#she's currently going ham on a little spring she found | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

kadavernagh · 2 months

Text

How to train your banshee || Regan & Hamstring

TIMING: Current LOCATION: Saol Eile PARTIES: Regan & Hamstring SUMMARY: Regan and Hamstring train to become something they're not. CONTENT: Self-harm, domestic abuse

“That isn't how this ends,” Regan said, her eyes sharp and piercing against the child's hope, “you leave; I stay. I will decide what to do about this before then, and before you know what it means to break.”

Regan was dead weight against the doorframe. The old wood croaked, but Cliodhna knew she was there regardless. Forget fae sense, she had a sharpened intuition for when her granddaughter needed that final nudge toward defeatism. There always was a little more that could give. The day Cliohdna presented Regan with her own knife and told her that she could be trusted to carry on from here had probably been a mistake. She had a warning that came with it – do not be tempted to lighten your grip. At first, Regan hadn’t. She didn’t think so. Her grandmother disagreed. Their evening ritual was such that she found what remained, sensing weakness like a shark to blood, and eviscerated the rest.

And so she zeroed in on Regan’s hope before Regan knew it existed.

“What are you waiting for?” Cliodhna did not spare her granddaughter a glance as she asked. The teapot was of greater importance.

The ham child was already waiting outside, but even if she hadn’t been, her grandmother’s switch back to Irish made this an inhospitable conversation for her. Regan was eager to spare her whatever she could. But this… was confusing.

Regan blinked. She knew not to formulate it as a question. “You said she begins training today.”

Not even a sigh from her grandmother, or a flick of her wings in acknowledgement. She poured her tea into a plastic cup, her back resolutely turned. “Yes, yes, I know what I said. I am not training her. You will.”

It was like a strike across the face. Regan flinched involuntarily. So now Cliodhna turned, her black eyes absorbing the emotion she already knew to be present. “What? Do not look so shocked. How many years did you spend toddling around? She can’t even scream yet.”

Regan’s blood ran cold, and Cliodhna’s bored tone hung heavy in the air, unaware of the thorns it possessed (but, of course, her grandmother was never really unaware). She had expected Cliodhna to take charge of the training. Regan stiffened as the memories flooded back with visceral clarity, each lesson a scar in her mind and on her skin. The thought of subjecting anyone to the same – her stomach roiled. The ham child wasn’t even a banshee. Such unforgiving discipline would shatter her, and the child was too young and foolish to see it, which helped no one.

Could… no, Regan snipped the thought away at once. Her grandmother would know, would see it on her face if she let it fully form. That was a thought for outside. For when she was standing in front of the child who she was somehow supposed to turn into a banshee. Who might have already been a bear. Not here. She pushed it back and swallowed her grandmother’s decree, acknowledging it only with a solemn nod.

She needed to get out. Get to the ham child. Explain how this was going to work. Figure out how the feck she’d get her back to Emilio.

“Leanbh?” Regan did not turn, did not let her grandmother see the dread creeping through her. Do not look so shocked, she had said. Of course Cliodha had latched onto the widening of her eyes, every tiny twitch. Regan knew what was coming.

“Do not neglect yourself.”

———

This was not the first time Regan found herself thinking that such an ugly place could be so beautiful. There were seven years of stains beneath her feet, layer upon layer. Yet huge swaths of pink wildflowers were blooming across the dramatic slopes of the moors, bowing to the spring breeze. When she squinted, it could have been Maine’s cragged coastline, or perhaps the carved out meadows nestled in Seven Peaks, dotted with their own native flowers. The salt in the air was similar enough. Regan breathed in deep, thinking that Jade, Elias, Van, or so many others might be doing the same.

There was one person from back home she didn’t have to wonder about. She turned on her heels to face the child, the moors twisting back to ugliness as she looked down at the dark shadow she cast. She felt ugly, too. That was the point, why her grandmother insisted upon this. Already, she could feel her whole demeanor shift, her tone change, her thoughts line up like good little soldiers. It was this place. “You have made everything so much worse,” Regan said quietly, the words sour on her tongue, as she took in the child she was meant to break apart. It was a cruel thing to say, and it was beneficial if it hardened both of them.

Regan set her backpack down in the dirt, a couple grasshoppers flicking themselves away. “I’m sure she explained nothing to you, which is for the best. Limit all time spent with her or any other banshee.” She couldn’t even exclude herself. Regan steeled her gaze, glad for the darkness in her eyes that would conceal any messy complexity. She pulled a small, wooden box and a first aid kit from her bag and rose back up. “Ask your questions. At this rate, you will know everything, and it’s better if it comes from me. I will need a promise from you before we proceed, of course.” She didn’t think the child would like this very much, but they’d made some form of compromise already in the lie they were building up together. “You must promise me that you won’t speak of anything that happens here, on this cliffside, to anyone who is not a banshee. Such restrictions are lifted after a time. But only once you’ve been broken. I was released from mine. In your case, I will consider… after. After this. Whenever this nightmare ends for both of us.”

Her voice grew quieter, but remained unyielding. “I would like for it to not be necessary. Right now, though, you will give me that promise.” The look Regan gave the ham child was grave as she waited for an objection. “It isn’t optional. If you do not promise, I will have to tell my grandmother, and you will die here.” She held the wooden box a little higher. “I do not exaggerate.”

———

'Training today.' The selfie was snapped against the backdrop of uniform white houses that made up Saol Eile, captioned with black text, and promptly posted to the group chat. If you had told Nora last week that she was going to be in Ireland training to be a banshee, she probably would have believed you. Because life is full of twists and turns that lead people down unexpected roads, and she had been planning on following Regan to Ireland for such a long time that she’d made careful plans and packed ahead to be sure she’d have everything she’d need. That being said, it was still a fun and unexpected twist to be introduced as a banshee in need of training to Regan’s fearsome and powerful grandmother who, if Regan was to be believed, always knew what was right for everyone. Nora didn’t get that feeling from the older woman. Surely a woman who knew everything would have already realized she’d been lied to.

Nora was used to the sneering expressions old women kept in reserve for people outside the societal norm. The distaste that was met with her unkempt appearance and piercings doubled with unhelpful comments about her need to shower or some other lightly veiled insult about her personage. Cliodhna looked at Nora with the same cold eyes that she regarded everything else with. Not only that, but she had gone out of her way to give Nora a spare tour guide. From what Nora had gathered, guests were not common in Saol Eile, but if there were guests they were expected to behave as if they belonged and were given tour guides to help them find their way around. Nora's tour guide was a guy named Declan. He was around her age and had lived his whole life in Saol Eile.

As his first act her official tour guide, Declan had taken Nora for a walk around Saol Eile and to a spot that had a good look at the moors, a word she only knew existed because that was what he'd named them in his Irish accent. When he spoke to her he’d smiled. It had been a nice smile. A smile that didn’t have any fear in it, and while Nora wasn’t going to win any awards for reading people any time soon, that smile had seemed genuinely happy to meet her. Sure, he didn't know that Nora was basically fear incarnate, so surely his lack of fear wasn't something Nora could count on. But even as they were saying goodbye, he had smiled at her and told her he'd be taking her for lunch today. A warmth bloomed inside her as she reminisced on the memories. Nora tucked her phone into her pocket, thinking a bit too long on that smile. She almost didn't notice Regan coming up to her. Almost.

"You have made everything so much worse,"

"I get that a lot." Nora forced herself into the present, hardening the blank expression she'd spent years perfecting. "Could have been avoided if you hadn't left the Rest." Nora peeled herself away, readying herself for whatever this training was going to be. There had been nothing on Google to suggest what banshees got up to all day, other than foretell the death of others and scream. What could train a person to repeat those activities was beyond her.

Regan was setting something up, a spew of words dancing around them. Nora tried to follow the path of words, but it was as if Regan was still speaking in Gaelige with Cliodhna. "What do you mean broken?" Nora asked, looking down at the first aid kit and wooden box. "Is this like that Reddit page that thinks people who broke their bones are inferior? But the opposite? We want to break bones here?" Because despite everything Nora had seen, she was still young. Looking at the world through rose-tinted glasses that didn't believe people could be broken. Emilio, for example, a man who she knew nursed hurt and pain that had made him want to keep to himself, still managed to be a source of comfort and kindness in her life. To Nora, people were not broken figuratively, only literally. “There are enough bones around here to break, you guys don’t need to break your own.”

"When the nightmare ends?" Nora echoed the words, hands shoved in her pockets. "So you admit it? We're going back to Wicked's Rest. You're not staying." That was a victory. Regan had stubbornly been telling Nora for months that she could give all her things away because it wouldn't matter, she would never be back. But here it was. The change in tone Nora had been waiting for. When the nightmare ends. Well, Nora wouldn't really call this a nightmare. An interesting vacation, sure, but it had been fun so far. It was going to be more fun now that she knew Regan saw an end to this for both of them. And that end, Nora was sure, was going home.

"So I can't tell Declan?" Declan wasn't a banshee, but he lived among them. Surely that meant the promises didn't include him. How could he live with banshees and not know what they got up to all day? Nora could understand Regan not wanting her to post everything on the website. Everyone was so nosy there, and Nora wouldn't want them getting into the logistics of her cult life either. Which, by the way, Nora had decided this was a cult. There were banshees, knives, and bones everywhere. It was the only way she could explain it. "I mean, fuck Regan, I promise. You don't need to kill me over it." This wasn't Nora's first fae promise, but it was her first one made willingly while knowing that magic would bind her to the promise. Still, knowing the severity of the promise, Nora didn't see it as a big deal. Talking was overrated anyway.

———

Her ribs squeezed impossibly tight against her heart as the child brought up Declan. Again. She didn't know. How could she? Regan wasn't sure what or when to inform her. The girl only saw the moors’ beauty. She saw adventure and discovery and a game to play before her victory, the great rescue. “You can tell Declan.” Regan didn't actually know the boy other than hearing Ham rattle off his name every other hour (no, every hour now), but she knew Donna, and knew why her grandmother was playing matchmaker. Declan knew perfectly well how all of this worked, and Ham had been strung along like any other child would. Regan saw the terrible future unfurling every time Declan's name was mentioned. “I suggest you don't, though. The less time you spend with him, the safer both of you will be. At least pretend you don't like him.” She probably would, right here, with the wrong banshee. Hearts were so easily struck when they dangled from a sleeve, and Ham thought her arms were bare.

The necessary concession of a promise had been forged, though (and with no more sacrilegious talk of breaking bones). “Good.” Regan didn't mean that at all. Nothing about this was good. But she pulled the child's words taut around her fingers and clenched her proverbial fist around them, locking Hamstring's agony, and her own, behind the child’s lips. As it should be, as she was taught.

“Let's just get this over with so you can leave this place.” Saol Eile would not be so easy to leave, but the child didn't know about this field, these cliffs, and the deaths they had seen. Regan’s, for one. She occasionally spotted old blades and strips of leather, coppered dirt and iron bars. It wasn't just her. She thought about that sometimes, those early days when her grandmother was here with her, but she could never bring herself to ask (there was no asking, ever; the obvious was obvious and her grandmother slowly doled out the secrets when she deemed the time right).

Regan opened the wooden box in front of the child’s face. “This is for you. You're not going to use it, but my grandmother would be immediately suspicious if you came home not bearing a knife.” The dagger was attractive with a delicate curve, they always were, but the soft silk padding in the case did nothing to obscure the malice of the blade’s edge. This was not the ornate bear-pommeled one she had given as a gift. It was simple and wickedly sharp, with a thick, plain handle and single cutting edge. A child’s knife, by banshee standards. Regan handed Hamstring the box and picked the dagger up for herself, the sun and cliffsides shining off the metal.

The only sign Regan was about to do something was the slightest quaver of her arm and twitch of her wings. It was as fleeting as her hesitation. She set the blade’s edge against the mat of scars on her palm, and dragged it across. Funny how it no longer hurt, how her own dead nerve endings spared her just as her patients were spared their Y-incisions. It was impossible for her to tell whether she was simply so hardened she felt nothing, or if she truly did feel nothing as an anatomical courtesy. Her fingers did not curl, and her muscles did not tighten. She could see the blood, though, rolling down her wrist, dripping into the dirt.

Regan looked at Hamstring out of the corner of her eye and set the knife back on the white silk padding, which immediately soaked red. “I will not do this to you.” The defiant edge to her voice made her sick. Maybe she really could pick up where she had left off a year ago. With her unbloodied hand, she pulled the first aid kit from her bag and set it open on the ground, unable to meet the child’s eyes for long. She spoke only of business. If there was anything else, she couldn’t remember it right now, it had slipped from her thoughts entirely. “Here. We’re going to put bandages on your hands. If anyone asks, you took the knife to them. We could do your stomach if the hands are an annoyance. Or the thighs. Anywhere sensitive. My grandmother will be watching closely, observing your gait, awaiting your hesitation to use what has been injured, looking for blood on the blade. You will need to make it convincing. Can you do that? You had better. Because I won’t – I can’t–” Her lungs had emptied and she hadn't even realized it. Regan drew in a long breath. It shook her, this time. No, the wind. It was the wind, always so strong here.

Regan looked at Ham with renewed focus. What was the wind to her? Nothing. But possible security breaches were emerging like maggots poking through skin by the day, and she needed to anticipate them. “And don't let Declan see that you didn't do this.”

———

“Whatever.” Nora knew how this was going to end. In fact, Nora knew exactly how this was going to end. It was going to end with both of them back in Wicked’s Rest. Nora would dutifully play the part as Hamstring. Adopting the persona completely and playing the role. But life wasn’t meant to be lived on other’s terms. It was meant to be fought for, and now that Regan was in the trenches of where she didn’t want to be, and she would realize before long, with the not so gentle reminders of Hamstring’s presence, that they could simply go back. The only thing breaking here would be Regan’s resolve to isolate herself.

“Sick.” Hamstring wondered how Declan would react, learning that she was undergoing the training to be a full banshee. He was a human living among them, so he probably wouldn’t be impressed. Would it impress him to know that she was neither a before banshee nor a human but a bugbear pretending? That would be impressive. Regan was still talking, and Hamstring became vaguely aware of what she was saying. Embarrassment crept through her, a shadow gnawing shame into her. Cool girls didn’t like people, and Hamstring was the cool girl. “I don’t like him.” Hamstring informed Regan. “He just shows me around. It’s cool here.” Regan was a cool girl too, if you completely erased the nerd part, or how easy it was to goad her into an argument. There had been multiple times that Hamstring had noted Regan’s ability to keep emotionless. It was another thing they had in common. Regan was probably cool enough not to notice that. Hamstring would need to get cooler.

“Leave this place?” Hamstring pointed to the spot they stood on. “Or this place?” Her hands made a wider gesture, indicating the whole of Ireland. “I don’t mind it here. You know they don’t have the internet? There isn’t a single person here who could recognize me.” The words slipped out of Hamstring’s mouth without the realization that this was secret information she was sharing with Regan. But there was a relief to know that no matter what she said and to who she said it there was no chance she’d be caught in her disguise. No one had recognized her in Wicked’s Rest, and she’d attributed that to the home cut haircut, and the self-given piercings. Two years of walking changed a person, her body, the way she walked. She wished she could say it’d changed her resting face, but her face had always been a master of blank expression. Here, though, people could probably say her name out loud without a chance of overhearing. It was refreshing.

Regan gave Hamstring her second knife. “Banshee two.” Hamstring announced, taking the box Regan was giving to her. The box was going to be hard to carry in her pockets. She’d ditch it in the house. Then Hamstring was forced to watch as Regan cut her knife into her palm. Hamstring let the moment pass in silence, stared at the swelling of blood, looking up at Regan’s emotionless cool girl face, then back down at the cut open palm. Then back up to Regan, who failed at maintaining optimal cool girl. Worry was washing over her as she announced she would not be doing this to Hamstring. Realization dawned over the bugbear, this was the training. Cutting themselves was what banshees were into. Okay, weird, but like she’d been a teenage girl before. This wasn’t unheard of. The ritual of cutting to feel something other than teenage angst. It was something she’d never partook in, but she was aware it existed. Hamstring wondered what banshees were cutting for.

“The palm is a dumb place to do it.” Hamstring announced, shoving the box into Regan’s still bleeding hand. Hamstring ripped up her long sleeves, exposing the soft flesh of her arms. “If I cut my palm, I won’t be able to draw for a while. Arms are fine right?” Hamstring picked up the blade. It was one flick of the wrist; a trail of red was the only thing left. Pain spiraled up her wrist. “Ow.” Hamstring’s face contorted visibly with the pain, just for a moment, before she grasped onto her inner cool girl. “What is this training?” Hamstring finally asked, blood seeping down her arm. She’d been careful where she cut, making sure not to get the arm’s fatal spot. “Can’t you just run triathlons or something for endurance?”

———

How many months had Regan spent trying to bat away her affections for Jade, such foreign knocking in her chest, before they became too much and she gave in to the weakness her grandmother always reminded her remained? Even from the start, Jade had been able to pick out that smitten shine in Regan’s eyes. She knew. Just as Cliodhna did not have to see the ring made for Regan’s finger – left at the house, she could not bring it to this place – to judge her affections. You reek of it, she had said. Was that what Regan was seeing now, on the child’s face? That lightness Ham was trying to push away but could not completely clear from the air or from her expression? She was a child, wasn’t she? Strange as she was, as aloof as she pretended to be, she was young and this was new and her brain had taken flight. Regan needed to ground it again. “Do not love him.” She gave a direct warning to Ham’s insistence, again, that Declan was akin to a tour guide. “If you don’t even like him, then that should be easy, right? Banshee or not, he is a tragedy you can avoid.” For now. Until the next one came around, and Declan’s was once again a tool to be used. That was what Saol Eile was. A shed for tools.

She sighed, reining in her frustration. “You don’t mind it here because you’re only seeing the surface. You think this is some… bucolic vacation. It’s not.” Regan felt a hiss in her mouth, the urge to raise her voice, but that went against the whole point of being here. She suspected any attempt to make Saol Eile ugly to Ham wouldn’t work. She needed to see more, something Regan was strictly opposed to. “And I have never known someone from your generation to be without the internet for long. You’ll grow sick of it. I mean, you won’t, because you’re not staying. But you would.” Wait a second… she lifted a brow. “Why… why should anyone here recognize you? Your art?” It was a strange comment, but the child was strange. She seemed to be implying that others in Wicked’s Rest could have recognized her because of… the internet. Regan’s need for reason grasped for the only thing she could think of – Ham was an eclectic, with her weird breed of dog, living in a crypt. Regan knew her to be an artist, and a skilled one (even if the wall of the apartment was not the most appropriate showcase for those skills). She must have been a famous one, hiding from said fame. If anything good could be said about Saol Eile, it was that you could hide from the world.

Regan wanted to thrash against the excitement on Nora’s face, the eagerness with which she grabbed the box. The child wasn’t getting it, but how could she be expected to? She was not a banshee. She was not a banshee. And her charade was going to be broken in the worst way when Declan spilled his blood for her, his purpose thwarted when the only transformation was going to be one of grief.

“That’s exactly why you do the h–” Regan was too slow. She didn’t anticipate it, the questions or the swipe of the knife. She should have, the second Ham named the blade. It came down quick and left a red ribbon down her arm and Regan cussed under her breath as if it had been her own skin, as if she were human. She latched onto the child’s wrist, flipped it upright, and took stock, tracing the edges through the pooling blood, a doctor when she had no right to be. The incised wound was not near anything important, other than it being on the flesh of a child she was supposed to be protecting. Was that not important? “You foolish– you will not do that again, you understand?” What will Emilio say? She really had made everything so much worse. “You won’t heal quickly, and you’ll bear a reminder of this your whole life. And… and for what purpose? You don’t even know why you just did that.”

Her flinty expression softened – barely – as the child’s mistake turned only into something to mend and be addressed. Her grandmother would have been able to watch this and not move at all, but she was not yet her grandmother. Regan padded up the blood with gauze and stretched a bandage around her arm. A gust of wind swept across the cliffs and nearly blew the strip away before it was secure, like the moors themselves didn’t want Ham to heal from this.

But she would not have it be pointless bleeding. It at least earned her an explanation. Regan’s own hand marked the bandage – which under other circumstances would have been appalling hygiene, but they were beyond that. Her voice was low in an attempt to be gentle, but it only rang hollow to her ears. “Hands are sensitive. Valuable. Mine, literally; I know lesser physicians who insure their hands. So they needed to be given, to demonstrate my commitment and facilitate my adequacy.” Ham’s attention was rare and she wasn’t sure she had it. “It isn’t always so, but for me, it had to be the hands.” Until it would not be the hands. Until her grandmother would look at the thick scarring and measure it against Regan’s lack of success. There was vast real estate remaining. The flesh of her stomach already stung with the thought.

