#so really as long as the second loaf is shaped

[we-re-always-alright]

made double of the fermented poolish for my loaves of bread so the goal is to try and get them both baked this morning before I have to go get my nails done HOWEVER I also have back to back meetings so it’s going to be a bit funky

[copperbadge]

Hey Sam!

I recently purchased a second hand bread machine, and I know you like to bake! (I got King Authur's Flour per your recommendation.) I was wondering if you have any recipes or tips and tricks for bread making? I don't have an oven in my apartment so sadly that's not an option for me 😔

Without an oven, a bread machine is a great acquisition! You can often also make rice, oatmeal, and sometimes even yogurt in a bread machine, depending on the model. If the machine didn't come with a manual, try googling for it, or googling the model name and "recipes" to see what else people have done with theirs. It's great you bought KA flour, because materials really do make the difference -- good flour and yeast are key. Freshness can matter with yeast so buy something with a long expiration date, and keep the yeast somewhere cool, dry, and dark.

For bread making, there are two main things I always think about: you are nurturing yeast, which is a living thing, and you're forming gluten (presumably, if you're not cooking gluten-free). The yeast wants to have food and be warm, so you want to use pretty warm water (most machine recipes say something very specific like 115-125F or similar, but it should be warmer than your skin and not so hot it hurts your skin, that's how I measure it). Sugar helps feed yeast, so often there will be sugar or honey in a recipe even if it's not a "sweet" bread. If you're using older yeast, adding a bit more sugar can help it work. Meanwhile, protein helps support gluten formation, so milk or milk powder are common ingredients often listed as optional but which are very helpful. If you have a stove, you can even make milk bread, which is one of the best, fluffiest kinds -- google "hokkaido milk bread" for recipes. Nearly any bread recipe that doesn't have a super long rise or need to be shaped can be made in a bread machine, but often (especially on the King Arthur site) a recipe will include special tips for adjusting it for a machine.

Specifically for bread machines, the bread can stay warm in the pan for a bit, but the longer it cools in the pan the more likely it is to form condensation, which leads to moisture on the surface of the crust in contact with the metal. That dries out pretty quickly if you leave it out for a bit, but moisture reduces the shelf life of homemade bread a LOT (moisture feeds mold). Your best bet is to remove the bread as soon as it's cool enough to handle -- it used to be the hardest part of making machine bread was getting it out of the damn pan, but they may have gotten better since I had one -- and wrap it in a tea towel or leave it out to cool completely before putting it in a package of some kind. I used to keep mine in the fridge because without preservatives it can mold quickly. These days most breads I bake included a few spoonfuls of King Arthur Bread and Cake Enhancer, which is a mild preservative and worth every penny -- it makes the bread softer, with better crumb, and it stays good for longer. There are other brands you can get cheaper on amazon, probably, but I've only ever used KA so I can't speak to their efficacy. It's generally not sold in stores.

Okay, two last things: one, I always put the bread machine on the floor when I was making bread in it, because it rocks back and forth a bit when kneading and I have had machines "walk" off the counter before. The floor or a wide table are best. Two, bread is difficult and even a machine for making it isn't perfect, so you may fail when you first start out. Even if you don't fail the first time, you may not get a good loaf at some point, and that's the nature of yeasted breads. Don't take it personally -- and don't give up! After a while, you start to notice if something seems "off" but it takes time to learn that sense.

Happy baking! I hope it goes well for you.

[restlessmaknae]

enchanted [mark lee]

You have one goal when you apply for the yearly contest to get into the most prestigious wizardry school: to win just like your parents did 25 years ago. However, bumping into prince Minhyung who seems to remember you from your yearly visits to the palace seems to shake up your plan a little bit.

➳ Characters: prince!Mark x female!reader/you

➳ Genre: fantasy, fluff, magical kingdom au, magical contest au, magical school au

➳ Words: 19.7k

➳ Warning: mentions of injuries, burn marks, pressuring parents

➳ A/N: This story is dedicated to @dat-town. Merry Christmas, dear! ❤️ You've already read my little (?) letter, but really, thank you for everything! I love you so so so much. ❤️

Plus, I've gotten carried away, but this story was inspired by your prompt for the request event: “i’m not blushing” with mark lee

➳ NCT taglist: @s00buwu, @winterbeartaehyungbestboy, @sweetjaemss, @stories-inbetween-the-stars, @squiishymeow, @heyditseeey

You felt the air around you shift. You shifted it, the current leaving goosebumps on the skin of the judges as the temperature in the room dropped. You welcomed the familiar tug in your stomach as you gathered the threads of magic around you, pulling it towards you and taming it to your own will.

First was the change in temperature, then you sent out whooshes of air - towards the shelves, towards the candles on the judges' table, sipping the light from them, leaving the wick bare, then towards the windows, earning crackling noises as if something from outside wanted to come in. It was actually quite true for you were feeding on the energy of air, the oxygen in the room, but it wasn't enough. Not anymore.

A few seconds later, the crackling stopped as the two huge windows of the room flew open violently, and the otherwise peaceful breeze from outside wafted into the room. You held onto it, and it physically felt like holding onto it as if it was a rope and you were pulling it closer. As you sipped more and more air into the room, your body was trying to keep up with more and more energy rushing through you. It was a feeling akin to running - it was both freeing and exhausting at the same time. You pushed yourself more and more until you let everything accumulate in one big tornado in the middle of the room. It danced around like flames of a candle or that sweet treat vendors enjoyed making while children watched in awe as the dessert took form in the shape of a small tornado.

The difficult thing wasn't creating the tornado but rather not let it lose shape and eventually lose control. A wizard's magic didn't lie in its impressive complexity or array of skills, but in the way they could control whatever they possessed. At least, your parents said so. You concentrated on your determination to prove to them how worthy you were to wear the family name, how worthy you were as a female, and channelled it into the tornado in front of you, into gradually narrowing it until it was the size of a loaf of bread. Then, with a whip of your hand, the gust of air disappeared completely.

You didn't really register that you were sweating all throughout your demonstration until you could feel drops of sweat roll down your cheeks. You didn't waver though, you merely let out a long sigh and blew away the stray locks that fell into your eyes.

"Thank you for your demonstration," the woman on the left said. Your parents had told you about her - Kim Taeyeon, a member of the senate of the Four Kingdoms -, said to be able to tame all four elemental magic without any of them overpowering the other, so definitely a rare case. The man on her left was Kim Jungmyeon, a highly praised wizard professor from the Earth Kingdom. There was another man and another woman, but in your state, you couldn't recall their names.

"Thank you so much for the opportunity," you bowed deeply, and when you straightened, you tried to translate their facial expressions, but you couldn't for they masked their emotions perfectly well, no sign of being impressed or being disappointed about your performance either. Maybe it was for the better.

"We shall get back in touch with you within 5 days no matter whether you are chosen or not," professor Kim Junmyeon announced briefly, and that was enough for you to know that it was the end of the first round for you. Somehow, you noticed, the flames were back dancing on the top of the candles as if you had never put them out, and you wondered whether it was his doing.

You thanked them for the information and bid your goodbye. Only when you left the room, did you allow yourself to wipe the sweat off your face. As you walked down the corridor, your features softened, but you steeled them when you turned a corner and walked past the next contestants lining up.

When you had been lining up yourself, you had seen others coming out angry, frustrated, disheartened, and some had even come out crying. Some had come out boasting that they would make it for sure, while others like you had to act as if you weren't debating inside whether your efforts were enough.

To be honest, girls were looked down on when applying either way. Since a part of a woman's magic left her body when she gave birth to a child, some saw women as easily disposable wizard trainees. Some highlighted that it was a waste of time and effort to train them as their magic would lose some of its power upon childbirth, so when it was time for the yearly contest to get into the Four Kingdoms' United School of Applied Elemental Magic, there were always glances thrown around and nasty whispers whenever a girl showed up.

Despite your expectation to receive the same attention as you had done so when you had walked up to the entrance of the institution, no eyes were on you. Everyone was looking behind them, whispers half-muffled as their eyes darted between the corridor and a certain someone at the end of the line. As if they parted around him, you could see clearly who it was when you walked past him.

But he...

"Did he get into trouble?"

"Does he want to prove that he is as great of a wizard as his parents are?"

"Why did he apply though? There are always places reserved for royal children…"

The questions on the other contestants' minds were mirroring your own because you didn't understand either why Lee Minhyung, the golden child of the royal couple in the Air Kingdom was there, lined up for the yearly contest to study at the wizardry school managed by the Four Kingdoms. The Four Kingdoms weren't always so friendly with each other, so the fact that the royal families, the senate and the appointed professors could all work towards training the winners of the contest who would then study there for 2 years before becoming either advisors for their respective kingdom's royal families, consuls in the senate or professors in training at the school was symbolic enough of how big this application was.

On the other hand, the royal children were always excluded from the first round, meaning that they didn't need to apply and demonstrate their abilities in the first round. They were always selected in the 200 contestants who would go onto the second round, and no one questioned why because they supposedly had the best teachers in their own kingdoms and their own families were founders of the school.

So why… why was Lee Minhyung still there?

As the tale goes, the Four Kingdoms of Elemental Magic were once a united kingdom. They were built in a square shape, and there were no borders between them. Wizards in that era were said to have been the most powerful as they had access to all the four elements and they could tame their magic as they wished. There were schools for magic back then as well, but they were more like training schools, not educational institutions with a highly standardised application process. Everyone could reap the benefits of highly trained wizards.

Nonetheless, access to all meant that some took advantage of the situation, and wizards without properly controlled powers or those who felt like they were better than others used their magic to intimidate, hurt and manipulate others. Crime bloomed along the streets of the united kingdom, and it went as far as assassinating the then ruling King, leaving the Queen and her two sons to take control of the situation.

That was when the borders were put it place and the square shaped kingdom was divided into four small squares according to where each element was the most powerful - the Air kingdom with its windy weather and peaceful lowlands, the Earth Kingdom with its rich woods and lush fields, the Fire Kingdom with its majestically overtowering volcano and long nights that forced towns to provide constant light for visibility and the Water Kingdom with its high quality drinking water, mesmerising lakes and bustling seafood markets.

Magic became something to control as children were tested every year to see if they possessed any magic and if they did, what kind, so that they could be put into schools according to their abilities. Soon enough, wizards with the ability to tame all four kinds of magic became more and more rare, and even those were kept close to the royal family or the senate that was put together to combat crime, rebellion and manipulation of one's power in all four kingdoms.

You knew that given the circumstances, it was the best they could do, but you felt like it was unfair to those who didn't have enough money to send their children to a good wizardry school, those who could not afford to move closer to the capital city to make use of their talent but rather had to grind somewhere in a small town to be able to put food on the table each and every day. Not to mention those who wanted to travel and see the different kingdoms as it was prohibited for the common people to visit another kingdom but their own.

The gap between the rich and poor widened, and everyone was monitored, everyone was administered in order to avoid repeating the past. Vendors could only bring their products to the borders where the border officials took them and gave them a predetermined sum of money, families were torn apart due to the implemented borders, and the four kingdoms appointed the area on the border of all four kingdoms where once the capital of the United Kingdom had been ‘the Circle’. The Circle gave home to the newly built senate building, the council buildings for each kingdom to discuss matters between them when there was no need to include the senate, the newly built Four Kingdoms' United School of Applied Elemental Magic where each element could be well studied and practised as the magic was still the most powerful there, and the homes of those regularly staying and working in the Circle.

One of the reasons you applied for the school's yearly contest was because you had ideas how to change the current system, and as a 20-year old person, let alone a girl, you had no voice. Even if your parents were both parts of the senate representing the Air Kingdom, they didn't want to listen to you. They always said that this would be too costly, that would be too risky, so ultimately, nothing changed. The other reason was to prove to them that you were worthy, that you could be as powerful as them, both selected as part of the final winners in the contest 25 years ago.

"I've heard that this year, there were more than 500 applicants," your mother stated matter-of-factly over breakfast on the day you were supposed to be notified of your result. "And prince Minhyung was one of them. I definitely didn't see that coming from the royal couple, sending their child to the first round like that," she continued, her eyebrows furrowed in disbelief. Not that you had any say in applying because despite the fact that you had wanted to apply yourself, you knew all too well that your parents wouldn't have accepted a no as an answer either.

Even if you had gone to a good school in the Air Kingdom, this was different. The fact that there was a contest to get into the Four Kingdoms' United School of Applied Elemental Magic was proof enough that it was a huge deal; learning not just about your own magic but about the others as well. The schools in individual kingdoms weren’t as equipped as the united school, and the professors working there didn’t usually practise magic other than their own kingdom’s because those who did worked elsewhere - mostly somewhere in the Circle.

"Well, it was not against the rules. Their excludement from the first round is a privilege, not a duty," your father added between two spoonfuls of porridge.

"I've heard that the prince wanted to come on his own accord, that his parents didn't know about his decision until the very end," you blurted out, earning two pairs of wide eyes on you. You didn't usually believe the gossip from the streets and markets, but you had nothing else to do since the first round of the contest as you didn't have classes because your parents were sure that you would make it, so you had the past four days off. If you were to be selected, you would have a month-long competition ahead of you with daily classes and practices anyway.

"I doubt that's the truth. That would mean prince Minhyung is rather irresponsible, and that's not what I've heard of him," your mother shook her head as if she was disapproving of the whole situation.

Or rather brave, you wanted to say, but you bit your tongue. You didn't know why you felt the need to defend the prince, but he hardly looked like someone who had been there just to cause trouble and drama. He had looked like he wanted to be there, excited yet slightly nervous at the same time as he had been nibbling on his lower lip, his big doe eyes shining joviantly - he had looked just like everyone else.

Either way, you were about to find out what kind of a person he was because when the letter arrived from the Four Kingdoms' United School of Applied Elemental Magic, you were notified of your successful application and the time you would need to move into the dormitory for the second round.

"As expected of our daughter," your mother put a hand on your shoulder upon the news and gave you a triumphant smile. You weren't sure though whether she looked so proud because she felt like she was the reason for your success or because she was wholeheartedly happy for you. It had been a long time since you had heard genuine congratulations from them. For a long time now, it had always been 'as expected of our daughter', and truthfully, you didn't know how to feel about that.

When the day of your moving arrived, you were rather grateful to leave. After all, it would be the first time you would leave home for more than a few days at a time, and after the last few days of tormenting lectures about controlling your magic, concentrating on your energy levels and keeping out all distractions, you were ready to bolt. It was in a way very helpful to have highly influential wizards as your parents, but more often than not, it seemed like magic was the only thing they could talk about. In their eyes, if you didn't become a wizard like them, you would be a nobody.

No wonder you didn't shed tears like some others when bidding goodbye to your parents at the entrance of the school. You had to go through a couple of people with a couple of questions before you were given directions to your dormitory room and a key. The wizardry school had three main buildings: one for classes and training with specifically crafted walls and windows, some sound-proof, fire and water-proof while others budding with green spaces and individually designed structures to mimic slippery hills, sweep mountain hills and such fields to prepare you for possible battlefields; the second one for socialising including the dormitory with three floors of rooms, common areas and a grande canteen, and the third one for everything else: the teachers’ offices, an infirmary, storage rooms and a small shop where you could buy supplies for classes as well as little treats for yourself if you were still hungry after the meals in the canteen.

Knowing where to go and how equipped the school was due to your parents working in the Circle came in handy on the first day when assisting teachers and volunteering students were hustling and bustling with the administration rather than walking you to your rooms, so you took it upon yourself to find your room with the help of the signs indicating the different floors.

Realistically, you knew that housing 200 youngsters for a week wouldn't mean a room on your own even if you were to have your own room during your studies at the school if you were selected in the final, but you were still surprised to find two girls already in your room when you arrived.

"Oh, you must be from the Air Kingdom. The air around you is literally different," the girl who introduced herself as Dayoung mentioned as she made room for you to put down your baggage on the shared desk. She had long, strawberry-blonde hair and an almond-shaped face with a friendly, almost teasing smile and a laid back vibe.

"Or I'm just stern," you shrugged your shoulders, and they took your joke well as they both burst into laughter. Wizards from the Air Kingdom were said to be intimidating and strict, but not in the rebellious, wild way like those from the Fire Kingdom, but rather in a cold, unfriendly way.

"They say we're totally weirdos, so don't worry," Yoojung added joyfully after letting you know that they were both from the Fire Kingdom. They didn't go to school together, but their parents knew each other, so they had become quite the friends over the past few years. It was amusing to look at them as a pair - Dayoung with her blonde hair and Yoojung with her dark brown hair, the latter shorter by at least a head -, but they seemed like really good friends.

"Do you know anyone else coming from the Air Kingdom?"

"Uhmm..." You wondered out loud upon hearing Yoojung's question. You didn't have a lot of friends because of your strict training schedule, not to mention your parents telling you to focus on making connections with important people rather than simply friends. Needless to say, you couldn't care less, but you didn't even have a lot of opportunities to make friends, so you knew of those mostly whom your parents told you about. "There are two boys who went to the same school with me, and they've been accepted as far as I know...Prince Minhyung is coming, too," you listed, though the latter was obvious while the former boys they couldn't know about. Yohan and Yongha were both pretty talented and chill back at school, so you didn't think they would make any trouble.

"Oooh the royal kids," cooed Dayoung, and exchanged a glance with Yoojung.

"Did I miss something?"

"Oh, it's nothing," Yoojung protested with heavy hand gestures at the same time as Dayoung hollered: "Oh yeah, I've got a story for you."

It turned out after a little bit of bickering that Dayoung and Yoojung were both coming into the dormitory building at the same time as prince Hendery - from the Water Kingdom - and his so-called best friend Xiaojun did so, and Dayoung could swear that the prince had his eyes locked on Yoojung from the moment they met whereas the girl in question told her that she was simply being delusional. You could listen to their stories and bickering for hours, you felt, but then a boy showed up at your door, and blinked around, confused.

"Uhmmm.... I guess I got lost?" The boy, all raven-hair, boyish features and big doe eyes said, and for a moment, he seemed like a boy you could see on market days running between the different stalls, not the prince from your own kingdom.

You could already see Dayoung opening her mouth - to probably question if he was the so-called prince Minhyung -, so you saved everyone from the embarrassment and asked:

"Which room were you assigned to?"

"Third floor, fifth room to the left... or maybe it was the right?" He giggled nervously as the question hit him and scratched his neck like a sheepish boy. It was so in contrast to what you had heard about him - the golden child of the royal family, talented in everything from magic to public speaking and horse riding, in training to become one of the best wizards in his kingdom - that you felt your lips curl upwards in amusement.

"The boys' rooms are in the right wing as far as I know," you shared with him, and Dayoung agreed, telling a whole story about a boy named Seunghun who was in front of her in the line, and who was handsome by the way, and who was supposed to be on the third floor as well and in the right wing.

"Oh, okay, thank you," he bobbed his head in gratitude, then opened his mouth to say something only to close it a bit later. You all looked at him, puzzled, before he managed to speak up again.

"Haven't we met before?"

The question was directed at you, and both girls turned their heads towards you, eyes hungry for a story. You blinked at him, bewildered by both the fact that he remembered you and that he asked about it in front of others.

"My parents are members of the consul in the Air Kingdom and members of the senate. We give our blessings to the kingdom each year at the Festival of Light and Air," you told him, and even though he could have lost count of all the different faces, a hint of surprise crossed his eyes.

"Oh, I remember! Your parents always said that we're the same age. No wonder you're here," he articulated, totally in awe, his eyes lighting up.

You could see from the corner of your eyes that the girls were smirking beside you, but you didn't dare to look their way. You were glad that Minhyung pulled himself together quickly, and cleared his throat to bid his goodbye.

"Right wing then, thank you. See you around!" He smiled radiantly before turning around and leaving. There was a moment of silence before the room erupted with noise. You had to close the door to keep it in, and even though you couldn't say much more about your brief yearly encounters with the prince and his family when you all bowed towards them and said the same words to bless the kingdom, the magic of air and the royal family, you already had a feeling that you would be in good company here.

The first week was exhausting and noisy. It started with an introduction to the professors, a tour of the buildings, and the rules that you must follow (such as not hurting other contestants and not using magic on others, occupying trainings rooms to practise your magic only when a professor approved your request, and going to your rooms before curfew which also prohibited different contestants to sleep at another’s room). There were exactly 200 20-year-old students including the royal heirs, and even though you didn't meet everyone because the classes were held in small groups, meal times were for everyone, so the canteen was full of chattering and bantering.

You usually went to the canteen with Dayoung and Yoojung, but not all of your classes were together. That meant that you had even more to talk about because Yoojung had classes with prince Hendery, and despite the fact that Dayoung wasn't there, she was sure that the prince was all heart eyes for her friend.

You, of course, were teased by them because you attended a class together with prince Minhyung, and you actually talked. You didn't know whether it was because you were the first familiar face he caught sight of, but he asked if he could sit beside you, and you said yes. You didn't talk a lot though, but he seemed pretty grounded for a prince, and he didn't boast about his skills even though he was really good. Due to the fact that your main element was the same - air -, and you were learning how to tame the opposite one - earth -, you shared this class because the second round would be about demonstrating how you could control an opposite element as well as yours.

You could see how serious and focused he was when he was gathering and controlling his magic, but you could also see how easily distracted he was by outside noises. Indeed, the first round was held in silence, but you weren't sure that it would stay that way. After all, out of the 200 students, only 100 could pass the second round, more or less 25 from each kingdom. After that, 80 out of 100 would go on, and then the last two rounds’ numbers of winners wouldn’t be based on a specific number, but rather the number of students who fulfil the given challenges, so it could be 20 or all 80, but usually the average number of winners were around 30-40 each year.

It was a rule to give equal chances to all the four kingdoms, but it wouldn't be realistic to always stick to a predetermined number of students who could pass from each kingdom because there might be better students in a particular one and less gifted ones in another one.

However, having to calculate with around 25 students passing in your own kingdom's group made you feel nervous when the day of the second round arrived, and you were all waiting for your turn, gathered together in the canteen.

