#season 5 and 6 are catnip to me!!!!

[jim-bones-spock]

I want to write a big essay on community season 6 and how deeply meta it is and how Jeff and Abed, as usual, perfectly mirror each other.

Jeff is slowly realizing he’s truly in a tv show and freaking out about it because it’s season 6 and most of his original friends are gone and he’s stuck in the show (“Even Pierce got to die!” and “I’m gonna be the last one here!” “But Abed… Six seasons and a movie?”)

Abed is slowly detaching himself from the show, having accepted that change is sometimes a good thing and stepping into “real life” (leaving for university - “Jeff, I know it comforts you to see the world through that meta lense, but this is reality”)

How Frankie represents the studios wanting a less goofy show, transforming Greendale into a more respectable school (tv show) and slowly chipping away what made Community truly weird and only when they “save” Greendale is when they end the series because it’s not our Community anymore.

It’s Community, sure, but through season 6 they keep asking to tone down the bits and the bizarre stuff (shutting down paintball, because they’re just not that kind of school anymore). The Dean being treated like a baby (which he is. Babygirl Dean) and being removed from his position of authority meaning we are not in charge anymore. Frankie, beautiful, headstrong Frankie is, a new era has come.

And that’s okay. Almost everyone left. Britta, the Dean… Everyone is happy. People grow and change and that’s okay. After school ends, you don’t keep in touch with everyone. You lose track of people who saw you grow, saw you become a better person. It doesn’t change the fact that you’re still that good person.

You still drive your friends to the airport and hug your first friend you made almost seven years ago twice before you watch him leave for a better future.

Everybody moves on.

Even Pierce got to die.

[okay-j-hannah]

Part 5: Mieczyslaw

Teen Wolf : Multishot

Stiles Stilinski x Reader

Word Count: 13k

Warnings: series rewrite, season 1 {aka 2011}, slow burn, friends to lovers, Stiles pining, eventual NSFW, usual teen wolf levels of violence and gore, heart conditions, fainting

Request: This just came from my own head 😊  

A/N: A little more history of the Reader in this one - I honestly love her family's backstory

Part 4: Ollie's Catnip

Part 5: Mieczyslaw {You Are Here}

Part 6: Orange Cream and Peachy Sugar

The hospital was quiet that evening. You were assigned to the long-term care floor and spent long hours updating patient files and making your rounds. Checking vitals, refilling water bottles, adjusting patients with bed sores, and administering medication at the right times.

It was the perfect distraction. You would be missing the lacrosse game that night, missing the first game with Scott being co-captain and Stiles being first line.

You’d be missing Andrew and his dimpled grin.

Instead of focusing on that the rest of the night, you call Lydia who had texted you an SOS.

“What do you mean you’re done?”

“I mean, he sent me a pathetic text asking for his house key back. The loser is so down in the dumps that he doesn’t think he deserves me, which is right, of course.”

You hold the phone with your shoulder and start typing notes into a patient file, “I’m sorry, Lyds. Breakups suck.”

“He’s become such an asshole recently. I don’t know what’s gotten into him. But good riddance. I needed to climb the social food chain anyway. He’s been lacking in the lacrosse category.”

“Sounds like you’re handling it surprisingly well.”

“I’m completely over him. Only took a few minutes… seconds actually.”

You smile, “Yeah, you barely sound upset over it.”

She can hear your sarcasm, “Did you hear that Allison is still going to the game? Her dad and aunt are going too.”

“That’s weird,” you frown, “I wonder why.” With the Argents being hunters… you wonder how much they know about the number of werewolves in town.

“You’re still on shift tonight?”

“Yes, right where I want to be. The perfect excuse to miss the game.” You upload another patient file and wave to another night nurse leaving for her break. It was just you and one other nurse on the floor – a redhead named Jennifer.

“Anything exciting happening?” she asks in a huff, upset that the attention was no longer on her dilemma.

“Nope, I’m working the long-term floor. Everyone here is mostly in recovery or stuck in their beds. It’s usually pretty quiet at night, which is why there’s less staff.”

“Fascinating,” Lydia says quickly, “Anyway, I’ve got to go. I’m going to sit with Allison and scope out my next boyfriend.” She laughs before adding, “Don’t worry, Andrew is off the table.”

You scoff, “Yeah, thanks. Have fun.” And you slide your phone back into your scrubs pocket.

The next half hour was relatively quiet, just two call buttons going off. The rest of your time was spent making your rounds and completing chores. That is until a pair of sneakers comes walking down the hallway.

“Yeah, I said I can’t find her.”

You stand to confront the foreign male voice that was definitely intruding past visiting hours, only to find Stiles on the phone. He was getting snippy with whoever he was talking to, “Hey, listen here wolfman – the only reason I’m harboring your fugitive ass is because you saved (Y/N)’s life last full moon, got it? I don’t owe you any more favors.”

“What the hell?” you say, catching his attention, “Don’t you have a lacrosse game to get to, hotshot?”

In a few seconds you can see a range of emotions flickering through his face: confusion, happiness, worry, and something in the way he looks at your scrubs. “Hi, (Y/N).”

You walk around the nurses station and fold your arms, “Care to answer my question?”

He gives you a goofy side smile, “You’re talking to me.”

“Yes, Stiles,” you fight the immediate grin that wants to envelop your face. “What are you doing here?”

He leans into the phone for a second, “Uh… is there a Jennifer working here?”

“She’s the on call nurse tonight, why?” you pop a hip, arms still tightly crossed.

“What about Melissa?” he asks, walking down the hall and to a room. He speaks to the phone again, “Yeah, well, he’s not here either.”

“Who are you talking to?” you ask exasperatedly, “Stiles, you can’t be here past visiting hours. Would you please…”

“He’s not here. He’s gone, Derek.”

Your jaw drops, “The fugitive you’re harboring is Derek?”

He looks to you, “Yeah, the rest of the town doesn’t know he’s innocent because it’s actually a psycho Alpha werewolf that’s killing everyone,” he says to you. “You sure Melissa isn’t here?”

You hold your hands up, “I’m not answering anymore of your questions until you tell me what’s going on.”

Suddenly you can hear the frantic voice of Derek over the phone and Stiles has a look of instant terror. It sets you on edge when a mysterious man stands at the corner of the hall; it was as if he had appeared out of thin air.

Half his face is covered in burn scars and after a second thought you realize that it’s Peter Hale – the long-term resident of the floor. Your eyes widen at the sight of him standing without his wheelchair and Stiles takes a few steps in your direction.

“You must be Stiles,” Peter says in an eerily calm tone. He’s barely smiling as he nods in your direction, “Hello, (Y/N). It’s nice to finally be able to speak to you.”

Stiles drops his hand holding the phone, walking back until he feels you near him. He reaches behind him and takes hold of your arm. Your instinct is to press yourself closer into his back, “Is that…?”

“He’s the Alpha,” Stiles mutters, whipping his head to the side at the newcomer.

“Jennifer!” you say, “We have a situation with…”

The redheaded nurse holds her head high, “Shut up!”

Your mouth clamps shut – how many people are in on this? Stiles, in his usual fashion, can’t stay quiet for long.

“You and… him? You’re his… and he’s the…” Stiles is shielding you with his body at this point. “Oh my god, we’re gonna die. We’re gonna die.”

You jab a finger into his spine, silencing him. “This is not how I’m supposed to die.”

But with an elbow to the face, Jennifer falls to the floor and Derek takes her place. You forget momentarily how tall, dark, and handsome he is. Peter speaks again with that same calm, menacing tone.

“That’s not nice. She’s my nurse.”

You start to pull Stiles against you, taking you both behind the nurses station.

“She’s a psychotic bitch helping you kill people.”

Peter makes his way over, “You think I killed Laura on purpose? One of my own family?”

A growl ripples from Derek’s throat, fangs appearing from his open mouth. Blue eyes glowing with strange power, he bounds for the attack. You’re paralyzed at seeing the action up close.

“Holy shi…”

Stiles drags you to the floor, doggy-paddling across the tile like a swimmer. You army crawl beside him as Peter and Derek start to throw each other against the hospital walls. Bits of plaster and plastic side railing break away easily.

“Okay,” you say, coughing as you breathe in some plaster dust, “I believe you now. I really believe you.”

“Is that why you haven’t been talking to me or Scott?” Stiles yells over the growling werewolves. “Scott could have easily proven werewolves existed if you just asked him to show himself.”

They continue their sliding movements across the station and to the next hall, the sound of breaking glass loud behind you. “No, I stopped talking to you because I needed a break after hearing the truth. It’s a lot to think about when you realize the whole freaking town has lore in supernatural entities that aren’t just make believe… they’re actual fucking werewolves!” You swipe an arm across the tile and shove his legs out of the way to reach his side. “I needed time to cope with the sudden shift in what I knew to be reality.”

“Understandable,” he pants, tongue sticking out, “I just wish we could’ve helped you cope instead of you just shutting us out.”

“Like I said… I wasn’t really thinking!”

“And of course it was the same night as Scott forcing a kiss on you and trying to kill you in your own home…”

“Shut the hell up, Stilinski! Bigger problems at hand!” The werewolves were moving to a different patient room to continue their fight. You gesture to the end of the hall, “The emergency exit is there. We just have to get there and down the stairs. We can call 911 when we’re outside.”

Stiles agrees, watching you with a different panic, “How’s your heart?”

“If anything happens we’re in a hospital,” you say frankly, “Come on.” You lead the way as the fighting becomes quieter.

Stiles admires you from behind, standing to run the last few feet. You slam into the door and guide the way down the many flights of stairs. Stiles is jumping whole steps and crashing into the walls.

Your lungs start to fight for breath by the time you reach the bottom, Stiles tripping over the last step and falling to his knees beside you.

“Does… Does the Alpha have control…” you pant, holding a stitch in your side, “… over Derek?”

Stiles breathes dramatically, his face scrunching up in a funny way. “I wouldn’t be surprised. He might be forcing Derek onto his side right now with some crazy alpha mind control.”

You stumble toward the exit, shoving it open to a gust of chilly night air. You lean against the hospital wall, hands on your hips. Stiles follows, pulling out his car keys.

“Can you make it to the jeep?”

“If I say no would you carry me?”

He shrugs, pulling a face, “No promises. I could probably swing a piggy-back ride.”

“Yeah, no thanks,” you say, bending down to put your head between your knees. It was routine when you were out of breath and starting to feel lightheaded. Your hands lay flat on the concrete, your mind focusing on how cold and gritty it feels under your fingers. You listen to the crickets and the wind whistling through trees. You smell the honey sweet rain from Stiles.

A large warm hand spreads against your back, rubbing up and down your spine.

You feel the air flood your lungs, “Have you called the police yet?”

“I told them there was a possible break-in and a nurse got knocked out,” he says, “They’ll be here soon.”

You take a few deep breaths, soothed by Stiles’ hand. “I have to wait for the police.” You sit up and Stiles retreats a few feet. The action makes you consider him for a few seconds. “I’m not mad at you or Scott. I just… I needed some distance while I tried to figure things out.”

There’s a bob in Stiles’ throat, “And… have you figured things out?”

You screw up your lips in thought, “I need to talk to Scott first.”

Stiles nods vigorously, hope lighting his eyes. “Yeah, yeah – for sure. Let’s go find him now, I’m sure the lacrosse game is almost over.”

A flash of pity is in your face, “You missed your first game.”

“Yeah, well…” he waves a hand, extending it to help you to your feet. “I had a couple more important things to tackle tonight.”

“Won’t your dad be disappointed?”

“Maybe a little,” he shrugs, walking to the passenger side of the jeep, “But if the pinkeye epidemic continues then I’m still first line for the time being!”

You giggle, sliding into the jeep, “I’ll pray for the conjunctivitis.” With the heater still broken, you’re grateful you chose a long-sleeve undershirt for your scrubs. It took a few minutes for you to call your boss and explain the situation.

The police were on their way, and you were meant to stay to give a witness statement. It would also have been irresponsible to leave your patients in their time of need. Choosing to wait in the jeep was just common sense seeing as there were two werewolves having a row upstairs.

“Do you think Derek is okay?” you look out the window.

Stiles was drumming his fingers against the steering wheel, “He’s fine. Peter will probably try to get him under his control.”

“Then what?”

“He’ll keep trying to get Scott into his pack.” Stiles leans more against the door to get a better look at you. “So we have some catching up to do.”

“Like what?” you smile.

He frowns, picking at his fingers, “I don’t know… like how Jackson broke up with Lydia.”

“Yeah,” you grimace, “Lydia only just told me about the breakup tonight.”

Stiles blows air between his lips, “Jackson always has another agenda. He’s been black mailing Scott because he wants the werewolf bite.”

“You’re kidding,” you say, “How did he find out about the supernatural?”

“I don’t know! He hasn’t been talking to anyone, not even Danny.”

You lean against the door to match Stiles’ stance, “Well, I know Lydia has said he’s never been the same since Scott outperformed him. He’s been slipping ever since.” You rub at your eyes, “He doesn’t talk to me much, and now it’s awkward between him and Lydia.”

“There’s also the news that the Argents know about a second beta werewolf.” At your look of confusion, he continues, “They know there’s an alpha and they know about Derek. They’ve realized that there’s a second werewolf and they’re trying to figure out who it is.”

“They being Allison’s dad and aunt?”

Stiles nods, “They have been scouting ever since – they think it might be a teenager.”

Your head perks up, “Lydia said Allison’s family was going to be at the game tonight. I bet they’re looking for clues as to who could be the other werewolf.”

“Let’s just hope they don’t suspect Scott.”

Stiles continues to pick at his nails, looking at them instead of you. “I’ve also heard that you might be going on a date with a certain potential lacrosse boyfriend…?”

You fight a smile, “Andrew asked me out.”

“And you said?”

“Yes!” you laugh, “I’ve been waiting for him to ask since I started working with Coach on the lacrosse field.” You miss the bitterness in Stiles’ face; he was trying to hide it with his downcast gaze.

A police siren could be heard down the highway. Stiles clears his throat, “Is he going to ask you to the winter formal?”

“I don’t know,” you shrug, tickled at the thought, “But that’s still a couple weeks away.”

“Do you want him to?” Stiles finally looks at you, straining to keep the hurt he feels at bay. The tightness of his chest was smothered by the boiling jealousy in his stomach. He hates the way you sound doting on Andrew. And he hates himself for being jealous over something he shouldn’t be mad about.

You made your choice and Andrew is a good guy.

“I’m not sure. He doesn’t know about my heart and a formal dance would be prime time for it to give out.” You take a deep breath, “I’d rather not spoil an evening like that.”

Stiles nods and considers you, “I guess you just need to go with someone that knows how to calm you. That way you don’t need to worry.”

