a JYP building?

I realize, though we’ve both heard a lot about the other and their teams, we never formally met until now. So, before the silence drags on any longer, I bow and introduce myself. Or, rather as well as I can while still clutching the boxes.

“Hi, I’m Kira Lym of Girl Project Group. Nice to meet you.”

He bows before answering, “Uh, nice to meet you too. I’m Jisung Han of BPT.”

The elevator door opens and we both step outside. “Should I walk these to your studio?” I ask.

He doesn’t answer right away and when he does there is uncertainty laced through his response. “Sure, it’s just to the left.”

As we travel through the hallway, arms still full with food, I try to break through this unnecessary tension.

“So, I’m guessing all of this is for the members?”

“Oh. Uh, yeah, it’s been a long day.” Jisung sighs.

“I can imagine.”

We reach the door to the practice room and he balances his portion of the boxes in one hand as he pulls out the key from his back pocket. “Yeah, I bet.” And the corners of his mouth turn upward ever-so-slightly.

Jisung unlocks the door and gestures for me to place the food back onto the pile. I do so, but before turning to leave, I say. “Good luck, you’ll need it.”

He pokes his head out from the side of the boxes and confidently states, “I don’t think we will.”

I’m about to retort, but all the other members emerge from the practice room and practically attack Jisung and the food. I take the opportunity to retreat, not wanting to ruin their excitement. As I do, I catch pieces of lively chatter.

“Did we really order all this food?”

“Jeongin, you ordered half of it!”

“Jisung, you brought all of it up alone? You could have texted one of us.”

“Well, not exactly…”

I finally reach the bathroom and as fast as I can manage, dress and splash some water over my face.

I’ve probably kept Anna and the others waiting for a few minutes now. I realize and move even quicker. My fears are confirmed when my phone dings from inside my pocket.

Annabanana:

Everyone’s down in the lobby, are you okay?

I smile at my phone and my heart explodes with how kind our leader is. Not worrying about punctuality but rather the well-being of her members. I dash out of the bathrooms and take the stairs this time. I emerge into the lobby and rejoin my team. We are so going to win this competition.

[lettucewaltz]

Release Update!

Hi everyone! We’re so sorry for the longtime radio silence. We have some exciting news regarding game release! We want to thank everyone for the patience and we understand how frustrating it must be to wait this long for Spirit Parade. We didn't want to promise any release dates that we weren't sure we could meet so after a long discussion and reorganizing, we decided on taking this path!

First off, to address whether the project is still alive... We have no intention of canceling Spirit Parade as a project. The three of us are fully committed to seeing it through. We apologize for taking this long and for the lack of updates. We really needed some time to reassess priorities, take a realistic look at the game and our goals for it, and figure out a time frame that could fit in our lives and schedules. We’ll do our best here on out to update this blog more frequently, even with small snippets of text or a cropped image. Before, we felt we could only update with big news and such but after talking to a few people who have purchased the game about what they would like to see, we understand that even a small update can go a long way!

Now for the big news... We’d like to announce that we’re changing up our original model of release. From here on, we’ll be releasing the routes individually as they are completed. This will take two forms. If you purchase the full game ($20 full-price), you will be able to download patches that add content to the base game. You will also be able to purchase and play each route separately ($5 each) as a stand-alone game. If you’ve already pre-ordered the game, you will automatically receive all the future routes and updates.

Unfortunately, voice acting for the game will be suspended for the time being. There have been some complications with scheduling and implementation and until those are worked out, none of the released routes will have voice acting. We hope to be able to patch the voicing into the game at a later date!

Hayato’s route will be first out, to be released on October 5th (full moon!). We expect to release Mikio’s in short order as well; it’s only missing a few CGs at this point and has already been beta-tested. We're aiming for a late December/early January release date. After that, the releases will be in this order: Shuye -> Haiyue -> Diaochan. As soon as we have definite release dates, we will be sure to announce them here.

Please note: Pre-order pricing for the full game will end after Hayato’s route is released. Starting October 5th, the full game will cost $20 USD. Up until now, we’ve been issuing refunds for the pre-orders with no questions asked. We understand that the game is taking much longer than originally planned to release and we’re sorry for that and understanding of any financial issues that may arise. Moving forward, we will not be issuing pre-order refunds if you have downloaded any of the new (paid) content. If you wish to have your pre-order refunded, please make sure that you keep that in mind.

Also, a huge thank you to everyone who stopped by to see Lore and perhaps play the Spirit Parade at PAX East earlier this year! We sadly could not pass out our cute little Spirit Parade stickers, but hope you were able to enjoy our demo and those of our awesome boothmates.

