#saw another banger outfit had to draw it

[nb-n0v4]

More enrichment activities

[foundress0fnothing]

Summary: Elain runs a sex cult. She’s looking for something new. Lucien is new.

~5.3k words, rated E (explicit)

Read on AO3 or below the cut.

This is just PWP, so be warned (and enjoy)!

Written for @elucienweekofficial Day 7: AU.

Title from “Project for a Fainting” by Brenda Shaughnessy (I’m currently obsessed with this poem and it’s a banger and you should definitely read it).

Lucien POV

“What the fuck kind of bar is this?”

Lucien stared incredulously at the scene unfolding before his eyes. The room itself—what he could see of it, anyway—was innocuous enough. It looked the part of an upscale bar: dark wood furniture and walls painted a blue so deep they were almost black, softened by warm light spilling from lamps scattered throughout and low, plush couches in jewel tones that lined the outer perimeter of the room. There was greenery everywhere—ivy climbing the walls, monsteras arching out of pots in the corners of the room, philodendrons dripping off of the bar that was tucked into the back corner of the room. Music, something pulsing and rhythmic, played in the background, not quite loud enough to distinguish words or melody. 

And the scent of the space—a heady mix of jasmine and honey that Lucien could feel twist around him as he stood on the threshold, inviting him to step inside, to linger, to lose himself in the promise of the evening. 

But he resisted that pull, tempting as it was, instead standing frozen at the sight of the bar’s clientele. They gathered in groups of two or three or four, most draped intimately across each other, touching and fondling and teasing their partners, not caring who might see in the public space. They were all in various states of undress as well, some wearing regular street clothes that were haphazardly hanging off their bodies after one of their partners’ ministrations, some wearing what Lucien could only imagine was niche fetish wear. 

Tearing his gaze away from what he was pretty sure was seconds from descending into a full orgy, he turned to look at Vassa and Jurian who stood a few paces behind him, “I’ll ask again,” he said, flicking his eyes between the two of them. Only Vassa had the grace to look slightly apologetic. “What the fuck kind of bar is this?”

“Their drinks are really good,” Vassa started, but Lucien cut her off. 

“That’s not what I asked, Vas.” 

“It’s what got Jurian in the door at least.”

Jurian offered a lazy grin. “And who wouldn’t want to stay for the rest?”

Lucien glared at him.

“And we figured,” Vassa continued, drawing his attention back to her, “that after Jes and everything, it might be good. For you.”

“It might be good for me?” Lucien raised an eyebrow skeptically, even if, on some level, he could see the appeal of a night of debauchery, of throwing himself into the throng of bodies and free-flowing booze. And it’s not like Vassa was wrong about Jes. Lucien had been ready to propose, had even picked out a ring, until she unceremoniously dumped him a month ago, deciding that she was looking for something different, something—how had she said it?—“more interesting.” 

And he had been wallowing in that loss ever since. He didn’t go out anymore, didn’t reach out to friends, instead moving between work and his apartment and ghosting anyone who tried reaching out. For good reason apparently, he thought to himself, daring another glance into the room where he saw a short woman wearing only a bustier and sheer tights plant herself in the lap of a man wearing an identical outfit.

Vassa clarified, drawing his attention away from his efforts to make sense of the dynamics of that relationship. “You know—to meet someone new.” 

“And,” Jurian added, “you’ve fucking sucked this last month. So. This is for us too.”

Lucien flipped him off. “Thanks, asshole.” He paused. “Look, guys, I appreciate what you’re trying to do—”

“Good.” Vassa grinned devilishly. “So stay.”

“But.” He gestured vaguely into the room, trying not to let his gaze linger for too long on any single thing. People notwithstanding, the room itself seemed determined to draw him in, the light and the music and the perfume and the heat all conspiring to make him take that first step over the threshold and find something—someone.

He shook it off. “I don’t think your little…club, or bar, or whatever it is, is really gonna fix the Jes thing.”

“It’s not just a club though,” Vassa argued. 

Lucien rolled his eyes. “Obviously.”

“It’s—oh, what’d they say our first day here, Jurian? When we joined? ‘A place to get in touch with both the mental and physical self, and to meet others on similar journeys of self-discovery.’ She parroted the phrase, and Jurian nodded.

Lucien looked at them incredulously, waiting for one of them to burst out laughing, to tell him it was all a prank and that they put out some sketchy ad on Craigslist to cheer him up. When neither did, he clarified. “So…it’s a cult.”

“Cult is such a strong word, Lucien,” Vassa said with a frown.

“Yeah, but is it the right word though?” Not a prank then, he thought to himself, bewildered by the fact that his friends were apparently participating members. In a cult. In this cult.

“Lighten up, Lucien,” Jurian said, rolling his eyes. “Get a drink. See if anybody catches your eye.”

Lucien laughed in disbelief. “I’m not about to join your sex cult, assholes.”

Both of them ignored his protestations, giving him a slight shove and pushing him further into the room. He could feel its pull even more strongly now, teasing and promising, and wondered for a moment how bad it could be if he just spent one night here.

“No one’s going to make you join, Lucien. It’s not that kind of group.” Vassa smiled over his shoulder at someone she recognized, holding up a finger to let whoever it was know that she was on her way over.

He raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, super glad you didn’t bring me to the join-or-die kind of sex cult.”

“Besides,” she continued. “The head gets to make the final call about members anyway.”

“The head?” He repeated. “Sorry—are you telling me there’s an application for the sex cult?”

Vassa winked at him. “It’s a very thorough review.”

Lucien snorted, imagining it must be. He looked around the room again, trying to guess who the head of a group like this might be. Not that he was about to join. But, as he ran his eyes over the people in the room, no one stood out to him as an obvious leader—they all touched and groped and moved between each other with apparently little regard for hierarchies or rules.

Vassa put a hand on his arm. “Stay for a drink at least. They are actually really good.” With that, she released Lucien and grabbed Jurian’s hand, pulling him into the room and aiming for a hideous pink couch where a beautiful woman with long black hair sat waiting for them.

Not wanting to linger awkwardly at the front of the room, Lucien began moving toward the bar, letting the atmosphere envelop him and guide him through whatever this night was about to be. 

Everything felt more somehow, as if each step forward was turning a dial up tick by tick. The lights were warmer, the music more thrilling, the perfume more heady—and Lucien took it all in, giving himself over, at least slightly, to the magic of the room and the eroticism it promised. 

He had done this—well, something like it—before Jes. He could do it again. And a drink would help. 

“What’ll it be, handsome?” 

Lucien glanced up at the voice coming from behind the bar, honey-smooth and sweet, only to lose himself in the beauty of the woman to whom it belonged. She had wide brown eyes the color of chestnuts and golden brown hair that framed her face with soft waves that stretched halfway down her back. And her dress—Lucien felt his mouth gape slightly as he took in the tight green satin bodice lined with lace that softened into something more loosely flowing as it hit her hips.

She was easily the most stunning woman Lucien had ever seen, and he felt any lingering irritation with Vassa and Jurian bleed away. 

“So—are you going to order something?” The woman was still smiling up at him, although something mischievous danced in her eyes, clearly pleased by his reaction. 

He cleared his throat, glancing at the menu written in neat script behind the bar and willing himself to focus on anything but the sensual curve of her lips. Each drink was artisanal, the ingredient lists long and propriety and brimming with herbs and berries in addition to the liquor. One glance at the bottles lining the wall told him that his usual bar drinks—an old fashioned or a scotch and soda—would be out of place here, would mark him even more as an outsider to the little world of this bar that he was increasingly interested in the longer he spent in the presence of the pretty bartender. 

“I’ll have a Like the Fox.” It was gin and orgeat and falernum, tempered with berries and lime and bitters—and hopefully a suitably impressive order. 

The bartender beamed up at him. “That’s what I would have chosen for you too.” She started to gather bottles in front of her. 

“But,” Lucien said, leaning slightly over the bar. “I’ll only have it on one condition.”

She huffed a laugh. “And what’s that?”

Giving her what Vassa and Jurian called his ‘panty-dropping grin,’ he said, “If you have a drink with me.”

She held his gaze for a moment and then deliberately began looking him over, taking in every detail from the bright red hair he had gathered in a loose bun to the scar bisecting his eye from a failed biking stunt as a kid to the way his wine-red dress shirt hugged his chest. And then her gaze moved lower. He stood still, not wanting to fidget under her scrutiny. Everywhere her eyes landed burned, and Lucien found himself basking in that burn, the painful pleasure of it like midday August sunlight—longed for and too much and slightly sweet, all at once. 

He watched as the bartender flicked her eyes back to his from where they had been lingering on the long line of his legs as if she could somehow see what was hidden underneath the gray slacks. He almost hoped she could. 

And then she winked, grabbing a rocks glass and placing it alongside the coupe for his drink. 

Lucien grinned, pleased that she was willing to play along. “And what is my drinking companion’s drink of choice?” 

Reaching for its ingredients—whiskey, berries, honey, sage—she grinned right back. “Resist the Temptation.”

Elain POV

Elain had seen him the moment he stood on her doorway with Vassa and Jurian. Lucien Vanserra, Vassa had told her: tall, with rich brown skin and vibrant red hair and a scar across his left eye. He was dressed well, his clothes expensive and tailored to fit his broad frame, and he held himself with an ease that belied how uncomfortable he must have been at his first sight of her club.

She could kiss Vassa—and maybe she would later—for bringing him. Late one evening last weekend, spent and sweaty and draped over the pink couch that Vassa and Jurian seemed inordinately fond of, Elain lamented how bored she was, how familiar everyone and everything was, how she wanted something new. 

And Vassa had smiled as she ran her fingers idly through Elain’s hair, a fire lighting in her eyes when she promised that she had the perfect something new in mind. 

Looking up at Lucien now as she mixed their drinks, Elain suspected that Vassa had been right.

Not wanting the silence to stretch too long between them, she said, “I should have made you guess my drink.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Oh?” “Yes,” she said, humming slightly. “I would have found it terribly impressive.” Elain tossed her hair primly over her shoulder, smiling to herself as she watched how Lucien’s eyes glazed over slightly as they tracked the movement of the honey brown waves. “You’ll just have to find another way to impress me then, Fox,” she said, placing his drink down in front of him. 

Blinking rapidly as he came back to himself, he picked up the glass and hit her again with one of the rakish smiles that she imagined got him anything he wanted. “And why do I get the sense you’re not easily impressed?” 

He was right. She had been easily impressed once, had almost married a man straight out of college who listened to alt-right podcasts in his parents’ basement and refused to get a job, all because he had a sweet smile and told her he loved her. But he didn’t like that she didn’t want kids right away, that she wanted to travel first or open her own business, and he dumped her, expecting her to come crawling back. She didn’t.