"How are you feeling?" Prince Minhyung inquired with his warm brown eyes widened, and you toned down the urge to push aside his fringe that was falling into his eyes. He was, in a way, a grown-up boy with hints of boyish features, and the duality of him - both his appearance and his personality - made you feel like you were in the wrong. Like you should have not paid too much attention to these details, yet you did.

"A bit nervous," you answered truthfully as you looked around yourself, seeing everyone in your group in the same white, loose pants and long-sleeved shirt. Each group had a different outfit and a different colour - white for Air with loose clothing that the air could sweep into, blue for Water with water-proof, body-fitting clothes, burgundy for Fire with inflammable jackets and sporty pants while Green for Earth with hiking boots and field clothes.

"I don't think you have anything to be nervous about. I'm sure you'll do great," the boy remarked, gentle and supportive as usual, and you didn't know what it was about him, but you wanted to believe him. So you thanked him before inquiring about his side.

"I'm a bit nervous, too. I mean, I've practised it enough, but it's like... it's like a scary test. I've never had to demonstrate my powers to anyone like this after preparing for a week. I've just had classes where I did all these exercises, but they were nothing like this," he elaborated, suddenly a lot more serious than before. You hummed, taking in his words. You didn't know what you had expected for the child of the royal couple to learn, but it wasn't this.

"That's why you've applied? To push your boundaries?" You guessed tentatively because you had no idea whether that was a button you could push or not. All kinds of rumours had been going around about why prince Minhyung was there in the first place, but you hadn't asked about his reason in the past week. Truthfully, you hadn't felt like asking about it.

On the other hand, the boy's features softened upon your question, and his eyes lit up, twinkling with something akin to gratitude.

"Yeah, exactly. I felt like my teachers went easy on me just because I am the heir to the throne, and I wanted to do it like everyone else from the start. Plus, I don't think it's fair that you have to apply for the first round and royal children don't. I have nothing to do with my ancestors' decision from a hundred years ago," he stated firmly, and now you could see that rebellious side of him that you hadn't caught on the day of the first round. You could see the fire in his eyes and hear the determination in his voice. Maybe it was due to all those lessons about public speaking, but you had a feeling that he could do everything he put his mind to just by the way he worded himself.

"Well, I know some people who believe that you did the right thing," you shared with a small smile, dissolving the solemnity in the air. The boy smiled back at you, and it felt like a gentle breeze swaying a field of poppies when he did so - so soothing, so reassuring.

"Thanks," he mumbled rather coyly, and you could watch this sight for so long, but your name was called, so you had to go.

With one last glance in the prince's direction, you headed towards one of the training fields outside.

After the usual formalities and rules of the demonstration, you did what you had done last time, but pulled the energy of nature around you just as well. Fallen leaves and trunks were dancing in the tornado you created until you let them touch the floor gently as if nothing had happened. Then, you pushed a current of air into the ground, so hard that it pierced through the surface, leaving a small hole in front of you. A hole, that once you let go of the air's energy, you mended with the energy of nature at your feet. It was still more exhausting to use it and recognise the pull of earth rather than the pull of air, but you had learned how to begin to tame each elemental magic before, at least the gist of it, so now you focused on deepening that knowledge. And it seemed to pay off as the ground beneath you mended itself, leaving no ghost of a crack behind to let anyone think that it had opened up before.

"Thank you very much for your demonstration, Miss Y/N. Please, wait for the end of the second round to get to know about your result," one of your professors who was a part of the judges announced, and you nodded, thanking them for the opportunity.

There was a tremble in your legs and a prickling feeling in your hands when you stepped inside the building again. You tried to shake it off, but it must have been the thrill of it all because the feeling faded only when you managed to calm the crazy beating of your heart. It also helped that prince Minhyung finished soon afterwards, so you could share your experiences in the hall where all those who had already finished gathered together. Dayoung and Yoojung also arrived a bit later, and you guessed that the so-called prince Hendery and his friend did too because prince Minhyung seemed to know him, and Dayoung kept giving her friend those googly eyes.

The rest of the waiting went by fast with more and more students accumulating around your little group, and soon enough, the representatives of the judges announced the results.

You realised how different it was when you had received the results through letters compared to now when the names of those who passed were called out. You squealed when Dayoung's and Yoojung's names were read out, and you gave prince Minhyung a wide, bright smile when his was, too. Then, there was Seunghun from the Fire Kingdom, Serim from the Water Kingdom, Yeosang from the Earth Kingdom and...

"Y/N from the Air Kingdom!"

You could feel your stomach drop in relief when your name was called, and you were embraced by both Yoojung and Dayoung at the same time, so much that you almost didn't even notice prince Minhyung's supportive little smile directed at you. Just almost though.

With the announcement of the selected ones, the theme of the third round was also announced. You would need to demonstrate your current ability of controlling three different elemental powers - so a stepping stone from the second round -, but this time, you couldn't prepare your own demonstration, you had to do what the judges would ask you on the spot. It would be both nerve-wracking and reassuring because they would ask more or less the same set of exercises from those who learned how to tame the same three elemental powers, so it would be easier to compare the students. At the same time, you were afraid that you wouldn't understand their request or it would be totally out of your league, and you would fail miserably. The thing is, even though Dayoung's brother had been a contestant two years ago, they could strictly not talk about the content of the contest, plus they were supposed to change up the structure a little bit every now and then, so you had no idea what to expect.

"I'm saying, we should focus on our classes and making memories rather than worrying about the end result," Hendery chattered at the canteen during lunch when he heard your worried words.

During the week and with the diminishing number of people, your little group of Dayoung, Yoojung, Minhyung, Hendery, Xiaojun and you had become quite solidified. The princes also asked you to call them by their names instead of their title since you were friends now. Though seeing Hendery and Yoojung's friendly bickering, you also thought that they might not have been just friends much to Dayoung's joy.

"If I were you, I wouldn't worry either. All royal kids are still in the contest," Yoojung pointed out rather frustrated, but it was because she had messed up her demonstration during the second round, and she had been down ever since.

Truthfully, you could totally understand her. If you wanted to be honest, you were terrified of dropping out - not because it would hurt your ego, but because you didn’t know how you would face your parents afterwards. You knew that Yoojung’s father was teaching magic at a school in the Fire Kingdom while her mother was part of their consul, so she had the same fears as you. Despite passing the second round, she had received a blow to her self-esteem, and even though you and Dayoung had tried to cheer her up, she hadn’t yet regained her usual cheeriness.

The air around you froze for a moment, and despite not mentioning your different backgrounds in such a bad light before, it was true that the royal applicants usually made it to the last two rounds safe and sound. You didn't want to jump to conclusions because your own parents were rather influential, and they were a part of the senate who managed the school, but you wouldn't be surprised if you weren't treated equally. After all, that first round exemption privilege was also not a thing of the past.

"You should have just said that my charms are irresistible, that's why I'm still here," Hendery shrugged with a teasing grin, and slightly nudged Yoojung's shoulder with his own. It could be seen how the girl's features softened a bit, but she said nothing before turning back to her food.

The slightly tense atmosphere was lingering in the air for the next few days, and Yoojung was still not back to her usual self. So when she didn’t come back to your shared room after classes one day, you decided to look for her in your dormitory building while Dayoung was looking for her in the canteen, the infirmary and such.

The dormitory had a tower on top, one that was surrounded by a circular terrace from where one could see the whole Circle. You liked to come up to calm your nerves, so that was the first palace that came to mind, and as you took the steps to the top one after another, you wondered if you would be like her if you messed up during a round. It’s not like it was a matter of life and death, but you knew how much pressure influential parents could place on their children - as if one single mistake or faltering weren’t your own, but it was a dismay to your whole family.

When you reached the top, you were about to reach for the doorknob when you caught sight of Yoojung and Hendery talking on the terrace through the transparent glass door. They were standing close to each other, and when you looked closer, you realised that Hendery was fumbling with his hands as if he wasn’t sure what to do with them, but he kept reaching towards the girl who seemed to be oblivious to that as her eyes were unfocused on anything in particular - she was just staring ahead of herself.

Knowing that Hendery was a good guy, and that your friend was in good hands, you decided to go against interfering, and descended down the stairs. You reached the bottom and you were about to turn the corner when you quite literally bumped into someone.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” you mumbled apologetically even before it could settle in who he was. When your eyes found the prince’s own shining orbs, you merely let out a giggle.

“Me too,” Minhyung added with a nervous scratch of his neck. He blinked at you as if he didn’t know what to say, and you noted that his eyes were exceptionally bright that day, twinkling vividly surrounded by the light of the corridor.

“Were you headed for the terrace?” You inquired just in case, and he nodded, albeit a bit timid. “Yoojung and Hendery are there, and they seemed to be having a moment, so I didn’t want to interrupt them.”

“Oh cool, great! I mean… it’s cool that they are there because I was just about to look for Hendery because he didn’t say where he went. But it’s also cool that they are there together. They seem to get along well.”

You could only agree with him, but it was rather adorable how he was tumbling upon his words even though he wasn’t the one in question who was having a moment. So why was his face getting redder and redder? Was it still the little bump’s aftermath?

“Yeah, I think so, too. Yoojung seems to like him.”

“As in like like him?” The boy’s eyes widened to double their size, his jaw hanging slightly. You bobbed your head, finding his bewilderment rather funny. “Oh my gosh, I think he likes her like that too, but he’s intimidated by her, so he doesn’t want to say anything. It’s like… you know… like… how there are some guys who are all cool and casual, but when they have a girl they like, they become different. It’s that vibe for me.”

The way Minhyung blabbered with wild hand gestures was quite cute, but the more he talked, the more he seemed to get carried away with his words, and in the end, you didn’t even know how you ended up getting to know stories about one of his palace guards’ love stories (a young man named Johnny who seemed to flirt with anyone and everyone), but there you were, listening to him with his lively intonations, watching his eyes shine and lit up whenever you reacted to his words, and it was just too surreal.

You were talking to a prince after all, but he was talking about the people around him at the palace as if they had been his neighbours. Maybe that’s why you enjoyed his company so much: apart from the warmth that he spread, he was a very down-to-earth person who didn’t judge anyone by their social status, but rather by their personality. Not all royalty were like that. One of the princesses had also joined the competition, and no one seemed to mind that she had not passed the second round because she had looked down on everyone around her.

In the meantime, you moved from the bottom of the stairs to an abandoned couch in one of the common rooms, time passing by quickly beside the boy. He was good at talking, but he was also an excellent listener, and you could always feel that he listened attentively for he always asked questions when he needed clarification or when he was merely curious about your side. This is how your reason for being here came up.

“Partly, I had no choice because of my parents, but I also came here because I wanted to. I feel like there are a couple of things that the Four Kingdoms could change to make magic more accessible for everyone and to regulate borders more efficiently, but my voice can’t be heard just by being my parents’ daughter. So I hope that I can be one of the students who can study at the school in the end, thus I can gain even more knowledge and let my voice be heard when I become a part of the senate or the consul.”

You weren’t afraid to share it with him because it was him after all, but at the same time, when he didn’t respond for a few seconds, the terrifying thought came to mind that your words might have implied that you weren’t happy with the way his parents ruled the kingdom. So you immediately turned to face him, but instead of shock being written on his face, it was actually awe painting his features.

“Wow, that’s so cool!” He blurted out, still a bit awe-struck, when he managed to pull himself together for a proper response. “From what you’ve just said and what I’ve heard from you already, I know that you would be able to make change in our kingdom and our systems,” he said so with a smile that could outdo the sun, and there it was, the warmth that you were speaking about. He radiated this gentle, calm, serene warmth, and it felt like a blessing that you could be a recipient of it.

“Really?” You voiced out, feeling a bit shy because those were big words, and hearing that from a prince - despite him being as humble as ever - meant a lot to you.

“Yeah, really. Absolutely. Totally. 100%,” Minhyung exclaimed, and you let your lips curl upwards as your heart swelled.

And maybe for the first time since you had applied, you could believe that there was someone else who believed in you - not because of your previous achievements like your parents, but genuinely because he knew what was the reason for you being here -, and that was enough reassuring to get you through until the third round.

One of the most difficult things about taming a power other than the one you had been born with was finding the right amount of control. For instance, you, who had come from the Air Kingdom, had a hard time regulating your control over fire - the third of the powers you learned to tame ever since being here - because fire was wild, rough and heavy compared to air. Taming air required a certain tenderness because you needed to know the right time and energy to hold onto it and shape it as you wanted whereas fire was unpredictable and holding onto it didn’t mean that you could hold onto it longer than a few seconds. It could easily blow out of proportion if you weren’t careful, but too little energy meant that you couldn’t keep the fire alive.

That’s why you were so afraid of the third round, and it didn’t help that the judges asked the most fire exercises from you out of the three powers you could be asked to demonstrate that day. It was reasonable though since you had already demonstrated that you could deal with air and earth to the extent that they had prepared you for, but still… the magic of fire still felt so unfamiliar to you, and a wizard was as good as its familiarity with its magic.

Despite your best efforts, you faltered when it came to a ball of fire that you were supposed to put out bit by bit. You had had the most difficult time with it during preparatory classes during the week too, and it didn’t help that it was the last exercise they asked of you. You lost control over the thread of magic, and the fire was put out sooner than you could think about how to resurrect it. There was no way you could save that, and you needed to gulp back a cry of shock when the fire vanished in a blink of an eye.

You could barely hear the judges thanking you for your efforts and asking you to join the others in a separate room. You could barely register your friends’ questions when you caught sight of them in one of the rooms because you were still replaying that moment of failure in your head.

“Don’t worry, I’ve totally messed up my air demonstration, too. I nearly made a judge fly from his chair, but come on, I’m used to fire,” Dayoung tried to reassure you, but if anything, the thought of both you and Dayoung being eliminated from the contest was even worse than just you messing up. Even if you didn’t make it, you would want them to make it, so you weren’t nearly as laid-back as her.

The others had similar experiences, so it seemed that demonstrating exercises that the judges asked of you instead of putting together your own demonstrations posed a challenge, and trying to showcase three types of elemental magic was tough for everyone, especially given that you had only one week to get to know the other two elemental magic types apart from your own one.

However, it was exactly the time limit that made this contest challenging, and that would signal to the judges who would be worthy to study at the school in the future. This whole contest was supposed to mimic how you could be challenged in the future - at the wizardry school and after finishing the 2 years here -, so you knew that you couldn’t always prepare to demonstrate your powers in front of a panel of judges, and you couldn’t expect to pass a physical ability test with flying colours when you weren’t used to using your power while exercising (something that you had every other day ever since being at the school), but it was frustrating to know how little it took to shake you and sway your power.

Little by little, your group assembled, and everyone had similar experiences - messing up exercises, losing control over their power and not being able to finish tasks in time -, so it seemed that it was a challenging round for everyone. Though since you knew that it could only get more difficult after this round as each was a bit more challenging than the previous one, you had to face the fact that the contest wouldn’t be as easy as you had thought before based on the success of the second round.

It felt like a lifetime before the judges panel gathered the remaining 100 contestants to announce the ones who could go on. There were familiar names and not so familiar ones, but your heart heaved a sigh when your friends were called one after one. Minhyung, Hendery, Xiaojun and Yoojung were all given the green light and asked to wait in the next room where the theme of the fourth round would be announced, so you stood back with Dayoung to wait for the rest of the list.

The more names were called, the tighter the knot in your stomach grew, and you felt weak in the knees when there were only 3 more spaces for students left, and both you and Dayoung remained. Out of the 100 contestants, only 80 could pass this time, so you prepared yourself for the worst, mentally preparing a speech to tell your parents after they would send you home.

“Miss Y/N!”

You felt like you were in a daze when your name was called, and you didn’t even have time to reciprocate Dayoung’s supporting words, you were already ushered towards the next room. Yoojung nearly jumped onto you when she saw you, but your little group’s joy didn’t last long because not long after you came in, the door of the room closed, and a blue-haired boy named Yeonjun from the Water Kingdom came in with the judges.

“Where is Dayoung?” Yoojung exclaimed, her eyes still holding hope but leaving room for doubt. You looked around wearily, but there was no way she could have gotten in without either of you noticing, so you had to come to the conclusion that she was… eliminated.

Your heart sank. You realised that ever since you had met the others, you didn’t think of the possibility of you not finishing the contest together. No matter how unrealistic it might have been, you had just not pictured it before, so now coming face-to-face with the fact that Dayoung didn’t make it was more than painful, it stung more than it would have done so if you had prepared yourself for this scenario. Oh, how foolish you had been…

“I appreciate that this was a challenging round for all of you,” one of the judges announced, dragging you out of your stupor. You shook your head, trying to concentrate on his words, but he seemed far away, everything around you seemed far away. “So I would like to congratulate you all even more because you passed the third round,” he continued, and there was a round of applause thundering through the room, but it wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic as after the second round. Only about a third of you were there compared to when you got to the dormitory, and it showed.

“The fourth round will be a physical ability-induced one. Similar to the tests you have every other day during gym classes, you will have to go through an obstacle course that tests both your physical abilities and your magical powers. So I advise you to become really familiar with the obstacle courses that the school offers, if you haven’t already, because one of them will be your demonstration next week,” he paused, letting the words sink in before continuing. “The equipment itself won’t change, but the judges might alter the magical elements a bit according to their own judgement, and you need to pass under the given time limit. More details will be revealed during your first gym classes, but those who can fairly pass under the time limit can move onto the next round, there won’t be a cap on the number of contestants who can proceed this round,” he explained in detail, and there was a murmur going through the crowd of contestants. No one seemed to particularly like the so-called gym classes even if they were supposed to prepare you for a possible magical fight, but to have it as the theme of the next round made it all the more nerve-wrecking.

Not that you could grasp the situation in that moment because you were going through many different emotions all at the same time, and it was similar to taming each different magical element you had practised before - it was difficult to put your hand on the fine line between them as it all seemed like one big mess when you were overcome by all of their energy. You still felt like you were just watching the events unfold from an outsider’s point of view when the crowd was prompted to move back to their rooms, both because you made it and both because Dayoung didn’t.

You had never given much thought to how quickly the losing contestants were dismissed because you had never walked anyone to the gate of the school to bid your farewell.

However, you only had a few hours to help Dayoung pack before the gates would close for the day, and you would need to head back to your dorms. Even though the girl wasn’t as disheartened by her departure as you all were, the atmosphere wasn’t as light as it used to be.

“Win the contest for me!” She made you promise with a wide smile, and all of you - Minhyung, Hendery, Xiaojun and you - nodded fervently. If anything, you would try even harder from now on because you didn’t want to get used to saying goodbye to the friends you made here, and you didn’t want to put the others through this again. “And promise to write to me when you’ll be attending the school, and please, pull a few pranks on Wooyoung for me. That guy annoyed the hell out of me,” she huffed by the end, and her faked annoyance made you crack a little smile. Gosh, days would be less lively without her and her googly eyes at you and Mark as well as at Yoojung and Hendery.

Since visits weren’t allowed between kingdoms, the only way you could contact anyone outside of your own kingdom was through letters. They were also inspected at the borders, but they could be passed through border control, so that was the only way you would be able to communicate with her from now on. However, until the end of the contest, letters weren’t allowed either to minimise the chances of anything getting out about the themes of the rounds, so if you were lucky, you could only connect her again when you made it to study here.

“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of him for you,” Hendery promised with a wink, to which Yoojung almost smacked him because she had been going on about how he should have acted like a prince instead of constantly teasing others (the girl included) and making trouble. Hendery always argued that here with you all at least he could be himself, just a boy, not a prince, and that seemed enough for Yoojung to bite back her response.

“I’ll miss you all, but don’t miss me too much, focus on the contest,” Dayoung warned you jokingly before you all embraced her in a big group hug. One by one, everyone bid their goodbye to her, and when it was your turn, you hugged her tightly once more, but before you would let go, she whispered:

“I’ve wanted to tell you later, but look around yourself every once in a while, Y/N. Someone might be falling in love with you,” she told you, a secretive grin on her face when she leaned back, but before you could ask her whom she meant by that, the guards by the gates notified you that you should say your last words to each other because it was time for curfew.

So you did let go of her, but Dayoung’s words rang in your ears every now and then, and you felt like you might have become a bit paranoid as you were trying to figure out who could like you. You didn’t receive flirtatious glances from boys at the canteen - well, Yeonjun was flirty, but he did give any girl a smirk who walked past him, so he didn’t seem like a likely candidate, and when you met Changbin’s eyes one day, he looked like he would kick you out of the contest sooner than have any romantic feelings for you -, and the only boys who were around most of the time were Hendery, Xiaojun and Minhyung.

You knew Hendery had eyes only for Yoojung, and the girl seemed to slowly realise her own feelings for him, Xiaojun was Xiaojun… and well, there Minhyung whom you thought was cute, warm-hearted and who could make you laugh and smile even after Dayoung’s departure, but he couldn’t be falling in love with you, right? He was a prince after all. Even though princes didn’t have to be with princesses, they should at least marry someone of high rank - a member of the senate, a consul or someone of such importance -, and you weren’t there yet. Even if you were, what were the chances of it working out? Both your parents and his parents seemed to be really strict, so that would most probably not happen.

Plus, ever since a guy provoked Hendery and Minhyung once during lunch, accusing the contest of discrimination because you were still in the contest with the boys (he didn’t seem to know of Dayoung already being eliminated), you wanted to keep your distance a bit. You didn’t need anyone to punch Hendery in the face again over something like that.

“I can’t believe he didn’t fight back,” Yoojung murmured during the following gym class when you were behind the three boys, and they were examining the bruise on their friend’s face. The girl was literally throwing daggers with her own eyes in the direction of Jaeeon who had provoked them, but the boy in question didn’t seem to take note of her glares. He had been given a warning that if something like that happened again, he would be sent home immediately, but that wasn’t enough to calm the petite girl’s nerves.

“You were the one who told him not to cause trouble because he’s a prince. He would have gotten into more trouble if he had punched back,” you reasoned as you moved along with the line, and while it was true that Hendery would have brought more disgrace to his family’s name if he had been the one to throw the punch, you wouldn’t have blamed him either. You were glad though that Xiaojun and Minhyung had been there to keep Jaeon off the prince, so the fight hadn’t escalated, thankfully.