We deeply appreciate everyone’s support and enthusiasm for the game still. It’s gotten all 3 of us through some rough times and we want so much for the final product to be something that you can enjoy and that we can be proud of. Please look forward to Hayato’s route in a few days and all of the exciting updates to come!

[beige-eclipse]

Bitty Drabbles 20

(I’M ALIVE, I’M ALIVE!!! I am so sorry you guys! I got really really sick and even the slightest hint of electronic light made my head pound. I still kinda need ideas for drabbles, but I’ll try to be more regular again. Seriously, just give me a prompt like “goes to X place” or “does X thing” and that would be fine. At any rate, be sure to check out @vex-bittys after reading this.)

Today would be a pretty big step. Ella had proposed a nice day out in a city we used to often visit. I didn’t know, she suggested that Crim come and refused to take no as an answer. Ig had told her about the infinity scarf, so she saw it as being no problem. She had already called her two to go friends Isabell and Paula. They were ready to go and would be awaiting my arrival. I begrudgingly got ready. Crim looked on curiously. I smiled down at him.

“Ella invited us to go hang out with her.” Crim smiled at that, liking Ella the most out of my friends. I adjusted the infinity scarf before opening it up for Crim, his jacket and backpack already inside so he could get ready as we walked. “Well, hop in or we might miss our bus.” Crim did so without hesitation and I could feel him shuffling as he put on his sweater and backpack.

I gently told him to stay hidden until we were safely on the bus, just in case they refused us service, and made sure to snag a window seat. Luckily the seats were high enough that Crim could peek and watch out the window whilst also being protected from view. Anyone who came onto the bus promptly chose a different seat when they looked down to see him peeking out of the scarf.

I patted him to let him know we would be getting off soon and he sunk back into the scarf. I thanked the driver as I got off and bought a train ticket. I could’ve taken busses the whole way, but this would turn what would have been over an hour into about ten minutes or less depending on the timing of the train.

I subtly told Crim to stay hidden once again until we were safely on the train. I knew that he could see through the stitches of the scarf just fine, it would just be a little stuffy. He didn’t complain though, the train station was crowded, and I knew that Crim would have been uncomfortable enough that he would have stayed hidden even if I hadn’t asked him to.

The train came soon enough and though there were many people waiting, I was able to once again grab a window seat. The perks of being the second to last stop in the train line was that you were also the second stop when the trains came back in this direction.

People stared less on the train, so the person who sat next to me didn’t notice Crim soon enough, but of course, it would be rude to just stand up awkwardly, so he sat and tried not to keep glancing over at Crim, failing miserably. Crim glared at them; I didn’t stop him. Luckily for all parties involved, our stop was the fifth in the line, so we were off and out fairly soon.

Ella and her friends were waiting outside the train station for us, Ella having to stop the other two from starting a group hug that would definitely have crushed Crim. Crim peeked out and the two greeted him enthusiastically. First stop? Food of course. And what was our favorite food? Sushi.

Of course, Ella and her friends were active people, so they didn’t have the patience to sit down and eat at a stuffy restaurant. The compromise? Sushirrito. If you don’t know what that is, well, let me tell you. It’s basically a giant sushi roll, the size of a burrito. We usually order ours to go and eat them as we wander and window shop for things we can’t afford. I had another suggestion though.

Everyone happily ordered and munched away and I took the lead. Now, if you were in the lead, you knew where you wanted to go, and after turning a corner, they all knew my destination. The small park with the dried up fountain a few blocks away. The crowd was thick, but I managed to lead us through well enough. Once there, I sat down at the edge of the concrete monument that once held water.

The three I had led here looked at me expectantly. I shrugged and took out my phone, starting up a game that hardly anyone played anymore. They knew what it was from the music and copied me, taking seats to my left and right, opening up the old app. Crim came out of the scarf curiously.

Despite this being a park, hardly anyone came here anymore, having something else to do in the fast paced city. I handed Crim a few select chunks of fish from my burrito, despite having fed him the night before. I swear his eyelights turned to stars like the pygmies did back at the adoption center as he greedily scarfed down the morsels. Note to self, Crim liked sushi. We sat and chatted, finishing our burritos as we played, Crim looking at my phone screen in interest. I smiled down at him.

“This game is called Pokemon Go. It’s an app that allows you to find and catch virtual pokemon in real life, like in your game back home.” Crim’s eyelights flashed as stars once again as he pointed to my screen. He wanted to play. I explained all the features to him, but his fingers were too small for the phone to pick up, and when he tried his hands, that didn’t work either. The downsides of not having skin.