No—instead, Elain mourned the loss of the relationship for exactly twenty-four hours before packing up and setting off on a backpacking trip around the world, eating good food and meeting new people and learning what it was she liked. And she found she liked people. And love—but not exclusivity. So when she got back, she opened the Larkspur Room, named after a flower that could mean both strong love and fickleness, and slowly began to gather its members. They came from all backgrounds, from all walks of life, but they were hers, and she was theirs. And she liked it.

But he didn’t need to know all of that. Not yet, at any rate. So she only smiled, letting a hint of mockery bleed into the expression. “Are you not up for it?”

“Are you?” He raised his glass to her in cheers, and then, holding her gaze, took a long, slow sip. 

Elain watched his throat bob as he swallowed. Yes, she definitely owed Vassa. He would do very nicely. Even if he was far too cocky—that could be fixed. 

She held out her hand. “I’m Elain.”

“Elain.” He repeated her name as he took her hand, shaking it once. He didn’t let go, and she didn’t pull away, savoring the feeling of his hand, large and warm and sure.

“And you?” She asked, even though she already knew, before raising her own glass to her lips with the hand not currently bound up in Lucien’s.

“Lucien.”

“You came in with Vassa and Jurian?” Lucien nodded in confirmation, following her gaze to find the pair locked in an embrace with Nuan, one of their usual partners if Elain was busy. And sometimes if she wasn’t. 

He glanced back at her, flushing slightly. “Old friends. They…left out a few key details about this bar.”

Elain laughed at that. “Based on your blush, I imagine they did.” 

Lucien bristled. “I don’t blush.”

“You don’t?” She challenged, turning her laughter on him. “The pink on your cheeks is just a trick of the light?” Setting her drink down, she reached up with her free hand to trace the side of his face. 

He started slightly but didn’t move away, instead leaning into the contact. “I’m used to a little more privacy when I take my lovers to bed.”

Lucien’s voice was low and full of promise, and Elain smiled to herself, feeling her own heart rate pick up ever so slightly. 

“What if I could offer you some privacy?”

“Well then, Elain,” he said, releasing her hand and winding his fingers through her hair and pulling it ever so slightly to tilt her face up to look at his. “Then I could show you all the things I’d like to do with you.”

She bit her lip and watched as his eyes tracked the movement. Good. “There’s a room in the back.”

“Lead the way,” he said, releasing his grip on her hair and polishing off the rest of his drink.

As she moved out from behind the bar, she surveyed the room, taking in the groups milling around, chattering and embracing. Nothing had really started yet, despite Lucien’s reactions, and it wouldn’t—not until she gave the word anyway. 

As she walked over to his side, having to crane her neck slightly to meet his eyes, she asked, “They really didn’t tell you anything, did they?”

“Is there more I need to know?” He had drawn close, and she breathed in the spicy smell of his cologne, a mix of apples and woodsmoke and bergamot that reminded her of crisp fall days.

Elain smirked but didn’t answer him, instead turning out to the larger room to address her friends, her partners, her family. “Have fun tonight, all.”

As if a switch had been flipped, the groups of people stopped their idle touching and fondling and teasing and began to reach for each other with an urgency and a desire that Elain felt rush through her and settle in her core. 

“Come, Lucien,” she said, turning around and walking down the hall to her office. He followed after as if in a daze.

“It’s yours, isn’t it?” Lucien asked as he stepped into the room after her and closed the door. She didn’t use it for this often, but it would do—amongst the desk and the papers sat a low bed, framed by diaphanous lilac curtains and fairy lights that softened the administrative air the room would have otherwise carried.

Elain hummed contentedly. “For a few years now.”

“You run the sex cult.” He said it as a statement, not a question.

“I run the Larkspur Room. That’s the actual name. Not “the sex cult.” And it’s more a place for personal journeys and self-discovery anyway. Sex is just part of it.” She walked over to Lucien but didn’t reach out, didn’t restart her seduction. The next step was his to take.

“Yes, so Vassa told me,” he muttered, looking around the office.

“You disagree?”

He shifted his attention back to her. “A fancy motto doesn’t make it any less of a sex cult.”

“Are you complaining?” Elain could argue the semantics of the word cult with him later. After. Assuming he stayed.

He gently gripped her chin between his finger and his thumb, titling her face up and ghosting his thumb over her lips. “No. Not right now.”

“Good.” She smiled up at him. Time for something new.

He leaned down as if to kiss her but then stopped himself, pulling back slightly. “What does this mean? If we…”

She waited for him to finish the sentence, but when it was clear he wasn’t about to, she rolled her eyes. Still hung up on the cult thing. “It can be nothing more than a night if that’s what you want, Lucien.” Disappointing as that would be. Her chin was still caught in his hands, giving her the perfect view of the effect that her saying his name had on him.

“And if I want more?” Slowly, still looking at her face, he began to run his hands down the sides of her body, rubbing teasing circles into her ribs, her hips.

“Then consider tonight your application for membership.”

“Into the cult?”

She looked at him disapprovingly. “Into the Larkspur Room. You could at least try to say the name.”

“And you’ll decide?”

“Who else?”

Lucien laughed sharply at that. “Vassa said it was a thorough review process. I assumed…” He trailed off, gesturing vaguely to the door and the bodies thronging outside.

She raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Why, Lucien, perhaps you’re more adventurous than I thought. But,” she continued, seeing from his scowl that he was about to start arguing about logistics and throwing around the phrase “sex cult” again, “I don’t share on the first night.” She began tracing her hands across the muscles of his chest before slowly reaching up to pull loose his hair tie, allowing the crimson waves—almost as long as hers, she noted—to messily frame his face. “Is that acceptable to you?”

He nodded, running a hand through his now loose hair, and asked, “What’s so thorough about this review, then Elain?”

She liked the way he said her name. It was as if he was offering up a quiet prayer, like she was something to revere, something to cherish. “It’s a test. All you have to do,” she said, “is make me come three times.”

He raised an eyebrow, so she clarified.

“Once on your fingers,” she listed, drawing his hand to her mouth and holding his gaze as she delicately sucked two of his fingers into her mouth, watching as his nostrils flared.

“Once on your tongue,” she continued, releasing his fingers and leaning in so she could lick up the broad column of his neck.

“And once on your cock.” Still kissing his neck, she ghosted her hand down until she could grip him through his pants, delighting in the groan he let out. He was already hard and, she noted with an involuntary whimper, impressively long. 

Releasing him and stepping away, she smiled in challenge. “Do you think you can manage?”

“Perhaps.” He grinned back at her as he answered, cockily adding, “It wouldn’t be the first time.”

Elain huffed a laugh. “We’ll see.” But she hoped he was right. “Questions?”

“One,” he said as he started to unbutton his shirt, allowing her glimpses of his sculpted chest as the two sides slowly parted. “What does membership into your ‘Larkspur Room’ get me?”

Her mouth opened in shock. “Greedy already?”

“I just want to know if the effort is worth it.” His smug smile at the way her eyes kept catching on the planes of his chest was infuriating.

The fucking nerve of him. But Elain had an idea, smiling wickedly as she sank to her knees and  said, looking up at him as she unbuttoned his pants, “You tell me.”

Lucien POV

Lucien was fucked. And probably about to join a sex cult. 

Because if the way Elain was sucking him was any indication of how the rest of the night would go, he realized that he would do anything, would say anything, would join anything just to have another moment like this with her. He would worship at whatever altar she offered if it meant that she would invite him back to her bed.

Her mouth was impossibly soft and wet, and Lucien groaned at each new pass, willing his body to slow down, to let his mind catch up, to savor the experience.

But it—and Elain—had other plans, and he looked down to see the glint in her eyes as, without warning, she stopped the rhythmic bobbing of her head only to swallow him whole, the tip of her nose brushing against his stomach.

“Fuck, Elain—” he gasped out as his hips stuttered forward and she made a small choking sound at the force of the intrusion. She didn’t stop, although she glared up at him, only widening her mouth and relaxing her throat to allow him more space.

Wrapping fistfuls of her hair around his hands, Lucien began slowly thrusting, fucking her mouth as she braced herself against his thighs, still covered by his gray slacks. He laughed half-deliriously at the realization that he hadn’t even gotten fully undressed, although his laughter quickly turned into a moan, embarrassingly loud and desperate, as she hollowed out her cheeks.

He was going to come embarrassingly quickly, could feel his rhythm start to falter and his balls tighten and then—

It all stopped. Dazed and pleasure-drunk, Lucien looked down to see Elain pull away from his cock, wiping at her lips delicately.

“That,” she said, slightly out of breath, “is one of the things membership in my ‘sex cult’ gets you.” She gave a bratty tilt of her head. “Worth it?”

“Yes,” he breathed out, grabbing Elain’s face in his hands and kissing her. His cock screamed at him, begging for release, but he ignored it in favor of continuing to pepper Elain’s lips with kisses. “Yes. I’m sorry. I’m—yes. It’s worth it. You’re worth it.” He couldn’t lose this, couldn’t lose her. 

She rewarded him with a smile. “I am. And now,” she reached between them, once again taking his cock in her hands, and Lucien gasped at her touch, overly-sensitive, the sensation almost enough to send him over the edge. “We’ll see if you are, Lucien.”

“Elain, I—”

“—have work to do. Because if you finish before you’ve completed your test,” she said, false sympathy in her voice as she continued to slide her hand absently up and down his cock, “I’m afraid you won’t be invited back.”

“Then stop that,” he said, reaching to still her movements, hoping that a reprieve from her maddening touch would give him a chance to get himself under control, to regain some kind of upper hand in this exchange.

“I was just answering your question.” She widened her eyes and blinked at him in false innocence.

He laughed at her performance, reaching behind her as he did so to find the zipper on her dress and tugging it down. “I’m not fooled by your act, Elain. In fact,” he said as the dress slipped off her frame and pooled at her feet, revealing the light green lingerie set she wore underneath. “I think you might just be a brat.”

She reached out for his clothes as well, rapidly undoing the rest of the buttons on his shirt as he kicked off his pants and tucked himself back into his underwear. “Let’s hope you get to test that theory in the future, shall we?”

They stood there staring at each other. If Lucien thought Elain was stunning in her dress, it was nothing compared to how she looked now: still slightly flushed from her exertions before, her nipples hard and visible through her bra as she waited for him to make the next move. 

“Oh, Elain,” Lucien said, stepping forward to close the distance between them, “that is a privilege I can’t wait to earn.”

And then he kissed her, hard and demanding. He felt her smile against his lips as she arched into him, and he slid his hands up her body to unhook the clasps of her bra, groaning into her mouth as he cupped her tits. “Fuck, Elain.”