“Universally, humans would cry out, flinch. Their fingers would curl around the wound to protect it, and squeeze the pain away. They may try to stanch the blood even as it drips out of their closed fist. That was me in the beginning. You think you become stone. Some with your bravado would claim they would be unmoving, that this is a child’s feat. But the tiniest movement of the eyelids gives you away, the faintest grimace of the lips, and you go until even that is extinguished. We are trained to ignore it all.” She finished with Ham’s arm and gestured to the knife, now slick with double the blood. A doctor’s concern for hygiene intruded her thoughts again but she pushed it away. “And that is only the body. We then move to the mind. The answer is the same.” She looked toward the knife, the answer.

Now that the child was tended to, Regan looped a bandage around her own hand. “It isn’t endurance we try to train. It’s control.” She studied at the child, so stoic, better than most, but she held her arm slightly higher, the muscles in her face a twitch tighter, still so far from what the banshees knew to be perfection. “My grandmother would look at you and pick out one hundred tiny things you don’t realize you’re doing. Be grateful that your physiology limits what can be accomplished right now, because this does little to train the lungs.” Regan aimed a sideways look at Hamstring, and decided she would never think of her like that again. She was not Hamstring. “Anyway, this is enough for you to appease her until tomorrow. Go back to the house. Do not speak to her.”

———

“I don’t.” Hamstring was taken aback. Where was this vigilance in how she felt about people coming from? What possible care could Regan have about this? Tragedy that she could avoid? What? So Regan had had her heart broken and suddenly she was jaded against all men? Or was it that feeling Eleanor, Nora, and now Hamstring had nursed deep inside herself for as long as she’d been alive, a suspicion that she had never once stated out loud. No one could love her because she was a monster. “Chill Regan, it’s not that fucking deep.”

“I don’t even know what bucolic means.” Hamstring deadpanned, arms coming up and crossing over her chest. Regan was nothing but negative sentiment after negative sentiment. No wonder Regan hated it here, every time Hamstring spoke to Cliodhna she was met with affection. Just like a real grandma was supposed to. Hamstring hasn’t had a grandmother before, her fathers were estranged from their parents, but this was everything television promised and more. Cliodhna doted on Hamstring. She might have been a guest here, but each day she was starting to feel more and more like a welcomed family member. “And I do have internet. Teddy gave me their smartphone before I left. I’ve been in contact with everyone in Wicked’s Rest and they want you back.” It was easy to talk around her slip of people recognizing her, just pretend it didn’t happen. Hamstring was getting sloppy.

Pain stung her arm, leaving Hamstring the pretend banshee in training feeling silly. If Regan didn’t want her to do this, if she wasn’t actually a banshee, what was she working for here? She watched the disapproval on Regan’s face, but it was the same and only look she’d identified on Regan since the real banshee unzipped her suitcase and found a bear where her clothing should be. Disappointment. Story of her life. "I can do whatever I want to do, Regan. That's why I'm here. To prove to you that we can do whatever we want. If I want to cut myself again, I can." There was a sting to her monotone, reflecting the sting in her arm, and the grumpiness she was starting to feel about this constant and persisting argument. “It’s just a scar. I did it because all the banshees are doing it. This is what you came back for, which means if you don’t like it, leave.”

Hamstring watched as Regan worked to wrap up her arm. As she started to list a series of cryptic words, each explanation making less sense than the one before. The first part, it needed to be something valuable, something that mattered, okay that kind of made sense. It needed to matter to prove that you... that you what? Why did you have to break yourself to show control? What was the point? Did banshees regularly go around stabbing each other to show superiority by not making a sound about it?

"None of that makes sense, Regan. It's child's play to not show pain when you're in pain? What about not getting hurt in the first place?" For a moment, Hamstring wanted to ask what Regan meant by moving on to the mind. What could they possibly do to make people miserable in the mind, but then she looked at Regan. She looked at how unhappy her friend had been. How, despite how much fun Hamstring was having, the same couldn't be said for Regan. "They don't get to break your mind. You don't have to let them. You can leave. We can leave whenever you're ready." And maybe Declan could go with them. No, best not to think about Declan when Regan was around. Hamstring didn't want Regan to know any more than she was already guessing. "You're miserable here, look at you. You don't sound happy when you talk about all that cult shit. You're not having fun. You don’t care about this control. You probably cry yourself to sleep every night, just leave."

Hamstring put her knife back in the box because this was her knife now. Regan might not want to keep talking, the dismissal was at hand, but she would take her knife back with her. There had been another order, telling her where to go and who not to talk to. For a second, Hamstring wanted to remind Regan that she could talk to whoever she wanted. She could march into Cliodhna's home and have a whole conversation about how eagerly and deeply she cut herself just to prove that she would be a good banshee. That conversation wouldn't matter except to annoy Regan, but the pain in her arm meant she was tired of fighting Regan on this. "Fine. Whatever." A classic response accompanied with a classic eye-roll. "Sure. I'll go." But she did not go back to Clidohna's, instead, she went looking for the one person she wanted to see.

#writing #c nora #self harm tw #domestic abuse tw

6 notes · View notes

izusun · 3 years

Note

*hands you an AU dump to hoard like a little goblin handing a small coin to a dragon*

OKAY so basically: after the doctor's visit where Izuku learns he's quirkless (I hc that they went when he was about five n' a half), Inko does a little bit of research on quirks and more specifically on her son's notebooks, learns that he's even more brilliant at quirk analysis than she originally suspected, and (after looking at some not great quirkless statistics) she instead informs Izuku that no, he's had a quirk all along! It's an analysis quirk!

So she updates the quirk registry, and Izuku goes through his life believing he has an analysis quirk, albeit teased for being a late bloomer, but he still can't shake the insecurity being quirkless for that one and a half year gave him.

He does research on all sorts of things, hacking, knife throwing, first aid, and building his own support gear and takes to all of it like a duck to water. He also does research on UA's policy for support gear in the entrance exam (cause surely they've gotta have a policy for non-offensive quirks like Koda and Hagakure) and finds that he can take one with him if he builds it himself. He goes fuckin bonkers.

Anyways: he trains with Katsuki, cause they're relationship is pretty good since Izuku has a 'quirk.' They both demolish the entrance exam. (Also Izuku kinda swears a lot because Katsuki rubs off on him)

Aizawa doesn't notice a goddamn thing is amiss until the battle trials on the second day (he decides to shadow All Might that day), where when he was using his quirk to silence his students while Izuku was rambling, he just didn't stop, as if he didn't notice anything was wrong. It happens again during the USJ.

So at some point during the sports festival, Nedzu (who is now intrigued because of Aizawa's complaining) invites Izuku into his office during a free period and lets him go ham on analysis, all while Aizawa is secretly there erasing Izuku's 'quirk.' Nedzu invites Izuku to be his personal student (making Aizawa go grey), he says yes, and then Nedzu drops the absolute BOMBSHELL that Izuku is actually quirkless. Cue an existential crisis.

(Also Izuku gets captured at the training camp alongside Katsuki because of his "analysis quirk," wonder how well that goes for him~)

- Goblin anon (sorry this one was kinda long)

GOBLIN?? DUDE???? HOLY SHIT I KNEW YOUR AUS ARE ALWAYS PHENOMENAL BUT THIS RIGHT HERE??? D U D E

i misunderstood the prompt a bit but i genuinely don’t know how to backtrack, so here you go goblin. sorry again o(TヘTo)

ok first of, inko taking on a stronger stance to support her son? love that of her. like, she doesn’t say sorry when izuku turned to look at her and cried that he can’t be like all might. instead, she took him in her arms and assures him that he will be a great hero. at first, of course half of it is lip service because she doesn’t know how to help her quirkless boy be a hero, since, you know, heroes need quirks.. (or do they)

and then she comes across a quirkless self help group which rang many many warning bells in her head. what kind of life do quirkless people live when a google research of them resulted in subsequent pages of results like how to stay safe when quirkless, or how to find jobs when quirkless, or quirkless mortality rates?

she fears for izuku, until she notices that her son’s smart. too smart for his age, but inko thought she’s just being biased. but izuku’s wit is something many people notice, for an instance, when izuku goes to the park to play and his friends’ (the few ones who stayed) parents tell her that her son’s smart for a quirkless person, she realizes that izuku’s wit is far more vast than normal.

then a thought worms into her head but wouldn’t it be bad to lie…but also, no one would be any the wiser.

further pushed by all the statistics she keeps seeing, or the lack thereof, about quirkless people, she makes the decision and pours it to izuku.

izuku who’s far smarter than his age and understood what his mom is asking from him. izuku who already saw the disparities between quirked and quirkless people at the tender age of five. izuku who knows what it means to lie about something as personal as a quirk, but realizes that it’s necessary for him to do so if he wants to live a “normal” life.

so he agrees; he tells inko that he’ll work even harder to sharpen his mind, and to keep expanding his knowledge.

when izuku’s quirk file is officially updated, he watches how his peers and teachers revert back into treating him as izuku. he regains his old friends, but he chose to drop them because he doesn’t want to surround himself with people who thought he was less for being quirkless.

katsuki stayed, surprisingly. katsuki stayed and everyday he kept bothering izuku to “get your quirk already!” katsuki stayed because he can’t fathom that the smartest boy in their class (of course not as smart as him, psshh) is quirkless. deku couldn’t be quirkless. (but if he found out that izuku, indeed, is, i wonder what would happen…)

katsuki was one of the loudest to celebrate when izuku announced that his quirk arrived.

“finally!” he screams and bothers izuku about the semantics of his quirk. he really wasn’t surprised to find out that izuku has an analysis quirk because he thought that nothing else would better be suited for izuku.

he doesn’t know that izuku pours so much of his time into learning and studying, often bypassing basics and intros to take more of the developed courses that are usually recommended for older ages. he doesn’t know that izuku is just a naturally smart kid with the ability to fill the gaps of his young mind with knowledge upon knowledge, storing and stacking them until he feels that he’s laid a sturdy foundation for his fake quirk.

then izuku began threading into different areas. he learns how to get into cyberspaces; hacking into accounts and delving more into how to access private information. he doesn’t thread too close lest he gets caught, but he learns the logistics of maneuvering around the web and burrowing in empty spaces to branch out his own. he creates and designs web algorithms for himself, just so he doesn’t trigger anyone who is looking into the web movements. he hones this and uses it to access more information.

then when he deems it enough, he turns his attention to something more tangible and something more physical. he learns other ways to be a hero; how to fight without a physical quirk, how to win against bigger opponents, how to use analysis quirk in fights.

izuku becomes more than a fake analysis quirk user; he creates it.

mental quirks are hard to describe, more so to compress, thus he creates new definitions of an analysis quirk. what used to be a silly lie is now a tangible fact that izuku believes in. because what makes a quirk? because what makes analysis a quirk? he learns these semantics (often political) and uses it to his advantage.

then he finally threads to hero analysis. at first it were classmates he analyzed; eyes running quickly at their forms and watching with great interest before calculating everything he’s seen and transversing it with the things he learned, and bridges these two facts together to create an analysis. it was a struggle at first: he didn’t know which to put emphasis on until he realizes, he doesn’t need to. he weaves them together and lets his analysis run long and watches how his hobby comes into fruition.

following his classmates are current heroes. these were more tough and more fun, and any of the information is less shared. he doesn’t tell his classmates or teachers about his analyses, only katsuki. and katsuki’s breath hitch every damn time at izuku’s talent quirk.

it is in their second year of middle school that midoriya begins to incorporate the facts with himself to create physical performances. the issues and things he learned through observing are now practiced by himself. he calculates the best way to fight with a body as petite as his, often taking examples from pro-hero hawks and other women heroes. their agilities and physicality suit izuku’s young body; he doesn’t see the merit in punching his way through things when he physically cannot.

so he learns ways to ease his muscles. he learns ballet and gymnastics; lets his muscles contort and mend themselves anew. he finds his balance and roots himself firmly, and learns to calculate his actions so he doesn’t waste his energy. katsuki doesn’t say anything, but he sees izuku’s dance and falls in love.

then in the spring of their third year of middle school, izuku learns how to build and handle weapons.

this is the easiest. izuku learns that weapons aren’t tools, but extensions of his arms and hands. they are not to be revered and not to be depended on because they can fail. instead, he learns to wield weapons as though they are parts of his bodies. he learns how to use swords and often narrowing to wooden sticks that can be picked up anywhere; he learns how to fire guns and how to hide daggers in his uniform. he learns that his body is the best weapon to use and that tools are just arsenal to help him win.

then he learns how to build them.

by summer, izuku begins reaching into UA’s servers. they are hard codes to crack, but not impossible. it takes him five days to access old entrance exam videos. the next day, the videos are snuffed and he is left to try digging deeper into UA.

he fails.

nezu must have caught onto his codes and proceeded to build walls against it.

so he slithers out. but a five minute video of last year’s entrance exam is enough for izuku because he learns two things: one, heroes must defeat villains and two, heroes must save others.

izuku prepares for this. unknowingly, katsuki is taught these same principles. katsuki would grumble and tell him that he knows what heroes must do, but izuku continues to hammer it down to him.

by the time of the UA entrance exam, izuku falls into the ease of having a fake quirk. he passes the written exam with flying colours and although it took three teachers to approve his support gears (present mic had to pull in powerloader, midnight, and hound dog to ensure that the well designed support gears are made by the hero student examinee and not by a support student examinee. majima saw the works and begged nezu to allow izuku to be his student.), izuku still succeeds and dominates the entrance exam.

when the zero pointer was released, he had flung himself towards the girl crushed by debris and yanks her out. he doesn’t waste a modified grenade to explode the zero pointer because through his calculations, doing so would not only create more collateral damage, but would also endanger the examinee in his arms because she still would be caught in the crossfire.

nezu hums in appreciation from the screening room, after all, smart minds always do think alike.

izuku gets a whopping 92 in the physical aspects of the entrance exam.

katsuki gets 85.

aizawa gleefully takes them in.

izuku thinks that no one will ever know of his and inko’s secret, but one look at nezu’s beady eyes and he knew that the stoat knew. it became a game to them, then. a game to see who else would realize.

and while izuku is smart, he doesn’t realize that nezu has basically taken him as his personal student the moment he and izuku had created a bet.

it takes two months for aizawa to figure things out. surprisingly, he is the only one to do so and he only realizes due to the many untimely attacks of LoV.

——

how angst would it be if katsuki realizes that izuku’s always been quirkless during their captivity in the LoV’s hideout.

180 notes · View notes

mgsapphire · 3 years

Text

My K-drama recommendation master list Part 2

You can find part 1 here

Look, you gave us relatively new recommendations, what about ones older than 10 years? I'll give you my top 5

Princess Hours (2006) Is a modern Cinderella story. It's 24 episodes long. Available on Viki.

Personal Taste (2010) Honestly, problematic plot if you put your mind into it, but entertaining nonetheless. It's 16 episodes long, each one lasting a little over an hour, available on Viki.

Cinderella's Sister (2010) You hate every character, but there's still something that makes you watch it. Available on Viki.

Thank You (2007) was ahead of its time, it's about a single mother with a daughter who has an HIV+ diagnosis. 16 episodes long, each one lasting a little over an hour. Available on Viki.

Stairway to Heaven (2003) for a good melodrama.

What about romantic fantasies involving fantastic beings?

Guardian: The lonely and Great God(2016) A classic of the genre. It tells the story of a God who was once a man, and is being punished by immortality, unless he meets his bride, who just so happens to be a high schooler centuries later. Available on viki. 16 episodes long with 3 specials, all lasting about 75 minutes.

Hotel Del Luna (2019) it would be unfair to talk about Goblin, without talking about this other masterpiece about a being cursed into immortality and granted special availabilities along with it, but a curse is still a curse, and she must run a hotel meant for ghosts, where after centuries of being, meets a young man who is alive. Availability on Viki, 16 episodes long and each one lastz about 75 minutes.

Tale of the Nine Tailed (2020) You get to see Lee Dong Wook as another mystical being, and Kim Bum is his half brother. 16 episodes long and one special, each one lasting about 65 minutes. Available on Viki.

My roommate is a Gumiho (2021) what's up with gumihos? It's still airing. The title is self explanatory. Available on Viki and Qiyi.

Angel's last mission: Love (2019) is a cute and sad story about an angel who is about to ascend and a ballerina who has a cynical view of the world. Available on Viki. Each episode averages 30 minutes, with 32 episodes.

Doom at your service (2021) About to finish airing. It tells the story of a dying woman who wishes doom upon the world, and the doom who answers her plea. Available on viki, 16 episodes long, each one lasting about an hour.

The Scholar Who walks the night (2015) another Lee Joon Gi entry, but I swear all of his works are great, it's a period drama that tells the story of a scholar who is a vampire and the young bookseller he meets. It's 20 episodes long, each one lasting about an hour. Available on viki. Also, if you've liked Lee Soo Hyuk in Doom at Your Service, I advise you check this one out.

Tale of Arang (2012) two Lee Joon Gi entries in a row? Girl, you have to stop. Anyways, this one is another period piece of a magistrate who can see ghosts and the ghost of a young woman who doesn't remember her life, nor the cause of her death. Available on viki, it's 20 episodes long, each one lasting a little over an hour.

Look, those are fine or whatever, but I started as a K-pop fan, where can I see some idol dramas? Don't worry, I came prepared

Full House (2004) with Rain as the main character is the og idol drama in my opinion. Available on Viki. 16 episodes long, each one lasting about 73 minutes.

Imitation (2021) is currently airing, and it's literally an idol drama about idols. You can find a looot of idols too: Jeong Yun Ho and Park Seong Hwa from Ateez, Chani and Hwi Young from SF9, Park Ji Yeon from T-ara, Lim Na Young from I.O.I and Pristin, and although Jeong Ji So is not an idol, she is the main lead, and I absolutely love her, she's also in Doom at your service. Available on Viki.

Miss Panda and Mr. Hedgehog (2012) features Donghae from Super Junior, and if I'm going to recommend a Super Junior drama, I would rather recommend one featuring him over Siwon.

At a Distance the Spring is Green (2021) is currently airing too, and only has four released episodes, but I've liked it so far. Featuring Park Ji Hoon, and Kwon Dun Bin. Also, I have a lot of opinions about this show. Available on Viki.

I was going to put an IU drama but, all her dramas are good, so go and watch them all, the woman has range.

Dream High (2011) is the king of idol dramas, in my opinion. It talksa about a high school for people who want to be idols. Another one with a long line up of idols, so let me start: Suzy, IU, Taecyeon, Nichkhun and Wooyoung from 2PM, Ham Eun Jung from T-ara. Leeteuk (SuJu and Chansung (2PM) make cameos. Similarly to Imitation, Kim Soo Hyun is not an idol, but he's the main lead. It's 16 episodes long, each one lasting about 65 minutes. Available on Viki.

Wow, quite a few, but they all seem rather popular, do you have some underrated gems? I'm going to have to go down memory lane, but I do

The Queen's Classroom (2013) This one feels like a fever dream, because I'm aware it exists, I watched it back when it first aired, but I can't find it anywhere now. It's based on a Japanese drama of the same name. It's about a strict but warm hearted teacher and her students' lives and struggles. 16 episodes long. DM me if you find anywhere to watch it.

1% of Something (2016) is a really cute drama, the chemistry is off the charts, and if you're looking for skinship, this one is the one for you, underrated arranged marriage kdrama, I'm telling you. It's 16 episodes long, averaging 45 minutes, and it's on Viki.

I'm not a Robot (2017) has a really cute plot, not underrated per se, but not hyped enough. It's 32 episodes long, each one averaging 30 minutes. Available on Viki.

Do you like Brahms? (2020) is a music themed kdrama, really cute and wholesome. If you like 2setviolin and watched their critique on their YouTube channel, let me tell you, the cast actually knows how to play violin and stuff, and there's an actual child prodigy in there. It got so much hate bc of that one yt video. It's 16 episode long, each one lasting about an hour. Available on Viki.

Solomon's Perjury (2016) a good reflection on youth and the pressure society has. 12 episodes long, lasting about 63 minutes each. Available on Viki.

The Greatest Love (2011) is a super entertaining TV show, and just supper funny and cute. 16 episodes long, each one lasting around 65 minutes. Available on Viki.

Two Cops (2017) if you like Kim Seon Ho, I think this was his TV acting debut. It's a hilarious action comedy TV show. 32 episodes long, lasting around 30 minutes. Available on viki.

Do you have any recommendations where time traveling or time is central to the story?

