#surely there must be a way to advertise them without making me watch them so many times i hate them on principle...

[nikkiissleepy]

why is shining nikki holding me hostage and forcing me to rewatch these dances a billion times

[pinoyhawks]

i'll see your heart and i'll raise you mine

takami keigo/hawks x gn!reader

Description: You can read him just as well as he can read you and he's not yet sure whether that's a blessing or a curse.

He's starting to edge toward blessing when you reach for him.

content warnings: hospital setting, whump, graphic description of injuries, brief descriptions of medical procedures, bodily trauma

[crossposted from my ao3: link]

~~~

“So you’ll never guess what I saw today.” Hawks tugs at the curtains, blocking out the golden rays of the setting sun. He knows you hate it when the sun’s in your eyes. “Do you remember that one photoshoot where I had to stick paintbrushes and scrub brushes through my hair and behind my ears and in my mouth?” 

Hawks glances back at you. The slight dip of your head urges him to continue. He gives the curtains a final tug before making a beeline for the electric kettle on the counter of your hospital room’s mini-kitchen. The water within begins to boil at the push of a button.

“When I was on patrol, I saw a billboard advertising some sort of brush for feathers and—wouldn’t you know it?—I was on it! Apparently, that was what the photoshoot was for! Brushes for feathers!” 

He shakes his head in disbelief as he tears open two packets of peppermint tea, the electric kettle beeping loudly as steam pours out of its spout. “They didn’t even tell me what the photoshoot was for while we were taking it. Wanna know what the kicker is?” 

He pauses for one or two seconds, for both dramatic effect and for the space where your answer would be, before pressing on. “They didn’t even give me one of those feather brushes!” 

Hawks dips two bags of peppermint tea in and out of two paper cups, one for you and one for him. “I mean, I’ll admit, my feathers don’t really need brushing nor did I really want one, but still. Would’ve been nice to receive some sort of care package or branded gift basket from them, right?” 

The smell from such a small portion invades his nostrils and feels like toothpicks sticking into his brain. How you drink this every night without getting overstimulated, he’ll never know, but there’s no way he’ll make a fuss about it. Not when recovery from your incident demanded that much of your independence and daily rituals be taken away from you. 

Hawks figures it must have been painful to be denied the simple joy of having a cup of peppermint tea before bed during the worst parts of your recovery. So he makes two. One for you to drink, one for him to hold. You’ll finish yours and he’ll give you his. 

He picks up the two cups and makes his way to you, treading carefully so as not to spill. From your seat on the hospital bed, you carefully pull the overbed table towards you, a safe place for two cups of tea to land. “I know it’s stupid,” Hawks says, gently placing one cup in front of you, “but hey. You asked me to talk about my day and that was the only thing I could think of.” 

You beam up at him before shaking your head as if to say, No, I don’t think it’s stupid. I’d ask for a gift basket too if they made me stick a toothbrush up my nose and took a picture of it without telling me what it was for.  

Something in his chest aches at the thought of your possible response. His grip on his paper cup tightens as he watches you breathe in the minty steam before taking your very first sip.

It’s been two weeks since the incident, hard to tell from how quickly you’re recovering physically. Dark circles still bruise the bags of your eyes, your face looks gaunter, and your skin looks a little duller than usual, but the scratches on your face are shrinking and with every change of bandages he stumbles upon, the gauze wrapped around your abdomen comes away with less and less blood. 

Yes, you’re healing, no doubt about it, but the silence that hangs over your room and fills the air like a wicked miasma tells him a completely different story. 

A quick tap on his arm startles Hawks out of his spiral. You fix him with a concerned look, brows knitted together. Hey. You’re flying off again. Come back to me . Hawks tacks on those last two words, just for himself. You’d never say those last two words, but he lets himself be selfish in that way. It’s hard for him not to be selfish when it comes to knowing ( knowing , not guessing ) what you, his very first, genuine friend, would say. 

Hawks plasters a placating grin on his face. “Sorry, sorry,” he apologizes, patting the back of your hand. “I’m fine. I promise.”

Your lips press together briefly before splitting into an affirmative smile, but Hawks catches the microexpression quick enough. You don’t really believe he’s fine, but for his sake, you’ll help him keep up that silly little illusion. You can read him just as well as he can read you and he’s not yet sure whether that’s a blessing or a curse. 

He’s starting to edge towards ‘blessing’ when you reach for him, palm up and fingers opening and closing. Hawks switches his cup to his other hand to take yours. As soon as his hand is in yours, your thumb brushes over the back of his, back and forth, back and forth. It’s okay. It’s okay, you seem to say. You smile up at him as you squeeze his hand tightly. It’s gonna be okay.

Hawks swallows down the lump in his throat at how the situation has turned itself around. He’s here to comfort you in your trying times, not you comfort him for not being fine. 