“That’s the hope, Lucien.” Breaking the kiss, she shucked off her underwear and walked over to sit on the bed, leaning back slightly to give him a view of her cunt, bare and gleaming. “So what are you waiting for?”

“Brat,” he said, just to say something. Not that it had any bite—he had no control here apparently, no smooth words left, no final tricks, nothing but a desperate desire to see her head thrown back in pleasure, to hear her call his name, to spend the rest of his life doing nothing but this.

“Like what you see?”

He hummed appreciatively, mesmerized at the sight of her spread out like a feast before him. With a reverence that surprised even him, he asked, “Are you wet for me, Elain?”

“Come find out.” 

Lucien followed her over the bed and knelt down in front of her, gently dragging a finger through the clear evidence of her arousal. He groaned at the wetness he found there as she arched into his touch. “Elain.”

And with her name on his lips, he began to circle her clit, teasing the bundle of nerves as he felt her begin to writhe against him. “That’s it, beautiful.” He kissed up her neck, sliding his finger lower and into her, pumping in and out.

“More, Lucien. I need more—” she gasped out, and he redoubled his efforts, sliding another finger into her and feeling her clench around him.

“Lucien, I—”

“Are you going to come for me?” He sucked a kiss into her neck, and her moan was like the sweetest music. “Come for me, Elain.”

And she did, clamping down on his hand so hard he swore he could feel it on his cock as she shattered, and he rode her through wave after wave of her climax. Her eyes were closed, her head thrown back, and nothing he had ever seen could match the sight of her like this.

And he wanted—needed—to see it again. Lucien slid down her body and plunged his tongue into her cunt as her walls continued to pulse around him. Elain moaned at the invasion, still sensitive from her first orgasm, but didn’t pull away, and he groaned at the taste of her, somehow musky and floral and sweet all at once. 

He devoured her like a man starved, wet and messy and wildly lost in her. Elain, for her part, thrust her hands through his hair, wrapping it around her fist and using her hold to grind herself against his face, chasing her pleasure. Before long, Lucien could feel her start to tighten again, her climax rising higher and higher until it crested and she followed it over the peak, arching her back and crying out loudly enough that he was positive that everyone in the other room knew exactly what the two of them were doing. 

She panted as she came down, blearily lolling her head against the pillow as she rode the aftershocks of her second orgasm. Her hair was messily haloed around her head, and Lucien, pleased with himself, dragged his hand through the tangled silken waves. 

She turned to look at him. “Are you done, Lucien?” 

Her chest rose and fell rapidly, and he looked at her skeptically. “Can you take one more, Elain?”

“Yes, Lucien. Of course.” she breathed out, throwing him a look that was probably meant to be scathing but only came across as pleasantly sated, her eyes lust-drunk. “Make me come on your cock.”

She reached out a hand to the table next to her bed, pulling open a drawer and grabbing a condom that she handed to him. Lucien pulled off his underwear and unwrapped the condom, rolling it over his length and he pumped himself once, twice to the sight of Elain, still naked and breathless beneath him.

He looked at her and she nodded, and without needing any more encouragement, he plunged into her. She was dripping wet and tight and hot, and Lucien groaned at the sensation.

“Christ, Elain,” he moaned, his hips snapping forward as he thrust in and out of her perfect cunt. “So fucking perfect. You are—”

She finished the sentence for him. “Mine, Lucien. You are mine.” 

“Yours. I’m yours.” She was a dream, lurid and perfect, something he wanted every day for the rest of his life. He felt his pace stutter at the thought. “I’m not going to last long, Elain.”

She smiled up at him. “Then make it count.”

He drove deeper and deeper into her, reaching between them to find her clit and rolling it over with his fingers until he could feel her breathing hitch, her walls tighten.

“One more time, Elain. Come for me. Let me be yours.”

And for the final time, she shattered against him, and he let the strength of her climax carry him along with it as he came with a shout.

Spent and panting, he rolled off the condom and threw it away, turning to gather Elain into his arms and close to his chest. For now, nothing else mattered—only him and Elain and the absolute bliss of the moment.

She nuzzled into him and smiled. “Welcome to the Larkspur Room, Lucien.”

“Honored to be a member.” 

“Want to tell your friends?” She asked sleepily.

“Later.” He gently kissed the top of her head and closed his eyes, letting the room—the warm lights, the soft pulse of the music from outside that he could just make out, the sweet smell of jasmine and honey—lull him to sleep.

[simplee-dreaming]

The Party

A/N: I spent far too much time deciding how all of their outfits were gonna look so I hope it paid off. Also, I know some things I mention have different names in different countries but I've gone for what I only know as the British version. Hope you like it! (Totally didn't get inspiration for this idea from driving past a joke shop myself...)

Word count: 2951

Summary: The reader attends her first themed party hosted by RDJ, but her outfit lands her in trouble.

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Tonight was the night. The night you had been waiting for for weeks. A party at Robert Downey Jr’s house. But not just any old party, oh no, a party for the Avengers cast. Not even just a party - a themed party.

See, Robert is well known for his themed parties. Of course he’s done the classics such as the black and white theme, the 80s theme, even the “dress as your favourite superhero” theme - what could be more suited? But he’s also well known for his unique themes. For example: dress as what you wanted to be when you were a kid; dress as your favourite fruit or veg; dress as another member of the cast; dress as your favourite gay icon. The list goes on.

This was your very first party with the cast though. Being the newest member, you were super excited to have a great night with them all outside of work - plus little Tom couldn’t stop guessing what this theme could be. It was, of course:

“Dress as your favourite board game.”

Yep. Board games.

You spent ages trying to figure out what board game you were going to dress up as. The main rule of the themed parties was that you couldn’t tell other people what you were going as unless you deliberately needed someone else to complete your outfit.

You were desperate for ideas now that the party was only a week away. It wasn’t until you were walking down the highstreet, and something in the shop window caught your eye, that you finally had an idea. You were standing outside of a joke shop, and in the window stood a dress...designed like a Twister mat.

Perfect.

The day had finally arrived. No one was filming today so you had all day to get yourself ready. Hair and makeup done, Twister dress on, ready to rumble.

You made your way to RDJ’s house at half 8 - late enough to not be the first one there but early enough to enjoy everyone’s company for longer. You smiled with glee as you stepped into the house. You were tingling with excitement as you walked towards the room where the music played. The minute you walked into the room, everyone approached you. And one by one you scanned them all to see what they were dressed as.

The first person you saw was Anthony, he was dressed up as Cards Against Humanity. Not quite a board game but funny nonetheless. The front of his outfit was completely black and the back was completely white. The writing on his front read “I drink to forget _____”, and the writing on his back read “Tom Holland”. You giggled.

Next was Scarlett. She decided to come dressed as Pictionary. Part of her outfit was made with polyester and nylon, and she carried around a whiteboard marker so that anyone could draw a picture on her outfit and others had to guess what it was. This could also be wiped off easily, ready for the next person to draw.

Sebastian was next, you snorted when you saw him. He was dressed as Frustration. His outfit was divided into the four colours: his top right being yellow, top left being green, bottom right being blue and bottom left being red. He had placed a semisphere plastic hat over his head and inside lay a foam dice which jumped about whenever he shook his head.

After Seb came Liz. She was dressed up as Uno. Her front and back were two different colours of the uno reverse card - the front being red and the back being green. The point of this is that whenever someone asked her to do something she didn’t wanna do, she’d just point to her outfit and get out of doing it.

Next was Paul B. He came as Trivial Pursuit. Random questions and answers were plastered all over his suit, such as: “how many feet are there in a fathom? 6”; “What three-word slogan was named the most popular advertisement ever in a 2000 poll? Beanz Meanz Heinz”; and his own personal saying, “Where do snitches end up? In ditches”.

Following Paul was the unsurprising double act. Big Tom and Hemsy. They had come dressed as Snakes and Ladders. Tom had glued a giant toy python to his all-black outfit, and Chris had stuck a cardboard ladder to the front and back of his all-white outfit. Simple, yet effective.

Then came Evans who was dressed as Noughts and Crosses, despite numerous comments from RDJ about it not being a board game. His back was full of paper noughts and crosses stuck to his top but his front had a similar material to Scarlett’s where the cast could play their own game on his front and then wipe it off for the next players.

You scanned little Tom next. He had gone all out with his outfit, dressing up as Operation. He was wearing a light pink coloured top and matching trousers and had stapled all the pieces of operation to their correct areas, such as the butterfly, the spare rib and the wish bone. He’d also used face paint to paint his nose a dark shade of red. Adorably creepy in a way.

Last, but certainly not least, was the man himself. Robert Downey Jr. He came as the popular game Cluedo. And boy did he look fancy. He wore a top hat that had a giant question mark stuck to it, and a tuxedo with a long sweeping tail attached to the jacket. Neatly placed all over his black suit were the names of the suspects, the names of the rooms and the names of the weapons - all written in white. He looked splendid.

“Twister. How unusual. I love it,” Robert said, the others nodded in agreement.

“Thanks, you all look incredible,” you said.

Little Tom held out his arm and led you to the dance floor where you spent the next hour dancing the night away. Big Tom and Hemsy were owning the dance floor with their moves. Many party classics blared through the speakers, including 5,6,7,8...which you knew the dance off by heart but RDJ had to be taught the moves by you and little Tom.

Another hour passed and you were sat with Scarlett, Liz and Paul in the other room where the music wasn’t so loud. Seb was with you but he had asked Liz to get him a drink and she played the uno reversal so now he was on drinks duty.

“Paul, can I borrow your suit just so I can literally look smarter?” You asked, he chuckled.

“Maybe I can just follow you around and relay the facts for you,”

“You could be the Yoda to my Luke. Though I think you’re too big to sit on my back,” you said.

“Here’s your punch,” said Seb, returning with two cups for him and Liz.

“Finally, what took you so long?” she asked.

“I stopped in the party room, Anthony and little Tom are having a competition to see who can do the macarena better,” he said.

“But...the macarena is the macarena…” you said, confused.

“Try telling them that. Tom insisted that the Brits do it better apparently.”

“Well, we do have some absolute bangers,” you chuckled. Paul agreed.

“So where did you get that dress?” Scarlett asked you.

“The joke shop down the highstreet. I was walking past it last week and found it in the window. Thought it would be perfect,” you shrugged.

“Until Mackie gets over excited and plays Twister on you,” Seb said.

“I’d like to see him try,” you replied.

“Ah, here’s the gang. What are you all doing in here?” Robert said, entering the room with big Tom and Evans.

“We’re just sat chatting….wait, have you left Holland and Mackie alone?” Seb asked.

“They’re fine, Chris is with them,” Tom replied. You tilted your head at him and raised an eyebrow.

