#snow white defense squad

[incubotwriting]

14 Sleepless Nights

Inspired by the work of @1-800-daylon

Chapter 1

The wind blew cold and sharp, kicking up snow and dropping the nearby visibility to near zero. Bardon trudged through the ice, whipping around at the roars he heard that seemed to come from every direction of the white haze around him. His long white-gold hair whipped around, tangling in the wind and frequently blocking his eyeline, his light outfit completely hiding his silhouette in the icy void.

Vibrant colour blasts of Divine Energy lit up pure white mist, Bardon’s only link to his squad mates as they fought against the Miramon pack they had stumbled upon.

He called out, trying to find a direction to someone, anyone, to regroup and reassess, but his voice was lost in the roar of the swirling wind. He was completely separated, lost in the howling noise. His arm ached, the cold metal of its housing biting against his skin in the frost.

A roar right behind him was the only warning he got. Bardon swivelled on his feet and instinctively pulled his mechanical left arm above him to block the incoming strike, but felt it disregard his commands. Sluggish and stuttering, straining against the chill, the arm raised to the intended location right as a stone claw loomed from the void. Bardon desperately tried to fire his shield, forcing as much Divine Energy into the arm as he could muster.

The translucent golden shield started to grow out from the lens on the back of his forearm before sputtering in and out of existence and finally shorting out completely.

The claw came crashing down on his arm, heavy living stone crushing through the stressed steel with ease. Bardon felt a shot of pain through the arm as its sensors topped off and then were crushed one by one.

The metal arm was ripped from its socket, sprawling uselessly onto the ice in thousands of tiny fragments. Bardon dropped to his knees, a single thought running through his mind.

“Chalmers is gonna kill me.”

“You did WHAT?”

Chalmers’ voice travelled through the cluttered workshop, even more busy for the multiple people that now occupied it.

Bardon winced, sheepishly explaining the situation. Not that Chalmers could have missed what had happened, with the mechanical socket attached to his shoulder conspicuously lacking the arm that was supposed to be there.

“Most people start with ‘are you alright’ first” Lin Xiao mused, dropping a heavy bundle of blankets on Chalmer’s workbench with a thunderous clatter. There was a metallic rustling from within the bundle as whatever was wrapped inside shifted and settled.

“I ASSUMED he was fine considering you came to my workshop and not the Infirmary” Chalmers snipped back.

Lin Xiao crossed her powerful arms defensively. Normally the two of them were fast friends, but today she was here on Union business as Bardon’s commander, and the status in the room had a way of temporarily tempering friendships.

Chalmers pulled open the blankets on his desk to reveal the utterly obliterated remains of Bardon’s mechanical arm. The prothesis was in fist sized pieces, with wire, leaking fluid and dust from shattered circuit boards making a mess of the rags it was bundled in.

“We were doing a string of missions out near the frozen wastes, and it wasn’t dealing with the cold well…” Bardon started meekly.

Chalmers pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Please don’t tell me you got it serviced by an Utgard mechanic” he said.

Bardon and Lin Xiao looked at each other.

“We only asked them to swap out the coolant for a non-freezing type…” Bardon started.

Chalmers sighed loudly.

“You’re lucky it’s not filled with vodka” he said. “So what did it do? Slow down? Divine Energy spike?”

“Stutter glitch…right as a Miramon came down on me.” Bardon confirmed, apologetically. “The shield failed and, well. I tried to scoop up everything I could…”

Chalmers looked up from examining a handful of scrap to see Bardon’s distraught face and Lin Xiao’s pointed glare. He sighed.

“It’s just an arm. Better it than you. You did good to try and get it back, but this is properly fucked, we’re going to have to rebuild it from scratch”.

“I figured you were going to say that” Lin Xiao interjected “So I went ahead and booked you for two weeks. Authorisation from Raven should be in your inbox.”

“Two weeks?” Chalmers replied, confused “A bit lush for a fab and a refit”.

“If you were just building him the SAME arm” Lin Xiao said with a smirk. “Upstairs are starting to get a little nervous about one of their star Espers rocking an unreliable antique.”

Chalmers looked at her. He had been complaining about the Mk 1 arm for months in their Friday night drinks. He had droned on and on about how the platform was basically hacked together and almost impossible to work with for all the engineers its design had passed through, not to mention the sheer amount of tech-debt he had to wade through.

“Bardon here’s been forced to take 2 weeks sick leave to help you with R&D” She continued. “Think you can do it?”

"I kind of had plans this week…" Chalmers began

"No you didn't" Lin Xiao interupted, with the playfulness of a best friend. Chalmers shrugged. That was mostly true, and besides, this opportunity intrigued him.

Chalmers looked between them, his mind alighted. Gears turned in his brain as he rapidly started checklisting everything that would need to be done, designed, even invented for a full platform refresh. He started pacing, tapping a broken piece of Bardon’s old arm against his palm. After a few minutes of deliberation he looked back at them and delivered his verdict:

“Maybe.” he said. “But it’s not going to be fun.”

Chapter 2

“The alloy is lighter while being more durable, the servos are now top of the line and it’s got a better compute core that lets us triple the polling rate from all the nerve endings compared to your old one. Still haven't got it hooked up to a divine wave capacitor yet, let’s make it work as an arm first before we make it work as a power station.” Chalmers rattled off, his voice husky from weariness.

It had been two days since their project began, and Chalmers hadn’t slept a wink.

‘Not until we have a proof of concept’ he’d said at the time, but predictably his proof of concept had refused to play ball. First the servos burnt themselves out. Then the arm responded perfectly when puppeteered by a game controller but refused to be controlled by a neural wave emulator. In one memorable case it just caught fire. But problem by problem, Chalmers persevered with dwindling patience, energy, and sanity.

Finally, at the end of the second long day, Bardon stood shirtless as he always did when receiving arm care, with a skeletal and clearly unfinished metal arm attached to the socket at his shoulder. Despite its fragile and sinewy appearance, Bardon articulated it with surprising organic dexterity. He opened and closed the spindly fingers of the prototype experimentally.

“Well that’s a good start” Chalmers said, ducking and weaving around the various power-providing and diagnostic cables that anchored Bardon to the room to settle back at his worktable. He rolled through page after page of diagnostic readouts to make sure the prototype was running stably.

“Even only half made I can’t tell you how much easier this is to work with” Chalmers mumbled to himself, pressing buttons in his control software he never had the luxury of building before.

“So, how does it feel?”

Bardon rolled his shoulders back, attempting a handful of stretches that his tethering allowed. Chalmers watched, taking note of the way his exposed pectorals and shoulder muscles moved. He could just picture the gigabytes of sensor data running from the wired nerve endings around his shoulder into the multiple interlocking systems of the arm. He didn’t need to picture it, he thought, he’d made a control panel for it. Perhaps it was his weary eyes not wanting to refocus, but he didn’t feel much of a pull to look away.

“It’s Silent!” Bardon exclaimed “And so smooth, you even fixed the steppy problem around the thumb!”

Despite the sleep fighting him at the edges of his eyes, Chalmers couldn’t help but feel a deep satisfaction from the review. That sticking thumb problem had been bothering him for months. Quietly, he was immensely proud of his work, even in the prototype stage.

“If there’s any other feedback or information you have, say so, we need to get it perfect before we can move on.” He said, rubbing his eyes. Bardon clenched the metal fist and unclenched it, deep in thought.

“There’s one thing…” He began.

Chalmer’s satisfaction rapidly flipped to the usual mild dread he felt when he could sense a nitpick coming down the pipe.

“There’s a lag somewhere, I can’t tell where exactly…there’s just something off kilter.”

Well, that was helpful.

Chalmers grabbed a purple stress ball with a smiley face on it and pegged it forcefully across the room at Bardon. Without even thinking Bardon raised the skeletal prototype up and snatched the ball out of the air, eyes widening in surprise.

“Seems fine to me” Chalmers said, dryly.

Bardon blushed “I mean it though, it’s not very much but you asked for any information I had…”

Chalmers felt a small twinge inside of himself. Perhaps that was dismissive.

“Ok. If there’s something there it’s clearly tiny. We need a way to quantify this.” He leant back in his chair, his mind lost to wires and signal flows.

“Do you want this back?” Bardon asked, pointing at the stress ball still held firmly in his mechanised grasp.

“No.” Chalmers replied stiffly, opening his eyes and beginning to busy himself in the menus of his worktable’s oscilloscope.

“But it’s kind of cute…” Bardon began, transferring the purple sphere to his other hand and giving it an experimental squeeze.

“Stewart gave it to me when he came in to get his watch serviced” Chalmers said half-heartedly, wholly focused on detangling a mess of wires from his drawer “…told me I needed to lighten up. I think he thought he was being funny. Sit.”

Failing to find an empty surface in the cluttered workshop and still tethered close to Chalmer’s workbench, Bardon simply pocketed the ball and complied with the request, sitting in the worn swivel chair Chalmers had just vacated and rolled over to him.

Chalmers picked up a pair of headphones from his desk, wired to a battered and heavily modded music player and gave them to Bardon, who took them with an inquisitive look.

“Tap each of your fingers in time to the music.” Chalmers said, pulling up an unopened box of components and sitting on it across from Bardon. “Just your fingers on the table, use as little movement as possible.”

He quickly checked the song on the player as Bardon pulled the headphones on. It would do, he thought to himself as he hit play. He heard the music bleed through the open eared heaphones as Bardon began to listen. He watched him close his eyes and bob his head the tiniest amount as he began to tap. Chalmers put his hand flat next to the prototype tapping on the table, hoping to use the vibration of the table to assist his hearing.

…..TAP..tap…tap…tap…..TAP..tap…tap…tap…..TAP

There it was, clear as day, yet almost impossible to catch. Each downbeat was occurring a fraction of a second too late. Chalmers’ eyes lit up. He began to excitedly clip wires to test points on the prototype, hungrily on the hunt for the issue. Bardon briefly stopped his tapping, opening his eyes at the motion, but Chalmers gestured for him to keep going.

The oscilloscope flicked to life as it started to receive signals from the wires, dancing in chaotic noise until Chalmers brought it into line with button press. His face turned to an involuntary smile as he saw one of the waveforms drift slightly out of step with the others.

“Hah, got you bastard.” Chalmers said to the glitch, leaning over Bardon as he probed different test pads, chasing the delayed signal through the wires like a bloodhound.

“It’s coming in clean from the socket, stays in sync past the elbow but then lags in getting to the second digit servo…” Chalmers spoke rapidly, using his words to sift through his own swirling thoughts.

“…so it’s not a software issue because each finger shares the same rotation function, then it has to be something in the…oh I’m an IDIOT the index finger trace is longer because I wrapped it around that capacitor…oh that’s dumb why would I…what?”

He paused as he caught Bardon’s face. There was something wistful about the look the man was giving him. Bardon blinked, gently shaking himself.

“Oh, it’s nothing it’s just…Your…uh, your music. It’s really good.”

Chalmers glanced down at the headphones, now resting uselessly on Bardon’s neck, pushing a gentle beat into the air against Bardon’s exposed clavicle.

“Uh…thanks. Those cans are really good for it. Not that fancy, but they’ve got the same drivers as the expensive ones, just lose the wireless stuff, but who needs that anyway. Not to mention they've got a really good sound stage for games and all that”

The very same headphones tried admirably to fill the silence.

“Right. So. Long trace.”

Chalmers worked in silence as he fished a soldering iron from the mess on his workbench, effortlessly bridging two points near the prototype’s wrist with a shorter bodge wire.

“Better?” He asked as Bardon experimentally wiggled his skeletal fingers. Bardon’s face broke into a trademark wide beam.

“Perfect!” he said, pleased.

“Great. I’ll adjust that for the next revision tomorrow. I think that’s all we can do today.”

Chalmers reached into the prototype’s shoulder and released a hidden latch, detaching Bardon from the prototype and its umbilical wires. Bardon rose and offered the swivel chair back to Chalmers, who sunk into it, already distracted by the challenge of re-routing the index finger circuit but also fighting against a mind that begged for sleep. He tabbed into his already open designer tool.

“See you tomorrow” he called wearily into the room.

He heard Bardon’s footsteps head towards the door, engrossed as he was in his design. However, as he heard the door to his workshop open, the small twinge entered his stomach again.

“Bardon?” He called, looking up to see Bardon stop at the door, halfway through pulling a jacket over his bare chest.

“…I’m sorry if I was dismissive earlier that was…not intentional.”

Bardon looked confused before breaking back into a smile, this time not his usual readily available beam, but something a little softer and somehow even warmer. He pulled the stress ball out of his pocket and effortlessly launched it back across the room into one of Chalmer’s unsuspecting hands.

“See you tomorrow. Please get some sleep” he said, with a last lingering look back.

Chapter 3

“…So I give this guy the service manual and he just looks at it with the most fear in his eyes I’ve ever seen in a mechanic, I might as well have given him a bomb to defuse” Bardon described, animatedly.

“Well, divine wave tech, You kinda did” Chalmers mumbled through the side of his mouth

The two sat on the floor of the workshop, Bardon stripped to the waist as usual, with Chalmers kneeling next to him, working on the socket at Bardon’s shoulder. Between a particularly warm day and a morning spent arm-deep in greasy mechanics, Chalmers had discarded his long coat and shirt for the tanktop he wore underneath, his brown skin marred by dark oil and sweat.

Bardon continued to talk excitedly as Chalmers worked. What had started as a simple service and the installation of some minor upgrades had turned into an in-depth repair as Chalmers had discovered several stress faults in the socket from the old arm being ripped from it. Chalmers held a handful of screws in his mouth as he methodically checked and replaced the various connection points and bearings that allowed any prosthetic attached to it to function properly.

He let Bardon talk, his own mouth full of hardware as it was, though he had become exceptionally adept at uttering the phrase ‘piece of shit’ through a clamped jaw.

Perhaps it was the latent joy of seeing a project come together, but there was something very calming about sitting here with Bardon, performing this maintenance.

The work wasn’t difficult, but it was methodical and required a substantial amount of Chalmers’ focus. He could feel his mind slow in these moments, not having the room for the cacophony of design and troubleshooting that usually filled his thoughts. He was half listening to Bardon's stories, more enjoying the tone and presence of his voice than the actual content.

With a strong twist, Chalmers tightened the final screw in Bardon's shoulder, locking it in.

"Well, now that THAT diversion is over and done with…" Chalmers said, pulling himself heavily off the floor. Bardon sprung to his feet too, trying to admire the work done in a nearby mirror that Chalmers had put up for exactly that purpose

"Oh, it's not going to be particularly sexy" Chalmers called back to him. "Routine stuff and parts swaps."

"Those are probably very important though!" Bardon replied enthusiastically. "And it's a good thing my best mechanic is on it."

"I'm you're only mechanic"

"So it's good that you're the best!"

Chalmers scoffed. "Your positivity is exhausting. Kidding. I'm kidding" he hastily appended when he caught the look on Bardon's face. He ushered Bardon over to his table, where the prototype lay on a stand.

It was still intimidating and skeletal, but since the beginning of the week it had been slowly freed of all the power and resource lines that had tied it to the lab. Instead, a large clear component sat at the shoulder.

"So that's the power bit?" Bardon asked, forgetting Chalmers' previous attempts to explain it to him.

Chalmers nodded, patiently. "Brand new Divine Wave capacitor design" he confirmed. Powers the mechanics of the arm from your natural resonance. Turns you into a big battery. Do you want to give it a go?"

Bardon's eyes lit up, his smile lighting up the room as answer. The two positioned themselves, Bardon lowering himself to let the arm align with the socket without much lifting, and Chalmers readied himself to make the connection.

They caught eachother's eyes, as they had with this manoeuvre so many times before, and nodded. Chalmers lifted the arm and felt it magnetise to the socket.

"Nerves." he warned and Bardon tensed himself. Chalmers twisted the arm and felt it lock in place. A static hum ran through the arm as hundreds of intricate components came online. The clear crystalline capacitor started to glow a gentle gold as it took up the task of converting off-cast divine resonance into electrical power. Bardon grimaced, feeling emulated nerve endings and sensory responses reawaken. A small shiver ran through his visible chest muscles as his brain adjusted to the mental load of controlling the extra limb.

"That part didn't get any easier" Bardon said, good spiritedly but with a wry chord.

"Yeah. Sorry." Chalmers replied

"You're giving me a whole new arm, I'm hardly complaining" Bardon's smile had returned in full force and he lifted the arm off the stand, moving it gingerly, but definitely moving it.

Despite himself, Chalmers found himself smiling too, watching Bardon slowly gain more and more confidence with the prototype, and watching it transform from a tool attached to him to a part of him, seamlessly following the natural movement of his body.

"Alright" Chalmers prompted, "Let's try pushing some more Divine Energy through it. Slowly."

Bardon nodded and clenched his new robotic fist. The capacitor began to glow brighter and brighter, the gentle gold turning into a piercing yellow light that sent trails of light coursing through the creases and crevices of the arm. The aperture on the back of Bardon's forearm blinked into life, sparking with golden holographic wisps.

"Come on…" Chalmers encouraged "Come on, you bastard. Give it more, Bardon."

Bardon nodded and tensed harder, except for his hand which he opened in a claw-like hold. All the light pouring from the prototype brightened and brightened, almost becoming blinding. Golden sparks jumped between Bardon's new skeletal fingers as the divine power surged.

Something was very wrong.

Chalmers looked up from his eyeline at Bardon's hand and caught sight of the exposed capacitor. From this angle he saw a hairline fracture in the glassy surface that in his tiredness he had missed. Chalmer's eyes widened and he yelled out, reaching out a hand…

There was a deafening cracking sound and the capacitor shattered. The arm malfunctioned immediately, the hand clamping shut around Chalmer's outstretched wrist. The servos in the rest of the arm surged, pulling Chalmers to his knees painfully by the hold. Chalmers resisted with his arm, doing anything to stop it from twisting any further, but his own creation was overpowering him, forcing him to the ground.

Bardon yelped, clearly no longer in control of the limb, and tried to help pulling it back to no avail. Chalmers tried to babble the locations of the safety disconnects, but he was in too much pain. He grunted, only adding to the panicked look on Bardon's face.

"I'm going to try something, but I need to let go of the arm" Bardon announced with a surprisingly cool authority. "When I say, push back as hard as you can."

Chalmers had no other option but to nod at the command. Bardon gave the signal and Chalmers put every ounce of strength he had into resisting the twist of the arm. Bardon released his hold on the metal wrist, before raising his good arm in a fist. He took several deep, pointed breaths and braced himself before bringing it down with immense force on the narrow joint at the arm's wrist.

The joint sparked and one of the metal bones split as the hand instantly fell limp. Bardon followed Chalmers to his knees and went to scream, but immediately cut himself short when he realised something he expected wasn't coming. They knelt facing eachother, breathing heavily. Chalmers cradled his wrist, released from the iron grip

"It didn't hurt" Bardon timidly realised aloud

"I disabled pain emulation, the code wasn't done yet…" Chalmers said before something crossed his mind "…how did you know that?"

Bardon shook his head.

"I didn't."

They held for a moment before Chalmers came to his senses and reached for the emergency release. The prototype unlatched and fell to the floor with a thunk, a handful of exposed components snapping off as it hit the ground.