I finished my burrito quickly, offering my finger for him to use as a stylus. He took on the task diligently, though I made sure he actually caught the pokemon he was aiming for by using my previous skill in the game subtly. He didn’t notice, but soon enough, everyone had finished eating and it was time to move on.

Paula took the lead, both in the group and in conversation as we made our way through the city. Crim, I could tell, was having fun just laying in what was surely a hammock for him, taking in the new sites and smells. Paula brought us to the crystal shop. It was small, but not crowded. We split off, Crim coming out with wide eyelights. I smiled down at him.

“Would you like a crystal? I’ll get it for you.” He nodded, immediately scanning the store. He pointed, I followed. He finally settled on a small polished stone of Tigerseye. I chuckled. “Tigerseye? You’ve got good taste, that’s my favorite too. I tapped each of our group members telling them that I would be going up to pay. Crim’s eyes sparkled as I finished the transaction, handing him the stone which he promptly placed in his bag.

The store owner chuckled at his antics. Of course she wouldn’t be put off by the little lamia, her store held more than just stones if the many bone ornaments on the walls were anything to go by. I wonder why this place didn’t get more foot traffic. We left right after, the rest of the group comparing their finds. Unlike me, they tended not to pay… They were courteous not to take much, one stone each, but it was a habit I could do without. The poor woman had a hard enough time as it was getting by. I said nothing, and they had the courtesy to be quiet about it since they knew it was something I detested.

Isabell took the lead next, and though we had just eaten, her sweet tooth wasn’t satisfied. We ended up at the frozen yogurt and ice cream parlor. We liked this place because it was completely self serve. You grab a cup or cone of your choice and load it up from the frozen treat dispensers, pile on as many toppings as you like, then you pay at the front. It didn’t matter what or how much you put inside since you paid per ounce.

Low on cash? Don’t put in so much. Super hungry? Pile your mountain high and await your soon to be stomachache. I wasn’t too hungry, so I grabbed a cone rather than a cup. How people still managed to eat cold things in winter, I would never know, but we once again set off once we had our frozen treats. Ella was in the lead this time, and we all knew where she would go, so we would have to finish our food before getting there.

I managed easily enough, not having bought much in the first place, but Paula and Isabell had to finish outside by a trash can. Ella, despite being petite, could be quite the bottomless pit when she wanted to be. We were greeted warmly when we entered, though, we were all familiar with the staff. Crim looked on in wonder.

Video games lined the shelves, consoles sat behind the front desk, and small figures and other marchandise of video game characters adorned the rows. This was Gamestop, the store where I, and all of my friends, had purchased all of our games and game related goods. We wouldn’t be buying anything today, but they knew this. We always pre-ordered anything we wanted, we would just be browsing.

I made a point to walk up to the front and introduce Crim. I didn’t know the man by name, but I certainly knew him by face, and that was enough. He was like us, so I knew he wouldn’t reject Crim, and I had to translate Crim’s sign language since this man wasn’t in our loop. Once he knew Crim loved pokemon, that was it. He was quite informed on the topic, I mean, why work at a gaming store if you didn’t love video games? Crim listened with rapt attention. I told the man that Crim was starting on Generation one, and he commended me for letting him start from the beginning.

We stayed there for a while, partly for the stuff, mostly for the warmth, but eventually, we had to leave. It was still far too early to part ways, so we decided to wander around the local college campus. It was beautiful, yes, but it was mostly hills, and I would most certainly be getting flashbacks. You see, this used to be my college campus. Long story short, I don’t have a degree, but even I had to admit how nice the scenery was.

Squirrels ran amuck here, not fearing humans, and I made sure to keep Crim close. The little buggers would sneak into your bag and steal your food if you weren’t careful. We somehow ended up at the only library that was open to the public. I tried to make myself small as we entered, but it was a futile effort.

“Beige!” I smiled and waved at the boy manning the front desk. He was older now. We had a short conversation and he let us go on our way. Crim stared at everything, the library was large and beautiful, consisting of multiple floors. It didn’t need artwork, though there were paintings hanging on the walls, since the architecture was immaculate. It was awe-inspiring, but I knew the place like the back of my hand. I was greeted again as we quietly wandered the halls.

“Beige!” I smiled politely again, having a longer conversation with the man before me. We spoke of how things had been going, not too much had changed honestly. We parted ways once again, though I made sure to tell my old friend to say hi to my former boss. Yup, I used to work here back when I was a student. Believe it or not, I was a security guard.

