#soon I’m gonna teach her how to use emulators | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

spencersawkward · 4 years

Text

switchblade faith // spencer reid - chapter 1

summary: one month after joining the BAU, Clea is still settling in. between solving murders and getting acclimated to DC, the only comfortable thing in her life is her friendship with Dr. Spencer Reid.

relationship: fem!OC/Spencer Reid

word count: 3.4k

hi all! welcome to my new story.

I've never written a baby Spence fic before, but I'm gonna try my best. I just wanted to get something out of the way before the book starts:

aside from the fact that it's young Spencer, this book isn't placed in a specific season. I might pull cases from different episodes, but the characters will remain the same. I've included Emily and Rossi as characters because I couldn't bear to have a story without either of them (wouldn't want to subject any of you to a Prentiss-less world).

that's pretty much it. I'm glad you're here. if you wanna read my other stories, my masterlist is here.

happy reading :)

"HA!" I slap my hand down on the pile of cards and slide it towards me, organizing them in a neat pile with a smug expression.

"this game is a sham." Spencer sighs, reaching for his book.

"you're just mad you lost." I raise an eyebrow and shuffle the cards again. "you don't wanna play another round?"

"why would I? the only skill this game requires is fast reflexes." he runs hazel eyes down the page with an alarming quickness. I scoff at his disinterest.

"maybe if you trained those reflexes as much as you trained that big genius brain of yours, you'd get a leg up." Morgan teases from his spot next to me. Spencer glances at him with a frown, his cheeks turning a light pink, before looking to me. I throw up my hands.

"he said it, not me." secretly, I smile at the fact that Derek is backing me up.

"I could beat any of you in poker." Reid defends.

"easily. it helps that I don't even know how to play." I slide the cards back into the holder and cross my arms over my chest with a sigh.

"you don't know how to play poker?" he's shocked.

"I told you, I hate card games like that!" I emphasize. things like poker, blackjack, anything that involves multiple players, I usually don't enjoy much. Emily glances up from her case file with a tiny smirk.

"why?"

"I'm a sore loser." I admit, averting my eyes. there's also the risk factor involved, which includes giving up coins or pretzels or peanuts if I lose. I tend to cling tightly to all three. Prentiss lets out a laugh and Spencer flips the page of his book.

"and winner, apparently."

"you're sassy today, aren't you?" I grin at him, pleasantly surprised.

in the month I've been working here, I haven't spoken to Spencer very much. he's been polite and I've gotten to know his intellect quite well, but he doesn't spend a lot of time with us outside of work. when we go out to get drinks, he either declines or heads home before we can even ask, a bag full of books pressed to his side.

I think he just takes a while to get comfortable around new people-- that's what JJ said when I asked why he seemed to be avoiding me. the fact that he played cards with me today felt like a victory in itself, so I'll take what I can get.

Spencer doesn't reply to my dig, only crosses his long, narrow legs and settles into his book.

"we should start briefing before we land." Hotch and Rossi walk over from their spots at the front of the plane to sit on the couch by our table. I nod eagerly and watch as Emily flips open her laptop to FaceTime Penelope about the case.

the first couple cases were more difficult than I expected because I had never worked in the field before joining the BAU, but I'm starting to get used to flying around constantly and examining actual dead bodies. working sex crimes meant I spent most of my time in front of a computer screen or just staying in the office. this is incredibly different-- which I'm starting to find might not to be a bad thing.

"--the virus killed her hard drive and left that on the screen." Penelope explains, referring to the picture of Heather Woodland's computer.

"'for heaven's sake, catch me before I kill more. I cannot control myself'." Morgan reads the message aloud from the case file. the words feel familiar in my mind and I try to remember where I've heard them before.

"that's exactly what William Heirens left behind." Spencer sparks the memory. I sit up straighter.

"the Lipstick Killer?" my fingertips trace over the case details. it's a weird aspect of the murder to emulate, especially because he didn't even leave the message in lipstick. I guess he's not really concerned with that; based on the unsub's previous victims, we have just under 36 hours to find her.

"his first victim was Melissa Kirsh, 26," Reid scratches his nose as he reads, frowning so hard that I start to think he'll form permanent wrinkles. he's got such a baby face, it's almost funny. "stab wounds, strangulation."

"so he stabbed her first, and then strangled her to finish the job?" Morgan repeats.

"what's with using a belt for the second murder?" Emily flips through the papers, confused. Spencer stiffens in his spot as he realizes this is the perfect time to share his freakishly expansive forensic knowledge.

"strangulation with your bare hands actually isn't as easy as you would believe. he probably tried it, found that it took too long, then stabbed her. and blood takes a long time to clean, so he decided a belt would be more efficient."

"he's perfecting his method." I can't tear my eyes away from the photos, despite the roiling sensation they put in my stomach. even with the things I've already seen, I don't think I'll ever get over photographs like this.

"we'll be landing soon and then we're meeting up with the Seattle field office. be ready to split up once we hit the ground." Hotch snaps shut his case file and stands up, breaking off to go sit alone. Rossi takes note of the old card deck that sits on the table.

"poker?" he looks between the four of us.

"nope." Emily chuckles.

"this one doesn't know how to play." Morgan gestures to me, causing Rossi to turn to me.

"were you raised in a barn?" he asks in his usual manner of speaking: blunt sarcasm with a hint of mockery. I frown sarcastically.

"something like that."

"at some point this week, we'll sit down and I'll teach you." he gets up, pats my shoulder, and walks over to join Hotch. I lower my voice once he's far enough away.

"is he actually gonna make me do that?"

"you don't know Rossi." Morgan shakes his head slowly, slides his headphones back on, and sinks into his seat.

"I'll join and bring JJ with me." Emily winks at me reassuringly, noting the tapping of my nail against the surface of the table. Rossi is a legend in the field and I've read all of his books, but didn't want to freak him out by telling him so. it was embarrassing enough when I met him and got tongue-tied while shaking his hand. he's got an elusive energy that intimidates me, and I'd prefer not to showcase that by humiliating myself with poker.

instead of dwelling on thoughts of how I'm going to fail in front of my idol, I open up one of my books and try to pass the time.

...

while I'm writing some notes on one of the many white boards scattered throughout the field office, I realize that I'm one of four other women in the room, including Emily. she's talking to Hotch and another agent at the opposite end of the room; Reid is unpacking his signature book bag and seems deep in thought. Rossi is reading a document. everyone around me seems to be in a hurry to do something, and I begin to feel dumb.

"you okay?" Morgan asks me. I realize that I've been standing with my marker hovering over the board. my fingertips press into my temple before I turn to him.

"yeah, definitely. just thinking." my mind travels to the map we've got pasted up and the red marker lines that Spencer has already created with the geographical profile.

"looks like we're getting the classic Seattle treatment." Derek points outside to the rain pelting the windows, streaming down the glass and distorting the glow of the city outside. it's gloomy today, with a slight chill running through the streets. I nod and turn back to my task, suddenly realizing something.

"he's willing to travel with the body." I mutter to myself. Morgan steps up next to me, crosses his arms across his chest.

"he must drive a vehicle that can conceal one, then." he glances over to Hotch to see what the unit chief has to say, but Spencer speaks up first.

"one in seven point four drivers in Seattle owns an SUV." it's like a flip switches at the mention of a statistic, diverting his attention from something nebulous in his mind to the tangible case. he's a little similar to a robot.

"an Explorer with tinted windows?" Morgan speaks again as he looks over the case photos.

"those rate higher among women." Spencer again.

"sure, but how do we know it's his car?" I wonder.

"what about a Jeep Cherokee?" Hotch chimes in, almost startling me with the deep register of his voice. I pull my bottom lip between my teeth as I think on it.

"Jeeps are more masculine." Reid comes close to me in order to examine the picture I'm holding. he smells like clean laundry and some nice soap scent that I can't place. maybe it's the gel he uses to slick back his hair. no cologne or aftershave. I don't think he'd need to shave, what with his smooth baby face.

Spencer has some special quirks that make him a little more interesting. he usually avoids physical contact with other people-- doesn't shake hands-- but at other times, he doesn't seem to have self-awareness. like right now, where the shoulder of his red sweater is just barely touching mine. I hand him the picture and step away.

"unsubs love to assert their masculinity."

Hotch nods along, encouraging me to share more of what I'm thinking. after swallowing down a lingering nervousness, I tap the push pin marking where the last body was dumped. "he dropped her out-of-state, so he probably has a previous knowledge of law enforcement. maybe he's got a criminal record?"

"good, Williams." Hotch praises me. my fist clenches triumphantly at my side as he turns to the agent who has been watching us intently. "when do we meet with your task force?"

"four." the man replies. I balk at this, my posture shifting. the shortest time constraint I've ever had here has been a full day. it's already one in the afternoon.

"you want an accurate profile by four today?" I glance between Morgan and Spencer, but the latter is rocking back and forth on his heels with his eyes glued to the white board. Morgan doesn't seem put off by it.

"we can do that." Hotch scowls, snapping shut the case file with a finality that tells me we're about to split up. "Dave and Morgan, head to the last dump site. Williams, Reid, I want you to talk to Heather's brother and try to find out what you can about her life. Prentiss and I will stay here in case of new developments."

I nod curtly, grab my jacket, and glance over at Spencer. he runs his hand over his hair, although I can't imagine what there is to smooth down, then walks over to me.

"you ready to go?" I ask, brandishing the file. he and I have only done two interviews together; I spent most of my beginning weeks working with Emily to get a feel for the job. both times with the boy genius have been fine, if not a little awkward.

he nods in answer to my question. "would you mind driving?"

"no license?" I tease to lighten the mood, but he doesn't get the joke. instead, he frowns at me with something of a distracted expression, adjusts his bag.

"no, I don't like driving in the rain."

"oh," I recover quickly and put a friendly smile on my face. "no problem."

"thanks." he walks ahead of me and I cringe at my own behavior. he acts so differently from earlier on the jet that I start to wonder if I did something wrong. maybe he's just in his head or something; I know I would be if I had an IQ that enormous.

when we get to the house of Heather Woodland's brother, a gorgeous golden lab greets us in the entryway. she puts her paws up on my legs and I reach down to scratch behind her ears with a smile on my face.

"Sandy, calm down." her owner grabs her collar gently to calm her. "sorry."

"no, it's fine, I love dogs." I wave it off and step inside. Spencer is eyeing Sandy warily, but she seems just as eager to say hi to him as she was to me. when she lets out a singular, enthusiastic bark, he startles.

"Mr. Woodland," I suppress my laugh by changing the subject. "I'm Special Agent Williams and this is Special Agent Dr. Reid."

we shake hands, my colleague giving his usual wave and polite smile. the interviewee takes in Spencer's appearance. I know what's coming.

"you look too young for medical school." Woodland says to Reid. this has happened a couple times since I joined the team, but Spencer never seems to mind. if anything, he lights up at the opportunity to share the reason for his official title.

"they're PhD's. three of them." he gives a little smile as we walk into the house, me shaking a few stray raindrops from my hair.

"so... are you a genius or something?" Heather's brother leads us past the hallway into the living room, which is unkempt and littered with pictures, catalogs, and toys. he must have kids in school right now. that would also explain the breed of dog.

"I don't believe that intelligence can be accurately quantified."

"he's being modest," I glance over at Spencer. "Dr. Reid can read 20,000 words a minute-- he's definitely a genius."

Woodland stares at Spencer for a second as he tries to fathom the speed at which someone's mind would have to turn in order to process all that information. I still can't imagine it. Spencer's eyes avoid Woodland's shyly. instead, he watches me as I pet Sandy.

soon after, we ask him about Heather's personality and tendencies. her brother is more than willing to give us all the information we need. I'm surprised, however, by my partner's ease at wandering around Woodland's house, flipping through the magazines on top of the TV and reading the spines of books on shelves. he's quite conspicuous about it.

about halfway through my mental list of questions, Sandy keeps jumping up and wagging her til.

"I'm gonna take her to the backyard quick," Woodland tells us. "one second."

he ducks out of the room and I wait until I know he's out of earshot before sidling up beside Reid.

"there's an immediate relationship established between a buyer and a seller," he tells me, holding up a Datsun Z catalog. we know that she was in the market for one. "if I want to coax a young woman into my car..."

"offer her a test drive." I finish his sentence. of course, within ten minutes of sifting through this woman's house, Spencer has figured out the ruse used to lure her. Woodland returns a moment later with a smile, but we tell him that we've gotten the information we need before leaving.

in the car, Spencer theorizes about the unsub's mental condition as I try to navigate traffic in the storm. thunder rumbles overhead, occasionally sending a vibration through the car. my knuckles tighten around the wheel a bit. I also hate driving in the rain. his rambles fills the silence, however, and somewhat soothe my nerves.

"he doesn't have the MO of a paranoid psychotic. dumping the bodies out in the open, with a weapon nearby... that doesn't align."

"he covers their eyes with duct tape multiple times over, though. he knows he's going to kill them, but he doesn't want them to see his face?" my fingertips drum over the wheel nervously.

"what's wrong?" Spencer asks suddenly, glancing at my hands and then at my face. I still my movements at the change in subject.

"huh? nothing. I just don't like driving in the rain, either."

"oh. I'm sorry." he straightens a bit in his seat. the apology surprises me a little, but he seems genuinely sympathetic. I guess I really don't know him that well.

"it's cool."

we fall into an awkward silence and I bite my lip. we should get back to talking about the case. heaven knows Spencer has more facts to spew, more theories to share about this unsub. anything is better than the gap in conversation. I open my mouth to say more about what we learned at the house, except Spencer speaks first.