Chalmers picked it up off the floor with his good arm, swearing profusely as he went. He threw the prototype roughly against his workbench, where it hit with a frightening crash, before collapsing into his chair and sinking his head into his hands. His wrist was burning red hot and his prototype lay in tatters in front of him.

Bardon quietly approached, looking at the wreck of metal.

"Is it bad?" He asked.

"What do you THINK, Bardon?" Chalmers snapped.

Bardon recoiled, deep concern etched into his face.

"I'm going to need to start most of the hardware from scratch, that's IF my Godsdamn hand is usable at all."

Head still in hand, Chalmers didn't notice the deep guilt sinking into Bardon's expression

"Look, just, take a few days" Chalmers fumed "I've got work to do."

Bardon didn't need to be told twice. Chalmers didn't watch as Bardon fled the workshop, not even stopping to put his jacket on.

Chapter 4

By the end of the first week, Chalmer’s wrist was still too swollen to do any meaningful work, so he allowed himself the luxury of his usual Friday night drinking date. The dingy bar was perfect for shooting the shit, and the barely dressed tigress he sat with was an excellent complaining partner.

The two of them sat at the wooden bar countertop at their favourite spots that the bartender knew to leave open for them. The lights were moody and the cramped room was made even denser by the tacky and multitudinous posters, photos and boxing paraphernalia littering the walls. ‘Unpretentious,’ as Lin Xiao described it frequently.

It took the better part of an hour for Chalmers to bring Lin Xiao up to speed with how the first week had gone. He talked about the all-nighters at the start and the incalculable numbers of advancements, breakthroughs, and regressions he’d made. He talked about the prototype, and how it now lay broken nearly clean in two, showing off his now painfully swollen wrist which Union Medical had assured him was only sprained.

"And you're not upset about, yknow, the whole snapping the arm thing." She asked.

"Why would I be?" Chalmers replied with genuine confusion "It was my dumb fucking mistake"

“So let me get this straight” Lin Xiao said as their second round was placed in front of them. “Our man has a polycarbosomething alloysomething malfunctioning on the end of his shoulder, got you in a full-on wristlock, and so the first thing he does is snap his own wrist before asking you if the pain receptors were on yet?”

Chalmers nodded, taking an exploratory sip of the new pint.

“Metal.” She said approvingly. “That’s the dumb hero shit I’m told I have to tell him off for.”

“Yeah, well it was certainly a change of pace for me” Chalmers admitted. “Like, he’s loud, sure, but I dunno. Guess he never shows that larger than life side of himself when he’s in for repairs.”

Lin Xiao looked at him with a mixture of amusement and interest at this new information.

“I get it, you need that big hero energy to do Union face work, but he always seemed kinda timid to me. Shy or something. So seeing that superhero streak was new” he concluded.

“Oh, man you don’t know the half of it” Lin Xiao scoffed.

Chalmers raised an eyebrow.

“So a few days ago I was sent out to mediate this disturbance in Union HQ, right…” Lin Xiao began, in her all-to familiar work story tone, “…Bardon has got himself into a proper scene with two jackoffs who were talking shit about you, funnily enough.”

Chalmers looked over from his pint.

“Me? What’s somebody's problem with me?” he wondered aloud.

“Dunno, something about you being a bit of a weird grouchy shut-in or some bullshit” Lin Xiao shrugged.

“Oh, is that all?” Chalmers scoffed “Are they even wrong?”

“Well Bardon seemed to think so. Got himself into a hell of a shouting match with these guys. Had to cool him off before he got into a one-armed fistfight.”

Chalmers frowned into his beer.

“What could possibly drive him to make such a scene, I don’t need defending.”

“Oh, you haven’t worked it out” Lin Xiao exclaimed amusedly.

“Worked out what?” Chalmers asked, heatedly, as Lin Xiao laughed openly at his expense.

“You smart people are always so STUPID” She wheezed, racked by belly laughs

“Lin, what don’t I know” Chalmers demanded, intensely disliking the joke at his expense.

“Nah, you’re gonna have to sort this shit out on your own. That’s what you do isn’t it? Troubleshoot the problem? Trace the wires? Figure it all out?”

Confused and put out, Chalmers settled for drowning his angst in his pint.

“I’m surprised you just let the guys be, I’ve never known you to show restraint” he said, trying to move on from the joke he wasn’t getting as Lin Xiao regained control over herself.

“Oh, I beat the shit out of them as soon as golden boy was out of earshot” Lin Xiao grinned “Couldn’t do it while he was there, didn’t want him getting all mopey for your sessions.”

---

The sun was setting as the two parted, and instead of his apartment, Chalmers found his way back to his workshop. He settled himself in as evening turned to night, and night turned into quietest hours of early morning. His checklist sat in front of him, taunting and paralysing him. Small problems flowed and combined in his mind into giant walls that he could find no crack or foothold in.

The light outside his workshop had faded into darkness long ago, but Chalmers had barely noticed, his powered swivel lamp the only concession to the passage of time.

He was technically listening to music, but his concentration jumped between intense focus and the very edge of sleep so quickly that he often caught himself sitting and thinking in complete silence as a playlist ended.

Lin Xiao’s friendly taunts still clung in his mind. His understanding had not progressed an inch, but it provided an easy mental detour that his thoughts slipped into when he lost his train of thought on an electrical or mechanical problem.

Chalmers ripped out a page of useless trigonometry from his notebook, not even giving it the dignity of a toss to the wastepaper bin, and he was once again faced with the imposing emptiness of a blank gridded page.

He sighed and sunk his head into his hands, mind both racing and somehow completely and painfully still. He emerged from his palms just to be faced with the taunting silhouette of the prototype, barely built up from the initial rounds of testing; skeletal, technical, fragile, broken, and scary beyond belief. His wrist gave a painful twinge in agreement.

It simply wouldn’t do, he thought. An image of Bardon flashed through his mind, how inspiring and comforting the common folk must find that smile, the shining demeanour and booming voice that Chalmers had only heard of second hand.

Chalmers’ hand moved without him, sketching out the silhouette of an arm. With each stroke his hand added the crossbars, the connection points, the synthetic muscle, the rivets, the wires. The diagram formed itself from raw muscle memory, countless technical traps and compromises effortlessly avoided, aesthetic aiding function with the elegance his masterwork deserved.

Chalmers finally arrived at the shoulder, detailing the circular cutout for the divine wave capacitor and stopped. He saw the circular void and exposed machinery and fragile components filled in the space in his mind’s eye.

His pencil paused. He knew the components that should go in there, but they didn’t seem right. He thought of the bright, flowing hair, those eyes and smile, and his pencil found a different path, carving precise arcs across the shoulder until a sun motif adorned the shoulder, protecting the socket and naked mechanical intricacies underneath.

Chalmers blinked, the full diagram in front of him. It was beautiful, genius even. And yet, even now, it didn’t seem complete.

He placed an exploratory stroke off the arm from the shoulder. Upper Trapezius, supplied by the accessory nerve, connected to the socket at neural link port 7001 through 8080. More lines. Clavicle, secondary anchor point for the main housing. Pectoralis major, driven by the medial and lateral pectoral nerves, port 8100 through 9000. Latissimus dorsi. Obliques. The shapes of Bardon’s physiology came effortlessly to him, intrinsically tied to and indeed the host and purpose of his work.

He sketched, and sketched, well beyond the realm of anatomy he knew and into what he didn’t realise he’d noticed. He sketched how the tiniest bit of rib poked above Bardon’s abdomen line, the barely visible abdominals that showed proud when he tensed or laughed, the frankly unfair amount of oblique that showed above his waistline, the deep grooves of his clavicle and neck, the proud jaw, the long hair, the piercing eyes…

Chalmers slammed his notebook shut with a deafening thud. He could feel his heart pounding in his ears in the silent night. All notions of sleep were dismissed from him in an instant as he was left with an uncomfortable, dawning realisation.

“…Shit.” He said into the empty, dimly lit room.

Chapter 5

“So, am I getting my two favourite boys back next week or am I playing the grocery lady again?”

Lin Xiao burst into the workshop with a clatter of clinking bottles and rustling paper, unceremonially dropping the bags of snacks and beer at the door. This meeting was technically in the Union calendar as a ‘progress check,’ but hearing that Chalmers was going to have to spend another evening in the workshop, Li Xiao had coopted the time to steal back their usual Friday night drink.

Chalmers looked up from his soldering station and a smile crept to the corners of his mouth.

“Come and see for yourself” he said, stepping aside to reveal a stunning creation of alloy and synthetic weave. The Mk 2 version of the arm was laid out like a half-finished jigsaw on a stand, fine plates of polished metal sitting amongst intricate circuits and components, all waiting to be assembled into a work of art.

The divine wave capacitor sat quiet at the shoulder, waiting for the golden energy that would see it spring to life, protected by layers upon layers of spiralling motifs, laid out like stylised sunbeams radiating out from the sleeping core.

Lin Xiao rocked up to it, hands behind her back just in case, as Chalmers went to rifle through the bags she brought. He started splitting out the things that would need to go into the minuscule bar fridge under his desk as Lin Xiao let out a long whistle.

“My man, you’ve outdone yourself” she called back to him taking in the microscopic detail and care evident in every centimetre of circuit board, wire and plated alloy.

“Still a bit to go, but all the dev work is done” Chalmers said, pulling glass bottles held together with cardboard out of the paper bags. “And thanks for this, genuinely…” he began, before fishing a solitary dark bottle from the final bag.

“…though I’m not really a porter guy.”

“Oh, I know” said Lin Xiao, refusing to elaborate and still examining the Mk 2 with immense interest. Chalmers just shrugged and started to take everything to the fridge.

“So have you tried it on the man himself yet?” Lin Xiao asked, stealing a beer bottle from Chalmers as he walked past and successfully twisting open the distinctly non-twist top lid.

Chalmers made a fuss of bending down and stocking the fridge to buy himself a moment of thinking time. Truthfully, he hadn’t seen Bardon since the malfunction last week. In fairness, he hadn’t told Bardon when he could work on the sprained wrist again, but Bardon also hadn’t asked. Perfectly fine, he told himself, it’s probably why it came together so quickly. His wrist twinged as a beer bottle weighed it down.

“Don’t need to. All the experimental stuff we got out of the way in the prototype” He justified out loud. “Everything else is just boilerplate, linear upgrades and miniaturisation.”

“Mhm” Lin Xiao responded, taking a swig of her beer, clearly unconvinced.

“And besides, he probably wants to actually do something with his time off” Chalmers continued.

“Probably.” Lin Xiao replied.

The two shared a moment of silence, drinking deeply from their bottles.

“So did you figure out your little puzzle yet?” Lin Xiao asked, breaking the stillness by setting down her beer.

Chalmers rapped his fingertips against his own beer, sending a pinging noise into the workshop. He had. In his moments away from his project he could think of little else.

“…Bardon likes me, doesn’t he?” He asked, despite knowing the answer.

Lin Xiao gave a thunderous clap paired with a deafening holler. “See! I told you you’d get there eventually!”

There was an aggressive rolling noise as Chalmers stood up. He needed to do something with his hands. Anything.

“…well?” Lin Xiao asked, arms held out questioningly.

“Well what.” Chalmers responded flatly, mashing the temperature control on his soldering iron, and reaching for a pair of magnifying goggles.

“What do you think about it?” she asked, encouragingly.

“I think he’s loud. I think he’s always bursting in, getting his tech busted up by being an idiot, I think I’ve had to pull multiple all-nighters for him just this week…”

“Yeah, but do you like him though?” Lin Xiao interrupted.

Chalmers fell silent.

Lin Xiao looked up at him, a wicked grin spreading across her face.

“Oh you doooooo” she growled.

“I do NOT” Chalmers retorted, far too quickly.

“Oh, you REALLY like him” Lin Xiao shot back, immense joy in her voice.

Chalmers refused to respond, busying himself in trying to locate his tube of solder flux.

“So you know he likes you, and you like him…” Lin Xiao continued “…so you just go up him, say ‘thinking about your ripped bod has been keeping me up at night’ and then all that’s left is to pick who starts taking the fibre supplements”

Chalmers dropped his soldering iron, cheeks burning.

“This is extremely un-commander-like behaviour from you.” He said, attempting to cool the iron before it marked his table.

“What good am I as a commander if I can't get my boys laid?”

“I’m not on your squad.”

“Wasn’t talking about you, buttercup.”

“Look, it’s not that simple” Chalmers said, attempting to distract himself in the task of seating a miniscule ribbon cable.

Lin Xiao leant her elbow heavily on Chalmers’ desk, resting her cheek on a powerful fist, looking up at him, eyebrows raised. Chalmers swore as the impact knocked the cable clean out of the socket it was just about to be fastened into.

“Enlighten me.” She demanded. Chalmers pulled off his magnifying goggles and stood up from his chair to face her.

“I don’t…I just don’t DO people and relationships, Lin.” He said. The sincere chord in his voice caused the mirth to falter in Lin Xiao’s face.

“I’ve never… no one’s ever…” He started. Chalmers didn’t have the words for this.

“Look. I don't know what interesting or fantastical version of me Bardon’s cooked up in his head, but I can guarantee the real thing isn’t nearly as interesting.”

Lin Xiao looked at him seriously, the wisdom of her age showing for a rare moment on her face.

“I don’t know WHAT he’s seen in me, but it would be cruel to lead him on and force him to figure out for himself that whatever funny or interesting or special version of me he’s imagined just isn’t there.”

Silence filled the workshop once more.

“Bet you a round you’re wrong.” Lin Xiao said, unusually gently.

Chalmers sunk back into his chair, sending it gently rolling backwards from the momentum. Lin Xiao downed her beer and started gathering her things.

“Lin…please. Don’t say anything to him.”

She walked over to him and planted a heavy hand on his shoulder.

“Alright. I won’t say anything, but I think you should.”

She gave his shoulder a bone crushing squeeze before bouncing back to her usual heightened energy.

“Right, you better get cracking so you can actually get a day off” she said, cheekily before bounding her way to the door. With her hand on the door handle she stopped and turned back, a large accusatory finger pointed at Chalmers.

“But listen here, loverboy, if I don’t get a report on my desk that you two got caught sharing a metal handy somewhere you’re not supposed to I’m going to be VERY disappointed in the both of you.”

Chapter 6

Chalmers rapped at the apartment door, standing awkwardly in the unfamiliar hallway. He had considered calling Bardon back to his workshop, but legitimately didn't think he'd be able to make the call.

He heard a shuffling from inside the aparment and sure enough Bardon opened the door. His eyes went wide with surprise when he saw Chalmers standing there.

Chalmers had clearly caught Bardon unaware, he was dressed in a pair of leg hugging teal trackpants and a loose white-beige tank top that didn't cover any of the shining metal socket that replaced his left shoulder. In many ways he resembled a looser version of Chalmers himself, who had stopped bothering with the jacket and overshirt several days ago and stood across from him in his grey singlet and dark cargo pants

"Hi." Chalmers said "…Hi." Bardon said back, the spitting image of an embarrassed bird hitting a window pane "I er, sorry I didn't phone ahead but…" He raised the long carrying case he held "…She's ready"

Bardon looked from Chalmers, to the case and back again, before at long last breaking into his smile and gesturing for Chalmers to come in.

He was lead into the small apartment and placed down on the couch. Chalmers sat and took in the unfamiliar premesis, trying to acclimatise himself to the unfamiliar surroundings.

"It's done! That's amazing! After the wrist and the protoype and everything I thought…"

There was a ceramic clattering as Bardon hastily dumped a collection of plates and mugs into an unseen sink. He needn't have bothered, Chalmers thought, this place was infinitely cleaner than any space he had ever curated

"Yeah" Chalmers called out "The wrist was just sprained, I got back to work that weekend and the rest came together pretty quick."

"Oh! Oh well that's a relief!" Bardon replied with the plastic creaking of packaging being stuffed in a bin.

Relief? thought Chalmers. Had Bardon been worried?

Chalmers was finally able to take in enough of the space to notice what Bardon had clearly been doing. In front of him on the coffee table sat a game controller, modified for single handed use, with a foot pedal tucked underneath. The paused game in front of him was familiar, no, more than familiar.

It was a fantasy game, tough as nails and released exactly two weeks ago. The very same game Chalmers would have been playing if Bardon hadn't broken his arm. In a moment of sudden realisation, it made sense to Chalmers why Bardon could notice a finger response delay in the order of milliseconds.

"I didn't realise you were a fan of this series" Chalmers said to Bardon, who had deposited a glass of water in front of him before shuffling back to the kitchen and returning with a second.

"Oh! yeah! It was just kind of lucky I guess, lined right up." Bardon sat next to Chalmers with the glass.

"I wasn't going to get this one after getting stuck on an optional boss in the first one but…"

"Oh HER" Chalmers couldn't help himself. "Yeah, bullshit design, there's a weapon in the area before that she's weak to but it's basically impossible to find if you're not reading the item descriptions and…what?"

Bardon was looking at Chalmers with a mixture of aghast surprise and elation.

"What? I'm old" Chalmers said back, his cheeks warming "All the kids like arcades now. Too many people."

"Not great with accessibility either…" Bardon agreed before blushing and breaking eye contact.

For the first time in his life, Chalmers sat in an incredibly strange position. He was used to people having more information and understanding than him and making him blunder through a social encounter blindly. However, just this once, in a strange way he held all the cards.

He was a troubleshooter, built to observe strange symptoms and connect them to systems, and for just a moment, that instinct fired for the man in front of him.

He knew for a fact Bardon liked him, and armed with that knowledge he started seeing symptoms. He saw how Bardon was trying to shuffle closer but also how he seemed scared to approach. He saw the unusually tight grip on the water glass and the eyes that flicked from his his face, to the opening of his singlet, to absolutely anywhere that wasn't him. It seemed all so obvious now.

"So, shall we?" he asked, tapping the hard travel case, and Bardon nodded enthusiastically. They cleared off the coffee table and placed the case on top. Chalmers gestured to Bardon to do the honours. He unclipped the latches on the case, then carefully with Chalmers' help lifted the lid.

The completed Mk 2 could only be described as a work of art. The polished alloy gave wave to dark, textured synthetic muscle. reinforcement bands criss-crossed across the upper arm before descending to a solid metal gauntlet with interlocking facing at the elbow. Up at the shoulder, the Divine wave capacitor sat crystal clear and dark, protected by a sprawling collection of curving sun rays that spiralled outwards to cover the entire shoulder

"It's… I mean It's…" Bardon was speechless, his eyes practically sparkling.

"Yeah." Said Chalmers.

"You designed it after me" Bardon continued, quietly

"Well, the underlying tech could be generalised but…yeah, this one's for you."

Bardon's eyes were damp and his body was filled with tension. It was if he wanted to do something, but was doing everything to hold himself back.

"Well, come on, let's get it on you" Chalmers said.

A flash of fear crossed Bardon's face.

"I'm not going to break it again, am I?" he asked, nervously

"Again? What do you mean again?" Chalmers asked, eyebrows raised

"Oh, I thought I…that you…nevermind!" Bardon stammered, before collecting himself with a breath.

For a moment, Chalmers' mind went back to the day of the malfunction and his gut sank. He thought about his anger at himself, his frustration that he made no attempt to direct, and then he thought about what that might have looked like to someone who liked him.