“Maybe I should check on them…” Tom said, you nodded and he left the room.

“Soooo, how’s it going?” Evans asked everyone.

“We’re all fine but Y/N is a bit twisted,” Seb said. Everyone laughed but you bonked him on the head, making the dice jolt.

“Oi!”

You giggled and slapped the plastic hat again, the dice landed on a 6.

“Eyy I get another go!” You cheered before bonking him on the head again. He sighed but chuckled.

“Well it’s nice to see her dressed as an actual board game,” Robert said, turning to Evans.

“Hey, that’s not fair! Noughts and crosses is a board game!” Evans protested.

“I wanna play,” you said. Evans smiled at you.

You got Liz to play with you and you went first. You decided to play as noughts and took the bottom left corner. After a few rounds, you got a straight diagonal line. You cheered as Liz huffed, but she congratulated you nonetheless.

“I wanna play pictionary now,” you said, turning to Scarlett. She smiled and handed you a whiteboard pen. You thought for a moment then began drawing.

You pressed down on Scarlett’s outfit to make sure you could draw properly. You ran the pen down her stomach and she giggled.

“Hey, careful, that tickles,” she said. You blushed and apologised but continued. Everytime the pen went over a certain spot Scarlett would giggle but she never flinched.

“Okay, I’m done,” you announced. Everyone leaned forward and groaned once they saw it.

“Really? You know none of us can say that,” Seb said.

“First one to say it correctly wins,” you shrugged. You had drawn Mjolnir, something that everyone struggled to say.

“Midge-oh-lair,” said Liz.

“Mjohn-ler,” said Seb.

“Me-joln-ier,” said Evans.

“Hey! It’s Mjolnir!” came a voice from the door. Hemsy had just walked in with Mackie, little Tom and big Tom.

“We have a winner,” you grinned and everyone groaned again.

“Okay now I wanna play snakes and ladders,” you said. You scrambled to your feet and launched yourself at Hemsy, climbing up his tall body and clinging to him like a koala. He laughed.

“Okay, and what do we do now?” He chuckled. You shrugged and hugged him tighter, he returned the favour.

“As nice as this is, princess, I can’t carry you around the rest of the evening,” Hemsy said.

“Alright, hang on. Gotta complete the game,” you said. You motioned big Tom to come nearer and leaned over to hug him. Your legs followed and wrapped around his waist before you slid down his body and landed on the floor. Tom laughed.

“Impressive,” he said. You lay flat at the floor and looked at him, giggling.

“You’re very playful today,” big Tom said.

“I’m just happy to be here,” you giggled, he smiled at you.

“Alright my turn, I wanna play twister,” Mackie said, launching himself at you.

“WAIT!” You cried, panicked by his sudden movement. Mackie didn’t listen.

“I’m not doing anything! I need someone to give me an instruction,” he said.

“Right foot red,” Seb said. Mackie lifted his foot and put it on the first red spot he could see, directly on your tummy. You giggled as he adjusted his foot, rubbing it against your tummy.

“Noho Anthony!”

He looked and realised what he was doing, then smirked and vibrated his foot on your tummy again. You giggled louder.

“The twister mat is making noises, how do I turn it off?” He asked.

“Um, try putting your left hand on yellow,” little Tom piped up. Mackie grinned as he spotted a yellow spot on your ribs. He put his hand down and gave them an “accidental” squeeze.

“Hehey!” You shrieked.

“Didn’t work Holland, anyone else?” Mackie said.

“Try right hand green,” Scar said, smirking. Mackie placed his right hand on the green spot on your side and squeezed again.

“Stohop!” You cried.

“Right well that didn’t work, and I can’t put my left foot on it otherwise I would break it. Any other ideas?” he said.

“You may have to push a few buttons, try turning it off and on again,” Paul said. Mackie squeezed your ribs and sides again and shook his foot on your tummy. You screeched loudly.

“Nope, still making noises,”

“Let me have a look,” Liz said. Mackie had you pinned below his hands and foot. You started to giggle as you felt a single finger run up your neck.

“Nonono Lizzie!” You squeaked as she dragged a nail up the other side.

“There must be an off button around here,” she teased. She gently scribbled all her nails into your neck. You scrunched up your shoulders and shrieked.

“NOHOHOHO!”

“Definitely not here, you sure it’s not there Mackie?” Lizzie asked. Mackie squeezed your ribs and sides again and your giggles turned to laughter.

“Nope, no no, that’s made it worse,” he said. “Someone try a blue spot!”

Evans jumped up and ran over to help. He found a blue spot right on your hip, he placed his hand over it and started squeezing.

“NAHAHAHAHAHA!” You screamed. Trying to buck your body was impossible with Mackie still pinning you.

“Dammit Evans you turned the volume up!” Mackie yelled.

“Maybe the problem lies outside of the mat itself,” big Tom piped up.

“What you saying Hiddleston? That we’re the problem?” Mackie asked.

“Not at all, just that there appears to be parts connected to the mat, but not part of the mat itself,” Tom said, putting his hand on his chin. He slowly approached you and swiped a single finger under your knee. You kicked it away.

“Now it’s malfunctioning,” Mackie informed him. Tom hummed and swiped a finger under your other knee. You kicked again. He then spider tickled under both your knees and you shrieked loudly.

“PLEHEHEASE I’M NOHOT BROKEN!” You screamed.

“God DAMN you made it talk!” Mackie yelled.

“I know what the issue is,” Robert said, stepping forward.

“Do go on?” big Tom said.

“You need to hit all the pressure points at once. It’s like a giant reset button, wear it down till it reboots itself,” he said. Everyone looked at each other.

“Position yourselves,” Robert instructed.

Mackie stepped off of your stomach and knelt by your left side, Seb knelt by your right. Lizzie was still up by your neck and big Tom by your knees. Scarlett was by your right shoulder, Paul by your left. Evans positioned himself by your hips, little Tom the other side by your thighs. Hemsworth and Robert sat next to your feet.

“Nonononono please!” You cried.

“Rebooting systems in 3…” Robert began.

“No please!”

“2…”

“Wait!”

“1…”

“No wait I’m not brOHOHOHOKEN!” You cried as everyone attacked you at once. No one was pinning you down but you could hardly twist and turn with 10 people tickling all your spots at once. They were all ruthless and yet...you sort of loved it.

“PLEHEHEHASE NOHOHOHO!” You cried, flailing your arms around. Mackie and Seb were squeezing up and down your sides and across your tummy, Lizzie was tickling deep into your neck, Scar and Paul had just caught an arm each and pinned it upwards so they could tickle your underarms, big Tom was scratching under your knees and squeezing the tops, Evans was squeezing and scribbling into your hips, little Tom was scratching up and down your thighs and Hemsy and Robert had grabbed a foot each to tickle. It was pure torture.

“KEEP GOING, IT’LL WEAR DOWN EVENTUALLY!” Robert yelled over your screams of laughter. Everyone picked up the speed and you screamed louder than ever before.

You now had your arms and legs pinned by Scar, Paul, Robert and Hemsworth so you tried to buck your hips as much as possible and scrunch up your shoulders to protect your neck but it was no use.

“NOHOHOHO MOHOHORE!” You cried. You let out another loud scream and fell into a silent laughter. Tears filled your eyes to the point where you couldn’t even see Lizzie kneeling over you.

“Reboot complete,” Robert instructed. He stopped tickling your foot and one by one the rest of the cast followed and ceased their attack. You lay there, taking in deep breaths of air.

“You alright twisty?” Mackie asked, sliding up to your head. You nodded, letting out residue giggles. Evans gave you a hand up and propped you up against the sofa.

“You...are...all...evil…” you breathed out. Everyone chuckled.

“You were in a playful mood, we wanted to join,” Evans said, winking at you.

“I never knew you were so ticklish,” Hemsworth said.

“So would you be if 10 people ganged up on you,” you replied. He laughed and nodded in agreement. Little Tom sat down next to you.

“You okay?” He asked, pulling you in for a hug. You nodded.

“Yeah...that was fun,” you clamped your mouth shut after realising what you just said.

“Fun eh?” little Tom teased, quickly spidering your side to make you giggle again.

“We had fun too if that’s any consolation? Could go for round two if you want,” big Tom said. You looked at him and smiled.

“Not today I don’t think, you guys well and truly broke me,” you said, everyone laughed.

“I think I’ve already decided on the theme for next year,” Robert said. Everyone turned to him.

“Tickle Me Y/N,” he said, “where everyone has to bring a random object to tickle Y/N with. First to make her say stop wins.” He winked at you and you blushed and hid your head in little Tom’s shoulder. He chuckled and stroked your head.

“Now that will be a fun theme,” Mackie replied.

[writer-or-whatever]

Would You Be So Kind As To Fall In Love With Me?

A Spring Break AU wherein Paris and Rory get together. Well, about three weeks after the fact anyway. They never were very good with being on time.

Read on AO3 or FFN.

They were surrounded by people drinking, dancing, and generally having a good Spring Break time, and Rory and Paris were just standing there, sort of swaying sort of dancing. Rory couldn’t help but compare their sad attempt at partying to their previous night with Bill Moyers’s The Power of Myth. Maybe it was her general dislike of crowds or maybe it was her not-so-small crush on Paris, but Rory was pretty sure she preferred eating pizza, watching a movie, and falling asleep half-sitting half-lying down with her head on Paris’s shoulder.

But they wanted to do Spring Break right, so they went to this packed, over-priced, hot club with Madeline and Louise.

“Hey, your husband’s here,” Paris said, effectively drawing Rory out of her thoughts, while she nodded toward the cute guy they’d seen three times now. He was cute, and, from their previous two encounters, probably interested, but, since he wasn’t blonde, generally angry, a girl, or her roommate, he wasn’t really Rory’s type. She looked back at him anyway, mostly because it was what was expected of her, and locked eyes with him and smiled. He looked at her and then turned back to his friend and their conversation, clearly no longer interested- or at least not at the moment. She was pretty glad because Rory had no idea what she would’ve done if he had shown interest, let alone come over to her.

“Well that was the shortest relationship ever,” Rory said, turning back to Paris. At her somewhat confused look, Rory elaborated, “He looked, he saw, he changed his mind.”

“Sorry.”

Rory just shrugged and went back to sort-of-dancing with Paris. Well, near Paris, not really with Paris, or, at least with Paris in the way that ‘dancing in the club’ with someone implies- the way a little part of her wants to dance with Paris, despite the people and the heat and the fact that Paris was in a relationship- a very straight relationship at that.

“Why is every single person in this place having a better time than we are?” Paris sounded serious, and not the normal Paris Geller Serious, which is pretty much just how she always sounds, but serious in her ‘I don’t like the situation and am immediately going to do something (probably something rash) about it’ kind of serious.