"so... how are you liking working here?" he asks awkwardly. it takes a second for the question to register with me. he sounds uncomfortable whenever we're alone and that makes me uncomfortable in turn. where everyone else was quick to include me in their jokes and discussions, Reid always sounds like talking to me exhausts him. it's obvious that he's socially awkward. there's no judgement from me; I'm just surprised that he's pushing to talk about non work-related subjects.

"I like it," not really an accurate summation. I don't think a heart-to-heart is exactly the right move when talking to him. "a little stressful, though."

"you worked in sex crimes before, right?" he looks out the window. there isn't much to see except for the rain-blurred skyline. I nod.

"yep."

"that sounds... hard." he shifts in his seat as he tries to come up with more points of conversation. it's kind of endearing, honestly. I throw him a bone.

"so is profiling."

"why'd you switch?" his eyes flit over to mine as he quickly adds, "if you don't mind me asking."

I take a second to come up with an answer. of course, there's the classic response: I've always wanted to help people— which isn't wrong— it's also not the whole answer. all through college and the Academy, I had my head focused on one thing. I could interview killers and get inside their heads, but there's something entirely different that you don't get from pure research. and one person inspired that in me before I had finished high school.

"don't tell him I said this, but I really wanted to work with Rossi." I say in a hushed tone. there's a slight smile on my lips because I haven't told anyone on the team in fear of being teased. I don't think Spencer is likely to gossip with Rossi about me, though.

"really?" now he sounds surprised.

"I've read all his books and I've been to a couple lectures. he doesn't remember me, evidently." the thought is more funny than embarrassing. he spoke at my college a few years back and I recall being on the edge of my seat, trying to come up with the courage to ask the questions that filled my head. I was too shy.

"does he know you're a fan?" Spencer loosens up a bit.

"nope," we pull off the freeway as we near the field office. I stop at a red light and look over. "I didn't want to embarrass myself with the whole 'your work changed my life' spiel."

at this, Spencer lets out a short, nervous giggle. it's a nice sound, that laugh. it makes me smile when he seems to relax in his seat.

"that's exactly what I did." he says. I frown.

"you told him his books changed your life?" I blush as I realize I just inadvertently made fun of him.

"I, um... well, I got excited to talk about his research." he averts his gaze again and his cheeks turn a slight pink. there's a dimple in his cheek, I notice, that keeps tugging upward. this is my first time having a non-forced moment with Spencer alone; a wave of satisfaction washes over me as I realize the potential for another friend here.

"trust me, I get it." I laugh. we pull into the parking ramp for the field office and I find a spot by the door. Spencer hoists that bag into his lap and runs his hand through his hair. when I pull the key out of the ignition, he waits for me to get out of the car before we start walking toward the door.

it's small, but I appreciate that he doesn't run off without me. we don't talk as we walk, our footsteps echoing along the cement walls.

oh my god first chapter holy fuck! it's short, but I don't wanna overwhelm. I'm so excited for this book!

#spencer reid #matthew gray gubler #dr. reid #criminal minds #mgg #fanfic #fanfiction #wattpad #friends to lovers #BAU #slow burn

86 notes · View notes

gaeilgeoirgay · 3 years

Text

SpideyTorch Week Day Six -Space

I used the alternate theme of space today, so I hope you enjoy it!

Ao3 Link

@spideytorchweek

it could be a smile (if you’re feeling generous)

Johnny scowls at the alien prince who’s daring to flirt with his Peter. The prince knows they’re together and he’s still trying to get into Peter’s pants! Johnny can’t blame him for thinking Peter’s attractive, but God, when someone tells you they’re not interested and in a happy relationship, it’s practically a neon sign saying “no flirting allowed!” and this guy is just not getting it.

Peter looks uncomfortable and Johnny would go over and save him (and maybe punch Prince Can’t Keep His Hands To Himself) except he’s currently talking to the Queen and he can’t exactly leave the conversation just to deck her son in the face. That would incite a massive intergalactic diplomatic incident and then Sue would be disappointed in him and also all of them might die because Johnny committed the crime of assaulting literal royalty.

The Queen notices his straying gaze though and sighs when she sees where its landed. Johnny panics for a second, thinking she’s sighing at his rudeness but her eyes are locked on her son.

“That boy, honestly. No matter how his mother and I try to teach him he goes and does this again and again. Sir Storm, feel free to go to your beloved and send my son to me. It seems he needs yet another lecture on what it means when a person says no. And he wonders why his sister is heiress to the throne instead of him. My deepest apologies on his behaviour.” She says, shaking her head sadly.

Johnny’s eyes widen and he gives a hasty bow to her. “Thank you, my lady. The fault is not yours.” He says before he makes a beeline for Peter, who sees him coming instantly. His shoulders slump in relief and Johnny quickens his pace as the prince has the sheer audacity to lay a hand on Peter’s arm.

He slides between two of the glowing-blue aliens that make up the planet with a quick apology and finally makes it to Peter. He takes hold of Peter’s hand and bares his teeth at the Prince in what might be called a smile if the observer was being generous.

“Prince Ahkilus. I see you’ve been keeping my lover company while I’ve been gone. Your mother, the Queen, was just asking after you.” He says as politely as he can manage and the Prince’s face hardens. Literally. The inhabitants of the planet have a jelly-like blue form that can change consistency at will. It’s both cool and creepy.

“You’re his lover? I’ll admit I’m surprised. Such a lovely creature like yourself could do a lot better.” Ahkilus says condescendingly. Both Peter and Johnny are taken aback by the sheer confidence he has in insulting Johnny, despite this being a diplomatic alliance that both parties want.

Peter recovers first though. “Yes, Johnny is my partner, in all ways, and I could not in fact “do better”. I love Johnny and I happen to think he’s incredible. I don’t like your tone of voice nor your words, Your Highness, and I certainly do not appreciate you calling me a “creature”. I believe this conversation is over.” He says sharply, and the Prince gapes at him.

“I am a Prince! How could this.. this.. glorified flamethrower be better than me!” Akhilus splutters indignantly. Glorified flamethrower. Huh, gotta give him points for no creativity whatsoever. Johnny’s been called better by worse people. Even Doom has better insults.

“For starters, Johnny treats me like the person I am. He also loves me genuinely rather than just my body. And yes, the “glorified flamethrower” is a better match than you are.” Peter retorts. Hah, match. Probably not an intentional pun though, because that’s the third time he’s quoted Akhilus’ words back to him. When Peter starts quoting, you start hiding. It’s one of the few indicators that he’s truly furious and any sane being should be running.

Akhilus however, is not just short a few spanners, he never had a toolbox in the first place. The idiot continues spluttering and starts gearing up for more insults against Johnny and for more creepy “compliments” to Peter. Johnny may not know much about this planet’s flirting customs but he’s pretty sure it’s a bad idea to call the person you’re interested in a creature. “I will not be disrespected like this! I am royalty and I may choose whatever consort I please! No man could be better for you than I am.” Akhilus says, offended. Okay, Johnny is pissed now. Peter is his own person and Akhilus doesn’t get to just decide that he’s his consort. He lets Peter handle it though because he’s the one Akhilus is trying to “claim”. He gets to kick the creep’s ass, no matter how much Johnny would like to do it.

“Excuse me? I am no ones consort. I chose Johhny and I will continue to choose Johnny, especially over you! I’ve already told you that I’m not interested, I have continually shown I am not interested and I would very much like for you to fuck off!” Peter snarls at Akhilus, flushed and angry. It’s kind of hot though.

Johnny can’t resist getting in a little bit of verbal evisceration for himself though. “Peter’s made it clear he doesn’t want you, Akhilus. Your mother does though and I imagine she’ll be having a pretty long conversation with you as to why the third royal in line to the throne should refrain from ignoring other people’s refusals. You and the word “no” may not get along but it’s gonna cost you a whole lot more than a shot at the throne if you don’t try to learn it.” He says smoothly and Akhilus goes purple.

“Are you threatening me?” He demands. Johhny shakes his head. “I’m just letting you know how the world works, Princey. But yeah, if I wasn’t here as a diplomat I’d be setting you on fire. Just a bit.” He says pleasantly, a bright smile fixed on his lips.

Akhilus starts to raise his hand, probably to hit Johnny, and Johnny is fully prepared to claim self defense if he does, but the Prince's arm is caught by the Queen, who is radiating displeasure like an angry mother-shaped tornado. Rest in pieces Akhilus, Johnny will not miss you.

Akhilus grows a braincell and stays silent as his mother tells her guards to bring him back to his room, which is probably the best idea he’s had all night. Meanwhile, the Queen turns to the two of them with apology written all over her face.

“I am truly sorry for how Akhilus acted. Rest assured, he will be punished for his blatant overstepping of your boundaries and for the insults he cast at you.” She says gravely and Johnny shakes his head.

“You did the best you could to raise him, Your Majesty. His words are his own. You don’t need to apologise.” He says sincerely and the Queen smiles.

“I see why your lover defended you so vehemently. You are a kind man, Johnathan Storm.” She says kindly and Johnny blushes. It is nice to hear though, especially after how harsh Akhilus had been.

The Queen soon says her goodbyes, stating that she must attend to the other guests and speak to her wife and Johnny and Peter both gove her their best wishes. Every other aspect of their visit has been perfect and Johnny would honestly love to come back. She extends her invitation to the two of them anytime they want it as well, so they’re definitely welcome.

Peter slumps against his side once the Queen is gone and sighs deeply. Johnny can’t help but emulate him, because it’s been a really long day and Akhilus’s bastardry was really the cherry on top. God, he could sleep for a week.

“How about we head back to our room and go to sleep on that ridiculously comfy bed?” Peter says tiredly. “You read my mind, sweetheart. You read my mind.” Johnny says so they do exactly that. Johnny’s asleep within seconds, his hand intertwined with Peter as they both drift off, all thoughts of Akhilus replaced with each other.

#spideytorchweek2021 #spideytorch #peter parker #johnny storm #fanfiction

13 notes · View notes

fischerfrey · 3 years

Photo

Chapter 2: Apprentice Curse-Breakers

Summary: The new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher has some extracurricular activities in mind, and Ben struggles with the events of last year.

Pairings: Eventual OC/Merula Snyde

Word count: 3k

Warnings: Mild swearing, canon typical mean Merula

Previous / Next

Chapter 2: Apprentice Curse-Breakers

Their first class of the year was DADA, and that made Verna extremely nervous. Rowan had made it clear they didn’t think Rakepick could be trusted. In their words, she had been shifty at best and suspicious at worst last year when she had worked with Verna. Rowan was not happy about Rakepick’s appointment as a professor and that made Verna uneasy too. She had always known Rowan had far better judgement than her, and most days Charlie and Ben agreed with that sentiment. So, after breakfast, when the Gryffindors were filing into the DADA classroom, the mood between the four friends was not over the moon. Rakepick was already in the classroom, writing something at her desk. The class went through some major decorative changes each year when a new teacher took it over. It had become routine by now. For Rakepick, the theme seemed to be artifacts of various sizes and ages, that were spread all over the room on pedestals and tables, cabinets and other surfaces.

“Cursed items,” Rowan noted, when they took their seats.

“A niffler,” Verna replied, pointing out Sickleworth, Rakepick’s niffler whom she had had an unlikely partnership with last year, while investigating the Sleepwalking curse.

That was when Professor Rakepick got up from her seat, cleared her throat and snapped her wand, closing the classroom door and making writing appear on the blackboard in front of the class.

“Welcome to Defence Against the Dark Arts,” she announced, in a tone that implied not a small amount of unimpressedness. “I realize I am your fifth instructor in as many years, and that most of your other teachers’ methods were as questionable as their characters.”

Next to Verna, Rowan balled their hands into fists. They obviously had a thing or two to say about that.

“This year, I am not only going to teach you how to defend yourselves, but how to attack the Dark Arts,” Rakepick continued. “You will receive the finest instruction from someone who has actually faced the worst the Dark Arts have to offer.”

Something about the speech did make Verna listen. She couldn’t deny being interested in learning combat spells, the more the better, because she was sure to need them. From the corner of her eye, she also saw Merula listening intently. This year was gonna be another one spent trying to beat Merula to the top of their class. DADA was pretty much the only subject where she had any chance at all. Usually, it was Rowan and Merula vying for the title, but Verna wasn’t hopeless when it came to duelling and martial magic.

“They say this position is cursed,” Rakepick was saying now. “But breaking curses is what I do best. Now let’s get started, take out your books.”

After a whole class spent on how to deal with Ghouls, Verna was feeling much better about DADA. Maybe Rakepick wasn’t going to be so bad. Rowan didn’t feel the same way.

“She might know what she’s talking about, but she has no teaching experience, and I still don’t trust her after the way she dealt with you last year Verna,” they were saying, a little heated. “I think you should be careful if she decides to ask something from you, or… something…”

“Don’t you think you’re maybe overreacting a little bit?” asked Charlie.

“I agree with Rowan,” Ben inserted. “I don’t like her either.”

“We’ll be careful,” Verna assured her friends. “But Dumbledore must’ve had a reason hiring her.”

“Yeah, that’s true… I don’t know, I just don’t like this…” Rowan said and slowly the conversation turned to more casual matters, such as Barnaby Lee’s new pet crup puppy. The general consensus seemed to be that it was extremely cute.