Had Bardon blamed himself? Had he thought that Chalmers was angry at him? Had he thought he'd blown his chance? Was that why he hadn't checked back in? Guilt? Fear?

He had to stop that feeling. He wasn't going to be able to sit by passively this time. He was going to need to make the effort. Make a choice. Reach out.

"Hey." Chalmers said, putting a hand on Bardon's bare shoulder, unsure in his actions and words but trying anyway. "It'll be fine this time, trust me."

Bardon's shoulder was warm against his hand as he looked back up and him. Chalmers was subject to that beautiful blue gaze, the soft features yet strong jaw. Chalmers' heart leapt

He likes you. The only one standing in the way is you

Chalmers helped Bardon remove his tank top and he knelt next to the coffee table, Chalmers took a chance to observe the physique that he knew on a systematic level. His heart leapt again.

You hold all the cards. You just have to say yes

Chalmers lifted the Mk 2 from its case and felt it magnetise to the perfectly maintained housing.

"Nerves" He warned, and Bardon braced.

All it takes is for you to play your hand

Click. Locked. Bardon grimaced, but then blinked in surprise. He slowly stood up, marvelling at the sculpture attached to his shoulder as he slowly twisted the wrist and opened and closed the fingers.

"You figured out the nerves" Bardon said, aghast.

"…Yeah." Chalmers replied. "It's not perfect, I don't think it can be, but it now slowly connects the nerves down the arm rather than crashing them all on. I don't know why the standard is to do them all at once, probably some backwards compatibility thing, It just really sucked seeing it hurt you all those ti-"

Chalmers couldn't finish because he was locked in a tight double armed hug. He could feel everywhere Bardon's bare skin came in contact with his own. The hug barely lasted a moment before Bardon broke it, putting a cautionary space between them

"But how can I be sure it won't hurt you again?" Bardon asked

It was time for Chalmers to do something for once.

Chalmers reached out and guided the textured black hand of the Mk 2, laying it at the center of his chest, just above the low cut of his singlet. He took his hands away and Bardon held it there, the sensitive weave passing the feeling of Chalmers' bare skin to Bardon.

"Trust me." Chalmers said.

Bardon's eyes were wide, and slowly, ever so slowly he moved the Mk 2 across Chalmers' chest. The weave felt rougher than skin, and the divine waves powering it gave the fingertips a fuzzy, almost gentle static feel. Chalmers' breathing caught in his throat as the hand touched him, the first time anyone had touched him in a long time.

Bardon's breathing was also heavy from the flood of ever so slightly different and enhanced sensations the arm was passing to him. Hundreds of tuned sensory inputs fired to life for the first time, and the very first thing they would feel would be their creator.

The arm's movement got more natural as the hand wandered, and by the time it found its way under Chalmers' singlet to meet with its brother and raise the singlet over Chalmers' head, it was no longer the Mk 2, a work of mechnical genius made under 2 weeks of near constant toil and stress.

It was simply Bardon's arm.

Epilogue

Chalmers slept soundly for the first time in two weeks, hells, even longer that night. He was woken well past his operational start time by an email to his communicator. It was from Raven, granting him an extra week of his and Bardon's time to complete the Mk 2 at Lin Xiao's request.

The two lay there, at a complete loss of what to do.

"If it's alright…" Chalmers said to his bedmate "…I think I'd like to give this…" He gestured to the two of them and the world at large "…Y'know, people, a go. If you'll help me take it slow."

Bardon blinked, slightly baffled by the request, but flashed his warm smile anyway.

"Yknow, if you've got nowhere to be…" Bardon began, cautiously, trying to piece together Chalmers' meaning "You could hang out here for a while."

Despite his revelation not 30 seconds ago, Chalmers felt an instinctive twist in his stomach at the suggestion. He forced it down. He needed to try.

"I'd like that" He said, feeling the knot tighten, but then release as he committed.

"Actually, I suppose you haven't had a chance to look at the new game yet…" Bardon raised, thoughtfully.

And so, Chalmers found himself in someone else's room, with someone else's system, sitting on someone else's couch in his underwear with Bardon lying next to him in not even that. Bardon had put the Mk 2 aside for the moment so that Chalmers didn't have to rest on it, and he guided Chalmers through the opening levels.

Chalmers played abysmally, Distracted by the parts of Bardon's anatomy that he wasn't yet familiar with, but was eager to learn.

As morning shifted to afternoon, the two found themselves in a similar state, but in the relaxation Chalmers mind drifted to something incongruous, something that had escaped his attention all this time.

Chalmers reached over to his bag, left abandoned since yesterday and rummaged around. He had thought the two might have shared a celebratory beer together after successfully testing the arm, but naturally plans had rapidly changed. He distinctly remembered clearing out the last two beers from his mini fridge and sure enough when he fished in his bag he pulled out a single bottle of his own favourite cider, and the lone dark bottle.

She didn't.

"Here." Chalmers said to Bardon, handing over the bottle "I have a hunch this might be your speed"

Bardon looked at the bottle and smiled wide in disbelief.

"Oh! Porters are my favourite!" he said, eagerly taking the bottle "How did you-"

She did.

"Like I said. A hunch" Chalmers said, making a mental note that the next time he saw Lin Xiao, he owed her a round for a bet he spectacularly lost.

[aberooski]

Because I think about this far too much:

Yu-Gi-Oh GX characters as Final Fantasy classes in the context of my fic Sons of The Stars.

With explanations that might only actually make sense to me unless you've read the fic and played the FF games akaksk

Jaden - Thief

Fights with daggers/other short swords ninja sword if ur playing FFXII 👀 he doesn't ever actually steal anything except Jesse's heart 😏 but otherwise aligns well with the class imo. He's got the energy yet seriousness a lot of Thief characters in FF have Locke, Yuffie, Rikku, Zidane, etc, he's clever and agile, and he fights mainly for self defense and only if he has to. He tends to try a lot of stealth to get out of having to fight. Sneaky little man.

Alexis - Knight

Standard sword class, similar to Warrior. Fights with a two handed greatsword, and she chose to train herself to fight so that she could defend. That way she would be able to protect Atticus even though she'd left her station as princess of their dimension and was living in hiding on her own. She still cared about her people and wanted her brother to be safe, knowing there were people who wanted the royal family dead and gone. She'd rather protect the crown than be the crown in that sense.

Chazz - Warrior

Standard sword class similar to Knight. Fights with a one handed sword, but he didn't choose. He's been trained to fight to be a soldier for many years because of his family, and is being trained to fight to fight. Unlike Alexis, it was all about the glory for him because there was no other choice. He gained favor with Crowler, chancellor of their dimension, being so young and yet so highly skilled, which only ultimately put more pressure on him by his family to be the greatest warrior in their entire dimension. A feat which he attained by the time of the fic, when the J-Squad was only 17 years old.

Bastion - Black Mage

Not a dedicated Black Mage since he uses spells like Protect and Shell during the fic and even a standard Cure spell, but his main source of defense is his magic. His main elemental type would be water cuz water dragon ofc but he's only seen casting Thundara, Blizzara, and Thundaga during the events of the fic. And obviously as a Black Mage, he carries around a cool wizard staff 😌

Jesse - Summoner

Fairly straightforward, his main source of combat is summoning his Crystal Beasts and providing support to the others on the field.

Hassleberry - Berserker

Again. It's Hassleberry so pretty straightforward. He manages to never lose control in SoTS he loses it in OUAD though but very much has the capacity to. Having suffered for 2 years pre-fic as a military experiment in his and Jim's dimension after the accident with his leg left him with his animalistic side due to the dinosaur bone in his leg, and their scientists attempting to strip him of his humanity in order to weaponize him because they're fucking terrible people. Thx for breaking him outta there Jim 😭 Though he also aligns a little with the Monk class as well since like characters like Yang, Sabin, Tifa, Zell, and Snow, who in tradition FF job systems would fall under that class, his weapon is his fists 😌

Jim - Beastmaster

He'd also potentially fall under FFV's Chemist class since he's a scientist of sorts in the fic, or maybe even Geomancer dipping into his archeology and paleontology guy stuff. But factoring in Shirley, I'd sooner class him as a Beastmaster/Tamer.

Axel - Freelancer

Guy's a mercenary, he can do anything. If he had a weapons specialty, he'd be a Gunner/Machinist he literally gives Jim a gun before the final battle with Yubel, but he's a jack of all trades. He just kinda does whatever he feels like it or whatever is best to get the job done.

Bonus since he's extremely important to the fic but isn't actually a party member:

Syrus - White Mage

Sy actually was originally supposed to be an actual party member since he's my favorite character oh wow, I wonder why he's so important to the plot, like the fate of the entire universe hinges upon his safety 🤔 but it just didn't really end up happening, and considering his position in the fic it unfortunately makes sense to me that he isn't. But whether in the context of this fic or in canon, or literally any context, Sy is the team White Mage. Stereotypically a very weak and squishy, low defense/low attack class which I mean... yeah. But I've always thought he'd have a very strong magic stat which most White Mage's do Rosa, Porom, Aerith, Garnet, Eiko, Yuna (literally the strongest magic stat in FFX), Vanille and if he was able to be a party member he'd the team healer. Who can also tear holes in the space time continuum to open portals to travel through dimensions 😌

[chaoticbug]

The more that I think about it the more ridiculous it is that once upon a time was just like “snow is and would be a bad mayor.” 

The only time the show has her attempt to be a mayor is within a few weeks of her giving birth to Neal. Snow is very much a brand new mother. She literally says she is not sleeping.She should have been on maternity leave!! 

My girl was literally raised from birth to be a leader, and was a successful leader from the time she starts to reclaim the kingdom till the curse hits. She would have been a good mayor of storybrooke!

[hitchell-mope]

Supergirl Snow White au

Kara. Snow White

Mon El. Florian

Lillian. Grimhilde

Morgan. Huntsman

[elegantwoes]

I think snow white gets a bad rap. she's only 14, her parents are dead, & she finds out her stepmother who should be looking out for her, wants her dead. Shes effectively homeless. That would cripple a lot of adults to have no sense of security. And yet Snow tries to make the best of things & tries to make some sort of life for herself with the dwarves. that's pretty brave imo. Its not easy to leave everything behind, especially when you've been forced to. Also grumpy was the best lol.

She really does get a bad reputation. I think even among the three classical princesses, Snow White is disliked the most, which is so unnecessary because what she deals with is much more intense than what Cinderella and Aurora experience. By virtue of that, her reaction will be more intense. Her positive outlook on life and her kindness towards others despite everything that has happened is something I have always admired about her. Besides her songs (I am wishing and Someday my prince will come) are easily the most romantic Disney songs to me. Also a small note. The song Someday my prince will come fits Sansa’s romantic storyline so perfectly. 

[creydenborne]

tag drop !!

[hankwritten]

Dayterror )( Nightdream

My contribution for the At Ease, Soldier charity fanzine! Go look at it!! With your eyes!!

Jane rode with the dead body for nearly thirty miles before realizing he should loot it.

Its clothes were much better than Jane’s flimsy dress, barely holding together and still covered in somebody-he-couldn’t-remember’s blood. They were sturdy and, more importantly, capable of fending off the icy drafts that slipped through the seams of the train car. As he swung the jacket over his shoulders an even greater prize dropped out: the dead man’s wallet. There was money and a driver’s license, and between those two Jane wondered why he’d even needed to hitchhike. After searching even further in the pockets, he found his answer: recruitment paperwork—but only partially completed.

“Deserter,” he spat.

The corpse offered no defense.

Jane shook his head.It was all so painfully un-American. To have the opportunity to die heroically for your country, to be brutally blasted to smithereens by the German U-boats and then have your war buddy scream your name at the sky…And to give that all up? It was difficult for Jane to fathom. Furthermore, the man had dodged death at the hands of the Nazis just to beef it from exposure in a rickety train car cruising through the Wisconsin winter. Wasn’t that just the Eagle’s droppings?

He flicked a thumb through the dog-ears of the paperwork. Such a waste…

His eyes stopped on a date. The day the dead man had been instructed to report for basic was tomorrow. Jane suddenly knew which station he wanted to get off at.

-

“MENTALLY UNFIT?” John roared at the recruiter.

He shouldn’t have used his angry roaring, but rather his inspiring and convincing roaring, so they might have let him retry the required tests. Unfortunately, as soon as he’d realized this, two army fatigue-clad bastards (no offense Dad) had grabbed him and dragged him screaming out of the station.

“YOU WILL NOT KEEP ME! I WILL FLY THERE MYSELF IF I HAVE TO! NOTHING WILL STOP ME FROM KILLING AGAIN, SO YOU HAD BETTER GODDAMN LET IT BE YOUR ENEMIES!”

His extremely reasonable request fell on deaf ears. As he tried to find purchase his boots slipped—each man gripping one of his arms a tough sonuvabitch, who wouldn’t let go even in the face of John’s usually pretty decisive strength. The faces of the other recruits in line flashed past John’s vision, those already approved, and he locked eyes ever so briefly with-

He was flung out onto the street. He lay there for a hot minute, staring up at a starless sky, raging against the indignity of it all. What did those maggots in there have that he didn’t?

Dammit. He’d have to try a different approach.

-

“You are a deserter,” Jane puzzled aloud. “Which is bad. But you deserted from the Nazis, who are also bad. Which makes your desertion…good?”

“I’m glad we agree…” the doctor said as he limped along, wincing with every word.

His leg looked bad, dragging a line of red through the white snow. It was easy for Jane to keep pace, watching him move, wondering again what to do. He hadn’t seen another human for a long time, ally or enemy, and the sheer novelty of finding a man half buried in snow - alive, of all things - was enough that he hadn’t shot on sight. He couldn’t exactly walk away now, could he?

The doctor grunted when Jane slipped his arm over his shoulder and helped him march along.

“…Danke,” he said.

“Do not call me a donkey. And I am only helping you so that you can turn yourself in.”

“Fah. Whatever. As long as I live through this.”

“Great! So you will do that. As soon as we find my squad. Which I have misplaced.” Jane looked straight ahead as the doctor glanced at him. “People around me keep dying under mysterious circumstances. Especially the people that annoy me.”

“Ha! I’ve used that one myself. Shall we promise not to annoy each other, then?”

“Sounds good.” They kept trudging. “That thing you said about that guy waking up without a skeleton, that really true?”

“Proudly!”

“So you like to do weird, experimental stuff, yeah?”

A wicked gleam came to the doctor’s eye. “You have something in mind?”

-

“FOOL! You dare enter the lair of MERASMUS!? The last mortal that tried such a thing was forever cursed by READING, and the one before that was consumed by the ever downward spiral of GEOLOGY, and before that- wait where did he go?”

John had gotten bored of the wizard’s ramblings, so he’d wandered further into the castle. Certainly there had to be something in here that could help him with those bomber planes…

“No! Do not touch the Wand of Water-Based Basket Construction!”

John set it down.

“Cease! Unhand my Mug of Endlessly Resupplying Soup!”

Nope.

“You fool! You interloper! What do you think you’re doing? You think that YOU, a mere MORTAL, could wield the Giant Laser of Flying Creature Elimination?”

There we go.

-

“What- what was that?” Ludwig asked.

Cautiously, Jane withdrew his arms from over his head. “I have no idea.”

“All the planes just disintegrated!”

“I was getting pretty annoyed at them,” Jane mused.

Ludwig just stared at him for a strangely long time. “Mein Gott. You weren’t joking.” He grabbed Jane’s forearm. “We are going to be gods.”

“…Neat,” was all Jane could reply.

-

“And that’s why you’ll be a perfect fit,” the little woman in purple—John had already forgotten her name—explained.

“WHAT WAR AM I GOING TO BE FIGHTING IN?” John asked, scratching under his ever-present helmet.

“What? No, no war, we don’t want you to be a soldier. Well we do, but a Soldier Soldier. Capital S. We have a deal?”

“SURE.”

They shook hands. She said, “Welcome aboard Jane. I look forward to-”

“JOHN.”

“What?”

“MY NAME IS JOHN DOE.”

“But I thought…” She frowned, then pulled a photo from her clipboard, holding it up next to his face. After a moment, she replied,“oh. Huh. You guys look exactly alike. Darn. Sorry about that John, that was my mistake.”

As she began to walk away, sliding the photo that did look suspiciously like John back under its clip, his mind kicked into overdrive.

“WAIT. SMALL WOMAN. NOTHING WILL STOP ME FROM KILLING AGAIN, SO IT IS IN YOUR BEST INTERESTS IF IT IS YOUR ENEMIES.”

"Hmmm..." Her eyes gazed down at the board. "Hard to argue with that logic."

She turned back to look at him, and that smile was the most honest one he would ever see on her face in all the years to come.

"Alright, Soldier. Welcome to RED."

[colorsofmyseason]

Mirano’s Concise Guide to Arsenal Football Clown Club – Defenders (Part 1)

Since we're done with the goalkeepers, now let's move on to a set of four (sometimes three or five too according to the needs) people we trust to help our goalies maintaining the sanctity of our net.

Spoiler alert: they don't always succeed.

Arsenal's defense has always been a internal joke within the Premier League for years and I honestly thought if we have the resource to clone Tony Adams then we should (not that we have the money anyway but a girl can dream), and we have had to endure the likes of Shkodran Mustafi and David Luiz in the heart of our defense for years (I'm sorry for naming names. Those people still give me nightmares sometimes). And trust me when I say that if you managed to miss all those dark times, well, lucky you.

But now I can proudly say that we actually do have some people with braincells as our backline who actually try their best so our goalies can take a breath of relief...sometimes.

So, without further ado, let's delve into this!

The first man to be introduced here will be our left-back Kieran Tierney (24), KT for short, for you bayern-blr just imagine a Scottish, left-footed Joshua Kimmich and you'll get him, he's an old school type of player who tucks his kit in and loves defending, enjoys chocolates and rom-com movies, future Arsenal captain for sure, will absolutely scream and yell at his teammates whenever things don't go according to plan

And yes, Arsenal youtube channel rarely uses subtitles for the English-speaking players but they gave one for KT because his lovely Scottish accent needs a subtitle always lol.

This man is also hard as nails, he can very much become the male Elsa because the cold never bothers him, he'll appear in nothing but short-sleeved top and shorts even if Arsenal's playing in the North Pole in the middle of winter, if anything I'm guessing the cold unlocks his special power even

(This is his celebration after scoring a goal against West Brom, in the middle of snow, with his weaker foot. Guess which one is KT lol)

He's a bit injury prone sadly but always gives 200% whenever he's on the pitch, tackles goals assists he has everything in his Tesco bag, why Tesco bag you might ask?? Because forget expensive washbags, plastic bags from Tesco is all he needs to keep his toiletries, this man is humble as fuck, by his own words he's "plain" but it's his simplicity and plainness that endear him so much to us!

Oh Kieran. We love you so so so bad.

Moving on from KT, now we have our resident whore and himbo center back Ben White (24), yes this guy is an Arsenal player, I know, unbelievable, with that kind of name lol so we affectionately call him Benny Blanco, how come the guy with the blandest, whitest name in the world be spicy af but that's just how he is, his every action screams "I'm sexy and I know it", this guy KNOWS he's hot and would use every single chance he has to flaunt his beautiful, flawless tanned skin and tattoos and yes I do sound like a fanfiction writer at this rate and I don't care

I think it's not too much when I say: WOOF.