Alice (2020) look, I can't give you a full explanation because it's too mind bending. Let's leave it at detective meets his mother. Available on Viki.

Signal (2016) The premise is similar to that of the movie Frequency (2000) in which there's communication between the past and the present via technology. The plot is based on the real Hwaseong serial murders. Really interesting. Available on Netflix. If you like the premise of communicating with the past via technology Call (2020) is a Korean thriller movie available on Netflix.

Chicago Typewriter (2017) this one is about reincarnation but we get to see both timelines. Available on Netflix.

Tomorrow with you (2017) Time-traveling but make it ✨depressing ✨. The story of a man who time travels, and how that ability messes with his marriage. Available on Netflix.

What about historical dramas? I don't really watch those, but here are some I liked

The Moon Embracing the Sun (2012) is one of the few I've finished. It's really good, it follows the love story of a king. Available on viki. 20 episodes long, each one lasting about an hour.

Gunman in Joseon (2014) Am I recommending you this one because of Lee Joon Gi? Maybe. It has 22 episodes, each one lasting about an hour. Available on Viki.

The Crowned Clown (2019) a story of the Prince and the Pauper if I must give you a description that is relatable, but if you know the book titled Skogland, it's closer to that. It's 16 episodes long, each one lasting about 80 minutes. Available on Viki.

I'm a little ashamed to say this, but do you have any BL? I do, I do

To My Star (2021) is a story about an actor and a chef, and how they learn to cohabit after the actor is forced into hiding. You can watch either the movie version or the drama version, both available on viki.

Color Rush (2020) is a modern romance fantasy about people called Monos who can't see any color unless they meet their Probes, however this may turn dangerous as the Monos may experience obsessive behavior, so what happens when a young high schooler meets his probe?. You can either watch it on its drama or movie version. Both available on viki. By the way, if you're a long time deobi and was wandering what happened to Hwall, he's one of the main leads.

You Make Me Dance (2021) follows the story of a university dancer who is in debt and his debt collector. Available on viki in both versions. The movie is 107 minutes long.

Just Friends (2009) is a short film, but ahead of its time, if you can't tell by the year it was released on. It's a cute story about a man who visits his boyfriend in the military. I found it in dramacool.

That's all from me, if you have any specific genre or them you felt I didn't add in, do feel free to tell me.

340 notes · View notes

blackcloverdatabase · 4 years

Photo

English Translation of Novel 3: Chapter 2 – The Man Known as Julius (Part 1 of 2)

Here’s the first half of the last untranslated chapter from Book of Yuno! This one features Julius, Yuno, and Bell taking care of an orphaned baby boar. It’s adorable and also a little heartbreaking! Charlotte and Jack also get to meet the lil’ guy!

Also, aside from a few tweaks at the beginning, this translation is appended to the translation of the first few pages that the Black Clover discord was kind enough to supply to me. I didn’t see any translation errors when I scanned through it and I liked the writing style of whoever did those first few pages, so a part of this translation also comes from the generous soul who had started this translation before me.

--- The Man Known as Julius (Part 1) ---

Julius Novachrono.

He is a man who needs no introduction, reigning over the Order of Magic Knights as the Wizard King. The entire Order moves at his command, protecting the peace of Clover Kingdom both day and night.

He himself possesses no small degree of combat ability, stationed at the top of the Order as he is, and he has led his troops to victory through countless battles. Even after ascending to his current position as the Wizard King, he continues to find his way to the battlefield, demonstrating impressive skills in all areas.

He is the hero of the Clover Kingdom, a source of inspiration for all Magic Knights – No, for all the Kingdom’s citizens.

That's just the sort of person Julius is.

And yet, despite all of that......

"All right, all right!! Sorry I'm late~ I brought plenty of feed for you!"

At this very moment, that inspirational figurehead to all the Kingdom was – Julius was…..

"C'mon, you gotta eat up! I got lotsa food for you! A ha ha! Now now, no shoving! Take your time!"

......grinning from ear to ear and speaking in baby-talk with a soft, sweet tone......

"Oh gosh, you're TOO cute! Seriously, you're way too cute, Graham! I feel like when I'm talking to you, my manner of speaking just becomes shamefully bad...... Well, whatever! Not like there's anyone else around to hear, huh?"

…….to a baby boar as he delivered its feed.

Staying hidden as he watched, Yuno managed to keep a straight face on the outside, but internally, he was shaking. Bell, clearly shaken as well, was thinking exactly the same thing as him: They weren’t quite sure what they were looking at, but they knew they had just witnessed something pretty damn crazy.

How did they stumble across such a crazy sight? Fret not, it won't take long to explain.

That day, Yuno and Bell had been on patrol near the outskirts of Tonan, a town in the Common Realm. A group of bandits had been staging raids in the area as of late, and it was rumored that one of the bandits possessed an "Original Sin" grimoire. Thus, Magic Knights were being sent out in pairs to patrol the area in shifts.

Yuno and Bell found themselves on duty that day, and after finishing up their patrol with a Knight from another squad, they traded off with the pair who had come to relieve them and slipped away into a forest just a short walk from the town's borders.

They were here to train in preparation for the Royal Knights Selection Exam, which would be held a few days from now.

After the "hot springs training camp" put on by Mereoleona Vermillion (which was one heck of a euphemism for forced mountain climbing and attempted murder), Yuno had mastered "Mana Skin", the technique wherein the user continuously channels a fixed amount of magical energy and uses it to protect their body or increase their physical ability.

However, if he wanted to pass the Selection Exam, if he wanted to demonstrate his skill over Asta, he needed to take his abilities up another notch... no, another two notches if he could manage it.

And so, at every opportunity he could find between missions, Yuno slipped away in search of a secluded little enclave to train.

On this particular day, while on the hunt for a bit of privacy, he came across a hut standing beside a small pond. From the outside, it looked like a long-abandoned cabin, but the footprints he found near the entrance were fresh. Was this the bandits' hideout......? Only one way to find out. Taking care not to be noticed, Yuno silently approached the cabin.

However, it was then that he noticed a young boar with its body and legs wrapped in gauze. This, he found quite suspicious, but before he could move any closer to inspect, he caught sight of someone heading straight for the cabin using Flight Magic.

Panicking, Yuno dove into the bushes to hide, peeking out to see just who had arrived…...

"Gra~~~ham~~~ Were you a good little boy? Were you? Were you??"

Speaking in the most babyish voice Yuno had ever heard, it was none other than Julius Novachrono who came descending from the heavens. Upon landing, he approached the cabin, bearing feed for the boar, and removed his dirty bandages while stroking him gently......

Which brings us back to the present.

"Theeeeere there there! Now, let's get your bandages changed!"

Tearing their gazes from the sight of Julius letting loose with even more heinous baby talk, Yuno and Bell glanced at one another. Evidently, Julius was out here taking care of this boar. That much was obvious, but......

Bell dropped her voice, whispering softly to Yuno,

"…...Wh-what do we do, Yuno?"

"There's nothing for us to do," he returned shortly. "Because we didn't see anything, got it? Let's just head back."

That was best for all parties involved. Yuno had absolutely no desire to see Julius acting like that, and Julius probably wouldn't have wanted anyone to spot him out here either. Thankfully, Julius didn't seem to have noticed he was being watched, probably as much to do with the fact that Yuno had disguised their presence as the fact that Julius was absolutely enthralled with playing with the little boar and was paying little attention to his surroundings.

If he was going to make a break for it, it needed to be now. However, Bell leered with squinted eyes,

"...But, you know, that poor little thing really doesn't seem like he's enjoying the attention..."

This much Yuno could see. Actually, it was impossible not to notice. The little boar was squirming and squealing up a storm as Julius attempted to change his bandages, desperately attempting to flee. There was no mistaking that attitude as one of a fond pet.

"…...Neither one of us knows what's going on here. It's not our place to say anything."

"Yeah, I guess you're right…..."

"Plus......"

Yuno glanced back to Julius, who, despite the boar's fierce attempts to escape, was doing his best to see to its needs, and even looked happy doing so. Julius looked like he was having the time of his life, eyes bright with elation - just as he seemed to when he was talking about magic or chatting with the squad Captains he trusted so much. It was true that Yuno didn't want to get involved in whatever was going on here, but he also didn’t want to interrupt Julius when he was so utterly enthralled.

"Plus what?"

"Forget it. Let's go." With that, Yuno was about to stand up, but then......

"SQUEEEEEEAAAAAL!!"

The boar let out a particularly shrill scream, and Julius instantly drew back just as the boar released a huge burst of flame.

"W-what the heck is THAT?!"

"That boar...it must be a Flame Boar! They're a special breed that can use Fire Magic!"

A normal boar was one thing, but keeping an animal of this nature as a pet was forbidden…… though, that hardly mattered right now.

Yuno leapt from the bush, rushing to Julius's side. "Your Majesty! Are you all right?"

In retrospect, that had been rather stupid of him. After all, what could a Flame Boar possibly do that could in any way harm the Wizard King? It was patently clear he didn’t have a single scratch on him, no burns of any sort, and even the cabin itself remained safe from any flying sparks.

"......Yu-Yuno-kun........!?"

Julius's face was so red, he could have started spitting fire himself.

"H-h-how...how long--how long h-h-have you...been w-watching...me...?"

"I didn't see anything I didn't hear anything PLEASE EXCUSE ME, SIR!"

Yuno sputtered before promptly turning on his heel and darting off. It was a rather forcible retreat, admittedly, but he was convinced it was the best course of action. What had just transpired would only reflect badly on the both of them, so pretending it had never happened at all was for the best.

“W-wait! P-please hear me out!”

However, Julius chased after him, his expression desperate.

"W-wait! Please wait! There's something I'd like your help with!"

……And when the Wizard King said that to you...well, you really had to stop, didn't you?

“……So, this little one’s parents died, which is why you decided to take care of it here for the time being?”

After all that, Yuno and Bell were invited to sit on the bench in front of the cabin as Julius served them some tea and snacks. Both the tea and snacks looked rather extravagant, so Yuno couldn’t help but wonder if they were meant to bribe him to keep quiet. At the same time, Julius explained his circumstances to them.

“Yes. Well, in short, that is correct.”

As he watched Graham run around chasing butterflies, Julius continued,

“Not too long ago, I was passing by this area when I found two flame boars being attacked by bandits. Those were Graham’s parents.”

Bell grabbed a macaroon with both hands and stuffed it into her mouth as she asked Julius,

“Why did those bandits attack them? Were they hungry or something?”

“Flame boar fur has excellent heat resistance, so it’s sometimes used to make magic tools and the like. Because of that, it can be sold for a high price. Of course, that doesn’t make it right to kill them indiscriminately, so I rushed in to save them. I managed to capture the bandits, but…… it was already too late for Graham’s parents.”

On the outside, Yuno was expressionless as he nodded in agreement, but on the inside, he felt bitter. This was not an uncommon occurrence in areas that have been plagued by bandits. They indiscriminately kill, eat, and sell any animals unfortunate enough to live in their territory.

“Although he was injured, I at least managed to save Graham. However, I couldn’t just leave him, so I was going to drop him off at an animal shelter…... but no matter which shelter I tried, they all refused to take him.”

“Because it’s forbidden to keep a dangerous animal like a flame boar as a pet.”

Technically, if he made full use of his authority as the Wizard King, he would be able to force any facility to keep Graham. However, that would surely cause trouble for the breeders and the other animals they kept at the facility. As Yuno knew, Julius was not the sort of man who would do that. Julius shrugged lightly before replying,

“Right. That’s why I started taking care of him in secret. I’d like to keep him until he recovers from his injuries, at least.”

Julius replied as if to substantiate the explanation that Yuno reached.

“I see…...”

Yuno said as he nodded. Although Yuno came to agree with him, Julius felt a small pang of guilt. His story wasn’t a lie, but it was not the whole truth, either. That’s because if Julius had used his time magic, he could have cured Graham’s injuries in an instant. However, if he did that, then Graham would grow up with the mistaken assumption that injuries can be cured easily. Julius wanted to avoid clouding Graham’s worldview for the convenience of humans any more than it already has.

Coming back from that tangent, Julius continued,

“That’s why I was wondering if you could keep this a secret for me? If it became known that the leader of the Magic Knights broke the rules, there would be a lot of trouble.”

Particularly from Marx. If Marx found out, there was no telling what Marx might say to him. It was easy to imagine what awaited in his future……

“You were raising an unusual pet, huh……? That’s the kind of thing an extravagant bachelor with too much time and money on his hands would do! Stop playing around and get back to work!”

……And he would continue on and on like that.

Yuno lightly tilted his head, completely unaware of Julius’s troubles.

“Of course. It was never my intention to tell anyone, but…… wouldn’t it be better to take care of Graham somewhere else? Bandits might go after him again, and Magic Knights take turns coming here almost every day, so you might get spotted again.”

“……That’s true, but……”

Julius pointed to a large rock a short distance from the cabin. Placed in front of that rock were two bouquets of flowers. Sometimes, Graham would sit at that rock and squeal in a very particular way. Yuno has heard these squeals before. It was the sound flame boars make when they are trying to get their parents’ attention. In other words, that was where……

Julius saw that Yuno understood and nodded.

“That was where Graham’s parents were killed. I think that’s why…... Graham refuses to leave this place.”

For the second time that day, Yuno felt a bitterness in his heart.

“…...I was raised in a village, so I’ve seen animals like that before. Some baby animals won’t leave their parents’ side, even after their parents have died. That’s probably happening here, too.”

Even if you pull that baby animal away from its parents’ bodies by force, it will likely return. In the end, it will probably die, either from being targeted by other animals or from illness caused by being near a corpse. If Julius wasn’t protecting him, that’s probably what would have happened to Graham.

“I thought about using magic to move his parents’ corpses, but…… it would be a problem if Graham thought I was playing with them. In the end, I decided to bury them here.”

“……I see.”

Bell said, looking sorrowfully at Graham. She then clenched her hand into a little fist and said,

“Wizard King! You’re really something! It’s really cool that you’re willing to go so far for a single wild boar!”

“……Hey, Bell. You’re being rude.”

“Ha ha, I don’t mind, Yuno-kun. Miss Wind Spirit, I’m happy to hear you say that. By the way, can I try mixing your magic with mine? Just for a bit?”

“I’m Yuno’s, so no way! However, I kinda like you, so you’re allowed to call me Bell!”

Bell was being incredibly impertinent as she said this, but Julius’s response was simply to smile gently and say,

“That’s too bad. Well, I’m happy that I can call you by your name!”

He possesses great power, he shows tolerance toward anyone, and he holds compassion even for animals. That’s the kind of person Julius is. The kind of person Yuno - and Asta - were aiming to become was as grand as ever. Moreover, Yuno was only looking at a small part of the Wizard King. Despite this, he understood that the Wizard King was a grand existence. If he could see everything, just how grand would he be……? Even trying to imagine it made him feel overwhelmed.

‘Even so, someday I’ll…..!’

As such thoughts reignited in Yuno’s chest, Julius cleared his throat as if to move on to a new subject.

“This brings me to what I wanted to ask you…… Just as you said, this is not a good place to be raising an animal, and I’m also too busy to take care of Graham by myself……”

He appeared rather uncomfortable as he looked at Yuno and Bell.

“That is…… I know this is a selfish request, but you seem like you wouldn’t spill a secret, so…… could you maybe…… help me take care of Graham?”

‘I knew this was coming……,’ Yuno thought as he weighed his options. For Julius, it would make things quicker and easier if Yuno and Bell cooperate now that they’ve seen this place. However, keeping it a secret from the Order of Magic Knights was definitely going to be troublesome.

“Of course, I’m not asking you this as the Wizard King. I’m asking you as a person, so there’s nothing wrong with saying no. You’ll end up breaking the rules, too…… it would be troublesome for you if you get discovered, and you could run into trouble here, too.”

That’s right. If something were to happen here, he wouldn’t be able to get here in time to help Yuno. This was not a task one should carelessly take on.

“Of course. If you’re alright with us helping you, we would love to.”

“Right, of course you’d say no…… the Royal Knights Selection Exam is coming up and you have your own duties to…... WAIT, REALLY!?”

Julius had crestfallenly lowered his head, but then he raised his head back up in surprise and sputtered,

“Huh, a-are you sure!? You’re going to take on this task, just like that……?”

“Yes. I can do my duties as a Magic Knight here…... Plus, if I let a thought like “something bad might happen” stop me, then I’d never get anything done.”

The second half of what he said came from his own experiences as a child. In life, if you don’t do anything, then nothing will happen. He didn’t want that. If you find yourself unable to move because of all your negative thoughts, it’s sometimes necessary to just try doing whatever you want before thinking about what you should do. This was something he learned from watching that guy live his life. He wasn’t sure if this was one of those times, but, at the very least…...

“Also, you said that I would be breaking the rules, but I’m just helping you because I think that’s the right thing to do. I think that for most people, doing what they think is right would be the correct thing to do.”

……Yuno knew that he liked what Julius was doing. That’s why he was going to help him without worrying about problems that may or may not happen later. Wanting to support that idea, Bell whirled around Julius and said,

“That’s right! That’s absolutely right! Actually, it’s weird that you’re doing something so cool so sneakily by yourself! At the very least, you should let us help you!”

“You guys……”

Julius appeared a little surprised as he said this, but then,

“……I see. William truly is blessed with some good kids.”

He nodded as if he came to understand something before calmly smiling once more.

“Thank you, really! Well then, I’ll be counting on you two!”

Yuno bowed his head with a smile before looking around at his surroundings.

“Even so, it really is dangerous to be raising an animal here. If we don’t take measures soon, then……”

“Y-yeah…… You really are a good kid. You’re able to look at things pragmatically so quickly……”

Julius wanted to bask in the warm, snug atmosphere they just created for a little longer, but…… now wasn’t really the time for that. Julius grabbed a large sack that was left at a corner of the cabin and brought it to Yuno and Bell.

“I’ve already done something about that. I bought all sorts of magic tools for dealing with bandits or other Magic Knights.”

Julius pulled out one expensive-looking magic tool after another from the bag.

“Umm, this one is a jewel that keeps evil away. I’m pretty sure this one is a collar that seals away magical power. And this one is a magic tool that keeps others from being able to sense your mana, even if they use mana perception. Also, this one is…...”

As he pulled each tool out, he explained in detail what each one of them did with a huge grin on his face. Yuno and Bell, who felt nothing but respect for Julius just moments ago, started to think ‘This guy is kind of scary…….’. Just how much money and effort is he sinking into one wild boar? Bell whispered into Yuno’s ear,

“……Hey, Yuno. Is he one of those? He gave us all those reasons earlier, but…... maybe he’s just an old guy who wants to secretly raise a pet……?”

“Please don’t say that……. Just don’t.”

He may have sounded a little unconfident in his reply, but that’s not because he was starting to think the same thing Bell was thinking. Absolutely not.

“I read this in a book once, but unmarried bachelors in their 40’s tend to have a lot of money, and they want something to spend their money on, so they buy a pet. Then, that causes their paternal instincts to explode forth, so they end up spending even more money on it.”

“You’re talking about a normal unmarried bachelor in his 40’s. This man is the Wizard King. Don’t lump them together.”

“Hm? Yuno-kun, did you say something?”

“Nothing.”

And so, despite all his doubts and unease, his days taking care of Graham with Julius began.

----- The following morning -----

“Oh, Yuno-kun! Bell-kun! Thank you for taking care of him so early in the morning~”

Julius swooped down from the sky toward Yuno and Bell, who were training near the lake.

“Good morning. You’re up early too, your highness.”

“Yeah, I have a meeting to attend just before noon today, so I figured I’d stay here until then. What about you?”

“We have the day off today, so I’ve been training my magic by reinforcing the cabin and changing Graham’s bedding. Also, I think he’s still fine for now, but I was thinking that we should make a fence in preparation for when Graham becomes independent from his parents. It would be troublesome if he accidently wandered into one of the villages.

“……Y-yeah. You sure work fast. Adaptable, too.”

Julius said in surprise. From the start, Yuno was meticulous and diligent. He wanted to do as much as he could while he was here.

“Look, Graham! Your Daddy’s here!”

Bell said as she flew toward Graham, who was eating his feed in front of the hut. Julius had a questioning, but also happy expression on his face as he asked,

“……D-daddy?”

“Bell. Don’t call him weird names. It’s rude.”

“It’s fine, right? He’s practically acting like a surrogate dad!”

“Even so, calling him ‘Daddy’ is a little…...”

As Yuno and Bell continued, Julius’s face steadily became redder until he cleared his throat and interrupted,

“W-well, it’s fine, isn’t it? It feels a little uncomfortable to be called that, but it might be good for Graham. I’m not sure how I feel about it, though…..”