After the day’s classes Verna was officially introduced to one Percy Weasley in the library. She and Charlie headed there to get started on charting out how much cramming they’d have to do for their O.W.L.s, only to find Bill and Percy already there, both noses buried deep in books, a scrappy-looking rat sitting on the table next to their study-material.

“Oh, hi Verna,” Bill said with a smile. “Did you two come to actually study?” The surprise in his voice was neither flattering nor unexpected.

“We came to plan on studying,” Verna told Bill, as she and Charlie sat down.

“Well, that’s better than nothing,” Bill chuckled and then patted Percy on the shoulder. “Percy, this is Verna.”

“I know,” Percy said in a manner that seemed much too adult-like for an 11-year-old. “She gave us a rather short introduction of Gryffindor common room last night, but I haven’t had a chance to properly introduce myself, I’m Percy Weasley, future prefect, Head Boy, and Minister for Magic.”

“It’s really nice to meet you, Percy, sounds like you have your future pretty well planned out,” Verna said and emulated her tone and smile to Beatrice from the previous night, with wildly different results. It appeared Percy was not a fan of hers.

“If you let him, he’ll plan your life for you, too,” Bill said, amused.

“This is my loyal rat, Scabbers,” Percy continued.

“Loyal?” asked Charlie. “It runs off every chance it gets.”

“There’s something off about that rat, yeah…” Bill agreed.

“Ron likes him!” Percy defended his pet.

“Ron’s eight, he likes everything except for spiders,” Charlie complained. Both of the older Weasleys seemed to have such a weird aversion for poor Scabbers that Verna felt bad for it.

“I have a rat too; his name is Hamish. He actually belonged to my brother, but I’ve been taking care of it in his absence.”

This seemed to appeal to Percy, whose tone towards Verna changed a little, when he said: “That’s really kind of you, to take care of your brother’s pet.”

Verna considered this a victory.

Their study session was cut short, when Professor Rakepick approached their table something like thirty minutes into Verna and Charlie trying to figure out what exactly to focus most on.

“Mr. Weasley,” she started, and all three of the Weasleys replied with an immediate ‘yes?’.

Verna stifled a laugh.

“William Weasley,” Rakepick specified. “Come with me. You too Miss Malinda, we have work to do.”

Exchanging a glance with Charlie, and Rowan’s misgivings about Rakepick running on a loop in her head, Verna followed Bill and the professor out of the library.

“What is this about?” she whispered to Bill.

“No idea, I guess we’ll find out soon, though…”

Rakepick took them up to her classroom, where Merula Snyde was already sitting on one of the desks, preoccupied with changing the colour of her painted nails to pay much attention to Verna and the others entering. Verna wasn’t happy to see her. Whatever Rakepick had in mind seemed to involve Merula, and that was never good news.

“Cease your activities Miss Snyde, we have important matters to discuss,” Rakepick commanded, and Merula immediately jumped down from the desk and stood straight. Verna and Bill walked up next to her as Rakepick went on to stand beside the teacher’s desk. She was tall and had a bearing of someone accustomed to commanding respect. Verna found it quite easy to believe she was capable of handling anything that was thrown at her. That’s how I want to be, she thought briefly.

“Congratulations you three. Of all the students at Hogwarts, I’ve chosen you to be my apprentice curse-breakers. Mr Weasley for his bravery and determination, Miss Snyde for her ambition and strength, and Miss Malinda for her natural talent, and obvious connection to the cursed vaults.”

“Why is Merula here?” Verna asked without missing a beat. She was not about to compromise her chances of rescuing her brother for the sake of Merula’s ambitions. She knew by now that Merula would never sacrifice her chances of getting whatever power and knowledge the vaults could give her, not for Jacob’s sake, not for anyone’s.

“Because she is a powerful witch and you’d be a fool not to accept her help, after all, I had to save you from Mr Copper’s attack just months ago.”

Merula remained quiet but gave Verna a smug grin.

“Enough. We need each other’s help to find the next vault and end its curse before anyone gets hurt,” Rakepick said. “I’m going to train you so that you can be more of a help than a hindrance to me, starting with the Incarcerous spell. Wands out!”

The three of them spent the next three hours attempting to learn the Binding spell with Rakepick’s instruction. She was a good teacher. Strict, demanding, but very clear in the way she instructed them, not leaning on any extra flash, just taking the simplest route to the desired outcome. Unsurprisingly, Bill was the first one to nail the spell. He had two years’ worth more experience and had always been talented. When Verna finally managed to cast the spell on Merula, she felt a sense of accomplishment far greater than if they had used training dummies. The spell conjured ropes that wound tightly around Merula, trapping her arms and binding her legs together. She wobbled for a while and then stumbled to the floor with a grunt. Verna couldn’t help but grin.

“Verna, I don’t think she can breathe…” Bill interrupted her victorious train of thought.

“Oh, shit,” Verna cursed. “Finite Incantatem!” she pointed her wand towards Merula and the ropes around her unbound. “Are you alright?” she asked despite herself.

“Of course, Malinda, mind your own business,” Merula spat, looking more hurt by the audacity of Verna asking her if she was okay. She got up and dusted off her ropes, avoiding looking at any of them.

Rakepick cleared her throat and said: “This is a valuable lesson; we are a team now. A family. No matter what happens, we must protect one another. Do you understand?”

With a sideways glance at Merula, Verna nodded. She hadn’t had this good of a chance to finding any of the previous vaults. Rakepick was an accomplished curse-breaker and now it started to make sense why she had singled out Verna the previous year. Maybe she had already known she’d work here this year and need Verna’s expertise with stopping another curse roaming the halls of Hogwarts. That was something good to tell Rowan, at least, to put their mind on ease.

“And the rest of you?” asked Rakepick with impatience.

“Of course,” Bill said immediately.

Merula eyed both of them with nothing short of disgust and then said: “Fine.”

“Good, then that’s all for tonight, you can go.”

Rakepick ushered them out of her class, and the three of them were left standing in the empty, darkening corridor. Verna had no idea about the time, but she guessed it was quite late and that they most definitely had missed dinner.

“So that was kind of… strange,” Bill said, but he sounded more excited than anything.

“Finally, someone is doing something in this school,” scoffed Merula.

“And I don’t want you or your megalomania getting in the way of saving my brother,” Verna exclaimed.

“Don’t worry Malinda, you finally have capable people helping so there’s a chance you won’t fuck this up.”

“Fuck off Merula.”

The shorter girl laughed, but there was nothing humorous about the sound. “You like to pretend you’re above the rest of us with your little mission to save your brother, but let’s face it; you’re just scared to admit you like feeling special. You want what’s inside those vaults just as much as me.”

“Shut your mouth about my brother,” Verna snarled. “I’m nothing like you.”

“Of course you’re not, cause I’m not pathetic.”

Verna instinctively reached for her wand and Merula did the same, taking a threatening step closer.

“Verna, we should… probably go… now,” Bill interrupted and placed himself between the two girls. He then proceeded to practically drag her towards the Gryffindor common room by the arm.

“I had it under control,” Verna said once they were out of earshot.

“Maybe, but I’d rather not take either one of you to the hospital wing in several different pieces.”

“Fine, yeah, you’re right or whatever… She just gets on my nerves.”

Bill gave her a curious look Verna couldn’t quite place, and then said: “Yeah, I know. You shouldn’t let her get to you that much, it’s what she wants.”

“I know, it’s infuriating.”

“You’re gonna have to be able to work together somehow, though.”

Verna frowned. “I’m not risking my brother’s, or anyone else’s life because of some school rivalry, don’t worry.”

“Good,” Bill said and then stopped. “Is that… Ben?” he asked and pointed to an alcove not far from where they were standing. It was dark so he was partly concealed in shadows, but when he heard his name, he looked towards them.

“Oh, hi Verna, Bill…”

“What are you sitting out here for?” Verna asked and went to her friend. Ben looked rough, like he hadn’t slept.

“I wanted to be alone and there’s always someone in the common room or the dorm…”

“Oh, sorry, I can go- “

“No, actually, can I talk to you for a second, Verna… I…” he trailed off and looked at Bill apologetically.

“I’ll go on ahead, don’t stay out long though,” Bill said reassuringly. Then he walked off to the direction of the Gryffindor tower.

“What did you want to talk about?” asked Verna and sat on the bench in the alcove next to Ben.

For a moment, Ben didn’t look like he was going to answer. Verna had the sudden urge to hug him, but she didn’t move, fearing that Ben would change his mind and leave like last night. Finally, he cleared his throat and stammered: “I’m scared that someone’s gonna take control of me again, and make me do something worse, or that I already have but I just can’t remember.”

He really was in a state. Gently, Verna laid a careful hand on his shoulder.

“We’ll work this out, you don’t have to deal with all this shit on your own, Ben, I’m the reason you’re in this mess in the first place.”

“I still don’t remember what really happened before I attacked you… Do you… do you really believe me? That I was controlled?”

“I promise you that I do, please at least stop worrying about that,” Verna assured him. Ben huffed out a breath and his shoulders relaxed a bit.

“Thank you, Verna, I don’t know if I’d be as understanding if I was in your shoes…”

Verna bit her lip. It wasn’t a pleasant thing to hear, but she couldn’t exactly blame Ben. Everything had gotten so messed up last year with Rowan and Ben arguing and Verna feeling like she was losing touch with them both. They used to all be so close and now every single interaction was laced with something like doubt. An uncertainty Verna wanted so badly to get rid of.

“We should head back to the common room before Filch finds us here, c’mon,” Verna said and got up.

Ben stood to follow and they were about to head after Bill, when suddenly Ben grabbed Verna’s arm and pulled her behind him.

“Look out!” he yelled and took out his wand but before he could so much as utter an incantation, a purple light hit him and knocked him to the side. Verna looked frantically for the source of the spell, and had her wand out in seconds, but she wasn’t fast enough either. Suddenly she felt her entire body stiffen up, as she was hit with what must’ve been the full body-bind curse. As she hit the ground quite painfully, she saw a hooded figure approach them from the shadows of the corridor. Desperately she tried to move, knowing full well it was not going to work. Her breathing came in shallow gasps as she lay there, helpless to do anything. The red-clad figure walked closer and kicked Verna’s wand out of her reach, as if it would’ve been any use for her in this state anyway.

“I told you death was coming to Hogwarts, Verna Malinda,” the figure said in a voice that was impossible to place or describe. It was modified with magic. “We still need you alive, but before this year ends, one of your friends has to die…”

Verna tried to focus on getting her fingers to move, to do something, anything. Her thoughts were a flurry of desperation and anger. The hooded figure leaned over Verna. She couldn’t make out a face or anything that could be used to recognize the attacker. Verna braced herself for something worse, but nothing happened. Instead, the figure stalked off, back into the shadows.

Verna was still trying to force her uncooperative muscles to move, when she saw Ben move in the corner of her eye. The boy sat up and Verna lost sight of him. She heard his footsteps and a muttered spell, and then felt her body able to move again. Without a second glance at Ben, Verna shot up like a lightning bolt, chasing into the direction the hooded person had disappeared to. She had to catch them, she had to. Her ears rang and when she looked down to her wand hand, it was shaking. She wasn’t sure if it was anger, fear, or both.

“Verna, wait!” she heard Ben’s voice, and footsteps echoing after her.

Of course, there was nothing and no one to find. Verna was getting sick of this. She balled her hands into fists so hard her nails dug into her palms. How could she have let the wizard incapacitate her like that? Ben caught up to her and Verna took notice of him now that she could think a little more clearly. He seemed fine, just a little rattled.

“Verna, hey, it’s okay,” Ben tried to reassure her, but it wasn’t okay. Someone had threatened to kill one of her friends. The thought made her chest feel like it was filled with water. The ease with witch this stranger had knocked both of them out of the game made Verna feel sick all over.

“This is bullshit.”

“Verna-“

She took a deep breath. “Are you alright?” she then asked Ben.

“Yeah, you?”

Verna nodded. “Do you think that was someone we know being used against us?”

“I don’t know to be honest… but we should head back now, before someone else attacks us…” Ben said and there was nothing to it, he was right. Verna knew she wasn’t going to find anything but trouble if she stayed here, so she followed Ben back to the Gryffindor common room.

13 notes · View notes

sustraiii · 4 years

Text

TEAM ZRCN ARC 3 - CHAPTER 15

A less battle heavy chapter this time as Zelde and Wren share a nice bonding moment.

Also will Rosie ever get to punch something? Maybe one day...

Many thanks to @neopoliitan for proof reading for me again!

ZELDE

Zelde closed her eyes and took a steadying breath, shifting the weight of the weapon until it was comfortable in her hand. This was the first time she had been able to train with it since Morgan and Calantha had adjusted it for her. She spent a few minutes shifting it from the gun form she was familiar with, to the new sword attachment Calantha had convinced Morgan to add.

After switching between the two forms Zelde settled on the sword for the day’s session. She was supposed to be training with Morgan, who had been assigned to by Wren to help practice her skills, but unfortunately her mentor had been called away for the day to tag along with Cordovan and Parson for a mission. Morgan may not have been there, but that didn’t mean she was about to neglect her training - she was just as capable at doing it on her own.

Zelde had set the room so that hard-light cubes were stacked into a small column, acting as a target of sorts.

She took a breath, moving into an attacking stance before rushing forward, sword drawn at the ready. Though she was by herself, she was moving and shouting out orders as if her whole team were standing and training with her. One of the key areas Morgan had identified for her to work on was communication with the rest of her team and how to open up more. Morgan admitted that the latter was something she’d have to work on herself, as he couldn’t - and wouldn’t, for that matter - force her to say anything she didn’t want to. His only real advice on that matter was to advise her against bottling up her feelings and to always be honest with her team.