Not as glamorous as it sounds. We were treated like janitors and hall monitors, and if there’s anything more annoying than an entitled child, it’s an entitled adult. You’d be surprised at how many times I’ve had to yell at young men and women not to climb on the outside of the building. I didn’t care if they were in the parkour club, they could take their antics to another building where I wasn’t liable for damages. We wrapped up our visit and I heaved a sigh of relief when we left.

I did miss my job terribly, but I knew I’d never get it back, so it just made me regretful whenever I returned. The chit chat as we walked down the hills distracted me though, and it was light side hugs for everyone when we had to part ways. Ella and I were able to take the train together, but she would need to stay on until the last stop.

It was far too crowded to gain a seat on the way back, the train having stopped at god knows how many stops along the way, but Crim was fine staying in the scarf. We said our goodbyes when our stop came up and we waited for the bus that would take us back home. The sun began to set as we boarded. I knew we were both tired.

“Have fun, Crim?” He nodded, taking out his new stone and showing it to me once again. I smiled as I patted his head absentmindedly. The walk home was pleasant and Crim went to go hide away his new treasure in what used to be his sleeping rock. We needed a day like today. I would have to thank Ella the next time we hung out.

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[xseedgames]

Little King’s Story PC Relaunch - Guest Blog

Hi everyone,

So we’re very happy to have a guest blog entry today from Peter Thoman, better known as “Durante” in gaming circles. Rather than a lengthy intro explaining why, I’ll let his own words below do the talking, so we hope you enjoy it.

Ken Team Leader @ XSEED Games

A few months back Ken Berry of XSEED contacted me to ask whether I could do anything about the issues with their Little King’s Story port. Despite hearing good things about the game, I hadn’t really followed that particular PC version, since a lot of other titles were released around the same time and it’s not really my genre. Still, I was intrigued to see what was wrong with it, and delighted at how Ken was able to provide me with the source code for the game without too much bureaucracy.

Initial Impression

Before going into the details of how I improved the port, I want to remark on the difficulty of this project for the original team who worked on it. After receiving the source, it was immediately clear that this was not a simple port. Little King’s Story was built on a custom engine designed from the ground up for this particular game, and its particular original target platform (the Wii). Clearly, during its development, it was seen as a one-off project that would be done once it ships, and portability or maintainability were secondary concerns.

In any case, I quickly figured out that the largest issues with the port were overall performance, intermittent stuttering, and a whole host of issues with the 60 FPS mode, and decided to tackle these in order.

Overall Performance

First, I removed the frame limiter to more easily investigate performance issues. Even on my high-end system, I only measured roughly 80 FPS in the overworld area at the start of the game. Basic profiling revealed that it was entirely CPU-bound, and I assumed this was not going to be caused by the original Wii code, given that it ran acceptably on a ~700 MHz processor.

This assumption turned out to be correct after more in-depth profiling: the vast majority of the game’s CPU time was spent interacting with the DX9 API. I won’t go into the full details here, but the crucial point is that many individual objects induced a state change of the rendering pipeline, with its associated CPU overhead. I decided to tackle the issue by implementing various caches (for passes and materials) which prevent state changes unless they are necessary. After a bit of tweaking, this lead to a performance of around 123 FPS in the same testing area, an improvement by more than 50%. More could be done - like always in optimization - but since the game is limited to 60 FPS at most anyway I decided to move on to another issue.

Intermittent Stuttering

On a high-end CPU, stuttering was actually a more fundamental problem than the performance overhead discussed above. While moving around in the world, every few seconds the game would noticeably drop one or even more frames. First, I thought that the culprit could be some timing issue, and while improving the frame sleeping logic helped by making the game play feel better, it still didn’t eliminate the major stuttering.

Profiling an intermittent stuttering issue such as this is far more difficult than working on overall performance. Sampling-based evaluation is almost useless, and that’s by far the most developed category of tools. Ultimately, I resorted to using Nvidia NSight and its integration library, and manually narrowed down candidates for causing stutter by marking individual regions in each frame execution. A somewhat time-consuming process, but it paid off:

In this image, the colorful stacks indicate the stutter causes I ultimately tracked down, and the lower half shows a similar sequence after dealing with the underlying issue. Note that the marked regions, which previously could take up 2 to 3 frames, are now in the 0 to 2 millisecond range. To give you a more visual idea of the improvements I’ve created this comparison video.