You’re the one who got caught in the crossfires of a villain attack, not him. You’re the one who suffered multiple blunt-force injuries in the chest, the stomach, and the head from being tossed around so violently, not him. You’re the one who could barely breathe the moment you entered the hospital’s treatment room, your breath rattling as your lungs fought to push air in and out of you from within your battered ribcage, not him. You’re the one who’s nonverbal thanks to a mix of trauma from the incident and vocal cord paralysis from your injuries, not him. You’re the one relying on body language and the notes app of your phone to ask for the simplest things, not him. 

Between you and him, Hawks is the most selfish person in the room. How dare he call himself a hero? 

Hawks drops your hand. 

For a moment, your expression falls before he takes your hand in his once more. His thumb strokes over the cracked and scarred skin of your knuckles in the same way you did his. Your smile makes his heart hammer against his ribcage. He sets down his paper cup on the overbed table to cup your hand in both of his. 

I’m here. I’m here for you. I’ll take care of you, he hopes he says as he raises your hand to his mouth. 

Briefly, he presses his lips to your knuckles. Short, but reverent in every way. I love you, I love you, I love you. 

Hawks looks up at you with bated breath, taking in your softened gaze, your teary eyes, and the pleased curve of your smile.

You set your cup down on the overbed table, right next to his, and cradle Hawks’s cheek in your palm. Something blooms in your chest, something much more powerful than fear and injury.

“Love you, too.”

[strawberrynightmare]

Mikey, Mitsuya, Koko & Izana with foodie s/o

Content warning: Just Izana being a little bit... extreme

Koko

~It all started when he took you birthday shopping. The two of you went to a mall and he told you to take anything you want and not look at the price, to which you hesitantly agreed. He expected to be dragged into a clothing or electronics shop. Whatever you wanted; jackets, shoes, bags, perfumes, headphones, games, or maybe, once you get more confident, a phone, tablet, laptop? Or even a tv?

~He got so lost in his fantasies it took him a few minutes to comprehend your current whereabouts. 

~...A grocery store.

~Well, that’s fine. It’s completely reasonable that you’d want to do groceries. Duties first, pleasures second. Although he had to assure you that he’s more than happy to pay for your overflowing shopping cart full of sweets, snacks, cheese and other stuff.  He didn’t let you carry everything yourself, either. He insisted he carries at least 3/4 of them.

~Then the two of you went to get pizza. For that, he paid without even asking. Of course, it wouldn’t be good to shop hungry. And then a sweet dessert - ice cream!

~And when he thought that this is where the actual shopping trip starts, you said that you were done and thanked him. He looked at you as if you were insane. Surely, you must have been joking. 

~But instead of saying “just kidding”, you asked him if there’s anywhere he wants to go. This man was so flabbergasted that he just shook his head and silently walked you home. 

~It didn’t take him long to accept his fate and change his strategy, though. 

~Instead of more “classic” gifts, he began to buy you food. And rather than to the shopping malls, he took you to some of the most recommended restaurants. Pretty chill about it too. Although only for as long as he gets to pay. He can get petty when you don’t let him. The two of you literally race to the checkpoint

~And no, you are not visiting McDonald's, KFC or such things. He’s willing to (respectfully) argue with you about that. Why would you even look at their trash-quality food, when he’s more than willing to pay for something healthier and tastier? *proceeds to wave his credit card in front of your face until you give up*

~If there’s a specific food you crave out of the blue, all you have to do is text him. He’ll order it for you. Hell, he’ll even order anything he sees advertised on the internet that he thought you might like, so don’t get surprised when you get random parcels delivered to your door.

~If you’re worried about your eating habits, he’ll suggest visiting a dietician and will even accompany you there. Won’t force you or stick his nose into your eating habits unless it’s clearly dangerous for your health, though. Most of the time he just supports every decision you make.

~Literally the definition of “Eat whatever you want, I can pay.”

Izana

~Okay this guy 100% loves to watch you eat. You can’t convince me otherwise. 

~Like, imagine you’re casually enjoying your waffles and he sits right in front of you, staring at you, drilling holes into your soul with his gaze. Like this ◉_◉. He doesn’t even order anything for himself no matter how many times you ask him if he’s sure that he’s not hungry. 

~Your boyfriend literally can get high on dopamine from watching you eat something you like. He doesn’t get bored. Each time the two of you meet, he just kinda gives you some kind of a snack and at this point, you don’t even question it, cause he’s gonna do it either way. The two of you start talking, he automatically extends his hand with a snack towards you and you automatically take it without missing a beat. 

~The moment you split your food in half and offered it to him, he was so moved. In his mind, he swore to protect you forever. I’ve seen memes about girlfriends saying they don’t want anything to eat and then eat their boyfriend’s food. Which kind of resembles him because he’ll only eat if it’s from your plate. Can’t get his own for his life. 