“If it’s hurting you,” He had told her. “It’s hurting your team.”

Zelde continued to move towards her target, envisioning herself ducking and stepping out of the way to avoid incoming attacks, and instructing her teammates where to move. When she was close to the target she finally lashed out, striking an upwards blow to what she imagined was her opponent's chest. Thankfully the stacked blocks wouldn’t break after just one hit, allowing her to further emulate a real battle by being forced to attack her “opponent” three more times before it finally caved in.

After the block was destroyed, Zelde was dragged back to reality by a light clapping behind her. Turning her head slightly she saw Wren applauding her.

“Pardon the intrusion,” Wren said as she stepped further into the training room. “I assumed you would be forgoing any training due to Morgan being called into town.” She paused, and Zelde was aware of the veteran huntress giving her an appraising look. After a moment she stopped and gestured to Zelde’s weapon. “You appear to be handling the adjustment well based on what I’ve just seen,” Wren noted. “Though you shouldn’t hold out your arm so rigidly when you strike, you risk hurting yourself. ”

Zelde thought back to the training from moments ago, recalling the moment in question that Wren had been referring to. “Noted,” Zelde said with a nod. “Helia said I need to work on how I hold Järnpigor.”

“Well, she would know best,” Wren said with a smirk. “She’s become our resident sword expert.”

Zelde smiled at the comment. “Did you want me to leave at all? I don’t mind letting you have the room if you need to train.”

“Actually, I’m not the one who will be training - well not in the sense that you mean.”

“Oh?”

“She’s training me!” An excited voice echoed around the room. The sound of footsteps came rushing towards them and Zelde was aware of a red blur attaching itself to her legs. Looking down, Zelde could see Rosie beaming up at her with a toothy grin.

“Hi Zee,” Rosie said, dragging out the shortened nickname that she was only used to hearing Xanthos call her. If Rosie had picked it up from him, it was only a matter of time before he did the same and started calling Cordovan “Corduroy” as Rosie did.

“Hello, Rosie.” Zelde greeted, returning the smile the young girl had given her.

“Rosie, don’t cling to her like that, it's rude.” Wren scolded with something of a playful tone. Rosie made a faint grumble in response before detaching herself from Zelde and hurrying over to stand with Wren. Rosie’s reddish-brown hair had been styled back into a singular ponytail for the time being and she wore an oversized athletics shirt (not unlike the ones worn by Caspian and Sera) tucked into her usual cropped, faded jeans.

“Wren’s teaching me how to fight!” Rosie announced, practically bouncing up and down on the spot with excitement.

"Isn't she a bit... young to be learning how to fight?" Zelde questioned, looking over at Wren.

"Given the situation at home a few weeks ago, I thought it'd be beneficial for her safety to learn how to throw a proper punch in case the worst might happen," Wren answered softly, touching Rosie's hair affectionately as she spoke, which seemed to settle her for the moment. "You'd be surprised, but Cordovan was younger than Rosie when his father first put a weapon in his hands and began to teach him to fight."

Zelde made a face. "From what I hear, your ex-husband wasn't exactly the model of parenthood."

"Oh, he wasn't," Wren moved her hand away from Rosie to stifle a chuckle. "...But he had his moments." Zelde noticed that when Wren took her hand from her mouth, she began caressing her opposite ring finger absently -- looking for something that was no longer there. She seemed lost in her thoughts, and only snapped out of it when Zelde spoke again.

“You know, I’m surprised you didn’t offer to train Cordovan yourself.”

“I considered it,” Wren admitted, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, which seemed to further settle her following her momentary lapse in concentration, “But Cordovan has a style of fighting much like his father’s, and one that matches closest to Parson.” There was a hesitation in her voice before she added, “Besides, Parson is the only one of us who understands how Cordovan’s unique challenges affect him in a fight.”

Zelde arched a brow. “How so?”

“Parson is an amputee too.” Wren explained.

“Oh.” Zelde blinked in surprise. She hadn’t been expecting that. “I had no idea.”

“It’s not something he likes to bring attention to.” Wren informed her. “He doesn’t want people to think of him any differently because of it. He’d rather let his work speak for him, rather than people make assumptions about what he can and can’t do. He’s as capable as any one of his team -- if not more so in some cases.”

“That’s very admirable of him,” Zelde admitted, suddenly feeling a greater deal of respect for the man upon hearing Wren’s words.

“Yes,” Wren said, nodding her head in agreement. “I’m honoured to call him a colleague and a friend. He has weathered many storms by my side, and for that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to thank him enough.”

The two women shared a knowing smile and the room was silent for the moment, until they were interrupted by Rosie tugging at Wren’s hand with one simple request; “I want to punch now.”

Wren laughed a little. “Okay, okay, I’ll show you.”

“Woohoo! Yeah! I’m gonna go punch a Grimm after this!” Rosie cheered, dancing around Wren with excitement.

Wren watched her with a fond gaze before looking up at Zelde. “Did you want to stay and watch?” She offered. Hearing the offer of Zelde staying, Rosie stopped and looked up at her with a pleading gaze.

“No, no, I don’t want to interrupt the two of you,” Zelde politely declined. “But maybe next time I’ll join you.”

Rosie’s expression dropped, but she soon perked up again when Wren told her to get ready. Zelde shook her head in amusement, and quietly holstered her weapon. She was about to leave when she heard Wren speaking again. At first she assumed she was talking to Rosie, but by her tone and words, it was apparent she was talking to someone else entirely. Zelde turned and saw the older woman had her finger pressed against her earpiece.

“Can you say that again please Cherry? I didn’t - Rosie, hush - I didn’t catch you the first time. Who’s here?” There was a silent pause as Wren waited for her response. The tensing of her posture told Zelde it wasn’t anyone good. “Right, I understand. Thank you. We’ll be right up.”

The call ended then and Wren sighed. “Sorry, Rosie, we’ll have to forego the lesson for today. Something has come up.” She didn’t wait to hear out Rosie’s defeated sigh before moving over to Zelde, and grabbing her arm with a sense of urgency. “You’d better follow me.”

Zelde looked at her questioningly for a moment, but didn’t argue against following her. Wren led the way out of the room, moving fast to wherever it was they were supposed to be going, and Zelde and Rosie fell in behind her. The three of them made their way to the comms room, where several of the group were already waiting. Cherry was off to the side looking suspiciously at whoever had just come in. Zelde couldn’t see them at first, but the sound of Cordovan’s voice informed her that his little patrol had returned.

“What’s going on?” She asked, pushing forward to see what the problem was. She stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes widening and her chest tightening when she realised who was so important that she and Wren needed to come see them.

“Who’s that?” Rosie asked, getting a peek of the person in question herself.

Stood between Cordovan and Morgan, bound in handcuffs, head lowered, was none other than Wisteria Bloome.