“Well I don’t know that they are,” Rory said, partially because rash Paris very rarely led to good things, and, partially because Rory wasn’t having that bad of a time. Sure, it wasn’t exactly stereotypical Spring Break, but any time Rory spent with Paris was good, even when they bickered or Paris drove her mad.

“We’re not trying hard enough.”

“So we’re not great at dancing. We don’t have to try hard enough; it’s not a test, Paris.” Paris was definitely getting closer to doing something to somehow make their Spring Break more Spring Break-y and Rory wasn’t sure what it was she was planning but she was fairly sure she wouldn’t like it.

“We came here to do Spring Break, so we’re going to do Spring Break.”

“Well than what do you suggest we d-” Rory hadn’t even been able to finish her sentence when Paris started kissing her. While her first instinct was to pull Paris close and kiss her back, Rory pushed her away instead, because, as much as she really wished Paris was kissing her because she wanted to, Rory was pretty sure that the kiss was 0% desire and 100% based on Madeline and Louise’s earlier suggestion that they could kiss to get things out of boys and that this was just another Spring Break Thing. “What are you doing?”

“Well Madeline and Louise do it.” Ah, there it is. No, Paris did not want to kiss her; Paris wanted the full Spring Break Experience.

“Madeline and Louise wear their underwear outside of their clothes. I don’t want to do what Madeline and Louise do!” I want to kiss you for real, but, of course, Rory didn’t add that part out loud.

“I just thought-”

“Just stop thinking, okay?” Rory snapped because she couldn’t stand here and listen to Paris talking about kissing her when it wasn’t really her she wanted to be kissing. “Your thinking is very, very dangerous.” At least to Rory and her already damaged feelings it was, so she walked away from Paris and toward the door, ignoring her best friend who was following behind her, calling her name and asking her about how well she kissed, and Rory couldn’t fucking take another minute in here with Paris and the people and that kiss or she’d start to cry.

She was almost all the way back to the door when her path was blocked by a solid mass that was the guy she’d seen earlier that hadn’t been interested but certainly seemed to be now, no doubt thanks to Paris’s fun idea to kiss her in a club full of Spring Breakers. “Hey, where’re you going?” She was pretty sure that the expression he wore on his face when he said this counted as leering and she was so not in the mood.

“Outside,” she snapped (only a little). “Alone,” she added, pushing past him and out the door when she saw him open his mouth again, no doubt to ask to tag along and/or inquire if Paris was coming.

Once she was about a block away from the club and the noise and the people, Rory finally felt like she could breathe. And like she was going to cry. Her vision was blurring, her eyes were definitely stinging a little from holding back tears, and she was going to go back to their empty hotel room, despite the fact that that would be the first place that Paris would look for her. But, since she’d left Paris behind, maybe by the time Paris showed up she’d be all cried out and ready to continue Spring Breaking and being a good and understanding best friend as Paris waxed poetic about Asher Fleming, despite the fact that he was old and Rory’s professor and, oh yeah, Rory was completely in love with her. Now, though, she was going to finish her jog back to the hotel so she could cry and lament over the fact that she finally knew what kissing Paris felt like (amazing by the way), but it had nothing to do with Paris wanting to kiss her, which only made her feel even worse about this whole thing.

By the time she made it into their room and flopped face down on her bed, she found herself wishing the earth would just open up and swallow her whole because, as awful as this whole Paris kissing her thing made her feel, Rory knew that she’d be thinking about it for weeks and the knowledge of what it felt like to kiss her would work its way into her daydreams (and other dreams that Rory really didn’t need to be thinking about at the moment). So, instead of thinking about those less than savory thoughts, Rory let herself have a nice well-deserved cry, despite the fact that Rory did not fancy herself the type to cry over the people she had crushes on. She’d let it go just this once, though.

Apparently, her good cry had become a good nap because the next thing she knew Paris was shaking her awake and saying something about Madeline and Louise and punch.

“What?” Rory sat up after some more shaking, quite a lot of shaking from the vaguely annoyed look on Paris’s face.

“Madeline and Louise are making punch with at least three kinds of alcohol, two kinds of fruit juices, and some Red Bull, and I need your support to deal with them. Rory, I know you’re probably mad about earlier but please do not leave me alone with the Banger Sisters.”

“Fine, but only because you said please,” Rory said as she got up, straightened out her outfit she wore to the club and promptly fell asleep in, and headed out of their room and towards the deck overlooking the pool with Paris following behind her. That’s where they found Madeline and Louise sitting with four plastic cups filled to the brim with punch that Rory was sure could dissolve steel.

“Rory! Paris!” Madeline cried, standing up and stumbling over to them to pull them over to the table.

“Have some punch,” Louise said when they sat down, and, seeing no reason not to, they did.

Several glasses of punch later and Rory was feeling particularly bubbly and also seeing double. That’s when Louise decided it was time to drunkenly discuss relationships, though she seemed more sober than either Rory or Paris, despite having just as many drinks, if not more, than the two of them. “So, Paris, how’s the Princeton man?”

“Oh, Jamie? I broke up with Jamie months ago. I’ve got a new man now.” Oh, joy, more Asher Fleming talk.

“Oh? Do tell,” Louise said, leaning forward in her seat, hungry for gossip, as per usual.

“Oh, well, he’s older, a professor, and smart, practically a genius. Oh and he writes too. And he’s handsome, so handsome. Isn’t he handsome, Rory?” Paris gushed, turning to Rory for confirmation of a sentiment that Rory didn’t exactly share.

“Oh, yeah, handsome, sure, very handsome,” Rory said with absolutely no conviction or enthusiasm, but Paris was drunk so she took it as an agreement and went back to waxing poetic about professor Fleming and lamenting about his trip to Denver for some conference. Louise, however, was giving Rory a look that made her think that Louise was definitely more sober than she was and that she didn’t buy what Rory said about Fleming. Rory, however, didn’t have a lot of time to think about it, though, because Paris was freaking out about Asher, and Rory needed to step up and be the supportive best friend now.

“What if he’s sick of me and that’s why he didn’t want me to come with him to Denver?” Paris was clearly on the verge of a drunken panic, which, if it was anything like her sober panicking, would be Not Good.

“No, he’s not sick of you.” Rory tried to sound sincere this time, mostly because she was certain that Paris would notice if she wasn’t passably sincere.

“What if he’s going to dumb me?” Clearly the sincere hadn’t been enough and Rory would have to enter reassurance mode.

“You’re just being paranoid; he cares about you and wants you to have fun, both of you. Because there are two of you and they’re spinning,” Rory said, eliciting a laugh from the other 3 girls.

“You’re probably right,” Paris said, which was a sign that she was very drunk because she just conceded without so much as a protest, much less a full-fledged argument like she normally would.

“Well, now that the world is spinning, I should probably go take a walk because I promised my mom I wouldn’t fall out of any window and I know it’s not technically a window but I don’t think she’d be very happy if I fell over the side of this railing,” Rory said as she stood up, gesturing to the railing of the big balcony they were sitting on that overlooked the pool.

“I’ll go with you,” Paris said as she got up and sort of leaned against Rory as they made their way towards the stairs. They walked to the part of the beach that was right in front of their hotel like that- sort of walking, sort of leaning on each other and stumbling. Once they got onto the beach and past the few people who were out having a little bonfire, they both sank down to their knees in the sand, deciding to sit.

“Fresh air is good; Fresh air is helping. I think. I feel better, world’s spinning less,” Paris said, still leaning against Rory in an attempt to stay upright.

“What was in that punch? Did we ask? Rory asked. They were both leaning against each other at this point and the fact that neither of them were laying face down in the sand was nothing short of a miracle.

“Nope.”

“Should we have?”

“That’s not what the cool kids do.” Right, the cool kids. Rory was pretty sure she hated the idea of being cool and of Spring Break in general.

“So are we done?” Rory asked.

“With what?”

“Spring Break”

“I think so. The only thing we haven’t done is throw up, and, trust me, by the end of the night we’ll have done that too.”

“Right, so we’re done?” Rory really wanted to spend the rest of their time in Florida with Paris and movies and pizza and no alcohol, enjoying her best friend’s company and pretending she wasn’t in love with her.

“We’re done. Let’s go home.”

“How?” Because home didn’t sound half-bad, especially when there was no Asher to occupy Paris’s time for the rest of the weekend, nor any obnoxious Spring Breakers.

“Frequent flier miles, baby. I’ll call as soon as I can get up.”

“Cool, I’m in,” Rory said. Then they sat there in silence for a little bit, watching the beach spin and the Earth tilt.

That is until Paris decided to bring up the one subject Rory wished to never speak of ever again. “So why didn’t you want to kiss me?”

“What?” Rory asked, more confused about how this topic came up and why Paris cared that Rory hadn’t wanted to kiss her in the club earlier their confused about the actual question.

“Earlier, when I kissed you in the club. You pushed me away and seemed really freaked out. Why?” Most of the time, Paris’s directness is something Rory liked about her. Now though, when Rory was very drunk and had very little filter, she didn’t appreciate it so much.

“Because you didn’t want to kiss me,” Rory said, telling the truth because she was very drunk and couldn’t really think, let alone come up with any sort of semi-believable excuse.

“Of course I wanted to kiss you! I did kiss you!”

Continue reading on AO3 or FFN

[riskeith]

aside from that, ur graphics must look incredible! i’ve seen some comparison pics and pc graphics are God Tier. help the second lowest being “high”... good riddance. 😶

summer 2016! it seems so long ago like a whole different universe. everything was so beautiful back then.. everybody was out and about hunting pokémon’s... that zine is so cute! i wouldn’t say main i actually only got into them a little while ago and i’m still mostly tddk and kiribaku but bkdk is interesting.. to say the least. i haven’t seen what happens in the manga (only a bit of spoilers especially that cover...) and s4 didn’t give us That many scenes with them but i’m keeping my eyes open... wbu?

IDK like their descriptions make it seem like they might help you find some specific treasures??? like the gold seelie giving you fortune aka mora? not sure tho hehe... YEAH THAT FANART!!! so cute i wanna eat them all.. forbidden snack. 🥺 omg funny you mention that... i met xiao just earlier for the first time and when i saw his entire outfit i was like.. hm i wonder what he would look like in darker clothing HAHA. but yeah skins would be awesome!!!! like a clothing shop or smth somewhere????? anyway when i saw him i was like HEY that’s cluna’s boy!