It was suddenly tense for a few seconds while the police cars come closer to the hospital. You put a hand on the door handle and say, “You should probably get out of here so your dad doesn’t overhear why you might not be at the game. Police radios, you know…”

“Right,” Stiles says, “Let me know if anything comes up. I’m going to find Scott and tell him about our newly identified alpha.”

~~~

The next few days felt a little less hostile as the friend group settles into a new norm. Jackson is still moseying up to Allison, who is still apologizing on behalf of Scott for the impromptu kissing. You console her in that Scott wasn’t himself that day.

Allison was also venturing into new hobbies to keep her mind off things. She had taken to practicing archery in the woods, sometimes taking you or Lydia with her.

Jackson was talking in angry whispers to Scott and Stiles more often. You know it has something to do with seeking the werewolf curse.

As for yourself, you were working on your science project implanting E.coli in varying meats and cooking them, swabbing each as you go and putting samples in petri dishes. They were currently incubating in the chemistry lab while you walk down the hall with Andrew.

“I’m sorry I missed it,” you say, eyeing the way Andrew held your books for you.

“Hey, now we’re going to state,” he says, “You can come to that game.”

You smile, almost to English, “I’ll bring my pom-poms and megaphone.”

Andrew laughs, handing back your books for class, “I won’t say no to a little cheerleading outfit.” He winks at you and a warm blush envelops both your faces.

“I’ll see you later,” you say.

Walking into class you’re quick to notice Scott and Stiles staring at you (Stiles with a little more of a frown). You choose to sit in front of Scott, taking any opportunity for Allison to be near him.

“(Y/N)…” he starts with hesitance, “Stiles told me you’re talking again.”

You don’t turn around at first, “And?”

He leans forward across the desk, and you can hear his whisper over your shoulder. “I’ve been trying to think of a way to apologize to you this last week and… nothing seems good enough. After you avoided me and everything, I thought I lost my chance.” He sighs and you can feel it in your hair. “(Y/N), I am so so sorry. I’m sorry for attacking you – I’m sorry for forcing a kiss on you – I’m sorry for scaring you – and I’m sorry for trying to kill you.”

Very slowly you pivot in your chair to look at him.

Those puppy-dog eyes were back full force. Those were Scott’s eyes – not the dark, menacing look they had on the full moon. You knew the difference was night and day. The real Scott McCall would never do those things if he was in full control.

“I feel terrible,” he continues, afraid at your persistent silence. “I’m an awful friend and I should have told you the truth sooner. Maybe you would have been more prepared for the full moon like Stiles.”

You blink, “Have you apologized to Allison?”

“Well, I tried…” he scratches at his shaggy head, adding to his puppy-dog look. “She was shooting arrows in the forest with Lydia yesterday… and I needed to return a necklace of hers.”

“You mean you were stalking her?”

“The details are a little foggy,” he says quickly, “I might’ve scared her and she tazed me.”

Stiles snorts from beside Scott and you have to stop yourself from losing your composure. “She’s picked up a few things since breaking up with you.”

“I noticed,” he says lowly. “Anyway, I tried to apologize, and I think it got to her a little. She’s still mad, but I think she might forgive me eventually.”

“I told you,” you say with a slight smile. It gives Scott hope.

“And what about you?” his dark brown eyes are wide with anxiety.

You share a look with Stiles, who shrugs. “I forgive you.”

Scott sighs, his head falling into his arms on the desk. “Thank god. I promise, (Y/N), I didn’t mean to do any of those things. The full moon had me wired and it was like something else was controlling my body.”

“It’s okay, Scott. I did a lot of thinking while taking a break.” You look between Scott and Stiles as the tardy bell rings. “And I don’t think I can be involved with all this werewolf stuff.”

Stiles is nearly out of his chair with how he reacts. “What do you mean?” his desk squeaks terribly against the tile floor.

“I mean, I’d like to still be friends with you guys…”

An awful needle like puncture was screwing its way through Stiles’ chest. Friends.

“… but I don’t really want to be included in any werewolf business or late night investigations or almost being killed – which has happened to me about three times now since starting school.”

“Werewolf business is a very regular part of my life,” Scott says with a disbelieving laugh.

You nod, “I get it, I just mean I’d love to hang out or go to a party sometime, but I can’t be involved with anything else related to the alpha situation.”

Stiles was having trouble swallowing as Scott continues, “Like it or not, (Y/N) – you’re kind of a part of my pack. The pack that the Alpha wants me to get rid of.”

“Then… I’m resigning from the pack,” you shrug half-heartedly.

Stiles’ jaw nearly hits the floor as the teacher snaps at the three of you for talking. There is about three minutes of quiet as the teacher explains the upcoming book report that you’ve already finished on Sense and Sensibility.

After that you receive a group text from both Scott and Stiles.

Stiles: You’re just unfriending the pack?!

(Y/N): Can’t I do that and still be friendly?

Stiles: No

Scott: Of course you can. We just don’t get why

You raise your hand and share what stance you took on the book report requirements. You wrote an analytical piece on the personalities of two sisters: Elenor being all sense and Marianne being all sensibility.

The teacher looks pleased and asks for more volunteers. You’re now covered to keep texting.

(Y/N): Tell you later

Scott: Ok

Stiles: Tell us now

You tuck your phone away and feel it buzz with a few more messages before going quiet. You don’t mean for it to be such a shock. You just knew that the more stress you had the more likely you’d have a fainting episode with your heart condition. That would lead to more heart damage and an end that you want to prolong as much as possible.

Being surrounded by high stress werewolf situations was going to be the death of you.

You are quick to leave the classroom at the bell and the boys weren’t far behind.

“Hey,” Stiles grabs your shoulder, slowing you down. “Explain.”

Scott holds his backpack straps, awkward but less demanding on hearing your explanation.

“It’s not a good idea for me to be around a lot of stress,” you sigh, “You know… because of my heart.”

Both boys purse their lips and share a look. Scott is quiet when he asks, “Because you have a tachee-heart?”

You and Stiles both say, “Tachycardia?” You laugh and continue, “Yes. My heartbeat is already irregular and if I do anything to add to it… it’s bad news bears.”

“Care to expand on what these bad news bears are?” Stiles asks irritably.

“That’s a talk for another day,” you say quickly, leading the way to your next class. “Just know that the more my heart struggles the worse off I’ll be.”

“But we can help you,” Stiles says, pressing into your shoulder as you all walk down the hallway. “We can calm you down if that happens.” I can calm you down.

You sigh, “Not always. It can be random and persistent.” You stop outside the door of your next class. “This isn’t me saying we can’t be friends, just… I want to avoid any werewolfy scenarios that might involve near death and/or general terror.”

You leave Scott and Stiles to contemplate out in the hallway. Shoulders sagging, Scott groans, “This werewolf thing is ruining my life.”

“Yeah, and mine.” Stiles broods at the classroom door, taking a second to realize what he said and turning to the mild anger on Scott’s face. “What? I’m the best friend – I am legally bound to whatever misery you experience.”

“All the new friends I’ve made are literally being pushed away because of this curse,” Scott rubs hard at his face, “And it’s ruined my love life, not to mention my lifespan. Hunters are basically knocking down my front door!”

“Yeah, it’s really putting a damper on my love life too.” Stiles mumbles to himself, “I really thought I had a shot with her.”

Scott shoves his friend, “Even after all her talk about Andrew?”

Stiles scowls, “That’s just a silly crush.”

“And what she feels for you is… what exactly?”

“Hidden feelings that I will unlock one day for her to realize that I am the perfect guy for her…” he licks his lips, wincing, “… despite the clumsiness, sarcasm, and general idiocy.”

Scott laughs, “Yeah, she’s really missing out.”

“Hey!” he rams into Scott as they walk towards their next class. “I really like her, Scott. Like… I like her, like her.”

“I know, Loverboy.”

“She’s all I can think about, and I know I’m just a pathetic friend of hers, but I’m hopeless, Scott! Completely hopeless.”

Scott gives him a look, “Are you sure you’re not stalking her?”

“In a broad sense of the term,” Stiles shrugs, “I’ve never felt this comfortable around a girl before. I’ve never felt this way about any girl.”

“You’ve got it bad,” Scott sighs, “I know the feeling well.”

~~~

You walk through the aisles of computers to sit near the back beside a hunched figure. He keeps his head down even as you watch his eyes dart to see who you are. If anything it makes him more shy, his shoulders drawing in as if he were trying to make himself as small as possible.

You sling your backpack onto the ground and ignore the random text Stiles sent you about the history of the male circumcision. He was always sending you the most out-of-pocket things.

“Hey,” you smile at the quiet boy, “My name’s (Y/N)…” He turns his head a little more and you instantly recognize him as one of the benchwarmers on the lacrosse team, “… and you’re Isaac, right?”

His blue eyes seem to warm at your recognition, “Yeah, Isaac Lahey,” he clears his throat, “I uh…”

“You play lacrosse!” your smile widens, “I didn’t realize we had computer science together.”

“Play is a strong word,” he says with a hint of a smile. “I sort of keep to myself.”

You lean on your elbow, considering him as he fidgets under your gaze. “I think the last time we talked was when I was passing out permission slips for that spring retreat Coach was talking about.”

Isaac nods his head, still bowing like he was trying to hide behind his computer screen. “I don’t talk much.”

“You didn’t bring back your permission slip if I remember correctly.”

“No,” he clears his throat again, finding it hard to swallow. “My dad needs me to stay home.”

“Even for just a weekend?” your brows knit.

He licks his lips, “He needs help at work and… I’m the only one around to do it.”

“Shame,” you mutter, “I’d like to have seen you there. Maybe we could’ve roasted marshmallows together and tossed Coach’s whistle in the lake.”

His lips upturn a little more, “You’re going on the retreat?”

“I don’t think the Coach can survive without me,” you stifle a laugh, “Besides I’m the only one who knows anything about the retreat. He probably couldn’t drive a single one of you up there.” You nudge your arm into his, “You should ask your dad again, see if he’ll change his mind.”

Isaac has an emotion you can’t gauge flash across his eyes. “Maybe.” He nods and hides that smile you’re trying to pull out of him. “I wouldn’t mind messing with Coach, though.”

“We could hide his energy drinks or put dye in his toothpaste,” you muse, “Make his teeth blue for a day.”

“Or we could put a squirrel in his cabin,” Isaac says with a little more enthusiasm, “Or maybe we could hide his shaving kit and see what kind of beard he can grow.”

You snort, “I bet it’s as white as an old mans.”

“It’s because all us kids give him gray hairs,” Isaac laughs, smiling wide.

You laugh along, suddenly struck with his change of demeanor. “You have a great smile, Isaac,” you say, “It looks good on you.”

A rush of red fills his cheeks, unable to stop smiling now. He isn’t hunched behind his computer anymore, “Thank you.”

The teacher was about ready to throttle you two for giggling over her talking. You nudge Isaac again with your arm, putting a finger to your lips.

~~~

The next day you’re being dropped off at the Argent residence for a ‘family dinner.’ Allison has been complaining about how often her dad talks about meeting you. It was odd not having met them – almost every parent in town knew who you were.

That was the consequence of a small town with two working parents in the emergency fields. Most adults knew that they had to leave at the drop of a dime if your heart was ever in trouble.

Hence the anxiety making your fingers pull on your sleeves.

“(Y/N)!” Allison greets, pulling you into a hug, “I’m so sorry for this,” she whispers.

You whisper back, “Don’t be.” But a flash of fear crosses your face when the door widens to reveal a blue-eyed, middle-aged man. “Mr. Argent?”

“(Y/N),” he extends a hand, eyes never blinking as he probes you, “We finally meet.” He shakes your hand firmly, “My wife and daughter have only had good things to say.”

And my friends have told me about your penchant for shooting arrows at teenage boys. “Nice to meet you.” You follow the family inside and to the dining room. “I hope you don’t mind…”

In your free hand was a small container of peanut butter brownies you had made earlier that day. Chris Argent looks pleased when he inspects the contents, “How wonderful – you didn’t have to.”

“I know,” you say, handing the dessert to Allison to plate. The Argents were able to provide for themselves, plus extra.

Living on the other side of town, the Argent residence was much more lavish than what you were used to. It created a very unfortunate divide between the teenagers. An invisible line that was rarely mentioned, but nonetheless present.

Over in these neighborhoods, Lydia, Allison, and Jackson lived with rich crown moldings, nice cars, high ceilings, and antique furniture. More in the valley, you, Stiles, and Scott lived in modest homes with hand-me-down items and a small growing pile of bills.

With one check you bet the Argents could take away your family’s medical debt.

“Your home is lovely as always,” you say, admiring the chandelier in the dining room. “And dinner smells amazing.”

“Not my doing,” a dirty blonde says with a crisp laugh. A near forced laugh as her less piercing blue eyes meet yours. She assesses you with something a little colder than Chris. “Hello, I’m Kate, and I have no talent for cooking.”

You give a wave across the table, instantly wary of her. Allison pops up beside you, “That’s my aunt I told you about.” She looks to Kate as she sits, “(Y/N) is an amazing cook.”

Kate nods, still scrutinizing you with her gaze. “What else are you good at, (Y/N)?”

“Reading,” you say instantly, sharing a laugh with Allison. “I keep to myself mostly.”

With the table set, the Argent family sits to enjoy the meal. Victoria Argent, whom you’ve met the few times you’ve been out with Allison, sat with her husband.

“So, (Y/N), tell us a little more about yourself,” Chris says, spearing asparagus with his fork. “You’re close with our daughter but we know almost nothing about you.”

You try to swallow your roast chicken quickly as Allison scolds her father. “I told you not to interrogate her,” she leans closer to you, “He doesn’t really have a ‘pleasant conversation’ option in his vernacular.”

“It’s alright,” you say with a wave, grabbing a nice cloth napkin to dab at your mouth. “My parents like to know who I’m friends with too.”

“You know Scott and Jackson, correct?” Kate digs into her chicken with a knife.

“Yes, we’re all friends. I also am a teacher assistant for Coach Finstock, so I see them at lacrosse a lot.”

Chris considers you, “But you weren’t at the last lacrosse game?”

“No, I work at the hospital as a medical assistant and I picked up a shift that night,” you take a sip of your water. How much information was too much information to give?

Kate tilts her head in your direction, “Wasn’t there a break-in at the hospital that night?”

You nod slowly, “Yeah, someone got into an altercation past visiting hours. I don’t know who but when I went to investigate the noise, there was a lot of broken glass and cracks in the walls. Thank goodness none of the patients were harmed.”

Chris takes his time cutting his meal into pieces, “That sounds terrible. What did you do?”

“I called the police, checked on my residents, and ran outside to meet the cops.” You take a small bite of food, “They didn’t find anything besides the damage.”

“Cameras?” Kate questions.

You shake your head, “My co-workers said that they had been damaged as well. Wiped clean or lost… I don’t know exactly.”

Chris seems satisfied for the time being, “Well, I’m glad you got out safely, whatever it was.”

Kate, on the other hand, seems to perk with interest, “I hear you’ve had a run-in with danger a couple times this year.” At your look of confusion, she nods toward your collar. “The attack on the video store, I mean.” She barely moves a centimeter as she stares you down, “Allison told me you had gotten clawed pretty bad.”

You spot the wince in Allison’s brow. “I did get attacked that night,” you wipe at your mouth again. “It was pretty bad for a while, infected and everything. But I’m okay now.”

Kate was persistent, “Must have left a pretty gnarly scar.” Her eyebrows lift as if expecting you to reveal your shoulder. She was scolded by her niece.

“It’s still a little pink, but that’ll go away with time,” you say as nonchalantly as possible. “I’d say it makes me look a little cooler than I am.” You shift the collar of your shirt an inch to reveal the tail end of three massive claw marks, another curling around your arm. It was your turn to gauge the reaction of the Argents.

Chris and Kate share a look and you clear your throat in response. Are you making yourself a possible werewolf suspect?

“And what do you guys do for work?” you say, steering the conversation off yourself. “Allison says that you’re a weapons dealer?”

Chris pours himself more water, “That’s right. We have quite the collection if you’re interested.”

You shake your head quickly, “I’m not really built for that. I enjoy my books and my lazy cat sleeping in my lap as I read.”

He nods, hopefully in a sign of respect. “That’s why Kate is here. She deals in weaponry as well – a very skilled hunter.”

She raises her glass, “The art of the kill. I needed my brother’s expertise on a few pieces for my latest hunt.”

“What do you hunt?” you say innocently.

“Big game predators,” she says, cold eyes locked on you. “Cougars, bears, wolves.”

You almost smirk. These people are hiding in plain sight.

“My mom is a buyer for a store in San Fransico,” Allison steers the conversation even more. “Right, mom?”

Victoria, already done with her meal and leaning back in her chair, replies, “Yes, it’s a charming little boutique. I also teach math at a boarding school for boys on the side.”

You nod, “Why math?”

“Strategy,” she says flatly. “Equations and probabilities. I enjoy the art of stratagem.”

That was slightly off putting as well. Did these people know how to be subtle? How had Allison gone this long without knowing her family history?

“And your parents are…?” Victoria continues.

You smile, “My mom works behind the desk at the police station – taking and directing calls. My dad works at the firehouse.”

“You must hear everything that goes on around here,” Chris smirks.

“Only when I ask,” you say, “And that’s considering nothing wild has happened in Beacon Hills for years…”

Kate leans back in her chair as well, crossing her arms in contemplation. “Have you lived here your whole life?”

“Yes,” you say, pushing your plate away, “Almost since birth.”

“Where did you live before?” Chris asks.

He might be intimidating, but you enjoy talking to him much more than Kate. “My parents lived in Palo Alto when I was born. We had a nice house and my mom worked security at Stanford University. My dad actually met her at the San Francisco Bay. He was a lifeguard before he was a firefighter, and he watched the swimmers at Keller Beach and Berkeley Marina.” You smile a sweet smile, “She kept coming back to those places to see him… even pretended to drown once for a kiss.”

“Must be a fan of The Sandlot,” Allison snickers, enjoying hearing you talk more than her family.

 “So why make the move to Beacon Hills?” Kate asks, arms still tightly wound.

Your smile falls a little, “I was born with a congenital heart defect. The medical bills and surgeries became too much… and we had to downgrade.”

Allison puts a hand on your leg beneath the table. Chris sends a piercing look to his sister and mutters, “I’m sorry, (Y/N) – I didn’t know you were sick.”

“Still am,” you say with mock cheerfulness, holding your water glass with two hands to give yourself something to focus on. “Heart problems are persistent. We try to keep it as discreet as possible.”

He nods, looking at you with a different air of likeness. “It sounds like you have a wonderful family.”

“I do,” you say fast, “Thank you.”

They move on to the brownies you brought as a means to change the subject. Victoria hums her appreciation, “These are delicious, did you put caramel in here too?”

“Caramel is one of the greatest inventions of all time and deserves to be incorporated into as many sweets as possible,” you laugh, “Of course I put caramel in them.”

The table laughs as you eat, feeling a little stripped bare after revealing so much about yourself. As Allison said, it did feel more like an interrogation rather than a pleasant family meal. You were quick to text the boys as you leave the residence.

“My place in ten minutes. I have an Argent update.” You smile as you add, “… and leftover brownies.”

Allison was kind enough to drive you home, apologizing the entire way. “My dad wasn’t as brazen as usual, but my aunt Kate?” she rolls her eyes, “I can’t believe how much she was grilling you.”

“You have a protective family,” you shrug, “So do I.”

“Your parents have a good reason to be extra protective of you,” she retorts, “My family is just nosy and suspicious and… I don’t know, my aunt and dad have been a little tense with each other this visit. They usually get along so well.”

“How much longer is your aunt staying here?” you ask, holding your container of leftover brownies.

Allison knits her brow in thought, “I’m not sure. She says she’s getting ready for another big hunt and just needs supplies and my dad’s advice. But I don’t know… sometimes I feel like she isn’t telling me everything.”

You thank Allison for the ride and the invitation to dinner. You promise to give her an update on your date with Andrew that weekend, and she drives off. Entering your house was a breath of fresh air.

Oliver trots to your side, his furry underbelly swaying side to side before you scoop him up and kiss his head. He purrs instantly.

“How was dinner?” your mom asks, sitting at the dining table with little potted plants in front of her. She was trying to grow herbs from seeds and the lavender was not doing so well.

“It was fine,” you kick off your shoes, “Her family is a little interrogative.”

Tom walks in with his usual cola, no doubt with a few ounces of whiskey poured in. “I knew they were a little tense, especially after that Chris guy shot the mountain lion at parent teacher conferences.”

You scratch under Ollie’s chin, “It was still nice, but I would watch out for that Kate Argent. She scares me a little.” You sit at the table and watch your mom preen the little sprouts of eucalyptus and rosemary. “Oh, I also invited Scott and Stiles over, if that’s okay.”

Tom folds his arms, making them look massive beneath his firehouse flannel. “I thought you liked that Andrew guy.”

“I can like a guy and be friends with other guys, dad,” you snicker, “I’m just going to take my medicine real quick, will you send them up when they get here?”

Your mom waves you off, adding some water to her seedlings, “Leave me one of those brownies, would you?”

A minute later, and having taken all your prescription meds, there’s a howling laugh coming from downstairs. You move to the foot of the stairs to see Stiles beaming and your dad wiping his eyes.

“Hey, sweetheart,” Tom says, “Stilinski here was just telling me about a police fiasco with a red tricycle and a klepto.”

You look puzzled as Stiles scratches at the back of his head, “Yeah, I might’ve stolen some already stolen items from evidence when I was a kid. I was the prime suspect for about three days with all the stuff in my possession.”

“And at five years old,” your dad laughs, downing his drink.

“I really wanted the tricycle!” Stiles retorts, “It was my first bike.”

Tom shakes his head, “Learning to pedal on stolen property.”

Scott pulls on his friend, “It was nice talking to you guys.”

“Of course, sweetie,” your mom says, “Now not too late, you still have school tomorrow.”

Walking up the stairs (Stiles tripping over at least two of the steps) you lead the boys into your room, Oliver already on your bed.

“Hey, buddy…” Stiles gets on his knees and crawls to the edge of the bed, “How’s the fuzz ball?”

Ollie perks his ears and blinks slowly at Stiles, bowing his head for a pet. Though upon Scott’s arrival, the cat sets his ears back and hisses.

“What the…” you mutter, watching your cat growl low in his throat and dart to leave the bedroom. “He’s never acted like that before.”

Scott looks guilty, “Well, I am part dog and… I did break into your house as a werewolf not too long ago.”

Your lips make a thin line, “Right. Cats and dogs don’t always get along.” You walk to your bed, flicking at Stiles’ head as you sit down, “Do you guys want a brownie? They’re leftover from my dinner with the Argents.”

Stiles’ greedy fingers dive for the plastic container while Scott shoves his hands in his pockets. “You had dinner at their house?”

You relay some of the conversation you had. The mysterious penchant for weapons and hunting big game predators. The interrogative questions on the hospital break-in and your involvement with Scott and Jackson. The request to see the claw marks on your shoulder.

“Do they think you might be the second beta too?” Scott asks with a tense line between his eyebrows. Stiles was too busy eating his third brownie.

“Maybe… do they think a scratch could turn you?”

“That’s what Derek said,” Scott swallows hard, “He told us a deep enough alpha scratch might give you the curse. The Argents might have the same theory.” He smacks his forehead, “Which is why they’re suspicious of Jackson. He has those claw marks in his neck from Derek.”

You frown, “And they don’t know they’re from Derek and not the Alpha.”

“But they do know your scars are from the Alpha,” Scott mutters worriedly, “I wouldn’t be surprised if they do a follow-up on you.”

“But after I told them about my heart condition, they seemed to back off. At least Chris did.”

You relay the conversation that you had about your parents meeting in Palo Alto and the move to Beacon Hills because of your heart. You remember the likeness Chris Argent had in his voice as he expressed his apologies for your sickness.

“If you’re sick then you couldn’t have the curse,” Scott mumbles, picking at his chin. “Werewolves heal really fast unless the wound is supernatural too.”

Stiles is licking his fingers when he suddenly blurts, “Do you think if you were a werewolf your heart would be cured?”

You shrug, finding the amount of brownie left on Stiles’ face amusing. “I don’t really want to find out. Anyway, I knew you guys would probably want to know.”

“Still not keen on all this werewolf business?” Stiles asks.

“I’m just trying to protect myself.” You sit on the bed, Stiles on the ground and leaning against the mattress. He’s looking up at you with his brown eyes, fizzing with warmth like cola and whiskey. “It’s not that I don’t want to investigate with you guys. I just worry what it’ll do to my heart.”

You laugh and point at your own face, “You’ve got chocolate all over your mouth.”

Stiles is quick to rub his mouth across his shirt sleeves, “Those brownies were just too damn good.” There was still a smudge at the corner of his lips.

“Maybe if you swallowed between bites…” you move your fingers to his face, lifting his chin to look up at you. He’s frozen as you move your thumb to the corner of his mouth and wipe down and under his bottom lip.

Eyes wide and imploring as they look up at you. He’s all sweet innocence and deeply adoring as you touch his mouth. The brown of his eyes was melting into the sticky sweet sap color, like warm honey in the sunlight.

You pull your hand away and suck the chocolate off the pad of your thumb, “… but thank you for the compliment. I’m not as much of a baker.”

Scott was trying to keep a smile off his face as his hand hovered near his crinkled nose. He was smelling something that was flying off Stiles like a firework set aflame. The poor boy was squirming in his spot on the ground, crossing his legs and keeping his hands over his lap.

“How was Allison?” Scott changes the subject.

You look up, now ignoring the sappy eyes gazing from below. “She was fine – maybe a little embarrassed about her family. It was strange knowing the motive behind her family’s questions but seeing none of it register with her.”

“I have a feeling she’ll find out soon enough.”

“Me too,” you stand, “For now she’s releasing a lot of her stress through archery and training with her aunt.”

Scott shivers, “Scary.”

You nod, walking to the door and hearing Stiles scramble to his feet. “I’ll see you guys at school tomorrow?”

Getting into the jeep was uncomfortable, Stiles pulling at his jeans. Scott was laughing at him before too long, “Dude, you should have seen your face. You really are hopeless.”

Stiles groans, slamming his forehead into the steering wheel, “She touched me and every thought just flew out of my head.”

“I could smell it off you,” Scott grimaces, “Just awful lovey-dovey sex hormones, even without the full moon I could smell it.”

Stiles sat straight, making the jeep wiggle side to side. He had a ruddy red mark on his forehead. “Did you smell anything from (Y/N)?”

Scott clamps his mouth shut before shaking his head. “I could hear her uneven heartbeat, but that’s nothing new.”

In a dramatic turn of events, Stiles slumps in his seat and puts the car in drive. “I need to figure out a way to tell her.”

“Tell her your feelings?” Scott gaps, “What about the possibility of utterly crushing humiliation? Not to mention ruining what friendships we still have.”

“Thanks for adding to the anxiety, Scott,” he grumbles, “I just… I can’t help thinking about how I am with her. I have never been able to just talk about my mom to anyone… but with her it’s easy. I’ve never brought a girl over to my house before… but with (Y/N) it was a no brainer. I’ve never been so equally terrified and comfortable with a girl. And with her heart…”

“You’re like an anchor for her,” Scott says quietly, all teasing aside. “You can calm her.”

Stiles puts one hand over his cropped hair, “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell her.”

“You know the difference between you and Andrew Wickstrom, Stiles?”

He snorts, “He’s maybe four inches taller than me, has perfect curly hair, and is way better at lacrosse than I am.”

“He asked (Y/N) out,” Scott says, “You just need to ask her out.”