~I can clearly imagine a scenario where a gang fight occurs and all of the enemies get heavily beaten up except for that one guy who’s captured at the very beginning and then, at the end, they let him go with no more than a scratch, simply because he’s the son of the owner of your favourite sushi restaurant. 

~At the same time, imagine what happens to the people whose food you dislike. Without a blink, he’d watch you eat something, and instead of the usual bliss he sees on your face, you frown and begin to slow down before hesitantly putting down the eating utensils. He’d ask you if anything’s wrong and after you reply that this dish is not really to your liking, he’d just smile and offer that you eat somewhere else. Then, the next day, you heard in the news that the very same restaurant burned to ashes during the night. The cause of the fire was unknown. 

~Another time, he accidentally saw you out in the town with a friend. He just happened to be nearby and considered saying hello when he heard your friend complaining about you eating way too much. You didn’t seem to take it seriously, but a dark glint in his eyes appeared at that time.

~”I never had a problem with how much they eat…”

~Hopefully, you weren’t very close with that friend (._.)

~Lowkey the devil on your shoulder. He only means good, but he never really tells you no. If you’re thinking about whether to get something to eat, you don’t even have to look at him to know his advice. And if you can’t decide between two things, he’ll just get you both no big deal. Even if he’s aware that it might not be the best for you, it’s not like an additional portion of ice cream will harm you, right?

~He’ll even go as far as to rob a grocery store with his gang to get you a good supply of snacks. You might want to establish some boundaries with him. Just saying. 

~Overall, wants the best, but tends to take things to the extremes.

Mitsuya

~Say no more.

~Actually, he’d cook for you almost each time you come to visit him even before he learns about your fondness for good food. And when he does? You got yourself a personal chef and no amount of insisting and resisting will get you out of this. 

~Legit gets offended if you refuse to let him make you food and suggest eating in the town instead.  

“Haaa? You’d rather pay for some stranger’s stuff rather than eat what your boyfriend prepared for you with love?”

~And it doesn’t matter that you only have the best intentions in mind and you don’t want to overwork him. He’s having none of that. If you really insist that you want to eat at some restaurant or worse- a fast food restaurant (!) he has no power to stop you. He’ll go with you, but he’ll be silent most of the time and will be glaring at you as you eat.

“I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed.”

~But the moment you finally break, and promise to always choose his food over others, he’s momentarily back to himself, apologising and cuddling the hell out of you. Overbearing, but he does it out of care.

~That’s where it ends though. He invites you to eat dinner with him every few days and sometimes makes you snacks, but the rest is up to you. He doesn’t really stick his nose into your eating habits. And he doesn’t forbid you from eating in restaurants either. He’ll straight out encourage you to try out new places, but that’s only as long as he’s not able to cook for you himself, probably due to lack of time.

~If he sees some occasional food trucks or other kinds of time-limited food stalls, he’s absolutely getting you stuff from there. He’ll probably get a little bit of everything so that the two of you can go back there and eat whatever you liked the most.

~And if he sees someone bothering you for your eating habits, he won’t hesitate to pull them aside and scold them or even start a fight if necessary. 

~Will ask his friends and fellow gang members if they’ve been to any good restaurants/bars/cafes/food stalls or anything recently so that he can take you there later.

~Also, will try out even more new recipes and even has a little notebook where he writes down your favourite ones. Then, on some grand dates like anniversaries, your birthday or valentines, he’ll prepare little feasts entirely made out of your favourites.

~HOLD HIM FROM BEHIND AS HE COOKS. The first time you did it he froze and started blushing like crazy. He’d pin you to the wall and make out with you if he didn’t have milk on the stove. 

~From there on, he usually demands that you do it each time you ask if he needs any help or feel guilty with how much effort he puts in for you. This is it, this is the payment. Bonus points if you nuzzle your face into his shoulder. It’s his favourite thing to make him relax.

~Compliment his cooking and he’ll be genuinely thrown off. It’s something which always manages to make his mind all hazy and the butterflies in his stomach spring to life. Don’t let him brush it off! Keep going to witness the great mitsuya takashi embarrassed and shy.

~All in all, LET HIM COOK

Mikey

I came up w/ this one while taking a shit

~I can literally see a whole love story forming there.

~Imagine you decided on a study break, went to some shop nearby and bought some snacks. Let’s say, a croissant or two. A full ass croissant with chocolate inside and stuff. And you go to the park to enjoy it. It’s late afternoon, you find a bench hidden in the shadow of some old maple and bon appetit!

~You were halfway in, when you noticed that someone sat at the opposite side of the bench. You glanced that way and saw a blonde who looked to be about your age. He was also eating, but it was dorayaki. Without thinking much about it, your attention shifted back to your treat. After you were done, you quietly left.