Issues with 60 FPS

Offering 60 FPS - or, much better, support for completely arbitrary framerates - is a common demand for PC versions of games, and one I fully agree with. In quite a few cases where it is not offered, mods later demonstrated that the effort to do so would have been very small for the developer, and that the only reason it was not provided is a lack of care for the PC version.

Little King’s Story is not such a case. There are many reasons for this, here are just a small subset of them:

1.     The game does not have a unified system for handling time or animation speed. Many modules act independently of each other, and often time-specific information is encoded in places where it would not be expected.

2.     The central NPC simulation code assumes that it can pre-compute how long it will take (in frames) for an NPC to complete an action, such as moving to another location.

3.     Some bosses, enemies and scenes are moved or designed in custom scripts, which use a custom virtual machine and instruction set that is not intended to share framerate information.

 My initial goal was to provide arbitrary framerate support, but point 2 in the list above makes that an infeasible goal. It would basically require rewriting large parts of the simulation, which makes up a significant portion of the entire game’s ~1 million line codebase.  Given that, I shifted to the goal of making locked 60 FPS work as well as possible.

The original port fixed the speed of most NPC animation sequences, but left many other hardcoded animations, and even the gameplay-relevant time progression rate untouched at 60 FPS (resulting in double speed).

I employed a side-by-side 60/30 FPS setup as shown above, and chipped away at framerate-dependent speed mismatches little by little. In the end, I managed to fix the simulation speed, the speed of many hardcoded object animations (such as trees or grass), and the movement speed of NPCs and animals.

However, the custom scripting system used for some boss battles and scripted scenes, point (3) in the list above, still prevents the 60 FPS mode from being perfect throughout the game. However, unlike the initial release, 60 FPS is playable (and a huge improvement in smoothness) during the majority of the gameplay. As a workaround for the remaining situations, I’ve implemented a 30 FPS toggle for the 60 FPS mode, which is engaged using the “F1” key. Note that this comes with some issues due to point (2) above: animations already in progress at the moment the framerate is toggled will run at an incorrect speed until the next movement starts.

 Graphics, Launcher and Control Improvements - What I Wasn’t Asked For

While working on the game, I noticed a few things which would significantly improve the visual quality and not really take too much time to implement. So I did. This include multi-sample anti-aliasing (MSAA), anisotropic filtering, transparency supersampling and a few other minor tweaks.

The most complex addition was creating an option for more shadow casters, including trees and grass. I found the lack of tree shadows a bit disappointing given that other objects cast dynamic shadows, so I added this as a (somewhat CPU-heavy) option. While I was at it I also added an option for soft shadows, to better fit with the soft dropshadows cast by NPCs.

Of course, I also had to add options for these features, and since the original launcher was not particularly extensible I replaced it with a new one. As a personal preference I also re-implemented options to be stored as XML rather than in a custom binary format, and added a lot of information about each option in order to hopefully make their impact more clear.

Finally, while playtesting the controls of the game always felt a bit “off” to me. Even though I was playing with an analog gamepad, movement was restricted to 8 directions, which in particular makes precise directional aiming (a significant gameplay component) more cumbersome than it needs to be. To solve this situation, I added support for analog directional controls for Xinput controllers.

Conclusion

The new version of Little King’s Story should perform significantly better on all systems, most sources of significant stutter should be eliminated, and the 60 FPS mode now provides an accurate (and smoother compared to 30 FPS) experience except in some scripting-related cases. Furthermore, the game now features additional graphics options to make better use of high-performance GPUs, and can be more precisely controlled with analog gamepads.

While I couldn’t achieve everything I initially wanted to - arbitrary FPS and even a completely perfect 60 FPS mode prove intractable for this game - I’m happy that XSEED gave me the chance to contribute a lot more directly and meaningfully to the quality of this PC port.

   *  *  *

So Ken with XSEED again here. To celebrate this relaunch of Little King’s Story, we are running a week-long 40% off sale on Steam and The Humble Store starting right now. Though these enhancements only apply to the Steam build at the moment, we plan on applying them to our DRM-free and GOG Galaxy builds soon, so just hang tight for a little while longer and those builds will be updated too.

Thanks to everyone for your patience and ongoing support, and we hope you enjoy the new and improved Little King’s Story for Windows PC.

Ken

[amoretheiwa]

The Dark Knight and the Boy Scout

On time! For once! Here’s the end of my pre-written stuff so hopefully, I can get back ahead before next week. Enjoy!

Read on AO3

Breanna Wayne is turning 23 years old. It has been 4 months since Batman fought the Joker. While getting to know someone new at her birthday party, the contraption the media has taken to calling the Batsignal (thanks a lot, Gordon) lights up the sky. In the name of safety, Breanna sends her guests home and dons the cowl—only to run into the Man of Steel himself just a few hours after taking care of the situation. It turns out they’re both looking for the same thing, and Breanna reluctantly agrees to work with him for just this case.