~~~

Friday night was all excitement and butterflies as you walk around a strip mall with Andrew. The white fairy lights turn on when the sun sets, and you’re left walking on cobblestones and eating ice cream.

You were laughing at the ridiculous training regime that Coach was making the boys do in preparation for the state game.

“What is the benefit of running laps to the classroom and out to the field?”

“Coach makes us carry his stuff too and from his office,” Andrew mocks, “He makes it sound like an exercise, but really he just wants us to fetch his granola bars and energy drinks.”

You laugh again, “That sounds about right. How do you feel about the game?”

“Since switching to goalie it’s been hard figuring the plays out. But I think I’ve got the hang of it now.” He offers to throw away your empty ice cream cup and spoon.

The night so far had entailed a dinner at a little café outside the mall before looking in some of the stores for new summertime clothes. Andrew bought an outfit for you, shorts with little revealing tears in them and a strappy top that shows your scars way more than you’re used to.

You love that Andrew doesn’t question you about them.

Next was a stop at an ice cream parlor, taste testing different flavors before picking your favorites. The pair of you now walking around as the moon comes out, the trees adorned with white fairy lights.

You were walking so close to each other that you kept bumping arms. “Next time I want to show you my favorite antique shop downtown. It has some of the coolest things from every time period, and it’s connected to an old bookshop – one of the ones with tall ladders and a second floor just like in…”

“There’s going to be a next time?” Andrew says, sounding a little giddy. He was looking at you with pink dusting his cheeks.

You blush, “Is that alright?”

In reply, Andrew locks your fingers between his. “Very alright.” You stroll down the next street of cool fairy light, squeezing each other’s hands. “What were you saying about the old bookstore before I rudely interrupted you?”

You brush hair behind your ears, “Oh, just that it reminds me of the old bookstore from Beauty and the Beast… the one from her town.”

“You’re a fan of Disney?”

“Always,” you laugh, “With movies like The Princess and the Frog and The Emperor’s New Groove… how could you not be?”

Andrew snickers, “It’s because of Naveen, isn’t it?”

“Ah, Prince Naveen,” you groan, “You got me there.”

“Got to be honest though… Treasure Planet might be the best one yet.”

You pull on his arm, “I haven’t watched that in ages!”

Andrew side eyes you as his dimples come out, “So old antique shop and then movie night?”

You’re giddy at the thought of another date, “Sounds perfect.” You wander the streets just talking and laughing for another half hour before he offers to drive you home.

He holds your hand atop your lap the whole way.

Walking to your door, porchlight on as your parents wait for your return, you thank Andrew for a lovely evening.

“It’s nice after all the chaos the town’s been in the last month.”

He nods, “I had a really nice time with you, (Y/N).” He hands you the shopping bag with your new summer outfit, “I’ll text you a time for the next one.”

You smile wide as he takes a step closer, “I had fun too.” He was leaning down to your height, your chin rising to meet him.

In a quick mind-boggling moment, Andrew presses his lips to yours. He pulls away just an inch to see your reaction before moving further.

At your slight smile he leans in for more, kissing you more firmly and cupping your cheek. A sudden warmth blooms up your chest and into your face – and a beeping comes from your watch.

You break away suddenly, “God, sorry…” you cover the watch face with your hand. “Parents are waiting.”

Andrew licks his lips, all smiles as he says goodbye, “I’ll see you on Monday.”

You slip inside and find your mom pruning a more successful chamomile plant at the dining table, no doubt planning to make tea with it. “Hello, honey…” she smirks, “Had a nice time?”

Checking your watch, you take a deep breath, your chest tight from something a little more than your racing heart. “The best.”

You had no idea that Stiles was burrowed beneath his blankets in bed, his phone lighting up his face is somber blue light. He watches the alert of your heart rate die down and knows in his gut that you probably had an exciting goodnight kiss on your date.