ALBEDO IS A BAD BITCH. his hair is perfect perfect perfect. actually everything about him is so perfect he’s just a delicate little guy... 🥺 dude us talking about albedo and opening up the game and seeing his banner is like... 👀 temptation.

with venti??? i’m not sure which quest you mean i did the archon one with him though and it was awesome. does he have more? I DID LOOK IT UP AND MURASE IS MAKING HIS VOICE EVEN HIGHER AND IT’S SO CUTE I WISH I KNEW IT BEFOREHAND SO I COULD’VE HEARD HIS VOICE WHILE DOING THE MISSION. 😭 oh well 😭

hopefully there are some good 4 stars too. who are you wishing for? anyone special? imagine having xingqiu and chongyun.... that’s like the dream. and bennett and razor and you have the boy scout party haha!! do you have mostly claymore users?

i remember you mentioning you don’t like book users but i’ve actually really grown to love them hehe. their long range attacks are so nice and handy! KAZE DA! 😭 bro stop i literally have a crush on venti it’s ridiculous.. imagine closing ur eyes and talking and it’s his voice.... (OR HINATA!!!) murase is so lucky... he seems like such a great guy too ajsksjdk..

ok friends to lovers goodness! 🥺 i’m considering getting twitter just to see fanart... maybe.. o.o

ooooo that’s so thorough! in all caps caught my attention, why do you do that? personally, if it’s something longer i write bulletpoints of the concept but never like... actual plot yk? i’ve tried before but i doesn’t work for me very well. so.. i wing it! and like you i just get inspired randomly, it could be from song lyrics or thinking about tropes i enjoy. 😜

loona is cool! they have this whole story about their group. i highly recommend checking them out! i wonder if they kept it up though lmao. oh yeah everyone loves hozier he just speaks to the soul.. LOVELY IS MY FAVORITE SONG!!!!! LIKE EASILY TOP SONGS OF MY LIFE!!! it makes me so happy that you like it even if you skip it lmaojsjdjsjsjdk and i like billie a lot!! ariana too she has great music.., idk if you’ve heard of the group the neighborhood but i like them too. lana del rey as well! haha guess it’s super basic stuff tbh. all of them with mostly slow songs.. sorry 😭

OK GOOD. all nighters are honestly horrible. i don’t get how people can pull them off and get things done... (hopefully you never have to either!) YEAH haha 8 am is my favorite hour i think... that and 9 pm. they’re just special. what’s your favorite time of day? listen if you stay up to read fics that’s valid. midnight up is like the perfect time to read fics it makes them appear more magical sjdkdhdk.

i hope i caught you today but if not, hope you’re sleeping well babe! ♥️

sorry i was playing genshin! JFKSNXKSNKSJ i started before 12am and before i knew it it was already 1am… my goodness

and yeah i watched this vid comparing the graphic quality settings (i play on the default one) and i was like??? people really be playing like this? LOL can’t relate

edit: missed this paragraph oops but yeah what a time 2016 was! (lmao voltron started that year iirc) i remember we had an athletics event and legit everyone was on their phones jfksnfksnd. oooo! nice tddk and krbk are very good very nice. and also yeah that cover lol i love that you didn’t even have to specify which one i just Know. hmm i think rn bkdk would be one of the top ships i’m interested in aside from todobaku? they just have so much history ya know? and they have a lot of moments in the second movie! oh wait did you know that there are movies? two of them in fact!! the kiribaku is pretty strong in the first one (but there are some todobaku moments too lol). and there are a few OVAs too. WAIT are you all caught up with the anime? can’t rmemeber if you’ve told me or not 😫

oooo if that were the case tho what would the others give? i did like the “sea blue” description or something of the blue one tho 😩 YOU WANNA EAT THEM FJDJCJSKNCSKJCKSNXJS NO!!! but i can understand.. they look very squishy. THAT’S MY BOY!!!!!! honoured you thought of me <33 yo i was also wondering what chongyun would look like in darker clothes too HDKSKDN see this is why i need to learn how to draw.… gotta put them in the clothes i want since we can’t do that in game!! but a shop would be so cute omg

JFKSKSKAKS i’ve legit been staying away from opening the wish menu as much as i can.… it’s too tempting i can’t!!

yeah the archon one is what i meant sorry! forgot the name for it lol. and yes there is! once you reach AR 35 or something you can unlock story quests and venti is one of them 👀👀 RIPPPP BUT AT LEAST YOU KNOW NOW 😭😭

i think just xingqiu rn!! i’ve been holding off ascending barbara in hopes of getting him, bc i grinded some oceanid (literally the worst fucking boss ever) before i ascended so i’m just hoarding those materials rn fjskdnd. yesss the boy scouts 😭🥺 but i heard chongyun and razor’s elemental skills cancel each other out so rip.. hmm i did a count and i think i have 3 each of claymore and catalyst users! hbu?

omg nooooo betrayal 😭 tho ngl i’m considering using ningguang bc i see people play her so well.. so i’m just carrying her around in my team hoping to passively level her up HAHAHA. i def appreciate their long range attacks too, lisa’s burst especially is quite nice. CHJDKSKD that’s so cute but also very relatable 😭😭😭🥺🥺🥺🥺 also did you know murase is like tall af it’s kinda crazy lol

there’s /so/ much good fanart!!! it’s where i’m getting a taste of all the ships too lol but yeah there’s angst and fluff and just charas looking s*xy they’ve got it all 😩 but that also reminds me, like most other big fandoms genshin fandom is kinda fkn shit 😔 once again i’m thankful to myself for keeping such a small circle lmaooooo

honestly i don’t know either?? i think it helps me distinguish between what i’m actually writing vs what i’m planning like if i do something like “JUMPS OFF PLATFORM, LANDS IN FRONT. so, are you going to introduce me or do i have to do it myself ETC THEN THEY TALK SUDDENLY there’s the sound of a windchime, and VILLAINS HERE GOTTA FIGHT” it’ll look something like that jdjsndkskd where the lowercase is exact dialogue I wanna write in but the caps is just planning

but winging it ey that’s hot of you 🤪 god do you ever just like thinking about potential ideas before falling asleep but then your phone is far away/you don’t wanna hurt your eyes looking at a screen but then you’re also afraid you’ll forget the idea DJKSXKSK

:o! i think i stayed away bc of the whole “stan loona” thing DHSKKS but i might give them another shot! therefore i am is one of my go to songs rn hehe i really like the beats she uses they’re so funky. i don’t really like ariana sorry FJDJKSKS but she does have a lot of bangers!! side to side… 😘👌 and i do know the neighbourhood! sweater weather is so iconic but lately i’ve been skipping that too aahah. but have you heard daddy issues slowed? oh my god. that singlehandedly started my obsession with slowed songs (ironic isn’t it when you consider i don’t listen to normal slow songs fjsjdj) i like summertime sadness from lana! and young and beautiful too (the radio songs AHAH) but yeah.. they’re slow fjdkksks. how do you feel about halsey + melanie martinez + bastille? (i’m always paranoid about listing artists bc so many get cancelled or what other and i feel like randos are gonna come for me too JDKSKSKA.) oh and troye sivan!! and pentatonix if you’ve heard of them? i was obsessed with those two back in 2015 ahaha

omg crazy.. how!! hm my favourite hour is maybe 12pm? or 2pm? just some time in the afternoon i like when it’s still light outside but it’s also like “after school” time kinda .. and yesss reading fic at late hours… gets me crying more easily 🤪

i don’t think i’ll catch your next reply so goodnight in advance!! hope your day is great <3

[recentanimenews]

The Definitive Ranking of Bleach OPs

  For many years Bleach ruled the roost in the United States fandom as the coolest comic running in Shonen Jump magazine. For a period of time the anime was similarly successful, inspiring everything from cosplay to fanfiction to a live-action movie. Even more than Naruto, a far more sprawling franchise, Bleach defines a specific period of early 2000s anime fight media that briefly enraptured countless high school students as they illegally pored over multiple-part episode splits on YouTube, crafting AMVs set to Linkin Park while listening to Number One on repeat. And yes, I'm including myself in that crowd.

  The Bleach manga ended years ago, and the anime did too. That's all to the good for our purposes though, because it lets us build a genuine historical record based on the anime's most significant achievement: its range of incredible opening songs and animation. What is the best Bleach opening of them all? To craft this list I used this thorough and objective criteria:

  1. Is the song a banger?

  2. Is this opening at least as cool as Sonic Adventure 2's "Escape from the City?"

  3. How does it stand up as an artifact of its time, and how does it stand up today?

  Let's begin!

  15. "BLUE" (ViViD) 

    I like the attention to scale and space in this opening, with energy blasts blowing through whole rows of buildings and Ichigo knocking enemies over like bowling balls. But there's so much fighting happening here, crammed into such a short space, that it's hard to follow. Not a fan of the song either, so this one's placing at the bottom.

  14. "Anima Rossa" (Porno Graffitti)

Porno Graffitti has a long history composing opening themes for anime, accompanying everything from 2003's Fullmetal Alchemist to My Hero Academia. The song they've contributed here is a bluesy number that I'd rank above several other entries on this list. Then why is this #14? When watching this opening, I couldn't shake the feeling that this sequence could have been servicable for any other shonen anime series. Bleach earned its fame through a certain je ne sais quoi, and if it's not here, no matter how competent the sequence is otherwise, what's the point?

  13. "Chu-Bura" (Kelun)

  When rewatching openings to put this feature together, I was frankly blown away by the first half or so of this opening sequence. The cast being cute together and hanging out at the beach! Some unexpectedly fluid animated hijinks as Ichigo walks to school! A pretty good song! Then the fighting kicks in and the rest of the opening is comparatively boring. Worth a watch, though.

  12. "Harukaze" (SCANDAL)

  This was the last Bleach opening to be featured in the anime series, and features some fun callbacks to earlier episodes like a runthrough of every episode title card (!!). I wouldn't say this is one of the show's best, but it gets stronger as it goes along and features some neat and stylish visual tableaux. The doors opening at the end to reveal the sponsors is a nice touch, too.

  11. "Alones" (Aqua Timez)

  Watching Bleach openings on YouTube as a child, I used to be freaked out by the sight of Kon the stuffed animal very loudly singing the theme song. On rewatch, though, I think I underrated this one: it's a splintered sequence of memory, love and grief that bears the strong iconography Bleach had in its prime. Aqua Timez would later do better, though!

  10. "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" (Beat Crusaders)

  What makes a Bleach opening? Is it the music? Outrageous poses? Fast-paced fights? This opening doubles down on "style," which is admittedly Bleach's ace in the hole. There are sequences here that refer back to the first opening sequence, but on a grander scale: like the red and black silhouettes of Ichigo and Rukia being mean to each other, but projected on several television screens! Or every character recieving their own cool spinning CD cover. The song isn't really to my taste, but overall it's a good time.