Gym class was tough either way without any added drama because everyone was taking the obstacle courses seriously since none of you knew which one would be used for your testing in the fourth round. The fascinating thing about these obstacle courses wasn’t that they were made up of all these different hurdles, but how they stayed laced with magic. The technique beyond that was confidential, but you doubted that your teachers were working on keeping the magical parts of them alive - flames coming from both sides of a bridge that you were supposed to cross, water licking your feet as you were trying to jump from one rope to the other above a pool of water, a hill partly made of a steep side while the ground was shaking beneath you and such - whilst watching over you. Which meant that either they were enchanted in a way to store the magic in them or… you didn’t really know. That was beyond what you could imagine, and your parents didn’t tell you about such things.

One by one, you were supposed to cross the obstacle courses while using your powers to tame the magical elements or to bend them to support your journey along the way, and while you definitely improved from your first gym class, you still felt so out of control at certain parts. You would have a time limit in the fourth round, and that added pressure to the whole obstacle course, and when your mind was occupied with time ticking by, you couldn’t focus as much as you wanted, and that added more oil to the fire, and it kept repeating in a vicious cycle.

However, since you had witnessed the scene of Hendery being punched in the face and Jeeon provoking the boys because of their social status, you felt this bubbling rage inside of you which actually came in handy when it was your turn for the course that day. You channelled all that frustration and annoyance and bittersweetness into pulling the threads of the magical energies around you, into concentrating on the hindrances at hand, and sending enough power to the specific parts along the way to help keep you going - putting out the flames, tempering down the water beneath your feet, stopping the shaking of the ground and pacifying the wind around you. It worked because you managed to beat everyone’s record so far, but it also resulted in you being exceptionally weary after finishing.

“Oh my god, Y/N! You were on fire!” Yoojung hollered beside you when you made it through the given obstacle course for the day. You tried with a grateful smile, but it turned into more like a wince when you felt surges of pain shoot through your legs. Oh yeah, the all too familiar consequences of the adrenaline rush were kicking in, something that you had not yet gotten used to.

You took a few steps closer to the girl who was holding out a flask of water in your direction, but your legs felt wobbly, and you would have fallen if it had not been for someone catching your arms.

You looked up, half-expecting someone who was less of a stranger, not the boy whom you had been trying to stay away from since yesterday, but your heart betrayed you as it heaved a relieved sigh. It was silly, your brain told you, you only knew Minhyung for almost three weeks, you couldn’t have known him that well, and yet, your heart told you that you would be safe beside him, he got your back. But why? You had been searching for people’s hidden intentions all your life because your parents warned you not to make friends but rather allies because it was a cruel world out there after all, and yet… you could not find a possible hidden intention behind his big doe eyes twinkling and his lips forming the words, his brows furrowed solicitously:

“Are you okay?”

“Y-yeah,” you bobbed your head, your eyes wandering to your arms that were held by Minhyung’s own, safe and sound, steady yet gentle. You were so used to holding yourself up, holding your head above the water, and not accepting anyone’s help like that, that you were dumbfounded as to what to do next, how to put an end to this.

“Get moving, jeez,” someone behind you rumbled, but before you could turn around to see who it was, it was probably that someone who pushed past with their shoulder crashing into yours. You had no time to react, your legs moved forward automatically, yet Minhyung’s didn’t, and you ended up falling down… together. To be precise, you falling onto him, and him holding you up by the waist.

And then, your heart betrayed you yet again as it skipped a beat. Even though your lungs had been on fire just a minute ago, now they were on fire for a different reason, and it was difficult to grasp what it was when all you could see was the depth of his orbs like tiny lakes with clear surfaces yet mysterious bottoms. All the outside noises seemed to fade away, your surroundings numbed as your heart raced alongside his as if the obstacle course had not ended yet.

Pushing aside the confusion regarding your own feelings, the one thing that you noticed and managed to blurt out was:

“You’re blushing,” you noted, your lips slightly parted, and despite having seen him flushed beside you and around you, you somehow felt like it was new… it was different this time.

“I’m not blushing,” the boy objected, his face taking on an even deeper shade.

“You are, dude,” Xiaojun called, and when you recognised his voice, all the hustle bustle of the gym class and all the outside noises came back at you in full force, making you feel dizzy. Somehow, falling onto him seemed almost serene compared to the mess around you.

You were both up to your feet in no time, and despite your friends’ stares and teasing words, you couldn’t concentrate on anything other than the twinkling sensation that the boy’s touch left on your skin - it was as if he had marked you permanently, and you couldn’t get it off yourself.

It wasn’t only the room that you shared with Yoojung that became quieter without Dayoung’s presence, but the halls also became quieter, less lively. As if the walls could talk, students usually kept to themselves, and since you were scattered across different floors, the diminishing number of students seemed more striking. Now, you caught sight of the guards stationed by the entrance to the dormitory instead of being occupied with the conversations with your roommates, and the corridors seemed wider than before.

Everyone seemed tenser than usual, and it wasn’t limited to your little group only. Aside from Jaeeon, there had been a girl who had accused Gahyeon’s senate member parents of bribing the jury and had sent a streak of water at her who had managed to dodge it thanks to her quick reflexes, but the girl in question had only received a warning. You didn’t understand why, but your parents had warned you that it would be tough with all of the contestants wanting to make it to the final, and had told you that there were quite nasty incidents in the past, so the organisers had already seen a lot. That’s why disqualification was only after a warning or after a life-threatening move on a contestant’s side.

You didn’t think too much into it though, not until you were walking back to your room alone after practising for the fourth round, and the fire of the torches on both your left and right was suddenly put out. Since they were always on, it could only mean that someone put them out.

You listened to the approaching steps, trying to put your hand on the direction the sound was coming from, and as you turned around, you caught sight of Jaeeon walking towards you, his silhouette illuminated by the lights that he hadn’t yet put out.

You raised your chin, unwavering in the face of danger, because no matter how much Jaeeon thought that he had the upper hand, you weren’t a fragile little doll either. You felt your fingers prickling with the same kind of electricity it usually did before you unleash your magic, and just as Jaeeon was about to come to a halt a step away from you, you lit up the torches by your side. That much you could already summon with your ability to tame fire.

The guy let out a scoff, borderline amused, his eyebrows elevated slightly. His whole stance screamed hunger, hunger for control, hunger for a challenge, hunger for winning. Even though you weren’t supposed to use magic outside of practices or classes, let alone around others to manipulate the contest, you had already seen instances when it had not mattered, so you knew that the currently empty corridor wasn’t a completely safe space either. You forced yourself to stay calm though as you turned around, ready to get away from him - to ask for another student’s assistance or a guard’s help who could be patrolling the corridors at this time around.

“Are you really running away, little girl?” Jaeeon accused you, the nickname prickling at your skin. The implication behind his words sent an unpleasant chill down your spine, but you reminded yourself that it was exactly what he was trying to do: to trample on your ego, to make you question your worth and bravery. “You don’t have your little prince friends to protect you, and mommy and daddy aren’t here either to save you,” he continued relentlessly as he caught up with you, and even though you didn’t reach the end of the corridor, you were halfway through it.

“A girl like you is only wasting her time here. You should prepare to get married and pop out some kids, not to take someone’s place in a contest like this,” he added when you still didn’t speak up, and you bit down on your tongue to hold back what you were about to say. You knew that he wanted to rile you up, and you didn’t want to give him the satisfaction to see you give in, but still…

“Is it that hard for you to accept that a girl dared to beat all of the boys’ records in an obstacle course yesterday? Do you feel like by spitting this nonsense, I might feel scared and would rather pack my bags and leave?” You threw your questions at him as you threw him a side-glance. He was so annoyingly full of himself and the fact that he felt better only if he could bring others down made you sick to your stomach.

“Besides, a girl can enter the contest just as much as a boy can, and it is not against the rules,” you recited as you kept your gaze ahead of yourself instead of the boy walking beside you, but it was like talking to a wall. Just to prove to you that he didn’t play by the rules, the boy reached for your wrist and made you turn towards him.

“Do you think anyone cares here?”

His words were dripping with anger and frustration, but as to why he directed it towards you - when it wasn’t anyone’s fault that he felt threatened by those better than him even though he was the son of the head of the senate - was beyond you. Accusing you of still being in the contest was like speaking against himself too, but it might have helped him to sleep better at nights.

That didn’t mean that you had to put up with this, especially not when you felt his grip around your wrist getting… warm, and you winced when you felt the searing touch of his. He was using his fire magic on you, the burning sensation coming from his fingers directly, and you knew that he was stronger than you, so you didn’t have a chance to escape his grip, not when his touch was literally burning in the meantime.

Nevertheless, your rage regarding his audacity of using his magic on you was stronger than the pain you had to bear, and you felt a bolt of energy rushing through your body as the window beside you flew open, and you sent a gush of wind towards the boy. At first, it wasn’t strong enough to make him tear away, only to surprise him, but the more currents of air you could collect, the stronger your magic became.

You faintly heard someone calling your name in the distance, but all your focus was on the thread of magic inside and outside of you, and you shut everything else out. You concentrated on gathering all that power and channelling it onto the boy until you managed to push him away, making him fly a few metres before landing on the floor with a loud thud a few metres away from you.

You felt your legs wobble a bit after using all that energy in such a short span of time, and you might have fallen to the ground if someone had not held you up, framing your body. You had no more resistance left in you to push him away, but you were lucky that you didn’t because you got to know who he was a second later.

“Enough!” A thunderous voice could be heard in the silent corridor, and you looked up at the professor who taught you how to use the magic of earth, and who now assisted you to keep your feet on the ground. You saw another professor by his side, a woman who taught you how to train your mind to channel your powers, and they both seemed to be incredibly furious.

“Mr Park, you should have known better than to attack a student yet again. No matter who your father is, he isn’t here to save you, but the director will be waiting for you in his office. If you try with anything else on the way, just know that professor Choi and I were here to have heard how you provoked Miss Y/N. We could see how she tried to protect herself against you when you were breaking the rules yet again.”

“But professor Kim, I think she broke one of my ribs!”

“Speaking up in the right moments and keeping quiet when needed is a forte, Mr Park, and it seems that you do not possess it,” professor Choi warned him and she made her way towards the boy who was tossing on the ground like a kid who was throwing a fit. She had never seemed this intimidating during classes, but now you would have been afraid of her if her glaring eyes had been on you. Jaeeon seemed to get the message though as he got to his feet, though reluctantly and holding onto his side, but before he could even raise his arms, professor Choi snapped her fingers, and the boy’s arms were tied back by the sheer force of… magic.

Your jaw almost dropped, but you were too weary to react properly, so you just blinked at the duo as they were getting further away and eventually got out of sight after turning a corner. You still didn’t manage to pull yourself together when professor Kim started asking questions and ushered you towards the infirmary where a kind lady tended to your burn marks.

Even though you heard about healers who possessed a specific kind of magic that could undo such wounds, you had never met one, yet now you were blinking at your burn marks slowly fading and eventually disappearing.

“I… wow… thank you so much!” You blurted out, still in shock, but even her magic couldn’t erase the phantom feeling of the burning sensation around your wrist. You reckoned that it wouldn’t go away easily.

The lady smiled at you in a friendly way before putting some kind of cream on your skin, then wrapped your wrists in a bandage.

“Keep it on for the next two days, it will help to soothe all layers of the skin because I can only tend to the outer layer. Use the cream twice a day too, in the morning and at night, and it will heal completely afterwards,” she instructed gently, and you bobbed your head fervently as you received a pack of fresh bandages for changing and a tube of the said cream from the healer.

Professor Kim stayed beside you the whole time, but he didn’t say anything while the lady was tending to your wounds. He only spoke up when you were out of the infirmary, and he told you that they would station more guards in the corridors, but you shouldn’t worry because Jaeeon would surely be disqualified for trying to hurt you. Serves him right, you thought to yourself, but truthfully, so much had happened in such a short span of time that you felt like relief was a far away feeling in that moment.

“You were really strong back there. I have not seen your magic in such an intensity before,” professor Kim complimented with a fatherly smile of his, and you bobbed your head gratefully, albeit a bit timidly.

Well, it seemed that when you were in the face of danger, your magic didn’t abandon you or drain you, but rather, it empowered you, and despite the fact that it took Jaeeon to be disqualified, you could now believe that you were here for a reason. That you would be able to make a change while standing up for yourself and standing strong.

Needless to say, everyone got to know about your little incident pretty quickly because Jaeeon was forcefully sent home, and he sure made a hell of a show out of it as he sulked beside the guards who accompanied him through the corridors and outside the gates. The teachers also assembled the students to remind you all that rules had to be kept or else the consequences would follow. In their announcement, they briefly summarised Jaeeon’s wrongdoings including his recent attack which meant that all eyes were on you and your bandaged hand in an instant. Additionally, in order to set an example, they tightened security and stationed more guards along the corridors of the dormitory and even along the corridors to the training rooms.

Not that it mattered when your little group acted as if another Jaeeon could jump out from a drawer and attack you. It didn’t matter that you told them that you were fine, no permanent damage was done, and you could take care of yourself from now on just like you had done so before.

“My parents warned me that this competition would be a matter of life or death for some, so I should brace myself for such atrocities. I didn’t expect anything less,” you told them over dinner that night, and the chopsticks made a loud snapping sound when Yoojung dropped them on the table beside her bowls.

“Yah, why are those words something that you must accept? No contest should ever make you fear for your life. No contest is more important than someone’s life. This is not the war that had broken apart the United Kingdom of Magic,” she fumed like a bull, and honestly, in that moment, you couldn’t tell whether she was furious at you, your parents or at what had happened between you and Jaeeon.

It’s just… you knew that the girl meant well, but you had to give it to your parents that this contest brought the worst out of some people. Some of them really acted like their life depended on whether they made it to the finals or not, and if they had parents like you did (or the opposite, they had nothing, so they had to prove themselves and the others that they could make it despite their disadvantageous background), you would understand them. After all, part of the reason why you were here was because of your own parents.

“Yoojung’s right. You shouldn’t keep it to yourself if you’re frustrated or hurt. Just because these things could happen and might have happened in the past doesn’t mean that they should be the norm, that they shouldn’t change,” Minhyung reasoned once the silence that fell over the five of you didn’t seem that heavy anymore. The boy’s words were accompanied by fervent nods of the other two boys and your roommate as well.

“What can I do about it though? I can only hope no one else tries to attack me again.”

“Let us help you. You might think it’s silly to accompany you everywhere, but we definitely should do so for the time being,” Minhyung continued, his big doe eyes shining brightly. Even though you had tried to keep your distance from him and the other boys since their own incident with Jaeeon, it seemed futile now. You were too weary to push them away, and honestly, after what had happened earlier, you were glad to have allies by your side.

“Yeah, we’ll be like your bodyguards,” Xiaojun hollered as it was the best idea ever, but Hendery laughed his words off as if he had been joking. Xiaojun glared at him, slightly offended, but the other boy didn’t seem to notice.

“You? A bodyguard? Please, even I’m stronger than you.”

“What? No way! In your dreams, maybe.”

“I’m better at the obstacle course than you are, dude. It means either I’m physically stronger than you, or I’m a better wizard,” Hendery flashed him a grin, one of his eyebrows elevated in a teasing line, and Xiaojun could only huff in response since it was the truth.

“Oh god, they are worse than a group of girls,” Yoojung muttered under her nose and averted her eyes from the continuously bickering boys. She prompted you to eat up before your food would get cold, and you nodded. You didn’t have it in you to protest, and with Minhyung’s worried eyes still on you, you didn’t even want to make him more concerned, so you finished your dinner while listening to the bickering of Xiaojun and Hendery, something that managed to lift your mood a little.

As promised, the boys accompanied you and Yoojung to your room, and little did you know, that became a habit of theirs. At least until Xiaojun was sent home because he didn’t manage to finish the obstacle course in time (but he was pretty close, Hendery consoled him, taking back his words that he was better at that than the boy when you bid him your goodbyes by the gates), and so your little group was reduced from 6 to 4 whilst the number of contestants went from 200 to 32 in the past 3 weeks. Only one round was left, but you wondered just how many of you would pass the final round or be sent home.

Just like when Dayoung had departed, Xiaojun’s lack of presence was also palpable. Hendery couldn’t tease anyone since Minhyung wasn’t the kind he could bicker with because he wasn’t one who talked back (even playfully) to others. Minhyung frequently turned his head to the empty seat that was left behind when you sat in the canteen, and Yoojung seemed somewhat more protective over the remaining three of you.

You talked a lot with the girl at nights after you were done with your training for the day and after curfew, more or less serious topics arising in the darkness under the watching eyes of the moon. She was so similar in the way she was raised up, and her fears were also similar to yours, and it felt good to be understood by someone like her. It felt like you were less alone, especially after what had happened with Jaeeon and especially after how you had already needed to say goodbye to two of your friends.

Even though you hadn’t had any friends before, you would consider them your friends now, and it broke your heart that you might not end up making it to the wizardry school together. After Dayoung and Xiaojun had lost in the previous rounds, you didn’t dare to hope for a happy ending for everyone. Not when the next round’s theme was to compete against each other 1-on-1, but you would only know who your opponent would be on the day of the final round. You didn’t want to go against your friends, but there was still a chance that you might do so considering that there were only 32 of you left. So you not only had to worry about having to use your powers on another contestant, but also that it could be Hendery, Yoojung or Minhyung.

No wonder your nerves were more and more frazzled the closer you were to the day of the final round. Hence, you decided to escape to the terrace of the tower two days before the final round, looking over the buildings around - the senate building, the houses provided for the senate and council members, the building with the infantry and the canteen. It was crazy to think that 5 weeks almost passed by since you first entered the contest, and you were about to wrap it up soon.

A month ago, you had entered the gates for the first time that were now covered in the dim light of the torches attached to the walls and guarded by two muscular men, and you had been determined to make it to the wizardry school. Since then, you had managed to make friends, you had encountered enemies who had attacked you, and you had pushed your magic to the limit many times. You had been physically and emotionally weary, and you had wondered many times whether you would be enough, whether your magic and willpower to tame other kinds of elemental magic would be enough to be like your parents - to be a winner of the contest.

A month ago, you had wanted nothing more than to be over with it because you had been sure that you wouldn’t get along well with others, and you had been set on focusing on learning and wielding your magic only. After all, being part of the contest and learning from the highly influential wizards who were chosen as professors were already something that others could only dream of.

Yet now, you wanted nothing more than to stop time and enjoy being around those who had grown close to you because there was no guarantee that two days from now on, you would all stay together. After that, who knew when you would see each other again, especially with those who were from different kingdoms.

“Mind if I join you?” A gentle, all too familiar voice asked, and you snapped your head to look back at the sudden visitor. You were so lost in thought that you hadn’t even realised that someone else had showed up by the door to the terrace.

“Sure,” you replied, still a bit dazed, as you averted your eyes to the scenery in front of you. You heard Minhyung’s footsteps getting closer, and eventually, he sat down beside you.

He just sat there for a while without saying a word, his heart probably as heavy as yours. You couldn’t help but wonder whether he was also bitter about the contest ending because it was such a different experience for him compared to his time at the palace. A few days prior, he and Hendery had discussed how free they felt here because people didn’t watch their every move  here, they weren’t princes and heirs to the throne, they were contestants just like everyone else. Minhyung had also blurted out that this was the first time in his life he felt like he could be completely himself, and you hadn’t stopped thinking about that ever since.

“Are you scared of the final round? Of whom would you be up against?” You wondered out loud, hoping that he didn’t mind your question. Whenever your little group was together, it never came up, although you were sure that each and every one of you was pondering over the same. It was just difficult to bring it up when most probably everyone was anxious about the possibility of going against one another.

Minhyung looked at you, his big doe eyes wide in wonder and contemplation. Some said that the eyes were a replica of one’s magic, and it might have been true in the boy’s case because his eyes were bright like stars in the sky, and the onyx-black colour of them was like an endless, bottomless wonder. His orbs radiated warmth, and when he looked at you like that, it felt as if a gentle breeze embraced you. Yet, there was strength behind that warmth, strength that promised to keep you up, to reach out a hand if you were to fall down, and strength that would be able to move mountains if he wanted to.

“I’m just afraid it would be one of you. Other than that, I’m just sad it’s coming to an end. As much as it was difficult to endure, it gave me many good memories that I wouldn’t have had living at the palace,” he responded, his voice barely above audible. Maybe it was because of the early autumn breeze that danced around you two or because he wasn’t that sure about his answer, but he was quieter than usual. The looming uncertainty of the contest had its effect on everyone.

You bobbed your head nevertheless, taking in his answer. You couldn’t relate to him because you hadn’t grown up in a palace, but your parents had kept you pretty secluded from others apart from sending you to a wizardry school to tame your air element and outside of extra practices with other wizards. You had been told to be wary of everyone because you could never know what their intentions were, and even though you had long realised that your parents were over exaggerating, you had given up on making meaningful connections. That is until you had come here, and it had dawned on you that there was a whole world outside of magic no matter how much magic meant to you.

“If you had the chance, would you want to be reborn as someone else, not as prince Minhyung?” You found yourself asking after a few moments of silence, your own thoughts regarding your experience growing up making you curious about his side.

Minhyung clicked his tongue, unsure what to say for a few moments. Then, he let out a somewhat resigned sigh as he came to a conclusion.

“It’s difficult to say. I’m glad to have the life I have, but it has its restrictions, you know,” he shrugged as if he was fine with it, and you didn’t have a reason to question him. Then, he turned to you with his whole body, his eyes twinkling with mirth. “What about you? Have you never dreamed of being a princess?”

You didn’t know what to say for a moment, you were so shocked by his question. Truthfully, you had never really given yourself the chance to imagine yourself as a princess, maybe because you had always been so occupied with who your own parents were. That’s why you merely let out a wholehearted chuckle upon his question, a joyous sound that was swept up by the autumn breeze passing around.

“Oh god, no,” you shook your head, even just the image of you in all those fancy, tight-fitting dresses making you shiver. That was not a life you wanted for yourself. “I don’t think princesses have it any easier than me. Besides, they have to fake their smiles all the time, and I don’t think I could do that for a long time.”