It sticks him with an ache he can’t shake for the rest of the night.

~~~

The weekend came with an invitation from Stiles in the most untoward manner. You were working on term projects for history and math when there was a sharp rapping on the window. Turning around you see Stiles waving on the roof.

Already smiling, you go to unlock the window and help him open it, “What are you doing here?”

“I came to ask you something.”

“And your phone is…?”

He shrugs, “More of a boring gesture than this.”

“And not coming to the door…?”

He screws his face up in a comical expression, “Again, this is a more interesting entrance.” And with a graceful slip of the hand, he falls forward through the window and crashes to the ground, “Ow!”

You grimace, hearing the floorboards squeak in the hall, “Shit, Stiles my parents will kill me if they knew you were sneaking up our roof!” In a frantic waving of your hands you shove him under your bed.

He does his now famous doggy-paddling across the hardwood floor.

“(Y/N), sweetie?” your mom calls as she enters your bedroom, “Oh – what was that noise? I thought you must’ve fainted and fell.”

You put your hands behind your back, looking around and finding Ollie still snoozing on the history textbook on your desk. He was so unbothered and not at all helpful. “Um… I dropped my math workbook,” you say quickly, “It’s pretty thick.”

Your mom looks to your hands to see the workbook and raises her eyebrows in question.

Choking on your words you look around and find the evidence on your bed covers, “See! I just picked it up when you walked in.”

Angela shakes her head, “Studying must be getting to you. Maybe you should take a break.”

You nod vigorously and thank your mother, closing your door and finding Stiles already trying to pull himself out from under your bed. His tongue was sticking out as he struggles.

“That was close,” you laugh, sitting on the floor with him, “Who knew you’d be such mischief.”

Stiles snaps his eyes to yours and flounders in his words, “I… you – did you…”

Your knees are inches away as you give him a quizzical look, “What?”

“My m-, my mom used to call me mischief.” His voice was quiet and wondering as he says it. He looks at you with a kind of awe; a freckle of sadness making his eyes glassy.

You suddenly feel warm, maybe from embarrassment – maybe from empathy. You couldn’t imagine a life without your mother. “A very fitting name for someone so mischievous.”

He chuckles, his smile subconscious, “That’s not the only reason she called me that. Um… I uh – my name isn’t actually Stiles.”

“I knew it,” you smirk.

“I actually have a polish name – my grandpa’s name. And it’s really hard to pronounce, so I’d pretty much stop at saying mischief cause that was as close as I could get.”

You raise your eyebrows, all curiosity, “And this name is…?”

He looks shy as he mumbles, “Mieczyslaw.”

“Mitchy-slav?”

He becomes shier as he repeats, “Yeah, Mieczyslaw. You can imagine why a young impressionable child would choose to go by something a little easier.”

You look at him fondly, “I like it. I like learning things about you.” You stand, taking his hand to pull him up, “Now what was the thing you wanted to ask me?”

“I wanted to know if you’d come hangout at my place tonight and meet my dad.”

“I already know your dad, Stiles.”

“Yeah, on a professional basis,” he mocks, “But… but you’ve never seen him without the badge on.”

You agree to come over that night and say you’ll bring a treat, which immediately strikes interest in Stiles. You plan accordingly, cooking all Saturday evening and dishing it in traveling containers. Placing them in a large take-out bag, you drive with your dad to the Stilinski bachelor pad.

You hope your gesture is kindly met.

“(Y/N)!” Stiles says with as much enthusiasm as one seeing someone for the first time in weeks. He’s awkward as he thinks of another way to greet you and is grateful when you go in for a hug. “Something smells delicious.”

You lift the large bag, “I told you I’d bring something.”

He leads you to the kitchen and you see Noah Stilinski looking over case files at the dining table. He looks stressed and wary until he spots you in the doorway.

“Ah, hello (Y/N). It’s nice to see you outside of the station…” he stands up, “… and outside of an ambulance.”

You laugh, going in for a hug that he wasn’t expecting, but loving it nonetheless. He holds you for a second longer as you say, “It’s about time.” He smells of whiskey. You gesture to the food in your bag, “I brought us dinner.”

“Oh my god,” Noah deadpans, “You spoil us.” He frantically tries to shuffle his case files into an orderly fashion, “I’m sorry it’s such a mess.” He moves his full whiskey glass and goes to put the decanter away.

“It’s okay,” you start to help, catching words like ‘murder’ and ‘Hale House.’ Stiles ran for some plates and forks. “There’s not always warning when Stiles makes plans.” You wonder how drunk the sheriff already is – the case must really be getting to him.

Noah chuckles, “You really know my son, then.” He seems awkward without the authority of his badge – like any other suburban dad. “He didn’t tell me you were bringing anything. Wait… did you cook that?” he points to your bag of containers.

“Yeah,” you say, helping Stiles set the table, “My specialty.”

Noah shakes his head, “I haven’t had a homecooked meal in…”

“Years,” Stiles snorts, “(Y/N) is the real deal, dad. Whatever she made will change your life.”

“He eats some chicken and rice and suddenly I’m a three-star Michelin chef.”

Stiles chortles, “Don’t forget those brownies. I’ll never be the same.”

You laugh as the boys sit down and you reveal the dinner you brought. A bowl of spicy Italian sausage, a plate of sliced garlic bread, and a dish of homemade mac and cheese topped with chopped parsley and green onion.

It was very quiet for the first few minutes, you placing a slice of garlic bread on each plate and ladling the cheesy noodles on top like an open-faced slider. You end with placing a few pieces of sausage on the side and passing the plates to the boys.

Stiles still can’t find the words as his dad says, “Did um…” he clears his throat. “Did Stiles tell you…”

You nod, feeling a presence there like nothing you had ever experienced before. “He said it was one of her signature dishes – a favorite of his.” You look to Stiles beside you and notice something glistening in his eyes.

You let them soak in the thoughtfulness of the gesture – what it actually signifies for them – and you start to eat on your own. Though it didn’t bring up any childhood memories of motherly love that it would for Stiles… it was still delicious.

“You’re right,” you say softly, “Like a fancy kids meal.”

Noah starts to chuckle, sniffing as he clears the emotion from his throat. He’s next to start eating his meal and the way he savors each bite is compliment enough. You wait for Stiles to start, very conscious of his quietness.

Stiles was never quiet.

He picks up the garlic bread laden with mac and cheese and takes a bite. He giggles like a schoolboy, “Wow.” He closes his eyes and you feel inclined to put your hand on his. Beneath the table, you wrap your fingers around his against his leg.

You rub your thumb in circles around his knuckles, watching him open his eyes and see tears there. “How is it?”

He sniffs, looking at you with wet eyes, “Like I remember.” He wipes at his face as you smile.

The rest of the meal continues with small talk and fond memories bringing up laughter. The sheriff finishes his whiskey and seems full and tired. Stiles keeps eating until there were no leftovers in sight.

He was now staring at the files of paperwork on the current Derek Hale case. You catch his eye and stand to wash dishes, “You finished, sheriff?”

“Oh no, I’ve got it,” Stiles slips out of his chair and takes the plates from your hands, “You just sit down, I’ll clean up.”

You smile to yourself as the sheriff looks more work wary, leaning on his hand and rubbing at his temples. “You bring out the best in him,” he says quietly, “I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him willingly wash a dish before.”

“He’s sweet,” you say. Realizing too late that that was another thing Mrs. Stilinski used to say all the time.

Noah nods, a little red in the cheeks from the alcohol, “He is. She always said so.”

You had a feeling the sheriff didn’t talk about his wife very much. “You seem a little put out.”

“It’s just this case,” he rubs hard at his face, “I’ve been staring at it for weeks and I know they’re all connected, but there’s something missing.”

“What are all connected?” you ask.

He points a finger at you, “I shouldn’t be telling you.”

“You know I’m not going to say anything, sheriff,” you say candidly, “I’m a hermit that makes very good mac and cheese in my spare time.”

He chuckles deep in his throat, quieter the drunker he is. “The thing is… the bus driver that got killed, he was an insurance investigator assigned to the Hale house fire.” He pulls on a paper with his fingertips, sliding it across the table.

You read it sideways as it moves. “’Terminated under suspicion of fraud.’”

“The video store clerk who got his throat slashed, he’s a convicted felon, history of arson. Two others in the woods… they had priors all over their records, including…”

“Arson…” you say to yourself. The true crime fan within you was a little tickled. It sounds like all the victims had something to do with the house fire six years ago. You look over your shoulder to see Stiles standing in the doorway. He had soapy water soaking the front of his shirt.

He puts a finger to his lips and listens.

“There’s just so many questions…” You don’t stop him for fear that he’ll register all that he’s telling you. “If Derek wanted to kill everyone involved with the fire, then why start with his sister? I mean, she had nothing to do with it. And why make it look like some kind of animal did it?”

You shake your head. It must be killing Stiles to know the real reason behind some of these things and not being able to share. He was protecting his dad from the supernatural. Just like how he was trying to protect you from it.

“You know the instances of wild animal reports were up 70% over the past few months? It’s like they’re going crazy and running out of the woods. I don’t know.” He hand a palm to his forehead, already dozing off.

You feel a little guilty as you lean in your chair.

“Hey, sheriff, can I ask you a favor?”

“Anything, sweetheart…”

You smile warmly as Stiles leans his head against the archway. “Would you be willing to call my parents and tell them I’m staying the night? It’s late and I don’t want to worry them. Stiles and I have some work to catch up on… our chemistry project and stuff. Now would be a really good time to get it done.”

The sheriff had a dopey smile on his face as he looks at you. He considers you while Stiles is having a heart attack in the kitchen.

“Sure thing,” he says, fumbling for his phone, “I know your parents worry about you.”

“It’ll sound better coming from you,” you say kindly, “Thank you, sheriff. And thank you for letting me stay.”

He scratches at his head as you stand, already dialing your mom’s number, “Hey, Angela. No, no – she’s fine. We’re taking good care of her… hey, listen. The kids want to work on some projects, and I wanted to offer to let her stay the night.” He rubs at his tired eyes, “Sure, sure… of course. It’s just late and I know Tom is at the firehouse tonight so… yeah, sure thing. We’ve got plenty of room. Yep, thanks Angela. Sure, bye bye.”

You’re walking towards Stiles with a stupid grin on your face, “Let’s go talk.”

“Night dad!” Stiles yells instantly, still in awe that you were able to pull that off.

Noah waves them off, “Don’t stay up too late.”

You pull Stiles’ hand and go upstairs. “I can’t believe that worked.” You find the bathroom but wait for Stiles to show you his room.

“Um… one second,” he holds up a finger and tells you to stay put. He rummages like a madman in his bedroom, knocking things over and slamming things shut. You picture mounds of clothes and old plates of food being shoved into the closet.

He’s breathing heavy when he opens the door again, “Okay, you can come in.” He holds open the door and you walk in to find a queen bed with ruffled blue sheets, a desk on the other side with bulletin boards hanging on the wall. One of the smaller ones had a blanket thrown over it.

You wonder how much decluttering Stiles did because it was still very messy. Papers, sticky notes, and red string were everywhere. “Cozy.”

He looks nervous, playing with his fingers and watching your expression, “I don’t… ha…” he fidgets with his soapy shirt, “I’ve never had a girl in my room before.”

You take a bow, “I’m honored.” You sit on the edge of his bed, “What your dad is investigating…”

“Derek… I know,” he sits at his desk chair. “He’s so close to figuring it all out. He just doesn’t know about the Alpha.”

“Was it bad of me to egg him on while he’s so clearly drunk?”

“No, I would’ve done the same thing.”

“Exactly,” you deadpan, smiling. “If the Alpha is killing people responsible for the fire, then Derek siding with him at the hospital…”

“… is probably because he wants people to pay for the fire as well.”

You rub your legs down to your knees, “And the Alpha just wants to become powerful again in his revenge.”

Stiles was tapping his fingers against the desk, “So was there any other reason why you wanted to stay the night? Because I know for a fact you already finished our chemistry project and it’s incubating in the lab right now.”

“Well, there have been a couple things I wanted to talk to you about.” You sit cross legged on the mattress and say, “Coach has been talking to me about Scott failing his classes.”

“Big surprise,” Stiles scoffs, “The guy thinks he can be some werewolf savior and graduate high school at the same time.”

You wince, “Finstock made a deal with the office. Scott can’t go to the winter formal.”

“Because he’s failing?” Stiles gawks.

“They wanted to kick him off the team, but Coach said… some strange things… and made the dance agreement.” You tilt your head to the side, “Are you still planning on going?”

Stiles spins around in his chair, fumbling over his words, “Um, er – yeah, technically. I was s-still planning on it. Why… might I ask?”

You sigh, “Allison will need someone to ask her out.”

He was caught off guard, “I’m sorry, what? Me ask Allison to the dance.”

“It makes sense!” you say, “With Scott’s savior complex he’s going to want everyone under supervision in case the Alpha decides to take us out one at a time.”

There was a hesitance in the way Stiles kept spinning around in the chair. He seems grumpy, “Why can’t Jackson ask her?”

“You don’t want to go with Allison?’

“Well, I…” he was biting his lips, “I don’t know. Are you going?”

“I think Andrew is going to ask me on our next date.”

Stiles bangs a foot against the desk and nearly slips out of the chair, “A second date? Already?”

You smile, going a little red, “We had a good time and… we may or may not have kissed.”

A horrible sinking feeling enters Stiles’ stomach. His heart clenches painfully and the sudden desire to hurt Wickstrom came on hard and fast. “And… you liked it.”

“It was a nice change of pace from my usual,” you try to hide your smile, “I haven’t been kissed in a while.”

Stiles waves his hands around, “Woah, woah, woah… you’ve been kissed before? I thought you were a hermit that made mac and cheese.”

“And I have the occasional neighbor boy kiss me,” you laugh, “There was Easton from down the street when I was thirteen and then Adam who was visiting from San Fransico over the summer when I was fifteen. Not to mention, nimrod, that Scott kissed me just the other week.”

“Oh my god,” he wipes a hand across his face, “How do you do that?”

“What?”

“Get people to kiss you?”

You squint your eyes, folding your arms, “Are you telling me you’ve never been kissed?”

Stiles squirms in his chair, swinging it back and forth. “Maybe.”

“Ah, Stiles!” you bounce on his bed, “That’s so sweet.”

He groans, “Don’t tell me it’s sweet. It freaking sucks. All of my friends are getting their jollies off and I am left here in the dust with the driest lips this side of the valley.” His arms hang limp at his sides, “Is it nice?”

You giggle, “It can be. I think it only ever is when you kiss someone you like. It’s just… god, it’s hard to explain.” But Stiles was leaning in like the most attentive student. “There’s something really vulnerable about it, which leaves you wide open to feel anything and everything. You’re scared to death of course, especially with someone you like. But the bliss you feel after doing it is like nothing else.”

Stiles purses his lips, “Is that how the Andrew kiss went?”

“Almost.”

That raises his eyebrows, “I thought you really liked him.”

“I do, but I kind of have this new rule since the summer with Adam from San Fransico,” you hold up a hand, “I can’t date seriously. I can’t get too involved with any guy. So I’ll have to tell Andrew to stop eventually if this keeps going well.”

Stiles frowns, a punch to the gut, “Why can’t you date seriously?”

“Personal choice.”

“Because of what?” You smile and he groans, “Let me guess, it’s another story for another day.”

You use a finger gun on him, “Precisely, you’re catching on.” But the smile starts to dip from your face as you look at him. You lick your lips and say, “How about this. If you don’t have your first kiss by junior year… I’ll kiss you.”

The chair creaks as Stiles nearly falls from it, feet kicking out, “What!?”

“I’ll kiss you. We’ll make a kiss pact. I don’t want you getting too far into high school without having been kissed. The first one is always nerve-wracking anyway. It probably won’t be as meaningful as getting surprised with it by someone you really like, but it might be the next best thing.”

Stiles was losing his marbles, little fireworks exploding behind his eyes and falling like sparklers into his chest. “Okay.”

You smile at his goofy expression, “Now, can I borrow those sweats again? And maybe a t-shirt?”

He was still looking at you with sparklers in his eyes, “Huh? Oh yeah, sure.” He went to rummage through his dresser.

A few minutes later you were both in pajamas, having taken turns to use the bathroom to brush your teeth – you just using toothpaste and your finger – and standing in Stiles’ bedroom. You had dark sweats and an oversized shirt. With how broad Stiles’ shoulders were, the shirt hung low on your frame.

His throat was bobbing when he saw you standing there, pillows and blankets on the ground. “You good?”

You yawn, “Yep.” You meet him at the makeshift nest on the ground and nudge him, “Move please.”

“Oh, no this is for me,” he says, “You get the bed.” Standing so close to each other, you have to look up at him.

“I’m the guest, Stiles. You use your bed and I’ll count the dust bunnies under the bed.” You smile at the deep frown on his face.

He shakes his head, “Not gonna happen.”

“Fine,” you say, crawling onto his bed, “We can share.”

He chokes on his spit and starts coughing, “Share the bed?”

“Is that okay?” you look at him innocently.

That look combined with you wearing his clothes was sending him over the edge. His stomach was full of butterflies tickling the tightness in his ribcage. He wasn’t sure what to do with himself. In one night he had a girl in his room, said girl promised to kiss him, and now wanted to share a bed with him.

“Um… I kind of sleep in the middle of the mattress. I don’t want you to wake up to me invading your personal space.”

You laugh, “That’s fine, I can just shove you away.”

He nods, but is lost for words, going to turn off the light while you get comfortable. He’s back in the darkness and hesitates, “Are you su…”

“Get in the bed, Stilinski,” you mumble, already buried in his woodsy honey scented sheets. You feel the mattress dip as he finds his pillow. His knee knocks into your leg, and he apologizes. He shuffles down further and pulls up the blanket, rubbing his arm against yours, and he apologizes again.

“It’s fine, Stiles,” you laugh, “We’re bound to touch being this close.”

He swallows hard, staring at the ceiling as you cuddle further into your pillow, blanket tucked under your chin. “Goodnight,” you mumble.

Stiles bites the inside of his cheek, “Goodnight, (Y/N).” In the dark of his bedroom and the warm, calm presence of you beside him, it gave him a sense of ease. He takes a deep breath and says, “Thank you for the dinner today. It… meant a lot.”

You hum in reply, “You’re welcome.”

The last thing he remembers is turning on his side to face you already asleep. Your mouth was a little open and the pillow was squashing your cheek. Your hair was wild behind you and the shirt you borrowed was low enough that he could see the scar above your heart. You look more beautiful than ever laying there.

He wanted to know what you were holding back. He wanted to know what he had to do to give you the same feelings he was having.

And with thoughts of you looking beautiful in his bed, he fell asleep too.

~~~

Hours later you wake groggily to a still dark room. Stiles was standing and pulling his shoes on, phone in his hand. You groan and shift the covers closer to your body.

“Where are you going?” you ask half-asleep.

Stiles freezes at your words, “Uh… werewolf business. You can just stay here…” he walks over to your nearly asleep figure, “I’ll come back later.”

You don’t reply and he thinks you’re already back to sleep. It makes him smile. He bends down to tuck the covers a little tighter around you and… he hesitates, looking at your face. He swallows hard and leans down to place a kiss to your head.