“Oh, well then I won’t call you that. I’m not going to force you to-

“Ah, no! Never mind! Let’s go with that!”

Julius interrupted before crouching down in front of Graham.

“Even so, you two are amazing for being able to feed Graham already. It took a lot of struggling on my part to get him to trust me enough to do that……”

Julius sounded a bit woeful as he said this. Yuno responded as he walked toward the hut,

“I’m not sure why, but animals have always liked me. Also, Bell is a wind spirit, so it might be easier for Graham to trust her over a human being. Actually……”

Yuno glanced at the tombstone for Graham’s parents as he continued,

“You began taking care of Graham right after his parents were killed. That would be the time when Graham would hate humans the most. The fact you managed to feed him and tend to his wounds despite that makes you even more amazing.”

It looked like Graham was putting up a lot of resistance yesterday when the Wizard King was changing his bandages, but that was probably just because his wounds still hurt. It’s not like Graham hasn’t opened his heart to him.

“The reason we’re able to get along with Graham right now is because of you, your highness. Isn’t the fact that Graham knows that not all humans are bad because you poured so much love into him?”

“Y-you think so? That would make me very happy, but……”

Julius sounded embarrassed as he replied before extending his hand toward Graham’s head.

“Graham~ It’s……. It’s Daddy. Daddy’s he-

“SQEEEA, SQEAAAL!”

CRUNCH

With full force, Graham chomped down on Julius’s fingers.

“……………”

A terribly awkward atmosphere arose between Julius and Yuno. In the meantime, Bell, who is incabable of reading the mood, tried her best to open Graham’s mouth as she reprimanded him.

“Hey, Graham! Stop that! You wouldn’t do that to me or Yuno, right!? It’s almost as if you don’t trust the Wizard King after all!”

Yuno went pale when he heard Bell utter the worst thing she could have possibly said, but Julius chided Bell with a stiff smile on his face.

“Ah, Ah ha ha! It’s fine, Bell-kun! I’m sure Graham’s just hungry!”

“What are you talking about!? Graham literally just ate!”

“Then, he’s probably just trying to play! Yeah! I’m sure he just wants to play with me!”

“Even so, he looks serious! It’s like he’s trying to bite your fingers off!”

“Bell! BELL! Just stop talking! Just stop!”

Unusually for him, Yuno raised his voice as he interrupted Bell, stopping her from uttering another word and gently pulling Julius’s fingers away from Graham. After that, Graham trotted away toward the lake to drink some water. Those hellish couple of seconds were finally over, but tears started to pool in Julius’s eyes.

‘Should I say something…..?’ Yuno thought, maybe about how Bell has a tendency to air-headedly stab people in the heart…… No, it was too late to say anything about that now, so he decided to change the subject as quickly as he could.

“……Could you explain to me what all the magic tools you bought do again?”

Yuno truly did want to hear his explanation again. Julius explained everything so quickly yesterday that he didn’t get all the details.

“S-sure…… There’s a lot of them, but I think this one’s the most important one.”

Julius said, returning back to his usual self as he led Yuno inside the cabin. There, a sparkling red jewel was hidden under Graham’s bedding.

“This is a high-grade magic tool that wards away evil. It creates a barrier with this jewel at the center, and people with evil souls can’t cross through its barrier. That’s the only thing I bought the first day I decided to raise Graham, and I’ve kept this tool active this whole time.”

Bell, who returned to Yuno’s shoulder, gasped in admiration as she looked at the jewel and said,

“That’s a high-grade magic tool for ya! It would be great if every household…… or at least every village had one of these!”

“Ha ha, if we could do that, it would make our jobs as Magic Knights a lot easier. However, this jewel’s range is not very large, and this isn’t widely distributed. Moreover, one strong attack is enough to break this jewel’s barrier, so it’s not so omnipotent as one might think.”

“However, it’s more than enough to protect Graham from those bandits, right?”

Julius nodded at Yuno’s words and turned toward Graham, who was currently bathing in the lake. Around Graham’s neck was a collar with a nameplate attached.

“The next important tool is the collar I bought yesterday. That collar seals away magic. As long as he wears that, Graham won’t be able to use magic, so even if another Magic Knight finds us, they would think that he’s just an ordinary boar.”

Julius’s expression stiffened a bit before continuing.

“Well, not being found at all would be the best outcome, and hardly anyone would have any reason to come here, but…... just like you did, it’s possible that somebody could wander here by chance.”

After the three of them reflected on the “major accident” that happened yesterday, Yuno swiftly returned to the main subject and asked,

“……I see. What about the other tools?”

Following Yuno’s train of thought, Julius quickly began to explain the other tools.

“The other ones are magic tools which conceal our presence, make our mana less perceptible, and other things of that nature. Well, I’ll go ahead and explain what they all do in detail, and…… hm?”

Before he could finish talking, his expression suddenly became grim, and his gaze sharpened as he looked toward the direction of the village. Yuno looked in the same direction.

“……Somebody’s coming.”

“Yeah. I feel two sources of mana heading towards us. For now, let’s hide in the cabin.”

The two swiftly moved toward the cabin, but Bell looked at Graham and exclaimed,

“Wait! Is it alright to leave Graham like this!? We should all hide together!”

“No. We wouldn’t be able to make it in time. For the time being, let’s observe the situation. If something happens, we’ll all leave.”

Julius countered as they slipped into the cabin. Before long, two figures emerged from the forest……

“Kah kah! Look~ There’s nothing here. There’s nobody!”

The Captain of the Green Mantis, Jack the Ripper……

“How strange. I definitely felt powerful mana coming from here earlier……”

……And the Captain of the Blue Roses, Charlotte Roselei.

Two Magic Knights…... two Magic Knight Captains, no less, set foot on the lake shore. Judging by what they were saying, they must have sensed either Yuno’s or Julius’s presence. They probably noticed Julius’s mana when he flew here.

‘To think two bigshots like these would show up,’ Yuno thought, cold sweat dripping from his forehead.

“Why are Captains doing a mundane task like patrolling……?”

“…….Because the Royal Knights Selection Exam will be held soon. Even if it only helps a bit, Captains and Vice-Captains have been handling some of the routine tasks so that their squad members can focus on training for it.”

Julius explained calmly, but internally, his heart was pounding. It would be bad if they were found out by ordinary Magic Knights, but there was no mistaking that being found out by a Captain would be even worse. They nervously held their breaths in the cabin as they heard Charlotte say in a commanding tone of voice,

“Just in case, let’s split up and search the area.”

“Are you kidding me~ Damn, I was planning to get wasted at a bar until our shift ended.”

After that brief exchange, Charlotte began to trace the perimeter of the lake while Jack began investigating inside the forest, appearing very bored as he did so. Seeing this, Yuno frowned as he turned toward Julius.

“……What should we do? At this rate, we’ll be found any moment now.”

“We’re okay. Like I was saying earlier, I have a magic tool running that dulls other people’s mana perception abilities, so they won’t be able to sense our mana. I also have another tool running right now that inhibits other people’s ability to notice our presence. In other words, right now, they won’t be able to sense our presence nor our mana.”

‘If you have that much money to spend on magic tools, maybe you should put some of that money toward the Magic Knights,’ Yuno thought. In any case, if that’s all true, then their presence probably won’t be discovered. The problem was……

“……Hm? What’s this? A baby boar? What is it doing in a place like this……?”

Just as Yuno feared, Charlotte spotted Graham, and began to slowly make her way toward him. Surprised by her presence, Graham froze stiff. While he remained frozen, Charlotte crouched down to meet Graham at eye level.

“……So, you’re getting your wounds treated? You have a collar, too. Is someone feeding you here…..?”

She said as she extended her hand toward Graham’s collar.

‘Please don’t take his collar off…….!’ all three of them prayed as they watched her from inside the cabin.

“……..Graham? That’s what is carved here…… I see. So, your name is Graham?”

She muttered before looking around at her surroundings. It looked like she made particular note of whether Jack was still deep in the forest. After confirming that nobody else was around, she turned toward Graham once more, and……

“……Graham, come here. I won’t hurt you, so go ahead and sit on my lap~”

With great difficulty, but also great tenderness, she raised Graham up and placed him on her lap. Then with an innocent smile, much like the smile of a young girl, she hugged Graham’s body.

“Wow…… this is amazing. I though boar fur would be rough and scratchy, but it’s actually really fluffy. I wonder if it’s because you’re a baby. Tee hee, this feels nice. You’re so cute……”

“…………”

“You’re so small. Are you eating properly? I know, I’ll find something good for you to eat! What would you like to eat? Hm? I’ll buy anything you want~”

“…………”

The three inside the cabin continued to watch Charlotte dote on Graham, stiffly turning their heads toward each other. It was a different outcome then what they were expecting, but it was a crazy sight indeed.

“H-hey…… Yuno-kun……?”

This wasn’t the time to be asking this, but Julius couldn’t help but ask.

“……D-did I…… look like that when you found me……?”

“Quiet, your highness. It looks like Captain Jack has returned.”

Yuno brushed off Julius’s question and turned his gaze toward the forest. There, Jack was lumbering his way back. Charlotte noticed his presence, putting Graham down and standing back up on her feet. Her face was a bit red, so she tried to hide this with her hand as she asked him,

“……H-how was it, Jack? Did you find anyone?”

“Nope~ Not a single soul. Kah kah. It must’ve been your imagination.”

“……Maybe. It’s possible that Grah……. No, it’s possible that this injured boar’s owner came to check on him, and then headed home soon after.”

Charlotte left it at that and promptly started back toward the village.

“Anyway, we now know that no one else is here. Let’s return to the village and buy some feed…… no, let’s just go back to the village.”

“Huh? Ah, hey!”

She didn’t respond to Jack’s voice, opting instead to hurry into the forest as if she had some great mission to fulfill.

“Damn, what’s with her……? Anyway, I feel tired just being here. I feel like my physical strength and magical power is withering away. I wonder if some weird magic was cast here.”

Hearing Jack talk to himself, Yuno tilted his head in confusion.

‘What is he talking about? At the very least, I don’t feel any symptoms like that…...”

He turned toward Julius, searching for an answer from him. Julius’s reply was a little awkward as he explained,

“It’s probably the jewel that repels people with evil souls. Maybe that’s what happens when it only affects you halfway……?”

‘……I see. That Magic Knights Captain is recognized as a “halfway evil soul” by the jewel.’

Not knowing that this was the cause, Jack looked around as he muttered,

“Come to think of it, she mentioned there was a boar, but I don’t see it…… Ah, there it is.”

His eyes sharpened with a glint as they lowered toward Graham. Graham jumped in surprise as the three in the cabin watched the situation closely, feeling very different from when they were watching Charlotte. They were pretty sure that Jack wouldn’t get violent with Graham, but he might treat him roughly. That would be unpardonable. If it came to that, they would have no choice but to come out of hiding and stop him. They tensely watched over the situation to see which way it would go, but…...

“……What is he doing? Neither of them have moved an inch……”

Just as Yuno said, Jack was looking Graham in the eye with what seemed like no intention to move whatsoever. Because he was afraid, Graham also didn’t move, so it looked as if time had stopped for them both.

Bell hummed as she pretended to push up imaginary glasses,

“…...It’s just like when a bad wolf happens upon an abandoned puppy and the two come to a mutual understanding. Like, “So, you’re on your own, too…..?”, or something.”

“But he’s not on his own. He has a collar and bandages, so that much should be obvious.”

Yuno’s rebuttal was immediate, but Bell continued to dub over the other two with a hushed voice.

“I could save you, take you in as my henchman, but that would be too easy. If I do that, you’re gonna think that life is easy for as long as you live. It ain’t easy. Life is…… never easy.”

“That’s the kind of conversation two human beings would have. Also, don’t you think your image of Captain Jack is a little off?”

Yuno shot Bell down again, but then Jack headed toward the shoals of the lake and caught a fish using his Slash Magic. After that, he threw it next to Graham. Without skipping a beat, Bell continued,

“Whoops, my mistake…… I accidentally caught too many fish. Throwing them away would surely anger the gods, so I’ll give some to you. Now, young lad…… live, and grow up to be strong…….”

“Okay, that whole “gods” thing is really out of character for him. Just stop……”

“Well, I don’t know if he’d say it quite like that, but it looks like she more or less got it right…... At the very least, it appears that he won’t get rough with Graham.”

While the three of them were talking, Jack left the vicinity. After watching Jack’s figure disappear into the forest, Julius let out a huge sigh of relief.

“Whew, that scared me….. From now on, we should use magic tools that hide our magic power when we come here.”

“……You’re right. Actually, if you could find a magic tool that makes us invisible, that would be great.”

‘If we had that, we would’ve been able to escape before seeing all that,’ Yuno thought to himself as he came out of the hut with Julius.

“Are you okay, Graham? You must’ve been so scared!”

Bell said as he flew toward Graham. Graham squealed happily and started skipping about. Watching Graham behave so cheerfully, Julius had a wry smile on his face.

“Ah ha ha. I thought he’d be afraid, but he’s surprisingly okay. Have you gotten used to being around humans?”

“He might be able to relax around people who seem to hold good intentions.”

……Of course, those two seemed a little too interested in Graham, so there was another problem they had to worry about – the possibility that they may return. However, there was nothing for them to do about that other than take appropriate measures when the time comes. As Yuno came to this conclusion, Julius squatted in front of Graham and extended his hand toward the fish Jack caught.

“Isn’t this great, Graham? You have a fish! Daddy will cut it into pieces to make it easier for you to-

“SQUEAL! SQUEAAAL!”

CRUNCH!

At that moment, Graham chomped down on Julius’s fingers with all his might.

“………….”

— To be continued in Part 2 —

Julius is such a softie and I love every minute of it. Spoil that baby boar!

Charlotte’s reaction was expected (and perfectly understandable as I would love to hug Graham too), but I can’t say I saw Jack’s coming. It was…... interesting. It’s funny that his soul is considered half-evil, though.

I’m glad to be back to translating Book of Yuno again. The Black Bulls are fun, but there’s something refreshing about having the focus on a character outside of their group. Maybe it’s because he’s so introverted, but Yuno feels very natural as a book protagonist. It’s also funny to see how often the novel essentially says “he had a neutral expression on the outside, but inside he felt *insert intense emotion here*”.

#Black Clover #Yuno #julius novachrono #Charlotte Roselei #jack the ripper #Book of Yuno #My translations

394 notes · View notes

papermoonloveslucy · 3 years

Text

TIME: A CLOWN WITH GLAMOUR

May 26, 1952

TIME: The Weekly News Magazine ~ Lucille Ball: Prescription for TV; a clown with glamour. May 26, 1952.

On Monday evenings, more than 30 million Americans do the same thing at the same time: they tune in ‘I Love Lucy’ (9 p.m. E.D.T., CBS-TV), to get a look at a round-eyed, pink-haired comedienne named Lucille Ball.

An ex-model and longtime movie star (54 films in the past 20 years), Lucille Ball is currently the biggest success in television. In six months her low-comedy antics, ranging from mild mugging to baggy-pants clowning, have dethroned such veteran TV headliners as Milton Berle and Arthur Godfrey. One of the first to see the handwriting on the TV screen was funnyman Red Skelton, himself risen to TV's top ten. Last February, when he got the award from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences as the top comic of the year, Skelton walked to the microphone and said flatly: "I don't deserve this. It should go to Lucille Ball."

By this week, the four national TV rating services (Nielsen, Trendex, American Research Bureau and Videodex) were in unaccustomed agreement: each of them rated ‘I Love Lucy’ as the nation's No. 1 TV show.

Lumps & Pratfalls. The television industry is not quite sure how it happened. When Lucy went on the air last October, it seemed to be just another series devoted to family comedy, not much better or much worse than ‘Burns and Allen’, ‘The Goldbergs’, ‘The Aldrich Family’ or ‘Mama’. Like its competitors, Lucy holds a somewhat grotesque mirror up to middle-class life, and finds its humor in exaggerating the commonplace incidents of marriage, business and the home. Lucille's Cuba-born husband, Desi Arnaz, is cast as the vain, easily flattered leader of an obscure rumba band. Lucille plays his ambitious wife, bubbling with elaborate and mostly ineffectual schemes to advance his career.

But what televiewers see on their screens is the sort of cheerful rowdiness that has been rare in the U.S. since the days of the silent movies' Keystone Comedies. Lucille submits enthusiastically to being hit with pies; she falls over furniture, gets locked in home freezers, is chased by knife-wielding fanatics. Tricked out as a ballerina or a Hindu maharanee or a toothless hillbilly, she takes her assorted lumps and pratfalls with unflagging zest and good humor. Her mobile, rubbery face reflects a limitless variety of emotions, from maniacal pleasure to sepulchral gloom. Even on a flickering, pallid TV screen, her wide-set saucer eyes beam with the massed candlepower of a lighthouse on a dark night.

What is her special talent? TV men credit Lucille with an unfailing instinct for timing. Producer-Writer Jess Oppenheimer says: "For every word you write in this business, you figure you're lucky to get back 70-80% from a performer. With Lucille, you get back 140%." Broadway's Oscar (’South Pacific’) Hammerstein II, hailing Lucille's control, calls her a "broad comedienne, but one who never goes over the line." To her manager, Don Sharpe, Lucille is "close to the Chaplin school of comedy—she's got warmth and sympathy, and people believe in her, even while they're laughing at her."

Western Mirage. Lucille explains that the TV show is important because "I'm a real ham and so is Desi. We like to have an audience. We like being up on our toes." But the show also allows her some time with her ten-month-old daughter, Lucie Desirée, and for the first time in eleven years of trouping, gives her a home life with husband Desi. Says she: "I look like everybody's idea of an actress, but I feel like a housewife. I think that's what my trouble was in movies."

Actress Ball was a long time arriving at the calm waters of motherhood and housewifery. The daughter of Henry and Desirée Hunt Ball, she was born in Jamestown, N.Y. (near Buffalo) at what she calls "an early age." Pressed, she will concede that it was quite a while ago: she admits to being 40. Her father was an electrician whose job of stringing telephone wires carried him around the country. When Lucille was four, he died of typhoid in Wyandotte, Mich.

Lucille spent her childhood in Jamestown (1920 pop. 38,917), but managed to see very little of it. Mostly, she inhabited a dream world peopled by glamorous alter egos. Sometimes she imagined herself to be a young lady of great poise named Sassafrassa, who combined the best features of Pearl White, Mabel Normand and Pola Negri. Another make-believe identity was Madeline, a beauteous cowgirl who emerged from the pages of Zane Grey's melodramatic novel, ‘The Light of Western Stars’. To get authentic background for Madeline, young Lucille corresponded with the chambers of commerce of Butte and Anaconda, Mont. She read and reread their publicity handouts until she felt she knew more about Montana than the people who lived there. It was the powerful spirit of Madeline that caused her for many years to claim Butte, Mont., as her birthplace. Only in the most recent edition of Who's Who did she finally, grudgingly admit to being born in Jamestown, N.Y.

Horrses to Warter. While she lived there, Lucille did her best to rid Jamestown of dullness. Sometimes she gilded reality by imagining that the family chicken coop was her palace ("The chickens would become my armies"). She remembers that she was always unmanageable in the spring. "I'd leave the classroom for a drink of water and never come back. I'd start walking toward what I thought was New York City and keep going until someone brought me home."

By the time she left high school at 14, she had staged virtually a one-man performance of ‘Charley's Aunt’ ("I played the lead, directed it, cast it, sold the tickets, printed the posters, and hauled furniture to the school for scenery and props"). In a Masonic musical revue, she put so much passion into an Apache dance that she threw one arm out of its socket. Jamestown citizens still remember her explosive personality with wonder: it took quite a while for the dust to settle in Jamestown when Lucille finally left for Manhattan at the age of 15.

Probably because of the dreamy mental state induced by Sassafrassa and Madeline, Lucille is not too clear about dates, events and people. In New York,

she headed straight for John Murray Anderson's dramatic school. At the sound of her voice ("I used to say 'horrses' and 'warter' "), her teacher clapped hands to his forehead. Anderson tactfully told Lucille's mother that her daughter should try another line of work. Lucille made a stab at being a secretary and a drugstore soda jerk, but found both occupations dull. She answered chorus calls for Broadway musicals with a marked lack of success. When she even lost a job in the chorus of the third road company of ‘Rio Rita’, a Ziegfeld aide told her: "It's no use, Montana. You're not meant for show business. Go home."