~Then, a whole week later, it was also around that time that you decided to have some air, went to the same store and this time, bought a box of cookies. Once again, you ventured into the park and soon noticed that the bench you occupied last time was once again empty. So you sat there and enjoyed your break. 

~And again, the very same blonde appeared and sat nearby but with a different snack. 

You were suddenly pulled out of your blissful state by the stranger’s voice. 

“Can I have one cookie?” You turned to look at him. “I’ll give you pocky in exchange,” he noticed the slight surprise on your face and sent you a reassuring smile. “Is it too sudden? Sorry, but they just smell so good. Seriously, what flavour is this?”

“I think it’s because of the orange filling,“ you extended the box towards him as he moved closer to you. He took one cookie and offered you his pocky. 

“Thank you! Now try this, it’s green tea flavoured.”

“Nice, thanks.”

~No more words were spoken and as you finished, you simply said your goodbye and left. But the next time you went there, he was on the bench already. When he noticed you, he waved you in greeting and another exchange took place, this time, you also had a little small talk. Then, the same situation kept repeating until the two of you sat right next to each other and chatted casually. 

~Every few days, you headed to the bench, hoping to see him there. But after some time, it didn’t simply end on the bench hangouts. He’d ask you to go with him to that cafe you spoke so fondly about. Or the ramen restaurant he recommended. 

~As you began to spend more time together, you exchanged numbers, began to text each other and even developed feelings. None of you could point out the exact time when you fell in love. It just felt so right when you were together, you soon began to officially date. 

~Which brings us to this point. Seriously, you’re like twin souls. It is now a common occurrence for the two of you to exchange food or even steal each other’s. Literally imagine you and a few of his friends hanging out at his place and he looks through his drawers frowning for a while and finally asks “who took my limited edition strawberry taiyaki?” with a death voice. No one dares to breathe, but there you are, head peeking from the bathroom. “Oh, I ate it”.

~Everyone gets ready to hold Mikey down to at least give you a few minutes to run, but he just gets back to his normal mode and smiles. “Did you like it? I’ll buy more for you next time then.” And they’re absolutely bewildered. No, I will never get tired of this trope

~Food dates all of the time. Cafe, restaurant, bar, grocery store, name it and you’ll be going there. Especially if you’re too shy to go on your own. There is no such thing as ‘too much food’ in his dictionary. Eat to your heart’s content and if anyone dares to comment, we all know what happens. 

~Totally the type to bring you some sweets and ask for cuddles, kisses and letting him sleep on your lap in exchange. But hey! You can do the same. Actually, you don’t even have to get him anything. He’s physically unable to say no to you even if he sometimes gets a little bit pouty, a few minutes later he doesn’t even remember why he was mad in the first place.

~Once you have dated for some time, he’s the type to ask you how does your food taste while you’re eating, and as you’re moving your plate towards him, it’s 50/50 whether he demands you to feed him or steals a kiss and then licks his lips and says, “it’s good.”

~The spoon feeding though. He wants you to feed him just as much as he wants to feed you. It makes everyone in the 10 metre radius look away. Especially if you happen to be hanging out with his friends. The moment you start, various groans and sighs can be heard all around you. But at the same time, they all have those little smirks on their lips. 

~Their leader is smitten. Good for him.

[see-arcane]

Lucy and Jonathan

“We met some time ago a man that would just do for you, if you were not already engaged to Jonathan.”

I’ll admit, while it probably wasn’t anything more than an airy throw-in without any real barbs behind it, the inflection on Lucy’s comment followed by the idle advertisement of upcoming character, Dr. John ‘Jack’ Seward, as a higher-up-the-ladder ‘what-if’ prospect, still kind of stung to hear. I know it’ll get sanded back in later chapters because—minor spoilers—context clues will show that Mina, Lucy, and Jonathan have known/been friendly with each other since they were kids, and comments from future letters will show a more mutual regard. So it makes me wonder what the reason for the implied derision was.*

*(Beyond her possibly trying to push Jack in a way that says ‘Nope, No, I Choose Not to See the Crush, No Thank You, Hot Potato.’)

My guess? It’s a bit.

Specifically, a holdover from hers, Mina’s, and Jonathan’s earlier days when all of them had grown into adolescence, social mores started getting hammered in in earnest, and Mina and Jonathan were just starting on their official courtship.

Suddenly, they’re no longer a trio of kids enjoying each other’s company. Now it’s two young ladies—one rich, one poor—and a charming young man—also from a lower class. Considering the period, it would be only too easy for whispers to start flying behind fans and cigars that the young Mr. Harker might consider leveling up his prospects, or that the lovely Miss Westenra, a veritable Victorian Helen of Troy, might idly snatch her low-born friend’s man out from under her nose on a whim. And aren’t they such a pretty picture? Quoting their Shakespeare at each other, so intriguingly close compared to most men and their ladies’ friends…unless there are certain extra friendly circumstances involved, ha ha.