“Sweet dreams.”

~~~

Taglist: @assassinsasha23 @tasty-book-fans @lovelybaka @the-fandom-queen @runs-with-sciss0rs @iamaslytherin0 @n3muru @bethsvrse @taylorbrooke-0912 @iloveyou2mia @everrrsincenewyork @gisellesprettylies

[boatem-probler]

I'm Watching Tokyo Soul So You Don't Have To!

You Are Here! / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / Wrap-Up

So there's this 2015 Minecraft roleplay series that Grian was in. It's very bad and very, ah, dated, but it's also very full of Grian Angst, so people like to use it in their fanfiction.

A couple years ago, @paranoidpug watched every episode of the first season of this series, called Yandere High School, and wrote summaries of it, so people could learn what all those fanfics were referencing without having to actually watch the thing. They're very good summaries!

@sketchygainedyoursoul took over to do the second season, Tokyo Soul, but it seems like they never got past episode 8, so I've decided to take up the mantle of Tokyo Soul Chronicler. I know how it ends, and unfortunately it's like catnip to me, so this was inevitable really.

Also I'm starting from the beginning, because I'm using a different format and I wanted consistency I guess.

Content warnings for briefly mentioned violence, stalking, and uh... idk how to describe what's going on with Geode. Generally creepy behavior from an adult to a minor is broad enough I think. But in like, a mad scientist way? Yeah.

And Now... The Episodes Without Grian In Them

(I'm really selling this, huh...)

Episode 1 – New Beginning!

You are now sitting.

Sam, Taurtis, and Dom are in a train. They've just arrived in Tokyo. Sam told Taurtis they were going to Disneyland, because Taurtis doesn’t like big cities. Grian is not there.

Okami, their former teacher, has tasked them with navigating from the train station to a restaurant called “SushiWushi”. Let’s see how The Boys mess this one up!

They encounter a skeevy old man named Old Kurokuma outside the train station.

They get someone else named Igbar von Squid to show them the way to SushiWushi, but Sam wants to “mingle” by the dumpsters instead.

I’m now running the video back, because I want to see exactly how long it takes them to get to this restaurant.

Also Dom has the best outfit of the three.

“I’m starting to get spooked. Why’d you even come back here, Taurtis?” says Sam.

They encounter someone literally named “Suspicious Person” burning money in a fire, who offers them “sugar”. They jump over the fire to get away, with varying degrees of success.

“STOP DROP AND RICKROLL” – Dom

They do their “look both ways even though there are no moving cars in existence” bit. If I was Igbar I woulda just left them by this point. Igbar is visibly slumping.

The creepy old man is still following them, also.

They arrive at SushiWushi! It took them 10 minutes and 16 seconds (if my math is right). Honestly? I thought they wouldn’t be there before the episode was over, so good on them.

I’m obsessed with how their Minecraft avatars’ arms move when they’re sitting, by the way, it makes them look like a kid pretending to drive their parents’ car.

Sam and Taurtis both mention feeling uncomfortable around girls with knives.

Taurtis is arguing about pufferfish, Sam is trying to steal sushi from the next table over, Dom is… getting into a fistfight in the background?

Luckily, the person they were supposed to meet, Kiyu, arrives, and WHOA THEY HAVE A VOICE.

Kiyu begins showing them around.

Episode 2 – FIRST SCHOOL DAY!

Kiyu is bad with directions.

Old Kurokuma is STILL following them.

Kiyu shows them their house, they’re very excited about how fancy it is. Kiyu assures them that most of their stuff is there.

Dom is going to live in the dumpster outside apparently.

Kurokuma is outside their house now.

“We’re in the witness protection program, but I feel SO much more unsafe than we were before” – Taurtis. And from what I know it only gets worse!

The next morning, the boys attempt to make their way to school, but they don’t know where it is. They ask a student passing by, then decide to “jump ‘em” when they’re too shy to answer the question.

Taurtis, running over to a group of other students: “Can I hang out with you guys? Can you be my new friends?”

Sam asks Dom for a high five. Dom punches Sam. Sam dies. They continue walking to school.

Taurtis: “I miss our old school, I bet this one’s not even haunted.” Sam: “We could make it haunted!”

At school, they meet back up with Kiyu, who also goes there apparently, and she takes them to get their schedules from Señor Loro, who is wearing a luchador mask and what appears to be a Christmas sweater.

Señor Loro drops them through a trapdoor into a secret wrestling ring. They must wrestle him for their schedules, obviously.

Oh dang they actually have Four Whole Classes this time.

Episode 3 – TEACHER TORI!

On the way to their lockers, one of the other students, Greentama, who is wearing a One Punch Man outfit, one-punches them for jaywalking.

“There’s some weird stuff in these lockers.” – Kiyu

Their first class is with Teacher Tori, who is supposed to be Toriel from Undertale I think? She teaches Agriculture, apparently.

Creepy Man Update: He Is Still There

They go out to the courtyard to collect flowers. We learn that Kiyu avoids the sun.

We also learn that Señor Loro is the guidance counselor.

“Fish are just flowers that swim in the ocean.” – Taurtis

Their next class is Dr. Nurse MD’s Class of Not Dying!

Taurtis does not understand what witness protection is.

Dr. Nurse MD is teaching CPR. He asks for a volunteer from the audience. Taurtis gets volunteered. Dr. Nurse MD does not understand what CPR is. Somehow Taurtis survives.

By this, I mean that Dr. Nurse MD’s conception of CPR is: Choke the other person, and then throw stuff at them. Now pair up and try it on each other!

[Choked Out by The Mountain Goats playing in the background]

Episode 4 – DON’T DROWN!

Time for lunch!

One of the kids who was in Nurse MD’s class is stumbling around coughing up blood, it seems. Lovely.

Sam and Taurtis decide to eat lunch on the high diving board, where they witness someone almost drown.

Time for gym class! The PacerGram Fitness Test is a–

They do laps around the gym. Gym Teacher Helena loves pain, it seems. Also she has quite a bit of favoritism towards Kiyu.

The kid who was coughing up blood earlier is NOT looking good.

Episode 5 – CREEPY TEACHER!

Their last class is in classroom 12, which has a number 4 outside of the door, and also a gold key and a bottle of Mountain Dew. The floor inside is covered in mushrooms, and the teacher, Professor Geode Rocks, is sitting on a throne. He addresses his students as “subjects” and “my children”. There are chains hanging from the ceiling. The boys are very uncomfortable.

Geode calls the new kids to the front of the class and asks for their medical records. Also, every time he says someone’s name, he says it in all caps.

Taurtis starts listing out all of the physical trauma he’s suffered. Geode decides the three of them are “not good candidates”.

Geode gives them homework: Collect as much trash as possible. Extra points for blood, hair, and nails.

“Wait an Earth Second,” says Professor Geode, much like an Earthling would.

He starts sniffing Taurtis. Taurtis is “the one”. Now his plan can finally be a success. He pulls a hair out from Taurtis’s head. Taurtis does NOT like any of this. Even Sam is vocally weirded out. Geode starts yelling about world domination as the bell rings.

Sam: “We can’t go back, we’re in witness protection.” Taurtis: “I don’t feel protected here!”

Taurtis: “I’ve never felt so unsafe in my life.”

This school’s Yelp review is going to be real bad.

Sam: “This is for a class, Mr. Geode told us we had to get blood.” Señor Loro: “CLASSIC GEODE. He is eccentric.”

Creepy Man Update: Still.

I'm probably gonna do 1 school day per post from this point, it's a good way of breaking things up.

Next Time... Grian!

[giggly-squiggily]

Bungo Stray Dogs Masterlist

Here's all the (tickle-centric) Bungo Stray Dogs fics I've written! :D

Full Masterlist

Updated: 6/5/25

SouKoku

A Chase To Start The Season (Lee!Chuuya, Ler!Dazai)

Bite Me! (Lee!Dazai, Ler!Chuuya)

I’m Not Touching You (Lee!Dazai, Ler!Chuuya)

Shin Soukoku

Catnip (Lee!Akutagawa, Ler!Atsushi)

Break Him Down (Lee!Akutagawa, Ler!Atsushi)

You Got A Friend In Me (Lee!Akutagawa, Ler!Atsushi)

Ranpoe

A New Kind Of Mystery (Lee!Ranpoe, Ler!Poe)

Armed Detective Agency

Operation WereTiger: BackFired! (Lee!Dazai, Ler!Atsushi) **Collab with intheticklecloset**

Hide And Tickle (Lee!Dazai, Lers!Atsushi, Kunikida)

Play Dead! (Lee!Dazai, Lers!Kunikida, Atsushi)

Poets That Tickle The Brain (Lee!Kunikida, Lers!Dazai, Atsushi)

Roommate Tax? (Lee!Dazai Ler!Chuuya, Kunikida)

Taking Note (Lee!Dazai, Ler!Kunikida)

Written Out Of Context (Lee!Dazai, Ler!Kunikida)

Shippy Ship Ships <3

Checkmate (Lee!Fyodor, Ler!Dazai)

[thesternest]

tag meme: my top 9 characters

i was tagged by @regallibellbright so with no particular order lets get into it

I have decided to not put any characters of my own here because then this list would be filled with my characters and nothing else

also only one per series since i want this to be an overall representation of my favorite characters

1.Phosphophyllite/Phos (land of the lustrous)

Phos is by far one of my favorite characters due to how they change throughout the series

also watching them suffer is what got me my permanent angst craving

phos is one of those characters that unfortunately due to being by far the most popular character in the series the fandom tends to dislike every other character in the series (particularly in this case since a lot of the other characters have mistreated phos in some way) which i think is a disservice to those characters

but phos is still my favorite

2.Blake Thorburn (Pact: Devils and Details) (no art for him because im too lazy to ask for permission to put him here and i dont want to put a piece of art on my post without permission)

ill be honest it was hard to pick if Taylor or Blake were going to be put here, since i didnt want to put two wildbow protagonists here, and while Worm was much more enjoyable for me to read i think Pact was a much more memorable story for me,

Since like blake struggled through the horrors, i struggled against decaying attention span

In general i gravitate toward fantasy stories more than superhero stories

3. Eve and aoi (birdie wing golf girls story)

hey remember a second ago when i was debating over which wildbow protagonist to put here because i didnt want to put both

Yeah fuck that these two are a pair because i love them both and refuse to seperate them

These two are genuinely one of my favorite protagonist duo's ever

like they are so funny with their insane antics and golf

4. Yuki Takamiya (thirteen sentinels aegis rim)

this one proved to be really hard to decide between Yuki, Okino or 426 since they are all favorites

i decided that it was best to fit one of the protagonists into this since it would be hard to talk about the other two without spoiling anything and needing a ton of context

from the second Yuki showed up i knew she would likely be a favorite

what i didnt expect was for her to be arguably one of the smartest characters in the game

I would say out of the protagonists she is the second smartest with Gouto being the smartest

Like i did not expect her route to be a detective story

5. Power (chainsaw man)

first person on this list who isnt a protagonist, and i did consider putting Asa instead of her and while i am undoubtedly more invested in Asa im also much more entertained by power

also i need to put one character who isnt a main character here lest i be seen as a basic bitch

6. Sayeon Lee (hand jumper)

we only have one season of her but this girl is so mentally unwell its like catnip to me

im eagerly awaiting the start of season 2

also to my surprise me reccomending vibes this webtoon caused a bunch of wormblr people to read this too so when season 2 starts i could probably talk to those people about it

7.Daan/ the doctor (fear and hunger termina)

this was a tough descision between Daan and Marina because while i love them both equally Daan has the better narrative in my head with his doomed by the narrative swag

8.Iwha (hero killer

she's cool when she murders people

9. Kikuri Hiroi (bocchi the rock)

girl who is doomed by the narrative

but the narrative is a slice of life so overall its not that bad

@n0brainjustvibes@tranz-regent@worstgirl-online i nominate you to follow in my example and list characters

Also feel free to analyse me like a lab rat for these picks in the notes

[ihaveonlymydreams]

8 TV Shows to Get to Know Me

Tagged by @im-not-the-one-youre-looking-for

(do I even have 8 TV Shows? We shall find out!) These are in no particular order.

1. The Good Place. The only show longer than a season I have actually rewatched, so that says something. Eleanor Shellstrop my beloved. Intersection of philosophy and humor and true to human nature.

2. Dr. Who. Still haven't watched the 13th doctor and forward, but it's one of the few shows I know I will catch up on eventually. 11 is my Doctor. Time travel shenanigans and two times the heart.

3. Warehouse 13. This is mostly on the list because it's the only other show I've actually finished watching. Very fun monster of the week show, time travel, H. G. Wells is a woman, lots of literary shenanigans.

4. Firefly. I actually watched Serenity in theaters with no idea there was a TV show. Mal is my favorite. Wild west shenanigans in outer space, very good vibes.

5. Maniac. Miniseries about two troubled strangers in a pharmaceutical trial, starring Emma Stone and Jonah Hill. Very surreal but ultimately about love. Have also rewatched this one.

(I think I've just discovered that I prefer sci fi over fantasy in my TV shows. Can't think of a single fantasy show I've stuck with watching)

6. Anime time! Ah My Goddess. This was actually the first anime I watched and it's a very darling seinen series about a college boy and a goddess from (vaguely) Norse mythology. Running theme of being responsible for the things you make.

7. Aria. Slice of life about a girl who is studying to become a gondolier on a terraformed Mars in an exact historical replica of Venice. Yes the premise is wild but it's about friendship and mentorship and growing as a person and also cats.

8. Kdrama time: It's Okay To Not Be Okay. I just like slightly surreal shows about psychological issues you guys. Watched this one twice. Cold and traumatized female lead and sunshine male lead, fairytale themes, actual catnip for me.

[singlemaltrussell]

American Whiskey Review #35, #36, #37 & #38 Indiana 5yr Rye (2017 Cadenhead's), Frey Ranch Straight Rye, New Riff B-i-B Rye, Kings County Distillery Empire Rye

I've managed to maintain a pretty consistent rye focus this summer, but being still pretty early days in my exploration of that style, this is the first time I've really sat with a few different bottles and drilled down into the separate characters as a side by side.

The reviews have been assembled over the past month, starting out as Frey Ranch vs Kings County, but as I spotted New Riff on my shelf, adding in another 100 proof 100% rye seemed to make sense. Of course, once I did that, how could I not add an MGP into the mix?

I figured these four were similar enough in some aspects (approximate age and ABV) for a decent comparison and contrast.

—------------

Indiana 5yr Rye Cadenhead's

I’m making the assumption that this bottle is MGP, but I haven’t heard anyone suggest it could be anything else and honestly, at this point, if I hear “Rye” and “Indiana” it’s the only name in my head. I’m also pretty sure it’s the 95/5 mashbill, but again, [Disclaimer] this is all gleamed from whisky chatter.

Between Cadenhead’s and SMWS, there have been a refreshing amount of decently priced, Independently Bottled American Whiskies on sale in the UK market in recent times. Makes a nice change.

_______

Category: Rye

Bottler: Cadenhead's (CA)

Series: Authentic Collection

Vintage: 2017

Bottled: Summer 2023

Age: 05 years old

Cask: Barrel

№ of bottles: 222

ABV: 55%

_______

**𝙽𝚘𝚜𝚎**: No idea if this is a thing, but unbaked rye sourdough? A lot of sweet and citric orange jellies where the sharpness overlaps with ethanol, that does eventually mellow. Wet cut grass, and also earthy caraway seed, with that earthiness veering slightly into brown cardboard. Lots of Log Cabin syrup brings the vanilla after sitting for a while.

**𝙿𝚊𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚎**: Honeycomb toffee dissolves into orange squash and sunflower oil. I get fennel, but it’s the green bits up top.

**𝙵𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚜𝚑**: Finely ground black pepper brings tight tannins that quickly melt and relax into buttercream with a herbal flush of fresh peppermint and curly parsley. The barrel char shows some coffee-bean acidity, but manages to stay on the right side of bitter.

_______

**𝙽𝚘𝚝𝚎𝚜**: Easy sipping and not too aggressive for its ABV, nice texture and a measured spice. This has all the herbal green notes that I know can be a bit divisive in the world of Rye, but I thought it all worked together.

The palate was quite basic but was also my favourite bit. The oily orange and crunchy sugar combo is a winner made just that little bit more interesting by the fennel shoots.

Solid MGP at a price that doesn’t sting. If you like MGP (like I do), then I doubt this would disappoint.

Hats off Cadenhead’s. Keep em coming.

----

**𝚂𝚌𝚘𝚛𝚎**: 8 *𝑹𝒚𝒆 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑵𝒖𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒔*

—------------

Frey Ranch Straight Rye

This was catnip for me. As a grain nerd, I'm a sucker for a good farm to glass story, and Frey Ranch spins a nice tale of Colby and Ashley: 5th generation farmers going their own way to create a 100% winter rye from their 1500-acre farm 4000 ft above sea level (which is still somehow the lowlands) in Fallon, Nevada.

If you’re curious about what “winter rye” means, it’s what it sounds like - rye sown in September - October that grows throughout the winter season and is harvested in spring.

It also has to be said, the Frey Ranch bottles are pretty sweet. Chunky AF. Really nailed the visual branding there.

_______

Category: Rye

Distillery: Frey Ranch

Mashbill: 100% Winter Rye

Age: 6 years

Cask: New charred oak

Batch №: 9

ABV: 50%

_______

**𝙽𝚘𝚜𝚎**: Cinnamon-spiced cherrywood meets Crème brûlée, Hot Cross Buns and Cointreau-enriched vanilla Coke.

**𝙿𝚊𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚎**: Lightly grassy on the approach, but becoming denser honey-butter, and rich, brown sugar-dusted rice pudding that’s almost but not quite cut by red berry coulis. A generous shake of white pepper and chilli flakes brings some heat and dryness.

**𝙵𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚜𝚑**: Barrel char pipes up as tannic cocoa solids and burnt sugars, but any astringency is deftly countered by the slick texture of corn oil, rising malty Ovaltine and sugar cookie dough. At the very end, cool green dill and spearmint face off against buzzing Szechuan and cardamom.

_______

**𝙽𝚘𝚝𝚎𝚜**: At 6 years old, this is possibly the oldest bottle in the review.

It has quite a sweet palate but it's offset by the spice and bitter notes that give it a good amount of crowd-pleasing depth.