Periodically, Lucille did go home to Jamestown. But she returned again and again to the assault on New York. She managed to get into the chorus of ‘Stepping Stones’, and held on until the choreographer announced that she wanted only girls who could do toe work ("I couldn't even do heel work"). Lucille turned to modeling, progressed from the wholesale garment houses through department stores to the comparative eminence of Hattie Carnegie. She still has a warm feeling for people in the garment trade, because "they're the nearest thing to show business in the outside world. They're temperamental and jealous. I like them." She had a great many admirers. One of them, Britain's actor Hugh Sinclair, says: "She disarmed you. You saw this wonderful, glamorous creature, and in five minutes she had you roaring with laughter. She was gay, warmhearted and absolutely genuine."

As a model, Lucille called herself Diane Belmont, choosing her name in honor of Belmont Park Race Track, where fashion shows are sometimes staged. But it was another few years before Lucille finally got her break. She was walking up Broadway past the Palace Theater when she met agent Sylvia Hahlo coming down from the Goldwyn office. Sylvia grabbed her and cried breathlessly: "How would you like to go to California? They're sending a bunch of poster girls there for six weeks for a picture. One of the girls' mothers has refused to let her go."

$50 to $ 1,500. The movie was ‘Roman Scandals’, starring Eddie Cantor, and it was six months instead of six weeks in the making. Lucille was grimly determined to keep her foot in the Hollywood door. She got a succession of bit parts in such movies as ‘Moulin Rouge’ and ‘The Affairs of Cellini’, worked for three months with the roughhouse comics known as The Three Stooges ("It was one continuous bath of Vichy water and lemon meringue pie").

When RKO picked up her contract, she gradually emerged as a queen of B pictures, then began making program movies with comics Jack Oakie, Joe Penner and the Marx Brothers (’Room Service’). Her salary rose from $50 a week to $1,500 and her hair, already turned blonde from its original brown, now became a brilliant but indescribable shade that has been variously called ‘shocking pink' and 'strawberry orange.' While she was in ‘Dance, Girl, Dance’, and being hailed by Director Erich Pommer as a new 'find' (by then,

she had been playing in movies for six years), she met a brash, boyish young Cuban named Desi Arnaz.

Gold Initials. Desi had come to Hollywood to make the movie version of the Broadway hit, Too Many Girls. Taking one look at luscious (5 ft. 7 in., 130 Ibs.) Lucille, who was wearing a sweater and skirt, he cried: "Thass a honk o' woman!" and asked: "How would you like to learn the rumba, baby?" He took her for a ride in his blue convertible, with the gold initials on the door, and she shudderingly recalls that the only time the speedometer dipped below 100 m.p.h. was when he rounded a curve. On the way home, Desi hit a bump and, as Lucille tells it, a fender flew off. He simply flicked the ash from his Cuban cigarillo and sped on.

Lucille was as dazzled by his full name (Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y De Acha III) as by his history. The only child of a prosperous Cuban politician who had been mayor of Santiago and a member of the Cuban Senate, Desi had fled to Miami with his mother during the revolution of 1933. His father, a supporter of President Machado, was put in jail, and the Arnaz possessions disappeared in the revolution.

After six months, Desi's father was released from jail and rejoined his family in Miami, where he went into the export-import business. Desi, who was 16, enrolled in St. Patrick's High School (his closest friend was Al Capone's son Albert), and got a part-time job cleaning canary cages for a firm which sold birds to local drugstores. He soon found steadier work as a guitarist in a four-piece band incongruously called the Siboney Sextette. The critics agreed on Desi's meager musical gifts. "He was always off-beat," says theater owner Carlos Montalban. "But he's an awfully nice guy—a clean-cut Latin."

Conga Line. Whatever Desi had, it was something the public liked. He began beating a conga drum in Miami and soon nightclub audiences, from Florida to New York, were forming conga lines behind him. His good looks and unquenchable good humor interested producer George Abbott, who was searching for a Latin type to play a leading role in ‘Too Many Girls’. "Can you act?" asked Abbott. "Act?" answered Desi, expansively. "All my life, I act."

The courtship of Desi and Lucille was predictably stormy. Says a friend: "He's very jealous. She's very jealous—they're both very jealous." They were married in 1940, while Desi was leading his orchestra at the Roxy in New York and Lucille was between pictures in Hollywood. She flew in from the coast; they got up at 5 a.m. and drove to Connecticut, where they were married by a justice of the peace. Since they had no apartment, Desi compromised by carrying his bride across the threshold of his dressing room at the Roxy. Hollywood offered odds that the marriage would not last six weeks.

The marriage lasted better than six weeks, but after four years trouble blew. Desi kept moving about the country with his band, and Lucille, when not making pictures, mostly sat home alone. Their marriage was drifting on the rocks, and only World War II averted immediate shipwreck. Desi refused a commission in the Cuban army and was drafted into the U.S. infantry. He was moved on to Special Services, and spent much of the war shepherding USO troupes from one base to another.

In 1944, Lucille filed suit for divorce. She won an interlocutory decree but never got around to filing for her final papers. The reason: she and Desi were in the midst of a new reconciliation. But all the old difficulties remained. Lucille would sit night after night at the clubs where Desi's band was playing, but that resulted in rings under her eyes rather than a new intimacy. She tried cutting down on her movie work by starring in a CBS radio show called ‘My Favorite Husband’, and Desi also took a flyer at radio. They worked out a vaudeville act and toured U.S. theaters with their new routines.

Lucille credits Desi with being the one who was willing to take a chance on TV. "He's a Cuban," she says, "and all Cubans gamble. They'll bet you which way the tide is going and give you first pick." But it was a real gamble. Movie exhibitors do not look kindly upon movie stars who desert to the enemy. If the show flopped, Lucille would have no place to crawl back to. They told CBS that they would give television a try only if both of them could be on the same show. At first, they wanted to play themselves. They compromised by turning Desi into Ricky Ricardo, a struggling young bandleader, and letting Lucille fulfill her lifelong ambition of playing a housewife.

The decision to film the show also made CBS bigwigs uneasy. It would cost four times as much as a live show, and the only interested sponsor, Philip Morris, wasn't prepared to go that high. Again there was a compromise. Desi and Lucille agreed to take a smaller salary in return for producing the show and keeping title to the films.

Real Plumbing. Long years in the practical business of orchestra leading had given Desi considerable organizing ability and business sense. He set up Desilu Productions (Desi president, Lucille vice president), and leased a sound stage from an independent Los Angeles studio. Because Lucille was ‘dead' without an audience, a side wall of the studio was knocked out to make a street entrance, and seats installed for an audience of 300. When a show is ready for the cameras, the audience laughter is picked up on overhead microphones and used in the final print.

Though ‘I Love Lucy’ is filmed, it is more like a play than a movie. All of the lines and action are memorized and, whenever possible, the show is played straight through from beginning to end, and not shot in a number of unrelated scenes. The action takes place on four sets; two of them represent the Ricardos' Manhattan apartment, a third shows the nightclub where Ricky's band plays and the fourth is used for any other scenes called for by the script. Says Desi proudly: "We have real furniture, real plumbing, and a real kitchen where we serve real food. Even the plants are really growing; they're not phony."

Desilu Productions hired a pair of veteran troupers, William Frawley and Vivian Vance, to play the family next door and serve as foils and friends for Desi and Lucille. Academy Award-winning Karl (’The Good Earth’) Freund supervises the three cameras, and Director Marc Daniels (soon to be replaced by Bill Asher) gives Lucy its rattling pace. The writers—Jess Oppenheimer, Bill Carroll and Madalyn Pugh—turn out scripts that do not impose too much on the audience's credulity and are reasonably free of clichés. The writers are held in an esteem not common in TV. Lucille bombards Jess Oppenheimer with photographs flatteringly inscribed to "the Boss Man," and Desi has presented him with a statuette of a baseball player and a punning tribute, "To the man behind the ball."

"Wanta Play Cards?" Desi and Lucille live an unpretentious life on a five-acre ranch in the San Fernando Valley. The only Hollywood note is a kidney-shaped swimming pool, and the most recent addition to the house (a wing devoted to daughter Lucie and her nurse) cost $22,000—more than the house and land cost originally. Neither Desi nor Lucille has ever been socially ambitious, and their friends are the same ones they have known for years. Both Desi's mother (now divorced from Arnaz Sr., who still lives in Miami) and Lucille's Mom live nearby.

At home, Lucille, who collects stray cats and dogs, is an amateur painter ("I use oils because it's easier to correct mistakes than with water colors"), and generally considers herself a lazy, lounging homebody. She is fascinated by Desi's boundless energy.' He spends weekends fishing on his 34-foot cabin cruiser, Desilu; plays violent tennis; likes to cook elaborate dishes. Says Lucille: "Everything is fine with him all the time. Wanta play cards? Fine. Play games? Fine. go for a swim? Great." There's only one problem: "Desi is a great thermostat sneaker-upper and I'm a thermostat sneaker-downer. Cold is the one thing that isn't great with him."

Sex & Chic. Though life has grown noticeably more placid for Desi and Lucille, it promises more money than they ever made before. Desilu Productions has already branched out beyond ‘I Love Lucy’. It is filming TV commercials for Red Skelton, and is at work on a new TV series, ‘Our Miss Brooks’, starring Eve Arden. Three of the best 30-minute Lucy shows are being put together in a package and will be experimentally released to movie theaters in the U.S. and Latin America. This year, ‘I Love Lucy’ has grossed about $1,000,000, and sponsor Philip Morris has signed a contract for 39 more shows beginning this fall. All of the old Lucy films can be sold again as new TV stations go on the air (eventually there will be 2,053 TV transmitters in the U.S., compared to today's 108).

In reaching the TV top, Lucille's telegenic good looks may be almost as important as her talent for comedy. She is sultry-voiced, sexy, and wears chic clothes with all the aplomb of a trained model and showgirl. Letters from her feminine fans show as much interest in Lucille's fashions as in her slapstick. Most successful comediennes (e.g., Imogene Coca, Fanny Brice, Beatrice Lillie) have made comic capital out of their physical appearance. Lucille belongs to a rare comic aristocracy: the clown with glamour.

#Time Magazine #Lucille Ball #Time #Lucy #1952 #Desilu #Desi Arnaz #I Love Lucy #TV

11 notes · View notes

iloveyou3thousand · 4 years

Note

Witch Peter x Werewolf Tony. Every witch has a familiar

This is sad. I made it sad. I’m sad :’)

CW: mentions of character death, mentions of past pepperony, angst with a hopeful ending

—————————————————————————————

Tony had promised himself again and again, night after night, that this would be his last drink. That he’d stop after that, leave the booze the hell alone, but every time he picked up the glass and put it to his lips he knew that he wasn’t going to.

It was the only constant in his life these days. Food was scarce and that had worn him down to the slim, almost sickly figure he currently was, and he didn’t see any reason to spend what little money he had on food instead of another couple of glasses of something that would help him forget.

He would give anything to forget.

Ever since Pepper passed away, things had been going downhill, and they’d been going downhill fast. He had never managed along very well, and being without his witch took the cake. He’d lost weight, gained a nasty drinking habit, and had never been more nihilistic. But how could he be anything else if he knew that he was going to die shortly if he didn’t find another witch anyway?

He was never going to survive for very long, but Pepper had swept in and taken him under her wings, she had been kind and nurturing and had helped him up when he’d been at his lowest.

Although maybe he had never been lower than he was at that moment.

When Tony’s hands shook and he could barely sit straight, he slid off the barstool and decided to spend what could very well have been his last night on earth taking in the streets he’d once loved so dearly. Maybe he could find his way back to where he’d first met his witch. That seemed like a good place to rest his head.

He started making his way down the street, hands deep in the pockets of his jeans, shoulders hunched against the cold. He thought he could feel someone’s eyes on him as he crossed to take a shortcut through some side streets, but he shook the feeling. People probably thought he was up to something. He didn’t blame them.

He continued down the street, ducked into an alley, crossed it, and ducked into another one. The fewer people saw him the better. That way he could get to his destination unnoticed and unbothered.

But it seemed that wasn’t in the stars for him.

Although his senses had weakened since he’d lost Pepper, he still picked up on footsteps behind himself. He knew that if someone jumped him now, he wouldn’t be able to defend himself – he didn’t stand a chance. He forced himself to go a little faster, until the voice of a young man reached him, uncertain and curious.

“Sir? Um, Mister?”

Could be a trap, Tony thought. He’d heard of people using kids to lure others in now, for human trafficking but also for the collection of familiars. Tony did not want to end up forcefully bonded to some witch he didn’t know, in a country he’d never been to, among people he’d never seen before. No thank you.

And yet Tony stopped in his tracks and turned slowly to face the young man standing a couple feet away. There was a safe distance between them, and there was a bright light overhead illuminating the narrow alley, yet Tony couldn’t help but feel cornered.

The person standing at the mouth of the alleyway was young, but he didn’t look as young as he sounded. Tony assumed those were nerves bringing the boy’s voice up an octave or two. Huh.

Tony looked at him cautiously and expectantly.

“Hi,” the boy said, and he fumbled a little with his hands, “Sorry to bother you. It’s just—I saw you cross the street back there, and I couldn’t help but notice your shadow.”

Tony looked at the shadow cast just behind himself. Although it looked like a normal, human silhouette to him, he knew that to witches it looked different.

“You’re a familiar, aren’t you?” The boy continued, “A… A wolf, if I’m not mistaken.”

“What’s it to you?” Tony snarled. He didn’t have time for this. Nor the patience. At least the kid had the audacity to look sheepish before he spoke again.

“I don’t mean to be rude, but you look like maybe you could use some…help?”

Tony narrowed his eyes at him for a moment, but before he could even think of a good way to reply to that, the witch opened his mouth again, and a flood of words came out, leaving Tony stunned for a second.

“I’m really not trying to be mean. I promise. It’s just that I was raised right, you know? And so when I see someone in need and there is something I can do about it, then I can’t just walk away without doing what I can. And when I saw your shadow, and I saw how weak it really was, I knew that like… You’ve probably lost your witch, pretty long ago by the looks of it, and I don’t have a familiar myself so I thought I could approach you to offer you a place to stay for the night—not that you have to accept. And not that you can’t fend for yourself, or that you need to accept me as your new witch or anything, I mean we barely know each other and I’m just kind of springing this onto you, but—”

The boy took a deep breath, and bit on his lower lip.

“So what I mean to say, is, um. If you’d like, you could…come with me. Just for the night. I know even just staying with a witch alone will help you feel better. You have a very vibrant aura, and I just… I just don’t want someone like you to waste away.”

Tony was perplexed.

He’d been wandering the streets by himself for close to a month now, trying to get by after he’d lost everything. He had the worst time trying to find a new witch and had eventually given up because no one wanted a familiar like him. No one wanted an old, greying wolf. And now there was this kid, approaching him in the middle of the night, offering to give him a place to stay alongside a witch so that he could regain some of his strength.

Something in the back of his mind told him that this could still be a trap. It very well could be, and he was walking right into it, because there was something about the boy that made Tony want to believe him and go with him.

He realized that silence had fallen between them when the other spoke up yet again. He really was trying, huh?

“My aunt is a nurse so I know of some pretty good potions. I know of one that can help avoid a hangover? I’d suggest one that sobers you up but something tells me that that’s not something you want.”

Tony opened his mouth to say something, but once again, he didn’t get the chance. Was he getting slower with every passing minute or was the kid just that fast?

“Oh, I’m Peter by the way. What’s your name?”

“Tony,” Tony finally managed, shaking his head slowly in disbelief, “Why should I trust you?”

Peter looked a little taken aback for a moment, then almost hurt, before he put a sheepish smile on his face. “I mean, you don’t really have any reason to, I know. I thought I might offer. You don’t have to say yes. I just saw you, and—you looked so lost.”

Tony huffed. Lost. Yeah, that was one word for it.

He had to make a decision. Either he went with this kid – Peter – now, or he walked toward certain death in the place he’d first met Pepper. And while he had already kind of resigned himself to that fate, he realized by just considering his options now, that he didn’t actually want to die just yet.

So he took a hesitant step forward, and watched how Peter’s face lit up. The young man gestured with his hand, and a portal into a cozy-looking living room opened up.

“It’s okay, Tony,” Peter said softly before Tony ducked through, “I’ll take care of you. I promise.”

The living room was warm and it smelled like someone had been burning scented candles. There was a comfortable couch that looked beyond inviting to Tony, a soft rug, small coffee table, and a television on an old, wooden television stand next to a bookcase filled to the very brim with books on all types of subjects. The room wasn’t big by any means, but it was comfortable. Tony wondered if Peter lived there alone.

Speaking of Peter, the kid appeared by his side again after he’d rummaged around the kitchen, and he was given a mug with something warm in it, steam rising up from the surface. It didn’t smell like anything he’d had before.

“Drink up,” Peter encouraged. He went to sit on the couch and patted the space next to him so that Tony could sit down, too, which he did.

He sipped at the mug and found the taste strange but not repulsive.

“It’s a homemade blend. I was really drunk like, once, and it helped really well. Oh—do you want something to eat? You must be starving.” Peter hopped up from his seat and disappeared into the kitchen again, only to return with a steaming bowl of chicken noodle soup and a few bread rolls, some of which had slices of ham in between them. He set it all down in front of Tony, who had just about finished off the potion.

“Do you always invite strange familiars into your house to give them chicken soup?” Tony asked when he looked up from the food. He was hungry though, starving, so it didn’t take long for him to tuck in at all.

“Um, well no. But there’s a first time for everything, right?”

Tony couldn’t help but huff a small chuckle at the way Peter said it. As if this was the most exciting thing that had happened to him in a while. Maybe it was.

He finished the soup and the bread rolls and was happy to say that he hadn’t felt this satisfied in a long time. With a full stomach, his other aches and pains were much easier to manage, as it didn’t all come crashing down on him so heavily all at once.

But it also made the truth hit hard.

He wasn’t aware of the tears in his eyes until Peter’s hand landed softly into his hair and his fingertips scratched ever so gently at his skull. Tony’s face felt hot with embarrassment, but he couldn’t stop the tears. Peter – bless his heart – saw what was happening, and recognized it for what it was, and pulled Tony closer until Tony gave up and wrapped his arms around the young man while his face buried into Peter’s shirt.

No one had held him since he’d lost his witch. He didn’t think anyone had bothered, or cared. But now there was this boy who didn’t know him but who held him like he understood exactly what was going on. Tony briefly wondered if maybe Peter had lost his familiar. Witches usually met their first familiar early on in their childhood, but Tony couldn’t smell one on Peter. Maybe he was alone, too.

Peter held Tony until the man calmed down, stroking his hair and petting a hand up and down his spine.

“Do you want to shift?” Peter asked when he calmed down a little.

Tony nodded, but then backtracked a little. “I don’t think I can,” he breathed out. Peter just held him a little bit tighter.

“Of course you can. Just relax. I’m right here.”

And so Tony shifted.

Not with ease by any means. It had been so long since he’d last done so, since he’d last felt comfortable enough to. With Pepper, it had always been so easy. But now that he no longer had her, it felt impossible.

But Peter held him through it all, as promised, soothed him with softly whispered words of encouragement and gentle touches to the places that ached most as his body changed to fit his alternate form.

Tony was exhausted by the time his head sank into Peter’s lap. All the energy he had left drained from him, and yet at the same time he felt strangely invigorated. He had shifted! It was scary being so vulnerable around someone he’d just met, but Peter had given him no reason to distrust him so far. Even now, he held Tony, and stroked both hands through his fur, and he was beaming when Tony looked up at him.

“You’re beautiful,” Peter said, and Tony could have sworn that his cheeks looked a little pink, “Sorry if that’s a weird thing to say. Um. Time for bed?”

And so it was.

Peter cleaned up and said his goodnight after he’d found some extra pillows and a nice blanket for Tony to curl up among on the couch, and then he disappeared into his bedroom.

The couch could have, and should have, been nice enough for Tony to sleep on, but he was restless. Exhaustion kicked in again after a short while, and it wasn’t the type that helped him fall asleep any better. He itched to go and find his way back to Peter again, which came naturally to Tony, but it was also surprising to feel that way so quickly.

He’d barely known Peter for more than two hours and now he was aching to be next to him again already.

Tony stayed on the couch for a little while longer to see if that feeling would go away naturally and allow him to sleep, but it kept him awake. Frustrated, he hopped off the couch, and followed the trail of Peter’s scent toward a closed door. Tony could have easily opened it, just reached a paw up to the door handle and push it down to let himself in – but that kind of felt…invasive.

So he scratched lightly at the door instead. If Peter was awake, he’d hear it and he would let him in. And if Peter was asleep already, then he’d just have to go back to his own nest and simply rest. Or wait until the exhaustion got the best of him.