#team ZRCN #team zrcn fic #Zelde Sewick #wren honeycutt #cousin rosie

9 notes · View notes

dreaming-of-assclass · 4 years

Text

Uncover

A/N: So this is officially my longest work on this blog...over 2K words. I’m happy with how it turned out. Also a lot of asks I’ve completed or am in the process of writing, I just can’t post until a few more days :’( I’ll post them all together very soon.

~~~

“Ah, we’re here. Thank you, sir!” After greeting her driver, Izuki Mina gracefully stepped out of her car. Her silky dark hair was tied up into a tight chignon and her kimono was an elegant shade of orchid. Her heels clacked loudly upon the pavement and she extended a hand towards one of her companions. “Come on.”

6-year old Nako grumbled under her breath, taking it anyways. She looked absolutely precious in her pink dress and space buns, which Mina had accomplished after two hours of fighting her. “Can’t we just turn around now?” She whined. “I wanna go home. This is gonna be so boring.”

Before Mina could respond, Rise replied, “Now, sweetie, that’s not the right attitude to have. Be respectful, we were invited to this wedding.” The older woman, Nako’s mother and Mina’s elder sister, gracefully followed them.

Mina still had a hard time accepting whose wedding this was. She honestly believed hell would freeze over before Karasuma Tadaomi married someone.

But nope, it was real and happening that very moment. His soon-to-be-wife was also unbelievable. She was a foreign beauty, apparently his co-worker too? Mina knew very little details… it had been a couple years since she’d spoken to Tadaomi. Their families were friends and they saw each other often, eventually becoming good friends as well. Then Tadaomi left for military training...and simply disappeared. Next thing she knows, he was a part of the whole moon exploding business, became a teacher, and was now getting married? Mina couldn’t wrap her head around it all.

The wedding was a very traditional one...unsurprising considering the Karasuma family. The venue was a beautiful Japanese garden, greenery everywhere and the soft pink of the Sakura trees. A faint babbling was heard as water ran in the stream, and a bridge stood over it. Guests were everywhere, chatting casually as more people trickled in along with them. Mina looked a bit further and saw tables filled with appetizers and small snacks to serve as refreshments. She quietly whistled to herself. Damn, this is amazing. It probably was crazy expensive too.

There was a large group of teenagers hanging out in one area of the event, a mixed group of boys and girls. Mina instantly placed them as Karasuma’s former students, from that year he apparently spent as a teacher.

Out of the corner of her eye, Mina spotted Tadaomi, standing with his family. She walked a bit faster, ignoring Nako’s “Where are you going?”

“Tadaomi!” She called with a smile.

He looked up instantly, surprise splashing across his face. “Ah, Mina,” he greeted with a small smile. “It’s good to see you.”

His dark hair had been styled and gelled back, leaving his handsome facials open. He was dressed in very nice, classy traditional attire. Mina tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, suddenly feeling self-conscious for some reason. “You too! It’s been a long time.”

He tilted his head slightly, as if considering that sentence. “Yes, it has. How are you?”

Mina gave a light laugh. “How am I? How are you, Tadaomi? You’re about to get married! Holy shit!”

Tadaomi smiled amusedly. “I’m fine...just a bit eager to get through all this.” He glanced at everything, from the bridge overlooking the water to the bouquets that were everywhere. “It’s...so much.”

Mina sighed. He would always be the same: just his simple, straightforward self. “It’s your wedding, silly. It’s the one day of your life you can splurge and do everything, then go back to normal.”

She looked past him, searching. “By the way, where is the wifey?”

“Ah, she’s talking with our former students.”

Mina raised an eyebrow. Our? So they met on the teaching job...huh. She looked back at the cluster of teens, and lo and behold, the foreign beauty was there. She was gorgeous, with long light curly hair styled to perfection. Her eyes were a vivid blue and her makeup was perfectly applied. Mina couldn’t tell because of the elaborate bridal attire, but she was guessing the woman had a model-esque figure...she looked quite tall too.

How on earth had Tadaomi met this amazing woman?

“Karasuma!” A voice called, and Mina swiveled around to see two men in dark suits waving him over. Their greeting was casual but they had an air of professionalism surrounding them. Mina assumed they were his government co-workers or something.

Tadaomi saw them too and faintly grimaced. “Ah, I’m sorry, we’ll have to finish catching up sometime later today,” he apologized.

Mina shook her head, smiling. “No, it’s okay! I’ll be around...so whenever you wanna talk, it’s fine.”

He nodded and left to talk to his colleagues. Mina stood there for a moment before feeling a tug at her arm. “What-” Oh, it was just a very ire Nako, scowling.

“Can we get food please?” She demanded. “Mom told me to ask you to go with me.”

“Where’s your mom?”

“Over there.” Nako gestured to her right, where Rize was talking to Tadaomi’s mother. Great. Mina would be stuck babysitting her very grumpy little niece.

“Okay, let’s go,” she sighed.

They made their way past the many guests and towards the tables lined with delicious-looking food. There were so many platters of colorful sushi...Mina had heard a guest mention in passing that it was because it was the bride’s (what was her name again...Ivanka?) favorite food. Mina glanced around, looking at all her options. Her stomach began to grumble in hunger.

Then she saw it. What in the world -

In the midst of all these elegant tables filled with dishes of tasty, delectable, presentable classy food...was a takoyaki street cart. It looked so incredibly out of place, Mina actually blinked. Once. Still there. Twice. Ok, nevermind, it was real.

“Oooh! I want takoyaki!” Nako exclaimed, already pulling Mina towards it.

“Hey, wait!”

They were at the end of a line now, in front of the cart. Mina could hear the guests in front of them murmuring about the oddity as well. “Wasn’t expecting this at all, but hey, I love takoyaki,” a young man said to the girl next to him.

“Yeah, same,” she replied in agreement.

Mina sighed, feeling her stomach grumble even more. All she wanted was to dig into the platters of sashimi on the fancy table, not wait in line for takoyaki of all things. She glanced down. At least Nako would stop complaining for a while.

“Oh, man, I can’t believe Okano started crying at that, of all things,” Mina heard from beside them, and a few of the teenagers from earlier were walking by them. There was a tall boy with dark hair, a shorter boy with orange hair that reminded her of mushrooms, a girl with straight purple hair, and the last girl was the shortest with dark curly hair. They were all dressed in appropriate formal attire.

“I know, right?” The purple girl laughed. “Ooh, let’s try the takoyaki from here!”

There was a short pause until the orange mushroom boy agreed. “Yeah!”

Now they were standing right behind Mina and Nako. She turned and politely smiled at them. Maybe they’d have an answer for this out-of-place food. “Hello!”

They jolted for a moment, before returning a bright grin. Well, the orange boy had a small, cute smile but the dark curly girl looked deadpan. “Hello!”

“Ah, you guys are Tadaomi’s old students, right?”

The tall boy smiled and nodded. “Yes, we are! I’m Sugino, and this is Fuwa, Mimura, and Hazama,” he listed them off, gesturing to each kid accordingly. Sugino definitely seemed like a chatterbox, a very friendly charming one too.

Fuwa rubbed her chin, giving Mina an odd look. “Hmm...you call Karasuma-sensei by his first name? How close are you?”

“Fuwa!” Mimura exclaimed in embarrassment. Fuwa struck Mina as someone who was usually unfiltered, judging by his reaction.

“You can’t just ask her that. It’s none of our business,” Hazama sighed, almost sounding apologetic.

“What? I’m just wondering...you guys are, too! Don’t deny it!” she protested. Yep, she definitely didn’t have a filter.

Mina laughed, slightly put off but more amused than anything. “It’s ok! No worries! I’m Mina, and this is my niece Nako. My family is friends with Tadaomi’s, we grew up together for a little bit when we were young,” she explained.

“Ooohh,” they chorused. “Nice to meet you both!” Mina laughed some more. Okay, that was kinda cute.

“Say, do you guys have any idea what this street cart is doing here?” she wondered, deciding to just go for it. She chuckled. “It’s just surprising to see since sushi from the finest place in Japan is sitting right over there.”

They all laughed. Sugino ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah, it is weird,” he agreed. “We were the ones who actually asked for it. Our class, I mean.”

Mina furrowed her brows. “Oh, really? Why?”

Fuwa smiled softly. “Our old teacher, he worked with Karasuma-sensei and Bi-” she paused, looking at Nako. “Jelavic-sensei. He, um, really liked...takoyaki.”

“Yeah, he loved octopi a lot,” Mimura chimed in. “One could say he was basically one himself.”

Mina was slightly lost now. “Like a spirit animal?”

Hazama shrugged. “Yeah, something like that.”

“Oh. Well, that’s cool.”

Hazama gave her a look. “It’s okay, it’s weird. We know.”

Mina wasn’t sure what to say to that. “Um, so tell me more about this teacher! He seems like an interesting guy.”

Sugino laughed. “Yeah, he was definitely interesting. He had a lot of weird habits. He loved junk food, for one. Always blew his teaching money on that.”

“He really liked po-” Mimura paused, glancing at Nako. “Um, magazines. He had a huge collection of them.”

“He used to fry tissues to eat sometimes, because he was so broke,” Fuwa added.

“That’s terrible!” Mina exclaimed.

Hazama waved her off. “Oh, don’t worry, he was okay.”

“He was obsessed with soap dramas,” Mimura continued. “Always used to try and ship us all together to try and emulate them.”

“Oh...that’s a bit odd,” Mina stated politely.

“Yeah, we hated it. We shot him with bb pellets whenever he was being too annoying.”

“Wow, that’s -”

“It’s fine! He encouraged it all the time!”

Fuwa sighed. “Even with all those irritating quirks, he was still the best teacher ever.” The atmosphere had shifted into a more somber, nostalgic one as all the kids looked down slightly.

Sugino nodded. “He always cared about us and looked out for our wellbeing all the time.”

“He was great at explaining concepts, and we even made personalized practice tests for every student,” Mimura added.

Hazama averted her gaze. “He made all of us feel welcome and like we belonged in that class,” she said softly. “Like we were all a piece of one big puzzle, meant to be there from the start.”

“He built a pool for us,” Fuwa sighed again.

Mina blinked. “Wow, he sounds like an amazing person!” She glanced around her. “Is he here? I’d love to meet him!”

The kids stiffened, and she instantly regretted her question. Stupid Mina! Obviously, something happened or they wouldn’t sound so sad! But she’d been distracted by all that they were saying, she’d forgotten.

She took a breath. “I’m sor-”

“No, he’s not here,” Sugino finally spoke. “He...passed away at the end of the year.”

Mina felt her stomach lurch. “I’m so sorry…”

“No, no, you’re fine,” Fuwa replied, shaking her head. “It’s okay.”

Mimura laughed slightly. “You know he would’ve freaking loved it if he were here.”

The other two laughed while Hazama smirked. “He’d be a bawling mess. Probably would badger those two constantly until he got kicked out.”

“He’d insist on personally handling Karasuma-sensei’s hair and styling,” Sugino continued. “But he’d go overboard and mess it up.”

“Seventy-percent of the food would already be devoured,” Fuwa added with a grin.

Hazama raised an eyebrow. “Only seventy-percent? That’s being generous,” she commented dryly, amusement in her tone.

“True!” They burst out laughing again. Mina smiled, relieved to see that they moved on from her little mishap and weren’t sad anymore.

“Oh, Ms Mina, it’s your turn,” Sugino pointed out, and she turned around to see the vendor waving at her.

“Oops, sorry!” She smiled at them once more before turning to place her order. Hard to believe that the answer to why this takoyaki cart was here was all thanks to an old teacher with odd quirks who liked octopi...and guided a lot of bright, good kids. She definitely would continue that conversation with those four and hopefully get to meet more of Tadaomi’s students.

#assclass #assassination classsroom #tadaomi karasuma #irina jelavic #irisuma #karairi #tomohito sugino #kouki mimura #yuzuki fuwa #kirara hazama #ansatsu kyoushitsu #writing

48 notes · View notes

dannymayevent · 4 years

Text

Oh, but I’m clearly destined to wander

Congratulations, @wholocksupersoupofpain, for completing all 31 days of Dannymay 2020!

Phic written by @bibliophilea for your Day 15 artwork - Favorite AU - because Space AU is such a phantastic AU, and what you did for it was inspiring.

Phic can also be found on ao3 and ffn.

Title from "Beautiful Times" by Owl City.

*~*~*

Dani dances.

She twirls and weaves, her long, braided hair following her every movement, her longer blue scarf flowing around her, floating gracefully in the vacuum of space.

There is a freedom in her dance that cannot be expressed with words. But there is also yearning - in the way she darts from one point in space to another, like a butterfly untethered by anything but its own whims - whims which pull her too and fro, restless in her longing for something new and exciting in the vast beyond.

Valerie watches from the airlock, helmet in hand, enchanted as she always is when she watches her lover dance. She notes the subtle desperation in the tension in Dani’s back - the longing in the way her legs smoothly launch her from nothing to nothing, in the way her arms point to stars and galaxies far, far away - and she smiles softly, sadly. She'll be leaving soon now.

Dani turns to the airlock, and waves excitedly at Valerie, waves at her to come join her in this dance. Valerie is quick to hide her sadness, and she puts on her helmet, locking it in place before venting the airlock.

She twists open the lock and pushes the door open, joining Dani in the great beyond, the vastness that is space.

*~*~*

Dani dances.

Her giggles echo in the small living space of the spacecraft, the only home she’s ever known. She spins and spins, bumping into the walls and the ceiling and the floor before she trips and flips into her father’s lap.

"Careful, my little comet," her father says, their secret language humming and clicking in her ears. He smiles fondly down at her, and she giggles, floating up to give him a kiss on his forehead.

"Yes, papa!" she dutifully answers, before darting away, her giggles and her long, blue scarf trailing in her wake as she spins and spins again, doing her best to emulate the graceful twirls of the woman in the flickering holovid.

The woman smiles at no one as she flickers, and she speaks in their secret language, voice soft and gentle, yet commanding attention.

"When we spin, we spin with our core, the same way our home spins - the core of our planet pulling the surface with it, pulling us all with it into a celestial dance which guides us in our journey through the universe."

Dani stops spinning to listen, attention rapt upon the woman, before smiling widely and spinning again. She doesn’t see the way her father’s smile cracks, the way his eyes shine with tears before he wipes them away.

She does notice when he floats to the center of the room and pauses the holovid, staring at the flickering image of the woman. Her smile is radiant, deep black hair floating mid-twirl, eyes shining with joy. Dani’s father stares into her eyes.

"It’s time to say goodnight to mama," he tells Dani. Dani looks between the holovid and her father’s eyes, wrinkled in sadness even as he smiles gently. She nods quietly, and floats up to the woman’s face, and kisses her on the forehead. The flickering image tingles her lips.

"Goodnight, mama," she says, before turning to her father and hugging him hard.

"I love you, papa," she says in their secret language.

Her father huffs in surprise, before wrapping his arms around her, burying his face in her hair.

"I love you, too, my little comet."

*~*~*

Dani dances.

She twirls and weaves through the club, almost floating effortlessly between people as she dances, flitting between dance partners like a bee collecting pollen from one set of flowers before flying to the next. The white highlights in her skin tight jumpsuit and her loosely braided hair shine in the ever changing lights of the dance hall - purple, then red, then blue, then green flashing and fading into each other in time with the music. The black in her hair reflects the lights above her, but not as brightly; the black in her suit is nearly invisible in the throng of bodies and low light, hiding the motions of her lower legs and lower arms as she dances through the crowd - hiding her hands as they filter through the pockets of dancers, picking out wallets and coins and credits before stashing them in one of the many hidden pockets in her suit.