Usually I get the rye-dough notes in the nose, but here, it arrived almost at the very end in conjunction with malty tones and slick corn oil. With that and the spicy coolness, it left me consistently in a place of wanting more.

Well adjusted and nicely put together. I’d love to hear more about Frey Ranches production, especially around mashing and fermentation.

I went out on a limb to buy this bottle without due diligence in researching, but I am 100% happy with my purchase.

----

**𝚂𝚌𝚘𝚛𝚎**: 8.3 *𝑨𝒍𝒕𝒊𝒕𝒖𝒅𝒆 𝑨𝒅𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕*

----

—------------

New Riff Bottled-in-Bond Rye

𝙿𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚖𝚋𝚕𝚎: Before this, I knew New Riff by reputation only. A relative newcomer, from their distillery in Newport Kentucky, they've made a name putting out whisky presented at a baseline of Bottled-in-Bond stats or better. Not too shabby.

Also worth a note, Larry Ebersold, of Seagrams/MGP fame was heavily involved as a consultant in the early days.

Larry created the 95/5 rye/malted barley mashbill, and is one of the people credited with really getting a handle on dealing with the famously difficult grain.

New Riff has tweaked the recipe further by swapping out the 5% malted barley for malted rye.

_______

Category: Rye

Distillery: New Riff Distilling

Region: Kentucky

Bottler: Distillery Bottling

Series: Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey - Bottled in Bond

Vintage: 2017

Bottled: 2021

Mashbill: 95% rye/5% malted rye

Age: 4 years

ABV: 50%

_______

**𝙽𝚘𝚜𝚎**: Sweet and tart Dried cherries and cranberries, with chocolate orange following closely. The chocolate has a bit of carob to it, and there's a tiny bit of fresh green herbs that reads like tarragon to me. Vanilla ramps up as cream soda, and the oak registers as dusty nutmeg. I get a little solvent with it too, like freshly stained wood and there's a powdery mint quality like newly unwrapped Doublemint gum.

**𝙿𝚊𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚎**: Sweet, herbal and fruity, with the cream soda from the nose joined by a fair bit of artificial cherry and Chicory leaves balancing the sweet with bitterness. Dry cinnamon gets bolstered by a couple twists of cracked pepper and crushed chillies

**𝙵𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚜𝚑**:Dark Chocolate covered morello cherries get a red fruit signal boost by way of raspberry coulis, couched in browned butter. The chocolate recedes to clearer wood char but spearmint keeps it sweet and coolly, herbaceously menthol.

_______

**𝙽𝚘𝚝𝚎𝚜**: I expected to like this, but it was still surprising how much it ended up connecting. The New Riff is quite sweet, but red berries and chocolate together, was hard not to love.

I wonder how else their production differs from MGP? I would be surprised if that 5% barley/rye switch alone was responsible.

Great stuff. Fun and sippable, but with a good amount of individual character - the extra berryness of it all jussst gave it the edge against the Frey Ranch.

----

**𝚂𝚌𝚘𝚛𝚎**: 8.4 *𝑭𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝑭𝒓𝒖𝒊𝒕 𝑪𝒉𝒐𝒄𝒐𝒍����𝒕𝒆 𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒐𝒕𝒆*

----

Kings County Empire Rye

I already know Kings County from a previous review of their BiB bourbon, where I may have overscored it, but also undoubtedly enjoyed it.

On the strength of that, and the perfect amount of a gift card, I picked up another 200ml glass flask of theirs, which this time is their Empire Rye.

The “Empire” designation meant nothing to me, but luckily I didn't have to dig too deep to find out that is a not-quite-legal definition stating that to sport that label, the whisky in question would need to be 75% New York grain, distilled to 160 proof or less, and aged for a minimum of two years in charred, virgin oak at maximum filling strength of 115 proof.

I haven’t been able to verify the ages of the liquid that went into this particular batch, but it seems to change between each one. Could have a combination of various ages up to 6 years.

_______

Category: Rye

Distillery: Kings County Distillery

Region: New York

Bottler: Distillery Bottling

Series: Straight Rye Whiskey

Mashbill: 80% NY Danko rye /20% English malted barley.

Age: 2y>

ABV: 51.0%

_______

**𝙽𝚘𝚜𝚎**: Chocolate covered, brandy soaked cherries and maple sugar flapjacks bring a mix of fruit and grains - all quite dark and decadent. I got more forward sarsaparilla than vanilla, but it is still there as a backdrop of buttery waffles that exists alongside damp pine.

**𝙿𝚊𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚎**: Another oily and slightly grassy approach, but much less green here. Crème brulee skews towards dense dairy and toasted sugars but it keeps getting earthier, becoming dark chocolate kahlua cake and quite sticky on the teeth. Malty too. There's an overlap with that and the tannins, which makes me think of Ovaltine and red wine mixed together. In a good way.

**𝙵𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚜𝚑**: Rounded molasses rye bread and wet charred wood charged by electrostatic Szechuan tingles and eucalyptus. A bit salty and mineral in the tail, like buttery pebbles, and with the eucalyptus evolving into fresh peppermint leaves as the heat fades.

_______

**𝙽𝚘𝚝𝚎𝚜**: These were all good, but this was my favourite.

It's the least sweet and the most rounded to my tastes, incorporating a bit of salt and dark molasses that I really liked.

It's lucky these smaller bottles exist because otherwise, at the price KC sits at, I might have let it pass me by.

I have a feeling that my love of scotch means that the 20% malted barley may be what makes the difference here.

I love the idea of 100% ryes, but my history with single malt has likely molded my palate towards a preference of having barley in the mashbill.

----

**𝚂𝚌𝚘𝚛𝚎**: 8.5 *𝑲𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑶𝒇 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒊𝒍𝒍*

----

________

**𝚂𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚎**

𝟿.𝟼 - 𝟷𝟶 𝚃𝚑𝚎𝚘𝚛𝚎𝚝𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝙿𝚘𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚋𝚕𝚎

𝟿 - 𝟿.𝟻 𝙲𝚑𝚎𝚏‘𝚜 𝙺𝚒𝚜𝚜

𝟾.𝟼 -𝟾.𝟿 𝙳𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚒𝚘𝚞𝚜

𝟾 - 𝟾.𝟻 𝚅𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝙶𝚘𝚘𝚍

𝟽.𝟼 - 𝟽.𝟿 𝙶𝚘𝚘𝚍

𝟽 -𝟽.𝟻 𝙾𝙺, 𝚋𝚞𝚝…

𝟼 - 𝟼.𝟿 𝙰𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝙳𝚒𝚜𝚊𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚎

𝟻 𝙽𝚘

𝟺 𝙽𝚘

𝟹 𝙽𝚘

𝟸 𝙽𝚘

𝟷 𝙸𝚝 𝙺𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚍 𝙼𝚎. 𝙸‘𝚖 𝚍𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚗𝚘𝚠

[absolutebl]

Hello, hello!! It's me, your favorite graduate, back with a burning question! ;)

I am in the middle of episode 11 of Why R U? (literally paused in the middle of it because I am WAY too invested in FighterTutor and am seriously dreading what is coming) - what a messy, cringey show. There are so many freaking characters, and my question is inspired by one that I have come to love, Kae. He is Tutor's boss at the bakery, and after he (bravely, in IRL standards) confronts Fighter's dad I realized just how much I appreciated his character and how annoyed I am that the show couldn't cut down its cabal of unnecessary characters to focus on more interesting ones. Not only is he an astonishingly great example (for a BL!!) of a queer "elder" in the community - he protects Tutor from creepy customers, gives him a job when he needs one and looks for help when he needs more work, is working-class himself, and tries to give advice to this lonely queer kid he's taken under his wing - he also seems to be a rare less-stereotypical portrayal of a Thai person with darker skin (if not the only, honestly, in my limited experience watching these shows).

So! My question is, are there any side characters or even guest characters (like Kae is billed as) who you wish had been given more latitude or importance in the plot/story of a BL?

OMG what a great question. YES SO MANY. Let me see if I can come up with a top 10. Does it have to be individuals? Can I pick a few couples (I won’t go too far because therein lies madness)? 

Top 10 Side Characters I Wish We Got More Screen Time

In no particular order.  

1. Touch & Daisy in Secret Crush On You

Is anyone surprised by this choice?

2. Choi Yu Na, JaeYeong’s bisexual bestie in Semantic Error

She was just... so effortlessly cool. Do I need to say more? 

3. TulHin in Love By Chance 2

I LOVE THEM, OKAY. Classic whipping boy, my goddamn catnip. And these two actors had amazing chemistry. Ae’s whole arc and character should have been dropped from this script in favor of more time with these truly damaged goods. Yes, I said it. Sorry Perth. 

AND ALSO 

4. Keen in Love By Chance 2

Can’t believe I chose multiples from MAME trash but heh, whatever is necessary for the truth right? Basically this show needed a massive rewrite, but it could have been done. 

That’s what’s so frustrating about MAME’s stuff, it’s so close to being amazing...  It’s like this fantastic 5 course meal but you will be barfing at some point. Maybe the end? Maybe the middle? Maybe multiple times? It’s a regurgitation surprise! 

5. Fong the Philosopher in Still 2gether 

Khaotung is untaped genius at physical comedy. I love him in this role SO HARD. I think we got a lot from him in season one, but I wanted more in season 2. 

6. PokeTongue in Gen Y 2 & What Zabb Man

Look we all know that during Gen Y 2 they were actually pretending to be in some other show. And frankly, we all would have rather been watching that show. Then they got given an actual other show and we STILL wanted more of them. 

7. ChampDoc in TharnType 2

I take the 5th. 

8. Beer in Oxygen

I just wanna look at James but he’s getting his own series (Bed Friends) so I’m okay now. 

9. Sky & Pai in La Cuisine 

Talk about crumbs. What? I mean WHAT WAS THAT? They had these two in their back pocket all along and DIDN’T use them? WHAT? 

10. VegasPete in KinnPorsche

Oh I fucking said it. You were all thinking it from ep 10 on, weren’t you? Why the hell didn't this start in ep 5? Vegas was entirely unnecessary as a love interest for Porsche. It would have been fine, no BETTER, if Porsche & Vegas had developed as a friendship and Vegas had NOTICED Pete in a significant way much earlier.* 

* Don’t comment on this. I’m not interested in this weird KP fandom imaginary-connection muck-wanking thing you’re all AO3ing all over Tumblr like a bad rash. And I could not care less about the original y-novel.  

Honorable Mention

All the GLs that should have had more screen time like the cuties in Meow Ears Up, InkPa in Bad Buddy, and Friend Zone 2, and I could keep going.

 The angry roommate ex lover in Love Class. I just really loved the actor and was very intrigued by the character. We could have spent much less time exploring the stalker story and more time with this boy and still kept the dumb sort KBL length. All in all, the weight of this narrative was all over the place but not using this character to the fullest was a problem.

The two besties of the seme in Mr Unlucky, SO CUTE.

The nerdy support boy who knows what it’s like to be gay and the artsy girl with serious self defense skills from Blueming.

The whole university friendship group that *almost* happened in Cherry Blossoms After Winter.

Tim in My Secret Love, preferably shirtless. 

Nutch in Not Me. 

Mew the ex boyfriend in Together With Me. I don’t know what they were doing with his character. And they didn’t either. But ho boy was he EASY on the eyes. So easy. I mean it takes work to pull attention away from MaxTul and he had ALL MY ATTENTION. 

And (drum roll please) . . . 

K.O. & HAO MEI (Love O2O) 

I will die on this tiny hill of censored bromance. More of them would have substantially improved this show. 

I'm not picking shows that couldn’t be saved. 

So I love KhunKaow in Brothers and CopyNampu in Top Secret Together and SanAei in You’re My Sky, Saint in Our Days, Jun in Love Area 2, but I don't think more of them could have save their respective shows because then it would have been MORE terrible show to watch. I call these the "I'm your huckleberry" awards. I give one each year to the couple that was the only good thing in an otherwise irredeemable show. Like Val Kilmer in Tombstone (bite me).

Current as of Aug 2022, there are a bunch airing right now that could make this list. 

(source)

[twwofwwands]

A Year and a Day UPDATED - 206 prompts - A Quest to discover my individual Witchcraft

*UPDATED - original post was 196 prompts

After a lifetime of subtle magic and a year of failing to step into my power, I wrote this personalized curriculum to learn my own individual Witchcraft over 366 days. There are 206 points on the list. Some will take a bit of time and work. Others require more simple answers.

I used the words "personalized" and "individual" for a reason. Witchcraft is very personal. We are all individuals and nothing we do looks exactly the same. Some of the points may not suit you. Adjust or omit them.

I will be kicking this off with a devotional river bath on June 1st.

Follow me on Instagram if you'd to tag along. Inspired by https://sammmango.tumblr.com/post/175974393404/a-whopping-list-of-grimoire-prompts-and-ideas

Cleansing Commencement Ritual

1. List everything you’re grateful for. Be very specific – from the people you love to the water you drink

2. Write down what you want to change about your life. What is holding you back?

3. List everything you need to release, unlearn, and cleanse

4. Write affirmations to support your unlearning and growth with everyday

5. Take a cleansing shower or bath. Use whatever candles, herbs, crystals, etc. you feel like.

Wheel of the Year

6. Create your own calendar/”wheel” as you go

a. Keep a running list of signs you notice of the changing seasons

7. Research each of the Sabbats and decide how they work into your craft.

a. Summer Solstice/Litha – June 20

b. Lammas/Lughnasadh – August 1

c. Fall Equinox/Mabon – September 22

d. Samhain/Halloween – October 31

e. Yule/Winter Solstice – December 21

f. Imbolc/Candlemas – February 2

g. Spring Equinox/Ostara – March 20

h. May Day/Beltane – May 1

8. How do you wish to celebrate the popular holidays or combine them with related Sabbats? Valentine’s Day? Easter and Ostara? Yule and Christmas?

Witchcraft 101

9. Definitions – Determine what these terms mean to you by researching various descriptions

a. Grounding

b. Centering

c. Cleansing

d. Charging

e. Blessing

f. Charming

g. Enchanting

h. Warding

i. Binding

j. Banishing

k. Consecrating

10. How do you ground and center?

11. How do you cast a circle? Do you bother?

12. What are the corners? How do you call them?

13. How do you set up an altar? Do you bother?

14. Research various workings and their origins;

a. Candle magic

b. Knot/braid magic

c. Sigils

d. Self protection

e. Home protection

f. Egg workings

g. Foot track work

h. Hair/Tag-lock magic

i. Money magic

i. Money bowl/plate

ii. Money candle

iii. Money dust

iv. Lode stone money spell

v. Look up 5 good money spells that you would use

j. Sex magic

k. True jar spells

Correspondences

15. Directions

16. (5) Elements

17. 7 Days of the week

18. Colours

Astrology

19. Read your own birth chart in depth while working through this section

20. Triplicities – Elements in Astrology

21. Quadruplicities – Cardinal/Mutable/Fixed

22. The 12 zodiac signs

23. The 12 houses

24. Aspects

25. Rising sign

26. Sun sign

27. Moon sign

28. Mercury

29. Venus

30. Mars

31. Saturn

32. Jupiter

33. Uranus

34. Neptune

35. Pluto

Lunar Magic

36. Moon Phases

a. Correspondences

b. Add to your calendar/”wheel”

37. New Moon rituals

38. Full moon rituals

Divination

39. Read cards every day

40. Pull a tarot card for each week. Read it for yourself. Research traditional meanings and symbolism as well.

41. Draw some tarot spreads to refer to.

42. Write a list of other divining methods that you’re interested in

43. Make runes or charms…a bone set?

Crystals

44. How do crystals work?

45. How do you cleanse crystals?

46. How do you charge crystals?

47. How do you program crystals?

a. Create a charm to carry with you as reminder and amplifier of your magic

48. What are the uses of crystal grids? Look up some examples for more ideas.

49. How can you use crystals?

a. Physically

b. Metaphysically

c. Around the home

50. Write an information page for every crystal you have. (See Crystal List)

Green Witchery

51. Research all the herbs you are growing;

a. Basil

b. Calendula

c. Chives

d. Catnip

e. Chamomile

f. Dill

g. Lavender

h. Lemon Balm

i. Oregano

j. Peppermint

k. Rosemary

l. Sage

m. Thyme

52. Identify and research 15 plants or trees in your yard. How can you use these in your craft?

53. Identify and research 15 wild plants or trees in nature. How can you use these in your craft?

54. How can you garden by the moon?

55. Note any foraging times on the calendar/”wheel”

Potions

56. Research the essential oils you have on hand

a. Bergamot

b. Cedarwood

c. Cinnamon leaf

d. Chamomile

e. Eucalyptus

f. Frankincense

g. Geranium

h. Lavender

i. Lemon

j. Lemongrass

k. Lime

l. Peppermint

m. Rose

n. Rosemary

o. Tea tree

57. Make body butter

58. Make “Personal Growth” scalp and nail massage oil

59. Make face/gua sha oil

60. Make toothpaste

61. Make toner with oil (like micellar water)

62. Make ‘Thieves’ body spray

63. Create your own signature scent in a body spray

64. Learn to make herbal infusions

65. Learn to make infused oils

66. Learn to make herbal decoctions

67. Learn to make tinctures

68. Learn to make mouthwashes

Spirit Work

69. List the Spirits you can think to work with

a. Ancestors

i. Do you have an item that belonged to them?

b. Flora, Fauna & the Land

c. Planets

i. Where are they in your chart?

70. How can one connect with the spirit of a/an;

a. Ancestor

b. Plant or tree

c. Natural body of water

d. Fairies

e. Planet

71. What type of offerings would you provide different spirits?

a. Ancestors

b. Plants or trees

c. A natural body of water

d. Fairies

e. A planet

72. Take what you’ve learned above and try connecting with spirits;

a. An Ancestor

b. A plant or tree

c. A natural body of water

d. Fairies

e. A Planet

Shadow work

73. Look at your chart;

a. Moon, house

b. 12th house, ruler

c. Saturn

d. Chiron

e. Hard aspects

74. Research Jungian Archetypes and determine which ones fit you.

a. What are your shadows? How can you work on them?

75. Research Myers-Briggs personality types and determine which one fits you.

Personal Maintenance & Glamour

76. Hydrate – your body, brain, Earth and the Moon are mainly water

77. Eat of the Earth

78. Create a soothing bedtime ritual

79. Create a morning ritual that you look forward to

a. ‘Bubble up’ ideas

b. Make a list of Affirmations

c. Gratitude candles

d. Print a checklist

80. Exercise – hike, bike, lift

a. Make a list of your favourite dog walking spots

b. Make a list of your favourite hiking spots

c. Make a list of your favourite biking spots

81. Meditate daily – even if it’s just a few minutes

82. List best hair care practices

83. List best skin care practices

CULMINATING PROJECTS

84. Make a detailed Calendar or “Wheel” with your individualized plans for the next year. (June 1, 2022-June 1, 2023)

85. Write your Grimoire – Create a tidy book of the information that you will use in your craft.

a. Your personalized Holiday/Sabbat celebrations, dates, symbols, etc