His price tag was almost as spicy as he looks for we forked out 50 million to get him from Brighton and people were jeering at us for that but I can assure you that amount is much too cheap, he will put his life to defend his boyfriend our goal no matter what, just look at tall Ben White squaring up to his (usually much smaller) opponents and you'll understand why

As a wise man once said, he's too beautiful to be good at defending. And poor Placheta had no chance there, especially with Ben giving him THAT look.

But despite of everything Benny Blanco is a lovable guy who flirts with everyone in the squad loves his teammates with all his heart and soul and always fucks praises them to no end in interviews, he would regularly posts photos of said boyfriends and/or fuck buddies teammates in his instastory at any given occasion, especially ones of his one true love, Aaron Ramsdale:

The Arsenal training camp in Dubai is actually just a front for their honeymoon, trust me. Also Aaron's hand isn't actually on Ben's cr*tch there, of course not

The third defender on this list will be Ben's centre back partner and our Brazilian wonderwall Gabriel Magalhaes (24), Gabriel for short, I personally call him Biel to differentiate him with Gabriel Martinelli, he joined us from Lille last season and it's another transfer we never regret because this guy is MASSIVE, he won Arsenal's Player of the Month for three months in a row when he just came, and this season he goes even stronger, his partnership with Ben has given us the same number of clean sheets as Manchester City so far by the time of writing

(Question here, why are our main CBs both dripping with ink? Lol)

If any of you notice his teeth, yes they're THAT white and THAT perfect, and yes they're veneers, he's lost them TWICE on the pitch so far, but each time we won I think so all's good, he sacrificed those beautiful teeth for the sake of his team

Anyway, Arsenal's defenders are generally something else and Gabriel is no exception, he's actually fought some masked robbers who had followed him home and then tried to steal his car and his watch, he then threatened to beat them up by their own baseball bat, this man has the heart of steel both on and off the pitch I can tell you

But despite all of those, deep inside he's a very sweet and gentle man who loves his fiancee and family, he posts about her A LOT in his instagram which shows how much he loves and appreciates her, also this man's going to be a dad, which he announced this way after he scored our third goal against Southampton:

Hope Baby Magalhaes will grow into such a tall and strong CB like his dad.

So those are three of our defenders, thanks for reading/listening to me and this will be continued in other parts after this. Stay tuned for more!

mirano's concise guide to arsenal (part 3/?)

[qvid-pro-qvo]

headcanon: “what your first kiss with the SVU boys looks like”

these got a little... out of hand. hence the “read more.” i guess it’s just my way of saying happy thanksgiving. 

gender neutral reader. created in conjunction with @hurricanejjareau.  

rafael barba -

it’s a couple of dates in, and you’re on cloud nine. being with rafael barba is as easy as breathing. 

after all, the tension has come and gone, at this point. you’ve seen the uptight rafael barba, the one that pushes and pushes the squad to do more, do better, do what he needs. you’ve seen the crazy rafael barba, the one that takes a belt and loops it around his neck because he knows he’ll get the win. you’ve seen the distraught rafael barba, the one that squeezes the back of squadroom chairs because the pieces just don’t line up. 

but so has everyone else. so has amanda, and liv, and nick, and fin. they know that rafael barba. that rafael barba is a little snide, a little sharp around the edges. everyone gets the wit, the charm, the little smiles. 

but little does the squad know that this rafael barba... is all for you. 

no one else gets this. no one else gets the rafael barba with an open button-down collar and blazer. no one else gets the dinner and a walk to pass the time. no one else gets the little smiles across the table, the gentle feeling of his hand in yours, or the tug as he loops your elbows together and settles on a destination that you’ll find together. 

no one else gets that grin - the way it softens his face, makes his eyes a little half-lidded. 

it’s safe to say you’re falling for him. and safe to say that by the time the second date is over, you think he’s falling for you, too. 

you’re close enough to your place that a few stories and rounds of laughter has you walking up the steps, rummaging around for keys that are invariably at the bottom of your bag. you keep glancing up, which kind of hurts the hunt, but you don’t mind because each time you see him. that little smirk, the settle of his body against your doorframe. you almost wish he had a tie, so you could press your fingers against, smooth it down his front. just an excuse to touch him a little more. 

“same time next week?” he asks, and it’s as easy as breathing, as smiling, as laughing with rafael barba to give an answer. 

“i wouldn’t mind sooner,” you say, and when that brings out his smirk you can’t help your little laugh. “if we both can swing it, of course.” 

“of course,” rafael says, and he’s pushing himself upright, leaning forward, and kissing you. the only hint was a glance to your lips, and you’re taking it, hand on his shoulder, curling a little around his neck...

oh. 

oh, he’s kissing you. 

it’s just as easy. it’s just as simple, it’s just as perfect. it’s like breathing, the way it comes out, and when he pulls back he looks just as shocked as you. blinks, like he wasn’t expecting to end the night on such a note. 

“was - was that all right?” he asks. you can see his mind start to race. 

you’re sure to quiet it with a grin. a nod. a “yes, that was perfect.” 

and if he lets you, you’ll add another kiss. 

sonny carisi -

where are you?

it’s the text you send for the third time, your foot tapping eagerly in the gallery. the jury’s back, after all. the jury’s finally fucking back, and sonny should be here. it’s your case, after all, weeks of work all for this.

barba turns around, raises a brow at you. asking the same question you are. but there’s no response, and you eventually sigh, shrugging your shoulders.

barba nods. turns back to judge barth, who settles into her seat. who looks to the two counselors, who both let her know.

they’re ready.

your phone hasn’t buzzed. and it doesn’t. not as you squirm, williams staring at you from his seat at the defense bench like you’re a meal.

but that smirk is gone once he turns to the judge. that smirk is gone as he stands, lifts himself up to face them. it’s gone as judge barth turns to the jury and smiles, genial, polite.

“has the jury reached a verdict?”

“we have, your honor.”

“proceed.”

the forewoman lifts the paper to her face. slides her glasses on, clears her throat. your hand is gripping the pew in front of you, and your knuckles are white.

“on the first, second, and third charges of rape in the first degree, we find the defendant, luke j. williams, guilty.”

your heart leaps. you see the way his face falls, even from the side, and the relief that fills you is almost crushing. you want to collapse, with the exhaustion, with the exhilaration. and then your phone buzzes.

im coming up the steps right now i swear to god

and you can’t stop yourself. you’re pushing past liv and amanda, pushing out the courtroom doors. your grin is unmatched as you sprint through the halls, shoes pounding against the marbled floors.

the outside is a downpour. you barely notice. you’re searching, hunting, and when you see him it’s because you can see the shine of his hair from rain, the gel.

god, sonny carisi.

he sees you next, like he was searching, hoping, praying you were there. and when you push into the downpour, out from under the overhang, the rain is but the background as you slam into his open arms.

“we did it?” he asks, over the sound of water against the streets, the slide of taxis through puddles. “we actually fuckin’ did it?” the exhaustion for you is eyes half-closed as he pulls you against his chest, while for him his words blend together in a mix of Staten Island and too little sleep.

“we did it,” you gasp out, and when you pull back it’s to place a hand on either side of his face. “we did it.”

and you kiss him.

you kiss him.

oh, god, he kisses you back.

nick amaro -

how fucking dare he. nick fucking amaro.

your hands clench into fists at your sides, the sides that ache after the hits you took just an hour earlier. your partner is glaring at you, eyes alight with frustration, and you can’t help the way your jaw clenches.

fucking gorgeous nick amaro.

if you had a choice you wouldn’t be in love with him. because nick amaro himself would tell you not to be. but you can’t help the way you stumble into caring for him, into feeling for him, into truly desperately wanting him.

“what the hell was that?” was the first thing he’d asked you, and you hadn’t had an answer for him. not one that’d make sense. after all, partners are supposed to protect each other, but it’s that desperation that had thrown you into him to take the hit, to get the bullet in your vest.

“i saved your life, and this is how you thank me?” you’d shot back. “you gonna give me a lecture in front of the whole damn squad room?”

and cragen had agreed. told you to sort it out, and so nick had rolled his shoulders, gritted his teeth, and the two of you had moved to the locker room to have it out.

and now you’re standing in front of him, watching him go at you for doing something so incredibly stupid —

“stop being a damn martyr, nick!” you snap. “say thank you and we can just move on!”

“i don’t want you getting hurt for me! i don’t deserve that, don’t you get it? you don’t deserve that!”

“i think i’ll be the fucking judge of what i do or don’t deserve! i think i’ll be the one who makes the call about which stubborn stupid detective i get a bruise for!”

“so you’re gonna get yourself killed? for nothing?” his nostrils are flaring, and he lifts a hand to run it through his hair, to turn away and then back to you, close, nose to fucking nose. “for me? no, i won’t let you.”

“i can handle it,” you mutter. he’s close enough you don’t have to yell, close enough that it makes your voice a little weak.

“you almost didn’t,” he pushes, and this time your hand reaches out to poke him in the chest. your fingertip digs into his skin a little, right above his heart. 

“but i did. and i’d do it again. however many times it takes, i’d do it again.”

“how many times it takes to do what?” 

there’s a beat. he looks at you and maybe, just maybe, he sees you. sees you. “what?” he asks, and you swallow.

when your eyes meet his, they’re shining, just a little. “you know damn well what, nick. you fucking know—“

it’s a collision, your lips. it’s nothing dainty, it’s barely even breathing. it’s an unstoppable force against another force of his own, and when your hands lift to his hair it’s to grip and never let go.

mike dodds -

he’s your sergeant, you tell yourself. you remind yourself, you almost have to. he’s your superior, he gives you orders, he can’t be the one you want to...

anyway.

so you move on. you try to. you try to ignore the way he smiles at you, the way that he grins when the case goes well. the furrow of his brow, the slightest purse of his lips when he’s frustrated. he came to the squad a stranger, someone you can’t trust, and he’s here now like a friend. sergeant michael dodds. the son of william dodds was supposed to come and be the voice of reason, after all, a way to keep an eye on the manhattan special victims unit. but you just know him as mike.

as “mike, stop hogging all the creamer.” as “mike, i swear to god you better not lose my favorite pen.” as “mike, we’ll get him, we’ll get him.”

and you can’t ignore it, not really. not when looks get purposeful across the room, not when you find the two of you leaning into each other. touching, brushing, smiling, watching, waiting.

and you care about him. you really fucking do.

it’s a win that gets you in the end. emotions are high, and the day ends on a high note, too. you’re packing up, and mike sees you. reaches out to you, gestures to the elevator as his duffel goes over his shoulder.

“can i walk you out, detective?” he’s smiling. you smile, too. it’s easy, being with mike, and you can’t help but laugh a little at the formality. your laugh makes his smile a grin, and he shrugs. “finishing out the work day.”

“sure, sarge. i wouldn’t mind the company.”

it’s snowing, but the walk is... easy. it’s bundled up, and the two of you end up leaning against each other. shoulder to shoulder, his head leaned toward you as your laughter echoes down the sidewalk. walking out becomes walking home, and there’s nothing that either of you want to stop.

it’s snowing. snow in mike’s hair. in mike’s eyelashes. on the curve of his cheekbones. and you don’t even notice the two of you have stopped walking until his hand reaches for the crook of your elbow.

“i don’t want this walk to end,” he admits, and you look up at him with a blink. “i don’t want time with you to ever end.”

your laugh is shocked out of you. because home is still so far, and honestly, you don’t want to ever make it.

“so do something about it, mike.”

he has to bend down, and you’re pushing up. it’s sudden, but not quite a surprise. it’s a kiss with the streetlights on you, with the warmth of his breath on your nose after. and when he grins this time, you’re matching it.

peter stone -

amanda is a meddler. sonny carisi is a meddler. odafin tutuola and olivia benson are all meddlers, and you can’t believe them.

or, actually, you can. which is so much worse.

adjusting to peter stone was, in fact, an adjustment. in more ways than one. warming up to him took time, took a lot of moments where you think about the fact that he could be a lot worse.

and what makes it even more difficult is you want to hate him. you want it to be easy to ignore him. to not think about him. but you can’t. you can’t, not when he looks like that.

and amanda picks up on it, dammit. she sees the way you can barely look him in the eye, and sends you to his office anyway. and she lets you invite him out to forlini’s, and she lets you sit across from him at the table, and she nudges your leg as the two of you end up talking all night.

“you’re an enabler,” you sigh at her, when peter leaves, citing a work obligation in the morning. and she just smiles, tipping back her glass.

so you don’t know what you can really expect from the lot of them. not.. something like this. not texting you to meet them at forlini’s and then ditching the both of you. you and peter, standing at the door, looking in and seeing nary a squad member in sight.

“looks like we’ve been duped,” peter says, and you turn to look at him with a weary gaze. it says something that he can grin right now, can look at you and twist his lips up in that signature way of his. all-knowing, all-teasing. and that smirk settles in your gut, makes your own peek out.

“leave it to amanda, i suppose,” you reply. “and i was really looking forward to a drink.”

you peek back in. and then you hear peter’s voice behind you, his phone up to his ear.

“yeah, you guys got a table for two?”

he’s a smooth-talker, that’s for sure. especially when it’s just the two of you across an appetizer, the two of you with glasses of wine too big for your bank account. he makes you laugh, snort a little, and you manage to finagle a blush onto those cheeks of his. when the night is over, the two of you end up walking and talking, prolonging the evening until it can barely be called evening anymore.

it’s a park that does it. the two of you stepping over crunching leaves that makes you stop, stare.

“was this a date, peter stone?”

and his smile is sly when he stops himself, turns to you and bites his lower lip.

“might’ve been. is that okay?”

you think back on the evening. on the way that he’s looking at you right now. the way he has been all night.

“yeah, i’d say so.”

with a step towards you he grins. reaches for your hand and takes it. “how about this?”

“that’s all right, too.”

and when his other hand comes up to cup your cheek, the way the night is going is more than okay with you.

“and this?” he asks one final time, and your breath of a yes is against his lips, pulling him close so your grin presses into the way he kisses you.

-

tag list (people who might like this):

@averyhotchner // @crazyshannonigans // @joanofarkansass

[newbornwhumperfly]

parting...

CW: kidnapping, creepy whumper, intimate whumper, stockholm syndrome, self harm (very brief), self-hatred, possessiveness, captivity, imprisonment, references to torture/abuse, fear of death

i wrote this all in a haze and emerged with a small offering, @whump-me-all-night-long!!! please accept a humble slice of self-indulgence cause this ask wouldn’t let me go until i wrote something - i love diamond so much & they deserve the world 💖💖💖

title refers to when a gemstone fractures along structural weak points! (yes, i am that pretentious)

~

Diamond had kept from breaking through the week of hell.

Through all the pain - inflicted by those who had no right to hurt them in such a way - and the bone-deep terror, the panic and temptation to submit, they did not break. When they were rescued and swept off by black-suited people they knew the sight of well, they did not cry or collapse. 

Not on the long drive back. 

Not when they were pulled from the backseat and held between two men, half-dragged, half-marched through grand corridors, through doorways and rooms they couldn’t keep track of. 

But now, seeing him again, striding down the hall towards them, they break. 

“Sir-” Diamond whimpered, their weak knees finally folding, sagging, as they tried to crumple to the ground between the henchmen’s arms. They are released and they fully collapse, crawling as fast as they can to Jeweler’s feet. Terror is thick, frozen jagged in their veins and everything is too cold, too sharp, too broken, cutting them open inside and bleeding out cold and ruin and they are so, so scared. 

A memory echoes through them, that the lowest circle of hell is ice - reserved for those who betray. They didn’t betray him, they didn’t...but what if being touched by someone else is enough of a crime? Their damnation chills them to the bone regardless. 

They want to throw their arms around his ankles, to cling to his clothes, plead with their body. But they don’t want to touch their savior without permission so they settle for groveling at his feet, their raggedly shorn hair - their beautiful white locks clipped away by cruel scissors - brushing the tips of Jeweler’s gleaming black shoes. Sullying. They are dirtied by someone else’s hands.

A spike of icy fear drives deeper into their heart and they thrust their hands out, clasped, shaking violently even clenched - “I didn’t try to leave, I didn’t, I swear, I swear, I swear I’d never try to go, never, please, I promise, please-”

They choke on a high-pitched wail, ringing out in the cavernous study, too loud where their ears are ringing out all other noise but their own wracking sobs, ugly, graceless in their brokenness. They grind their forehead against the stone, lift up and fall back down, smacking their sullied skin against the floor, their skull rings-

“Diamond, enough.”

They feel hands on their head, holding it still - a soft touch anchoring them where the storm of panic batters their heart - and they launch towards their owner, pressing their tear-stained, bruised face into his hand. That delicate, kind hand strokes through their ruined hair and they collapse again, dragging themself forward to press their mouth to their master’s feet, hands gripping the hem of silk pants without even thinking and- and they’re getting spit and tears on his shoes!

Their hands are clammy and there’s blood, they were damaging his property by bruising their forehead, fuck, nononobadbadbad-

Their breath rockets out fast and sharp and shallow and then they are being pulled up and into the circle of their owner’s arms.

“Shh, there, there-”

“Please- please let me be yours-” Diamond moans, frantic, fingers tangling in the lapels of his jacket almost without thought. “I know someone, someone else t-touched me, but- I can still be good for you, please k-keep me-”

“Shh,” Sir murmurs, still stroking their ruined hair, “I knew you wouldn’t try to leave me, my dear, I know they took you away from me.”

Diamond hears a note of fire in his usually cool voice and they whimper. Jeweler holds them even closer, still soothing, still comforting them as they shake violently against his chest. They bury their face against the silky fabric, breathing in the subtle richness of their cologne. He smells and feels like home. 

They shudder again when sir’s fingers snag a tangle in their now-short hair and they cannot help but catch their breath, cold tingling through their limbs. They want to stay hidden in the dark folds of silk and perfume and quiet forever, held by their owner, their jeweler and kept safe and unharmed or just- Just kept. That would be enough. 

But Jeweler pulls back after a few minutes, cupping their wet face, thumbing away the tears as their black, gleaming eyes search Diamond’s face. They feel pinned, helpless to move as their facets are held up to the light of his probing gaze.

He sees the bruises, delicately brushes his fingertips over the blues and blacks and browns marring Diamond’s perfect flesh. Diamond knows - they saw in the mirrored surface of the black car which drove them home. The black eye might as well be a pockmark, their split lip feels like a crack in their very heart. But the worst offense of all - a handprint, no longer stinging red but stark yellow and green, the mottled bruises throbbing against Diamond’s pale skin.  

“Oh, my darling,” he murmurs, the lilt lifting them up from the darkness again. Diamond’s insides shrivel at the keen gaze, at how it lays them open, at the ice beneath the concern in their owner’s eyes. He brushes a stray wisp of hair, dangling like torn lace, from over Diamond’s eyes so he can see the swelling that they can feel, a hot pulse blooming on their brow. “You’ve been damaged.”

Cold floods the cracks in their cracking heart, spread like water over ice. The water spills over through their eyes, rushes in their ears. They want to scrape off their skin, grow fresh unsoiled flesh that had only been marked before by him.