  9. "chAngE" (Miwa)

  This opening makes an immediate statement when we see Ichigo's hometown erupt into an unmistakable mushroom cloud freeze frame. My other favorite bit is when the spooky devil hand reaches towards the other hand, just as the vocals spike. What can I say, I'm a mark for scenes in anime when hands reach out to each other but don't quite connect! I'm an Ikuhara fan, sue me.

  8. "Velonica" (Aqua Timez)

  This is the first great example on this list of a classic trope in Bleach openings: The Pose. It's no secret that Tite Kubo draws not so much to tell stories (though he can do that on occasion) but to showcase characters wearing cool outfits while they do cool things. This opening wrings everything it can out of the cast of the show standing in exaggerated poses while the camera swings from one angle to another. And it works! The bit of the Vizards being swallowed up by darkness, followed by Urahara's hat tip, has been lodged in my brain since seeing this.

  7. "Ichirin no Hana" (High and Mighty Color)

  More poses! The main cast looking very tired and noble as they stand on the battlefield. Shunsui's sword kata. Screaming vocals. When I asked the barista at the coffee shop today for his favorite Bleach opening, this was his answer; the harsh sound of the Soul Society arc's grand finale. It's a great pick, but the effects are a bit dated for me in 2020. Byakuya's special attack in particular screams early 2000s CG.

  6. "Shojo S" (SCANDAL)

  More outrageous poses from your favorite characters, except that you also have Rukia, Orihime and Rangiku doing a choreographed dance! I wasn't sure what to make of this sequence when I first saw it, but it's risen higher and higher in my estimation with each successive watch. Now I'm at the point where I'd say this is the Bleach opening I initially underrated the most (though there's some real classics coming down the pike!)

  5. "After Dark" (Asian Kung-Fu Generation)

  Bleach openings can be maximalist, so I find it fascinating how restrained this one is. Ichigo's friends running in the desert, the repetition of symbols juxtaposed to flaming credits, and a black-and-white super-cool layout of Aizen's war chamber. That's it. But set to the riffs of all-time great Japanese popular rock band Asian Kung-Fu Generation, that's all you really need.

  4. "D-technoLife" (UVERworld)

  This is the Bleach opening that defines the whole series for many folks. The theme song to the start of the Soul Society arc, it harnesses the band UVERworld (still putting out songs for shonen anime even today!) to a carnival of non-stop forward momentum that keeps topping itself with cool characters and fight sequences. Within its specific niche of early 2000s anime openings about shonen heroes determinedly running toward the camera, this one's never been topped. But it's not my personal favorite, so I'm putting it at number 4! The scene where Yourichi takes a bite out of Soi Fon's sword and holds it between their teeth is outrageously good, though.

  3. "*~Asterisk~" (Orange Range) 

    It's fascinating in retrospect how little Bleach's first opening actually has to do with what happens in Bleach. We don't see much in the way of hollows or shinigami, and the only swordfighting we're given is a brief few seconds of Ichigo fighting some interchangable bad guys in kimono. Instead we're given a vibe: Ichigo's friends wearing stylish clothes straight from the manga while the camera darts from one angle to another, Orihime and her friends spray-painting the title of the theme song on the screen, the camera revolving endlessly around Ichigo as he stands in the middle of the city. The promise of this sequence was eventually crushed beneath a never-ending tide of new characters and concepts as the series collapsed under its own weight... but for me and my friends, watching this opening relentlessly on YouTube as teenagers, it convinced us of Bleach's effortless cool. The best first Bleach opening.

2. "Ranbu no Melody" (SID ❤) 

  Like the previous opening, "Ranbu no Melody" is notable as much for what it doesn't show as for what it does. We see Ichigo, the hero of the story, for only a few seconds. Instead of our heroes running endlessly toward the camera, we are given the slow unravelling of reality by invisible forces that repeatedly squish and stretch the aspect ratio and blast the viewer with impossibly fast, overlaid images. The brainchild of Masashi Ishihama, one of the best directors of opening sequences working today, this one works as both a horrifying short film of dramatic climax and as a sneakily crafted foreshadowing-laden promise to longtime fans of Bleach that the story has been building to this arc from the very beginning. The best opening.

  1. "Rolling Star" (YUI) 

  As a child, I would watch the first six openings of Bleach over and over on YouTube. I loved the first, and the second, and the third. But the one I would return to over and over again, even though it came from a section of the series that I never reached myself, was "Rolling Star." Seen in retrospect, it's a synthesis of all the aspects that made Bleach openings memorable. It's stylish, rendering Ichigo's hometown as a neon-lit sunset hangout where battles secretly play out just around the corner. It's just a bit scary, with Ichigo duelling his masked evil self as traumatic future events are carefully foreshadowed. But more than anything, this opening sells a closeness between the main cast as they eat together and fight together. A careful juxtaposition between the high school gang of friends who were way cooler than you'd ever be, and the supernatural terrror just barely poking out from beneath the surface.

  This opening was also directed by Masashi Ishihama, though the previous listed entry represents a more concentrated form of his style. "Ranbu no Melody"'s sequence may very well be superior from an animation perspective, but from my point of view, "Rolling Star" is and will always will be the best Bleach opening. And the song's a banger, so there's that!

  What is your personal Bleach opening ranking? Did I underrate "D-technoLife"? Is Bleach more or less cool than Sonic Adventure 2's "Escape from the City?" Let us know in the comments!

---

Adam W is a Features Writer at Crunchyroll. He sporadically contributes with a loose coalition of friends to a blog called Isn't it Electrifying? He recommends reading David Brothers's old pieces on Bleach if you want to learn more. You can follow Adam on Twitter at: @wendeego

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[napalmmanexe]

Fits of Random 9.5

Narrator: Another day. Another cold wintery day. Another cold, wintery, lousy, gloomy, overcast, yucky, poopy....

Matt: ( In his room, lying on his bed with his laptop ) We get it! >3 Today's weather stinks! ( Playing a game ) I gotta do something else....( Starts watching an abridged anime, stops part way ) I don't wanna do that either...( Opens his BIOS coding program ).....I can't concentrate. Why can't I do something productive?? XC ( Flailing his arms )

Rahbie: ( Walks into Matt's room ) A lot of people have been restless. ^_^; The weather keeps everyone indoors, so people are getting bored easily.

Matt: I don't feel like doing....Anything. 8C Nothing at all.

Rahbie: Well, there's one thing...:3 ( Giving him a sly grin, posing lewdly )

Matt: Its not that I don't appreciate the offer, but I'm not doing that kind of content anymore.

Rahbie: But our love making is always so good. <83

Matt: It is, but not every written or drawn piece that tells a story has to have sex in it in order to be good. I want to focus on work that draws people in for adventure, drama, and humor.

Rahbie: Oh good for you master. ^_^ ( Sitting with him ) You think people will go for it?

Matt: I'm not feeding the internet its junk food anymore. I make good quality work as best as I can. |3

Rahbie: Funny, the way you talk; it sounds as if you expect someone to hear it. ^-^

Matt: Very very true. ^-^

Matt and Rahbie: ( Both of them staring at whoever reads this ) PG only folks. :3

( The scene changes to the title screen with Neko fairies swarming all over it )

Neko Fairies: Nyaaaaaaaaaaaaa! 83c ( Covering the opening scene with confetti and silly faces drawn  with crayon )

( A static scene change shows Shift training in the household dojo, practicing his Metamorph skill set )

Shift: Shape Shift!! ( Trying to think of something )

Azure: ( Behind Shift, whispering ) A Life Sized Glow in Dark Teddy Bear! :3

Shift: A Life Sized Glow In the Dark Teddy Bear...wut? |3 ( Changes into the exact thing ) Whhhhuuuuaaaaaaaaaaaat? <83 OOoffff!!!

Azure: ( Tackle hugs Shift at full speed ) Nyeeeoooooooooooooh! X3c

Shift: Oh bother....<:3 ( Getting adorably huggled by Azure )

( Scene changes to....Scene changes to...?? )

Narrator: Where's the next skit?

Matt: Next skit? /3

Rahbie: Master don't we have something for the next scene? <:3

Matt: ( Back to being dispondent and playing a video game ) Don't ask me, I don't know. |3

Napalm: ( Still in the form of a life sized glow in the dark teddy bear ) Buddy, what happened to that schedule from the previous episode?

Azure: ( Huggling Napalm, clinging to his back. Nuzzling and purring ) Prrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. X3c

Matt: Schedule? ( Trying to think )

Rahbie: Master you promised...( Showing him video footage of the last Fits of Random )

Matt: Oh yeah...that....( Looking at them with a blank stare ) ....( Goes back to his game )

Rahbie: Alright you've left us little choice, master. ( Sounding stern )

Matt: Do any of you work my job?

Napalm and Rahbie: ...No? O_o

Matt: Good, matter settled. That job has done nothing but bring grief, stress, and it eats a person's soul from the inside. If I could I'd flatten the place....

Napalm: Robot Masters already tried that.

Matt: What? ( Blinking, somewhat surprised )

Azure: Nyan, because its fourth wall related all that happened was... :3

( The sound of humorous piano key banging signaled a cutaway scene with Bass and the other Robot Masters standing on a ship on the east coast of the States )

GutsMan: Throw a Rock at it!! ( Stomps his foot and gets a random boulder. Tossing it at the shore )

Boulder: ( Reaches the shore line and vanishes with a poof-fart effect ) Frrtt!~

GutsMan: Well....shucks!

( The scene ends with the piano banging effect played in reverse )

Napalm: What we're getting at is your job is turning into a bad excuse and the video games are turning into a distraction.

Matt: And what're you all gonna do? F3 Hijack the episode? ( Turns his head. Within seconds gets jumped on ) Gah! What the heck?? D:

Mayreen: ( In a tight fitting police girl outfit ) Keep your arms and legs spread out where I can see them. Anything you say will be used against you by the cord of this game controller. >3

Matt: Kitten this is unecessarriiiiiiiiie where are we going? <83 ( Being carried off, hands held together by zip ties. Flung over Mayreen's shoulder )

Mayreen: To Adventure! >83

Azure: And a half decent plot. :3 Cue the goofy cutaway effects!

( The scene changes to the group standing at the entrence of the Alpha ruins where all the aggressive monsters and things spawned from )

Matt: A treasure dig against the island's baddies?

Napalm: Nope, we're inspecting a thing. ( Now back to normal ) Someone turned something loose and its been stealing trinkets from the citizens.

Azure: And we know who it is. :3

Matt: Not much of an inspection if we already know who the perp is. |3

Mayreen: We needed your mental powers to get answers from the perps. Trust me you'll know why when you see them. ^-^

Matt: ( Watches as Napalm pulls out Saya and Sheath. The two top agents from Ouma. Both of them hand cuffed ) Yep I see why you need me. O_o

Sheath: Is bright boy desu. :3

Saya: You want to know what we turned loose? ^-^ ( Calmly smiling ) We'll never tell.