b. The basics that make up the foundation of your craft

c. The various workings you do/intend to use

d. Spells

e. Correspondences

f. The tools of your craft

g. Your completed birth chart interpretation

h. Moon Rituals

i. Personal Tarot card meanings, spreads

j. A guide to your Runes, Bones, or whatever divination set you may have made or acquired (#39)

k. Crystal practices, information pages

l. Plant information

m. Essential Oil information

n. Recipes

o. Spirit information, communication records

p. Shadow work and a plan to work on your shadows

q. Your ideal day

r. Your ideal week

[janedrewfinally]

Pretty much everybody can agree that one of the amazing things about “Word of Honor” is the fact that Wen Kexing goes from 0 to 200 on the flirting scale in the space of about 2. 5 seconds. Like… Wen Kexing’s thirst is its own character by Episode Three (on the other hand, Episode Three also sees Zhou Zishu engage in entirely unnecessarily extensive hand-contact in order to snag a jug of wine in the most ridiculous way possible, so. You know. There’s that).

But what I also find really interesting is the 2.5 seconds before we get to that point, because it’s actually not immediate. Really, really, fast, but not instant.

And, considering how fast it happens, it’s fascinating to see how Wen Kexing gets there.

Because the thing is, when we first meet Wen Kexing (Great Philanthropist Edition), he’s enjoying a nice afternoon in a tavern, very elegantly drinking wine, thinking about his complicated revenge plots, possibly kind of bored but also, you know, Gu Xiang is getting this experience out in the human world on a nice day in a decent restaurant with opportunities to people-watch and learn things, and he’s happy to indulge her, and besides that the wine is pretty good as he is cheerfully waiting for the mayhem as soon as whichever one of the Ten Devils is going to make a move actually makes their move.

The Mirror Lake Sect is the smallest, and the weakest; he’s confident that he’s guessed right about where the chaos is going to start.

And he’s not really… it’s not that he’s not paying attention when Gu Xiang points out the not-a-beggar across the street drinking wine in the gutter, but he’s not the one who notices him first (hilariously, when he does see him and correctly identifies what he’s doing, it’s Zhou Zishu whose face sharpens into alarmed alertness; he did NOT sign on for this “mortifying ordeal of being perceived” nonsense and does not want it). But even then, Wen Kexing isn’t invested- it’s fun to cheerfully indulge A-Xiang, his precious girl who hasn’t had this kind of experience before, but it’s not important. Like… he’s got a lot on his mind. Finish the wine, feel smug that nobody knows who he is, pay some more groups of kids to run around reciting the second half of the nursery rhyme, remind A-Xiang that human girls do not (??) jump off second-floor balconies when they want to get someplace…

Until Zhou Zishu moves, and Wen Kexing, suddenly very much engaged, stands up and stares.

Afterwards, when he thinks about the mysteriously zippy hobo- and it’s worth noting that he has not figured out that Zhou Zishu is in disguise yet- what he thinks to himself is “this man might be the variable; I will see him.” When he is talking with Gu Xiang, he’s clearly speculating about this surprising new development while coolly wondering if she could even do anything against the Swiftly Moving Steps/Passing Cloud Steps, and his tone when he says “Four Seasons Manor” is still very cool. He’s calculating what this might mean within the context of his labyrinthine plans. When Gu Xiang asks him who that man was, he again calls Zhou Zishu a “variable.”

(remember, Wen Kexing doesn’t know what happened to Four Seasons Manor; he doesn’t know about the Window of Heaven; he hasn’t seen the Baiyi sword yet; he hasn’t spent enough time around scruffy drunk hobo dude to pick up on the fact that at least one-and-a-half of those things are fake)

Me: Variable for WHAT? If Zhou Zishu got onto the boat, what was the plan? Because “variable” sounds like Wen Kexing was assuming he could toss out the idea of the Glazed Armor and drop some hints about the World’s Armory and Zhou Zishu would act like every other greedy bastard in the jianghu, with a side of “making trouble for the Five Lakes Alliance.”

I mean, after the flirting fighting in the orchard, Wen Kexing is definitely getting more intrigued and more interested, and not just because the ongoing zippy fighting style has now confirmed SOME SORT of connection to Four Seasons Manor (and also because Zhou Zishu should clearly have found the offer of drinks and Wen Kexing's own company on a fancy boat irresistible, and Wen Kexing is basically one of those cats that heads directly for people who are allergic).

(side note: I would love to read the fic where Zhou Zishu gets on the boat and allows Wen Kexing to make his doubtless over-dramatic pitch about the Glazed Armor while Zhou Zishu seriously considers whether it's worth it to just jump overboard and swim for his original destination)

When everything is on fire, Wen Kexing is doing what he later does during the first Hero’s Conference- stand back (well, lean back picturesquely in an architectural feature while fanning himself and drinking and making meaningful eye contact without speaking) and watch the chaos, except with no emotional breakdown and very little emotional investment- aside from taking a moment to save his newly-discovered variable/possible connection to his past from a couple of ghosts.

But it really takes that night in the abandoned temple to cement his stalking interest and dial things all the way up to eleven, because it’s then that:

1) Scruffy drunk hobo dude, who he already saw save the life of an old man and a child who he just met, does it again, for no reward or reason.

2) Scruffy drunk hobo dude has the Baiyi sword? Scruffy drunk hobo dude … gives a name for himself that just might mean that this… is really….???

3) Scruffy drunk hobo dude just promised to take on the responsibility of protecting this random child he just met and making sure he gets to safety (and that has got to hit really, really hard, considering Wen Kexing’s past).

4) Scruffy drunk hobo really knows how to flirt spar in order to protect the random child and it’s very, very sexy.

5) Hang on, pretty sure scruffy drunk hobo dude must be secretly hot. And in an amazing disguise, which is like… an extra layer of absolute Wen Kexing catnip.

6) Secretly hot dude scoffed at the entire idea of the Glazed Armor and all the fabulous prizes to be won if you could get access to the World’s Armory. Secretly hot dude has the same view of this nonsense that Wen Kexing himself does? (Wen Kexing’s heart eyes about this can pretty much be seen from up on Changming Mountain).

AND to top it all off, secretly hot dude who might be… he might be…. Anyway, secretly hot dude once again refuses all boat-related offers even though they would make his life easier (Zhou Zishu: No, they definitely would not) and heads out, and at this point, he and his sexy, sexy shoulder blades stand no chance against the power of Wen Kexing’s thirst.

Which, frankly, Wen Kexing was not expecting when he woke up this morning and decided that spending the day in a tavern people-watching with A-Xiang would be harmless fun.

[therealvinelle]

Supernatural fanfiction masterpost

Thought I’d make one.

I should mention that all of these fics feature Castiel in one way or another. Yes, every single one. And that these recs are almost exclusively from seasons 4 and 5.

As with the Twilight fic rec post, additions will be made to the post through edits.

All-time favorites

A Virtuous Man by what-we-dream Castiel and the Seven Virtues.

Beggars and Choosers by tawg Season 5 AU. Castiel steps out every now and then, leaving Jimmy with the Winchesters. Jimmy finds he’s not entirely human anymore.

Farewell to Everest by Aenisses Thai Castiel visits Amelia.

Loyalty by what-we-dream Set shortly after “On the Head of a Pin”, Heaven is turning on itself and this becomes Dean’s problem. Chapter 1, chapter 2.

Star of the Morning by what-we-dream Set shortly after “The Rapture”. Castiel is forcibly ejected from Jimmy Novak, and must possess Dean instead. Chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 4, chapter 5, chapter 6, chapter 7, chapter 8.

Vigilence by KatZenSPN John, Castiel, time travel, and Terminator plots.

Without a Map by jaimekay, Las Set during season 5. Dean comes along for Castiel’s God hunt for a couple of days. There is beautiful artwork!

Angels

A game you want to lose by tawg Castiel finds a way to use his grace to hustle.

Choice by elementalv Joshua offers Castiel asylum.

Come They Told Me Emerald Embers Uriel, Castiel, and the moments in between missions.

Conversational by riversrunthroughme Castiel keeps running into the Devil.

Getting a Word in Edgewise by elementalv Castiel and Dean run into God.

Goosie Goosie Gander by Anniehow Castiel and Uriel save a baby. Now they have a baby.

Heck If I Know by INMH That time Castiel almost stepped on the fish.

Just An EarthBound Misfit, I by Celtic Amazon Set during “The Song Remains the Same”. Castiel travels back to the present.

Seeking Revelation by peroxidepest17 Castiel the archangel seeks Revelation in the only way angels can after God departed from Heaven.

Sell Your Soul to Me by INMH Rachel/Castiel, Rachel/Crowley. Rachel will do anything for her beliefs and for Castiel.

The Peculiar Thing About Castiel by riversrunthroughme Gabriel and Michael discuss their curious brother.

Those Who Favor Fire by suchanadorer Castiel/Lucifer. Lucifer longs to be with something holy again.

Witness by xaara Castiel, Uriel, and every first born in Egypt.

Crack

25¢ pocket guardian angels by hopelessheathen Easily one of fandom’s weirder fics, yet it’s weirdly good. The premise is well executed, and Castiel, who in this AU is a species the author made up, has an elaborate yet effective reproductive cycle. It’s really funny, not at all gross.

Destiel by entanglednow Castiel and Dean have a nephilim. It takes after Castiel.

I Won’t Ask for More Emerald Embers Twilight crossover. Castiel is vampire catnip, and Bella gets cuckolded.

Monster of the Week/Adventure

Drink Up, Dreamers by xaara There’s an apocalypse happening in the distance, strange things happening in a town, and Dean is tripping.

It’s All In the Details by Colleen Castiel prevents Dean going to hell by travelling back in time, passing himself off as a crossroads demon, and then making Dean sell his soul to him instead. The problem? He has to pass himself off as a crossroads demon, and let Dean believe he’s going to hell.

Starting From the End of Times by Anniehow The author got impatient in the Summer after the season 4 finale and wrote their own resolution to the cliffhanger. The result is much better than what the show wound up doing.

Novaks

Dry Bones by Las Claire has a thing about skeletons.

Fiat Lux by Las Claire says yes to being Castiel’s vessel. Jimmy despairs.

Instrument by rabbitprint Jimmy contemplates what angels are, and what it means to be possessed.

Weighed Down by Jenny Bartley Castiel contemplates the impracticalities of his vessel.

Winchesters

A Strange Ruin by KatZenSPN “Lazarus Rising” AU. Dean came back wrong.

Arbitratus by psiChic Season 4. Castiel and Sam discuss Sam’s demon powers.

Fire on Both Sides by Laura of Maychoria Castiel explains angels to Dean.

Jericho After many decades in the Cage, Lucifer finds a brand new way to torture Sam.

Knights, Kings, and Sparrows by BlueIris08 Set right after “Heaven and Hell”. Sam has a theological bone to pick with Castiel. Sequel here.

One Tequila, Two Tequila, Three Tequila, Fuck You Dean. by tawg Sam and Castiel get drunk and complain about Dean.

Please Leave a Message by whatwedream Dean grows old with Lisa.

Remember the Amalek by FraidyCat Set shortly after “On the Head of a Pin”. Castiel tells Dean about Uriel.

Stray Thoughts and Sleeping Angels by Daylight Sam contemplates what his life has become.

What Profits the Angels by BlueIris08 Set during “On the Head of a Pin”. Castiel contemplates Sam’s soul and mourns Uriel.

Other

Other Echoes by Secondary The world has ended and Ruby and Castiel are left as the only survivors.

WHEW.

And the truly sad thing is I’ll be adding more fics as I find/remember them.

[frementuskenraider]

The Facts Were these: My Sanity List

Fed my puppies (Milo and Toffee) and played with them outside for what seemed like forever until they told me in no uncertain terms that it was naptime. So now they're in their kennel sleeping. Saving me one belly scratch at a time.

Episode 6 of Pushing Daisies Season 1.

A teaspoon of Peanut butter with my coffee.

Ville Valo in that interview - you know which one.

Cleaned out my room and did laundry.

The little things I couldn't do 5 days ago.

I have 3 job interviews tomorrow - I just hope I don't self-sabotage and just bail on them. I'm trying to stay calm and not psyche myself out of it. The electric boogaloo into avoidance and isolation is like catnip to my depression.

Baby steps

[floatingcatacombs]

Evaluting Gatchaman Crowds Through Rui’s Outfits

12 Days of Aniblogging 2020, Day 1

Oh, I’m fashionably late to this one. Gatchaman Crowds is a 2013 superhero anime that serves as a soft reboot of the old tokusatsu franchise, only now with 21st century shitty anime tropes. From this painfully generic setup emerges a surprisingly layered evaluation of technological disruption in the smartphone era. For this reason, Crowds is a favorite amongst anime bloggers as a superhero work that’s actually trying to do something interesting.

Unfortunately I don’t care about any of these guys

But it’s also a favorite amongst all sorts of weirdos because of the character Rui Ninomiya. A horrifying amalgamation of the technolibertarian CEO and trans femme hacker archetypes, Rui is by far the most interesting character in the show, because they’re a surprisingly prescient look at how the tech industry will function throughout the 2010s. But they’re also a ‘boy’ who never leaves their house without dressing in the most girly clothes imaginable. Predictably, this is catnip for me. But the funniest part of the whole situation is that nobody ever addresses it. Rui never provides an explanation for their outfits and the rest of the cast just uses she/her until they properly get acquainted and switch to he/him.

I could tell you that Rui’s obviously trans and wrap up the post right there, but that’s honestly not the most interesting angle of attack here. So I’m just going to use whatever pronouns I feel like in the moment for them and focus on what really matters: fashion! Rui has a surprisingly large wardrobe throughout the show, so I’ll be doing the heavy lifting of ranking each of her outfits. Oh, and also maybe a little analysis of what she represents. Spoilers for the whole show, of course.

7. The Yellow Dress

Let me lay out Rui’s ideology before I lay into their fashion disaster. You see, they’re a tech disruptor who believes that governments and bureaucracies are too slow to achieve the monumental (yet unspecified) change that society needs. So, they preside over a smartphone app called GALAX that successfully predicts Pokemon Go’s geosocial AR gimmick three years early. GALAX is a technolibertarian’s wet dream – crowdsourced emergency response, interest-based meetups, and matchmaking for people who need specific help and the people who can help them, all deeply gamified.

Their outfit here is about as messy as their politics, but at the same time, what a look. She’s got blue-and-white-striped programming thigh highs on under her combat boots, which are both such trans iconography, you know? While they may just be a reflection of early-2010s 4chan crossdressing culture, it’s also totally possible that Rui directly influenced or reinforced trans girl fashion, like the accelerationist she is. What a prescient show, in all sorts of weird ways.

6. Lace-up Dress with Bunny Ears

It wouldn’t be an anime girl cosplay without some bunny ears, now would it? Rui spends 5 minutes in an early episode just wandering around the city in this outfit, listening to people’s conversations and feelings on GALAX. There’s something very funny about how nobody even notices them, like they’re completely invisible despite their ridiculous outfit. This actually factors back into the tech stuff! Like pretty much every tech company, Rui’s app and vision are both sleek and shiny but rely on tremendous amounts of dirty labor kept as hidden as possible. From Amazon’s inhumane warehouse conditions to Facebook’s trauma-inducing moderator farms to Apple’s child labor-tainted supply chains, there’s always suffering humans behind the too-good-to-be-true magic of tech companies. Rui’s lie by omission is failing to mention that the app relies on invisible extradimensional beings called CROWDS that are manually controlled by underpaid workers to assist its users. One of the workers comes to Rui challenging their vision and arguing that they should be sharing this tech with the movers and shakers of the world, not trying to keep it invisible. He threatens a collective walkout and Rui fires him. At this point, we’re not even operating on metaphors.

5. Green Business Casual

Sure, most tech companies have cruel labor underbellies, but there’s also the separate risk of moral rot. It’s what causes Microsoft to take on ICE contracts and Google to develop censored versions of their search engine at the whims of authoritarians. Many tech companies start off with an altruistic message, but without a serious ethical core, they will start doing a whole lot of evil as they bend to financial and other pressures. Rui’s version of this is extremely literal: she made a deal with the devil to gain the ability to use the CROWDS and launch her app. Except this devil is also a butch gender-noncomforming alien (there is a Lot of other gender going on in this show that I don’t even have time for) and the two of them seem to have an extremely fucked-up relationship. Like any good Faustian bargain or any bad attempt at raising more venture capital without a viable business model, eventually the whole thing comes tumbling down and now you’re doing something terribly fucked up. Rui looks good in a dress shirt, at least!

4. Whatever your abusive partner puts on when she body-snatches you

Of course the center won’t hold, GALAX is subject to a hostile takeover, and to nobody’s surprise, an app with the flimsy promise to change the world for the better can actually be way better at ripping it all apart. I guess the prescient social media parallel here is Facebook being used to propagate Myanmar’s ethnic cleansing, or really anything related to Twitter for the last 5 years. FuckedUpAlienMimic!Rui sure does have cute fangs and a way more refined fashion sense though. I don’t feel like looking into that one.

3. Business....Futch?

I know I’m not done outlining Rui’s arc, but I’m going to skip ahead for a moment to say that Gatchaman Crowds also has a second season! I’m largely ignoring it here because Rui is pretty much stripped of all plot relevance and most of her outfits are less exciting, but I had to include this one. For two episodes, she puts on bright yellow stirrup leggings and an oversized polo shirt, with a cute ponytail to boot. It’s a ridiculous look, but still feels really evocative to me. Sometimes a girl just has to put together completely uncoordinated outfits and see what happens.