Why would he want them? Why would he keep them? They know they’re ruined but they don’t want to be set free. They don’t want to, they aren’t ready, they- they can be good! They draw in breaths in like knives, welcoming the punishing slices of air in their lungs, drowning dry, choking on tears, fear floods their lungs and stomach. They let go of Jeweler and tear at their ruined hair, their ruined skin-

They cry out as their wrists are gripped, pulled away from lashing at their own body. They are still at the pressure, their breaths pulling jaggedly, in and out, but no longer frantic when familiar firm touch cups their marked face, a casing of iron around their fracturing shards. They blinked back their tears and the Jeweler’s face swam before them, his touch the only solid thing.

“Look at me, Diamond.”

Even as they choked on their tears, they obey - they will always obey - and are held as still by his unyielding gaze as by his hands around their head.  

“You are mine, darling. Only mine. And I promise you, that will never change.”

Diamond trembles in place before the words come together, their pieces falling into their owner’s hands, and they will be kept. They collapse forward and the Jeweler catches them as their terror falls away from them, the anguish of the last days that felt like a lifetime dissolving, snow under the sun.

They aren’t ruined.

They can stay.

“Oh, thank you,” they sob, each breath clattering the frightened, broken edges of them inside less and less as Jeweler stroked a hand up and down their trembling back, as steady and powerful as the tide. 

Diamond felt themself settling more and more with every touch, sinking into their master inexorably. Whatever strength kept them upright, awake, was slipping away and as they slumped listlessly, they felt Jeweler scoop them up. They curl against him as they feel themself being carried safely, deeper into their owner’s home, away from the world that isn’t safe, isn’t him, with every step.

“How about a bath, my dear, and some medicine for your bruises, hmm?”

“Yes- thank you, that- that sounds good, please-” Diamond slurs. Their tongue is as heavy as the rest of them, muscles thick and clumsy under their skin. The Jeweler hums and pulls them tighter. Some bruises throb at the pressure but they’d rather be hurt by the Jeweler then comforted by anyone else.  

“Shhh - don’t fret, sweetheart - we’ll get you all cleaned up.”

As Diamond drifts, they feel a kiss brush their temple, pressure on where they bruised themself, and the little flare of pain is drowned by the warmth thrilling them down to their toes.

“I’ll make you good as new, my dear. Put back together again. My perfect Diamond.”

~

hope you enjoy some awfulness from a proud member of the diamond defense squad! 🥺🥺🥺

[therainroguefanfiction]

⁂ Tread Carefully (Hollow Ichigo)

Genre: Romance ☁

Word Count: 1,929 ☁

Pairing: Reader x Hichigo ☁

World: Bleach ☁

━━━━━━༻🌧️༺━━━━━━

“Hey, Y/N!” Ichigo called out as you left the classroom.

You stopped so that the orange-haired boy could catch up. “What’s up, Ichigo?” you asked as the two of you walked down the hall to leave the school.

He heaved a sigh and ran a hand through his hair, “I think I’m going insane.”

You raised an eyebrow in question.

“My inner hollow has been really restless lately. He’s been driving me crazy!” Ichigo explained.

You knew all about Ichigo’s shinigami powers and his inner hollow. You were also a soul reaper, but you chose to live in the world of the living instead of Soul Society. Your twin sister, Yachiru, lives in Soul Society as lieutenant of squad eleven under Zaraki Kenpachi. Unlike your sister who is loud and outgoing, you were quiet, timid and shy.

“Do you know why?” you questioned, softly.

“Not a clue. I’m not sure he knows why either. He’s been buggin’ the hell out of me. He keeps saying he wants something, but when I ask him what, he comes back with ‘I don’t know‘ or just doesn’t answer at all.”

“Have you tried asking Zangetsu?”

He nodded, “Yeah I have. He just says that he’s been really restless.”

“I see.” you mused, holding your chin with your hand. “I’m sorry I can’t be of more help, Ichigo.”

“It’s fine.” he smiled, “Yuzu was wondering if you’d like to come over for dinner tonight.”

“Sure, I’d like that.” you smiled at him as you both headed toward his house.

Rukia was sitting on Ichigo’s bed, waiting for him. She smiled when she saw you, “Long time no see, Y/N.”

“Hello, Rukia.” you greeted, softly.

“Will you be staying here tonight?”

“Well I… I wasn’t planning on it…”

“Nonsense!” she got up, walking over and wrapping her arm around your shoulder, “Stay with us tonight! I need someone other than Ichigo to talk to.”

You giggled softly at the annoyed look that crossed Ichigo’s face.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” he scowled.

Rukia rolled her eyes, “An idiotic boy like you couldn’t understand.”

“Why you – !”

The two started to argue and you giggled again, going downstairs to help Yuzu with dinner.

━━━━━━༻🌧️༺━━━━━━

After dinner was over, the three of you settled back down in Ichigo’s room. Rukia was sleeping in the closet and Ichigo was snoring loudly from his bed. Rukia had made up a bed of pillows and blankets for you to sleep on which you thanked her for.

For some reason, you were having a lot of trouble sleeping. You lay on your back, staring up at the ceiling. There was a nagging at the back of your mind, sort of like a voice, but you couldn’t understand what it was trying to say.

You could feel darkness start to take you over as your eyes drooped closed. You could hear a whispering voice and your eyes shot open, blinking a few times before your eyes adjusted to the light.

Your eyes grew wide; you weren’t in Ichigo’s room anymore. Around you were a bunch of large buildings lying on their sides, the sky a bright blue. A fluffy cloud slowly floated by. Where were you?

Chuckling echoed and you sat up, looked around as you tried to find the source. You saw no one.

“Over here~”

Looking behind you, you jumped back, taking a defensive stance.

This man looked a lot like Ichigo but… he was completely different. His skin was as white as snow, eyes a deep gold. The white of his eyes was black, just like his fingernails. His shinigami outfit was the same, but his was white with a black outline, the opposite of the normal shinigami uniform. He had a sadistic smirk on his face, as well.

Everything about this man screamed danger and your mind was warning you to be cautious, but… for some reason, you didn’t fear any fear. You were sure he wouldn’t attack you.

He realized this, tilting his head to the side. “Oh? You’re not afraid of me?”

“Why should I be?” you questioned, softly, the tension slowly leaving your body.

“If you don’t fear me, girl, then you really are a fool.”

You ignored his insult, looking around. “Where am I?”

“Ichigo’s mind.” he sat down on the side of the building as he watched you, amusement playing in his eyes.

“Wait… are you…”

“Ichigo’s inner hollow? Yes, I am. Which is why you should be afraid.”

“That’s no reason to be afraid.” you mused, thoughtfully, “You don’t seem all that scary to me.”

He scowled, appearing in front of you. “What don’t you understand about the fact that I could kill you easily at any moment?”

“I do understand that, but… if you were going to kill me, you would have done so by now, right?” your voice was soft.

“Am I making you uncomfortable?” he mused, leaning forward.

You took a step back, feeling your cheeks growing warm. You weren’t used to being so close to anyone that wasn’t your sister.

He threw his head back in laughter, “What’s your name, girl?”

“Y/N,”

His smirk widened, “Do I make you nervous?” he drew closer with every word. With every step he took forward, you took one back. You didn’t realize you were nearing the edge and with another step, you let out a squeak of fear, closing your eyes tightly. Warmth enclosed your wrists.

You slowly opened your eyes, gaze locking with your own. Something flashed through his eyes but it was gone as soon as it came. He pulled you back up onto your feet and released his grip. “T-Thank you,”

He scoffed, turning his back to you and walking away. You followed him.

“Um… how am I supposed to leave this place?” you questioned, softly.

“How the hell should I know?” he scoffed again, laying down on his side, head propped up on his fist. You sat a few feet away from him. “How’d you get here anyway?”

“I-I’m not sure.” you wracked your brain, trying to think of how you had managed to fall into Ichigo’s mind. You didn’t even realize that was possible.

“How can you not know how you got here?” he mocked.

“It’s not my fault,” you mumbled, cheeks darkening in embarrassment. “I fell asleep and woke up here…”

“Try sleeping again, then.”

You did as he said, lying down on the building and closing your eyes. You could hear him moving and his voice entered your mind, but you couldn’t make out the words as darkness started to cloud your mind. You felt something against your cheek before you were out.

━━━━━━༻🌧️༺━━━━━━

You groaned, opening your eyes and taking in your surroundings. You were back in Ichigo’s room. What was that? Was it a dream? ‘But it felt so real…’ you sat on the side of Ichigo’s bed, shaking him lightly until his brown eyes opened.

“What’s wrong?” he slurred tiredly, rubbing his eyes.

“I… need to ask you something,” you said, quietly, trying not to wake up Rukia or Kon, who was sleeping on Ichigo’s desk.

“What is it?”

“I… I met your inner hollow.”

He tensed, moving his shocked brown eyes to meet your own. “Y-You what?!”

“Your inner hollow. I met him.”

“How?” He sat up, looking concerned and confused. “He didn’t hurt you, did he?”

You shook your head, “No. He actually saved me. And I’m not sure. When I fell asleep, there was a nagging feeling at the back of my mind, like someone talking to me.”

“We should go and see Urahara.” Came Rukia’s voice. Apparently, Ichigo’s yelling had woken her up.

“Let’s go, then,” Ichigo agreed, getting out of bed.

“Right now?” you asked, “Don’t you think it’s kind of late?”

“This is too important to put off.” Rukia grabbed your wrist and the three of you snuck out of the house, heading for Urahara’s shop. He was sitting outside the shop, waving his fan in front of his face. He knew you were coming.

He invited the three of you inside and you all sat around the table. His white and green striped hat covered his eyes.

“We have a problem.” Rukia stated, “Y/N met Ichigo’s inner hollow.”

“Oh?”

“There was a nagging feeling at the back of my mind.” you explained, quietly, “Like someone calling me. When I opened my eyes, I was in Ichigo’s mind. His hollow was there.”

“You said he’s been restless, right?”

“That’s right. He’s been saying he wants something, but doesn’t know what it is.” Ichigo responded.

“I see. It seems that Y/N was drawn to him.”

“Drawn to him? How? Why?” Ichigo leaned forward, his hands on the table.

“I’m not sure. Perhaps the thing he’s been wanting is Y/N.”

“That’s not possible!” Rukia exclaimed. “It is possible. Very possible.”

“This doesn’t make any sense!” Ichigo slammed his fist into the table, making you and Rukia jump.

“You’re going to have to go back,” Urahara stated, waving his fan.

“No way!” Ichigo refused. “It’s too dangerous, he’s unstable!”

“I don’t really mind,” you said, quietly, looking at your hands folded in your lap.

“What? You can’t be serious, Y/N!”

You nodded, “He’s not so bad.”

“There’s a risk, though.” Urahara looked up so that one eye was shadowed by the brim of his hat, “If you go back again, you might not be able to return here.”

You nodded again, telling him that you understood. Ichigo and Rukia tried to stop you, but your mind had been made up. Urahara moved to sit next to you, commanding you to try to sleep.

You laid on your back, eyes closed, for over ten minutes before you felt the familiar prickling at the back of your mind. You felt everything fade around you.

Your eyes snapped open. You were back in Ichigo’s mind.

“Welcome back.” Hichigo was sitting on the edge of the building, his back to you. “You came back of your own free will this time. Why?”

“I wanted to find out something,” you said softly, staring up at the blue sky above you.

He stood up and walked over to stand in front of you, “And what would that be?”

“You’ve been really restless, right? You’ve been wanting something.”

His eyes narrowed, “Yeah, so?”

“You don’t know what you want?”

He stared at you for a few moments before speaking, “I think I might have figured it out. I’m not sure, though.”

“What is it?”

He seemed to contemplate his next move before leaning down, his lips meeting your own. You could feel the longing he felt within the kiss. You hesitantly wrapped your arms around his neck, deepening this kiss.

He broke the kiss, moving his lips to your ear. “You do know… that you might not be able to return.”

You chewed on your bottom lip as you thought about it. Finally, you breathed out a reply. “I don’t care,”

His scent was intoxicating infecting your senses. He smirked, tongue running the length of your ear. A shiver went down your spine as your cheeks heated up. “I know what I want.”

“What is it?”

“I want you, Y/N.” He pressed a kiss to your neck before biting down, drawing blood from the wound. “You’re mine. All mine.”

From that point on, Ichigo’s inner hollow was no longer restless. They never saw you again, but somehow they knew everything was okay with you. They knew that you were happy and safe, and they knew that you didn’t regret the decision you had made.

━━━━━━༻🌧️༺━━━━━━

📜 Read more by checking out my masterlist 📜

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[miss-smrxtiee]

-Hallmark & Hugs!-

Bryce x MC(Eliana Valentine)

~Gifter reveal~ Hi / @nmvord / !!! I really hope you enjoy your gift! (I included a moodboard down below) Happy Holidays! -Sol 💖

Summary: A Hallmark movie, a cup of coffee, and lots of snuggles sounds like a day in heaven for Edenbrook’s favorite doctors.

Warnings: none. Pure fluff!

Chgg mentions: @choicesholidaygiftgrab @monsoonblooms12 (FULL TAGLIST BELOW THE CUT)

Masterlist

****

“The forecast shows a very high chance of rain later tonight, some snow following shortly after. On Tuesday there is a 60% chance of hail, so make sure you’re prepared and that your homes and cars are protected.” The weather report comes through the TV

Bryce and Eliana were laid out on the couch, watching whatever was on at the time. It was early December and Boston was a winter wonderland. As energetic as Bryce is, there are days were Eliana convinces him to take a break. With his sister staying at a friends house for winter break, they got to do whatever they wanted around the house.

Yesterday, Eliana made Christmas cookies which were soon eaten up by.. you guessed it, Bryce.

The day before that, they had a dance party around the apartment with their Alexa playing the Christmas radio.

Most of the roads were shut down and Eliana’s family couldn’t come to visit for the holidays, and vise versa. Bryce made it a goal to make this Christmas one to remember despite the circumstances. He wanted to make everyday special, especially now while it leads up to Christmas.

Now, they had a binge watching day ahead of them and Bryce had an idea.

“Oooo, lets watch a Hallmark movie!” Bryce reaches to grab the remote but Eliana snatches it out of his hand.

“Absolutely not.” She said with her she’s wide and voice stern.

“Whyyyyyy...” Bryce whined like a puppy before plopping back on the cushion.

“Because hallmark is too sappy and cliché... you’ll give me PTSD from family holidays.” Eliana shudders making Bryce laugh.

“C’mon! Just one, if you don’t like it, I’ll go out and buy you a peppermint mocha!” Bryce gave her his best puppy dog eyes.

“Starbucks?”

“Duh.”

Eliana glances at him from the side.

“I’m in.”

Bryce cheers and snatches the remote out of her hands, making her laugh. He scrolls through their options and finds a classic Christmas movies titled “A December Bride”. after reading the description, Eliana raises her eyebrows at Bryce while he smirks and clicks the start button.

This was about and a girl who has to fake being engaged to her ex fiancé? Talk about drama.

After awhile, Eliana seemed to be pretty invested in the movie, making Bryce smirk of course.

Score!

The movies starts coming to an end after an hour or so and Eliana is curled up into Bryce’s side, trying to hold back emotions.

“Are you crying?” Bryce asks looking down at her. He tucks her into his side tighter and she nuzzles her head into his neck.

“....no.” She replies.

“Mhm... then what’s.... this!” Bryce points at the watery eyes and she sniffles.

Eliana was a very serious, independent individual. Even Hallmark movies can make the tough softies...

A couple minutes later the credits role on the screen and Eliana narrows her eyes at Bryce while he laughs.

“Not funny Bryce!” She smacks him with a pillow, only to realize what she started after Bryce returns the favor.

“You’ll never take me alive!” Eliana squeals and hops off the couch, grabbing soft defense weapons along the way.

Bryce chases Eliana around the room, desperately trying to grab onto her and win the war. But, alas, Eliana was like a really hard game of wack a mole and Bryce always missed.

After a minute, Eliana runs around the couch with her fuzzy socks gliding against the hard wood floor. When she turns, her feet slide out form under her and she falls on the pillows and blankets scattered out behind her. Bryce uses the opening to dive in the pile with her and tickle her under her arms, causing her to laugh and wiggle around.

“Gotchu!”

“Nonononono! Please!!” she laughs even harder and tries to fight him off but fails.

“What are you suppose to say...??” Bryce smirks.

“You’ll never take me aliveeee!!!” She repeats.

“Nope.”

He tickles her even more and after a few seconds she caves.

“Ok ok!! You win! You win!!” She squeals out.

“Why thank you.” Bryce plops down on the floor and catches his breath.

Eliana was still giggling, Bryce never failed to entertain her and make a game out of everything. She lays down beside him tries to slow her heartbeat and breathing.

“Wanna go to Starbucks together? We can walk since the snow has calmed down and it’s less than a block away.” Bryce suggests.

“That sound amazing right about now.” She smiles.

Eliana grabs one of Bryce’s hoodie from his closet, along with a pair of fuzzy boots and white sweatpants from her own. Bryce threw a beanie at her when she walked out of her room.

“Can’t have you catching a cold, Valentine!” He says, making her roll her eyes.

“Yeah yeah, let’s go you goof.” She grabs his hand after pulling her hat on, and together they walk out of the apartment.

Most likely to do something else stupid when they get back...

Oph Tag Squad: / @aylaramseycarrera @angela8754 / @monsoonblooms12 / @choicesstan1-deactivated2020120 @kinkypot / @aestheticartsx / @starrystarrytrouble / @rookie-ramsey /

Perm tags: @oxjenayxo / @peaceinmidstofchaos / @gryffindordaughterofathena / @lifeaskim / @arcticrivers / @drariellevalentine /

[lavenderrpages]

🦋 - closed starter for: @cigvrettedvet . //

         “ look, it’s not my fault if i was a dwarf in snow whites squad, i’d be grumpy. no doubt...but in my defense you haven’t given me a single cup of coffee/ i’m going to shrivel up soon.”  meredith huffed. the pads of her fingers stopped against the keys. the woman couldn’t multitask if her life depended on it. right now she was in the midst of typing a work email. coming up with a drastic excuse on being out of office was tricky when you were trying to cover up playing hooky....plus, meredith found amusement in the dramatics. one needed a little fun in order for survival, so she believed.  “ - or a redbull ? i could use a little wing or two right now.”  she humored, eyes burning from the fight of tiredness. 

[hetacakes]

hitchhiking.

miya twins x fem! reader

snow white au, aka me making fanfics about my own fanfic

in which reader leaves her home in the big apple, the busy city, the whatever you'd like to call it, and takes a trip to a forest, the literal opposite of home. in fact, the two places are so different that in order to get there, a plane ride is preferable over a road trip. after a week, it's time to go home, with souvenirs, of course. leaving with a heavier bag is to be expected, but the empty backpack meant for said souvenirs was a bit too heavy, suspiciously heavy

aka reader just wants to relax and ends up bringing two hitchhiker foxes home

the others aren't included in this one, sorry :( one certain bluebird will make a guest appearance but other than that the storyline is in no way connected to snow white (though i made a few ~allusions~ for the Drama) anyway, i hope you love these annoying foxes as much as i do <3

also this is borderline abo but in my defense i wanted to make them seem more animal-like since they're technically wild animals

warning for cussing because life is hard and osamu hates atsumu

word count: 9,505

   You grew up in the suburbs, always just a half hour away from the big, bustling city, where everything is fast paced with streams of people working and struggling to make their dreams come true. So it was no surprise that when you were old enough to move out, you immediately made a home in a rundown, shitty apartment, taking the typical "small apartment, big dreams" approach to life. And it was true, you did have a dream, a big dream. While you could have been anything else: a doctor, a lawyer, a profession that would make your parents happy and keep you reliably comfortable your whole life, you could never picture forcing yourself to work through something that made you unhappy, and so you decided to take the writer path.