“Fair point,” Minhyung tilted his head, his facial expressions returning to their previous solemn state, a sign that what he was about to say would be genuine and raw. “I think we have it bad at times too, but princesses…” He shook his head, and you could swear he shivered a bit. “They have it even worse. You too, women, do have it harder. I’ve always thought that might be an exaggeration, but I’ve heard enough here during the contest to know that it’s not,” he confessed, and his words took you aback.

Since he didn’t have a sister and his mother - the Queen - was treated very differently than an ordinary woman living outside of the palace, he might not have known just how difficult being a woman with magic was. There were significantly more men in the kingdoms’ councils and in the senate, and there were more male professors here as well, simply because women were supposed to give birth to children and with that, a part of their magic lived on in their children’s bodies, meaning that people believed that they were less powerful than men. Which wasn’t always the case because mothers with less magic than before could still be more powerful than men who didn’t tend to their magic, but people believed whatever they wanted to believe. Your mother had also fought hard to maintain her position as a senate member and to have the respect of the senate members, but it helped that your father was working in the senate alongside him.

So for him to admit something like that truly showed his maturity and his compassion. You had never heard anyone admit that women had it harder than men, and this confession coming from a man was even more admirable. Not to mention that he was a prince, and the royal families were famous for not acknowledging the faults in the systems they had put in place, no wonder your heart skipped a beat. If he had not already earned your respect, he would have definitely done so now.

“That’s something that I want to change if I have the chance,” you added, knowing that he wouldn’t be appalled by your words, and indeed, he was far from bewildered.

“You will,” he said encouragingly instead, and when your eyes met, your heart leaped. Somehow with him by your side, you could believe it, you could believe that you would be able to bring about a change. “Even if you won’t, I will help you change it,” he promised solicitously, the moonlight painting little streaks of dirty white lines onto his skin. As the prince of the Air Kingdom, he really did look like the epitome of air - you felt like you could breathe beside him, and it was a little easier and lighter to be around him than anyone else, his warmth filling up your lungs and planting little seeds of hope alongside your blood vessels.

More than ever, you wanted nothing more than to stop time and enjoy that moment just a little longer.

The rules were simple for the final round, though they were more like guidelines. You had 15 minutes to win over your opponent. You could use all of the different kinds of elemental magic that you had been learning how to tame, but you couldn’t use other weapons - such as knives or daggers -, so you had to rely on air, earth, fire and water solely. Your aim was to make your opponent say that they surrender, so you will automatically win the fight, not to kill them or hurt them badly. Each contestant’s fighting gear was designed to protect them against serious injuries, so you wore tight-fitted clothes that covered your legs, arms and even your neck. The material gave you enough flexibility to move around and channel your magic, and your training boots gave you enough hold in case you needed to climb or keep your feet on the ground against currents of magic.

On top of that, each pair was put in a training room that had the elements of an obstacle course dotted around - such as steep climbing walls, a pool of water and wooden boards -, and enough space to fight in the middle in case someone didn’t want to make use of the equipment around. Each room was designed to be able to gather all kinds of elemental magic, so no one could be at a disadvantage when calling for the kind of magic they wanted. If a fight got too intense or appeared threatening to a contestant’s life, the judges who would otherwise be stationed by the sides of the rooms would interrupt the game.

The judges also had the right to stop a fight, to disqualify a contestant for breaching the rules, or to select a winner if the time limit was up. In the case of the latter, the judges could choose whether they would give both contestants the chance to win, only one of them or neither of them. That’s why it was better if one could win the fight within the time limit because that would guarantee an immediate pass.

There were 16 pairs in total, and you would be separated into four groups, each group having the same room for themselves with the same set of judges overlooking the fight. If needed, the judges would move the materials inside the room around and clean up after between two rounds to ensure fairness.

Yet, the most important of them all was the final list of pairs that was announced after the judges read the rules out loud yet again - the same set of rules that they had introduced a week prior. The more names were called, the more anxious you became, and even though it seemed that contestants from mostly different kingdoms were put together, it didn’t help to soothe your nerves because only Minhyung could be ruled out. Boys and girls were also up against each other, not only same sex pairs were announced, so there was no way you could predict whom you could be up against.

“Kim Seunghun from the Fire Kingdom will be against Ju Haknyeon from the Earth Kingdom. Bong Jaehyun from the Air Kingdom will be against Kim Bora from the Water Kingdom,” the list went on, and you could feel Yoojung beside you becoming more and more uneasy. She started shifting her weight from her left leg to her right, and you gave her a half-smile when she caught you glancing her way.

“Lee Yongsoo from the Earth Kingdom will be against prince Minhyung from the Air Kingdom.”

You let out a relieved sigh when you heard Minhyung’s name being called, and turned to your left to see the boy doing the same. Yongsoo was a nice guy, not an easy opponent, but at least he wasn’t one of you. One down, three more to worry about.

“Kim Yubin from the Fire Kingdom will be against Y/N from the Air Kingdom,” the announcer listed, and you heaved a sigh. Yubin was pretty intense as most fire wizards were, but you and Yoojung had been helping each other to train, so you knew what weaknesses to look out for and what kind of techniques you could pull on her to make her surrender. You hoped that what you had been practising before wouldn’t leave you within those 15 minutes either. Most important of all: you weren’t up against either of your friends.

“Park Serim from the Earth Kingdom will be against Choi Yewon from the Air Kingdom. Shen Xiaoting from the Fire Kingdom will be against Kim Jibeom from the Water Kingdom. Prince Hendery from the Water Kingdom will be against Choi Yoojung from the Fire Kingdom.”

An audible curse word left Yoojung’s lips in the next moment, followed by some murmurs from the others around. Everyone knew that the four of you had become pretty close, so this exact pairing seemed to be the most interesting one for others so far. The murmurs grew so loud that the announcer had to order them to keep quiet before announcing the rest of the pairs.

You reached for Yoojung’s hand to squeeze it, but the girl didn’t squeeze back. Instead, she stared at something behind you, and when you followed her gaze, you could see that they were staring at each other with Hendery in shock. You could totally understand their bewilderment, and truthfully, you didn’t want to think about who would win the fight. They were both so powerful, so skilled, you could only hope that they would both make it after the time limit would be up. That was the only way both of them would be able to win, and honestly, if you could hope for one thing, it would be that both of them make it.

You had no time to ponder over the possible outcome of the final round as the list of the pairings soon came to an end, and the contestants were ushered in the direction of their appointed rooms. You shared a quick glance with Minhyung who directed an encouraging smile at you, and you tried to smile back, though you had no idea how nervous it might have turned out. In no time, you were separated from all three of them as your group headed in a different direction than theirs, so you could only keep them in their thoughts and hope for the best.

A chill ran down your spine as it dawned on you that this was it; there was nowhere to hide now, no way you could escape your future. Whatever lied ahead of you, however the final round would turn out, it would be over, and it would most definitely seal your fate. It was now or never, and if not for yourself or for your parents, you had to win for your friends. You wanted to enter the wizardry school, and you wanted to study with them. There was no other way it should play out, you had to win.

Within your group, Serim and Yewon were the first ones to go, and you would follow right after. Your opponent, Yubin didn’t say a word to you before you were called inside, but you didn’t mind. You weren’t friends to wish each other good luck, nor were you enemies to spit at each other before you would go against each other. Mentally, you tried to prepare for the adrenaline rush and the intensity of the fight, but nothing could prepare for what was about to come.

Those approximately 15 minutes until the doors to the room flew open again seemed like an eternity, and the more you tried to calm yourself, the more nervous you felt. The anxiety that had been going through your body in the previous rounds couldn’t be compared to how you were feeling now.

You sucked in a deep breath when you walked into the room, and despite the fact that you had been here before, it wasn’t the same. Not the setting, not your state, and definitely not what was at stake.

“Remember, you have 15 minutes. 3 minutes and then 1 minute before the time limit is up, we will let you know that the end of the round is approaching. Now, give it your all! Good luck!” One of your professors introduced and with a flick of his hand, the torches alongside the walls of the training room bolted, lighting up the equipment around, signalling the beginning of the fight.

You looked around briefly, taking in the sources of magic - the pool of water, the fire in the torches, the air sweeping through the ceiling that was open fully and the trees swaying on the other side of the floor-to-ceiling windows -, and the equipment that you could work with - a climbing wall, a ladder made of ropes hanging above the pool of water that connected a wooden bench to a smaller version of a look-out tower. There was a giant oak tree with lowly hanging branches - you had no idea how they managed to summon that inside as you had never seen one in an obstacle course before -, and there was a rotating circular platform with a variety of different sized pillars attached to the platform.

You could see from the corner of your eyes how Yubin took in your surroundings before she made the first move. As expected, she used her own magic to attack with first - throwing a fireball at you - and since you had a feeling she would do so, you swiftly reached out your hand in the direction of the pool and threw a ball of water against the fireball. The two currents of magic collided in the middle.

You gathered the threads of air around you and pushed it towards the girl who stumbled a bit backwards, but not enough to gain an advantage. So you gave it another push, forcing the girl to jump on the circular platform if she didn’t want to be thrown off by it. In the meantime, you made your way towards the tree, trying to gather as much energy from the earth as possible.

Your plan was to shake the ground enough for the girl to keep swaying after she got off the moving platform, but you couldn’t summon enough of its magic in time. Instead, Yubin threw another fireball at you, and it would have hurt you (but not burned your body apart from your face since your protective gear would take care of it) if you hadn’t managed to jump out of its direction.

Afterwards, you kept pushing currents of energy into the other’s direction, but no matter how hard you tried, the girl always stood up after falling down or managed to weaken your magic with her own - sending little drops of water back at you with her air current when you tried to send a rush of water at her or putting out your fire when you tried to burn the wooden bench beneath her feet.

“3 minutes left!” The judges shouted over the noises of your fight, and the knot in your throat became tighter. You had to think of something to use against her and to surprise her with because you might not be able to win against her in time if you didn’t do so.

So instead of attacking, you used the air around you to carry you towards the look-out tower at one end of the ladder with Yubin being on the other end of it. Thinking that you might want to burn down the ladder of ropes between you two, the girl started running towards you, but little did she know, that’s exactly what you wanted her to think so whilst you were summoning the magic of water in the pool beneath her. Despite the fact that water wasn’t your elemental magic, you didn’t need to think whether you could be gentle enough with it because you wanted the opposite: you had to use the water to lash out on her to make her falter, so that she would fall into the water.

“What the…” You could hear Yubin exclaim as the water beneath her started bubbling, and then you reached your hands out to aim your attack at her. The water shot into her and instead of falling down into the pool, the girl was thrown into the air carried by the wild waves before she was thrown off to the ground beside the pool.

You fell to your knees after the rush of magic left your body. It was as if the air was sucked out of your lungs, you had never used so much energy on one spectacle before. You fought for air just as much as Yubin did so, but the girl also coughed up water, her whole body trembling after she was basically thrown off by a huge strike of water.

You felt your heart hammering in your chest, your body screaming for rest, but it couldn’t stop, the adrenaline kept you going. So you got to your feet, holding up your hands to gather more energy, but when Yubin caught sight of your move, she lifted one of her hands, and announced, still panting:

“I surrender.”

The weight of the word didn’t even get to you at first, but when it did, you fell back to your knees - out of joy this time. You did it, you really did it. You won this round, and it meant that you were one of the finalists of the contest.

“Congratulations, Y/N! You won your final round,” one of the judges confirmed, but it felt like he was speaking from somewhere far away, you were still so into the game, your brain was still trying to come up with ideas to win, and that feeling didn’t go away easily.

You still felt jumpy as if you had to be prepared for another attack when you were instructed to leave the room and wait for the remaining two pairs in your group to finish. You didn’t know why, but each contestant was sent into a different room where a nurse tended to their potential bruises, cold bodies, slight concussions and such. You also had a few scratches, but you could barely concentrate on anything other than the fact that you made it.

No wonder time seemed to move differently when you were in such a dazed state, and it felt like only a few minutes passed by, not more than half an hour when you were called in for the wrap-up of the contest. Judged by the number of contestants called into one place, you guessed that they were the winners, and when you spotted Minhyung in the crowd, you smiled so wide, it almost hurt. The boy threw away any insecurities as he rushed to embrace you, warm and tight, before letting go of you when embarrassment hit him (hit both of you), blushing a bit.

“Sorry. I just…”

“No, no, that’s okay,” you waved off his excuses immediately, but your face flushed just as well. You gave him a nervous chuckle, and he did the same, and gosh, the certainty of knowing that you would spend the next 2 years studying at the same wizardry school as him warmed your heart.

After exchanging a few words with Minhyung, you looked around, searching for a familiar pair of fired-up eyes or the familiar messy locks of deep-brown hair. Truthfully, you hoped that Hendery and Yoojung would silently agree on waiting out the 15 minutes without announcing surrender, but judging by the frazzled up state of Yoojung’s, it didn’t exactly go like that.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” the girl held up her hand, frowning, before you could ask how it went, and even though you exchanged a confused glance with Minhyung, you decided not to push the girl for details.

Not that you had time to do so because the judges announced the end of the contest, and congratulated those contestants who were in the room because you were the ones who won the final battle and ultimately made it into the wizardry school. You saw a few familiar faces around - including the muscular Changbin, his equally muscular roommate Serim and their ever so flirtatious friend Yeonjun, the classy Xiaoting, the jokester Seunghun, the fierce Gahyeon, Tzuyu and Yeoreum who shared the room on your left, Yohan who was Xiaojun’s roommate - and there were other girls and boys whose names you couldn’t quite remember, but none of them was Hendery, so you didn’t want to pry until Yoojung was ready to talk about it.

“And now, you can bid goodbye to your peers who didn’t make it, and you can all pack up to head home before coming back here to study with us. See you in 2 weeks, our prosperous students, the future of the Four Kingdoms’ United School of Applied Elemental Magic!”

Loud cheers reverberated from the walls after the judges put an end to the closing ceremony, and you became one with the relieved crowd as you walked down the corridors to go back to your rooms.

The corridors of your future school.

There were a lot of different kinds of goodbyes. For the past weeks, you felt like you had experienced quite a lot of them. It wasn’t the same saying goodbye to your parents with the weight of their expectations on your soldier as saying goodbye to the friends you had made when they had been sent home or now when you were saying goodbye to the school building for 2 weeks before moving in again.

You all - both winners and the ones who lost in the final round - had one day to pack your stuff and leave the school buildings behind. The winners had to pick up their certification regarding their result as well, but it’s not like you were treated differently on your final day. You would have two years either way to get to know the professors, each other and all the little corners and corridors of the buildings that you hadn’t yet been to. You had all the time on your hands now despite the fact that you felt like you had been running against time week after week whilst being in the contest.

Thankfully, no one threw a tantrum, no one made a scene when the final results were out, so the day you had to pack and bid your farewell was spent in peace. Truthfully, you were immensely relieved that you had passed the final round, but you were also weary from using up so much of your energy the day before (and all the other days before), so you didn’t have a lot of energy left to celebrate. Yoojung was the same, she was rather frustrated over the fact that Hendery had purposefully surrendered, or at least, she thought so.

“It’s not like I didn’t go easy on him. I did so because I wanted us to hold onto until the end of the 15 minutes, so the judges would let us pass. Instead, almost right before the time limit was up, the boy shouted that he surrendered when I burned down the tree beside him. That’s it, I didn’t even hurt him seriously! He did it on purpose to let me pass, that dumbass. I was so angry at him because this wasn’t our plan! And when I asked him why he did this, he said that he had his reason. That coward, he didn’t even want to tell me!” She huffed, rolling her eyes in annoyance while packing her clothes into a bag.

Her usual chattering was replaced by her fuming, her wide smiles replaced by deep creases on her forehead. You knew that she wasn’t one to mess with when she was agitated (she was from the Fire Kingdom after all, her stare felt intense and flaming hot when she was mad), so you let her complain all about the boy. The best thing you could do was to not take sides, even when she claimed that she didn’t want Hendery to explain himself afterwards because he had his chance to do so, now she didn’t even want to see him again.

She eventually did so anyway because Minhyung and Hendery seemed to be waiting for you two in the hall, all packed up and ready to go home. Yoojung was stern like a rock beside you the whole time the boys were chatting about how they couldn’t decide whose socks were on the floor because neither of them had packed for themselves, it had been their servants from their respective palace.

As you listened to the boys’ chatter, you realised that Hendery didn’t look regretful, not at all. You assumed that he knew what he had done, and he took responsibility for it, so you didn’t want to question his actions. Instead, you joined in on the conversation when they were talking about their favourite memories from the contest, and eventually, you all walked through the gates of the wizardry school, leaving the school grounds.

You caught sight of your father standing idly by himself not far from the gates and there were carriages stationed around the giant fountain that symbolised the four kingdoms’ appreciation for the school - four different hands reaching for one circle in the middle -, so you guessed that courtiers were sent for the princes as well.

“Oh, I think I’ve gotta go,” Minhyung concluded as he looked around, and he scratched the back of his neck rather sheepishly when he turned back to you all. He did an odd hand shake with Hendery (did they come up with it themselves?), bobbed his head at the still frowning Yoojung, then looked at you, and suddenly, he looked completely unsure of himself, his fingers clenching and unclenching.

“I’ve gotta go, too. See you guys in two weeks!” Yoojung announced abruptly, then turned on her heel without further notice, and started walking further away from you. Hendery looked totally dumbstruck before bolting after the girl without saying a word to you.

You and Minhyung exchanged a glance after you had awoken from your stupor. Then, your lips turned into awkward little curves, the right words not appearing on your tongue. There was so much to say, so much to reminisce about, and yet… You just stood there awkwardly like two little kids.

You couldn’t help but be reminded of his warm hug after the final round, and deep down, you wished that he would do it again. If there was an embodiment of comfort, it would be him, and you were enchanted, under his spell, there was no other way to explain why you were feeling the way you did. You had been close to him before as well - when you had fallen over him during the obstacle course -, but it had been accidental back then. Yet, his hug could not have been accidental the day before.

“So…” The boy unclenched his jaw as he cleared his throat. “We’ll see each other soon, right? You know, take care until then… and try not to miss me too much,” he added belatedly with a wink, then burst into laughter. It sounded like birds chirping on a spring day, so joyful and so carefree. “Gosh, that was really bad, wasn’t it?”

“I mean…” you laughed along with him, this new, borderline flirty side of him blooming flowers of hope in your chest. “It was unexpected, but it wasn’t that bad,” you admitted between little fists of laughter, and your lips settled into a gentle smile. You would miss him, you could feel it in your core, but not being able to see him for two weeks before studying together for two years was a little sacrifice compared to what you would get afterwards.

“You too, take care,” you filled the silence before it could stretch further, and this time, it was you who closed the distance and embraced the boy. It was brief, it was a spur-of-a-moment decision, but you didn’t mind. Not when the boy’s face flushed like a torch afterwards and your heart was doing little somersaults. It was all worth it, and there was no denying anymore that you were enchanted by him.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed this story of mine! Let me know what you think.

If you want to read more stories of mine, let it be for NCT or for other artists, consider signing up for my taglist here.

Masterlist for the abovementioned request event can be found here.

Hope you have a lovely day/night! Take care! ❤️

[heavenlyeros]

£30 clay creature commissions & 20% discount on a second one

✦ animals !

i only put cats & big cats on the flyer because i love cats, but i have made all sorts of creatures, like sheep, cows, prehistoric animals, dragons, an octopus, birds, frogs, reptiles, bunnies, fish, pokemon, bugs and lots more, and i am always excited to try new things too. although i'm behind on updating it with my new projects, my website has photos of other fun stuff i've made ! i promise it's not all cats

✦ what i can do

your pet, fursona, favourite ffxiv minion, beloved pokemon, rarely depicted special interest, science outreach mascot, tabletop game character, and anything else you love long as it is creature shape (rather than people shape). they can have little accessories and fun details both sculpted and painted, but obviously the scale means these details will be somewhat minimalist for safety's sake (like in examples). they can have patterns and colours painted or i can marble and swirl clay of different colours. i can also texture them to appear fluffy or scaly. i love using shimmery and metallic paints - neat for the festive season! if you are gifting, i can add a little card and/or ribbon to your creature and mail it directly to your giftee.

✦ refs

images of the actual creature you would like me to make you are always neat, but it is okay if you do not have those. a little doodle, a moodboard, a picrew, a detailed description are all very good too, and i will ask for any info i need. or if you only have the vibes and would like me to come up with a design that's neat too.

✦ what i cannot do

because these are small and they must also survive in the mail, i cannot add super fine details like long antennae or thin tentacles. i can still add details like these in, but they will be chubby and short. the tails on the flyer are about as thin as they can go. i am also wary of creatures with very delicate details coming out to the sides from the main bulk of the animal (like wings and antlers) because they have a riskier time in the mail. these will also need to be very chubby in order to be sturdy. where viable, i would prefer creatures to remain on all four legs (like meerkat being long instead of tall) and that they are standing, not sitting. this works best with my sculpting technique, but i am happy to branch out where needed. loafing and splooting creatures are very welcome. because they need to be able to stand, biped creatures have to be extra chubby on the bottom. for this reason i tend to not sculpt legs at all (on birds for example), but i can paint them on where it is an option. if the creature really needs legs they can be sitting instead with their legs in front of them or similar. i will do my best to come up with an idea that works for your creature and still allows them to balance fine ! i prefer mixing clay and getting colour variation that way if the creature is not one colour. for paint, i generally use dark blue or dark brown for darker details, and white for lighter details, with other colours used sparingly where that detail is necessary, like eye colour. i am most comfortable with minimal paint, because it means the finish is much sturdier and will not get damaged with regular handling and play. so patterns like multicolour spots or swirls and accessories like hats and scarves will be a different clay colour rather than painted, most of the time.