She glances at the bar for the fifth time in as many minutes, and this time makes herself hold eye contact with the beautiful woman staring at her. The woman’s red jumpsuit seems to change color in the low, changing light, and the black, reflective highlights accentuate the curves of her muscles and body. Her dark, curly hair is cropped short, geometric designs buzzed along the sides of her head. But what captivates Dani the most are her eyes. They are bright green - almost as green as Dani’s own eyes - and though they’re hard now, they shine with a life Dani can’t help but drink in, can’t help but want to explore.

She dances over to the bar and props herself up against it, smiling a winning smile at the woman in red.

"Can I buy you a drink?" Dani asks sweetly.

"Only if you can tell me whose credits you’re using," the woman replies, raising an eyebrow.

Dani doesn’t miss a beat. "Phillip McCarthy. I’m sure he won’t miss it."

The woman’s other eyebrow raises to join the first. The McCarthy’s are notorious for their smuggling operations in this sector of the galaxy - anything from drugs to artifacts to people. If it sells, chances are the McCarthy’s have a say in where it goes. Phillip in particular is known for his ruthlessness. Heir to the smuggling kingdom and drunk on his mother’s wealth and power, he goes where he wants and brings the party with him. Few who cross him live to tell the tale; the rest speak only to the coroners, and only speak of terrible, painful death.

The woman glances to the dance floor, where McCarthy drunkenly grinds and bellows to the music in the spotlight, surrounded by his posse - pilot fish seeking out a taste of that spotlight, that wealth, that power. She seems to make a decision, and her eyes soften as she lets out a low whistle, cracking a smile. "Ballsy. I’ll drink to that."

Dani lets out a breath she didn’t know she was holding, and can’t help but grin. She waves down a bartender. "Two fireflies. On me."

She scans the credits, then turns back to find the woman staring at her. She notes the blush in her cheeks, and her grin turns sly. "Like what you see?"

The woman sputters. "W-what? No, no way, um, not that you’re not gorgeous or anything, I just - I didn’t come here for - look, can I get a name from the beautiful woman who just bought me a drink?"

Dani laughs, and feels her own cheeks blush green. Who knew a woman with such a confident stare could be so cute?

"It’s Dani," she chuckles. "And what can I say, I see a beautiful woman staring at me, how can I not buy her a drink?"

The woman frowns. She opens her mouth to retort, but a purple arm comes between them, hand adorned with expensive rings pressed against the bar. Dani looks up and sees Phillip McCarthy doing his best to loom over them despite his swaying stature. More intimidating is his posse - all in varying stages of drunkenness, but none as drunk as McCarthy, and there are a lot of them.

McCarthy squints his eyes at Dani. "You stole from me." Then he smirks. "But you’re new around here, aren’t you? Tell you what - I’ll let it slide if you do a little dance with me." He leans in close, and Dani wrinkles her nose at the stink of liquor on his breath. "I’ll show you what a real McCarthy can do for you."

"No thanks." Dani puts a hand on his chest and pushes him away. He stumbles back, surprised by her strength. Then he growls, stepping back towards her.

"Hey bitch, do you know who I am? I could make your life a living hell - you stole from me." He forces his face into a smile. "But I’m a nice guy. I can be forgiving. I’ll give you one last chance to do the right thing."

McCarthy grabs Dani’s arm, and Dani glares. Who is he to touch her like that? Before she can act, the woman in red grabs the hand that grabbed her, just above the wrist.

"Let her be, McCarthy. She was just about to return those credits. Right?" the woman side-eyes Dani hard. Dani rolls her eyes and pulls the credits from a secret pocket with her free hand, flicking them at McCarthy.

McCarthy‘s face sours. The credits bounce off his chest, and one of his posse picks them up. "Stay out of this, Gray," he snarls. "This is about respect. And I’m gonna teach her a lesson."

His hand tightens painfully on Dani’s arm, and Dani hisses. She feels the woman - Gray - tense beside her. Gray peels the hand from Dani’s arm and twists, earning a squawk from McCarthy, before shoving him back into his posse.

"I said, let her be." Gray growls.

McCarthy’s face twists in drunken rage, and he rounds on Gray. "How dare you-"

Dani kicks him in the throat, and he chokes, eyes wide with surprise, crumpling backwards to the floor.

Shit. She didn’t mean to kick him that hard - just hard enough to get him to shut up and back off from Gray. She stares wide-eyed at his crumpled form, barely able to hear Gray’s voice over the pulsing of her core in tune with her heart. He’s gotta be alright - she doesn’t know what she’ll do if she did any permanent damage, or worse, killed him-

McCarthy coughs harshly and works himself to his elbows. He stares up at his posse. They stare back. Then he flushes bright pink and points, croaking, "Get them."

Gray springs into action, fighting down the part of the posse closest to the door. They’ll never make it that way - not with more of the posse gathering by the door, ready to catch them should they make it past the first wave. Four of them turn on Dani, and she leaps into action, sweeping her foot out and spinning, knocking them away from her and clearing a path to the dance floor. She grabs Gray’s wrist, startling the woman.

"This way!" Dani shouts, and pulls Gray into the crowd.

Gray pulls against Dani’s grip. "There’s no exit that way!"

Dani pauses for a second, locking eyes with Gray. She smiles confidently. "Trust me."

Gray holds her gaze, then grins and nods. She twists her wrist and suddenly they’re holding hands, Gray a half-step behind Dani as they navigate the crowd together - Dani twirling and dancing between dancers and posse alike, Valerie twirling with her and taking down McCarthy’s people as they flee. They operate in sync, as if they’ve known each other for longer than five minutes, and Dani revels in the feeling. This is better than dancing on her own, better than dancing with a throng of bodies in time to the music - this is the most alive she’s ever felt.

The crowd thins, and she guides Gray to the back of the warehouse, dodging security. The back wall is lined with small windows 20 feet above the floor. They should be closed, but Dani knows for sure that one of them is open to the night air. As they approach the wall, she grins at Gray and lets go of her hand, putting on a burst of speed to reach it first. She kneels below the open window, holding out her hands to give Gray a boost.

Gray smiles at the move, kicking off of one of McCarthy’s men and using the forward momentum to sprint to Dani. She leaps into Dani’s hands, and Dani throws her into the air, sending her soaring to the window. Gray grabs the window sill and pulls herself effortlessly through, out into the night.

Dani grins and stands, surveying the mix of McCarthy’s posse and club security running towards her. McCarthy himself has somehow made it to the front of the posse, and he stops and snarls upon seeing her. She grins cheekily and waves, making a show of jumping up to the window - not many people fly in this sector of the galaxy, she’s learned. She hears McCarthy screech some sort of profanity, and something about his mother, as she pulls herself through, dropping to the next roof and picking up her backpack in a single, graceful movement. She takes a moment to look upwards, at the night sky.

The sky is only partially covered by clouds, a dark expanse faintly speckled with unfamiliar constellations where the clouds don’t touch. The light pollution from the surrounding city drowns out most of the black and stars, but she can just see Wolf 359 peaking out from behind a cloud. She smiles. Maybe she’ll head there next.

"You gonna stand there all night?"

Dani starts and turns to see Gray, eyebrow raised, but hand held out towards her. She blushes and grins, stepping forward to take her hand. This time, Gray leads, guiding Dani off the roof and through the streets and alleyways, away from the club and into the darkness.

They only stop for breath when they’re sure they aren’t followed. It’s then that Gray lets go of Dani’s hand, walking along a street and staring at the ground. Dani’s about to ask what she’s looking for when she suddenly stands up straight, turning back to Dani, hand outstretched.

"Hand over the credits," Gray demands.

"What? No!" Dani scoffs. "That’s like, half my haul!"

Gray rolls her eyes. "You can keep the rest. I don’t know where you’re from, but around here, credits are traceable."

Dani sighs, but does as she’s told. Gray shoves the credits down the sewer grate next to her. So that’s what she was looking for.

"The sewer flows downriver," she says. "You should head in the opposite direction, towards the space port." She points a thumb behind her, down the alleyway. "That’s where you’re headed, right?"

Dani gapes at her. "How did you-"

Gray raises an eyebrow. "It’s like McCarthy said - you’re not from around here. And you’ll need to get off planet now that you’ve pissed off Mr. High and Mighty."

Dani winces. "Sorry about that, Gray. But what about you?"

Gray smirks. "I can handle him. I’ve been doing it for years. Oh, and the names Valerie. It’s what my friends call me."

"Valerie." Dani tests the name out on her tongue. It feels right. She beams up at Gray - no, Valerie - and then bounces up to her. She caresses Valerie’s cheek with one hand, and kisses her chastely on the corner of her lip.

"Thank you, Valerie," she whispers in her ear.

And then she bounds away, dancing through streets and alleyways, climbing to the rooftops, almost flying as she careens upriver, towards the space port.

*~*~*

Dani dances.

Valerie dances.

They meet again, multiple times in both of their travels. And they dance.

And they dance.

*~*~*

Valerie dances.

She pushes off from the airlock, gliding into her lover’s arms. Together they twirl in the vastness of space, the stars and ship revolving around them, but they only have eyes for each other. Then Dani smiles, and kisses the top of Valerie’s helmet, and spins away from Valerie.

Valerie’s suit stabilizes her spinning with a thought, and she spins more slowly now, tracking Dani as she twirls through space, with Valerie at the center - Valerie at her center. She doesn’t know how, or why, but she’s managed to capture the most beautiful comet in the world. She is somehow the force which pulls Dani from shooting aimlessly through space - the star about which Dani orbits. Valerie is Dani’s star, and Dani is Valerie’s comet. Wherever their paths may lead, whichever outer reaches of space Dani flings herself to, Valerie knows that she will always, always come back to her.

Dani comes in for a hug, and they spin together, staring into each other’s eyes, naught but plexiglass and atmosphere and the vacuum of space between them. No one but themselves for hundreds of miles.

"I love you, my comet," Valerie says in Dani’s secret language.

Dani’s smile widens, and her eyes shine with the light of a home she’s never known - a home she chooses to make herself, with Valerie at her center.

"I love you too, my star."

#danny phantom #dannymay2020 #fanfiction #prize

22 notes · View notes

astraphobe · 5 years

Text

[ LAWRENCE “LARS” MALKIN. 40. CISMALE. HE/HIM ] is here! They’ve lived in Silver Lake for [ 20 YEARS ] and are originally from [ OREGON ]. They are a [ MECHANIC ] and in their downtime love [ PLAYING HIS ELECTRIC GUITAR ] and [ WRITING MUSIC ]. They look a lot like [ CHRIS PRATT ] and live [ IN OASIS APTS ]. (ooc: otto, 19, he/him, cst)

hello !! i’m otto and this is my first muse here. he’s garbage but, like, good garbage ?? compost ?? idk. anyway. i hope you guys like your man-children middle aged and with two kids because if you expected anything else you’re gonna be dissapointed.

BASICS.

Name: Lawrence Malkin. Nickname: Everyone calls him Lars, but his mom and dad used to call him Larry. He hated it. Gender: Cis-male. Sexuality: Gay (homosexual, homoromantic). Race: Caucasian. Age: 40 ( 01/10/1980 ). Zodiac: Capricorn. Hometown: Grants Pass, Oregon. Current residence: Oasis Apartments. Career: Mechanic.

Astra inclinant, sed non obligant !

this is the background bit. i didn’t want it to be long but it ended up being long, so if you don’t wanna read it you don’t have to. i did spend a lot of time on it, though. hopefully it isn’t shit. enjoy ( but only if you want ) !

world, meet lars. lars, meet world. he’s ... going through it right now. not a lot of things have gone right for him.

he’s the youngest of five in a strictly evangelical household. everything was about rules and if he didn’t abide by them, he’d be punished. he remembers getting hit with switches and belts and wires. he’d be locked in prayer closets and forced to confess his sinful thoughts. he recited every word of scripture, was slain in the spirit, proselytized to all of his friends, and he got nothing but fear and anger out of it --- it was all very ... carrie, but without the promises of superpowers.

when he started going to a secular public high school his entire viewpoint shifted. he made friends who snuck him into rated r movies to watch him squirm at things he’d never heard of before. he started smoking cigarettes, smoking grass, failing classes, and playing sinner’s music on his guitar. strict parents make sneaky kids, he used to be able to all of this in his church clothes.

after high school lars stopped talking to the rest of his family. he rented an apartment with his friends for a two year stint at community college ( he was an automotive specialist major ) and started a band with them in silver lake once he graduated. he never really wanted to talk about girls or stare at nudie magazines like the rest of them, no. he just wanted to make music. until he met margo and his life fell apart.

he only started to date her because it felt right and she promised to take care of him. no one else has ever made the effort to take care of him --- he’d been locked in closets and hit with willow tree branches for the duration of his adolescence. he just wanted comfort.

after he met her, she was the only thing on his mind outside of his band. it wasn’t love, though, even if that was what he thought it was. everything seemed perfect. it all seemed like a normal he could get used to. until she got pregnant and they weren’t ready. she was 24, he was 25, they were both fucked. this was the beginning of the end of them.

click ... click ... click ... boom ! shotgun wedding. as soon as he signed that paper he felt that straight man ball and chain around his ankle. he felt regret, he felt guilty, and, at first, an eighteen year weight stacked atop his shoulders. what more could he do other than ... grin and bear it.

he stopped talking to his friends, who were all busy having fun and playing music and doing everything he wanted to do and more. separating himself from the men he loved most, even if he didn’t want to say it, made him bitter. he stopped doing gigs to make more mechanic money. after the birth of his first daughter, yael, his life was boring and monotonous. five years down the line, margo threw out her birth control pills without letting him know. this was how his second kid, ruth, was brought into the world. it was also the straw that broke the camel's back.

the divorce was long and messy --- he’s glad his kids don’t really remember it too much. margo and lars ended up splitting custody with yael but because of the bullshit that came with ruth, she’s all his. he started meeting up with his friends for gigs again, rediscovering his passion for music. and also drugs. he’s reclaiming the youth he lost when he started dating margo, even though it’s a little weird. he’s happy but he’s not fulfilled, and his kids could see that, too.

the process ruined him financially, enough for the bank to foreclose his home only a few months after the split. he filed for bankruptcy, destroyed his credit score, and moved into a seedy two bedroom apartment ( which isn’t cheap in the city of angels ) that managed to be just a few blocks down from where one of his old friend lived. he came out while lars was married and he didn’t know until he saw the flag hanging in the window. he was curious about it, but we all know what that did to the cat.

lars doesn’t want to be gay, but everything he does makes him feel like he is. the way he talks, the way he sits, the way he cries while watching the notebook --- he knows these are all stereotypes now, but what would his younger self think ?? two kids, no money, AND he’s queer ?? he wants to push this all down, and he does, but he knows that it won’t do him any good either. he knows that everything will all implode, but that day isn’t today, and with any luck, it won’t be tomorrow. he’ll sit in his idea of normalcy until he can’t anymore.

Per angusta ad augusta !

bulletpoints and headcanons, baby !

lars loves his kids. like, a lot. when he was with margo he regretted them entirely but he doesn’t feel that way anymore. he wants what’s best for him, and he wants to give them everything his parents couldn’t give him. namely: love. he doesn’t want more kids, though. he’s saving up for a vasectomy.

he’s not a perfect parent, though. i wouldn’t even call him a great one because of how often he has to be away from them and how much he drinks his feelings. at least once a year he’ll go on a bender and he’ll have to pay a babysitter more than he can afford because of how long he’d be out for. now that his kids are old enough to pick up on these things, they’re becoming more and more concerned with his behavior. he can tell, it’s just another thing he’s trying to avoid bringing up. it’s just another thing that pushes him back to drink.