   It was as if you were meant to be part of the busy metropolis, meant to be the same as everyone else in the crowd: broke, fresh out of uni, and barely paying the rent for a small, crappy apartment. You soon learned that dreaming to reach your dream job, a job where working hours weren't physically and mentally draining but were rather hours of doing what you loved, would only become more than just a dream at the price of your blood, sweat, and tears, just like it did for everyone else.

   But after working your ass off and putting two books on store shelves, you were able to end your contract with the sketchy landlord in the shady part of town and move into a nicer, actually livable apartment in a better building with a better landlord in a better neighborhood.

   Now when you stepped out of your complex, you were greeted with the refreshing sight of people passing by, the sky a clear blue, with a soft breeze you could feel underneath your windbreaker as it ruffled your hair and rustled your sleeves, the bright red, blue, and yellow fabric almost as bright as the sun overhead. Birds chirped in nearby trees, and if you walked around and looked for a while, you could find a few cats hanging around the sidewalk or hiding behind dumpsters.

   It was all you could have ever asked for and more.

   But sometimes, city life can be a distraction, and sometimes, you really, really need a change of pace and scenery.

   Which brought you to the present, sitting with your legs underneath you on your soft couch, squishing the plush grey throw pillows and balancing your laptop on your thighs. The money you got from your newest releases was in no means enough to call you rich, but it was comfortable enough that costs weren't one of your concerns as you typed a quick Google search. An airline website was open on your screen, and you were browsing through the available tickets, looking for one that would take you to a nice getaway, a small break from the nonstop chaos of your city, which had finally begun to wear you out from the endless stress and sleepless nights.

   "Seven day long camp resort in one of the country's most beautiful and idyllic forests," said the advertisement that popped up on the side of your browser. Clicking on it, it took you to a pretty convincing website about Inari Lodge, a tourist attraction in the middle of a forest you had never heard of before. Lists upon lists of hiking trails, forest tours, and crafted souvenir shops caught your eye, and before you knew it you were booking a week's stay in one of their cabins. Sealing the deal and buying your ticket, you sat back and sighed, ready for a vacation.

   Two weeks later, it was a few hours before your flight, so obviously you had already packed. Not. You called a friend over to help and keep you company while you packed, and ten minutes later, a familiar brunet walked through the door, ruffling his chocolate brown locks.

   "It's nice to see you, Tooru," you greeted, padding closer to him as he opened his arms for a hug. "Your hugs are the best, as always," you smiled up at him, before taking a step back.

   "You would have seen me either way; I was just on my way to bother you," he said. "You're taking a trip without me? How will I survive without you?"

   "Don't be dramatic, Ruru," you chided, pulling your suitcase onto your bed. "I know for a fact that the week I'm gone is the same week the team you're coaching has tournaments."

   "Ugh, don't remind me. They're good kids, but they suck ass," Tooru groaned, flopping next to your suitcase. "Do you have everything you need?"

   "You tell me. Check things off," you answered while looking through your closet.

   "Oooh, do I get to see your clothes?" Tooru asked suggestively, wiggling his eyebrows.

   You rolled your eyes at him. "My shirts and pants, yeah. Everything under that has been packed into this," you said, holding up a medium sized makeup pouch. 

   "Bummer. Oh well, there's always next time."

   "Ruru, stop being dirty."

   He grumbled something underneath his breath, low enough that you missed it. "Well, how long is the stay?"

   "A week."

   "So you need seven sets of clothes?"

   "Yeah, assuming I don't pee my pants," you smiled over your shoulder, watching as Oikawa held back a laugh with his hand, a wide smile spread across his face.

   "Haha, you got the whole squad laughing. How cold is it there?"

   "It's pretty cold, apparently. I'm not surprised, it's farther north than where we live, and it gets pretty chilly here sometimes," you answered, pulling a few sweaters out of your closet, pairing it with random pairs of jeans you grabbed, and passed them to Tooru, who folded and put them in your suitcase.

   "Aww, aren't I such husband material? Wait here wifey, I'm gonna get your stuff from the bath," Oikawa winked, throwing up a peace sign at you before he turned and disappeared behind the white door.

   "Can you get my toothbrush stuff too? Thank you~," you called after him in a sweet singsong voice. 

   You glanced at your bookbag, still on your couch, just where you left it. You looked at the scarf in your hands, a large white scarf too bulky to wear, and decided to throw it in there, along with your laptop and charger. You put an extra pair of comfortable boots in a reusable bag, neatly settling it between your clothes. Tooru handed you another bag, and a peek inside showed you your bath and bathroom essentials. You flashed a grateful smile at him, before turning and grabbing the last few items to throw in your bookbag-turned-carry-on, which included your notebook full of your messy brainstorming, a pack of pens, and your phone charger. Zipping your suitcase closed, you pulled up the handle and hung your bag around it.

   "Okay, I'm ready. I've got everything, except you," you winked mischievously at Tooru.

   "You're flirting! It's not fair," he complained, hand grabbing at his heart, the other draped dramatically over his forehead.

   "Guilty as charged," you winked, throwing up a finger heart. "Drive me to the airport?"

   "Of course, babe."

   You had already checked in your suitcase, got your ticket safely in your hand, and all that was left for you to do was wait an hour or so until boarding. You turned to Tooru, giving him one last hug. "I'm gonna miss you and the others, Ruru," you whispered softly, even though you were only leaving for a week.

   Tooru hugged you back, holding you tightly against his chest. He let you go, before taking a step back and pulling his hoodie over his head, his shirt riding up a bit, showing some skin for a split second. "Here, wear this," he said, handing it over to you.

   You brightened, smiling like a thousand suns before slipping it on. It was huge on you, and you were almost drowning in the soft, teal blue fabric. He gave you a fond look, his eyes shining in such pure, unadulterated love that it took your breath away for a moment.

   "Thank you, Tooru."

   "Keep it warm for me, okay?"

   "I know, I know, I promise you'll see it when I come back."

   He gave you one last hug, short and sweet, before walking away, turning to look back at you one last time. You stood there until the doors slid closed behind his back, a soft smile on your face, before you turned away and walked to your terminal, hoping to kill time either shopping, eating, or sleeping.

  You could finally lean back and relax once you were secured in your seat, miles in the air. Boarding and finding your aisle wasn't much of a hassle, thank the gods, and the glass of the plane window was refreshingly cool against the tip of your nose as you peered down at the clouds passing by. You held your bookbag against your chest, looking inside at the empty space in between the few items you did pack into it. Your laptop was safely zipped up in its designated pouch, along with its charger and your notebook, and the pack of pens that had somehow opened inside the pocket, which you had found out earlier as you tried to fish one out but instead pulled the empty cardboard packaging. Your phone charger was the only thing laying on the scarf you threw in there, a makeshift nest for nothing. Well, nothing yet.

   You were excited to spend a week in a completely different environment, surrounded by lush forestry and the coos and calls of whatever animals lived there, a place where you're never truly alone, but in a good way. It was a stark contrast from the car fumes in the city air, with the only plant life in a park square and the only sounds are the constant chatter and hum of people and cars finding their destinations. There never once was an hour of silence, and while you had been able to enjoy it as your background noise while writing, it wasn't long until you finally got tired of it. You could've sworn that the city had gotten louder on purpose just to exhaust and stress you out every night, so you were more than ready to finally be able to clear your head and maybe even flesh out an idea or two.

   The sound of the intercoms crackling to life made you jolt, holding a hand to the cold imprint on your cheek left from sleeping against the window. The pilot announced that the plane was descending, and you gathered your bag and Tooru's hoodie, bundling them both in your arms.

   Truth be told, you were glad to step off the plane. You felt the chill of the outside while walking off the plane through the passenger boarding bridge and stood for a second to put the hoodie back on, humming slightly at Tooru's smell still on the cloth, a nice, sweet but not too sweet scent that made you smile to yourself.

   You got lost in thought, so your body was on autopilot when you went to pick up your luggage and almost picked up the wrong suitcase, until the actual owner picked it up first, eyeing you weirdly. With guilty, heated cheeks, you grabbed your suitcase, checked it once, then twice, then three times, and finally hopped into an Uber as fast as you could, hoping that you wouldn't be starting your first day on vacation dying of embarrassment.

   You hurriedly thanked the driver for dropping you off, then made your way into a wooden building, the wood a warm oak with a little golden bell that chimed as you walked in. A woman behind the desk smiled at you, and you sighed, happy to have nothing to worry about, now that you were finally there.

   "Hello, welcome to Inari Lodge! Is there something I can help you with?"

   "Yes, please," you said, pulling your luggage close to you. "I reserved a cabin, and I need the keys, right?"

   "Of course," she smiled at you, and for a quick second, you thought that she resembled a cat, with black hair and upturned eyes.

   "Um, I'm sorry if I'm being intrusive, but are you a mom?"

   "Haha, don't worry, you're fine! Yes I am, my name is Kozume Sakura, and I have a son," she answered kindly, and you couldn't help but feel relieved to finally have a good thing to improve your currently-going-badly day.

   "Ah, it's just that you seemed familiar to someone I've seen around campus."

   "Ah, that would most likely be my son," she said, a sweet smile spreading across her face. "Anyway, here are your keys, and I've written the directions to your cabin right here. Don't hesitate to come and ask me for anything, okay?"

   "Yeah, okay," you nodded gratefully, making sure to wave goodbye as you walked out the doors, looking at the map in your hands.

   "I can not believe how hard it was to find you," you said to the cabin as you flopped on the bed, tired of having such a conflicting day. You sat up quickly, slapping your cheeks, "No, I won't let a few fuck ups ruin everything for me."

   Grabbing your phone, you slipped it into your hoodie pocket as you walked out the door, set on exploring the area.

   You decided not to take an official trail, preferring to save them for later, which brought you to an ordinary worn dirt path as you walked aimlessly, taking rights and lefts as you pleased.

   A rustling in the bushes lining the trail caught your attention. Just as you walked closer to separate the branches and peek through, a fox fell out of the leaves, as if something had pushed it out. The fox seemed to scowl at whatever had shoved it, before it turned its attention to you.

   Before you could think better, you crouched on the ground as you cooed, resting your cheek in your palm. "Hello, cutie fox, how are you?"

   The fox stared at you, which was good, because if it started speaking you would've booked it right then and there, but also bad, because you didn't know if it was irritated by your presence. It seemed to look warily at you, not ready to attack, but not fully trusting either.

   "Come here, I want to pet you," you crooned, holding out the end of your sentence as you leaned forward against your better judgement, shifting your legs from against your chest to underneath you. Before it could make a decision, however, another fox jumped out of the bushes and straight into your arms, settling happily in your lap. Caught by surprise, you stared, while the first fox yipped at it, jumping forward and pushing it out of your lap. You watched as they tumbled to the ground, rolling as they fought and wrestled.

   "Um, okay… I think I'll just go now, bye!" You quipped before turning around and walking steadily back to where you came from, not wanting to get caught up in a wild animal fight.

   "Look at what ya did 'Tsumu, why do ya always mess everything up?"

   "Me? Me?! You were the one that jumped me!"

   "'Cause I didn't recall inviting you to our conversation, dumbass!"

   "Yer a fuckin' fox, you can't talk! You're just jealous!"

   "So are you! We're twins, shithead!"

   And they kept arguing, voices carrying throughout the forest, even as they walked along the path the pretty, perfect, kind, and amazing love of their li— , ahem, the completely normal girl from earlier took, leading to the all too familiar lodge situated at the edge of their forest.

   "That was close," you whispered to yourself as you leaned against the door, as if the foxes would be strong enough to bust it open. They hadn't even followed you, as you didn't hear them, and when you glanced behind you, nobody was there.

   "Anyway, I guess I should plan out what I'm gonna do here, I don't want this trip to be a waste," you said, opening your suitcase and putting your clothes in the drawers, setting your bathroom essentials on top of it. You grabbed your bookbag from where you had thrown it on the bed and set it on a glass table. You pulled out your notebook and flipped to a blank page, cringing as you passed by page after page of chicken scratch.

   "The only reason I can read my own handwriting is because I'm there when it's written," you muttered to yourself as you rummaged for a pen, finding one out of the set of five. You wrote down the days of the week you'd be staying there, with your first official day starting tomorrow, on Tuesday. Your flight back was scheduled for a week later, on Monday. You hummed happily, glad that your timetable worked out so neatly as you wrote down the days of the week, leaving enough space for a bullet list underneath.

   On your last day at the lodge, you made sure to make a note to leave at noon at the latest, since your flight was at six in the afternoon, and you wanted to be extra, extra, extra sure that you would not miss it. Ideally, you would be all packed up Sunday night, but knowing you and your procrastinating self, you wrote it down for the day before, even though you knew you would probably be packing the day of, just as you did before.

   You made sure to set Saturday as souvenir hunting day, hoping to bring back something for Tooru, a thank you for the help and hoodie.

   The foxes you met earlier crossed your mind, but the grumbling of your stomach reminded you to get some dinner and wrap up your day. Holding the map out in front of you, you memorized the directions to a cafe not too far from your cabin, and went on your way.

   "Hello, can I get the sandwich of the day with a cinnamon hot chocolate and a slice of pumpkin bread?"

   "Of course! Here's your total."

   The worker you were pleasantly talking to gave you a small smile before glancing to the side, as if something caught his eye. He pulled a face at whatever he was looking at, and you followed his annoyed gaze to the two foxes you met earlier, playing next to one of the bean bag chairs next to the door, near the window wall of the cafe.

   You laughed awkwardly, "Haha, um, is there something wrong?"

   He seemed to snap out of giving them the stink eye, profusely apologizing to you as he provided an explanation, "No, no, it's fine, it's just that those two foxes are some of the forest animals that walk around the lodge, except they're the only ones that are more annoying than cute. Some cats and birds and such come by and usually will just sit next to the register, you know, like nice and normal animals, but these foxes seem hellbent on walking around and biting at people's ankles and fighting and making huge messes that they can't clean up because they're damn foxes."

   You laughed again, though this time it was genuine. "You seem to have very strong feelings about their mischief," you joked, watching as he relaxed.

   "Yeah, but at the end of the day, they're still just foxes, and we make sure all the animals of the forest are safe and sound."

   And if the foxes decided to cause more trouble than usual, that was their business, their decision, and not in any way related to the slight dislike of the barista, which was in turn totally not because you got along well with him.

   After paying, you made your way to a table in the corner of the windows where the glass met the wall, looking absentmindedly at the visitors and workers walking past, occasionally with a rabbit or bird or other critter.

   "I have your hot chocolate and sandwich, and your bread will be in just a moment. Unfortunately, I also brought these two," the barista you were talking to said as he set your food and drink on the table, before glancing at the floor. Just as you were about to lean over and see, two foxes jumped up on the seat across from you, settling themselves on the table, curled up like cats.

   You waved him off with a grin, "Oh it's fine, I have a feeling they'll behave."

   You took a sip out of your hot chocolate, savoring the warmth it gave you after being in the outside chill. You picked up your sandwich and took a bite, before speaking, "Are you done fighting?"

   Both foxes stared at you, and if they were people, you were sure their mouths would be hanging open, dumbfounded and mildly offended as you nonchalantly took another bite, not waiting for them to respond or react.

   You reached a hand out while they were frozen and pet the head of the fox nearest to you. It lowered its head slightly, shyly accepting your affection.

   "Aww, you're so cute. What's your name?"

   Of course, it couldn't speak, but it batted your hand with its left paw. "So cute," you crooned, "Come here?"

   Just like before, when the fox was about to walk towards you, the other one jumped at you, and you hurried to wrap your arms around it. You stared at it in your arms, tummy up like a baby.

   You rubbed its stomach. "What about you? What's your name?"

   He happily raised his right paw, and you held it gently before putting him back on the table, which was good, because the left paw fox was a second away from pouncing on it again. The fox you set down scrambled onto the tabletop, and watched with what you would call betrayed eyes as you carried the other fox into your lap, petting its head lightly.

   "It's not your turn," you quipped, focusing your attention on the fox in your lap. "You're so cute, so cute, please be my baby~."

   The fox you dumped on the table yipped indignantly at you, and you decided to mess with him. "Oh, you're still here? Well, I guess you're okay…" you trailed off, struggling to keep a poker face as he looked at you with puppy eyes, while the other fox barked out high pitched laughs, which made him get up and get ready to jump.

   You pet him between his ears. "I'm just joking. Jeez, you're always at each other's necks," you complained, sitting back and continuing to eat your sandwich.

   As if to prove you wrong, the fox in your lap jumped on the table and curled up with the other fox, both of them leaning against each other like close brothers. Coincidentally, the waiter walked by with your pumpkin bread, watching in amazement.

   "How did you do that?" he asked, and you just shrugged in response, your attention mostly on your sandwich.

   When you finished it, you took another sip of your drink before you tore off two pieces of your bread. You offered it to them as a reward, for finally behaving themselves. They yipped happily in response, content with spending the rest of your time together eating in comfortable silence.

   You pulled yourself out of bed, rubbing the sleep out of your eyes. Embarrassingly, jet lag made you sleep in on Tuesday, your first official day at the lodge, and by the time you woke up, you had nothing to do but eat and jot down some story ideas, none of which stuck to you.

   So you made sure to wake up nice and early the next day, dead set on going on at least one trail. You showered and changed into a new pair of jeans and a knit grey sweater. You stood for a moment, debating if you should wear a jacket or Tooru's hoodie over it, but decided against it and deemed the sweater good enough.

   Thankfully, it was one of the warmer, sunnier days. You looked down at your map, making your way towards the open lodge outlet, taking note of the small clusters of people milling about, a familiar sight, albeit on a smaller, calmer scale. You looked up at the wooden signs pointing towards various shops, restaurants, and forest attractions. You finally found the one you were looking for, pointing to your right with the word "birdwatch" carved across. When you followed its directions, you came to a small gift shop at the start of a wide, dirt path, imprints of boots and footsteps all over the light brown ground. Walking inside, a small wind chime announced your arrival, twinkling like bird chirps, and the person behind the counter looked up.

   "Oh, it's you!" she exclaimed, recognizing your face.

   "Hello again! I thought you worked at the reception desk?"

   "I'm covering for someone's shift right now, they had finals to take. Are you here for a birdwatch?"

   "Spot on," you answered, bringing a hand up to rub the back of your head with a meek smile. Kozume winked at you, before taking out two binoculars from under the desk.

   "Well then, let's go!"

   "You know, some of these birds remind me of the ones that live near my apartment building," you mentioned, picturing the large cherry blossom tree that stretched its branches past your window. "The birds here are so much more interesting though," you lamented. "The city just has crows and small birds, but here there's robins and warblers and so many more species, with great diversity. It's like the bird version of the people back home."