✦ about your creature

the animals are about 5cm/2 inches long. wolf & ghostling creatures always have beans and x shaped buttholes and other little details like that where applicable. i make the creatures out of polymer clay (usually fimo) and they are painted with acrylic paint and sealed with glossy acrylic varnish. i also use shimmery and colour changing powders that i mix into the paint sometimes to get metallic, pearlescent, and holographic effects. they are waterproof (just don't scrub them) and they are very sturdy. they can survive falls and even being yeeted across the room by my bastard cat. they are weak to things falling on them and to being squashed. the clay has some flexibility but it will eventually snap under pressure. the finish should not rub away at all with handling, long as you do not scratch it. unless they're super stubby, their legs and tails are built on armatures (wood and wire). this makes them extra sturdy and also quite easy to fix should an accident happen. they are full of love. i adore making them. they bring me so much joy. i hope you will feel the same.

✦ timeframe, shipping, and shop policies

your creature will be finished in 1-4 weeks. it depends on how many i have to make and whether i have the right colour clay on hand or must order it online. i will always aim to work as fast as possible. i do not always complete the first orders i received before later orders - i work on them depending on which one i feel is best for me to tackle at the time so that i am always excited and get the best results. i will contact you with updates if you like, and to ask any questions if something is unclear. i love taking wip photos. once your creature is finished, i will ship it out using royal mail. uk orders are shipped tracked and international orders are shipped standard. if your country has notoriously unreliable post service or you'd just feel safer with a tracking number, please let me know and i can invoice you via paypal to upgrade to tracked shipping for around £6. creatures should arrive to anywhere in the world in 2-3 weeks maximum, but of course i cannot guarantee, and varies by time of year and your local carrier. as these are custom orders there are no returns or refunds. if your creature gets lost in the mail i will do my utmost to sort it out with royal mail but i unfortunately cannot refund you out of pocket as i am barely covering my own costs and offering these so i can afford the most basic of necessities. if your creature arrives damaged please get in touch and i will provide advice on how to fix it or a replacement, depending on circumstances.

please message me on here or on ko-fi if you have any questions at all and thank you for checking out my creature commissions <3

[deathmetalunicorn1]

I've been seeing wayyyy tooo many teen reader fics lately here and such I came up with a request I wanted to ask a while ago, how would the family react with teen!reader who steals, like when they were alive, reader had to steal to survive, not too valuable things, but like every now and then to survive, and even now, reader still has this habit and one day reader just breaks down cause reader feels guilty of stealing but can't seem to stop the habit at all

-It was only to survive, that’s what it started off as, stealing only what food and supplies you would need to survive.

-You died young on earth because you had got caught stealing, the adults not caring about the starving and homeless children around them while they lived lavishly and were able to eat with never having to wonder when their next meal was going to be.

-It was only a loaf of bread, one that would have fed you and the three young children you were looking after for at least a few days, but you had been caught, chased down to the little shack you called home, beaten brutally in front of your little siblings who were begging the adults to stop.

-By the time the authorities arrived, you had been beaten so badly that there was no saving you, and the authorities arrested those responsible, and the public outcry was quick, learning that adults gained up on a frail teenager, just trying to survive and feed other abandoned children, killing them, all over a loaf of bread.

-In Valhalla you were skittish and scared when you first arrived, but the valkyries were gentle and patient, seeing the shape you were in, malnourished, dirty, and frail. You had asked about the children, your siblings you had adopted, and Brunnhilde assured you that they were now being well cared for, after the authorities arrived and arrested those who killed you.

-After a long hot bath, you were set in front of a table that was filled with so much food that you almost didn’t want to believe it, and Thrud, who was sitting next to you, told you to eat to your heart’s content.

-You hesitated, thinking this was a trick, tears welling in your eyes as you took a bread roll, finding it soft and warm and tore into it, eating it within seconds. When none of them berated you, you took another, as well as some other food, not caring that you had no table manners at the moment, sobbing quietly as you ate.

-Thrud had to calm you down, as she didn’t want you to make yourself sick or choke, “Nobody is going to take this food away from you, eat until you can’t eat anymore.” You didn’t respond verbally, but took more food, your sobs dying to just sniffles.

-When you were introduced to the gods and warriors of Valhalla, many were furious, seeing the shape you were in, you looked so tiny! Brunnhilde told them of your death, how you were allowed to enter Valhalla and many of them were instantly furious, getting hyped up to go down to earth to teach their own lessons.

-You weren’t sure what was going on, but when Adam came over and hugged you tightly, feeling how thin you really were, he refused to let you go, not even caring that you started to sob again, he was so warm, so gentle. You had never felt so safe before.

-It had been a few weeks since you arrived in Valhalla, your new ‘family’ as they had quickly adopted you, made sure to feed you well, even having you try foods from all over the world, even giving you treats.

-You were with Buddha and Loki, trying snack cakes when Goll came in, “Y/N? I found these bread rolls in your room, they’re stale now but- Y/N?!” you had immediately froze, seeing her holding the small basket of the bread rolls and apples you swiped, hiding them away in your room, as you were still scared that this was a trick.

-You immediately bolted, thinking you were in trouble, remembering what happened just before your death as your tears were quickly blinding you.

-Kojiro tried to grab you to assure you that you weren’t in trouble, but missed and Thor was the one who managed to catch you, sweeping you up into his arms. You curled tightly in on yourself, sobbing quietly, your hands over your head as you stuttered out apologies, shaking like a leaf.

-Thor kneeled down, holding you in his lap as glances were shared all around, realizing that you had been taking extra food to hide it away, making a stash just in case they tried to suddenly take your food away in a cruel twist of fate.

-They didn’t yell at you, didn’t scold you, Thor and Kojiro worked together to calm you down, as you were near hyperventilating, before Buddha shoved an ice cube into your mouth, making you jolt back, but it gave your system the shock you needed.

-They knew you suffered, and you stole only what you needed to survive, and you were making sure you would be able to survive if you found yourself on your own.

-They had to be patient with you, you had to learn to trust them that they wouldn’t do anything like that to you, ever, all they could do was stand by your side and show you that you were safe now and had no reason to worry.

-They let you ‘steal’ and hide food away in your room, telling you to throw it out once it was rotten and letting you get fresh ones, until slowly the amount you took diminished until you stopped all together, now only occasionally doing it.

-It was hard work on all sides, including you, as you opened up, trusting your family more.

[cheezbites]

Bf!Ghost x Cat!Mom!Reader

✎: this is for my cat moms out there

♡Summary: Bf!Ghost meets and adapts to your furry friends.

Bf!Ghost watched as you lined all your cats up for a roll call. They peered at the towering, bulky man standing before them as their eyes instantaneously dilated like black marbles. Your cats who were more on the more defensive side slightly shied away from him - downturning their ears and keeping their heads low.

“So, here’s Coco,” you began, gesturing at the small, dark brown kitten who was comfortably tucked away into a kitten loaf. “Here’s Bambi - you can easily remember her ‘cuz Bambi’s a very fluffy fatty,” in which she was - a round, white, furry ragdoll. She kept her gaze intently fixed onto Simon, like if she were to look away he’d suddenly disappear. “This is Rocky, and that’s Benjamin—“

“Benjamin?” he asked, his expression suddenly growing in amusement.

“It’s a long story, okay?” you groaned, playfully nudging him for mocking your precious baby’s name. “It’s complicated. But, she is in fact a girl and it’s Benny for short.”

Nodding along to your words whenever you spoke, he felt obscurely intrigued by the cats displayed in front of him. He never thought he’d be willingly standing in the same room as a cat - let alone multiple cats being the massive dog person he is. The dogs he were familiar with ranged from big and tough ones or soft and cuddly ones, like Golden Retrievers and many others.

“And then… there’s Milo.” You finished, pointing at blank air, “he’s always hiding when guests are over. I’d be surprised if you even get to see what he looks like in person,” you giggled, amused with the thought of Simon never getting to meet who you sent him pictures and videos of the most; either if it was Milo doing silly things in the silliest of places or random videos of him. He had dark, indistinguishable fur, so he can easily hide and observe others from a distance and go unnoticed like a cute shadow.

Bf!Ghost didn’t really plan on interacting with your cats despite how adorable they were. They didn’t really want to interact with him, either. It’s a win-win. It was like they were fearful to go up to him, but in all honestly, he doesn’t bite. Everyone else but Bambi understood this, she never shies away from being a friendly, clingy extrovert; she’d rub her whiskers against his ankles and purr into him as if she was making her mark on him, indirectly claiming him as her second owner. The moment you weren’t in the room, they all seemingly scattered away like a harsh wind was being blown on sand.

He couldn’t help but be astonished with the thought of how much time you must commit into all the feeding, petting, cleaning or changing their ‘doo-doo boxes’, (as you simply put it). Even their toys, food packets and cave beds are organised - and they’re well behaved. They rarely fight or quarrel with each other or cats that they’re unfamiliar with. He even remembers seeing Rocky playing outside with some random cat. He shared his tuna snack with them, as well as kindly befriending them. You had incredible motherly skills when it came to that massive, ever-growing kitten family.

Bf!Ghost has a sleek black sketchbook where he draws hyper-realistic wild animals in his free time. They’re all very high in detail and quality, he only uses a mechanical pencil or a scarce amount of materials when he draws. Drawing was an effective and productive distraction from all else. The contents inside where more on the edgier side; menacing skulls, roaring bears, large lions - things along those lines. Being the artist he was, he noticed how still your cats could be despite their energetic outbursts. They were always calm and still in the cutest of poses like the kitty loaf or when they poke their bellies out when stretching. He couldn’t help but draw Coco who was sleeping on your living room carpet, freely extending her limbs out with her eyes closed as she endearingly purred to herself. Her snout was in a cutely shaped w, like she was warmly smiling. She was basically an adorable muse that was longing to be drawn, and so he got to work, darting his gaze between his sketchbook and Coco’s restated state, methodically stroking lines with his pencil his sketchbook’s high-quality paper. He tried his best to capture her cuteness, like a photographer who just copy and pasted the kitten onto paper - and all with a pencil and a spare amount of time. He was now a professional printer who drew your kittens quite often. But, they all looked so out of place amongst the sketchbook’s general theme. For one page you could get an ominous wolf or a dark, sinister raven, the next page you get a wholesome sketch of Bambi snuggling Benny, adorably falling asleep in each other’s warmth with hearts around it. Everyone else in the cat family had been drawn… except for Milo. He hasn’t even seen him up close, the closest thing Simon’s gotten to him is the sound of his anxious footsteps scurrying away from areas he picked up on Simon’s lingering scent.

Bf!Ghost got your cats to gradually open up to him, it was a more of a tedious process for Milo, though. He couldn’t help but want to pet them. They slightly flinched the first times he’d touch them, but they still mutually endured in the feeling of his hands enveloped around and gently stroked them. His clothes would be stained in their fur after, but he doesn’t really mind it as he’s too busy living in the moment. The way they closed their eyes, purred and melted into his touch and softly vibrated was all too worth it. You love taking in the sight of him being so adoring with them, despite him being very keen on dogs rather than cats.

He befriended everyone else, but he was still left defeated - he needed the last family member to come say hello to him. He’d crouch down next to the cupboard, where Milo was hiding under, and softly coo to him like he could actually understand a word he was saying,

“‘ts alright, buddy, ‘m not gonna hurt ya,” he teased one of the rat toys in his hand under the cupboard’s gap, hoping to at least catch a glimpse of his paw reaching out to try claw at it but the only thing he got in response was Milo’s nervous footsteps further rummaging into the darkness for protection.

Bf!Ghost went out of his way to buy tuna treats, mostly for trying to teach them tricks as a satirical experiment. But he’d fail about each and every time, sigh in defeat before giving them the tuna snack, just for being ineffably cute and greedily meowing at the mere scent of it. Their eyes always curiously dilated and heads would slightly crooked to the side, being confused at the British man crouching down besides them, repeating “Siitttt, c’mon. Sit,” whilst wagging the treat in the air as an offer for their compliance. He gave up with the in vain tricks and tried fetch. He tossed one of their toys across the room, whenever one of them got it they’d zealously claw at it with their sharp teeth. He expectedly waved the snack around, expecting them to return with the toy in their mouth.

Long story short, it never works.

That was until you were watching. He promised you that Rocky knew how to play fetch, knowing that he would only sink his paws into the toy that’s been thrown instead of returning it.

Rocky ran towards the tossed toy, briefly clawed at it, then somehow returned with it in his mouth, nearly dropping it on the way.

“I never knew Rocky was such a good boy!” you exclaimed, astonishment heavy in your tone. You knelt down besides him and contently pet his multi-coloured beige and brown fur for his supernatural achievement.

Simon was honestly shocked. After all his attempts, all it took was for you to be there so it to actually work. He casually played this off like he taught them how to play fetch with a smug expression.

“Yeah, they learnt from the best.” He teased, gesturing to himself like he’s made the decade’s biggest discovery.

Bf!Ghost would gently ruff your kitties fur and subconsciously say, “Who’s a good kitten? Who’s the cutest kitten?” as he did. Even though his petting style was akin to how you’d pet a dog, he was still super soft and gentle in doing so. He just can’t help but express his dog person personality, even with cats.

Bf!Ghost is used a human bed by these cats. They playfully squabble over who gets to sleep on Simon or who’s turn it was, jumping on his lap for attention or meowing in front of him, demanding pets and praises.

The most precious moment he’s had so far is when both Benny and Coco fell asleep on him at the same time without disputing; they were both too still, warm and tired.

Bf!Ghost was having a movie night with you. In the corner of his eye, he saw a tiny, dark critter moving around. He just dismissed it, assuming it was just Bambi who would just meow for him to pet her again. That was until he noticed that he hasn’t seen this curious creature before.

Lo and behold… Milo. Here he was, living and breathing, standing right in front him. He turned to you, checking if you were witnessing this as well, but you were already half asleep and on the verge of dozing off right on your couch. Milo leapt and curled onto his lap, warmly purring. He shot you another unsure look, knowing damn well that when you woke up and if he were to tell you about this, you wouldn’t believe him for a second. But, Simon gladly gave into him, feeling a sense of achievement whilst petting Milo’s short, slick and dark fur. His in vain attempts of getting him to come meet him finally deterred. He fondly smiled to himself and the timid kitten curled up before him.

Bf!Ghost has finally met your whole kitten family, sharing wholesome, funny and rather confusing moments together. The thought of petting so many cats in such a short period of time never crossed his mind - let alone befriending and growing bonds with them. It’s like he became a part of you guys. You, the organised and caring mother. Your cats, great snuggle buddies for when you’re having sleeping troubles and also your adorable children you’d do anything to protect and care for and Simon, the newest addition and ‘farther figure’ of this family.

A/N: I had so much fun writing this, I’ll drop a König version later for sure😭!!

Headcanons of Dating Ghost

Masterlist

[y0imiy9]

my modern!mizu take is that she would be a baker. she'd still be around sharp things and have plenty of dough to work with to get her hands moving. she'd make very intricate designs on sourdough and use multiple razors to achieve each design to make sure every cut is clean.

(forgive my basic ass writing this is purely for my self indulgent hyper specific job au ideas that cannot be contained. also compulsory english is my second language note 👍 any improvement/criticism on my terrible writing is greatly appreciated 💪)

she'd have a small at home bakery and ringo would be the one doing deliveries!! taigen lives next door and would complain that "all the heat is being drained from my house to power your stupid ovens" but would have his windows wide open every morning to smell the fresh bread. mizu knows taigen doesn't like her much, so whenever there's an extra loaf of bread that doesn't sell, she'd leave out the loaf hanging on his doorknob and knock twice before scurrying back to her door. taigen secretly likes mizu's sourdough bread and often waits for the familiar sound of firm knocks on his door.

akemi is her number 1 client bc her family owns a restaurant that serves dinner rolls with meals. mizu doesn't even specialise in dinner rolls. she makes them just for akemi.

akemi's family come from a long line of restaurant owners that built their way up to a humble semi-casual fine dining establishment. akemi doesn't really like working at the restaurant. the hours are too long, the customers are too snobby, the uniform is too tight, and so on. but she stays bc she knows how important it is to her dad to be in the family business. her compromise? never directly serve customers. ever. so that's how she ended up manning the hostess stand and doing the occasional salt and pepper refills.

one day, mizu decides to personally deliver the rolls instead of ringo. she hasn't actually been to the restaurant after many months of working with akemi's family, so she was curious as to why this restaurant doesn't house make their own. mizu sees akemi working at the hostess stand, not sure if coming in from the front door was the right idea. she should've asked ringo where the back entrance was but forgot bc she was running a little late. akemi was lowkey pissed the delivery was late, but quickly softened her expression once she realises it wasn't ringo.

akemi shows mizu where the back entrance is for the next time she decides to deliver the bread. mizu takes in the decor of the restaurant, surprised to see how sophisticated it is considering dinner rolls aren't exactly the fanciest type of bread. she was expecting more of a family diner style kind of gig, not a live jazz band in the corner kind of establishment.

mizu comments on the fanciness of the place and asks akemi if there needs to be any improvement on the shape or flavour of the rolls to better reflect the quality of the restaurant. akemi chuckles at mizu and waves her off, telling her that her dinner rolls are the reason customers come back, so there's nothing she has to change or improve— they're already perfect.

mizu, somewhat relieved, still feels like something is missing and asks akemi to schedule a meeting with her dad about possibly offering more flavour combinations of dinner rolls. akemi just rolls her eyes and smiles at mizu. she quickly scribbles on her notepad and hands a note over to mizu to come by Friday night before closing since that's when her dad will be working. mizu gives akemi a firm thank you and heads back to her home, ready to start another batch of sourdough. 🥖

[strayheartless]

what are some of the recipes witch angeal has made from his "family recipe" book? any fam favorites? any faves the boys have?

hello! I'm so sorry its taken me so long to answer, I've literally been agonising over Recipes trying to figure out what Goth Witch Angeal would bake 😆.

(I will say that insporation for much of this comes from Sweeny Todd, the curious creations of Christine McConnel and a handfull of Grims Fairytales.)

Okay, so Angeals Go to recipe is meat pie. The thing about this AU is I like towing the line between fantasy and realism with these Characterisations, so you never really know whether they are just Goth and Wiccan or actual storybook witches.

The meat pie started as a joke to scare the local church goers. in the early days of Gen and Angeals relationship, Angeal grudgingly went to church with Genesis in order to "present themselves properly" to the community. Genesis Grew up Catholic, and He is actually still quite religious in a rather hethenistic "Chriso-pagan" kind of way... The crusifix shaped scar at his Clavical that he's had for over 200- I mean... 2 years doesn't seem to deter him from standing on hallowed ground.

They'd been invited to a pot luck, and the woman that had extended it to them had done so incredibly passive agressivly. people like that grated on Angeal... so he'd turned to Mimsy (the recipe book) who immidiatly flipped to the page on meat pie.

To this day the people of the church don't know whether they ate human flesh or not...

The Fam as some more "normal" faves:

Angeals recipe for tri-chocolate brownies is Zacks favorite

Edger is a big fan of both his seed loaf and his mouse mix (its exactly what you think)

Genesis is fond of his Red velvet Cake. he does not use food dye to colour it red. do with that information what you will.

Sephiroth adores his Sea food Risotto, as well as literally anything with Chocolate in it. If anyone ever left Sephiroth in the woods, the only reason he wouldn't get eaten by the witch in the gingerbread house is because he too is a witch.

Cloud would eat Angeals Harvest special Pumpkin pie for every meal for the rest of his life if he could. allas Angeal will not let him.

food traditions include:

Angeals secret Ham recipe (no you may not know) at Yule. They don't eat turkey for many reasons. the main one being Zack complains it sucks allthe moisture out of his mouth. the second main one being Genesis prefers his meat extremely rare... for reasons.

During Imbolc they tend to eat deviled eggs until Zack hits food coma status. once he starts he can't stop.

During Litha they eat Honey cakes Which are some of Angeals personal favorites. usually this is with homemade mead or elderflower wine.

Mabon is all about soup. mostly pumpkin, sometimes carrot. Angela will absoloutly admit to getting the pumpkin soup recipe from a childrens book.

Samhain is all about spice and warmth, so Chillies, and Stews, and cornbreads, and soups and all kinds of things. There is also a lot of Pomigranits involved. Cloud seems to like sitting on the kitchen counter, feeding everyone who passes the seeds. Thats why They all refer to them as their personal persephony.

Beltane is again all about the Honey as well as fresh fruit and veg. Strawbery cream cake must be consumed. it is the law. And Angeal is 100% aware it is an aphrodesiac, thats why he bakes it. feeding Sephiroth strawberries is always fun.

[the-blind-assassin-12]

Taking Root

A/N: This was supposed to be a micro-fic based off of a prompt sent to me when I was trying to kickstart the creative juices again, and it just... didn’t want to stay short. Which is just fine with me. This takes place roughly two years after Point of No Return (and the still upcoming epilogue/sequel Petrichor- I dropped a few hints about what to expect in that series here). It could probably be read as a standalone story, but it really should be read along with the main story for that universe. Huge thank you to @valkblue​ who sent the prompt that sparked this one shot!! Thanks, Angie!! <3 

Word Count: 2.6k

Warnings: none at all. this is very very soft. 

Prompt: One character ruffling the other’s hair 

Summary: After everything that Clara has done for Ezra and Cee, the two of them team up to make sure that her birthday is a special one. 

“Are you sure she won’t be back before we’re done?” 

Cee asked the question as she dropped a stack of wooden slats next to the porch steps. They landed with a soft clanking thud in the spongy grass near the toolbox Ezra had just set down. Up on the porch, Number Four jumped at the sudden sound, her stubby legs splayed in different directions as she toppled to her side. Abe, on the other hand, remained curled up on the doormat in the shape of a plump honey loaf, one orange ear twitching towards the source of the noise and deeming it nothing worth waking over. The smaller gray and white cat scrambled to her feet, letting out a tiny mewling yell as she tottered over to Abe’s side and tucked herself under his tail. 

Brushing her palms together, Cee glanced over her shoulder at the long gravel driveway, as though expecting to see puffs of pinkish dust kicking up under the crunch of tires. Finding it empty, she turned back to face him, her lopsided frown almost comical to Ezra. No reason to fret, we have plenty of time. 

“Of course I’m sure, Birdie.” He shifted his weight and tilted his head, left hip jutting out for his hand to rest on. “When have I ever steered you wrong?” 