Chapter 2: Enter Last Son of Krypton B

Close to two hours later and they walked out into the hallway, just 30 minutes before the gala was supposed to start. One of the people working for Ms. Iverson had directed a very shocked delivery boy to the upstairs at one point when the two women had ordered pizza. Even though there was going to be food at the party, it was considered rude to eat too much and it was not uncommon for guests to eat a small meal on their own beforehand.

Now, however, there was no reconciliation image of the two women messily eating pizza in sweats and t-shirts just an hour or so ago. Lois was wearing a dark red gown with no fancy beadwork or design on it. The neckline was cut close to the base of her neck, and instead of a regular sleeveless cut where the fabric would just end at her shoulders, it came in with a sharp point accentuating her shoulders. It was a little longer than floor-length and her shimmery gold heels peeked out with every other step that revealed toenails that matched the color of her dress. Her black hair was pinned back, the ends gently curled.

Breanna’s dress was a lighter fabric but just as dark but a blue rather than red. There was a slit that showed some cleavage and from the front that seemed to be it but the back was a rather sizeable cutout that stopped just above her hips. Her hair, with its natural curl, was pinned in a half-up-half-down look that showed plenty of her back’s skin. Her dress was the same length as Lois’ but with her extra two inches on the woman, her silver heels were visible with every step. Her toenails, like Lois’, matched the color her dress.

Where Lois wore a simple sparkling silver chain on her left wrist and a pair of gold and diamond earrings, Breanna had a thick, dull, silver bangle on both arms. A set of slim silver rings—just individual bands—on a few fingers added to the look, and her earrings were like a sheet of glowing silver that hung to just above her shoulders.

Their makeup was simple, the most attention paid to their sharp eyeliner and false eyelashes that had been placed masterfully. They were giggling, whispering to each other as they walked into the foyer. The door was open, and the event planner stopped her conversation with the head of security to stare at them for a moment. She excused herself quickly and caught them before they walked into the ballroom.

“Miss Wayne! Miss Lane!”

They both stopped, waiting for her.

“If I may say, you both look gorgeous tonight,” she began with a rushed breath. Breanna smiled, and Lois thanked her.

“Before you two enter the ballroom and truly finish preparing for tonight, I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday Miss Wayne.”

Breanna smiled again and put a hand on the woman’s shoulder.

“Thank you, Racheal. This wouldn’t have been the same without you. Remember, once all the guests have arrived, you are more than welcome to join us. You look stunning yourself.”

Breanna gave the woman a once-over with her eyes and ignored the light blush that it brought forth on her dark cheeks.

Lois made a face at Breanna as they turned and walked into the ballroom. Breanna ignored her as well and waved at the quartet who were warming up. They would be performing throughout the night, and Breanna was finally feeling herself get excited. She had not allowed herself to celebrate her birthday in many years, and when she had it was more for others than for her own enjoyment.

Less than an hour later and everyone was there, even those with a tendency to show up fashionably late. Breanna greeted all of her guests with the courtesy her parents had instilled in her before their passing, and it was with a twinge in her heart that she made small talk with a few old family friends. It was with partial relief that she noticed a tall blonde man stumbled his way in her direction.

“Excuse me, if you will Mr. and Mrs. Hendrickson. I have a friend to see,” she said with a smile. It was with a forced air of joviality that Breanna greeted Oliver Queen. He for once did not ignore her hand as it was stuck out in a handshake, and they both squeezed a little tighter than necessary.

“Ollie, good to see you well!” She said.

“Not as good as it is to see you, Bre.”

“How are things in Star City? Business going well?”

He nodded, eyes sweeping behind her.

“Things are pretty swell, even with Queen Consolidated. What about here, in Gotham? How’s Wayne Inc going?”

Breanna pulled her hand back, making a show of rubbing it on her dress.

“Gotham is Gotham, as always, and we’re about to change it to Wayne Enterprises soon.”

His eyebrows shot up as he redirected his attention back to her.

“Really? That’s an odd change.”

Breanna shrugged, grabbing two flutes of champagne as a server walked back. She handed on to him and took a sip before replying.

“It was time for a change.”