   "I can imagine not many birds want to live near so many humans, but these have all of the forest to themselves. Look, the bird over there, with the blue mohawk, is called an Asian Paradise Flycatcher, and…" she trailed off, continuing your tour of one of the forest trails, before whipping an arm in front of you, exclaiming, "Watch your step!"

   You froze with your foot still in the air, watching as the fox you narrowly missed stepping on darted in front of you.

   "I'm sorry, he's not really supposed to be here, he has his own trail," Kozume frantically apologized while glaring at the fox, before sighing in relief when you responded with a small laugh.

   "It's fine, I've met him before," you reassured while looking around, searching for a certain somebody. "And I learned that he never walks alone…"

   To prove your point, the other fox you were well acquainted with joined his brother, running around in front of you.

   "Well, the next part of our trail is basically a circle back, so hopefully they run off to where they belong, I don't want you to get in trouble for messing with the animals because of them," Kozume said as you made a left, walking back to the start of the trail.

   When you opened the door to the gift shop, two furry animals zipped past your feet, and you already knew who they were before you even saw them.

   "Kozume, is it normal for these guys to always hang around here?" you asked, picking up both foxes in your arms, resting them comfortably in your arms.

   Kozume turned around to look at you, her hands still in midair, putting away your binoculars. "Actually, no, they do come by once or twice but they never hang around, and we just assumed they don't like people very much since they really only hang out with each other. They've never let anyone pet them…" she stopped mid-sentence as she watched you pet their heads and stomachs with no resistance from the two.

   You glanced up. "Huh? Oh, I don't really have a lot of experience with animals, but they're just so cute," you said, before snapping your head up, eyes wide in realization. "Hey, do you have some ribbon or something?"

   "Yes! We use them to identify specific birds we keep tabs on, especially ones we just recently nursed back to health," she explained, pulling out a box of ribbons, offering it to you. You set the foxes on the counter, watching Kozume hesitantly reach a hand out to them from the corner of your eye. They protested, but allowed her to pet them when you eyed them. Looking into the box, you fished out two ribbons, one a golden yellow, and the other a nice warm grey.

   "May I?" you asked, directing the question to Kozume. The foxes, however, decided you were talking to them and excitedly sat in front of you, pulling each ribbon towards them with their paw.

   "I think they said yes," Kozume chuckled, and you took that as your permission to put ribbons on their, er, the forest's foxes. You cooed at them, asking which one would go first. The fox with the yellow ribbon in his mouth nudged your hand with his face, making you smile.

   "Which are you, left or right?"

   The fox raised its right paw and rubbed his face as your answer, and you kept that in mind while you tied the ribbon around his neck, finishing it off with a nice bow. You did the same to the other fox, who voluntarily shook your hand with his left paw, just in case you forgot. By the time you were done, both foxes were playing on the counter, ribboned bows securely on their necks.

   "What if you started working here? The way you can interact with the animals so easily is honestly amazing," Kozume asked, springing the question on you out of the blue.

   You jumped, before you began rubbing the back of your head sheepishly, "Ah, I would love to, honestly, but I work as an author, and it's best if I stay relatively close to my publishing company."

   Kozume smiled understandingly, "Yeah, I figured. Well, just know that me and the foxes will be missing you hundreds of miles away." Then she brightened, pulling out her phone, "Put your number in, so we can stay in touch, and so I can keep an eye on my son," she winked cheekily as you accepted her offer.

   While the two of you were occupied, focused on your conversation, the two foxes stopped playing, standing abruptly and whipping their faces towards you.

   Loud crying made you turn away from Kozume and look for the source of the high-pitched whining, popping the question "who's making those crying puppy sounds?" into the air.

   Your eyes landed on the foxes, both of which were crying and walking towards you, tugging at your sleeve and rubbing their heads against your arms. Your heart melted, and you turned to Kozume, pity written across your face.

   "When I said they would miss you, I didn't think it would be this much…"

   "No, you can't come in here! I'll be kicked out if I let you guys in!"

   The foxes, still with the ribbons tied perfectly and safely around their necks, were looping around your legs, blocking your entrance to the cabin you've rented. They both looked up at you and cried, their whines catching the attention of some workers and visitors nearby.

   "Okay, fine! If I get in trouble, it's your fault," you relented, turning the knob and carefully opening the door, watching as they slipped in, leaving you to shut the smooth oak door quietly behind you as you flipped on the light switch.

   The second you let electric light flood the cabin, you realized the foxes were nowhere to be seen. Only mildly worried, since you knew they were at least somewhere inside, you shrugged it off and walked to the dresser, pulling out Tooru's hoodie and some sweatpants, before making your way to the bathroom.

   Out of nowhere, a fox came zooming at your feet, eager to come inside with you. This time, you were firm as you said, "I'm going to shower, so you can back off and play around while I'm in the bathroom, alone, with no perverts!"

   The grey fox started laughing at the peeping fox, which you realized was the yellow ribboned one. As expected, he launched at his brother, and you took the distraction as an opportunity to step inside the bathroom and shut the door behind you, locking it just to make sure.

   Freshly showered, with your comfortable, warm clothes on, you shuffled out of the bathroom, already expecting the foxes right there, having to step over them to make your way to the bed. They jumped up with you, but once the grey fox came close enough to sniff your hoodie, it barked indignantly, biting at the hoodie.

   "Hey! This isn't mine, it's Tooru's, so I can't let you destroy it!" you chided, pulling your sleeve away. Apparently you had said the wrong thing, because both foxes started pulling your sleeves together, before you yanked your arms out of their grips.

   "Tooru doesn't even smell bad, he smells nice," you said, pulling the hoodie up to smell the familiar scent, the aromas of chocolates and sweets in fresh air, reminding you of the skies back at the city: the smells of bakeries and cafes wafting through the air and birds chirping above you every time you walked down a street. Still, when the foxes continued growling, you reluctantly tugged the sweater off and stayed in just a white t-shirt, an old, stretched out shirt with the print on the front long since faded and gone.

   When you plopped back on the bed, the foxes crowded towards you, close enough that if you didn't know better, you'd think that they were trying to get you to forget about Tooru and focus on them. Subconsciously taking a breath, you caught the smell of a forest clearing or meadow, a smell of fresh grass and fresh air and petrichor, which you would expect from foxes that were supposed to stay and play in the forest, but you also noticed slight variations in the scent, obviously coming from either fox.

   Yellow ribbon had a scent like honey, with a strong undertone of a woodsy musk, which made you picture drinking tea sweetened with the golden syrup right outside your cabin. 

   Grey ribbon had a strong campfire scent, the smell of crackling wood and fire and melting chocolate. A scene under a clear night sky surrounding a fire with the aroma of cinnamon in the air came to mind, and you let yourself get lost in thought, your senses being occupied with new scents, sights, and imagery.

   If the foxes were human, their faces would surely have the widest, shit-eating grins, smug and satisfied at having you distracted from the minor annoyance from earlier and focused on them, just as they wanted.

   You snapped out of it. "You little—, you just want me to give you attention and affection and baby you," you accused, pushing them away from your face. They didn't protest or bark at you, and you figured it was because they knew they were guilty as charged. "Jeez, you're acting like Tooru is a threat or something…"

   You heard two big sighs, and blinked in surprise at the foxes as they settled onto the plush white covers. Maybe it was because they were so human-like and made you honestly contemplate whether they could understand you or not, or maybe it was because the only animal you've heard sigh is your mom's dog back at your family home, but whatever it was, it made you think, for a split second, that the foxes were humans turned animals, kind of like the frog prince. But that was stupid, so you shook your head, got up and turned off the lights, opening the curtains but keeping the blinds closed, and settled back into bed as slats of moonlight came from the spaces between the blinds.

   The foxes climbed into your arms, and you held them close to you as you fell asleep, telling yourself it was only because you had crossed the line earlier, even though deep down you knew that wasn't the real reason.

   You pulled the two fluffy sources of heat closer to you, unwilling to open your eyes and start the day. It's only when the heaters started licking your face that you panicked and freaked out.

   High pitched yips made the events of yesterday evening rush back to you, and you rubbed the sleep out of your eyes tiredly, surprised that you had a good night's sleep with two, technically, wild animals.

   You scooped the drowsy foxes into your arms before making your way to the big wooden door and pushing it open, setting the foxes on the ground.

   "You weren't even supposed to be in there, you know," you said as the foxes tried to get back in, pawing at the door. You shivered, the chill in the air numbing your exposed skin and wrapping around your bare arms, and you hurriedly shooed them away before retreating back inside the warmth of the cabin.

   Safely bundled in a sweater from your university under a hoodie, one of your own this time, you joined a group going for the fox trail, wondering if you'd see yours.

   Pointedly ignoring how you immediately thought of them as "your" foxes, you listened to the tour guide, an employee you hadn't met yet, talk about how the foxes don't always show on the trail.

   "That's a shame, let's just hope for the best," other visitors and families whispered around you, with some of them saying they didn't see that many foxes yesterday, only a few odd ones out here and there. Knowing where they actually were the day before, you stifled a laugh, even as your ears turned red with guilt and embarrassment, before following at the back of the group as they started the trail.

   Luckily, you saw a few grey and brown foxes, who seemed like actual normal foxes and not borderline sentient, but around the middle of the trail it was basically deserted.

   "Let me try to call them," the guide offered, bringing his hands up to cup his mouth and whistle loudly.

   Silence answered, with no signs of anything coming to visit. 

   The tour guide encouraged the group to call out and whistle, and various whistles and voices rose from the group.

   Not wanting to draw attention to yourself, you crouched low, at eye-level with the bushes, and softly called out for two specific foxes, your hello muffled by the rest of the crowd.

   You gave up, feeling stupid and unconvinced that your almost-whisper would carry over the noise of the crowd, and sat on the ground, legs folded under you, deciding to wait until the group either got tired or another fox actually showed up for them. Just then, the bushes in front of you started to rustle, and your lovely grey ribboned fox jumped out, immediately crawling into your lap to nuzzle your face.

   The people closest to you turned at the noise and noticed you cuddling with him on the ground, and word started spreading throughout the group that someone had successfully lured out a fox.

   "Look! There's one running this way!" the ones at the front of the group called, and you looked just in time to see your other fox running towards you, straight past the tour guide and the rest of the group. You smiled fondly at them, before lowering your face to let both of them rub their cheeks against yours.

   "Ma'am, could you please not touch the animals?" the tour guide told you timidly, obviously not wanting to reprimand you for being able to actually call out foxes on the designated fox trail, but you understood it was mostly so others didn't start getting any ideas, thinking they had permission.

   You nodded sheepishly, lightly putting them on the floor before standing up, wiping the dust off your knees. However, the whole group watched as the foxes looped around your feet, even going so far as to jump up and paw at your thighs.

   "Do you work here? You're so good with animals!" a mom in the crowd asked, and you looked at the actual worker, unsure of what to say. He stared back at you with just as much confusion, before shrugging, leaving you to make up a convincing story on the spot.

   "Actually, these foxes used to live near me, but I live in a city, so I brought them here so they'd be safer than on the streets," you fibbed, though you gave yourself a pat on the back for how reliable the story was. If anyone really did have to ask, yes, you did live in a city, and yes, you would one hundred percent bring foxes and other animals to a forest or wildlife lodge. Did that really happen? No, but could it? The answer was yes, and you sighed in relief when the mom turned, accepting your answer. You giggled when the tour guide released a breath he didn't even know he was holding, and he continued the trail, sending a discreet wink your way.

   You didn't notice the way your foxes growled at that, and if someone had asked you why you had two foxes right at your heels, walking next to you protectively like a pair of guard dogs, you'd blink in confusion, oblivious to the reality of their words.

   Before you knew it, it was Saturday, souvenir shopping day. You slung on your bookbag, ready to put some weight in it.

   At the lodge's shopping centre, you saw gift shops, clothing shops, and random trinket shops alike. In the gift shop, you found crystal figurines of animals in and around the lodge, and a cute little bird the color of a clear sky caught your eye. For some reason, it reminded you of Tooru, and you couldn't stop yourself from buying it and watching as the cashier wrapped it in paper before setting it in a white velvet box, cushioned and safe. Huh, crystal bird, blue, bluebird. You may have found another nickname for Ruru. You absentmindedly slipped it into your bag, happy to have found what you were looking for so fast and a new nickname.

   But stores weren't anything if not eye-catching, and the shelf of plush animals distracted you. The fox plushies, specifically, were so similar to actual foxes that they'd be perfect replacement cuddle buddies for when you went back home to your big city.

   But then you felt incredibly embarrassed and childish for that, so you shook your head as you walked out of the shop, ignoring the way that thought stuck in your head like a moth to a lamp.

   Still, you found yourself walking through store after store after store. Once you finally snapped out of it, you had just stepped out of the birdwatching souvenir store, all too aware of the set of postcards themed after the various birds you could spot on the trail. You told yourself that the blue mohawk bird on the front was a great reminder of both the trail and Kozume, and made a mental note to get her to write something before you left, lessening your guilt over having bought something almost useless.

   By the time you came back to the cabin, your wallet felt significantly lighter while your bookbag was very obviously heavier. You had stuffed the velvet box, postcard deck, two maroon sweaters with "Inari Lodge" printed across the front with the forest's logo, and a large and heavy book about spirits and legendary deities that guard and dwell in the forest. According to the summary on the back, the book was basically a collection of the myths and legends surrounding the forest, including one about people that could transform from animal to person and back again. The cover of the book immediately made you think "grimoire", and you were set on buying it, if not for the stories, then for the aesthetic.

   You wondered briefly if it was real as you unclasped the leather string binding the book shut and flipped through yellowed pages with torn edges, looking at all the pictures that looked believable hand drawn and writing in a language you could only understand when you squinted your eyes.

   You had wrapped everything in the two sweaters, and then in the white scarf, making sure they were safe and at no risk of being crushed or damaged, especially the crystalline figure.

   "Are ya sure she isn't coming back?"

   "Yes, 'Tsumu, last I checked she was dropping off her keys to Kozume."

   "But she'll be back soon?"

   "Yeah no shit, genius, that's why you either get in here with me or stay behind."

   "Hey, I'm just makin' sure you're prepared for this y'know, in case you start crying for momma or somethin'."

   "Shut yer face and die."

   "What do we do now?"

   "I don't wanna pay for a ticket, 'Samu."

   "Me neither, but we can't hitch a ride in her carry-on anymore, it's going through TSA."

   They both leaned against the wall, realizing that they were both stupid and their plan was stupid squared.

   Atsumu looked up, the ribbon around his neck moving with him, and he watched you walk into the bathroom, leaving your luggage outside the door. He nudged Osamu, pointing at the bathroom door.

   "Nice," he praised.

   And if people saw two foxes crawling into a bookbag? It's the airport at three in the alternate airport timeline, who cares.

   "My bag is so heavy," you complained, flopping into your assigned seat. It was another window seat, and the view of the land underneath becoming smaller and smaller until it was covered by a sea of clouds made you feel a little better. Still, how did your bag get that heavy? When it was empty, it was literally lightweight, and when you were still shopping, it wasn't that hard to carry it as you went from store to store. You groaned, rolling your shoulder from the pain of carrying the boulder of a bag.

   "That's what I get for buying so much," you berated yourself, opening the flap and looking inside. Surprisingly, two fluffy foxes were curled up in there, resting comfortably on your white scarf. For a moment, you thought your foxes had hitched a ride and were coming home with you, but you'd obviously notice that, right? And besides, you did see the stuffed animals in the gift shop.

   "I can't believe I actually bought the stuffed foxes just because I'll miss the real ones," you huffed, blushing slightly, as if the foxes were there and could hear you. But the foxes were not there, you had left them at the lodge, so you settled for stroking the faux fur of the stuffed foxes, the silky smooth strands so lifelike that if you didn't know better, you'd think it was real.

   "Finally," you gasped, face planting into the soft fluffy white of your blanket. You tugged off Tooru's sweater and folded it neatly, walking out and placing it on your counter, ready to return. You rummaged through your bag, that you had dropped to the floor as soon as you opened the door to your room, and tugged out the scarf from underneath your very suspiciously heavy fox plushies. 

   You unwrapped the bundle, pulling all your souvenirs out before bunching up the scarf and throwing it into your laundry basket. You set the book and postcard deck on your bookshelf, next to other various books and collectibles you've found over the years, and grabbed the velvet box, feeling its smooth texture against the palm of your hand. You set it on top of the teal hoodie, before changing out of your jeans and shirt into shorts and an oversized tee, boyfriend style.

   Ugh, a boyfriend. You've been single for way too long.

   "Please let me wake up to a miracle," you prayed, closing your eyes and pulling a serene face, before immediately flopping over and falling asleep.

   Of course, you do not expect to wake up cuddled up to a warm chest while listening to someone messing around in your bathroom, the shutting of cupboards and a phone call drifting from the white door.

   You laid there, relishing the comfort that came from being flush against someone's side, tucked under their arm.

   That's when it hit you that strangers were in your house.

   You bolted up, using your hand to choke back the scream bubbling from your throat, not wanting to let either person know you were awake.

   You looked down, realizing that you had just left the side of a very handsome and very shirtless man, his eyes slowly opening when he felt the absence of your warmth, showing you his beautiful light brown eyes, getting lost in the gold specs like stars.

   You ripped your gaze away from him and moved to swing your legs over the edge of the bed. Unfortunately for you, the mystery man reached up and tugged you back down to him, holding a finger up to his very pink and very kissable and very attract— , wait, no. He held his finger against his lips, shushing you.

   "Wait, he's coming out. Stay beside me."

   Just as you opened your mouth to retaliate, he had already thrown your white covers over the both of you and looped an arm around you, his hand resting at your waist.

   The door to the bathroom opened, and yet another stranger walked out, though it was only him, making the total number of intruders two. He had the same eyes and lips, which were the definition of picture perfect, and he was also lacking in the shirt department. His brows furrowed, and you could already feel the argument starting.

   "What the hell do ya think yer doin'?!"

   "She prefers me."

   "No she doesn't!"

   "It's true, right doll?"

   Both pairs of identical eyes stared at you, and you started panicking under the pressure.

   "I don't even know you! This is literally stranger danger!" you yelled, jumping out of the warmth of both the blanket and the guy in your bed, dodging as his hand reached out to pull you back in.

   You pressed your back against the wall, staying as far away from them as possible. You then realized what you were wearing, and tugged your shirt down even further, mentally slapping yourself for wearing shorts that left almost nothing to imagination with a shirt that reached your thighs, which would put you at a disadvantage if you had to fight or flight.

   The stranger finally got out of your bed and walked next to the other, but it was only once they were next to each other that you realized they were twins, identical twins. Both had dyed hair, but one was blond while the other had grey hair. Their bangs were parted to opposite sides, so they kind of mirrored each other, which made you shiver.

   "Don't ya remember us?"

   "Yeah, you liked me better."

   As they started bickering, as almost all siblings do, you noticed the two sweaters you bought sitting on the edge of the bed. Snatching them and balling them up in either fist, you threw them at them.

   "At least wear these!"

   "Those sweaters would eat me alive, but they fit you so well," you sighed, sitting on your legs on your bed, the two still standing in front of you.

   As they pulled the cloth over their head, you noticed the ribbons tied around their neck as they popped free from the neckline. You felt your heart sink to your stomach when you realized they were grey and yellow ribbons.

   "'s not like we've never slept with you before," yellow ribbon said.