speaking of his kids. i love them. i love them just as much as i love lars. yael is fifteen and she’s a mini version of her father. when lars has the time, he teaches her to play the guitar on his old acoustic. she manages to make a’s and b’s and he could never be prouder, especially because he barely graduated high school himself. ruth, on the other hand, is an enigma and he doesn’t really understand her but he tries her best. she says a lot of things that ten year olds probably shouldn’t say, but he lets it slide because it’s funny. he’s had to raise her mostly by himself which has been a gigantic struggle for him, but it’s proving to be successful thus far. she really wants to be a teenager and she emulates teenagers to the best of her ability, but it’s what a ten year old thinks a teenager should act like, so it’s far from accurate. loves cleaning her room, though. it’s the most pristine part of their house and he has no clue why.

margo was jewish, so both of his kids are being raised jewish. he doesn’t really believe any of it himself, but his kids seem pretty happy. yael had a bat mitzvah and ruth is coming up on hers, but he has no idea how that’s going to work out because margo did 99% of the planning for yael and he doesn’t know how any of that shit works. ruth also decided that she wants to eat kosher now. she’s been like this for, like, a year and lars thought it would be a phase but at this point she’s in it for the long haul and there’s a pretty good chance she’s not going back on it.

when it comes to his sexuality ,,,, he has a lot of feelings. he acknowledges that being gay is a possibility but he’s definitely never thought enough about it to make a decision. at the same time, he’s hyper aware of anything that might make him seem gay so he dresses like a slightly grunge dad redneck and makes sure to never cross his legs when he sits down. despite all of this. he has had sex with men before. especially after margo. he fucked his gay friend, too. he doesn’t think they count because he was desperate. they count. don’t tell him.

he has five different guitars. the bulk of them sit in his closet, but he has names for all of them. they were his babies before his real babies. his first two were dr. jekyll and mr. hyde, an acoustic and an electric that took about six paychecks for him to finally buy. yael plays on dr. jekyll and he’s spent a lot of time thinking about how he wants to make it a family heirloom if she doesn’t smash it first. he got a white strat in college that he named angel because of how gorgeous she sounds. i'm gonna stop here because this bullet would be so fuckin long if i didn’t. i like guitars. he likes guitars. maybe i’m projecting. who knows ! not me.

it’s easy to assume that his band never really went anywhere. cause it didn’t. they play heavy, heavy, heavy rock and that’s incredibly out of the mainstream right now. their band, shit and sugar, did get a little bit of recognition in the local underground scene during the early 2000s. now they’re just older dudes that play in diy venues and bars sometimes. lars is pretty sure he’s been called a geezer a few times by teens yael’s age.

despite never really getting off of the ground in the music industry, he’s very good at what he does. there’s not a lot left for him to learn in terms of technique and his style of playing is very uniquely his. big inspirations for him include the likes of rivers cuomo, jimi hendrix, kirk hammett, and dimebag darrell.

all in all, he’s an extroverted ball of energy most of the time. he’s got a lot of ideas and he’s very goal oriented, even if he doesn’t end up achieving them. not the smartest tool in the shed, either. he’s childlike and playful in the best way possible. again, most of the time. this ends up biting him in the ass a lot. especially because of how impulsive he is.

Ars longa, vita brevis !

wanted connections ! i’m definitely going to put one or two up on the main but here are a few that i think would work nicely.

people he met through music ---- even though people don’t know about shit and sugar you’d definitely recognize him if your character frequents local bars and DIY venues in sketchy basements. from friends to enemies, i think this one has a lot of breathing room for ~ creativity ~ and all that.

neighbors ---- he’s a guitarist. it’s a loud hobby. he’s nice to everyone in the complex, but god, that’s gotta get annoying.

men he fucked that “don’t count” ---- some of these could’ve ended seamlessly. maybe they get beers now. maybe your character hates him. maybe your character pities him for being in so much denial about his own sexuality. maybe your character is trying to help him. this connection has, like, no limit and all of the plots can be different and unique i’m so excited for it. he’s a bottom, if anyone was curious.

unlikely pals ---- this character is probably the exact opposite of a fuckup. god knows why they even associate with lars. but they do, and they want the best for him. hey !! maybe lars can break them out of their shell a bit.

potential romance ??? owo ??? ---- i really want this to happen because i want lars to eventually come to terms with his sexuality. all he wants is mutual love and good sex. safety, stability, all that good stuff. shouldn’t come without hardship, though. if you have a good idea make sure to make it angsty because i live off of that shit.

someone he doesn’t like ---- i thought of this one because it’s incredibly hard for lars to not like someone. he finds amazing qualities in most people, but he’s prone to holding grudges. i want a character who he just can’t see any good in filling this connection. how fun would that be, right ??

a jewish friend that helps him out with his jewish kids ---- i’m the knowledgeable jewish friend in 99.9% of my friend groups. most people don’t have a knowledgeable jewish friend out of necessity, but he definitely needs one because he doesn’t know shit about some of the things his kids talk about. i swear, ruth mentioned how eggs are pareve and he short circuited please help this poor dude out.

ok that’s. that’s it. i’m done running my mouth on main, but if you wanna plot or just hear me run my mouth about dumb and unimportant shit hit me up here or on discord ( deus ex machina #2294 ) !!! i’m more active on discord because i don’t have this acc always up on my phone. i’m so excited to write with you all !!!!

#slintro #‛ ———— 𝐋𝐀𝐑𝐒 𝐌𝐀𝐋𝐊𝐈𝐍 ／ ABOUT．#oh this is. so long #i am so sorry #abuse tw

9 notes · View notes

graygreygreys · 6 years

Text

Listen.

This has also been posted in Ao3 under Superfruties_08 with the same title, enjoy!

^^^^^

Levi Schmitt was used to a lot of things. He was used to his hair not willing to cooperate in the mornings before his shift. He was used to having to walk just a little bit faster after the attendings while he briefed them on their patients. He was even used to tripping over himself in the OR whenever he was offered a chance to do more than suction. So you could say that he’s used to changing for the people who surround him, rather than those people changing for him.

Or at least he used to be like that, up until a few weeks ago when he stopped ignoring his true self. Until he had Nico.

The weeks after the windstorm and the ambulance were some of the best weeks of Levi’s life. He and Nico went on cute, late night dates and early morning breakfasts even when one of them didn't have to be on call. He essentially got to take the lead on Dr.Hunt’s paralytic mishap in the OR. He was also finally able to put his contacts in without help (after weeks of Taryn or Nico helping him.) So Levi guessed it was inevitable that he had a bad day sometime soon, and today happened to be the day.

He’d spent the last couple of nights at Nico’s since the fellow was closer to the hospital than his Mom’s was and he had three straight days of early shifts. Today was day three of three and Levi’s alarm shrieked loudly into his ears, disrupting him from an otherwise peaceful sleep. Nico’s hold on the smaller man tightens and made it even harder for Levi to move.

“Nico, I have to get up. If not for work, then for my bladder.” Levi rasps out, trying to lift the arm that’s currently wrapped around his chest off. Nico grunts and obliges, albeit very reluctantly if the pout Levi receives when he returns has anything to do with it. He sent a sympathetic smile Nico’s way as he pulled his hoodie on and tried to fix his hair to look somewhat presentable.

“Do you think the person who makes our schedules hates us?” Nico asked while lifting himself up off the bed to watch Levi get ready. It’s not like he has anything better to do since he’s off today. He thinks he could probably go for a run when Levi leaves though, which gives him the perfect reason to be up this early in the morning. Levi laughs at that, and Nico watches in adoration as his head falls back and his bright smile takes over his features. It definitely wasn’t the funniest thing ever, but considering Jo Karev makes the intern's schedules and Link makes Nico’s. He could easily imagine the two of them plotting while making purposefully conflicting schedules.

“As much fun as that is to imagine, I highly doubt that. I’m on my way out, and then I’ll probably stop at my place before coming over. We’re still on for breakfast before your shift?” Levi asks, grabbing his keys and glasses slipping the latter onto his face. He’ll put his contacts on later at work, he couldn’t be bothered right now. Nico hummed an affirmative to his question and puckered his lips for an obligatory goodbye kiss.

Levi leaned one knee onto the bed and pecked Nico quickly and tried to pull away, but Nico grabbed the front of his hoodie and deepened the kiss slightly before pulling away so their foreheads rested against each other.

“See you later, piccolo,” Nico whispered to him, the blush blooming on Levi’s cheeks making him feel accomplished. He still couldn’t believe that he got to be with this man every day.

Levi kissed him again quickly before actually leaving and heading to Grey-Sloan. He was probably going to be late, but how could he care when he thought about the reasoning?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Levi wished his shift could have emulated his morning because it was not going well. He was only halfway through and he’d had to deal with a major three-car accident involving a teenager that had stolen a car. His patient had suffered severely from having been in the middle car. Every time Levi thought she was in the clear for a while she started seizing so he was on Sheperd’s instruction to monitor her closely for the rest of the night. Which meant he was probably going to have to postpone his plans with Nico in the morning.

Levi checked her vitals and updated her chart before stepping out towards the nurse’s station and pulling out his phone to send Nico a text.

hey, I don’t think I’ll be able to do breakfast tomorrow :( raincheck?

sure but why not? is there a trauma coming in? am I gonna get paged?

no, not a trauma. shepherd wants me to observe a patient overnight.

damn, okay babe. we’ll just have to reschedule, want me to bring you some food for dinner?

would you? I doubt I’m gonna have time to grab anything.

of course, I’ll stop by in like an hour. <3

Levi was justs about to reply when he heard his patient’s heart monitor begin to beep rapidly. He pushed his phone into his pocket and quickly ran into the room. Nurses began to flood into the room, one pushing a crash cart.

“Can someone page Shepherd?! She’s seizing again!” Levi exclaim while he pushed one of epinephrine. He finished just as Shepard ran into the room.

“What are you doing, who gave you the authority to push one of epi!” Amelia yelled while she pushed Levi out of the way. He stumbled and his back hit the wall behind him. He huffed and got himself upright again. He knew it was the right choice, Amelia had taken at least two minutes to get here if he hadn’t he patient would've started losing too much oxygen to her brain.

“Dr.Shepherd I-”

“You obviously think you know more about this than I do. Go get me OR 2 and page Helm, you’re off my service.” Amelia snapped, raising the guards in the bed and beginning to roll the patient out towards the elevator.

Levi couldn’t even breathe, let alone stand up for himself because Amelia didn’t give him the opportunity.

He made his way to the stairway while his anger continued to build up. He knew it was the right decision, he knew it was what Amelia would’ve done if she had been there. Where the hell does she get off just yelling at him for no reason? She’s the one who told him to watch the patient!

As he made his way to the pit, paging Helm to OR 2, he ran into someone. He knew that chest anywhere, it was Nico.

“Oh hey, I was just looking for you! I brought you a sandwich and some soup since it’s chilly in here. I know how- hey babe? What’s wrong?”

Levi huffed out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. All his anger seeped out and he was left exhausted and in his exhausted and frustrated state, he could feel a tear make its way down his face. Nico pulled the intern into the nearest empty room and shut the door behind them.

“What happened? Why are you crying, Levi?” Nico asked, his tone laced with concern. He placed their dinner on the bedside table and pulled Levi into a comforting embrace. The intern hugged him so tightly, his face buried in Nico’s chest. The taller man could feel Levi body shaking with what he could only assume was sadness.

“Baby, what happened? Talk to me.” Nico pleaded, running his hand down the back of Levi’s head and placing a kiss to his forehead. Eventually, Levi pulled away and wrapped his arms around Nico’s neck instead.

He explained what happened with Shepherd, and told Nico that he was more upset by the fact that he knew he did the right thing. He felt like he wasn’t being taken seriously at this hospital despite knowing that he was one of the best interns in their program right now. He wanted them to show him a little more respect. He would never have done it if he wasn’t 100% sure. Nico listened attentively and felt for his boyfriend. He knew how hard it was being an intern, and things like this made it hard for interns to be respected.

“I can go talk to her for you? Tell her that you know what you’re doing?” Nico suggested, thinking that maybe Levi just needed someone higher up to back him up.

And it would be really sweet to Levi if it didn’t feel like Nico wasn’t hearing what he was saying. The intern rolled his eyes and backed out of Nico’s embrace.

“Are you listening to me, Nico? Like actually hearing what I’m saying? I don’t want or need anyone to vouch for me. I want them to realize that just because I’m an intern doesn’t mean they can treat me like shit. Especially if I’m not wrong.” He explained getting frustrated that Nico didn’t quite get him. Nico’s face exuded confusion. Levi et out his third frustrated sigh and was about to explain what he meant when he got paged to the pit.

“I have to go, another trauma’s coming in. Thanks for dinner you can just like put it in the intern locker room fridge, I’ll get to it eventually.” Levi said as he left, giving Nico a small, fake smile as he went.

Nico shook his head as he stood in the room. He and Levi were going to have to talk about this again eventually.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Levi couldn’t be happier to get off this shift. Since he was no longer on Shepherd's service he was able to leave on time. He texted his mom as he got dressed, letting her know he was going to stop by and asking if she needed anything. He was closing his locker when he spotted Amelia walking towards him into the intern lounge.

“Hey Schmitt, I know you’re heading out but I just wanted to apologize for earlier. I have some personal things going on and that’s not an excuse to yell at you for something that wasn't even a mistake. This is a teaching hospital, so the fact that you felt comfortable in doing the procedure that you know I would have done if I’d been present means I’m doing my job right. I just wanted to apologize again.” Amelia said to him, placing a light hand on his shoulder.

Levi was stunned because the attendings didn’t usually apologize to interns. He knew she was in the wrong, but he never expected her to apologize.

“Uh, yeah it’s fine. Thank you for apologizing.” Levi sputtered out in shock. Amelia nodded and was on her way out.

“Wait, Dr.Shepherd! Did you happen to talk to Dr.Kim today?” Levi asked cautiously because as much as he loved Nico’s protective spirit, this isn’t what he wanted.

“No, he wasn’t even here today. I just realized that I was being an ass. Have a good night.” She said in genuine confusion towards his question. She left and Levi was shocked for a few minutes before he smiled to himself slightly. Maybe his day was starting to look up just a little bit.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

After stopping at his mom’s to get some clean clothes and dropping off some groceries she’d asked for, Levi arrived at Nico’s. As he walked into the building he was thinking of all the ways he could properly apologize for his misplaced anger towards his boyfriend. He used the key Nico gave him (for emergencies, or so the fellow had said,) and opened the apartment.

He was instantly hit with the sight of Nico sitting on the couch, watching The Office with his blanket thrown off his legs. He was just nodding off when Levi walked in.

“Hey, I tried waiting up for you but I’m obviously weak. How’d the rest of your shift go? Get any easier?” Nico pressed, opening his arms up for the younger man. Levi settled into Nico’s lap and laid against his chest.