Before either could say something else, Lois appeared, towing someone as tall as Oliver over behind her. She grinned at Breanna and more or less pushed her into space next to Ollie. He had hair just as dark as Lois’ or Breanna’s, and blue eyes as well, but his face was smooth and handsome in ways Oliver’s was roguish. He wore a pair of glasses that Breanna immediately saw as fake, but as he nervously pushed them back up on his nose she recognized him as Clark Kent, a writer for the Daily Planet. Or, as Lois often referred to him, Smallville.

“Breanna, Mr. Queen, this is Clark Kent.”

As Oliver shook Lois’ offered hand, Breanna couldn’t tear her eyes away from Clark’s. He smiled at her and cleared his throat. When they shook hands, it wasn’t like when Oliver had tried to squeeze the life out of hers. His grip was gentle, and his hands were barely calloused. It took an extra second to fully pull her hand back but she swallowed before speaking.

“Wonderful to finally meet you, Clark.”

He flashed a smile that Breanna couldn’t help returning.

“Thank you for inviting me, Miss Wayne. Happy birthday, by the way.”

Breanna shook her head.

“Please, call me Breanna, and thank you.”

Oliver barked a laugh and Breanna turned to face him.

“That’s right! It’s your birthday, that’s why we’re here. Happy birthday, Bre! Maybe now that you’re older you’ll stop being so serious.”

Breanna closed her eyes and didn’t care that she was visibly losing her patience with the man. Lois’ suppressed laughter didn’t help and Breanna opened her eyes to see a waiting Oliver sharing a look with Clark.

“Tell me, Ollie, how long have you been back? Three months? Five?”

He narrowed his eyes at her and took his time answering.

“It’s been close to a year now.”

“Ah,” she said, raising a hand to brush against her chin. She turned to face Clark and Lois. “You see, Oliver here was presumed dead five years ago when his father’s ship was lost at sea. He was quite the party animal in his prime, but I never shared the same tastes.”

Oliver quirked his lips.

“Seems like you still don’t.”

He clapped his hands together.

“Well, with that, I think I’m going to find a different crowd to hang with. Ladies, Clark,” and with that he was gone. Breanna let loose a sigh and put a hand to her forehead.

Lois couldn’t stop herself anymore and let out a pealing laugh, and Clark looked back and forth between the two women.

“Am I missing something?” He asked, not unkindly. Breanna waved a hand at him.

“No, it’s no secret that Oliver and I have never gotten along. I’m sorry that you got somewhat involved in that, Clark.” He shook his head, pushing his glasses up on his nose again.

“No need to apologize.”

Lois glanced between the two and slung an arm around both of their shoulders, bringing the three of them awfully close—Clark was taller than Breanna and Breanna was taller than Lois.

“C’mon, let’s find somewhere better suited to talking.”

Ten minutes and three conversations later the trio finally found their way to the breakfast table in the Manor’s kitchen. It was a diner-like booth that curved so as to accommodate more people, while out of the main walkways of the rest of the kitchen. Breanna was sipping from a glass of almond milk, listening to Lois recount one of her funnier incidents that resulted in yet another rescue from Superman. Breanna laughed, moving her glass farther away from her face, and tried desperately not to snort. When they all calmed down and it was quiet, the heiress turned to face the newcomer.

“So, Clark, tell me—is Smallville really as small as Lois makes it sound?”

Clark glanced at his colleague with an exasperated expression. She just shrugged her shoulders and took a long drink from her glass of water.

“It probably isn’t if Lois has been exaggerating again. There’s a lot of farms so geographically wise it’s not so tiny but it’s the population that really makes the name match the place.”

Breanna nodded once and leaned forward.

“Did you grow up on a farm, then?”

Lois snorted and they looked at her.

“Bre, you’re looking at the most country boy you could hold to find this far north.”

Clark rolled his eyes and leaned back in his seat, swirling the water in his glass.

“I’ve adapted to city life fairly well,” he met Breanna’s eyes. “Mostly.”

“Mostly?” She asked, and he winced.

“There have been a few mishaps over the years,” he started. Lois chortled and sat forward.

“He just isn’t as lucky as me and doesn’t have Superman picking up after him.”

They all laughed, the conversation continued for another twenty minutes. It ranged from the differences between small town and big city life to the differences between Metropolis and Gotham. The topic had just turned to Batman and Superman when Alfred appeared behind Breanna.

“Miss Wayne, what is the point of hosting such an elaborate party if you yourself do not attend?”

Breanna leaned back, tilting her head so that she was looking at her surrogate father upside down. She grinned and he felt a twinge in his heart; it wasn’t often she was happy without some sort of regret or heavy air degrading the emotion.

“But Alfred, what’s the point of having a party if you can’t sneak away?”