   "You even asked me to be your baby," grey ribbon added, catching his twin's elbow in his hand.

   "I haven't even been in the city for the past week! I was at the lodge forest thing."

   "So were we."

   "Yeah, we came from there."

   "Then how did you end up here?!"

   "We came with ya," yellow ribbon said matter-of-factly while the other shrugged in agreement.

   Your breath got caught in your throat as you flipped the flap of your bookbag over, looking at the empty space in dismay.

   "Where are my foxes?"

   "That's us!" they chorused, identical smirks of pride on their faces, as if being yours was something to show off or brag about. 

   "They were plushies! People cannot be plushies!"

   "No, they were real foxes, and we're real foxes, 'cause they were us."

   "Where the hell would I get real foxes?!"

   They saw the moment you pieced two and two together, your face turning from one of anxious anger to acceptance as you realized what they were trying to say.

   The ribbons. Their colors. The plushies that felt a little too real. That one night in your cabin. The day you fed them in that one cafe.

   They were your foxes.

   "Yup," grey ribbon nodded his head, and you shut your mouth, not wanting to accidentally say what you were thinking again.

   "Why did you come here? You belong in the forest!"

   "No, we're your foxes," they said in unison.

   "No you aren't," you groaned, covering your face with both your hands.

   The two of them had attached themselves to your side, and when you said that, they seemed to get even more annoyed, and so they snuggled even closer to you, an arm slung around your shoulders and around your waist.

   "What are your names?" you finally relented, relaxing in their grip.

   "Miya Osamu," the one with the grey ribbon said, pulling you closer from the waist.

   "Miya Atsumu, the better twin," the one with the yellow ribbon retorted, tugging you back with the arm around your shoulder.

   "Stop pushing me around! We barely know each other!"

   "Can you stop with that already?" Osamu said, though he had no actual anger or malice behind his words.

   "Or do we have to remind you who you belong to?" Atsumu said suggestively, and you braced yourself for whatever mischief he had planned.

   In one moment, you were sitting normally in the middle of your bed. In the next, you were back against your headboard, your head on your pillows. And you became a pillow, as Osamu tucked his face in your neck and Atsumu rested his head on your chest.

   "We're taking a nap together again whether you like it or not," Osamu said decisively, and you could tell that was that, no arguing.

   "At least let me pull those off, it's embarrassing," you complained, your hand drifting up to Atsumu's ribbons.

   "No," he said, catching your hand warningly. Something in his voice made you obey immediately. "That's mine."

   "Well this is mine too!" you replied heatedly, bringing a hand up and cradling Osamu's head against you. But instead of doing anything or acting out like any normal person would, Osamu started purring, a satisfied grin on his face while you had a look of dismay, your cheeks reddening. 

   Atsumu glared at him, moving your hand so your arm was wrapped around him, pulling him closer as well. You got the hint and raised your other hand to run your fingers through his hair, leaving you to deal with two purring fox-shifting idiots.

   "Fine, you're both mine, I guess," you gave up, fighting back a blush and pretending that statement didn't warm your heart as much as it did.

   "And your ours," they chorused happily, and you didn't even try to hide the pink spreading across your cheeks when they rubbed their faces against yours.

   "Okay," you said quietly, accepting the fact that them being yours and you being theirs made you feel something happy and content in your chest, something that was dangerously close to love. If you were like them, you were one hundred percent sure you'd start purring, too.

   I mean, you did say you wanted a boyfriend, and the universe was kind enough to give you more than what you bargained for.

   The sun dipped below the horizon, painting the sky with yellow and red while the blues and purples of night crept closer. The clouds were fluffy and lined with silver, their normal white reflecting pink hues.

   The last rays of sunlight filtered through a sheer peach curtain, coating everything in gold lighting.

   Three people were sleeping soundly on a bed, the white blanket thrown over their tangled legs, breaths even and in sync. Dyed grey hair peeked out from under a chin, and blond hair tickled a collarbone. Natural hair was sprawled out on the white stuffed pillows.

   Osamu opened an eye, before raising his head and pressing a soft kiss to the sleeping beauty's lips.

   And if he raised a finger to his lips? Well, I can't say what happened next, because my lips are sealed.

oh my GOD did this take forever between writing this and school and the fanart of this (which i’ll post later) i took way longer than i normally would

that being said, i hope you still like it <3

[keyofjetwolf]

Pitch Me your thing!

HELLO HELLO MY SUNBEAMS. For most every category, there was an impressive turn-out for pitches, so I thought we’d utilize the weirdness of this year’s GIFTENING to give something new a try. The popular vote winner for each category will happen on the first day, but on the second, the winner will be chosen from YOUR PITCHES. Mostly those pitches will be to me. The exception is in Miscellaneous, where you’ll be pitching to my family, because what I want to do and what is most entertaining isn’t necessarily the same thing.

So! How will we do this thing? GLAD YOU ASKED. I’ll link you to a form in a minute with space for one pitch. Once you fill it out, you’ll be asked if you want to do another. There’s no limit to the number of pitches you can send in! But remember that if you submit multiple entries for the same category, you’ll basically be competing against yourself.

NOW WE’VE GOT SOME RULES FOR DOING THIS (which I mostly stole from Holligay, because I have no creativity this year). Please read them carefully! I’ll toss pitches that break any of these, and I’d rather your hard work not go to waste.

Pitch Me is open for your submissions from RIGHT NOW (22 December) through the very last day of this hellyear (31 December) at 11:59pm MT.

The thing you pitch must have come from what was nominated for THE GIFTENING 2020. (Full list of those nominations in every category below the cut on this post.)

Entries must be unsigned! I’m looking to chose based on the pitch alone, regardless of who submitted it.

The pitch itself must be 100 words or less. HAVE PITY ON ME I CAN ONLY CONSUME SO MUCH.

If you’d like to get some help, ideas, feedback, all that good stuff, the Discord is a FANTASTIC resource I encourage you to use.

HERE IS YOUR PITCH SUBMISSION LINK

And, as promised, below the cut you’ll find the list of all the nominees in every category you guys sent in this year. IT’S A LONG LIST HAVE FUN WITH THAT

Anime

A Place Further Than The Universe/Sora Yori mo Toi Basho Ace Attorney (Gyakuten Saiban) Action Heroine Cheer Fruits Aggretsuko Aho Girl Air Master Akuma No Riddle Alien Nine Angel Beats! Angelic Layer Appare-Ranman Aria Aria the Animation Arrietty/ The Secret World of Arrietty (Ghibli film) Ascendance of a Bookworm Azumamga Daioh Baccano! Beastars Black Cat Blood + (the series) Bloom Into You Blue Drop/Tenshitachino Gikyoku Bodacious Space Pirates (starting right where you left off) BOFURI: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense Boku no hero academia Bubblegum Crisis Card Captor Sakura: Clear Card Cardcaptor Sakura Castlevania the Animated Series Cells at Work Chaos; Head Chihayafuru Code Geass cowboy Bebop Cyborg 009 Death Note Death Parade Deca-Dence Demon Girl Next Door Demon Slayer (Kimetsu no Yaiba) Diebuster: Aim For the Top 2 Dog Days dorohedoro Dot Hack//SIGN Dr. Stone Elfen Lied Erased (Boku Dake Ga Inai Machi) Escaflowne Excel Saga Fantastic Children Fate/Zero Flip Flappers Fresh Precure Fruits Basket 2019 Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood Ga rei Zero GaoGaiGar gekkan shoujo nozaki-kun Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex Ghost Stories (dubbed) Girls' Last Tour Great Pretender Hoseki no Kuni/ Land of the Lustrous House of Five Leaves/ Saraiya Goyou Inari konkon koi iroha Interviews with Monster Girls Inuyasha Isekai Izakaya "Nobu" Jellyfish Princess/ Kuragehime JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable Kaguya-sama Love Is War Kaleido Star Kannazuki no Miko Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! Kemono Friends Kiki's Delivery Service Kimi ni Todoke: From Me To You Kino's Journey/Kino no Tabi (2003) Land of the Lustrous (Houseki no Kuni) Little Witch Academia Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files EP0 {"A Grave Keeper") Love is Hard for an Otaku Love Live! Sunshine!! lupin the 3rd part 4 Madoka: The Rebellion Movie Magic knight rayearth Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha March Comes in Like a Lion Mardock Scramble Master of Martial Hearts Mawaru Penguindrum Megalobox Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid Mob Psycho 100 Mobile Suit Gundam (1979) Monster Mushishi My Bride is a Mermaid (Seto No Hanayome) My Love Story!!! My Neighbor Totoro My Next Life As A Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom My Roommate is a Cat NANA Naruto Natsume’s Book of Friends Neon Genesis Evangelion (hateblog) New Cutey Honey Nichijou Ōban Star-Racers One Piece Ouran High school Host club Outlaw Star Paranoia Agent Perfect Blue Please Save My Earth Pop Team Epic Pretty Cure Fresh Princess Jellyfish/ Kuragehime Princess Mononoke Princess Principal Princess Tutu Project A-Ko promised neverland (/yakusoku no neverland) Psycho-Pass Ranma 1/2 Re: Cutie Honey Re:Creators Read or Die (OAV) Red Garden relife Revolutionalry Girl Utena Rose of Versailles Ruroni Kenshin Sailor Moon Sailor Moon (viz dub) Samurai Champloo (english dub) Sarazanmai School Days School-Live! Scum's Wish Senki Zesshou Symphogear (listed as just "Symphogear" on Crunchyroll.) Serei no Moribito (Guardian of the Spirit) Shin Sekai Yori (From The New World) Shirobako Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle Smile Pretty Cure (Japanese original)/ Glitter Force (english adaptation) Snow White with the Red Hair Sound Euphonium Strawberry Panic (yuri) Sweetness and Lightning The Devil is a Part-timer The Devil Lady The disasterous life of saiki k (saiki kusuo no Sai Nan) The End of Evangelion (movie) the Promised Neverland The Twelve Kingdoms Tiger & Bunny Tokimeki Tonight ToraDora Tsubasa Chronicle Umineko When They Cry Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid Vinland Saga Violet Evergarden Whispered Words (Sasameki Koto) With a Dog AND a Cat, Every Day is Fun Yona of the Dawn Yu Yu Hakusho Yugioh Duel Monster Yuki Yuna is a Hero Yuri Kuma Arashi Yuri On Ice!!! Zoids: Chaotic Century Zombie Land Saga

Non-Anime Animated

Adventure Time Amphibia Animainiacs (Original) Animaniacs (Reboot) Archie's Weird Mysteries As Told By Ginger Barbie Life in The Dreamhouse Batman the Animated Series Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot Big Mouth Bob's Burgers Bojack Horseman Bravest Warriors Captain N: the Game Master Carmen Sandiego (1994) Carmen Sandiego (2019) Castlevania (Netflix) Cats Don't Dance Coco Courage the Cowardly Dog Craig of the Creek Cyber Six Daria Darkwing Duck Dragon Booster Dragons: Riders of Berk DuckTales (2017) Exo-Squad Fern Gully Fillmore! Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Futurama Gargoyles Glitch Techs Godzilla: The Animated Series Green Lantern the Animated Series Hedgehog in the Fog (Ёжик в тумане) Hey Arnold Hilda Infinity Train Iron Giant JEM Kim Possible Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts Legend of Zelda animated series (1989) Legion of Super-Heroes Liberty Kids Magical Girl Friendship Squad Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart The Legend of Korra Moominvalley Motorcity My Little Pony (Classic, NOT FiM) My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks Onyx Equinox Over the Garden Wall Over the Moon (2020 film) Owl House Primal Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure Redwall Rise of the TMNT Roco's Modern Life Rugrats RWBY Samurai Jack Seis Manos She-Ra (1985) She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018) Sonic Boom Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse Star vs. the Forces of Evil Strange Magic Super Mario Brothers Super Show Superman: The Animated Series Teen Titans The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo The Animals of Farthing Wood The Dragon Prince The Hollow The Legend of Tarzan (TV series) The Magic School Bus (1994) The Mysterious Cities of Gold The Pirate Fairy (Disney Fairies) The Powerpuff Girls (1998) The Real Ghostbusters Thundercats (1985) Thundercats (2011) Transformers: Prime Tuca and Bertie Twelve Forever Undone Venture Bros Wakko's Wish Wakfu Wander Over Yonder We Bare Bears (TV) Winx Club Wreck-It Ralph (2012) X-Men Evolution X-Men: The Animated Series Xiaolin Showdown

Live Action

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea 28 Days Later 3rd Rock from the Sun A Series of Unfortunate Events American Horror Story: Asylum Babysitter's Club (2020) Batman (the old Adam West version) Better Call Saul Black Mirror Blackbeard's Ghost (Peter Ustinov) Boston Legal Boy Meets World Boys Over Flowers Bromance (Taiwanese tv series) Brooklyn 99 Buffy the Vampire Slayer Cadfael Cagney and Lacey Charmed (2018) Chopped Cleopatra 2525 Cloak and Dagger Clue (1985) Community Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Dead Like Me Dead To Me Deadwood Death Note (Netflix) Derry Girls Dimension 20 - The Unsleeping City Doctor Who (New) Doom Patrol Dracula's Daughter (1936) Escape to the Chateau Farscape Fingersmith Galavant Godzilla (2014) Gokushufudo (2020 Japanese TV drama) Golden Girls Good Omens H20: Just Add Water (somewhere in seasons 1-2) Happy New Year Harley Quinn movie Hateblog a REALLY STRAIGHT soap opera. Haunting of Bly Manor His Dark Materials (HBO series) Holes Hot Fuzz House Inception Inside No. 9 Iron Chef America Joan of Arcadia Julie and the Phantoms Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle Kamen Rider Build Kamen Rider Ex-Aid Kamen Rider Fourze Killing Eve Knives Out Letterkenny Leverage Little Women (2019) Lucifer Matlock Majisuka Gakuen MASH Merlin Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol Money Talks (1997 film) Motherland: Fort Salem Murder She Wrote Mythbusters Nailed It! Never Have I Ever Once Upon a Time Orphan Black Pen 15 PGSM Pi (1998) Picnic at Hanging Rock (2018) Pride and Prejudice: A New Musical Puppy Bowl Pushing Daisies Rome (hateblog) Russian Doll Sabrina Sense8 Sera Myu: Un Nouveau Voyage Shameless Sierra Burgess Smallville So Weird Star Trek: TOS (or their films) Star Trek: The Next Generation Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Star Trek: Voyager Stargate Atlantis Suckerpunch Supernatural (out of context speedrun the last three episodes) Sweetheart Switched at Birth Tall Girl Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles The Addams Family (1964) The Big Flower Fight The Booth at the End The Bride With White Hair The Crown The Fresh Prince of Bel Air The Good Place The Kissing Booth The L Word The Librarians The Magicians The Muppet Show The Pregnancy Pact The Room The Steve Harvey Show The Stranded The Untamed The Witcher The Wolfman (1941) Torchwood Twilight Zone (original) Twin Peaks Ultraman Nexus Umbrella Academy Van Helsing Warehouse 13 Warrior Nun What We Do In The Shadows (tv show) Will & Grace Wynonna Earp X-Men 2: X-Men United Xena: Warrior Princess

Miscellaneous

Alpha Flight #41-62 Anime music dance party, the logistics of which are to be determined! Ask Hot Pocket and/or Mina-pup AskSharknado: Giftening Edition Attempt to make French macaroons Commentary on old Goggles Critical Role Crowdsourced: A Black Mirror-style day where Jetty has to ask what her choices are of the audience for everything! I give you a menu, you decide what she has for dinner? What does she wear? Does she walk on the track or do the eliptical? Does she go to a movie with Doc or play a video game with Mike? Can be done alongside other stuff. Doodle Day Dramatic readings of fan fiction! Drunk History (or whatever your favorite subject would be) with Jet Wolf! Drunk Sailor Moon Exorcising Closet Ghost Fic Prompts Day Figuarts Day! (Not specifically freeing anyone, just various fun poses and such) Guess the plot of a show based on its opening Her Shim-Cheong (manhwa) House of X/Powers of X Hubby's Choice IDW Jem comics liveblog Intros Only (watch show openings, give commentary, guess what show is about, etc.) Jackbox Games Jet Wolf paints along with Bob Ross Jet and Doc go to Heaven/Hell, respectively: Jet gets to write reams of words about the awesomeness of Rei Hino and Doc has to read all of them and say ONLY NICE THINGS. Jet does Tiktok dances Jet Liveblogs Holligay: A Nature Documentary Jet Ranks Sailor Moon Image Songs Jet Reads Goosebumps Jet Reads Legion of Super-Heroes Jet redesigns the Wolf and Gay offices! Jet shows off her knitting Jet Wolf attempts to recreate scenes from Sailor Moon with Mina and Hot Pocket and/or whatever is in the house Jet Wolf reacts to Sailor Moon tiktoks (in blog form) Jet Wolf reads Love and Rockets. Jet Wolf reads the Jem comics by IDW Jet Wolf reviews her old top 100 Sailor Moon moments list Jet Wolf talks about Archie Comics Jet Wolf talks about each cel she owns and why they are so awesome. Jet Wolf writes Poetry Jet Wolf's Top 5's Jet, Hubby and/or family play board games Jetty Rants and Raves Jet Wolf tries to crack the Gravity Falls Codes Kiwi Blitz on Hiveworks Let's Play on Webtoon Liveblog: Favorite X-Men comic book arcs Livestream Pathfinder one-shot LOONA (Collection of music videos with an ongoing story/universe about GIRLS who are FRIENDS and SAVE THE UNIVERSE) Lore Olympus on Webtoon Mike regales us with "the story of your love" while you get increasingly embarrassed Mina and Hot Pocket day - liveblog like a nature documentary Mister Tsukino Does His Taxes and the Household Budget (Sailor Moon fan comic by Shadowjack) Nancy Drew: Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake Not So Shoujo Love Story on Webtoon Pitch Mishaps for Untitled Senshi Game (it is a lovely day in Juuban, and you are a Horrible Minako.) Pitching hubby's favorite media at (readers/holligay/jill/momigay) Playing with dolls (because how could 3 women not have any dolls between them) Re-Take By Studio Kimigabuchi (All Ages Version) Real or Fake Anime (people submit descriptions of anime you guess if it is an anime that actually exists or not) Reviewing succulents Scavenger hunt! Not entirely sure how it would work, maybe folks could send in asks for you to show things like your favorite Rei Hino object, or the thing that's been with you the longest, etc. sewing/knitting/baking tutorial Share or rant about a Roman history topic Sleepless Domain on Hiveworks Talking to Docholligay 2: Doc Harder (basically you talking to Doc's future womb evictee while still in there and telling them stuff like say the greatness of Rei Hino) The Monster Duchess and Contract Princess (manhwa) The Polar Bear Plunge--I take Jetty to our finest Lake Elmo in January, and she jumps in! Note: THIS IS NOT DANGEROUS, WORRYWARTS. I'll bring a life preserver, I've done it before, and I would do it with her if I weren't pregnant. The Senshi Helpline--The Senshi, taking your advice questions, here and now! The World of Moral Reversal Virtual knitting/crafting circle! Let us craft and chat with you! What-If #24 Gwen Stacy Lived Worm the web serial Write an explanation for a drawing we send you! Yuri Hell's Kitchen