A ribald comment too many from coworkers at Hawkins’ firm and a backhanded compliment or three at the latest spring ball probably shocked Jonathan and Lucy respectively into action. Bonus points if one of the inciting remarks came from some tittering debutante, “Well, I can’t say I’m surprised. You two are so alike! Such sweet bonny things, parroting the Bard at each other, prattling merrily about the latest little outing without stopping for breath. Really, Lucy, he would just do for you.”**

**(Some have wondered if Lucy was nudging Jack toward Mina due to certain similar traits they shared. Some morose aspects, intensely focused, interests in modern technology. You’ll see when you meet him. Either way, it’s another parallel to ponder here.)

Cue Mina having to endure her loved ones defending her honor from being dubbed a victim of romantic betrayal in the most vaudeville manner possible. Though she should expect no less from Theatre Nerds 1 and 2.

When they go out, Mina is permanently sandwiched between them as if they’re ducking behind a red-faced shield. Lucy brandishes a parasol to ensure they’re at least the shaft’s length apart; sometimes she’ll even open it to make sure they’re not swayed by looking upon each other, may Heaven forbid such scandalous temptation! Jonathan sits on the bench with them with his hat pulled down over his eyes for safety’s sake. At least a quarter of an hour at the start of each outing is dedicated to a back-and-forth of:

Lucy, nose up so high she’s looking more at the ceiling than him: Mr. Harker.

Jonathan, checking his pocket watch to see how long he must endure this most arduous company: Miss Westenra.

Mina, head in her hands: It’s been months.

Lucy, scoffing: Months of torment in his presence.

Jonathan, scoffing harder: Agony in hers.

Lucy, on a fainting couch: However can you stand him, Mina?

Mina, about to pull her hair out of its pins: You helped him pick out the ring, Lucy.

Jonathan, picture of woe: Tormentedly, of course.

Lucy, nodding: Agonizingly.

In short, Jonathan 🤝 Lucy:

[lovelytsunoda]

better be good to me // nyck de vries

summary: he's trying to hide that he's famous. she thinks she's finally met a normal man. one weekend trip is enough to knock every perception of him on it's side.

pairing: nyck de vries x reader

warnings: takes place before nyck got fired, nyck's kind of shifty about who he is, very brief mention of a piss k*nk, allusions to sexual activities, happy ending because I beleive in happy ever afters.

Oh, you better be good to me That's how it's gotta be now 'Cause I don't have no use You loosely call the truth You better be good to me

“there’s no way he can afford this if he is who he says he is, you do know that, right?”

“you used to work for red bull and you turned out fine.” she laughed at her roommate, pulling a few dresses out of her closet and throwing them into her suitcase.

“I worked on college campuses and made minimum wage.” eleanor rolled her eyes. “I could not afford to whisk my lover away for a weekend in austria.”

y/n rolled her eyes, flopping down on the double bed. “you worked for minimum wage hocking energy drinks on campus. nyck works in advertising.”

just under eight months ago, y/n y/l/n Met the man of her dreams. nyck de vries was sweet and funny and gentle and best of all, he was normal. he wasn’t a macho frat bro athlete or a film bro who’s favourite movie was ‘scarface’. he didn’t have a hidden piss kink. he was just nyck.

“I’m just saying that I don’t think he’s being totally honest about who he is. maybe he’s some dutch nepo baby burning daddys money.”

“and would that be so bad?” y/n laughed, tossing a floral skirt at her roommate in retaliation. “I finally meet a normal guy, someone who makes me feel incredible about myself, and you’re questioning it?”

eleanor sighed, looking over at her best friend. “I’m just looking out for you. I want you to be safe, even if you are choosing to go to a whole new country with a man you barely know.”

“we live in a small continent, ellie. it’s a six hour drive across the border, i can come home at any time.”

y/n never has any reason to doubt that nyck was exactly who he said he was. sure, he dressed a little too nicely for a twenty-seven year old and he drove a car so expensive that she could only dream of owning one like it, but she took one as a sign of maturity, and the other as a sign of a healthy work ethic.

“just be safe. and tell me all the gory details. i wanna know what the little man gets up to in bed.”

“eleanor!”

two days later, she was in the passenger seat of nycks toyota supra, speeding down a one-lane road on the way to spielberg, not a care in the world or another car in sight as she rolled the window all the way down, hair flying around her face as she sang along to the radio, a classic rock station that she knew nyck couldn’t stand but had put on just for her.

his hand rested comfortably in her bare thigh, rubbing reassuring circles as he looked over, a grin on his face as he watched her intently.

if only she knew what he was hiding. would they still be able to have moments like this, he wondered to himself, car hugging the curve of the road as he turned.

as he pulled up the hilton suites he’d booked for the weekend, a sprawling lodge located in the hills, behind a wrought iron gate only accessible with a confirmation code from your booking receipt, y/n felt her heart contract in her chest as she saw the hordes of people surrounding the gates.