Tony scratched for a few moments, but he didn’t pick up on any sounds on the other door, any movement. Peter must have already been asleep.

With a huff, he dropped to the floor, and rested his heavy head on crossed paws, nose tucked against the door. He felt like a defeated pup. Jesus, when was the last time he’d acted like that?

Tony had just closed his eyes, when the door opened a crack, and Peter’s head poked out. When the boy’s eyes landed on Tony, he blinked at him.

“Hey, Tony,” he said slowly, and opened the door further so he could crouch down in front of the wolf, “What’s the matter? Was that you scratching the door? Why aren’t you in bed?”

As an answer, Tony lifted his head and crowded into Peter’s space until Peter’s hands fell into his fur again, a soft whine in the back of his throat. God, that alone already felt miles better.

It was quiet for a long few moments while Peter gently pet him again, Tony’s head in his lap and his tail wagging slowly.

“If you want… You could sleep with me?” Peter suggested, almost loud in the quiet of the night. Tony didn’t need to be told twice. When Peter stood and stepped aside to allow him into the room, Tony took the invitation and sniffed around for a bit before eventually making his way toward what smelled like the epicenter of Peter’s scent – his bed.

Peter crawled back under the covers, and when he patted the space next to him, Tony lay his head there, sitting down next to the bed. Peter ruffled the fur between his ears.

“Not like that, silly. Come on. Hop up. I know my bed’s not big, but… I’m sure we can fit. If you don’t mind snuggling. I don’t know if that’s weird.”

Tony would have told Peter that he was the king of weird, if he’d been able to speak. Instead, he jumped up onto the space Peter had made for him, and tried to lay his large body down in a way that didn’t have Peter pressed up against the wall all the way. It was tricky, and didn’t exactly work until Peter curled himself around the wolf and snuggled up like he’d promised, but the result could have had Tony rumbling with satisfaction.

He hadn’t felt this content in weeks.

Granted, this didn’t solve everything, but the mere fact that a near-stranger could make him feel like maybe things were starting to look up a little bit, made him hopeful for the future.

With Peter’s arms around him and his face tucked into his neck and his hands in his fur, Tony fell asleep with surprising ease, and he slept all through the night and well into the morning. Thanks to the potion Peter had given him, he woke up without a hangover, to the smell of breakfast cooking in the kitchen.

God, when was the last time he’d woken up like that?

Tony stretched leisurely in the empty bed, and was slow to push himself up on all fours and hop off the bed. He was hungry, he noticed. Hungry at last. He finally had his appetite back.

And as he made his way into the hallway and toward the sound of friendly voices in the kitchen, Tony realized that things were changing.

Peter had never made the promise that he could stay more than just one night, and Tony had never insinuated that it was something he wanted or even just wanted to consider, but the fact of that matter was that he was feeling good, all things considered. He wanted to hold on to that feeling for a little while longer, and if Peter was the person who brought that out in him…

Maybe he could find a way to stay. Maybe he could put the effort in and make this work. Peter was likeable, and he’d been so very good to him up until now. Tony would be lucky if the young man decided that he wanted Tony to stick around.

So he would try. For the both of them.

After all, he was pretty sure it was what Pepper would have wanted.

#starker #peter parker/tony stark #starker fanfic #marvel #ironspider #tony stark #peter parker #past pepperony #pepper potts #my fanfic #my writing #aus #werewolf au #witch and familiar au #angst with a happy ending #angst with a hopeful ending #angst #silentsunplays #replies

127 notes · View notes

jamiebluewind · 4 years

Text

Character/Location Descriptions for Fantasy High 2.10!

***

As always, let me know if I need to edit or add anything and tag/ask/PM me about art and stories so I can check them out!

Warning: emprisonment, multiple injuries, canon typical violence, multiple blood mentions, gross descriptions, poison mention, broken bone mention, vomit mention, torture mentions, trauma, abandonment,

***

Brennan

"Free dad slap."

"You 'Ally'ed out of the box of doom!"

***

New Character/s

Fire Elemental #3

Genderless

Was summoned and bound by the elves of old to protect the elemental pylon that powers the permanent magical effects of Ka'lethriel Tower, which transformed them into a monstrous fire thing along with 2 other fire elementals bound there

Was embrased by Fabian in a deep dip as he cradled their head and his sheet wrapped around them both and roiled above them

The power of Fabian's dance partially stunned them and took them out of active combat

The thing binding them to protect the pylon went when the fire pit helix was put out, causing them to change back to a creature with an elvan face of wreathing flame

They cry fire

They kissed Fabian softly on the lips (for 8 points of damage) and whispered in his ear (softly like flame) "Thank you. For my freedom. For my life." before disappearing

Established Characters

Arthur Aguefort

Slows localized time at Ka'lethriel Tower, opening a rift from his desk at the academy to talk to Adaine

Crawled through the rift after Adaine confirmed that her captors chose the way of pain

The way of pain involved Aguefort using new and experimental magic resulting him growing 450 feet tall (massive thudding steps), reaching up to grab the Sun (causing his veins to light up with golden fire and his mouth to fill with a fire that releases and races across the sky), calling thousands of terracotta Agueforts to burst out of the ground and sprint north, moving the Sun itself (leaving a burning scar across the sky), and shooting lasers the width of highways that have enough power to cap a mountain in one hit with lasers that shot out of his eye (which took on a golden bright glow)

He appeared to Kristen later (via a spell that appeared as a scroll glowing with illusionary magic with his name on it that allowed him video chat with her from back in Elmville) badly injured, wrapped up in bandages, bleeding a lot, and in pain.

The new magic tore up his guts so bad that by the time he got about 50 miles north of the tower, he "shit about an ocean of blood" and almost passed out (we can't get that big, 450 feet tall is too big)

Was also hit with a lot of powerful elven counter magic before he teleported back to Solace

His terracotta army fell apart when he left

Admitted that he had been going ham for a while since after Kristen snuck him into heaven, that being dead for a couple months really messed him up, and that attempting to destroy the government of Fallinel was "just too much"

Got in a lot of trouble with the government of Solace, will probably have to go to court, and he has to move the Sun back ("gotta figure out how to do that")

Dragged the Sun "a little bit north of where it should be" (causing the far south of the Earth to be colder and far north to be hotter), but said the Sun was "going in the right direction" and "still going around the Earth", resulting in clarifying that Spyre normally goes around the Sun, but he's not sure of what he did when he dragged it across the sky and that there was more of a poetic understanding of how things really work, but he still "really fucked up"

Kear/Keer

Was horrified by Augefort's actions

"I'm getting very confused and upset with everything that these children do."

Was poisoned and vomiting when Kristen banished her with a kiss on her face, came back when Kristen broke her ankle, and was banished again by Ayda who loudly pronounces "mwah!" while kissing her face like Kristen

Oak Warriors

8 foot tall

Look like green men (not automaton) made of magic with elven faces

Vulnerable to fire

Controled by Kear

Anguin

Was blinded by Kristen

Went invisible and ran

Was knocked unconscious by Fig and left in the vault (with some of his teeth knocked out) when Ka'lethriel Tower collapsed

Aelwyn

Kept awake for 5 months

Was rescued from the tower and fell unconscious/comatose immediately

Was carried out by Ayda

Even outside the orb, her body shook with the strain and effort

As she and Adaine tranced, a tiny piece of her abjurative magic (an innate cantrip, abjurer's ward) came back and she started building a shield around Adaine in her "sleep"

Was taken to a hot spring with elven healers by Adaine

Was unsure if they actually escaped or just died before trying to cast a feeble shield around Adaine again

Her mind was damaged and the torture had a profound and corrosive effect on her well being and memory

The inside of her mind looked like a city razed to the ground with crumbled walls, battlements, towers, and arcane defenses. Only a weird, vulnerable labyrinth of images remained

Has a deep self loathing (especially for not saying anything on Adaine's behalf against their parents) and a powerful fear of her parents. Her cowardice fed into her self loathing which fed into her cowardice in an endless loop.

Had an intense magical charm in the center of the labyrinth of her abjurations and a little faint enchantment with "Despite all of the torment and tribulation, let this be proof. I always knew there was only one person clever enough to find this." written on the outside. The charm was a custom modify memory spell (which The Court Of Stars had been searching for) and contained a saved unbroken version of her from before she was capture which overrode her current broken state once it was dispelled

Adaine

Found a sword in the vault while looking for a weapon to fight with

Later gave the sword Fan-dran-goorh to Fabian (was made by his grandpapa Tel'amine)

Held Aelwyn as they sleep

Detects magic on Aelwyn and find a faint whisper of enchant magic before using detect thoughts on her

Found and dispelled the magical charm within Aelwyn which returns her sister's mind to a version before she was captured by The Court of Stars

Gilear

Fluid in his feet, especially his right (due to rolling his ankle months ago) which now has a band of purple around it (possibly a bone issue) and causes him an ambiant throbbing pain and heat from all the extra blood (GO TO A DOCTOR!!!)

Tel'amine

Tried very hard to say "Gorgug" one last time, but just said "Chedge" and then cried and became really embarrassed when Gorgug responded "It sounds like literally no sound was correct in that."

Dances with Fabian at one point in the night to the sound of Fig's bass.

He and the other adults of Kylo Me'newra give teens grapes because they believe it will make them less horny (doesn't actually work)

Riz

Shot a fire elemental over Gorgug's thumbs up

"Stay positive."

Said "It's beautiful" about Fabian dancing with the fire elemental and shed a tear before saying "It's beautiful Gorgug" and lowering his gun, aiming at the last pitcher

Poked his head in when Adaine was about to go to sleep to ask if her sister was still trying to kill them (since she was just kind of there now), listens to her answer (doesn't think so, especially with her trauma), and then slowly (and awkwardly) backs out of the room as the sisters doze off together (after Ayda dropped her off)

Gorgug

Soot on his face and singed hair after being set on fire

Had his thumb knicked slightly when Riz shot over it

Fabian

Slashed the first fire elemental on his first two turns before hiding behind Gorgug

Had an elven sheet on hand which has the ability to put out fires, so he used to put out his friends

Danced and jumped with his sheet during the battle and did a bit of contact juggling with the fire

(On being kissed) "I take it. I take every point of that damage and I take it slowly. I can feel it. In my whole body."

Was left with red hot lips after kissing the fire elemental and (with a gulp) felt a glowing moat of fire travel down his throat and rest hot and warm in his chest

Had the sheet tied around him like a cape while traveling back to meet with the others

At Kylo Me'newra, danced (badly due to rolling a 1 and a 2) all night outside with his sheet (like nobody is watching) as the ground lit up behind him with a dull glow with each step. It helped him get in touch with his feelings and his body

Enjoys the taste of the flower his grandpapa gives him

Gorgug, Riz, and Fabian

Ran to and from their pylon with their arms back like anime characters

"I believe in you/us."

"Spring break!!!"

All three were burned from their fight

After getting back to Kylo Me'newra, Fabian danced all night while Riz and Gorgug watched (cradled in the boughs of treents that hummed a song as the trees rocked them)

Riz: You know? This place isn't so bad.

Gorgug: How did this part start happening?

Riz: I thought I was just gonna sit in a tree and it started singing to me.

Gorgug: Hey. Really not horrible.

Riz: Yeah.

Tel'amine: Yes. Really not horrible at all. *catches a blossom and shoves it into Gorgug's mouth* Eat it.

Gorgug: *chews*

Tel'amine: Yes.

Riz: Is it good or is it just a flower?

Gorgug: *shakes head*

Riz: It was beautiful.

Tel'amine: *glides off into the night*

Gorgug: *coughs and sticks his tongue out*

Riz: Did that dude just feed you a flower?

Gorgug: Yeah. *hacking sound*

Riz: That was insane.

Gorgug: It's a complex flavor, I don't like it.

Riz: That was insane.

Kristen

Unmade a oak warrior due to the annoyance of her spirit guardians

*appears behind Kear and puts her hand on her back* "You're on the wrong side, but you could join us if you want. Just something to think about." *casts banishment to give Kear time to think and kisses her on the side of the head before she goes*

Tried to ribbon dance fly down 10 stories in the middle of the tower and ended up just slamming into the floor at the bottom instead, breaking her ankle

Her spirit guardians attacked Anguin while he was invisible and trying to sneak into the vault, ending his invisibility

Used sending to get in contact with Jawbone (Jawbone. Hey. Having some trouble with Tracker. She's pretty upset at me. I keep saying the wrong thing. I kept something from her. Oops? -> Tough break kiddo. Happy to help if I can. Should I find a way to contact you other than this spell? -> Fuck yes. -> Hell yeah.)

Had a long distance talk with Jawbone (using Aguefort's video chat spell) where she got advice on not treating her partner as a means to an end and about transparency.

Fig

Gave Wicklaw's sword back to Leviathan

Disguised herself as a Arthur Aguefort (but with a bass guitar) and accidentally really upsets Ayda

Played a really sick guitar riff that would make all the gems dance (to persuade them somehow and find out more about gems) and ends up causing a large gem built into the base of the tower to crack and the tower to collapse (but not before grabbing a book on gems lore)

Tried to set Adaine's dad on fire with a pack of cloves as they left

Had a sleepover with Ayda (text link below)

Ayda

Brennan stated outside stream that an incarnation of Ayda has been living on Leviathan for a very long time, building the Compass Points. When she dies and is reborn, it is a true rebirth and her new incarnation has none of the memories of her previous forms, only knowing her previous selves from the written instructions they leave behind. Her current incarnation is the same age as Tracker (17).

Can fly with two other medium sized people (and later the two plus an underweight Aelwyn)

Immune to fire

Her dad is very triggering for her

Had a sleepover with Fig

(to Fig) "Have you said something so kind on purpose?"

When Fig attacked her as her dad (due to spell fail), she got very upset and said "Dad. Dad. I'm sorry. I'm done. I'm sorry. Dad. Dad." as Fig tried to calm her

When she counter spelled Angwin and Fig told her thank you, she answered "Whatever. I would help you, Fi-du-du-Dad. You're not my dad. You're Fig! Right? It's an illusion. Yes. You're Fig. I know. Why would I have carried my dad here? He never carried muh... me."

Told Fig that she might need to work through some of her stuff in battle as she "elected to have a disguise that was very upsetting."

After dispelling a spell on Fig that was gonna make her run away "Dad don't leave! I mean Fig! Fig don't leave."

Was very happy to see Adaine.

Said "My friend Kristen did this" before giving Kear a loudly pronounced "Mwah" kiss to the side of her head and banishing her again

Fig: How dare you do that the Arthur Augefort!

Ayda: PLEASE STOP THAT!

Fig: I know, but see, it's intimidating for them-

Ayda: It can't possibly be helping us more than it's hurting us!

***

Location Descriptions

Ka'lethriel Tower (new details)

The tower itself is 10 stories tall and sits near a wall (with a gate) that surrounds the tower and the garden

Each floor has one room (save the top which has at least two)

The first floor holds a vault (which is normally protected by permanent magical effects) with a big locked door

There's a large gem built into the side of the tower within the vault

The vault is filled with a lot of things, including Adaine and Aelwyn's property (spellbooks, arcane focuses, and The Jacket of Useful Things), Fan-dran-goorh (Fandrangor): Sword of The North Star (long, whip thin elven sword that shines a gleaming green golden light, can talk with the voices of elvan ancestors, and once belonged to elven kings long past), a massive religious tome, a quarenteened series of top secret elven scrolls that is the research of Adaine mom, a series of notes by mom looking for the location of a temple in Sylvar (Kristen knows due to a book at the Compass Points Library), and a book on gem lore

Fire Pit Pylon

Large elvan smithy (only in looks as it's an arcane power station and not an actual forge) and worst of the two pylons

Stone, mossy covered building with a floor covered in traps and an entire infrastructure filled with a high elven adoration for magic

In the center of the building, there is a hexagonal 6 pointed room with a fire pit in the center that's so hot that it's hard to look at. The fire is golden green helix at the start (changes to purple gold with the first pitcher of water spilled into it, ruby red with the second, and out with the third. It also flickers with other energy at ruby red from the other pylon being attacked).

Surrounding the fire pit in altering positions around the 6 sided room are 3 braziers and 3 statures (each statue directly across from a brazier)

The elven statues have ornimental stone weapons on them and are holding huge alabaster pitchers of clear water which bend towards the fire pit and require a cantrip (or enough damage to break them) to dump their water

The large firy silver elven braziers are piled high with burning coal (responsible for the smoke) and are traps that conjure a monsterous fire elemental when the water from its corresponding stature spills into the fire pit or when a floor trap is triggered

***

<- PREVIOUS

40 notes · View notes

xodaniellevictoria · 4 years

Text

8 Days in Paris

I’ve been wanting to visit Paris for as long as I can remember. 2 weeks ago my life long dream, CAME TRUE! My fascination with the city began with my love for ballet. For those who don't know I was a ballet dancer for 16 years, and the type of ballet I was taught, originated in Paris. I have envisioned myself walking amongst the city streets for years and to finally cross this off my bucket list was an indescribable feeling. I want to share everything we did while we were there, and any quick tips to help you out if you’re wanting to visit this amazing place for yourself!

Alright lets start with planning. I searched for EVER to find affordable flights. Typically out of California round trip tickets to Paris are around $1200 each. By some miracle I was able to find round trip tickets for $500 each. (Because it’s off season for tourism and once the weather gets colder, the ticket prices drop) I didn't use any specific sites or cheap airlines, I was just always looking for a deal. So I definitely recommend going on off season (Fall to early spring) to avoid high ticket prices.

While you're planning, I would also really recommend staying at an Airbnb over a hotel. We really felt like we got the true Parisian experience and most Airbnbs are cheaper then hotels is what I noticed while planning.

HERE IS A LINK to the cute private apartment we stayed at while we were there. It was PERFECT for what we wanted. The iconic Parisian windows, a great view to a little courtyard, in the city center, and 3 minute walk to the subway. (Photo below for the ideal Parisian windows I was talking about.)

We decided to break up our trip by spending the majority of our time in Paris at the Airbnb, and then the last 2 nights we splurged and stayed at a hotel I’ve had my eye on for awhile now. Hotel Providence is the Parisian hotel of my dreams, and it did not disappoint. The stunning lush decor and rich color palette of the entire hotel checked off all my aesthetic points. We had champagne waiting for us in our room, and they were accommodating for early check in and leaving our bags at the front desk after we checked out, since we had some time to kill before our flight. I found the hotel on Instagram and I’m so glad I did. They have an amazing bar downstairs that was great for pre and post dinner drinks. They serve food as well but we unfortunately never got to try any. The front desk and service at the bar was amazing, super friendly, spoke great English and would absolutely recommend staying here if your budget allows. See below for pictures of our beautiful room and the outside seats of the bar / restaurant! CLICK HERE FOR A LINK TO THE HOTEL

Another thing I would highly recommend is getting the PARIS CITY PASS. This pass will get you into the Louvre, Musee d’Orsay, Versailles, you name a Parisian attraction, and this pass will most likely get you in, and the best part is you won't have to wait in ticket lines. At the Louvre, there was a 2 hour wait to get tickets, and we literally walked RIGHT in... Sorry everyone in line! Should have done your research!

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE SITE TO GET YOUR PARIS CITY PASS

While planning, something else to think about is transportation. Basically the entire trip, we took Paris’s subway system ‘Le Metro.’ If you have an iPhone, using apple maps is going to be your best friend. Switch your directions to transit instead of walking or driving. The apple maps directions will tell you exactly where to go for the train stations, which lines to take, and which direction you need to be heading. There are signs in English in the subway so don't worry about not being able to understand French signs. There are trains right at the airport, and everywhere you will want to go in the city. Its truly amazing and so affordable compared to trying to Uber everywhere. We honestly preferred taking the subway way more than taking Ubers, because traffic in the city is.... Intense, and most of our Uber drivers didn't speak any English. The trains were always much faster and just easier in general.

Now I want to share the things we did that were noteworthy, and that we would recommend to anyone who is coming to Paris for the first time.

1. Eiffel Tower. Just as magical as you would think it would be. Head to the Tracadero across the river Seine to get an amazing view and its a GREAT picture spot. Another amazing picture spot is on the same side of the river as the Eiffel Tower and its a little dead end street with the perfect view of the tower with some French buildings in the line of view as well.