Sheath: The lips of bunny desu are of sealed and shut. :3

Matt: Ya don't say? XD ( Placing a hand on each of their heads, starts getting into their memories )

( All Matt saw in Saya's head was a blank fog. Sheath's was a jumble of awful American and Japanese words, with every other  second a desu went off with a chibi form of Sheath running around carefree and acting adorable and hilarious. )

Matt: That....didn't get us far guys and gals. O_o

Rahbie: But that always works. D:

Matt: Saya is so deeply Zenned I can't get through. Sheath is a coloring book of botched American and Japanese words. o_o

Saya: Hmmmhmhmhm. ^-^ You will have to get us to talk another way. ;3

Sheath: Hmmhmmhmhmhmm desu desu. ;3

Matt:....I said I'm keeping it PG. >3 And I'm sticking by it.

Saya: Well I...( Looks behind her ) Excuse me but where are my weapons? ^-^

Sheath: Sheath's banger and slicer desu is also of not being the here. :3

Napalm: ( Looks where he put their gear ) I could have sworn I put them right here. O_o ( Sees the shadow of something big, with feathers, and had Saya and Sheath's weapons in its beak )

Mayreen: Its....a huge crow....o_o

Saya: Oh....Oh my thats our little project we turned loose. ^-^

Matt: You freed a giant crow to do what with it? F3

Sheath: Fun and giggles. :3 And is not a corn field crow of crowing.

???: ( Lets out a terrible scream ) SkEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiich!!!

Mayreen and Azure: Nyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa our ears!!! <XC

Napalm: What? I can't hear! >3 ( Both ears bleeding )

Matt: That....is ....not a crow. O_O

Saya: Its a Shrieker. ^-^

Rahbie: The same Shrieker that  terrorizes towns and steals shiny things and is super dangerous to take on? O_o

Sheath: ( Nodding her head yes, making a rattling noise ) Yup yup yup yup. ^w^

Saya: You see, there is a place hidden deep. I'd say...at least 20 levels down. Its a gateway to madness and the creepiest creatures you ever saw. I even had to leave because the madness was just a bit too much. ^-^

Sheath: Sheath was hearing bad voices desu. <:3

Matt: Well....who's up for a tough boss fight? >3

Napalm, Rahbie, Mayreen, and Azure: You bet! >83

Saya: We can tell you where its nesting....if you turn us loose. ^-^

Napalm: On a tree near the Tree of Life in Mon Bush? XD

Saya:.....Why yes. ^-^ But there's still one thing we know and we won't tell you unless you let us go.

Matt: Hits like a truck, cries do damage to people's sanity, doesn't stay long once aggravated? XD

Saya: Now you're just taking the fun out of it. <:3 ( Pouting )

Sheath: Oh but the other thing....:3

Saya: Sheath, shush. ^-^

Matt: What other thing? O_o ( Looking at Sheath )

Sheath: Desu thing. Saya do remembering? :3

Saya: Sheath I'm going to punish you if you bring it up again. ^-^

Sheath: No! <83 Desu Saya said to be having Desu Sheath remind desu!

Mayreen: Yes Sheath, what is the thing? ^-^

Sheath: No telling non desu's! >3 Oh shoot! <83 Sheath wasn't being whispery much.

Saya: I'm going really teach you a lesson later, Sheath.....

Sheath: But hurts and ouchies....<:3

Saya: Say one more word and your behind will be so red it will glow in the dark. Now, shut it. ^-^

Rahbie: Now thats just mean. |3

Saya: You don't run my rail road darling. ^-^

Napalm: I got an idea....how about we string Saya up with a bunch of trinkets and when the Shrieker comes by it'll pick her apart?

Saya:....I wouldn't. ^-^

Matt: No no we can punish them both later for their antics. We have a Shrieker to hunt and some kind of thing to deal with....right Sheath? :3

Sheath:...No punish....be nice desu? <:3

Narrator: Back at the Boarding House where our heroes threw on their gear and happily skipped tralala to the Shrieker's nest!~

Shift: Dude are you on something? |3

Narrator: Who me? Noooooo of course not! ( Whispering to someone ) Behind my booth, tonight. I'm low and I....

Shift: ( Glaring at the Narrator ) >3

Narrator: Crap they can hear me!! ( Footsteps heard running out of the booth and down a bunch of stairs )

Shift: I'll deal with him later. ( Flying along on his energy disc while Rahbie provided a magic carpet for Matt, Mayreen, Saya, and Sheath )

Saya: Darlings, why are we going along?

Mayreen: You turned that creepy thing loose, you're helping us take it out.

Sheath: Desu bird likes dodge. :3

Rahbie: ....Honey you need to work on your English. That made no sense. <_<

Sheath: Dodgy dodgy desu. :3 Sheath telling the important stuff! <:3

Matt: She means its very agile so landing a hit on it might prove challenging. ( Looks ahead ) There's the nest and the bird is home. Everyone ready?

Saya: ( She and Sheath having some spare weapons from the house armory ) Not my favorite gear but it will do. ^-^

Mayreen: ( Also has her merc armor on ) I'm ready Matty. ^w^

Rahbie: I'll provide support if anything goes wrong. ^-^

Myffle: ( On Shift's right shoulder ) And I'll do my usual cute neko fairy stuff! :3c

Shift: Good girl ! :D Lets go! >3

French Narrator: Zey all landed on a large branch nearest zee nest.

Sheath: Desu Narrator of Sponges and Bobs? /:3

French Narrator: First one got busted for zee drugs. I am how you say, one out of many.

Saya: That booth must be busy. ^-^

Shrieker: Skeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! ( Landing in front of the nest )

Rahbie: That's way too many eyes for a bird! <8C

Matt: There's all the trinkets in the nest! ( Pointing )

Mayreen: And a lot of dead bodies too. <:3

Shift: Hit it and hit it hard! >3 ( Summons his lazer light bo staff, running at top speed, swinging and missing ) Someone follow up! >3

Mayreen: I got it! >3 ( Throwing six flash bangs from under her trench coat )

Shrieker: SKiIIIiiiiieeeeee??!! ( Wings flailing and flapping )

Matt: ( Using pure BIOS energy to grab and strike at the bird ) Man this thing has got some muscle on it! >3

Shift, Saya, Sheath: ( All of them slashing and stabbing it ) Hyaaaaaaaaah! >3

Mayreen: ( Shooting at the bird's head when she got a clean shot, using her sniper rifle ) Grrrrrr, this isn't doing enough damage! >3

Rahbie: Watch out!! D: ( Watching the Shrieker puff up )

Shrieker: Skaaaaaaaaaaw skaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw skaaaaaaaaaaw!!

Matt, Shift, Mayreen, Rahbie, Saya, Sheath, Myffle: ( All of them holding their ears in pain ) Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrgghh!! XC

Shrieker: ( Lifting off and performs a dive at the group, its super sharp beak gleaming as it rocketed at them )

Shift: S-shape Shift....!! ( Trying to concentrate )

Azure: ( Suddenly shows up ) Hai sorry got distracted by candy! <:3 Nyan thats a big bird. And its headed for my Nappy?! >3 ( Using her Speed Skill Set to get near the shrieker and grabbing its beak with her claws ) You're going THIS way! >83 ( Using leverage and speed to force the Shrieker off its path and into a thick branch of the tree )

Shift: Azure, where have you been?? D:

Myffle: I smell candy. :3

Azure: Sorry hope I didn't miss too much. <:3c

Shift: Honey your timing is perfect. :D Now...lets hit this sucker with something....splodey. >:)

Mayreen: I second that idea! >:3 ( Tossing some C4 on the Shrieker's bum )

Shift: Shape Shift Crash Man! ( Changes to the robot master Crash Man, fires numerous Crash Bombs, latching onto the birds bum )

Saya and Sheath: ( Quickly tying grenades to the monster's feathers ) Count us in. :D

Matt: ( Pulls out his Modded 3DS, summons a rocket launcher ) Everyone clear!

French Narrator: Meanwhile.~

Nappa: ( At the boarding house, has a camera recording Vegeta stacking a sizable card castle ) Aaaaaalmost done, Vegeta.

Vegeta: Shush. Even the smallest noises will undo this priceless piece of work...ever so....carefully...quietly... ( Places the last card ) Finally. Hah, who said I couldn't do something artsie and peaceful!

SFX: Fragaboomff!

Nappa: Did something explode, Vegeta? ( Looks from behind the camera ) Vegetaaaaaa?

Vegeta: ( Under a huge mound of scattered cards ) Ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff....Fudge Pops!!! Gah when did we go PG??

French Narrator: Back to ze tree.~

Matt: ( He and the others covered in Shrieker feathers ) Didn't think that would happen....O_o

Mayreen: Ptooey! >3p ( Spitting out some feathers ) Bleh, no idea where that thing's been. >XC

Saya and Sheath: ( Yanking their weapons out of the Shrieker's nest ) There we go. ^-^

Rahbie: ( Using her magic to clean everyone off ) Alright, everyone's safe and uninjured?

Saya: Hmmmm I suppose there is one little, tiny detail I should share with since you allowed Sheath and myself to tag along this far. ^-^

Shift:....What did you do? F3

Sheath: Crazydoor of mad stuff. <:3 Desu me and Saya desu might have left open for things to very many much walk out?

Matt: You loosed a bunch of more of that unholy nonsense into the Alpha Ruins?? >3

Saya: In so many words, yes. ^-^

Mayreen and Azure: Why...? <:3

Saya:...Hmmmm call it curiosity. ^-^

Sheath: Definitely not cursed blood-orb thingy for Ouma. :3 Never that.

Matt: ....Saya...Sheath....come here. |3

Saya: I know that tone and no we will not. ^-^

Matt: Come here. |3 ( Walking toward them )

Sheath: Scary face. <:3

Mayreen: Oh dear. <:3

Rahbie: He's gonna give them an earful. <:3

French Narrator: 15 minutes later.~

Matt: Now you're gonna come with us, and fix this mess. Is that understood? >3

Saya: ( Rubbing her behind ) Ow...Oh dear...Mm yes, understood. ^-^;

Sheath: Owie....<:'3 ( Crying a little ) Okay will help desu.

Shift: Alright, lets bust up this nest and return the trinkets.

French Narrator: Later, back at ze boarding house.

???: I'm not crazy, you're crazy!! D8

Matt: ( Standing at the front porch of the boarding house ) The heck is this? <:3

Myffle: ( Pops up in the front of the scene ) More to come in the next episode! :3 Stuff happens, hilarity will ensue! Stay tuned!