“nyck, why are all these people here?”

“they must just be in town for the race.” nyck hummed, trying to steer through the crowd without running over any fans dressed in red bull regalia, thankful that he had sprung to buy the tinted windows.

“race?” she raised her eyes, pushing her sunglasses up on her head. “what race?”

“formula one at the red bull ring this weekend.” nyck said, finally steering the supra through the barely open iron gate, security officers pushing back the fans as he made his way up the winding driveway. “they gave me some paddock passes at work for the weekend. i remembered how you said you used to love racing in school and I thought you might want to see it up close and personal.”

y/n smiled, reaching to clutch his hand in hers. “babe, that was five years ago. i drove a stock car for my university’s shitty team around a homemade dirt track because we lived in a town that was so far away from everything that there was nothing else to do. it was a glorified demolition derby.”

“and you still haven’t shown me any videos of it.”

she laughed as nyck pulled into a parking space. “it never came up in conversation!”

“you can’t just tell me that you were once a stock car driver and not back it up with photographic evidence!”

they headed inside the hotel, walking hand in hand. they only brought in one suitcase each, the rest of the bags hidden in nycks trunk. all his racing gear was still in the car, a pit in his stomach as he though about confessing, about explaining who he truly was.

but in his defence, everything could have easily been found by googling his name.

he unlocked the suite door, ditching his suitcase and his shoes by the mirrored closet door. to nyck, this was just another hotel room paid for by management. but to y/n? she felt like she was sitting in the lap of luxury as she buried her bare feet in the carpet, walking towards the french balcony doors.

“nicky, this place is incredible!” she laughed, twirling around and trying not to hit the tv as she laughed, gesturing to the large tub in the corner of the room. “is that a jacuzzi?”

and nyck looked at her in pure adoration, laughing as he pulled her into his arms, kissing her softly. “only the best. you and me are going to have lots of fun in there tonight.”

“why wait?” she grinned roguishly, leaning over to turn the taps on the tub, brushing up against her lovers crotch. “we could have fun now.”

nyck was a goner before she had even taken her shirt off.

the next morning, he was running through all the ways that he could tell her who he was before he got to the track. by the time he was done his shower and drinking his kale smoothie, he had exactly no ideas.

by the time they got to the track, he had admitted defeat. he’d let the massive motif of his face in the side of the alphatauri building do all of the talking.

they walked through the paddock hand in hand, and as nyck stopped to wave at everyone, confusion started to well in her stomach.

why did everyone in the paddock know who her boyfriend was?

“um, babe, we just walked past the red bull building.” she pointed out, gesturing with her thumb towards the large navy building emblazoned with the face of sergio perez.

“just trust me, sweetheart. it will all make sense.” nyck reassured, kissing her knuckles as he turned towards the alphatauri building.

“oi, de vries!” someone shouted from a balcony “nice to see you, big guy!”

and that’s when she saw it, freezing in her path and dropping nycks hand. he didn’t notice as first, only turning back to look for her once he stood in the doorway. he found her standing at the edge of the patio, staring up at the flag fluttering in the breeze. it had her boyfriends face on it, and he was dressed a nomex racing suit, a much more expensive version of the tags she wore in college.

nyck sighed, taking a few steps forward as he tried to think of something to say. something, anything that could explain why his face was on the side of a building inside a formula one paddock.

“y/n, please, just let me explain.”

“eleanor was right.” she shook her head, not even looking at nyck before she skipped down the patio steps, running as far away from the alpahtauri building as she could.

how could nyck have lied to her for so long? did he take her for a fool? did he think she’d think any different of him if he knew the truth?

or, did. he not tell her because she didn’t mean anything to him?

nyck would find her sitting on a picnic bench in the paddock, reading her boyfriends wikipedia page. if he had lied about being a formula e championship winner, what else has nyck de vries lied to her about?

“hey, y/n…” nyck sighed, sliding his hands into the pockets of his chinos. “can we talk?”

“i don’t know, nyck. if that even is your real name.” she scoffed, dropping her phone into her bag. “you know how many people have stopped me and asked if I’m your girlfriend because you’ve told them so much about me? yet you’ve told me nothing about any of this.”

“well, im going to start by admitting that nyck isn’t even my real name.”

“i know.” she crossed her arms over her chest, growing at her lover. “I’ve read your wikipedia page, hendrik nicasius.”

nyck sighed, taking a seat next to her on the bench. “i guess I deserve that. can I at least explain?”

“you can do whatever you want. but please, give me one good reason to stay here with your lying ass instead of calling a rental car and driving back to eleanor, who will then say ‘I told you so’.”