Unlike the disruption-focused first season, Gatchaman Crowds season two, which aired in 2015, is about how unfettered technolibertarianism can easily descend into fascism. Goddammit.

2. The Bunny Ears Outfit Again Oh God Who Hurt Her

The weight of the world comes crashing down in Rui’s hands, she’s bruised and beaten in a surprisingly sadistic manner by her alien ex-business partner/girlfriend, and she’s locked out of her own company which is very quickly causing society to fall apart. So what does she do? She puts the bunny dress back on, and wanders the streets again until she has to call upon the powers that be to fix her own mess. It’s silly that the powers that be in this world are superheroes, but I bet you forgot that this was technically a superhero show at this point. Anyways, my extended metaphor is quickly drifting off course, but I guess this is the part where Rui gets grilled by Congress and slapped with an antitrust case.

1. Every Trans Girl Stereotype Rolled Into One

I’ve been incredibly harsh on Rui throughout this writeup, because I’m harsh on the industry she represents, but I’ll make it up with this section. Look at what she’s wearing! A choker, the gothiest Hot Topic dress imaginable, arm warmers, no less than three asymmetric garters not even holding up anything, and the tallest black boots she could find. It’s incredible! If the first outfit on this list was hinting at her relationship to stereotypical trans fashion, then this outfit just screams it. It’s the perfect goth femme hacker look, a style commitment I have no choice but to respect.

Gatchaman is a weird show. After spending most of its runtime thoroughly dunking on tech disruptors for being too optimistic and uncritical, it takes a last-minute turn into Lockean state of nature arguments. It settles on “the masses are inherently good enough that empowering people through technology shouldn’t ever be a problem”, ignoring all the suffering that happened due to Rui’s unwillingness to curate their own technology. I’d give Gatchaman Crowds an average rating, but it’s one of those interesting average ratings where instead of being milquetoast, they tried something and failed and wrote themselves into a corner. But hey, at least there’s an interestingly gendered character!

[ranma-rewatch]

Episode 20: You Really Do Hate Cats!

(CONTENT WARNING: This blog post contains discussion of phobias, child abuse, and people doing the worst thing to intensify those problems. Those things are in the show, I didn’t just bring them up out of nowhere.)

Well, it’s that time again. Time to grab a balloon and tell my friends what I think of an episode of Ranma 1/2. We’re starting the first arc of season two with this episode, though oddly enough I feel like I mostly remember what stuff is going to happen in it. But maybe I don’t remember right? I’d love it if that is the case. Though...speaking of that...there is a certain character I have dreaded appearing in this series, and I’d hoped he wouldn’t appear for a while, but I checked and he appears this season. I...I thought I had more time. Oh well, let’s do this episode and I’ll worry about him when he gets here.

Okay, well, for the most part, this episode is actually a lot better than I remember it being. As it turns out, some of the details mutated in my head in the decade since I last saw it, and I actually thought things were worse than they were.

The episode starts in the Kuno manor, where our favorite swordsman is practicing to once again fight Ranma Saotome. But he’s not alone, because for the first time we meet Kuno’s henchman, Sasuke. He’s a ninja, and he’ll do whatever Kuno tells him to do, but he probably won’t do it very well.

From there, we see Ranma’s dad is training him in stupid ways again, and they get back to the house to find Shampoo has mailed Ranma something from China: a pink cat. That’s a problem, because Ranma has a severe cat phobia. It’s not random, either, Genma directly created it. See, when Ranma was 6, Genma thought he should teach his son Cat Fu, which he heard about from an ancient martial arts manuscript. The way to teach it is to cover the disciple in fish sausage and through them into a room with starving cats.

Obviously, that just ended up traumatizing Ranma, and the very next page of the book would have told Genma that training someone that way is very stupid. Kasumi, drawing on the common misunderstandings people have about exposure therapy, thinks that just inviting a ton of cats to be around will help, but of course it doesn’t, it makes Ranma even more distressed. Sasuke is hiding under the floorboards though, and he runs off to tell Kuno about Ranma’s weakness.

At first, Kuno says something about how he could never cowardly use an opponent’s weakness to unfairly win, but then he still makes Sasuke tell him about it, because he can still use it to win in an honorable way. The plan they go for is pretty ridiculous: they leave a note in Ranma’s locker that Akane’s been kidnapped, and he has to go to the gym to save her. But Akane is standing next to Ranma as he reads the note, so he knows that’s not true.

He goes anyway out of curiosity, only to find Sasuke there dressed up as Akane. With the wrong color wig. Even though the trap keeps failing, Ranma walks into it anyway because he has nothing better to do, until he realizes what is going on: cats. But Ranma manages to fight the fear and pretend he’s okay, hoping to just take Akane out of there, but then it becomes clear Sasuke took the extra step of also bringing an enormous tiger.

That’s when we cut back to Genma and Kasumi, and the old man explains that he tried curing Ranma of his phobia, but his way of doing so was to just keep throwing him at hungry cats, only changing the type of food attached to his body. All of it just made the problem worse, but it also actually led to Ranma developing Cat Fu. When Ranma gets scared enough, his mind just let’s go and he mentally becomes a cat.

That happens in the basement of the school, making it easy for him to beat the tiger and escape, just in time to kick Kuno’s butt without even trying. But he doesn’t stop there, and starts running around the school still acting like a cat. Akane follows him just as the dads show up. Genma says the only way to break Ranma out of it when he was a kid was with the help of a kindly old lady, but she’s dead. So, Genma tries dressing up and doing it himself. That fails, so they try catnip, forgetting that Ranma just thinks he’s a cat, so the stuff doesn’t really affect him.

The situation does kind of solve itself, as Ranma doesn’t attack Akane, as she’s afraid of, but instead curls up in her lap to purr. The whole school is watching, so that’s embarrassing for her, but then he kisses her and she freezes for a second before throwing Ranma into the school pool. Oh, and the pink cat is watching and didn’t like that. The curse activating returns his brain to normal, and Ranma has no clue why he was thrown in a pool. Akane walks home, cursing Ranma for doing that, but sounding conflicted.

So, the big thing I misremembered about this episode was I thought Genma did all the cat stuff with 0 thoughts about how it would affect Ranma and not giving a crap how it affected his son. That is actually not the case, he’s clearly really torn up about the phobia, though he still says some bad stuff about Ranma being ‘unmanly’ for having a phobia. He even tried to cure Ranma, a few times. It’s just that, well, his actions still traumatized Ranma. Sufficient ignorance is indistinguishable from malice, as they say. Genma is still, on the whole, abusive to Ranma in my opinion, but he’s not as bad as he could have been, I have to admit.

This was also just a funny episode. The comedy largely worked, even if some of the jokes didn’t quite land. Kuno and Sasuke were especially good, and I found Ranma fighting his fear both humorous and kind of inspiring. The man has a hell of a willpower. Not going to lie, the Cat-Ranma just immediately going for Akane’s lap and then kissing her was cute, I really liked that. Of course, I’m a sucker for anything with them, so I’m an easy mark there.

It’s also interesting how this works as the first part of a large arc, because if you didn’t know that was the case I can imagine thinking this was just a standalone episode. The pink cat was the impetus for the plot, but it’s what will drive the coming episodes forward.

One thing I found annoying was how different the dub and sub were this time around, in terms of script. The dub had a lot more bashing of Ranma for being scared of cats, including from Akane. That isn’t in the subtitled version at all, and I thought the episode worked a lot better there. I’m always a fan of taking liberties with a localization in order to make the story work better in the new country, but I don’t think we needed Akane insulting Ranma for his trauma.

Hey, a Character Spotlight again! Haven’t had one of these in a bit, and this one is for Sasuke Sarugakure. Let’s start with his voice actors. In the English dub, he’s voiced by Robert O. Smith. Does that name sound familiar? It should, I talked about him recently, since he’s the one who voiced Genma Saotome in the dub as well. His voice for Sasuke is extremely comedic, going for an over-the-top pathetic voice. He makes Sasuke just sound like comic relief, which he is. What’s interesting is what the other actor does with him.

In Japanese, he’s played by Shigeru Chiba, another voice actor from this show in Japan who is just known for a billion things. Standouts include Buggy the Clown in One Piece, Emperor Pilaf and Raditz in the Dragon Ball franchise, and dubbing over John de Lancie as Discord in the Japanese dub of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I was completely shocked to hear him play Sasuke with more gravitas, using a very serious voice that one would expect from a ninja, which clashed perfectly with the situations and his character design to make the comedy far better than in the dub. One of those rare times I’m actually preferring the Japanese version!

As a character, Sasuke is interesting because he’s not in the manga at all. For reasons none seem to know, the creative team for the anime decided to delay introducing minor character Hikaru Gosenkugi, and replaced him with Sasuke. We’ll get to Hikaru when he appears, but I don’t really mind Sasuke’s addition to the show. Giving Kuno a henchman just makes his dynamic even better, and there’s something I just really like to Sasuke’s almost naive way of trying to plot and scheme. I don’t actually have any deep analysis, at least not as of yet, just wanted to give him a moment in the Spotlight for being something interesting.

I didn’t expect to like this episode so much! It wasn’t great, there were parts I didn’t care for, but on the whole I’m happy to see my expectations overcome. I’m putting this episode in the middle of the pack, at the #10 slot. It was fun, but it has a lot of better episodes when it comes to making me smile. (Or cry.)

Episode 7: Enter Ryoga, the Eternal ‘Lost Boy’  

Episode 12: A Woman's Love is War! The Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics Challenge!

Episode 15: Enter Shampoo, the Gung-Ho Girl! I Put My Life in Your Hands

Episode 9: True Confessions! A Girl's Hair is Her Life!

Episode 2: School is No Place for Horsing Around

Episode 19: Clash of the Delivery Girls! The Martial Arts Takeout Race

Episode 6: Akane's Lost Love... These Things Happen, You Know

Episode 13: A Tear in a Girl-Delinquent's Eye? The End of the Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics Challenge!

Episode 17: I Love You, Ranma! Please Don’t Say Goodbye

Episode 20: You Really Do Hate Cats!

Episode 16: Shampoo's Revenge! The Shiatsu Technique That Steals Heart and Soul

Episode 8: School is a Battlefield! Ranma vs. Ryoga

Episode 11: Ranma Meets Love Head-On! Enter the Delinquent Juvenile Gymnast!

Episode 4: Ranma and...Ranma? If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another

Episode 5: Love Me to the Bone! The Compound Fracture of Akane's Heart

Episode 1: Here’s Ranma

Episode 3: A Sudden Storm of Love

Episode 10: P-P-P-Chan! He's Good For Nothin'

Episode 14: Pelvic Fortune-Telling? Ranma is the No. One Bride in Japan

Episode 18: I Am a Man! Ranma's Going Back to China!?

Next time we’ll continue this tale with "This Ol' Gal's the Leader of the Amazon Tribe!" which, as you might guess from the title, will introduce a new character. This one’s actually from the manga! See you then, y’all.

[therestlesswitch]

✨🎄Witchy Wishlist 2019🎄✨🕯

I’m doing it, friends! I’m going to participate in this year’s Witchy Wishlist tradition again! I received a letter one year  through this tradition that lives in the backpack I travel with. ✨ Here’s @hellboundwitch​‘s post about this year’s event!

And well, not gunna lie, I could really use the help this year. It’s been a 1-income household here for most of the year and my income is very small. But I do love this tradition, and I love sending witches letters or other things from their lists that are doable for me. So, I invite you to come and celebrate the Solstice Season with us and exchange gifts of whatever denomination is accessible for you right now. No gift is any less appreciated than another ✨

I’m in Ontario, Canada, so keep that in mind!

1. Here’s my Amazon wishlist, and while I would really love and appreciate anything from it, I’d appreciate it even more if you bought it from a small or independant business instead of amazon. I’m not sure how possible that is, but if you need my shipping address for this list, message me, please!

2. Honestly, financial support would be the biggest gift. I really need to replace my laptop, and I really really can’t afford to do that. But without a laptop...a lot of things become impossible for me including all my witchy online stuff, running the etsy shop and my day job. So.. long the best gift would be to be able to afford to upgrade my ancient technology.  but there are ways of helping me do this without it being a straight gift or donation! you can get a lot of great perks as a Patreon supporter, or you can purchase from my Etsy shop TheRestlessWitch, or you can request a tarot reading, or of course donate through ko-fi or paypal. 

3. Practical witchy things that I use every day are things like candles and incense. So anything related to those things would be so welcome.

4. Honey! I’m going to be making medicinal herbal honeys! And that means the biggest expense will likely be the honey. Plus I love tasting honey from different bioregions.

5. Cannabis/cannabis accessories! Cannabis is my biggest medicine. I use it daily to mitigate anxiety, depression, chronic migraines and horrific cramps. It’s also the most pricey recurring expense I have. I’m in Ontario, where we have the OCS, but I have no clue if they offer online gift cards  because I can’t spot them on the site. Or cannabis accessories like glass pieces (pipes/bubblers/bongs) (my only glass pipe broke a long while ago and i haven’t been able to replace her )papers, lighters, hemp wick, hemp wraps etc. Anything to supplement the cost of that medicine would be so loved.

6. Your favourite treat/coffee/or tea. I love learning about people and cultures through their food. So if you want to share a snack with me physically or tell me about one, I’d love it so much!

7. I love a bath as a potion. So bath bombs or other bath and body products would be fun!

8.  Stones/crystals, any kind. Even a pretty rock you found on a walk.

9. Handmade anything! Do you draw? I’d love a little sketch, Do you make felted or sculpey figures? So great! Do you write? I’d love a letter or poem! Mostly I just like getting mail, regardless of what it is.

10. Do something for your community and tell me about it! Did you teach a seminar at a community centre? Make an art piece for public display? Donate time or money to your local food pantry or shelter? (Quick tip that a monetary donation to a food pantry will always be a better use of your dollars than a food-item donation!) Did you shovel your neighbour’s sidewalk? Maybe you’re in the other hemisphere and you’re working in your community garden? Do something! Anything! Tell me all about it! i love hearing tales of hope for our communities!

111. Seeds! Veggie seeds, herb seeds, flower seeds. Seeds of all kinds! I’m a big old garden witch. I specifically love Baker Creek seeds, and Heritage Harvest seeds but any seed is a good seed!

12. Here’s my Etsy favourites, but I really appreciate anything from a small business/crafter!

13. I’m having troubling coming up with the last one, so I’ll add something for my pets. My Sheltie, Rüya is raw fed, so freeze dried treats, or pork-hide chews/bully sticks, pig’s ears are good. anything that’s protein and 1-ingredient and he’ll will love you forever! Or of course toys! And for Calcifer, my cat and familiar, she’d love a catnip toy, or any freeze-dried treats like Ruya has. She’s gotten to be a serious fiend for catnip and snacks...little needy mc.needpants. I also have two rabbits and a turtle and I don’t want them to feel left out, so if you want to contribute to getting them some special fruit or veggies for some special meals, that would be fun! Or tell me what your rabbit or turtle’s (red eared slider) favourite treat or meal is!

if you need my mailing address for this list, message me, please! Keep in mind, I’m in Ontario Canada. 🇨🇦✨

Bright Holidays, Witches! ✨ I hope you can manage to find some quiet peace despite the typical break-neck pace of the season.

[mattmurdocksscars]

Hii sweety ❤️ 2, 6(tips are verry welcome 😂) 12 , 22, 24, 27 and 29. Sorry there are so many, you don't have to do them all if you don't want to! I love you sweety! Lots of love ❤️❤️❤️😘😘😘

2)  how many houseplants in your room, and what kinds are they? HA, yeah I have no houseplants, except the succulent and cactus I keep outside. I did, at one point, have a small container garden that I grew tomatoes, parsley, cilantro, catnip, and bell peppers in. But that’s the best I got.

6)  how you get relaxed when you’re struggling to sleep? This is going to sound bad...but I don’t. Sometimes, hubby will try to come lay with me and hold me, but for the most part, I don’t really have a way to relax to sleep. I just don’t get a lot of sleep, tbh.

12)  if you could make a candle that smelt like anything, what would you pick? Probably one that smelled like one of my fave characters or something. Like, I know people do that now and stuff but idk. I think it would be cool to have one that actually smells like Pietro or Poe or Bucky etc.

22)  if you were going to dye your hair any colour of the rainbow, what would you choose? If work wasn’t a thing or money or upkeep, I would totally die my hair blue. Like mermaid blue. And it would be fantastic.

24)  describe the most wacky, weird and wonderful at-home outfit you’ve put together? Um, I literally walk around in a tshirt and underwear 😬 Sometimes, if I’m cold, I wear pants. So I’ve never really had anything wacky or weird lol

27)  your favourite flavour and brand of tea? So, I’m boring. I really just like to drink chamomile.  Although, Teavana does have an incredible tea called Beach Bellini that I absolutely love.

29)  a favourite easy recipe: 5 ingredients or less, or takes less than 30 min to make. Crockpot Fajitas. Chicken, Fajita Seasoning, Peppers, Onions. BOOM. Leave ‘em on Low for like 7-8 hours. So fucking good. I used to make them when I hosted game night.

Thanks for the questions love!!!