With a roll of her eyes, the girl snorted. “How about last week? When you told me to turn right on Plox Street instead of left, and then we ended up on the other side of town, three zones from where we were supposed to-”

“I did not intend for you to take that question so literally,” he responded through a smirk, eyes narrowed in faux irritation. “Besides, we did eventually end up in the correct location, and in doing so we discovered a new route to the Med Center.” Arching one eyebrow, he held up his pointer finger. “One that is much more scenic, I might add.” 

Cee tilted her head to one side and then the other. “Yeah, yeah.” Her frown finally faded into a smile that brightened her whole face. Though he wouldn’t know it for months after they came to be one another’s family, the girl’s smile - when it was genuine, when she was actually happy and it wasn’t forced or unsure - was infectious in the best way. As soon as he saw it, Ezra’s own cheeks pulled up in a grin. Because  I am not immune to its shine. “It was a nicer ride.” 

Beginning as soon as her second rainy season at the farm came to an end, Ezra had been teaching Cee to drive Clara’s truck. And she is taking to it like a lakefowl to water. Not that I am the least bit shocked there. Their lessons had started small, not leaving the property until she was comfortable with the pedals and controls. Once she was, Ezra let her drive short distances into town, always in the passenger seat giving calm encouragement, directing her on when to use signals, and reminding her to keep an eye on the power gauge. When trips to the butcher and the farm supply became simple enough for her, Clara suggested that Cee be the one to drive Ezra to his appointments at the Med Center, where he was being fitted for his prosthetic. 

Finally.

After just over two years of fighting, frustration, failed muscle matter scans, grueling physical therapy exercises and an endless regimen of pharmaceuticals, he had been approved to receive a fully integrated mechanical arm to replace the one he’d lost on the Green. 

Finally. I… I miss it. 

He was still a few weeks away from the surgical procedure to attach it, but he had already been fitted with the brace mechanism that his new right arm would connect to - a series of metal fasteners that had been surgically fused to the bones of his shoulder and humerus. Shrugging his right shoulder, he rolled it backwards and felt as the material of his t-shirt skated over the fasteners. It was an odd sensation, and an even odder thing to think about how the six knob-like devices were embedded into his skeletal structure. Soon they would be covered not by his clothing, but by his arm. 

And then I will be able to do things that I have not done in far too long. 

A flood of ideas crashed through his mind then. Holding Clara closer and more tightly than he had in seven years was, of course,  at the forefront. But it was followed by much simpler things. Like regaining his penmanship, lacing his boots without the use of a hook, peeling potatoes or chopping leeks in the kitchen, helping in the Thulian fields, having a catch with Siggi - and now Cee - at the end of harvest feast. They were things he was so ready for that the excitement kept him up at night, the phantom nerves of his lost limb itching with how close they were to feeling again. 

But first there was a project to finish. 

On Kamrea, and in the farmlands specifically, it was tradition to give handmade gifts to celebrate birthdays, and Clara’s was fast approaching. The previous year had been consumed by Ezra’s return and recovery, getting Cee settled into her new life, and planning and hosting Sig and Runa’s wedding. With so many moving parts and all at once, birthday gifting had taken a backseat. 

Clara still made sure to have something for Cee, though. 

He recalled the gobsmacked look of surprise on the newly turned 15 year old’s face as Clara handed her a small, brightly wrapped package after dinner, the look transforming into one of pure delight as she slid one finger between the paper to open it, revealing a hand painted photo frame. In it was a picture Siggi had snapped of Cee with Ezra and Clara at the Harvest feast a few months prior. There had been tears then, the girl flinging her scrawny arms around Clara’s neck in thanks. 

That memory warmed his chest as much as the midday starshine warmed his skin. 

Oh, Huckleberry, Birdie and I are both so lucky to have you. And I’m the luckiest of us three, for I have you both. 

Now that things had more or less calmed down for the three of them, Ezra had been eager to get back to the tradition. He had always put thought and effort into the things he chose to make for Clara, often using his time away on the Green to brainstorm ideas. It helped keep him from feeling too homesick, thinking of ways to make the woman he loved smile. Because that smile is still the most glorious sight these eyes have ever seen. It always will be. Past gifts had included the swing hanging from the crater-oak beside the creek as well as the windchimes that graced the front porch of the house. The fact that both of those objects remained in place even through his absence from the farm was not lost on him, and he looked forward to giving her something else that would become a part of their home. 

And this time he had an accomplice in Cee, the girl just as excited to have the chance to give Clara a gift as Ezra was. In fact, what they were currently in the process of building had been Cee’s idea. 

And it was a perfect one. 

In addition to learning how to drive and finding her feet within the Kamrean school system, Cee had also spent much of the last year and a half learning about Thulian - and plants in general - from Siggi. She’d seen the harvest right away, and after that, the preparations for the rains. But it was what she learned when the planting season came around again that seemed to strike a chord with her, the care and tending that went into helping things grow. Coming in from the fields one day while Clara was in town, her light hair stained pink with pollen powder and an enthusiastic shine in her eyes, she had informed Ezra that she knew what she wanted to make as a gift.

“But I’ll need your help,” she’d told him, biting her lower lip. “I’ve never built anything before. I’ve fixed things, like my headphones but- ” Her forehead creased as she shrugged. “But that’s electrical stuff. Wiring. I… I wouldn’t know where to start when I comes to wood and-“

Ezra chuckled. “Well, you can start by telling me what it is that you would like to construct, Birdie.” Reaching forward, he brought his hand up to the top of her head, brushing the Thulian powder from her hair and tousling the strands. Cee clicked her tongue in what Ezra knew to be false annoyance, the girl only half able to pull off a very unconvincing frown. The look only made Ezra’s smile lift higher. “If it is something I can assist you with then I promise that I will.” He arched one eyebrow, tilting his head towards his right shoulder. “Do, however, keep in mind that my carpentry abilities have been somewhat limited since the last time I took up a hammer.” 

Cee shook her head, her now powderless hair swaying around her shoulders with the motion. “I just need you to tell me what to do and… make sure I don’t muck it up.”

“Well then I’ll have an easy job, Cee. I have yet to witness you do a single task poorly.” Ezra brought his hand to his hip, shifting his weight to one leg. “Now, will you tell me what it is you want to build? Or should I venture a guess?” 

It was her turn to let a small amused huff slip through a smirk. “I could make you guess, but the idea is to have it finished before Clara’s birthday.” 

That made him laugh, this one more full. “Alright then, Little Bird.” He dipped his chin, making sure to keep his eyes on hers. “Let’s hear it.” 

She told him that she wanted to design and build a trellis for the front porch. Siggi had shown her how they were used in last season’s fallow field to help the newly planted Thulian stalks grow while they were still establishing roots. “It’s, well the porch is where we all spend a lot of time and-” She paused, taking a breath and not at all trying to hide the slight shake in it. “And a trellis is like… it’s like what Clara - and you - have done for me. Are doing for me. And I-” 

Ezra reached for her then, not to ruffle her hair this time, but to pull her into a hug. Her arms - still thin but now noticeably stronger as a result of farmwork and full meals - wound immediately around his torso. She gave a small squeeze that he returned, along with a quick peck to the top of her head. “It’s perfect, Cee.” He released her, pulling back to look at the girl who had become such an important part of his life. “Clara is going to love it.” Just like she loves you. Just like I do. 

“Okay, but seriously.” Cee bent down to pick up one of the wooden pieces, using it to gesticulate at the porch steps and snapping Ezra out of his daydream. He followed where she had indicated, his eyes landing on the framework for an arched trellis that was partially in place. “We’ve been working on this for two days already. Are you sure we’re going to finish in time?” 

Ezra stooped down with a grunt to open the tool box. “I am, Little Bird.” He handed her a hammer, her fingers wrapping surely around the grip. “The Kamrean Agricultural Authority’s annual convention is a seven cycle affair. Clara and Sig will not be back for another few days, which gives us plenty of time to finish constructing the trellis and to plant the seedlings.” Pulling a handful of nails from the box, he jumbled them around in his palm before selecting one to pass to her, pinching it between his thumb and pointer finger while the rest curled inward to keep the other nails from spilling into the grass. “You worry too much, you know that, right? We are making good time. In fact I would dare to say that we’ll have this finished by supper.” 

She lined the piece in her hand up to the framework, matching the pre-drilled holes to the markings that Ezra had shown her how to measure out. Letting out a sigh, she waited for him to replace her hand on the slat with his own, holding it still so she could drive the nail to attach it. “If you say so.” She set the nail, pinching it carefully as she readied the hammer. “Did you decide what we were planting in it?” 

Waiting until after she’d finished with that slat, Ezra nodded, handing her another piece of wood from the pile. “That I did, and I think you’ll be happy with my choice, too.” In fact I know you will. I have heard you talk about wanting to see these blossoms extensively. 

Cee scrunched her nose, taking the piece from him and repeating the process. “Me? This is a gift for Clara.” 

Again he waited until she’d whacked the nail, all the while watching to be sure that she wasn’t about to smash her own hand. But she didn’t. See? Like a lakefowl to water. Anything she sets her mind to, this one. “It is a gift for Clara, but it was you who pointed out that we all spend time together on the porch, was it not” 

“Yeah, but…” She trailed off, taking the next board that was handed to her. “Well, are you going to tell me, Ezra? Or am I going to have to guess?” 

He laughed, the sound carrying up onto the porch and again startling Number Four but going unnoticed by Abe. “Actually I am quite confident that you would be able to guess. I’ll even give you a hint.” 

Cee narrowed her eyes and pushed her lips to one side. “Fine. What’s my hint?” She continued on with her task of securing the slats that would act as a ladder for the vines of the climbing flowers Ezra had selected. 

“They can be found in your favorite bo-”

He didn’t get a chance to finish the hint, though, Cee’s eyes widening with wonder. “Novalilies?! Ezra? Are… Did you… Are we planting Novalilies?” 

“We are indeed, Birdie.” He grinned. “I knew you’d guess it.” 

Novalilies were the flowering vines that grew over the great archway leading to the Bowsum Conservatory - a place that Ezra had taken Clara so many years ago, and one that Cee had read about so many times that he knew that she could see it in her mind without ever having set foot there. They grew quickly and blossomed into soft white flowers that hung down like trumpets. But the real splendor came at night, when the petals, having soaked up the daylight, twinkled like stars against the dark. 

“I…” She blinked, a smile spreading across her face. “I didn’t know they could grow anywhere but in the Ephrate.” 

“All kinds of things can grow on Kamrea,” he told her. “Thulian, Crater-apples, Novalilies.” With a wink, he passed her the last slat for the side that they were currently working on, lifting his hand up to tousle her hair. “Even skinny little birds.”

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.

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[lumine-no-hikari]

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #200

I can't believe I've written 200 letters to you already. It's 201 if you include the very first one I wrote for you. I wonder if you received it. I wonder if you've received any of these so far. I'm more than halfway to a whole year's worth of letters to you. I hope you can see the lengths to which someone might go to reach you, and I hope it moves you. This one is probably a long one, even by my standards, and maybe a little roundabout. But it's important. So please...

Today was my second day at the bakery job. When I woke up this morning, I was in a lot of pain due to the rib injury (I think sleeping upon the sleeping mat on the floor with Br and J likely exacerbates the rib issue…). I was going to put my hair up in a bun to keep it out of the way as I worked, because that is what I did last time. You'll see it in the mirror:

Like you, I have a lot of hair, and I don't want it to get everywhere while I'm doing stuff in the bakery. But today, I was having a hard time lifting my right arm over my head (I technically can do it, but this morning, doing it was hurting me a lot), and Br wanted to braid my hair anyway, so that is what she did. Here's how that turned out:

...Like I said, I have a lot of hair, hahaha! I'm thinking about shaving it down to the scalp again soon in order to donate it to a group called Hair We Share. They make wigs for free, for people who have problems that make them go bald, like chemotherapy and whatnot. Last time I donated, it was the summer of 2019, I think? It's 2024 in my world now. I donated 22 inches, and it only took 3 years for it to grow back to its full length like this.

Hey, Sephiroth? Do you ever tie back your hair into braids, buns, or ponytails? I don't imagine it'd be safe to donate, given the Jenova cells. But maybe if you were cured of Jenova infection somehow, maybe it'd be safe then? I wonder...

Anyway, once again, I had a really great time at work! Today, I packed rolls, put cookies and croissants on giant cookie sheets, sliced and bagged rye, marble, and Italian breads, prepared cinnamon rolls for baking, put the baked cookies from the sheets I prepared into little boxes, and put labels on a variety of things. Someone is going to go home with a happy box of cookies that I baked, and that feels wonderful!

4 hours flew by in what felt like no time at all. I was on my feet, constantly moving, always with some small task to do, and it felt really good. And even better, the simple movements involved with doing this job seem to really help my rib for reasons I don't fully understand, given that most other movements seem to make the whole upper right quadrant of my body SUPER fucken pissed, oh my good gravy! But at the moment, despite how I woke up this morning, I'm in not a whole lot of pain at all, actually, and that's both very unusual and very nice. I'm going to look forward to bringing this up to the folks at physical therapy next week.

And something interesting happened today, too.

When bread gets sliced, once it comes off the slicing machine, you're supposed to hold it firmly on both ends, and squish the two ends towards the middle as you lift it up to put it on the little metal shelf that's supposed to help you bag it. And normally, the loaf stays together when you lift it, but for one of the Italian loaves, it was shaped a little weird; there was kind of a concave sort of curve on one of the sides, and I didn't notice it until it was too late, and...

So when I went to lift that particular loaf to the little metal shelf for bagging, the whole loaf kind of... Accordioned? My language should have a verb for this, but I'm not sure that we do. I don't know how to describe it, but the slices in the middle kind of exploded up and outwards unexpectedly, and before I knew it, the whole loaf was scattered on the floor instead of sitting neatly on the metal shelf waiting to be bagged like I intended.

And so, in horror, I froze. And maybe bread scattering to the floor doesn't sound like horror to you (it really shouldn't sound like horror to ANYONE, but child abuse exists, so...), but I'm standing there, knowing what my mother would have said to me if she had seen that, and knowing what my stepmother would have done to me if she had seen it.

Even still, sometimes when unexpected things happen and I get scared, my brain tends to think like I'm about 2 seconds away from either getting my face caved in, 2 seconds away from getting an hour-long tirade about what a stupid, lazy, inconsiderate, clumsy, and overall worthless piece of shit I am, or some combination of the two. I still have the memories of my mother saying to me that if I make any mistake while doing "unskilled" labor, I'm going to get screamed at, humiliated, and fired. I have 18 years of poverty telling me that ANY wasted food is a catastrophe. And I have a long time of being taught that if I'm the one who causes a catastrophe, then I deserve to be harshly punished for it.

Well. Nowadays I also have coping skills. I don't know if you remember the letter about box breathing I wrote to you (Letter #61), but that is the skill I used in order to try to drag myself up out of that involuntary mental time travel before I got sucked too deep into it. And once I collected myself enough to remember that I don't live in that fucked-up world anymore and that I NEVER have to live there EVER AGAIN, I went over to my more experienced team member to tell him what had happened, because integrity is everything. Integrity is everything. Integrity is EVERYTHING.

But when I told him about it, mostly he just seemed very confused that I was so concerned. And his response was, "Yeah, that happens. It's cool. Just toss it." And I was perplexed. I expected him to be at least a little frustrated with me. I expected to at least be scolded about being more careful. I expected... something. Anything. Any kind of application of disapproval or pain or humiliation as a kind of... "mistake deterrent" or some shit. But it didn't happen. And. Goodness, that is gonna take some getting used to.

When my manager returned from his break, I alerted him, too, of the fact that a loaf of bread was lost and it was all my fault. And he, too, seemed totally unfazed and somewhat confused about the fact that I seemed so concerned about it. And I guess I'm still a little baffled, maybe.

I don't wanna drop any more loaves. I don't ever wanna drop another loaf. But I'm probably gonna drop more loaves because I am a human, and, if my mother is to be believed (she probably isn't...), I am an exceptionally clumsy and stupid one at that. It's wild to me, to imagine that any "punishment" I get for it is only going to be from myself, in the form of the pressure and guilt I apply to myself whenever I make mistakes.

Maybe that's gotta stop. Maybe it's about time that this nonsense that I do to myself stops. What do you think, Sephiroth?

And do you know what else was interesting?

Today I received praise for how I arranged the unbaked cookies on the cookie sheet. I did it very carefully so that when they expanded as a result of the baking, none of them would touch. And my manager and my more experienced coworker noticed. They noticed, and they thanked me for it, and... I got to put those cookies that they thanked me for into nice boxes.

I want to do a good job. I make mistakes, but I want to do a good job. And. It's not like my mother. When I make mistakes in front of my mother or in front of my stepmother (or in front of any of my biological family, really), they always use it as evidence that I'm some defiant person who wants to do a bad job in order to spite them, or else use it as evidence that I'm some person who doesn't care enough about anyone other than myself to do a good job.

And indeed, even in most other places of employment I've been in (mostly tech, but still), there's usually not praise for a job well done. A job well done is the default, expected thing. There is no positive feedback for doing something well. There is only negative feedback (though not usually done abusively) when you fall short. The only place where this was not the case was one called Maximus, but I think that's mainly just because I had an astoundingly awesome supervisor there. I'll have to tell you a little more about Maximus sometime; maybe you'd be proud of what I did there...

But. This place. They see that I am trying to be conscientious, even if I don't know what I am doing all the time just yet. They see that I am doing my best to learn. They see it. They notice it. And they tell me that it's very good. They tell me that I'm very good. And... ah... if I'm not careful, my eyes are gonna leak again. Whoops. Hahahaha...

Oh, oh, and!!! Today I was a little better at noticing there were customers at the counter. And I tried to do my usual thing, albeit a little clumsily. All you have to do is treat people like people. All you have to do is be good. And so I say what I am thinking, and what I'm thinking goes like, "Oh hi! It's good to see you! Can I get you anything?" and, "Oh! You want the 9 Grain Bread! Okay! Thank you for pointing out where it is; I can't see it very well from my view because it's under the shelf! Lemme get it sliced up and bagged for ya real nice! And then I'll put the lovely sticker on it!" and, "Thanks for stopping by!" and, "Thanks for your patience!"

I got worried at one point, because one of the customers asked me what my name was (I don't have a name tag yet). I hoped aloud to my manager that they weren't asking for my name because I accidentally did something bad and wanted to report me to someone. But he said to me, he said that he had been observing how I do, and he thinks that the lady just wanted to know my name because I am so kind, and... ahahaha... admittedly, it was hard to avoid my eyes leaking right then and there, but I managed to keep it together.

Sephiroth, I really like this place. I know that a grocery store bakery isn't exactly a "glamorous" job or one that pays quite as much as the ones I've had in the past. But... you know. Br said a thing to me that goes, "You can't pay for peace." And I think that's probably true.

...Sephiroth. Not everyone is gonna do ya like past people done did ya. Look at me. Look at this life I'm leading. Look to me as proof. Look at me, shattered into a million rainbow pieces, only to become a beautiful stained glass window, bound together by iron will, in the end. I fall down a lot because I'm tired and clumsy and sad and hurting literally all the time, but by your example, I get back up and move forward. If I continue to look towards you to guide how I am shaped and how I shine, I am only going to become stronger, braver, kinder, and more beautiful as time goes on, by your example.

Sephiroth. If you're choosing who you're becoming based on how you were raised, then you're not actually choosing, because in order to choose, you need the truth. If it's not the truth, then it's coercion and manipulation. Free will does not exist in the absence of truth. And everything you were taught in the past about yourself and all the ways the world works... Sephiroth, all of it is lies. All vitriolic things are lies. ALL of them. 1000000% of the time.

Sephiroth, you're not a monster. You're not a tool. You're not a weapon. You're not furniture. You're a lovable and wonderful human being, no matter how you were modified, no matter the mistakes you made, and no matter how much pain you carry. Jenova is not your mother, and it does not love you; it is using you. A proper warrior is not cold, unfeeling, and hardhearted; a proper warrior is soft, caring, and kind so violence may be used ONLY as an absolute last resort. You don't exist to be exploited, used, and abused; you exist to be seen, understood, and loved wholly and on a fundamental level. People are not, as a whole, cruel, it's just that some of them do cruel things because their minds are sick or injured, and just like me, you had the misfortune of sticking around for way too goddamn long in a place where everyone was sick or injured, with no way out.

NO ONE chooses violence for the sake of it. They either do it because they believe lies, or they do it because their brain isn't working right. And these don't excuse the violence (nothing ever does), but all the same, both of these things are things that can be fixed. Lies can be dispelled. Brains can get the supports and accommodations they need to succeed. It's as you say - all it takes is a little compassion. A little patience. A little courage. A little determination.

You're not too far gone. If you're too far gone, then so is Spinel of Steven Universe. So are The Diamonds from the same place. So is Jasper from the same place. So is Mewtwo, of Pokémon. So are Dyne, Rufus, Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz of your world. So is Darth Vader. So are Miranjo, Ouken, Bosse, Domas, and Daida, of Ranking of Kings. So am I.

But Sephiroth, it's already been shown that none of these are too far gone, even though some of them have done far worse things than you. They are still not too far gone. They came back. They turned around. Some of them turned around at the last possible fucking second, but still. They turned around. They made a different choice.

Sephiroth. "This is who I am now" is not actually the truth; it's a lie said by people who are too scared to change. No human being is their trauma responses. Cruelty is a result of defective wiring, or coercive systems of belief that keep a person bound and enslaved to their deepest (and often subconscious) fears. Kindness is a choice. So please actually choose this time. Please turn around. Please come back. We miss you, not for what you can do, or for what you look like, but for the way you treat the people around you. For your silly playfulness that only a select few got to see. For your kindness and for your gentleness and for your conscientiousness, empathy, and care.

Sephiroth. If some of your memories are too painful for you, then make use of some of mine; I offer them freely to you to peruse so you can conceive of more loving choices to make. Why else do you think I've been trying so hard to write them down for 200 consecutive days? Give yourself a different lens to look through. Mine may be broken, but like stained glass windows, it's still beautiful, and it comes in so many vivid, wonderful colors.