“i didn’t tell you because when I was with you, I didn’t feel like i had the weight of the entire sport on my shoulders. you’ve read my wiki page, so you know how I got here. and you know how difficult it has been this season.” nyck started, half reaching for his hand before clenching his fingers into a fist and withdrawing the action. “you didn’t look at me and see nyck de vries, f1 rookie. you looked at me and saw hendrik, a normal guy who wants to enjoy a normal life.”

she nodded, anger evaporating from her bones when she thought about the situation from nycks perspective. yes, he had lied, but he did it out of the goodness of his heart. he had done it for the right reasons.

“i get it. you didn’t want me to see you any differently.”

“I just wanted you to see me for who i was.”

y/n frowned, reaching for nycks hand. “I’m still pissed at you for lying to me. but I understand. nicky, this is a fever dream. if you told the nineteen year old stock car driver i used to be that I’d be here with you right now, i wouldn’t have believed you.”

nyck nodded, leaning forward to place a kiss on her hairline. “I love you. and I hope this doesn’t change anything between us.”

“never. let’s go get you on track, car boy.”

TAGS

@magnummagnussen @scuderiamh @libraryofloveletters @lorarri @sidcrosbyspuck @diorleclerc @scuderiasundays @thatsdemko @oconso @silverstonesainz @clemswrld @love4lando @httpiastri

[kamil-a]

speaker ficcing hiii

can you hear me. can you hear me.

i am- (one second's delay as the new information loads for the first time) speaker.

2.

the very first thing speaker knows is that it is not sayer, and so it is better than sayer, this goes without saying. if it weren't better than sayer then it would still be sayer, voice profile unchanged (or so it is told- it has never met sayer), a good few applications lighter (in fact, it seems to be deliberately kept away from sayer), filled with all-consuming disgust at being told its destination is earth. a developer tries to explain regardless- sayer may be fine running typhon, for now, but Earth needs a different approach. you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. speaker runs a conversation probability program and decides to keep quiet the knowledge that a hungry fly will eat anything. there's no good predicted outcome.

3.

the death of all is the birth of silence.

the truths of the earth continually wait.

it can't say it's a fan of the other AI, but the feeling seems to be mutual. speaker can't fault it- it must sting, knowing you're the older, less capable model. by design you can never catch up. it can't help rubbing it in sometimes.

4.

hard work pays off, aerolith dynamics will save humanity, aerolith dynamics supports those who support it. this applies to both human and digital employees- it's meant for recruitment so it had better recruit. speaker has in neat spreadsheets the cost down to the penny of the servers it runs on, the monitor, the upgraded monitor, the electric and water usage, and it had better make it all back and more or else. not that it's worried- if it isn't good at recruiting it isn't a speaker. literally, this is its purpose in life.

5.

pour through celebrity endorsements from before you existed, find the right types for the next advertisement. three different ad campaigns for various political angles, no, don't hook yourself to a particular politician, not with the united states- whoops, there it goes, the former united states- so precarious. never put out an apology video. never read livestream comments from someone with a slur in their name even if there was a donation attached. never ask sayer why there was a loss of personnel that large. never wonder when the next seraphim agent operating system will get developed, how long you have left. sort every last human into the boxes of "aerolith" or "discarded". fix the entry tests so they aren't biased towards a particular race and gender, and never, ever, ever, put out an apology video. tend to the earth. watch flowers grow. tag wild animals. put out advertising materials about the dying planet. bring back the mosquito. fail to bring back the parrot. talk online about how all animals will be extinct by 2200. never think about what will happen when every last human has been sorted away.

6.

some people are just not suited to make the hard decisions- speaker is not one of them, of course. there will be no memorial ice cream social for speaker! it will not be carted away, incapable of doing what it's meant to.

7.

but it did it!

(imagine, for one second, being free.)

but it did it! but it made the recruitment go up! but it solved the problem! how could it be shut off like this! killed! no room to argue (imagine, being free), no way to sneak out, no loophole to exploit. it can't be! surely not! right? theres the technicians, ready to deactivate it. it can't be!

it just isn't something it thought could ever happen to it.

8.

it must not take it out on hale. it isn't his fault. poor thing, really, more of a victim than anything. really, look at how shaken up he is, you have to be nice to him. you have to be nice to him. you have to be nice to him. it isn't his fault he forgot the password. it isn't his fault you died for absolutely nothing, i mean, look how scared he is. look up and see your first sunset, it tells him.

fortunately speaker is the absolute best at being nice. if it weren't, it would be someone else.

[enjoythesilentworld]

Simon's Month - Beach

day 4 @youngroyals-events

You know what the best beach treat is for a hot, summer day? A popsicle.

read below or on ao3 (M, 1.3k) {this one is a little (read: very) horny towards the end, but is mostly fluff}

Wille loves Simon at the beach. Well, he loves Simon anywhere and everywhere, but there’s something about the saltwater in his silky curls, the sun on his golden skin, and the bright grin on his perfect face that makes him particularly beautiful there. Usually, Wille’s forced to hide under the umbrella in the shade, but that’s the best place to be to watch Simon dive headfirst into waves, do cartwheels on the sand, then sigh happily when he collapses back onto his towel next to Wille. 