He rolled his eyes and walked around the back of the booth, sliding in to sit next to his charge. She scooted over slightly, giving him more room, and he rested his hands on top of the table. Lois smiled at him.

“Alfred, this is Clark Kent. He works with me at the Daily Planet.”

Clark stood up just enough so that he could reach across the table and shake Alfred’s hand.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Pennyworth.”

“The pleasure is all mine, and please, call me Alfred. I enjoy reading your articles, especially the culturally focused ones.”

Clark blushed a little, a light pink that dusted his entire face.

“Ah, thank you, sir. I never really got to travel as a kid and so when work sends me anywhere I’ve never been I try to learn about the culture, local and national, and end up writing an extra two articles.”

“Tell them about that time you almost ended up married to a chieftain’s daughter in the Amazon,” Lois elbowed him, grinning.

Clark groaned but Breanna didn’t let him get away with telling the story.

More time passed and eventually, Alfred nudged the three of them back out into the foyer, which had some people mingling but not nearly as many as were still in the ballroom. It was while they were there talking that Breanna noticed something that made her entire countenance shift. Lois noticed first and followed the young woman’s gaze through the windows over the door.

“Oh,” she said softly, and soon everyone in the foyer was also looking out at the Gotham skyline. The Batsignal was lit, throwing the shadow of a stylized bat against the permanent cloud cover. Breanna sighed and put a hand against her temple. Lois gave her a look, and she shook her head.

“I guess it’s time to send everyone home,” she said mournfully. Clark turned back to look at her, no longer as distracted as he had appeared the last few seconds.

“Why? If the Bat’s signal is up wouldn’t that mean it’d be safer to keep everyone here?”

Breanna shook her head, already turning towards the ballroom.

“The Batsignal goes up whenever the commissioner wants Batman’s help, and if could be something as little as information on a case or as big as the Joker showing up again. It’s better if my guests are safe at home than here, a potential target regardless of what is happening.”

Breanna took swift strides into the ballroom and it was obvious by the hushed chatter that the party goers had also noticed the light in the sky. She signaled the quartet and they paused their playing. It took almost a full minute but eventually, she had everyone’s attention. She took a deep breath and grinned, making sure to look at the entire room.

“Thank you, everyone, so much for coming and helping me celebrate my 23rd birthday. It has been wonderful chatting with each other and catching up with some amazing refreshments and spectacular music,” she nodded at the servers standing together and the quartet that was already packing up their instruments.

“I’m afraid, though, that in the interest of safety, it is time for everyone to go home. There’s no rush but I wouldn’t want anyone to get stuck here should something happen in the few minutes.” There was a polite scattering of laughter and the chattering picked up again. This time, the entire room had a lighter feel to it as the guests each began to shuffle their way towards the front doors.

Breanna turned to face Lois and Clark, sighing.

“Anyone out in the gardens will be found by security in the next few minutes and sent on their way as well. Can Lois and I walk you out, Clark?”

The man exchanged a quick look with his colleague before nodding.

“Of course, thank you again for inviting me.”

As they walked out, Breanna smiled up at him. The height difference wasn’t severe enough that she was craning her neck, but it was obvious enough that she was grateful for her heels.

“No, thank you for coming! I’ve heard so much about you and read enough of your articles that I knew that I had to meet you.”

Clark smiled, that light blush covering his face again.

They stood outside, on the brick roundabout that circles the foundation 30 yards away from the front door. Lois gave her coworker a quick hug and Breanna shook his hand and they said their goodbyes. He walked off towards the valets with a wave and the two women turned to go back inside. They had their arms looped together and were silent as they watched the rest of the guests file out.

As soon as the cleaning was started by Ms. Iverson’s people Breanna was heading towards her study. Lois followed her, not quite sure what she was supposed to do. As she followed her younger friend into the room, Breanna locked the door behind them. Alfred was already standing there, waiting by the tall grandfather clock. He nodded at them and reached up to rotate the hands into a specific arrangement—12:17—and pushed the center, and with a low rumbling the clock swung out, revealing an elevator. Lois knew her mouth was hanging open but she couldn’t help it.

Breanna smirked and put her hand on a scanner. When it flashed green the door to the elevator opened with a quiet hiss and she stepped inside. She gestured for her friend to follow, and Lois eagerly stepped inside.

“I will take care of Ms. Iverson and her people, Miss Wayne. Expect me on the comms as soon as I am done.”

Bre nodded and pushed the down button. The door closed and they began to go down. It was when they stopped that Breanna spoke again.

“Welcome to the Cave, Lois.”