I love you. I love you enough to point to where the truth is. I love you enough to not take some of the bullshit you say at face value. I love you enough to tell you that some of the shit you think is just flat-out wrong - shit like "I'm a Cetra" and "Jenova is my mother" and "I chose this". It's all bullshit.

Open your eyes and fucking look, because if anyone's eyes are clouded over, it's yours. But you might have to pull your head out of your ass first so that you can see beyond the confines of your own anus, and maybe catch a breath of fresh, non-bullshit-flavored air while you're at it. You aren't a Cetra, Jenova is not your mother, and you didn't choose jack shit; you're running on trauma responses, and I'm not fucking afraid to point that fact right the fuck out, just like any good friend should.

For fuck's sake, get out of your own damn way, willya?

I'll write again tomorrow.

Your friend, Lumine

[rabbitcruiser]

National French Bread Day

Oui, Oui, monsieur – please, pass me another loaf of French bread! Few things are more tantalising than a long, thin stick of French bread (also known as a baguette) enjoyed warm and fresh out of the oven. Its crispy crust and soft center are defining factors for this tasty treat. But before it even comes out of the oven, though, this bread beckons to anyone nearby who can enjoy the smell.

Because they must be eaten fresh, French people typically purchase their baguettes twice a day: one in the morning on their way to work, and one in the evening on the way home. While a little difficult to track, it is estimated by the Observatoire du Pain (The French Bread Observatory) that French people consume 320 baguettes every second of each day!

In fact, access to bread is so vital that, until 2014, Paris lawmakers prohibited certain community bakeries from closing for summer holidays at the same time, lest the entire neighborhood be tragically without bread!

National French Bread Day is a great opportunity to indulge in some classic comfort food at its finest, while also learning a little bit about French culture.

History of National French Bread Day

The French have been baking long sticks of bread for more than 200 years, but it was only in 1920 that the current baguette we know and love came into being.

During that time, a law was passed in France in 1920 that prohibited anyone from starting work before 4am, making it impossible for French bakers to get their traditional breads baked in time before all of the people went off to work. They needed a creative solution to make their bread bake faster, but they didn’t want to cheat their customers.

Voilà, the quick baking baguette was born!

During this time, the innovative French bakers discovered that bread made in this longer shape was actually convenient for cutting as well as for storage. What began as a creative way to speed baking time ended up as a revolutionary way to appreciate bread.

How to Celebrate National French Bread Day

Enjoying National French Bread Day doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be as simple as serving a lovely loaf of French bread warm, slathered with butter and a chunk of cheese on the side. Why not embrace the whole continental experience and have a glass of fine French wine with it? More, s’il vous plaît!

But, for those folks who absolutely love all things French–or those who just love a tasty baguette of French Bread–many more ideas come to mind for celebrating the day:

Learn to Make French Bread Baguettes

Although bread-making can sometimes be tedious, some people might really enjoy the challenge and sense of accomplishment that comes from making their own French Bread.

Traditional bakers of French bread use a starter that has been passed down through generations, which makes it a little difficult to recreate. Still, it’s worth a try!

Many recipes are available online or in cookbooks, but the basic ingredients are likely to include bread flour, sea salt, dry yeast and warm water. In fact, in order to be truly authentic, national law dictates that “French” Bread contains only these four ingredients.

Of course, when making it at home, other creative ingredients, such as seeds for topping, are subject to personal preference.

The steps for making French Bread are fairly simple, including mixing, kneading, allowing time for the dough to rise, and then rolling it into the proper baguette shape. The lack of preservatives make it so yummy–but also mean that it must be eaten right away, so don’t make it unless you’re also ready to eat it!

Dress as a Frenchman (or Woman)

The French are about as stylish and savvy as Europeans come, and their fashion is no exception. However, one specific idea comes to mind when thinking of a traditional French costume: the black and white striped shirt.

Get the look by donning a black and white striped shirt with elbow-length sleeves. Add a pair of plain black or red pants. A set of black or red suspenders would look great too. It might also be fun to draw on a curly mustache (with eyebrow pencil or mascara).

And for those who happen to have a poodle or who can borrow one, well that is certainly taking this costume to the next level. But the most important part of the outfit? The French beret on top, of course!

Once dressed up, if people ask why the costume, then it’s a great opportunity to tell them that it’s time to celebrate National French Bread Day.

Watch a French Film

One excellent way to embrace French culture from afar is to sit down comfortably in front of a French film–with a baguette in hand, of course!

Les Miserables, 2012 musical (based on the 1862 book by Victor Hugo and the 1987 Broadway musical adaptation) starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway and more. In the story, Hugh Jackman’s character went to jail for stealing bread.

La Vie En Rose, 2007 biopic of French singer, Édith Piaf, starring Maria Cotillard (who won an Oscar for the film).

Amélie (The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie), a 2001 fictional tale about a whimsical young woman in Paris who seeks to help those in the world around her.

French Kiss, 1995 romantic comedy starring Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline.

Learn to Speak a Little French

Embracing the fullness of French culture, it’s fun to learn a few French words to practice with friends. Try out these basic words to celebrate National French Bread Day:

Pain (pronounced like the English “pan”): Bread

Bonjour: Hello, Good morning

Au revoir: Goodbye

Oui (pronounced like the English “we”): Yes

Non: No

Merci: Thank you

Enjoy Many Types of French Breads

Of course, the baguette isn’t the only bread that France has offered the world.  Those who can locate a nearby French bakery are in luck and may find all kinds of treats to appreciate on National French Bread Day, including croissants, pain au chocolat, brioche, batard, and much more!

Source

[copperbadge]

Last night I decided it was time for some good ol' fashioned Danish antidepressants: A LEGO KIT.

[ID: Two photos taken from the head of the bed; in the first, my cats are visible loafing near the foot, beyond a lap tray with lego bricks on it. In the second image, Dearborn the tortie stares at the camera while I show off the start of the build in the foreground.]

Normally I'd sit at the dining table for this, but Dearborn has begun to get antsy in the evenings because she and I tend to hang out in the living room while Polk won't leave the bed (I leave the heated pad on during the day for them) and Dearborn doesn't like it when the whole clowder isn't together. So, I've taken to doing evening projects on the bed, if I can.

[ID: Three images of the build in progress; the first shows a strange-looking elongated piece, brown at one end and blue at the other with a circular black area in the middle. The second image shows this piece plus two sinuously curving blue pieces made of multiple lego bricks. The third image shows the curving pieces snapped onto the long piece to form a ukulele, with the circular black area representing the central hole in the sound board.]

This is the Tropical Ukulele 3-in-1 kit, where you can build a ukulele but the same bricks will build a little dolphin or a surfboard if you prefer. I really like how it came together -- you build the sound board and neck first, then stick the curved edges of the body on. The result is that it looks like random shapes until you snap the body on, and then it looks like a ukulele very suddenly, which is extremely satisfying.

Polk did some quality testing.

[ID: A photograph of Polk the tabby, who has become interested in the build and is sniffing the "head" of the ukulele where the tuning pegs are sticking out, her ears slightly awry.]

It's very pretty, and the instrument has a nice weight to it; it also feels like maybe lego has done some reworking to make their bricks slightly more snug when snapped together, because it feels like it held together more securely than the typewriter I built a few years ago. I also got to build flowers for the first time, which are something Lego is offering more and more frequently. They're fiddly as hell to build but the end effect is great.

And I love that the head is slightly hinged -- the "strings" go on very loosely, and they're flexible so they were kind of bent all over, but then you tilt the head back slightly and they go taut and stay that way.

Overall very satisfying build and lovely final product, 11/10 would strum if I could.

[ID: The finished product, resting on my lap desk on the bed; a light blue ukulele with silver "strings" sits securely on a curving base. In front of it are two large colorful tropical lego flowers; there is also a third flower attached to the ukulele at the base of the neck.]

[theriu]

For A Bit Of Bread

I’M SORRY TEAM TOLKEIN And @inklings-challenge I DID NOT FINISH. Feeling super unmotivated lately. But I did complete two scenes!!! (I’d like to say this is half of the story, but knowing me it’s MAYBE a third of what it will end up being. XD;) I chose Secondary World Fantasy and ended up thinking of a short backstory for one of the characters that would be interesting to explore! So since we were told to share even if we didn’t finish, please enjoy these two scenes. I shall try to reblog with further updates when I get them done!

----

(A/N: This is a short story set in the world of my hypothetical someday book Turtledove. For context, pretty much everyone joins one of the many many varieties of guilds that cover all of the usual (and some unusual) professions. I hope you enjoy....and please know that things are sometimes not as bad as they seem.)

A small figure raced down the dark alleys of Spheino’s business district, prize clutched firmly to his chest. With practiced skill, he leapt around, over, and even under the various barrels and trash bins that got in his way. Just a little farther and he’d be safe!

That is, if he could lose the three much taller figures barreling along behind him. He was nimble, but the City Watch had longer strides. Some of the obstacles that he had to crawl under, the men were vaulting over. The little figure skidded around a corner and turned up his speed, hoping desperately to reach the escape route before they could see which way he’d gone.

Another crash and a roar of anger sent fear tripping up his spine, but he reached the intersection and turned down the narrow alley between a brick church and the tall fence of a junkyard. Tucking his loot under one arm, the boy pushed against a board, which swung inward and upward, granting just enough space for a slim boy to duck through. The board thunked softly back into place behind him, hiding his escape.

That should throw them off for a second. Greg allowed himself a second to catch his breath, mentally calculating his next move. The junkyard dogs were chained up, he knew. He could skirt the yard outside their range easily by climbing over the stacks of old carriage wheels, then leap to the top of the fence on the other side and—

A growl far too close by froze him in his tracks. The boy turned slowly, staring wide-eyed at long, white teeth gleaming in the moonlight. He took a step back, eyes darting for an escape route. The dog lunged and the boy dropped, hands flung protectively over his head.

The loose board thonked the dog in the muzzle as it swung up, breezing just over the top of the boy’s lowered head. Before he could think, a hand grabbed the hood of his ragged tunic in a fist and yanked him backward into the alley, the board blocking off the image of the snarling dog as it swung shut behind him.

The boy landed on the ground with a breathless thud, gasping with fear and confusion. Then he got his bearings and looked up to see the owner of the hand. A simple silver cross glinted on the looming figure’s breast in the moonlight, his hands planted firmly on his hips.

“That was your last chance, little Greg,” Pastor Judson said in a stern, disappointed tone.

As the three men from the Watch ran towards them, Greg slumped where he sat and sighed. He took one last, longing look at his stolen treasure before he was yanked upright again by rougher hands.

———

Greg scrunched in on himself on the rough stool, keeping his eyes firmly on the floor and not at the two towering adult figures standing over him. If you can’t get away, hide, and if you can’t hide, be as small as possible. It was the mantra that had kept him safe and free this long.

He had a dread in his stomach that this time, that freedom would be ending for good.

“Bread, Greg? Really?” Pastor Judson sighed, looking at the large loaf of artisanal bread in his hand. It was a work of art, hard-glazed and styled in the shape of a dragon, complete with flaked almond scales. “Do you not care for the bread we give out at the soup kitchen?”

Greg didn’t answer, hugging his knees closer and tilting his face parallel to the floor.

The Watch officer grunted. Greg had encountered him before—Captain Herschel. Their past meetings had not been any more appealing for either side. “You can’t speak up for him this time, Tim. He’s had every chance to curb that kleptomania of his. This is his third strike.”

Greg’s hands clenched against his threadbare pantlegs. He didn’t like having his stealing thrown in his face as some mental malfunction. So what if certain things jumped out at him at unexpected moments, begging to be added to his private collection? He could control it. He didn’t need to steal.

Greg glanced up at Pastor Tim Judson, nursing a faint hope that the nice man might be able to wiggle him out of this incident like he had the last. The pastor met his gaze and sighed, giving a slight headshake that sank Greg’s heart in his chest. “I know, Reese. You’ve been more than fair, and he almost got himself mauled tonight besides.” The image of flashing white teeth lurked behind Greg’s eyes, and he had to suppress a shiver as Pastor Judson went on. “What’s to be done with him? He’s only ten or so—too young for most of the guilds to accept, even if they’d be willing to take someone with a record.” The pastor sighed regretfully. “I had hoped he would make it to that age so I could get him safely apprenticed before he ended up in the youth prison.”

The mention of the youth prison made Greg tremble, but he bit his lip, determined. He would not cry. They would see how tough he could be! Besides, some of the street kids who’d served shorter sentences in the prison said it wasn’t too bad. You got consistent meals and an actual mattress and blanket to sleep on, even if you had to work.

Captain Herschel crossed his arms behind his back and considered the tiny ball that was Greg. He crouched abruptly, still slightly taller than the curled-up boy but closer to the same level. “Greg. Look at me.” The soft but inflexible command made Greg peek up. He stared into the solemn, square face with its slight beard and brown bangs. “Why did you steal that bread? Were you hungry, or was it another reason?”

It would be easy to make excuses that he was hungry—that was always a smart way to earn pity. He might have if he’d been caught anywhere else. But with Pastor Judson standing right there, brow furrowed in concern, Greg couldn’t bring himself to lie. “N . . . no, sir. Pastor Jud’s soup kitchen’s real nice. I get enough to eat.”

The Watch captain nodded to himself. He turned and gestured for the bread Pastor Judson held, then looked it over, turning it slowly in his hands. Greg’s eyes naturally on the masterful design, just as they had an hour ago when he’d passed the bakery and first laid eyes on its. A masterpiece of bread artistry, displayed in the window more as a demonstration of the baker’s skill than as a meal to be eaten.

“This is a beautiful bit of work,” Captain Herschel murmured, as if to himself. Greg nodded anyway. “So was the jeweled belt buckle you stole two weeks ago. And the top hat you nicked from the Men’s Boutique last month.”

“You never caught me for that—” Greg bit his tongue and winced. A knowing grin flickered across Herschel’s mouth, so quick even the sharp-eyed boy couldn’t be sure it had happened.

“Putting aside the number of strikes you should actually have on your record,” the captain continued softly, “I’ve noticed something about the places you target. All fairly high-end. Hard to get into. And yet we never seem to find the items being sold back onto the market, despite being worth a pretty penny. And now”—he eyed the artistic bread, which, despite being crafted to last, obviously wouldn’t fare well in a street boy’s possession—“this. Tell me something, Greg.” He tilted his head, brown eyes searching. “Are you part of a gang?”

Would it be better if he was? Could he bargain for a lighter punishment? But it didn’t matter—Greg didn’t have anyone to rat out. He shook his head.

“No, I didn’t think so. Do you plan these thefts out ahead of time? Or is it more spur of the moment?”

This time, Greg shrugged and looked down. But a stern throat-clearing brought his head reluctantly back up, and he sighed. “It just hits me sum’times, alright? I saw it, I wanted it. I got it.”

“Would you have taken it if Pastor Judson had been the one who owned it?”

Greg’s head shot up, eyes wide behind his black bangs. “What? No! I’d never take something of Pastor Jud’s!”

Captain Herschel pressed farther, his brow creased. “Why? Because he’s your friend?”

“’Cause it’s wrong!” Greg burst out, face heating even as he said it. He knew stealing was wrong, even if it wasn’t from a pastor. But his ten-year-old reasoning didn’t know how to put it into the right words—that some things just felt more wrong. The boy shrugged again and fiddled with a tear in his pants, refusing to meet Captain Herschel’s eyes. So he missed the glint of understanding in them.

Captain Herschel studied him a moment longer, then pushed his hands against his knees and straightened. What had all those odd questions been about? Not that it mattered; Greg already knew where he was going. The boy braced himself for the final pronouncement.

“I don’t believe youth prison’s the answer for this one,” Captain Herschel said to Pastor Judson. Greg looked up, confused. What other option was there?

The captain turned and looked down at Greg, giving a sharp nod as if in decision. “He may be a good candidate for the Civil Servants Guild.”

Shock bolted through Greg, freezing every limb. Pastor Judson’s eyebrows shot up, but he only eyed the captain doubtfully while the boy at their feet sat immobile. “Are you certain? I’ve heard they’re very strict, and they only take apprentices by recommendation.” He hesitated, then ventured carefully, “No one’s really quite sure what they do, either. I don’t suppose you can share why Greg could be a good candidate?”

A smile creased the captain’s face, and he patted the pastor’s shoulder. “They are strict, but I think this one can handle it. And I’ll be recommending him.” He hesitated. “As to why . . . let’s just say I see a certain potential I think they can do something with. Beyond that, I’m not allowed to say,” he finished, half gruff and half apologetic.

The pastor waved a hand dismissively. “Alright, alright. I suppose the air of mystery is important to their work. You know I trust your judgement.” He looked down at Greg thoughtfully. “At least he’ll be putting that clever energy into learning a trade that serves King and country. Whatever trade that may actually be.”

The rest of what they said to each other turned to senseless buzzing in Greg’s ears. He stared straight ahead, gazing into an unexpected yet terrifying new future. The Civil Servants Guild . . .

Every street kid knew the rumors about that mysterious, secretive guild that sat like a walled fortress in the East District of Spheino. They all avoided it as much as possible, whispering of particularly bad kids who got sent behind those walls. Maybe they were made into apprentices and taught how to be assassins. Maybe they were test subjects for weird experiments, or brainwashed and turned into mindless servants. One thing was certain: None of their old friends ever saw them again.

“I’ll be good.” His voice came out as a rough squeak, and Greg had to fight through his own terror to speak louder, though no less squeakier. “I’ll be good! Send me to the youth prison! Or, or, I’ll work for the Watch! I can clean the offices and the barracks!” He was babbling now, sweat beading on his neck. He’d do anything, anything!

Captain Herschel and Pastor Judson shared a look. The captain gave a wry smirk. “I see their reputation precedes them.”

“Don’t worry, Greg,” the pastor said, leaning down to put a hand on the quaking boy’s shoulder. “Captain Herschel wouldn’t take you somewhere dangerous.”

Part of Greg wanted to believe him, but the other part could only see himself disappearing forever into the dark mouth of those dreaded gates. He cowered on his stool, glancing around for a good escape route. But just as he bolted off his stool, Captain Herschel grabbed him by the upper arm. Greg struggled with sudden violence, but he was lifted to his feet like a wet puppy by the much taller and stronger man.

“Sorry, Greg,” Herschel said implacably, “but you don’t get a choice in this matter. You gave up that right when you threw away all the second chances you were given.” He marched the child to the door of the pastor’s office, out towards the street where a horse cart had been summoned.

“It will be alright, Greg!” Pastor Judson called again, following them to the door and watching as Greg was handed into the cart with no chance of escape. “Trust in the Lord. He will see you through any trial.”

As if that was comforting, Greg thought bleakly as the carriage door shut on him like the lid of a coffin.

(To be continued...)

[autumnalwalker]

Empty Names - 11 - Afterparty

Author's Note: Sullivan makes largely-accurate-but-crucially-flawed assessments of his teammates, round two. And some more glimpses of what he's capable of doing besides standing off to the side making snide comments. Sullivan may be terrible and kind of creepy, but he's surprisingly fun to write. Word Count: 3,959 Content Warning: Mild body horror.

<-Previous Chapter Masterpost Next Chapter->

There are at least seventeen dining rooms in Bridgewood Manor.  From the chandelier-lit and gleaming grand banquet hall whose long table with a throne-like chair at one end that seats dozens to a dim, cozy café with intimately curtained booths for two.  The whimsy of tea tables on lilypads drifting across a pond while whole flowers grow suspended in the air contrasted with the stark modernist experiment in black and white and chrome.  All are served by kitchens with staff constructed from the purchased memories of expert chefs, bargained as collateral in their youth and collected upon their retirement.  Only the finest ingredients stock the stasis-locked pantries, indefinitely preserving the foodstuffs that only a centuries-old sorceress from still-older money could have purchased without blanching at the price that comes from the combination of quality, rarity, and need to transport across worlds.

Sullivan and his friend are sharing their dinner of water, a loaf of bread, a small wedge of cheese, and an apple apiece, sitting on the floor of a never-used guest bedroom.

“My friend, I dare say we struck gold with these recruits of yours.”

“You know that’s practically a pun coming from you?”

“I prefer to think of it as ‘being on brand.’”

“Honestly, I’m more surprised to hear you speak highly of them.”

“I only said ‘struck gold.’  It still needs extracted, refined, smelt, worked, and shaped into something worthwhile.”

“I think you might be overworking that metaphor.”

“No, what was overworked was your inspirational speech there at the end,” Sullivan says, shaking a still-unbitten apple at his friend for emphasis.  “Then again, I suppose it’s comforting to hear that you’re still just as corny and over-rehearsed as ever in that department.”

“That was one hundred percent off-the-cuff, thank you very much.”

“That just makes it worse.  You understand why that’s worse, right?”

“No,” they say around a bite of bread.

Sullivan slowly shakes his head.  Void Without, they’re going to be the death of him one day.

“My advice, drop the speeches.  You’ve always done better with the more de facto leadership of being the one to step up and take responsibility for getting things moving than as a formal role.”

“I’ll take your word on that.  Heh.  It’s not like I’ve been able to learn from experience.”

Sullivan nearly drops the apple.  Did they just make a self-deprecating joke about that?  Oh, no no no no, changing the topic right now.

“But as I was saying,” he resumes without a trace of fear, “the kids have potential.”

“I’d hardly call Eris and Lacuna ‘kids,’ and barely Ashan.”

“Oh please, you and I are both older than the three of them put together and I married a woman with anecdotes older than the country we do most of our work in these days.  They’re kids.”

His friend freezes for half a second, awful recognition flickering across their face.  They open their mouth to speak but the moment passes, their expression returns to an easy casual smile, and whatever they were about to say is replaced by “Do go on then.  You almost never speak well of anyone, so this should be good.”

That was a close one.  Sullivan curses himself for bringing up their age.  Is he really that out of practice from so short a time apart?  He continues on as if he noticed nothing.