“Thank you, I’m sorry,” Levi whispered to him, squeezing tighter when Nico chuckled a bit.

“Why’re you thanking me for something you asked me not to do? Also, how’d you know?” Nico asked while cuddling his boy.

“Well, Shepherd never apologizes so I figured you had something to do with it. But she seemed genuine which made it okay.” Levi explained his reasoning. He knew his boyfriend wasn’t going to be able to resist. And Nico always meant well so Levi never really actually minded.

“Damn, I’m getting predictable. I’m losing my mysterious charm.” Nico teased reveling in the giggle that escaped from Levi’s lips. He gave the boy a longing kiss since they hadn’t been able to since that morning.

The kiss intensified and soon Levi was straddling Nico’s legs on the couch his arms wound around the taller man’s shoulders and his hands pulling the hairs at the base of his neck. Levi mumbled something between kisses that Nico couldn’t understand.

“What do you want baby?” He asked while they rested against each other catching their breaths.

“I said, If I asked you to fuck me on this couch right now would you listen?” Levi repeated, looking down to watch Nico’s reaction.

Nic just smirked as he lifted Levi and laid him in his back. This boy was going to be the absolute death of him and he really wouldn’t want it any other way.

#greysanatomy #greys #schmico #levi schmitt #nico kim #comfort #fanfic

43 notes · View notes

lenalvthor · 6 years

Note

I am itching to post a comment for the recent update, but I’m also in the middle of finals and would not be happy if I didn’t give this week’s update the comment it deserves. To think it took all day to send this out alone! So instead, I’m hitting both of you up with a couple questions and headcanons requests. (Apologies in advance cause there’s quite a few of them 😅)

1. I’ve been wondering for a while now since we’ve seen them interact with other Arrowverse characters in their social media, but do the Legends still maintain contact with Snart? He’s the only one that’s literally a city away and contacting someone you’re used to seeing face to face constantly isn’t always easy.. How’s he doing over in Central City?

2. Do y’all have any headcanons for the OG Legends? How did they become the Legends? Or tell us about one of their OG misadventures (that may or may not have resulted in detention). 😉

3. Since y’all also mentioned that Ali is now running with the Soph Squad™, I was wondering if you have any headcanons about them? I just want to hear some cute stuff for them (especially cause Lil’ Sharpe is a fucking fav. Did they adopt her like how Sara merged the friend groups? Did they playfully tease Ali after learning her middle name like finding any and every way to play “Jenny from the Block” every hour on the hour (totally haven’t done that >.>).

(Imma stop there cause I don’t want to push it, but I hope that both of you have a good week ahead. Best of luck during finals, hope work isn’t to busy, and I do hope you’re feeling better from your being sick!)

do you know how much getting massive messages like this asking for this many details about our story literally makes our Entire day? like, screw entire days, our entire Weeks. it’s just so hard to comprehend that people care this much about our dumb little world that we’ve created, so firstly, literally thank u so much for taking the time to send this, and thank u for the time you’ve spent reading this fic and being this invested 💖

and RIGHT HEADCANONS AND STUFF.

1. snart. mick definitely keeps in touch with him, and he’s pretty good friends w barry so wally hears abt stuff through barry. sara tags him in memes every once in a while and texts him abt stuff, occasionally they tag each other in #tbt posts, but they don’t maintain That much contact really, but they catch up if they ever get a chance

2. i feel like you wanted something nice and fluffy for this but we ended up just going on angst spirals about freshman year sara instead lmao. in our minds, the legends group isn’t Quite the legends group until late in their freshman year. sara grew up being best friends with laurel, tommy, oliver and thea and they were pretty tight knit for most of her life. it wasn’t until middle school (or rather, sara’s eighth grade) that suddenly the older three were at a different school and both thea and sara kinda looked to expand their friend group (and it’s around this time that sara met and started dating nyssa). in freshman year, sara’s going through a bit of a hard time finding herself. she’s in this super low spot of trying to be both like laurel and not like laurel at the same time, and it hits her super hard how much her mother just Doesn’t care and her outlet ends up being acting out a lot.

she becomes pretty tight with mick and snart and they get into a lot of trouble together for a while during the year. ray, amaya and jax are the three who manage to worm their way into sara’s life and become friends with her and slowly ease her away from that self destructive behaviour, esp ray and amaya - ray with getting through to her understanding what it’s like to have that constant comparison to a sibling, and amaya by being one of the first female friends that sara has had in a while and who she refreshingly needs to find her own since of femininity and style and stuff that isn’t in some way trying to emulate or be opposite to laurel at all

sara drags mick and snart with her away from that whole troublemaking thing and at the same time, ray starts dating kendra (who sara knew through nyssa) and amaya becomes quite close with nate, so them + jax are the original legends.

it’s very early sophomore year that snart moves away (he comes back to visit a few times and he and sara hook up one time after nyssa leaves). kendra starts to drift a bit after nyssa leaves as well, and has her own group of friends even though she and ray are still dating. zari moves to star city right after christmas break and ray and jax are assigned her ‘buddies’ to show her around and she sits with the legends those first few days at lunch. she and amaya click almost immediately, and she likes nate even though he’s a bit annoying and ray is sweet if not a little overwhelming and jax and mick seem pretty chill. but she and sara butt heads so quickly, and a lot of that is bc sara isn’t in a good place at all after nyssa leaving and zari reminds her so much of herself that she’s starting to think all these things about the legends replacing her somehow, and it’s not until ray picks up on that and quietly takes her aside and promises that it’s nothing like that, that zari just needs friends the way they all did last year, sara eases up a bit. (zari tries out for the soccer team soon after though, and it’s there that she and sara realise how well they work together and how good friends they could be if they just tried)

ray and kendra break up early junior year, but they’d been distant for a while anyway. kendra still remains pretty good friends w the legends tho. nate and amaya also break up junior year but it’s an amicable break up and obvs they both stay in the legends.

as for how they became legends - i don’t think neither me or rachel are particularly inventive when it comes to pranks and creative adventures and misdemeanours, so if you (or anyone else) has any ideas for various mischievous things the legends got up to to earn their name, pls send them our way!!

3. they are the fucking cutest okay. thea and ali have been friendly and all since middle school and they’re on the same lacrosse team and ali always thought their group seemed cool, but it’s not until she’s trying to find a new table to sit at (pointedly avoiding looking at her old friends) that thea waves as though they’re Best Friends and points at a free seat beside roy. we have thea, roy, curtis, rené, sin and probs a few other OC’s as their friend group. it’s a big group but everyone has kinda smaller mini groups within it and that group ^ w those names is the group that ali gets adopted into. it’s kinda weird for ali bc she hasn’t had a lot of guy friends before, but she immediately loves it. curtis teaches her how to play video games and she schools rené big time in basketball and when she realises sin is gay, she explains why she left her old group after their homophobic comments abt ava and sin immediately grins and goes “i like you.” roy and thea become ali’s best friends out of the group though, always inviting her to stuff and making points to get to know her and funnily enough, ali never quite feels like a third wheel (i mean, she does sometimes), but it just feels natural. she joins the school archery club bc thea encourages her to, she goes round to the queen house all the time to study and it’s cool bc the queens are friendly with the sharpes bc they’re in the same social circle and thea gets having parents who are Like That and ali realises that she’s never felt more comfortable with a group of friends in her life

(there are so many more headcanons abt the third thing but the post is so long & so we’re gonna save those for another time heh)

#lot hs au #you make me smile

16 notes · View notes

bestmovies0 · 7 years

Text

The Teen Taking Back Practical Jokes From YouTubes Bros

In a YouTube landscape dominated by entitled teen boys, problematic dorks, Instagram simulates trading on sex appeal, and vloggers who will literally stage fake acid onslaughts for beliefs, talented young inventors are often overlooked.

But Elle Mills, a 19 -year-old from Ottawa, Canada, is quickly making a epithet for herself as one of YouTube’s most hilarious young stars.

Her stunt comedy has led her to do things like hurl herself a procession, stage a funeral, steal her brother’s identity, disguise in his closet overnight, astonish her mommy with tattoos, and more. Her videos have garnered over 75 million views and she lately excelled 1 million customers on YouTube.

But one thing Mills imagines a lot about as she scales her channel is the ethics of prank culture.

When developing an audience on YouTube there’s a natural tension between what the fuck is get you raw views and what content will grow your brand responsibly, and Mills said she often toes that line.

” Where you draw the line is something that’s been on my psyche a lot for the past month or two ,” Mills said.” The thing about prank culture on YouTube is that it’s so driven by numbers and beliefs. It’s something where you can understand why people do stuff that gets them in hassle .”

Mills said she has wanted to become a famous YouTuber since before she can remember.

Growing up in Canada, she chased her family around with a video camera, made webcam skits with her friends, and eventually get her own first camera and a laptop with video editing software. She worshipped early YouTube superstars like Grace Helbig and Kian Lawley.

Mills spent hours teaching herself to hit and cut videos, but it wasn’t until soon after she graduated high school in 2016 that she decided to try to do it full time.

At the time, she didn’t threw herself on camera much. Instead, she spliced together Tv prove and movie trailers into short comedic remixes. Her first viral hit came in the fall of 2016 when she recut the Stranger Things trailer to look like a romantic slapstick. The video raked in hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube and Twitter.

The hit was enough to convince Mills that she could pursue YouTube full day. She fell out of college at the end of that semester in order to start a regular vlogging schedule.

She said the decision was tough. Her household had expected her to be used to her father’s footsteps and pursue a career in business. But Mills said she knew that it merely wasn’t a fit.

Eventually, her mothers got on board with her decision and only a couple months ago, in March of 2017, she had her first video go viral. It featured her interviewing her friend’s Tinder dates.

Nearly a year later, she has become a top YouTuber in her category, developed a network of famous influencer friends, come out as bisexual in a headline-making video, and lives a hectic life full of weekly adventures. In June 2017 Mills signed with Fullscreen, a social-first entertainment network for digital influencers and rising talent.

As Mills has grown, she’s tried to steer clear of the type of dangerous and offensive pranks vloggers have become known for. She said she aspires to set a more positive instance for her fans–while still having fun.

” With pranks you always have to think bigger, better, what’s not been done ,” Mills said.

But unlike many of her peers, including Loganand Jake Paul, she still lives at home with her momma and an legion of friends who look out for her best interests.

” I find that sometimes I feel like I almost intersected the line for positions. I come up with suggestions like,’ This is insane! No one has in the past done this before !’ But I’m lucky to have family and friends who say,’ Hey, that intersects the line. You shouldn’t do that ,'” she said.

” The people you find on the news, they don’t have people in their lives telling them what’s up .”

Still, Mills said there are definitely pranks on her channel she wouldn’t do again.

Her biggest sadnes was flying to Vegas and legally marriage her sister’s boyfriend for a vlog. She’s still technically married to him. Dealing with the fallout has been challenging.

” I’m trying to get onto cancelled ,” she said,” but it’s a lot harder than it seems. I did it for a joke. I’ve always been the person in my friend group where it was like,’ Oh, Elle will be the last to get married ,’ so the gag was like, haha I’m gonna be first.

” But divorce sucks. It’s a lot of money ,” she said.” My sister is still dating him. I was envisioning, I need to top myself, I need to top everything I’ve ever done. But I’m dealing with repercussions .”

Mills said she’s also held to different standards than boys on YouTube. She said it can be easier for young men to succeed in slapstick on YouTube because a lot of the audience is comprised of teen daughters, who idolize their teen vlogger crushes, and young teen sons, who want to emulate them.

Mills said she hopes to follow in the footsteps of other successful female creators like Liza Koshy, Lilly Singh, and Colleen Ballinger, who the hell is judged more on their comedic ability than appearing.

” These are people who don’t do the beauty guru thing but have great online existence and are doing wonderful things ,” Mills said.” I’m seeing more and more wives YouTubers rising and it’s sick. It’s nice to see a progression from how “its been” five to 10 years ago .”

While YouTube is Mills’ dreaming occupation, like many other vloggers, it wasn’t long before she realized that current realities of being a YouTube star is far from rainbows and sunshine.

Mills maintains a penalize schedule in order to put out her weekly videos, and often merely takes off one day or less per week.

From Tuesday through Sunday she frantically draws together video notions, acquires props, stages her plan, and shoots.

” Saturday and Sunday I spend editing like a crazy mad person, doing voice overs and material. Monday, I post ,” she said.

Despite the intimacy of the platform, Mills said it can be lonely sometimes and her profession has no doubt taken a toll on her mental health.

In a recent video titled” Dear Viewer ,” Mills revealed that she struggles behind the scenes.

” My family life is very complicated. The reality that my daddy and my oldest sister aren’t in my videos because we don’t get along ,” she said stimulates her sad.” The reality that every video causes me an unhealthy amount of stress. The reality that I put so much pressure on myself that I unplug. The reality that I envision everything I construct isn’t good enough and the fact that I scream every week because it’s a never-ending cycle.

” The best lane I can describe what I’m going through ,” Mills said,” is like having to go through kindergarten through college in one nighttime and being expected to get straight As and not let anyone down .”

Mills took three weeks off last month and has already seen changes. During her hour away, she visited several other well-known vlogger friends in Los Angeles and find the trip restorative.

” I ultimately realized that not everything I attain “re gonna be all” perfect, and that’s OK ,” she said.

Mills said she eventually hopes to move to Los Angeles herself, but is still working out the logistics.

” It’s kind of hard because a lot of my content is organized around my family and friends in Ottawa ,” she said.

Mills is undoubtedly living a movie star life, even in Ottawa. She still gets a rush when she’s recognized at the local mall.

” I haven’t been in it for long, but this is what I’ve learned so far ,” she said in a video named” If My Life Was a Movie .”

” Brands pay lane too much fund. Like, a ludicrous amount. It’s no joke when someone says this, but every YouTuber has slept with every YouTuber, and you know those YouTube conventions? That’s where they do it. There’s so much drama that it constructs you think you’re in high school again and YouTubers love to party more than they love to promote merch .”

Still, Mills feels like it’s all been worth it.

” I’ve been a YouTube fan for so long ,” she said,” it’s just chill hanging out with people I look up to, and even cooler when they make you feel like you belong .”

Read more: https :// www.thedailybeast.com/ the-teen-taking-back-practical-jokes-from-youtubes-bros

from https://bestmovies.fun/2018/02/03/the-teen-taking-back-practical-jokes-from-youtubes-bros/

0 notes