Heres the address: 228 Rue de l’Universite (the picture below was taken HERE)

2. Versailles. The grandest palace in all of Europe. It is breath taking. Especially if you're a history nerd like me. I got an audio guide so we didn't have to take a tour, and it was perfect. Also highly recommend renting a golf cart to get around the gardens and to see the other buildings and Marie Antoinette’s little village she created. PICTURE SPOTS: Hall of mirrors, Petite Trianon, and the Grand Trianon. Advice for getting pictures here, PATIENCE. Just wait for people to move so you can get cool shots with no one in them.

3. Crazy Horse. Ok this one won't be for everyone, but when I think of Paris I think of burlesque. Crazy Horse was one of the coolest burlesque shows we’ve seen and its a must if you're wanting a sexy night out. ( We preferred this over Moulin Rouge. )

4. MontMarte. MontMarte is the cities highest point. resting on a hill, there's a gorgeous old church, the Sacre Couer. MontMarte is also the cities historic artist district. Artists such as Van Gogh, and Renoir, found inspiration in this quaint part of town. Behind the church is the cutest little area where local artists are still paining city scapes and personal portraits. Seeing this area was a highlight for me. It felt so like what I thought Paris would be like. Good rooftop bar with the view of the city and the Eiffel Tower: Terrass Hotel, the rooftop bar is open to the public, you don't have to be staying at the hotel.

5. Le Marais. This is where you need to go if you're wanting to shop. Clothes, local pastries, apothecaries, you name it this area has it. Our favorite stores were Blue Garage, System Vintage, Luka Luna,

6. Notre Dame. A Paris staple. Currently closed for renovations but still worth seeing from afar. The streets around the Notre Dame are covered with vintage magazine / book stands. They make for great home decor. Make sure you have euros pulled out though because they don't accept credit cards!

7. Musee d’Orsay. Paris’s second biggest and most famous museum. Is in an old train station which makes for a cool setting for a museum. (See picture below) We liked this museum more than the Louvre...Way less crowded, and more modern artists that we actually knew. Holds famous paintings from Monet, Degas, Renoir, and Van Gogh. Highly recommend grabbing a drink on the 5th floor cafe behind one of the old clocks!

8. The Catacombs. Super interesting walk through some of Paris’s old Limestone quarries that they filled with bones from the cemeteries, when the cemeteries were getting too crowded in the 1700′s. I didn't get any spooky vibes. Just felt like a museum.

9. Palais Garnier. The Opera house in Paris. Reminiscent of Versailles, this grand Opera house is soooo extravagant and gorgeous. The first real Ballets were put on here. How cool is that?

That wraps up the things to see that we loved most. Now lets move on to my favorite part... THE FOOD!

Basically everywhere you look in Paris there are little cafes. Sometimes as many as 4 on a block. Eat at as many of them as you can. They're all pretty incredible. If you're from America and have never traveled to Europe, something to note is that in Europe, slow service is good service. You have to ask for your check. dining out in Europe is an experience and they want you to relax and enjoy your time dining. There is no rush with food there. Its pretty life changing coming from a country where you are accustomed to being in and out of a restaurant within an hour and getting angry if your food hasn't shown up in 15 minutes.

Things you need to try at any Parisian restaurant: bread, butter, wine, and cheese. They're all usually locally sourced and man let me tell you... It just tastes DIFFERENT over there. The butter is the best butter I’ve ever had. When we got home I legitimately looked up where I can buy French butter here in San Diego... The wine? INSANE. One night I had 6 glasses (which is WAY way way too much for me) and the next morning I didn't wake up with any sort of hangover... I don't know what they're doing in France but wow it is amazing. The cheeses are also wonderful. All so different depending on the restaurant, and all taste soooo much fresher then any cheese I’ve had here in the US. It’s hard to describe.

Some of our favorite restaurants we came across while we were there:

BREAKFAST / LUNCH-

Any cafe usually has a Croque Monisuer or a Croque Madame which is basically a grilled cheese sandwich with ham and egg, they're amazing and make a great breakfast sandwich. We also ordered Cafe Au Lait’s everywhere we went for breakfast (Coffee with steamed milk.) And croissants are always a good idea.

La Terrasse Des Archives for an amazing avocado toast eggs Benedict

Hollybelly 5 for some americanized / English style breakfasts and some amazing lattes

Hardware Societie for another amazing Americanized / English breakfast

Breakfast in America is a full on American diner in the heart of Paris.

DINNER-

My favorite meals we ate in Paris were our dinners. There is endless amazing food options but here are some of our favorites.

Sacree Fleur did not disappoint. Located in MontMarte, this cozy restaurant will blow you away. We started with the cheese course, wine, and bread. Had steak and mashed potatoes as our main course, which by the way, continues to cook at your table on a hot slab of rock. SO COOL! And we finished with the creme brûlée, which actually made me CRY, it was so good.... (Terrass Hotel is walking distance away, the rooftop bar is open to the public and you get an amazing view of all of Paris including the Effie tower while enjoying some after dinner drinks, and you don't have to be staying at the hotel to enjoy the rooftop bar.)

Le Petit Italien is an amazing option if you're wanting some Italian food in Paris.

Le Sancrerre in MontMarte was another stand out. I got the beef bourguignon and it was incredible.

Chez Janou was also outstanding. Perfect French dishes, great service. Our waiter was actually living in San Diego for awhile before he moved back home to Paris so it was a super random coincidence to eat there and have him as our waiter!

#paris #travel #france

5 notes · View notes

cowgirlontheloose · 4 years

Text

Searching for God

In the beginning

One late winter day when a melting sun spread like butter across the snowy field behind our house, my Mum, my little brother and I had a picnic lunch on the back veranda. Our cat, Queenie, came too, twitching her plume of a tail, her eyes ablaze with stirrings of spring.

We sat on a tartan blanket spread on the wooden deck. Dad had shovelled the veranda all winter and the green canvas awning would not be put up till May, so on that early March day, it was a sunny haven.

Mum lay back on her elbows and tilted her movie star sunglasses to the sky and sighed and said “I feel like a new woman!” Although I was only six I knew what she meant. It had been a long winter of dark days, of Dad away in Montreal or Chicago or Vancouver, of flu, colds and chicken pox and frequent visits from Dr. Church — Mum hovering in the background — with his stethoscope and big belly.

I still remember a bath infused with something to soothe my painful pox, and how tenderly Mum wrapped me in a towel afterwards. Years later when I saw an image of Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus, I felt again the sensation of rising naked, streaming and itch-free from the water as my mother’s towelled arms reached for me. I don’t know why Botticelli took me back to that bath, or which one of us was Venus. It wasn’t till I had decades more of life under my belt that I understood we both were.

But on that sunny winter day we nibbled ham sandwiches on white Wonder Bread and drank hot cocoa from a thermos. Icicles dripped and splatted from the eaves. We unbuttoned our wooly coats and listened to the happiness of chickadees and crows.

Suddenly and with great conviction, I took my little brother’s face in my hands and said “Why Doodle-bug, you look just like God!” From my mother’s reaction I knew I had said something noteworthy, but I didn’t know what and could not explain myself further. My small freckled brother only squinted into the sun with half a sandwich drooping from his mitt.

In the middle

For most of my 40s I volunteered for three, four-hour shifts a month at the Ottawa City Distress Centre. People called for all sorts of reasons beyond depression or suicide. I loved waiting for the phone to ring while I sipped tea and peered from the centre’s fifth story window at the beings striding or shuffling along below. Perhaps I had talked on this very phone with one of them. Or so I liked to think.

I was good on the phones. For the first time ever, I found I could truly connect with people. For one thing, I had to sincerely listen instead of, in my usual manner, wait for a chance to cut in and flap my gums. There were no visual cues to cloud my judgement. No clothes, accessories, hairdos or mannerisms to make me jump to unhelpful conclusions. All I had to go on was a voice and a mysterious conduit that ran between us through wires, various switches, terminals and space.

A woman named Alice called several times a week. Her warm voice gurgled like brook water into my ear. In our many talks I never discovered much about her situation. I imagined she was in care somewhere, either with relatives or in a home.

When Alice called, I could relax. Sometimes I put my feet up on the desk and tilted back the chair, settling in for something sweet. Depending on the day and who knows what else in Alice’s rich life, she claimed she was either pregnant with, or had recently given birth to, the baby Jesus. Although this was 100 per cent unlikely, I rejoiced with her at this thrilling news. She certainly never sounded distressed which made me happy for her. Perhaps she called because her family or caregivers were tired of hearing about Baby Jesus.

My most unforgettable call was not from Alice, however, but from a manic depressive man who planned to kill himself. He was not suicidal at the time, so there was no point in tracking his call and keeping him talking until police banged at his door. Nonetheless, he had a plan and was committed to it. His voice was reasoned, intelligent and also conveyed what I can only describe as certainty.

His family had stood by him through years of hell. When he wasn’t weeping, he was on spending sprees: once a race horse named Galveston Gal, although he knew nothing about the racing world; another time a stone mansion on 20 acres with tennis courts, a pool and three car garage.

“I know they love me,” he said. “I know they will cry a lot. But time will take care of all that. My wife will remarry and my kids will grow up in a sane home.” By then I was listening so hard that my forehead was on the desk and my eyes shut so nothing could get in the way.

I said very little. I think he was grateful for that. I hope I said I love you, but I can’t be sure I did. It was a long time ago.

Belonging

On a Buddhist retreat a few years ago, our teacher told us to spend as much time outdoors as possible. Each of us carried a magnifying glass and, besides being silent for the two week duration, we were instructed to examine everything.

“Feel your deep belongingness with all life,” he said. “We are family. We are woven on the looms of each other’s lives.” So out we all went, dispersing into the 300 acres of leafy woods, eager to be at one with the universe. Mostly I was relieved I didn’t have to endure endless sits in the meditation hall, waiting for the gong to sound and feeling like a failed Buddhist. Roaming forests, fields and waters, especially on my own, was my favourite thing to do.

I peered at moss, sand, fungi, petals, pine cones, webs, galls and gelatinous bird poops. The underside of leaves often held specks of mystery — possibly eggs or some minute creature perhaps waiting for an insect’s version of Godot.

Our teacher had set up an old Nikon microscope at the back of the hall. It was impressively heavy, and sat under a plastic cape, within a wooden box. This we could use for “deeper looks” as he put it, waggling his eyebrows encouragingly.

I had never used a microscope and my first zoom in on the carcass of a house fly caused me to holler “Holy Fuck!” which alarmed several steadfast meditators. The fly was on its back and had a hole in its desiccated stomach. I felt I was gazing into an echoing cavern beyond space and time. Where the hell was I exactly? Then I realized that a weensie spider — certainly invisible to the naked eye — was living in that cavern. There it lurked with minuscule glittering eyes in its dead fly home, doing whatever it had to do to keep itself alive and the world turning. I sat back with one hand clamped over my mouth. This was too much.

For the rest of the retreat, I was glued to that Nikon. I continued to see worlds within worlds within universes. In my one-on-one sessions with our teacher I babbled on about my discoveries. The way he listened, looked at me, made me want to weep and sometimes I did. I knew he was used to it. One day I was raving about looking at the yellow centre of some daisy-like wildflower and discovering it was made up of tubes. Then I saw that tiny white creatures lived inside the tubes. They bustled in and out from tube to tube obviously with much on their tiny minds. My teacher’s smiled and said “…and if we could look even deeper, no doubt we’d find smaller creatures living in or on those creatures — and so on and so on.”

For years as a journalist, I had been writing about the importance of biodiversity and how everything is interconnected. But really, what the hell did I know? It took a microscope and a dead fly for me to begin to understand what our teacher kept patiently pointing us towards. In his words: “Looking deeply into our current situation, we can see that this place and this time are actually vast mysteries of creative collaboration that ultimately involve all places and times.”

#spirituality #personal growth #memoir #Buddhist;#searching #god #biodiversity

1 note · View note

snarkybluechristian · 5 years

Text

Hazbin Hotel: Yandere Alastor x Vaggie Chapter 10

When the car started moving, Alastor began speaking about his radio station.

“I know you’ll love it, Vaggie,” Alastor beamed while rubbing Vaggie’s waist. “It’s where I usually spend most of my days informing all of Hell of my accomplishments and feats.”

“Have you told all of Hell about me yet?” Vaggie asked reluctantly letting Alastor hold her against his side.

“That’s what we’re about to do, dear,” Alastor replied. “Aren’t you excited?”

“Ecstatic,” Vaggie said with as much enthusiasm as she could muster.

For the rest of the car ride, Vaggie was silent while Alastor chatted merrily about his station.

When the limo finally pulled up to the station, Vaggie’s jaw dropped wide open.

It was a massive building with telegraph wires and towers strewn all over. The building was designed and built to look like a radio station from the 1930’s, right down to the old fancy lettering.

Alastor chuckled at Vaggie’s expression and said, “She’s beautiful. Isn’t she, dear? She’s been here since 1934, 85 years strong. What do you think?”

Alastor climbed out of the car waiting for Vaggie to exit and give her response.

“It’s impressive,” Vaggie said looking out the car door.

Alastor smiled widely taking Vaggie’s arm and lifting her out of the car before he said, “Just wait till you see the inside.”

Vaggie followed Alastor into the building and found out that he wasn’t joking.

Inside the radio station, it was decked out to high heaven with the 1930’s theme and decor, with stylish seats and ham radios everywhere. Everything shined because the entire building was polished and waxed to look absolutely immaculate.

Vaggie looked around in awe until a little assistant, a short demon seemingly consumed with a black firey mist, ran up to Alastor.

“Hey, boss!” the assistant called out with a wide smirk revealing shiny white teeth that matched the white orbs that made up his eyes. “Oooh! Who’s the dame? Is she a special guest? More importantly, is she single?”

“Oswald, this is my soon-to-be wife, Vaggie,” Alastor said Vaggie’s heart to skip a beat immediately.

Oswald’s face fell in embarrassment as he said, “Oh, sorry, boss. Congratulations.”

“Wait,” Vaggie said in shock. “We aren’t engaged. I don’t even like you.”

“Yes, we are,” Alastor replied without missing a beat. “You agreed to it.”

“No, I didn’t!” Vaggie exclaimed. “When did that happen?!”

“When you accepted my engagement ring back at the manor,” Alastor said with a devilish smirk.

Vaggie’s face fell in realization as Oswald snickered in the background.

“You bastard!” Vaggie yelled. “You tricked me!”

“Just like how your ancestors were tricked by the Spaniards,” Alastor said arrogantly.

Vaggie then tried to spring on Alastor to start clawing his face. Alastor merely held Vaggie back with a hand on her forehand and chuckled at her efforts.

“Damn, boss,” Oswald said bemusedly. “Your dame has a temper. I like her.”

“Oswald, how many times must I tell you not to swear in the presence of a lady?” Alastor chided without changing his current pose.

Oswald cleared his throat and said, “Of course. My apologies, boss.”

Vaggie backed away, stood up as tall as she could, and yelled, “Oh, you two hypocrites can go fuck yourselves!”

“Hey!” Oswald snarled noticeably cracking his knuckles. “No swearing at the boss, missy! Boss, you want me to deal with her?”

“No need, Oswald,” Alastor said delivering Vaggie a wicked smirk. “She will be punished once we return home.”

“Didn’t know you were into BDSM, boss,” Oswald said with a sick smirk of his own. “How kinky...”

Alastor chuckled out loud and said, “Oh, Oswald, you have a delightfully dirty sense of humor.”

Meanwhile, Vaggie was paused in a panic. She had to fix this situation. She couldn’t go home yet.

Vaggie remembered what Angel said before, so reluctantly, she took a deep breath and swallowed her pride.

“I’m sorry,” Vaggie said as sincerely as she could muster instantly getting Alastor’s attention. “Please forgive me. I was just shocked. That’s all. I’m just not used to moving this fast. Please don’t make me go back. I’m really enjoying getting out of the house with you. I’d hate to cut it short already.”

Alastor smiled happily and said, “Well, since you apologized, you shall not be punished.”

Vaggie sighed in relief as Alastor held her to his side.

“Looks like you found a good one,” Oswald said. “Congratulations again, boss. I’m happy for ya. Are you going to come on air today to announce it?”

“Yes, indeed,” Alastor said happily.

“Alright, boss!” Oswald replied turning on his flames and using them to hover in the air. “I’ll go clear the booth.”

“We’re going on-air?” Vaggie said pulling away from Alastor in surprise.

“Yes, we are, my darling,” Alastor said excitedly.

Vaggie paused for a moment. This could be her chance, but how would she use it?

Alastor held Vaggie in a hug and said, “Oh, darling, don’t be nervous. It’s not hard at all!”

Realizing Alastor interpreted her silence as nerves, Vaggie said, “It doesn’t sound so easy to me.”

“Oh, no,” Alastor said. “It’s quite simple. You’ll get it in no time.”

“I don’t know,” Vaggie said feigning shyness as she pulled away from his grip.

“No need to be shy, Vaggie!” Alastor said taking her arm in his. “I’ll help you through it.”

“Okay,” Vaggie said calmly.

“Good,” Alastor said walking down the hall with his betrothed on his arm. “Now follow me, dear. We’ll make this announcement and be gone in a jiffy.”

Soon, the duo was in the extravagant radio recording room.

Vaggie marveled over the old-fashioned radio equipment. It was all so old and so beautiful, but she forced herself to stop looking at it to figure out what to do next.

Alastor sat Vaggie in her chair in front of a microphone while he and Oswald got everything ready.

Vaggie sat in the chair and watched everything happening while praying for a solution. All she could think of was to drop hints that Charlie would understand hopefully. If she was sneaky enough, Charlie would hopefully come to her rescue.

“Alright, Vaggie, my dear,” Alastor said taking his seat. “Are you ready?”

“As ready as I can be,” Vaggie said sincerely nervous.

“Oh, good,” Alastor said. “Because we’re on in 3…2…1…Hello, Hell. This is your favorite Radio Demon interrupting your scheduled program for a special announcement. I have someone very special to introduce to you all. Go on, dear. Say hello.”

“Hello?” Vaggie said startled by the echo in her voice.

Alastor gave Vaggie an encouraging motion and said, “Go on, my darling. Introduce yourself.”

“I’m Vaggie,” Vaggie said calmly. “I’m the manager of the Happy Hotel.”

“And I’m Alastor,” Alastor said cheerfully. “Vaggie’s future husband!”

“Yeah…as of this morning,” Vaggie said with a nervous chuckle.

“And we’ve decided to announce it here on the radio waves to let all you fellow listeners know!” Alastor said merrily.

“Yeah, I’m engaged to this shitlord,” Vaggie said with another nervous chuckle. “I never thought I’d say that. It’s a surprise for me, too. I hope you’re all listening…”

“We’re pleased to announce that all of Hell is invited to celebrate our wedding!” Alastor interrupted. “That’s right. Every one of you is invited to enjoy our celebration. There will be music, dancing, free food, and free drink with overflow venues extending all over Hell. We promise it shall be quite the spectacle.”

Vaggie took a deep breath and asked, “Does that mean that Charlie, the Devil’s daughter, can come?”

“Of course,” Alastor said much to Vaggie’s surprise.

Vaggie took another chance and asked, “How about Angel Dust?”

Alastor visibly froze.

His features contorted as if he was trying to surprise some unbridled rage under the surface, but he quickly composed himself and said, “Only if his new owners agree to it.”

“Oh, yes,” Vaggie said innocently. “The auction…”

“Right, that reminds me,” Alastor said returning to his upbeat tone of before. “This Friday evening, I will be hosting an auction in my home. The main ticket item will be the former porn star, Angel Dust. The event is invitation only, so you will know if you’re invited and how to bid on the items ahead of time...”

Vaggie smiled knowing that Charlie now knew everything if she was listening.

“The wedding will be held a week after in a special location to be announced later,” Alastor finished.

“So, that’s how much freedom I have left...” Vaggie muttered to herself.

“What was that, Vaggie, my love?” Alastor asked.

“I said that’s a lot of planning for me,” Vaggie lied.

“Oh, you silly little thing, I’ll do all the work,” Alastor reassured. “You won’t have to lift a finger.”

“I won’t?” Vaggie asked in genuine surprise.

“No, I’ve been planning the wedding with one of your more...distant...relatives,” Alastor said.

Vaggie stiffened, “What?”

“That was supposed to be a surprise, but we’re meeting him today for lunch,” Alastor said merrily. “Isn’t that just great?”

“How…wonderful,” Vaggie said stiffly.

“And with that my dear audience, I now return you to our scheduled programming,” Alastor said as the mics clicked off and the radio returned to playing jazz music.

Vaggie breathed a sigh of relief as Oswald burst in the door and said, “Hey, boss! Would you accept a bet made in person? That Angel Dust is something else.”

Alastor turned around in his chair and replied, “Sadly, you must make a high auction price to win Angel Dust.”