“Well, obviously there’s wizard boy being a proper anchor world mage twisting thermodynamics to fuel spells from a magic system where that shouldn’t work just because it makes sense to him.”  He starts rhythmically tossing the apple in the air and catching it again.  “It’s not every day you find a mage who actually thinks to make tactical use of his power source’s side effects instead of tunnel visioning on actual spells.  Not to mention his capacity for power draw and output exceeds even my expectations.  If he can figure out a way to internalize a more efficient channeling schema and diversify his repertoire we’ll have a true rarity on our hands.”

“So that’s it?  Just another rare and valuable artifact for the collection?”

“If one wants to set a strong foundation for the sort of organization you’re looking to build then one must needs start with the best of the best to inspire the next generation.  He has the potential to be that.  And besides,” he rolls the apple down his arm, behind his shoulder and into the other hand, “he’s demonstrated a truly classic willingness to throw himself into the fire to save his comrades.  He’s a good fit for you.”

Not that Sullivan or his friend needed the help back there, but the kid couldn’t have known that.

“That is the sort of thing I would have done in his place, isn’t it?”

“More like ‘have done repeatedly.’  Maybe you’ll get to ease off and take turns now.  He’ll make a good right hand for you.  With me ever as the left, of course.”  He begins contact juggling the apple, noting with satisfaction how his friend’s eyes follow it.  “The techie meanwhile: adorably spineless.  She’ll probably just do paperwork for us all day if you let her, but - credit where it’s due - I underestimated her usefulness when you said you were bringing her on as our fifth.”

“You’re referring to the remote glyphs.  She was reluctant to talk about that when I brought it up.”

“Oh she’s definitely not supposed to have those,” he chuckles.  “The records of what she was working on before she got sacked were thoroughly scrubbed, but having seen it, there’s not much else it could be.  It’s hilarious how skittish she is about anything she’s actually good for, but I’m sure that with the right push she’ll make good clay for you to shape into whatever you want her to be.”

“I’m not interested in ‘shaping’ anyone.  These are our teammates we’re talking about, our friends, not a bunch of shiny new toys to play with.”

“Call it ‘inspiring’ her then if it makes you feel better.  She’d probably like the clay analogy though.  Given today’s revelations and her circumstances I’d be willing to bet she’s got at least a decent theoretical grasp of any transmutation related topic you care to name.  It’s an obvious case of someone who doesn’t know who they want to be but knows it’s not who they are now.  Show her like you showed me.  It should be easy enough; it’s obvious every time she looks at you that she thinks the world of you.”

“Just like it’s obvious she’s terrified of you?  Seriously, what did you say to her when I wasn’t around?”

Sullivan clasps his apple-less hand over where his heart should be and gasps in mock indignation.  “Why, I was nothing other than my usual charming self.”

“That’s what worries me.  You were being antagonistic enough while I was around; I’m not completely blind to how you are when I’m not.”

The apple’s returned to its original hand when Sullivan pulls it away from his chest into an exaggerated shrug.  He cheated that particular sleight-of-hand, but that’s one of the perks of being him.

“I was just stress testing them.  If they can’t take a bit of light provocation now, how can we expect them to hold up a year from now in a real high-stakes situation with tensions running high?  Besides, if I’d really been trying to antagonize anyone there would have been bloodshed.”

His friend sighs.  “I know, I know.  But for once, could you at least pretend to get along?  I really want this to work out.”

Sullivan stops playing with the apple.  “I know, and so do I.  That’s why I did it.  But since you asked, I’ll… show some restraint.”

“Thank you.  Building up team trust and understanding is going farther than just learning to tolerate each other.”

Sullivan peels a bit of skin off the apple with his teeth instead of answering.  The taste is so-so.  Better as a prop than food, especially for one who doesn’t need to eat.

“I notice you didn’t mention Eris,” his friend says after a few bites of their own meal.

“Muscles?  What’s there to say?  Every team needs its resident brute and she fits the role.  Big, simple, strong, durable, and resorts to physical force at every opportunity without thinking the consequences through.  But, as they say, ‘when all you have is a hammer…’” He traces a ring around the apple’s stem with a finger and then rips out the core with one tug.  “It’s cute though how protective she gets of the techie,” he continues as he tosses the de-cored ring of fruit to his friend.  “Pound of gold says the two of them are sleeping together by the end of the year if they’re not already.  Muscles will probably be obsolete once the other two come into their own, but she’s a good shield until then and - as we’ve seen - putting her in danger’s a good way to motivate the techie.  Not that you would ever do that intentionally of course.”

His friend pauses, apple halfway to their mouth, and gives him a flat look.

“And not that I would either, don’t worry,” he assures them while lazily swinging the apple core by its stem.  “Besides, it’s not like I’ll be going into the field with them again anytime soon.”

“You have a lead then?”

“That remains to be seen, but as you pointed out yourself when you got the call for this job, a bizarre accident on a known smuggling route just weeks after a cross-world smuggling ring got wiped out and robbed is enough of a coincidence to be suspicious.  I’ll be checking on our lighthouse-dwelling acquaintance to ask him if he knows anything about this ‘pulse’ our sole survivor mentioned.  After that I still need to have an interview with said survivor to make sure there aren’t any other details he’s forgetting, sort through the salvaged luggage and cargo for anything incriminating, and grease whatever appendages on whatever politicians in Crossherd I need to in order to get all those pod people out of my garden and back to Culescu.

“Suffice to say, that all should keep me occupied for some time, and even if it turns out to be unrelated to your initial case there should be some positively delicious secrets to be dug up in the course of looking into why this happened.  Assuming you want me to find out, of course.”

“Go for it.  If there’s a chance something or someone intentionally caused this disaster then we need to know.  I’m guessing that ward monitor you had me plant at the lighthouse still hasn’t picked up anything?”

Sullivan shakes his head.  “No one’s been in or out of there except us and Cabetha’s crew, and at this point I don’t think anyone’s going to be.  Either that or whatever it is they’ve been doing to keep from leaving a trace is even more paranoid in its thoroughness than I thought.  I’ll retrieve it when I’m back out there tomorrow morning.”

His friend nods.  “In the meantime, I was planning on seeing if I can track down Jero and talk xem into helping wake up the passengers.”

“Xe’s still on-world, last I checked.  Let me know when you’re bringing xem by so I can get xem through security.  You bringing wizard boy along with you?”

“No, I figure we can let him and the others rest for a few days while you and I wrap things up on this quest.”  They smirk a little as they say that last word and Sullivan lets them have this indulgence without comment.  “I take it you’re fine with him staying here that long?”

“Whatever faults I may hypothetically have, I have always been an excellent host.  I’ll not remove a guest who hasn’t done anything to deserve it.  I’ll see to it that the staff keeps him and our other guest from getting lost without me.”

“Thanks.  Speaking of Ashan though, any idea what’s with the tattoo on the back of his neck?”

“Tattoo?” Sullivan asks, his surprise nearly causing him to miss the falling apple core he’d just tossed into the air.  Barely catching it with his teeth, he pulls it the rest of the way into his mouth and swallows it whole.

“I just caught a glimpse of it when he was pulling his hair back.  You were busy with the radio and I think Eris was distracted by seasickness, so I suppose it makes sense if neither of you saw it.  It looked like a glyph of some kind.  Thought you might have recognized it if you saw it, having lived with Carnette and all.”

Sullivan smiles wide.  “Now that is some interesting gossip.”

“Please don’t sneak into his room while he’s sleeping to examine it”

“Fine,” he concedes with a huff and a roll of his eyes.

*******

It’s approaching midnight and - to his own surprise - Sullivan’s been true to his word and not spied on any guests in their sleep.  Not for the first time lately, the thought crosses his mind that he might be going soft.

He pinches the ivory candle floating in front of him to snuff out its black flame, dropping the interior of the spherical mirror chamber into darkness and releasing the ghost he’d spent the past half hour cross-examining from the infinite reflection of its corpse.  He claps twice and soon he feels the subtle shift in the air from the chamber opening.  He gathers up the cadaver and candle in his usual fashion, takes a hold of the silk rope that’s been lowered to exactly where protocol dictates, and allows himself to be lifted out.  The pull of gravity returns, a trapdoor slides shut with a soft wooden swish-thunk, a carpet unrolls with a whump, and old wooden furniture creaks as it returns to its proper alignment.

As he lets go to drop into the plushly upholstered chair now beneath him a buzzing electric chandelier flickers to life, revealing the recreation of a nineteenth century occultist’s séance parlor around him.  Dark red velvet curtains (expensive) lining the walls, crystal ball (mundane) nestled in a pillow on the table (mahogany) in front of him, ouija board (fake) on one side, tarot deck (fake but good for introspection) on the other, human skull (real) on a nearby pedestal, cabinet of curiosities (fraudulent) behind him, and eldritch communion incense (distressingly real) resting cold and unburnt in a tentacle-shaped holder.

It had been another one of Carnette’s little jokes, setting up this hackneyed facade on top of the actual necromantic summoning chamber of her own design.  There was always one of those to go through anytime Sullivan wanted to get into the tools and mechanisms she’d left behind.  Daily reminders of her just as constant as the blue metal wedding band on his finger.

Sullivan’s no mage himself - and never could be in this world cluster - but he could still manage his fair share of rituals, especially with the help of his dearly departed wife’s implements, reagents, and grimoires.  Using one of the bodies of the Culescun crew members he’d discreetly gathered up while his video feed was off to summon the associated ghost to verify Dis!ma*s’s story had practically been child’s play with the mirror chamber doing most of the work for him.  Truth be told he’s feeling disappointed, both at how little a challenge it was and at how little new he learned.  Just because the ghost had corroborated the story Dis!ma*s had told them that didn’t mean there wasn’t more going on that neither of them knew about, nor did it mean there wasn’t still something the live one had left out.  Never trust a sole survivor.  Sullivan’s been one enough times to know.

As he removes the ivory candle from his person and places it in a candlestick he contemplates repeating the process on the ship’s resident flesh-shaper.  On the one hand, the other two were just grunts and someone of higher station might know more.  On the other hand, it’s not every day he gets his hands on a body with a skill this rare and it had been dead long enough before he got it into stasis that there’s not enough essence left lingering for both summoning and… personal indulgence.

A series of rapid beeps emits from his breast pocket.  What to do about that morsel is a decision that will have to be tabled for another time.  It was hard to tell with how they blended together, but at a rough guess Sullivan would say about twenty.  Roughly twenty people have just crossed the bounds of the perception ward around Lachlan’s lighthouse.  More than he’d anticipated - even before he gave up on anyone showing - but not, he thinks, more than he can handle.

This morning it had taken the carriage roughly forty minutes to make the trip from the front door of the Manor to the base of the cliff below the lighthouse.

Alone, Sullivan figures he can make it in five.

He stands and his skin ripples and writhes from that which is beneath it.

Space warps and compresses to a single point in his vision.

He takes a step and is out in the hallway.

Another step and he’s at the far end.

A turn, a step, another hallway.

Cross rooms and repeat.

The internal labyrinth of Bridgewood Manor is not conducive to this mode of travel.

He doesn’t bother waking his friend or Ashan.

Outnumbered as he expects to be, he may do some things they wouldn’t approve of.

He’s faster alone anyway.

And he hates to disturb his friend’s rare sound sleep.

One minute.

He steps out the door into the night air.

One step to the edge of the forest.

Three steps to the correct tree.

He lets himself settle for a moment so as not to confuse the security.

A brief transit north through the dark of the bridge.

Still faster for the master of the house alone than it would be with others.

Rise from the weathered wooden floorboards to stand in an arctic wind.

No longer a storm but still enough to rattle the remains of the old collapsed cabin.

Two minutes.

The twisting beneath his skin resumes.

One step down to the shore.

Practically a leisurely stroll down the winding coast.

Faster than the wind whose bite is but a tickling nibble to him.

Three minutes.

The boom echoes across the water and off the cliffs from kilometers away.

The pillar of fire erupts high enough to pierce the perception ward.

The lighthouse’s last light.

He picks up his pace.

Four minutes.

The receiver in his breast pocket beeps twenty three times.

The beeps are more spread out this time.

He swears and rounds the bend in the coast.

The dragon and the bone ship are long gone.

A single, strained step takes him across the bay and to the top of the cliff.

The receiver beeps once with his passage.

He stands at the base of the lighthouse.

It looks like the door’s been kicked in and then lit on fire.

Five minutes.

He steps to what’s left of the top of the lighthouse.  The glowing red metal grating of the widow’s walk bends beneath his weight and begins blackening and cracking the leather soles of his shoes as he perches at the edge of the hollowed out tube.  There’s light to be seen down there from the molten stone walls; not much, but enough to show that naught remains inside but swirling smoke and ash.

Sullivan stills that which is beneath his skin before opening is mouth wide (but only humanly so), sticking out his tongue, and breathing in the char on the air.  Plenty dead here, but nothing remotely recent.  Annoying, but curious.  He stands up straight and looks around, taking full use of the high vantage point as he blinks his eyes to cycle through spectrums and filters.

A quarter of a kilometer inland, well outside the bounds of the perception ward, he spots the last fading wisps of a spatial distortion marking a mass teleport.  Even from here he can tell there’s not enough left to trace the destination.  He gives a whistle of appreciation for whoever was skilled enough to break space that cleanly.  Turning his reconfigured gaze back to the burning hole that was once an alchemist’s workshop he notices a previously unseen current toward the bottom.  May as well check that out.

Casually, he rolls up the hems of his tailored pants, breaks apart the brittle and crumbling ruins of his shoes, peels off his flaming socks and steps over the ledge.  He falls twice the height of the lighthouse tower into the hollowed-out depths of the cliff before the shock of his upright landing sends a boneless ripple through his body.  The cavern he’s landed in is low and wide.  As above, so below remains nothing but cooling molten rock, ashes, and smoke.  Oh, and an entrancingly toxic mix of fumes from whatever alchemical concoctions the fire was meant to dispose of.  A shame the fire vaporized the equipment as well.  If he could condense this into a cologne the scent would simply be to die for.  Not that he’d have many places he could get away with wearing it, but he’s sure it would be a hit in the few that he could.  

Alas, he has a job to be doing, so he’ll have to satisfy himself with the short-term sensation of the gases that burn his face and nose just as surely as the floor is burning his bare feet.  He follows the invisible current of warping space to the gasping remnants of a collapsed bridge near the wall.  Had he arrived any later it would have been gone completely.  It’s visible now, up close, refracting the orange veins of light emanating from the wall more than what mere heat distortion could accomplish and gathering the ubiquitous fumes into a slowly swirling vortex.

Sullivan sticks a hand into that vortex, hardly feeling it as his palm is shredded and his nails are plucked.  Not passable - no surprise there - and routed through multiple proxy destinations.  Clever and thorough, as befits an alchemist worthy of the name, but not so clever that one worthy of the name of Bridgewood can’t get a feel for the general area of the final destination.  More importantly, he can feel the last traces of the alchemist’s “footprint.”  The man escaped before he set his home to blow up in the faces of unwanted guests.  Lachlan always had been the sort of man who’d rather destroy his own secrets than share them.  Not quite Sullivan’s style, but close enough that he can respect it.

He withdraws his arm with a smile and massages his wrist while his hand returns to a pristine and manicured state.  Now this was a lead.  And even better, his friend wouldn’t need to be sad and blame themself for the man dying under their watch.  He’d been worried about that when the the two of them first found the bodies aboard the Culescun ship, but fortunately Dis!ma*s’s timeline of the crew having died before his friend even got the call to investigate seemed to be enough for them to compartmentalize and rationalize it all as a success.

But best of all, it had been ages since Sullivan had a proper manhunt, much less one promising to end in a conflict with a large force backed by significant magical firepower.  He’ll need to expedite his other plans for the next few days because this is going to be delicious.

<-Previous Chapter Masterpost Next Chapter->

[thesemiprofessionalkonditor]

Today I thought to post about something a bit more complex. And that is Brioche. The recipe is from Aurelie Bastian.

The website is in german, so if you don't speak it you will need to translate a fair bit, but they are authentic french recipes.

I did change it a little bit but not by much.

Now let's start. You will need:

620g wheat flour (all purpose/405 or 550)

One egg + one egg yolk

One package ore 42g of fresh yeast

125ml heavy cream

150ml milk

100g sugar

Salt

70g of cold cubed butter

Some vanilla is optional but tastes really good

All in all this is a fairly sweet bread. You can reduce the sugar if you want to but if so I would leave out the vanilla. That way you have a more savoury loaf.

Warm up your milk and cream together up to room temperature. Add in your yeast in small pieces an set it aside for now.

Add all of your other ingredients EXCEPT the butter into a bowl. If you have a standmixer, lucky you. A handheld mixer is also good, but if you have neither, be prepared to knead quite a bit😅.

Roughly combine everything in the bowl and add your liquids whith the yeast. Knead it all together until a shaggy and sticky dough forms. Now you can tip it out on your contertop or keep kneading in the bowl, that is up to you. I prefer it on the countertop but if you don't have any space, the bowl is perfectly fine as well.

Once you have your dough add in you cold and cubed butter bit by bit, kneading it into the dough as well as you can. That can take quite some time, depending in how you do it. So i wont give you a time estimate but a 'look' estimate. Your dough is finished once it looks smooth and is less sticky. If you are unsure you can do the window test. You take a small piece of dough and stretch it out carefully into a square shape. It should be able to strech out thin enough to let light through without ripping. If it rips you should keep kneading. Repeat the test whenever you need.

Once your dough is ready let it rest at room temperature. Leave it in the bowl and cover it loosely with a damp towel/cloth. Leave it for up to two hours or until it has about doubled in size.

In the meantime take a rest yourself if you kneaded by hands. You deserve it☺️.

Once your dough has proofed enough you knead it one more time to get out all the air. You will notice that it is no longer sticky.

Devide the dough in half and then each half again by three. Then you shape each sixth into long strips about the length from your fingertips to your elbow. Take three strands, lay them out infront of you and pinch the tops together. Then you braid it and put it on aprepared oven tray lined with baking paper.

Repeat that for the second loaf and cover them again loosely, this time with clingfilm. The towel would just stick to the loafs. Preheat your oven to 180°C... Umluft...circulating air... Convection oven... Google is unclear about that... The thing with the fan... While your oven is preheating pit in an ovensafe dish with about 1 liter of water. That will give you a bit more volume and a fluffier loaf.

Let your loafs rest again for 30 minutes. In the meantime prepare an eggwash from your leftover cream and eggwhite. Brush it on your loafs prior to putting them in the oven(without the clingfilm😉) and let them bake for 20 minutes. You do not necessarily need the eggwash but it keeps the bread from forming a crust to quickly and gives it a nice shine after baking.

Be cautious when taking them out after baking as there will be quite a lot of steam escaping. And to my fellow glasses wearer.. Take them of beforehand or you will be blind for a bit😶‍🌫️.

And now you are done. Let the brioche cool down before you cut into it as the heat trapped inside is crucial to keep it fluffy and moist once it has cooled down.

I enjoy it with a nice butter and just salt ontop or with chocolate sprinkles in the morning. But the best I ever had it was with my grandmas homemade raspberry jam. Not to sweet with a nice sourness to it, that compliments the richness and sweetness of the brioche.

You can also color the dough while kneading and get some funky colors after baking.

That is it for this week. Tüdelü and till next time.

[quahogchowda-blog]

Update... Omgosh... My whole house smells so good right now... Once the rolls finished rising... I brushed with egg... Sprinkled with more cheese... Added a few extra slices of Jalapenos to each roll... Soooo soft and yummy... I would say this is a success... Not quite spicy enough for me though... Next time I'll use some Habanero's too. But still very good. I really love the crispy cheesy bottoms. I will type up the recipe and add it later... 😍

Recipe added....

1.75 cups warm water

6 T. Whipping cream powder

2 eggs

.5 cup sugar

8 cups white flour

1 cup wheat flour

3 teaspoons yeast

1 1/3 cup sourdough starter

2 teas salt

1 cup butter

Note: I do not pack my flour tight into the cup. Liquid measurements can vary depending upon the thickness of your starter and the actual weight of your flour. But then again this is what makes us rebels. Lol. No scale.

Also: I warm my flour up before use. 1.5 minutes in the microwave... stirring every 30 seconds. Trust me this helps a lot where proof time is concerned. Especially when your house is cold like mine.

Mix all ingredients except the salt and butter. I used KitchenAid. I used the low setting #1 just until most of the flour is incorporated and #2 for approx 8 minutes. Until mixed well and no longer sticking to sides of bowl. Please KNOW that this is a LOT of dough. Borderline toooo much for the KitchenAid. But I always make it work by stopping and pushing dough back down often.

Add salt then mix for another minute or 2.

Add butter and mix until completely incorporated.

Note: The dough will be VERY soft and tacky... but should not be too gooey and too sticky. It should hold its shape a bit when you dump it out of the bowl.

I dump the dough out onto oiled counter and cut in half.

Knead each half briefly just to form into nice balls. Place each into an oiled bowl. Cover and let rest 1 hour or until doubled.

Roll into logs and place in loaf pans. I used 1 extra large 1000 gram pan. But this would make 2 - 1000 gram loaves or 4 regular sized loaves without a problem. Allow to rise again until at least doubled. This took about 50 minutes.

Score top if you choose. I did one long slit down the center.

Preheat oven to 425°. Place loaf pan in oven. Immediately turn heat down to 375° I baked this one large loaf for 46 minutes. I am not quite sure how long it would take to cook a regular size loaf.

I baked until bread registered 206°.

Note: if you do not have whipping cream powder or powdered milk replace the water using whatever milk you have. Whether it's cow milk... goat milk etc... 😍

For the Jalapeno Cheese rolls...

I used 1/2 of this batch of dough... Patted it into a rough rectangle shape approximately a half an inch thick. Divided into 12 pieces... Sprinkled liberally with jalapeno chunks and shredded cheese. I used three large deseeded jalapenos... but I have no idea the amount of cheese. Formed into balls. Placed on parchment covered baking sheet equally spaced. Let rise for at least an hour. Was probably a bit longer because I had my loaf of bread baking and I had to wait for that to be done. Brushed with scrambled raw egg. Sprinkled with more cheese and added a few slices of Jalapenos on top. Baked at 350° for approx 35 minutes. Final temp of baked roll was 208°.