“You pay me pretty well,” Oswald argued. “I can afford it.”

Alastor looked over to Vaggie and said, “Vaggie, could you go wait out front?”

Vaggie blinked in surprise but nodded, “Um…okay…” as she got up from her chair and made her way out of the room.

Before long, Vaggie was sitting back in the lobby back in a chair with a paper cup of water in her hands.

Vaggie was satisfied for the moment as she drank her water. Now, all of hell knew what Alastor was up to, but she was still trapped with him...or was she?

Vaggie looked out the front door. No one was really watching the entrance besides the secretary, so if she wanted to take a chance, now was the time.

Vaggie finished her drink, crumpled her paper cup and tossed it in the garbage can before she rose from her seat and dashed out of the radio station as quickly as her sandals would allow before the secretary had a chance to notice.

#hazbinhotel #alastor hazbin hotel #hazbinhotelvaggie

5 notes · View notes

freehunacup1975-blog · 5 years

Text

Sometimes I do miss her because we've been through together for half of our lives. Every milestone but I haven't been around for hers the past 8 years or so. Weird because we used to talk about how our kids would be best friends.. By your theory, Alissa was being a total bitch "in disguise". She was just sayin knowing full well her fans would drag the girl and knowing she was being rude af. The girl was a fan who responded to her literally asking for these ideas and she shut her down and made her feel small. It was Spring, and the university was accepting admissions through a trial that applicants needed to submit. The trial was abstract, "you are going to spend the night outside in the wilderness, what eco friendly innovation could you bring with you for surveillance?" I went to works and was done with the drawing process of a banana cocoon hammock in eco friendly material, but doubted myself too much to finish making a model of it. A guy in my art class (childhood friend) were applying to the same university that year, and he had made something among the lines of a floating bed that could be burnt after using. I feel like it was the opposite way around. I just rewatched S2, and Tatianna is just a big a bitch to everyone, as Raven is. For me, it's more annoying though because Tatianna tries to act like she's above that behaviour and doesn't seem to realize she's also being an ahole. But the scientific study of this idea has been limited, she said. [Seeing Double: 8 Fascinating Facts About Twins]Most research on perceptions of attractiveness has focused on finding which characteristics people generally find attractive in others' faces, Germine told Live Science. 1 in the journal Current Biology, the researchers looked at 547 sets of identical twins (who have identical DNA) and 214 sets of fraternal twins (who share half their DNA) in the Australian Twin Registry. She ended up in Vegas, living with a guy that was twice her age. Before she left she had deleted all her emails, and deactivated her gmail account account. I got it reactivated and recovered her emails(don ask me how) and found out she had been hooking up with random dudes from craiglist Trading coke for blowjobs or just outright sleeping with them.. I have the CC cream and have the same skin as you described and same preferences. I love it. The only thing I dislike is what a user above already mentioned; it not fully setting on its own. Does anyone else have a review of this product?Edit: I also going to get a Stila eye liner for tightlining. I haven liked anything since I ran out of Mally, but I don want to pay 19 dollars for an eye liner. I tried Wet N Wild, but that transferred and it wasn as black as Mally I hope I like the Stila one. Dubai has its Palm Jumeirah and Doha has the Pearl. A hangout for the mega rich, these man made islands cover 400 hectares of reclaimed land made up of beach villas, hotels and apartments, making it the most exclusive address in the city. But you don need a millionaire bank balance to walk on its beautiful boardwalk or stop for a coffee in one of the many cafes that line it.. My sister and I would blow our allowance on junk food every Friday and stay up watching movies. She always got Buddig ham, which was a little more than I was willing to spend of my paltry $5. So I would ask for a slice. Our bodies support remineralizing teeth as long as there are minerals available to send as needed. Saliva carries calcium and phosphates to the sites of demineralization naturally, but the mouth can only compensate so much when it's overcome 안동출장안마 with bacteria and plaque for too long. Plaque can start to harden on teeth if it's not removed after eating, and when this hardening starts, enamel begins breaking down from the overactive bacteria in 안동출장안마 the plaque growth.

1 note · View note

your-dietician · 3 years

Text

2021 All-Area girls' soccer Player of the Year: M-S star thrives after finding sports-life balance | Sports

New Post has been published on https://tattlepress.com/soccer/2021-all-area-girls-soccer-player-of-the-year-m-s-star-thrives-after-finding-sports-life-balance-sports/

2021 All-Area girls' soccer Player of the Year: M-S star thrives after finding sports-life balance | Sports

Nyah Biegler hams it up at the Mahomet-Seymour High School soccer field at Middletown Prairie Elementary School in Mahomet this week. The recent M-S graduate, who earned The News-Gazette’s Player of the Year honors this season, isn’t done playing soccer, either. She’ll continue in college at Eastern Illinois starting this fall.

Robin Scholz/The News-Gazette

MAHOMET — Nyah Biegler debated about playing soccer for Mahomet-Seymour High School.

Debated about continuing to play the sport at all.

Both scenarios are difficult to imagine nowadays for the recent M-S graduate.

The former is difficult to imagine because Biegler is the 2021 News-Gazette girls’ soccer Player of the Year.

She did “so much 50 to 80 yards from the goal to allow us to succeed,” according to M-S coach Jeremy Davis, and still managed to produce 19 goals and 19 assists from the center-midfielder position while also taking on increased defensive responsibilities to help the Bulldogs’ relatively young back-end group.

Those efforts aided M-S to a 15-3 record and a fifth Class 2A regional championship in as many seasons during a condensed schedule.

Biegler was born into a soccer family.

She was destined to play the sport for an extended period of time.

“It was my first birthday, and I was taking my first steps and my dad had a little soccer ball that he bought me,” Biegler said. “Our family’s just all soccer.”

But Biegler became so immersed in soccer that it eventually wore her down.

Entering high school, she was traveling three hours to St. Louis on a regular basis to work with an Elite Clubs National League team after previously making frequent trips to Indianapolis for the same reason.

“I had a time when I was going to St. Louis that I just wanted to quit,” Biegler said. “I didn’t want to play college soccer. I didn’t want to do anything. I was just burnt out.”

That’s where M-S soccer came in and kept Biegler playing the sport that runs in her blood.

It turned out to be a great arrangement for both parties.

“Coming here and renewing everything — new coaches, new everything — it was just awesome,” Biegler said. “The love for the sport grew again.”

★ ★ ★

Many of Biegler’s early soccer memories involve those with her dad Neil Biegler, who is an assistant coach under Davis with the Bulldogs.

Neil Biegler played high school soccer at Limestone High School in Bartonville. He donned the No. 3 jersey at that time, as his daughter eventually would.

“We always would watch soccer games. Our favorite team was Manchester United, and we’d have matching jerseys all the time,” Nyah Biegler said. “On our drives to St. Louis and Indiana for soccer, we’d listen to a soccer podcast.”

Biegler’s competitive soccer career started in the Illinois Futbol Club, with she and M-S senior-to-be Cayla Koerner playing on a boys’ team. Biegler then transitioned to playing for Mahomet’s recreational league and being coached by her dad.

Maddi Claybrooke, a senior defender this spring for the Bulldogs, played alongside Biegler at this time.

“We had a really close friend group we grew up playing soccer with. … We all just became really tight friends,” Claybrooke said. “I remember a lot of the time we would do the homecoming parades together. Our team would always come together in the fall and create a soccer float … and throw candy to everyone else.”

★ ★ ★

Those localized friendships soon became more difficult for Biegler to maintain.

Her next soccer stop was in Bloomington, where she again was coached by her father. Biegler then tried out for and found a spot on the ECNL’s Indiana Fire program when she was in seventh grade.

“(My parents) knew it offered opportunities to play in college, and other places around here didn’t,” Biegler said. “It was a great team. … I loved the girls over there. But just driving that far and not having social connections in the community around here (was difficult).”

During two years with the Fire, Biegler remembers that she’d “have to leave early from school three or four times a week.”

Weekends brought about big matches as far away as Washington, D.C., or North Carolina.

“I thought it was normal,” Biegler said. “It was very intense. It’s like going over to Europe and playing with them. … It was a lot of time in and out of the sport to manage our bodies, and we were 12, 13 years old.”

Biegler said a strict diet was imposed upon Fire athletes, though she added Neil and mother Heather were more lenient than some other parents.

In fact, Biegler had to be convinced to eat a food most kids regularly crave.

“I hated chocolate,” Biegler said. “They made us have chocolate milk, and now I love chocolate milk. I drink it after all my games.”

Biegler, however, was reaching a crossroads during her soccer career as she progressed toward high school.

The Fire’s season ran simultaneously with that of Mahomet-Seymour’s. Biegler ultimately decided she wanted to suit up for the Bulldogs, and she also joined the St. Louis-based ECNL squad that played on a different schedule.

This lasted just one year before Biegler knew she needed a change.

“ECNL soccer was great soccer-wise for me. … I got a lot of exposure,” Biegler said. “But the social aspect of it for me, I wasn’t able to be part of this community. And high school soccer brought me my closest friends — definitely the ones I’ll carry on to college.”

Biegler’s parents were supportive and understanding of their daughter’s position.

She’d continue on with the Bulldogs while also returning to Bloomington for club play.

“I definitely made the right decision playing high school soccer,” Biegler said. “(ECNL) has its benefits, too. I probably would’ve been a better soccer player. But this is just about me in a different aspect of my life because soccer’s not everything.”

★ ★ ★

Now that Biegler was re-engaging with the M-S soccer scene, she wanted to ensure she gained as much from it as possible.

So she began working out with the Bulldogs’ boys team, also coached by Davis.

Biegler can list off plenty of girls she became close with through Mahomet-area soccer: Claybrooke, Koerner, 2018 graduate Erin Lenschow and former N-G Players of the Year Meredith Johnson-Monfort and Maddy Wade.

But Biegler also feels “I was probably closer with most of the guys” because of their more rigorous training methods.

“They’re more competitive, and that’s what I need,” Biegler said. “They really are chill and the best friends to hang out with, too. We’d just go out every day playing, and they’re super fast, super strong. They’re just built differently — they’re guys — but it’s definitely made me a better player.”

Nate Lundstrom, another member of the Bulldogs’ Class of 2021, is among the boys Biegler bonded with on the pitch.

Lundstrom was friends with Biegler well before high school, too.

“Her dad was a member at Grace Church, so sometimes he’d unlock the gym and we’d be able to play pickup soccer in there,” Lundstrom said. “She was definitely good enough to play with all of us, and it was really fun.”

Biegler and Lundstrom often paired with fellow 2021 M-S graduates Eli Warren and Logan Woodward in local 4-on-4 tournaments. These events would feature first-to-five goals matches with the winner remaining on the field until suffering a loss.

In one particular tournament, the Biegler-Lundstrom team “became the villains that day because we were the youngest people there but we kept winning.”

“Eli had just absolutely destroyed the seniors team one time, and then that game, I think Nyah hit two shots from half (pitch), too, and two shots in a row that sent the team off,” Lundstrom said. “I think someone even said something along the lines of, ‘Don’t worry if she shoots. Guard Eli.’ And then she made them both. That was fun.”

Biegler also feels she was able to discover her voice more by playing with boys, both in Mahomet and during club team practices in Bloomington.

“It just developed my skills so much faster,” Biegler said. “They definitely bring a bunch of different aspects into my life, socially and soccer-wise.”

★ ★ ★

Biegler’s soccer development in high school included two important alterations.

First, she switched from primarily playing the outside back defender position to the center-mid role she currently occupies.

Biegler was growing into her 6-foot frame and hitting the weight room with increasing frequency, allowing her to become an effective option at center-mid.

“I’m just a vocal person in general, and being able to be in the center of the field and start leading (was great),” Biegler said. “My soccer IQ is higher in the center of the field.”

The vocal element is the second area in which Biegler experienced change during high school soccer.

Biegler said she wasn’t very talkative as a varsity-playing freshman but was welcomed with open arms by the likes of current Illini Johnson-Monfort and Wade.

Even when she began speaking more, though, Biegler still needed to refine her on-field chatter.

“I was very bossy,” Biegler said. “That’s how I played ECNL, and that was just me as a player.”

Biegler was a captain for the Bulldogs’ 2020 team that never got to compete because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and she retained captaincy this spring.

With numerous younger players, including freshman sister Nadia Biegler, now looking for her leadership, Nyah Biegler took a different approach.

“We had a lot of sophomores that hadn’t played a varsity game, and being able to help them figure out what to do, what decisions are best to be made (was important),” Biegler said. “Being able to cheer them on and being able to just be positive to them whenever they need something, I think that’s how (my leadership) developed.”

This chance to grow as a person and player might not have happened if Biegler decided she was done with soccer just a few years prior.

“She’s had a really big impact on our team. Vocally, you can always count on her,” Claybrooke said. “She’s able to encourage people and warn them of the opponents. … Nyah was a big factor in putting the team in position to score. Taking her out of the middle would’ve hurt us.”

★ ★ ★

Biegler’s next soccer stop will have her transitioning back to being a younger athlete in a sea of older athletes.

She’ll soon attend Eastern Illinois and play soccer for coach Jake Plant’s Panthers.

“Because of COVID, all of their seniors are coming back, so it’s going to be a team of 30,” Biegler said. “I’m going to have to fight like crazy to get a spot in there. Honestly, I’ll do whatever the team needs.”

Biegler, who plans to major in biology with the hope of later attending medical school, now struggles to envision a life without soccer.

As Biegler said, there’s more to her than the sport. But the role it’s played in her life is unmistakable.

“Balancing everything is part of life, and it’s going to be hard (in college), but it’s going to be worth it,” Biegler said. “I had to play soccer more, and I’m so excited that I stayed with it.”

!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s) if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments); if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0'; n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window,document,'script', 'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js'); fbq('init', '1022689164882457'); fbq('track', 'PageView'); Source link

0 notes

cutsliceddiced · 4 years

Text

New top story from Time: How to Order Dim Sum, According to the Head Chef of the First Chinese Restaurant in North America to Receive a Michelin Star

Scalding hot liquid bursting out of soup dumplings punctuated with the sharp taste of soy-vinegar sauce. The smell of barbecued pork wafting out after the first bite into a fluffy, white bun. Tender pieces of Peking duck with crispy skin. The sweetness of red bean paste inside a chewy sesame rice ball.

Dim sum is a feast of textures and flavors consumed to the cadences of Cantonese, clinking plates and squeaky wheels as servers push hand carts from table to table.

It’s also more than just a meal of Chinese cuisine; it’s meant to be a communal experience that can span hours, says Sandy Shi, executive dim sum chef at the Wynn Las Vegas hotel. In her native Hong Kong, where she started working in hotel kitchens after graduating from college, it’s customary for big groups to leisurely enjoy simple dishes together as a social activity.

“People go to restaurants early, around 10 a.m., and they don’t order a whole table of food. They order little by little and have a cup of tea and read the newspaper while they wait for the friends and family to join them,” the chef says. A visit to a dim sum restaurant can go well into the afternoon.

There are some who go to dim sum restaurants every day. “For some people in Hong Kong, dim sum is a daily routine,” Shi says. “It is a way of life.”

Eric JamisonSandy Shi

When Shi immigrated to the U.S. in 1993 and began cooking at dim sum restaurants in San Francisco, however, she noticed a difference in the way American diners approached the Cantonese cuisine: in the U.S., the focus is on the food.

Without the cultural emphasis on dim sum as a communal event to add context to her cooking, Shi had to learn how to transform traditional dishes to suit the American palate—which she found to mean more seasoning and stronger flavors. She took this lesson to heart when she became executive dim sum chef for all of the Asian restaurants at Wynn Las Vegas in the late 2000s. During her 11-year career at the luxury hotel and casino, Shi and her staff of seven have been responsible for executing the daily dim sum orders at Wing Lei, the first Chinese restaurant in North America to receive a Michelin star, as well as Mizumi, Red 8 and Wazuzu.

The chef and her crew churn out dim sum classics such as har gow (shrimp dumplings) and siu mai (pork-and-dried-oyster dumplings). But fine-dining crowds with a penchant for flavorful and visually pleasing food are looking for more than just traditional fare, Shi says. So now, she is constantly seeking ways to be more creative without sacrificing taste.

In Hong Kong, Shi was accustomed to cooking with ingredients delivered fresh every morning; but in her current kitchen, located in the Mojave Desert, she has to incorporate packaged ingredients and “tweak [her] recipes in order to make sure everything tastes the same.”

Those efforts have led to the reinvention of some classic dim sum dishes. Crispy garlic shrimp spring rolls are served with three dipping sauces: two with traditional flavors—hoisin and hawthorn—and a French-influenced Dijon mustard crème fraîche. Soup dumplings are upgraded with black truffle shavings, micro chives and an emulsion of Chinese superior stock, a rich broth commonly brewed from chicken, ham and pork.

Shi has also had to adapt to trends in American dietary habits, including a recent shift toward clean, nutritious and meat-free eating. For example, a creation of hers that has become a mainstay on the Wing Lei menu is the Garden Dim Sum, a vegetarian-friendly dish featuring colorful dumplings stuffed with spinach, beets and corn nestled on top of a nut-and bread-based “soil” and elegantly decorated with edible flowers and pea tendrils.

Barbara KraftThe Wing Lei “Garden” Dim Sum

While Shi works hard to tailor her menu items to the preferences of her guests, she also makes sure her cooking keeps up with dim sum trends by regularly traveling around the world to see what other chefs in the industry are creating. But one particular trend she has noticed has nothing to do with the food. “There are more and more women getting in the industry,” Shi says. “Compared to other parts of the kitchen, dim sum has more women chefs.”

From the chef’s personal experience, the reason for this is simple: Women have smaller hands that are more suitable for the intricate hand-work dim sum requires. “Since everything is handmade, we can make things more delicate and detailed,” she says. And as a veteran with a career spanning over 25 years, her hands are more than up to the task.

How to Order Dim Sum

Whether you’re a newcomer to dim sum or an avid enthusiast, Shi has tips on how to find the best dim sum restaurants, and what to order when you get there:

1. Don’t go solo

Dim sum is traditionally meant to be experienced with a group. As a native Hongkonger, Shi sees the cuisine as a communal activity rather than just a meal. To her, “dim sum is an event for friends and family” where they gather in large numbers to leisurely enjoy simple dishes together.

Aside from the cultural significance, there’s a practical reason to eat dim sum with a large group: you get to try as many of the shareable bites as possible.

2. Hit up the classics

A newcomer to dim sum should try the essentials: har gow, or shrimp dumplings; siu mai, another style of dumpling typically made with pork and shrimp; and guo tie, or potstickers. These are fundamentals in a dim sum chef’s repertoire, Shi says, and you should avoid restaurants that mess up the basics.

A more advanced dim sum dish Shi suggests is fried shrimp balls. They are “particularly hard to make because they are crispy on the outside and have a hot broth on the inside.” If the restaurant nails this menu item, that means it has a skilled chef in the kitchen.

3. Dim sum and tea are meant to be

Drinking tea is an important part of the dim sum experience that you shouldn’t skip, says Shi. In fact, because the beverage has had a longstanding association with the cuisine, yum cha, which literally means “drink tea” in Cantonese, is used interchangeably with the phrase “dim sum.”

A goody dim sum place will offer a variety of high-quality teas, and provide information on their origins. “If a restaurant cares about their tea, then they must care about their ingredients,” Shi says.

4. Observe your surroundings

When you visit a dim sum spot, check out the bathroom and the general state of the dining room. If those areas are not clean, then that’s a good indicator that the kitchen is probably also not clean.

5. Beware of MSG

A lot of dim sum kitchens overload dishes with monosodium glutamate in order to mask the lack of freshness and poor quality of their ingredients. How can you tell if you ate something with MSG? “After the meal, you will be very very thirsty,” Shi says. “Also, if you can’t actually taste the real ingredients, whether it’s pork or shrimp, that means there is usually additives and seasoning.”

6. Check for seafood freshness

A truly great dim sum place will use fresh seafood. In Shi’s kitchen, she and her team make har gow with fresh, whole shrimp; lesser restaurants might try to hide that their shrimp is not fresh by mashing it up for the dumpling filling.

Additionally, lower-quality dim sum spots may not freshly wrap their dumplings, and then overcook them to hide that fact. One way to tell if a place is cutting corners is that its dumplings will break apart when you pick them up.

7. Take a trip

For serious fans, Shi recommends visiting two North American cities that chefs acknowledge as places for really good dim sum: San Francisco and Vancouver.

via https://cutslicedanddiced.wordpress.com/2018/01/24/how-to-prevent-food-from-going-to-waste

#Time #top stories #IFTTT #news

0 notes