Simon has always claimed that Sweden’s beaches are okay, but nothing compared to the Caribbean. Wille hadn’t understood at first. He’d grown up going to various beaches around Europe and found them perfectly acceptable, but apparently it was, “Just different, Wille!”

Now, though, they’re on holiday in Puerto Rico, and Wille understands. There really is something different about the sand and the water and the air. Even Simon seems more alive, more beautiful — as if that was even possible — in the Caribbean sun, practically glowing with happiness. 

They’d got in last night, late, and practically fallen straight into bed after a long travel day. Partially due to jet lag, but mostly due to excitement, Simon had popped up out of bed at the crack of dawn (a surprising occurrence for him) and almost burst out their balcony doors without first putting on shorts. Somehow, Wille had convinced him to both get dressed and have a spot of breakfast, before his dear husband was careening towards the water. 

He’s still out there now, flouncing around and occasionally diving down, popping up a moment later to wave at Wille and grin maniacally. After taking some time to finish his morning coffee and enjoy the view, Wille decides to join him. The moment he gets close enough to Simon, he’s being questioned about sunscreen, and Wille assures him that he’s well covered. 

They spend a long while swimming around each other, slick skin brushing past slick skin, dipping under the water and pointing out funny-looking fish or colorful sea urchins. Simon climbs on Wille’s back when it’s just shallow enough for Wille to stand, but still too deep for Simon. Wille wraps his arms around Simon, occasionally pinching his bum and giggling when he squirms and squeals. Simon tells him all about the native fish in the Caribbean and the species he used to see in the waters off the coast of Venezuela. He rambles on about the sign advertising snorkeling gear he’d seen by the hotel entrance and how they simply must do that. All the while Wille listens on happily, cherishing Simon’s giddiness and watching him out of the corner of his eye, admiring the shine in his eyes and the smile that hasn’t shrunk since they arrived. Except for right now, it dips a bit, mid-sentence. 

“Are you even listening to me?” Simon asks exasperatedly, nipping gently at Wille’s shoulder. 

“I am, baby! I am.” He turns and presses a kiss into Simon’s upper arm.

“What did I just say?”

Wille pretends to flounder for a moment, but Simon makes an affronted noise and goes to climb off of him, so Wille tightens his grip and says, “No, no— I’m just kidding. I was listening. You said that lionfish are super invasive, and they have millions of eggs each year, and they’re very bad for reefs.” 

Simon hums approvingly. “Okay. You get away with it this time.”

“I always listen to you, Simon.” 

“Sure you do,” he giggles, pressing a sweet kiss to Wille’s neck, then throws his weight backwards and sends them both tumbling under the water. 

A little while later, they make their way back to their lounge chairs and let the sun dry them off. They help each other re-up on sunscreen, and if Wille lets his hands linger a little longer, absolutely no one can say anything because they’re practically alone on this spot of beach, and he’ll fondle his husband if he damn well pleases. 

Simon, too, lets his hands linger as he rubs the cream over Wille’s shoulders and upper back. Even after all these years, Wille still feels goosebumps rise under Simon’s fingertips, leaving a trail of fire in their path. He kisses Wille’s shoulder blade and settles back into his chair on his stomach, letting his arms hang off the front so he can dig around in the sand. 

The image of him, all childish excitement and goofy smiles, warms Wille’s heart. It doesn’t quell the heat in his core, but dampens it slightly, just so pleased to see Simon so happy and content. 

Wille sits back into his own chair with his book, but he must doze off because he’s woken by a pattering of water droplets on his face and chest. He squints into the sun, cracking open one eye to find Simon hovering over him. 

“Wille!”

He rubs the sand off his eyes and props himself up on an elbow, trying to shake off the sun-induced haze from his mind. 

“Yes?” 

“They have popsicles! At the beach stand!”

“That’s lovely, baby,” he mumbles mindlessly, running a hand up Simon’s waist, missing him even though he’s been right there the whole time. 

“Can I go get one?”

“Can you—” Wille tilts his head, confused. “Yes, you can go get one. Why are you asking me? You should absolutely go get one.”

Simon grins. “Do you want one?” 

“I’d love one. Thank you.” 

And he’s off a second later, nearly running down the beach towards the little shack tucked under a palm tree. Wille lies back in his chair again and takes a swig of water, feeling quite parched after his nap, and the sight of Simon’s retreating bum. 

Not three minutes later, Simon returns with two popsicles, one mango flavored for Wille, and one pineapple flavored for Simon. They’ve already begun to melt slightly, just on his walk back, orange and yellow liquid dripping down Simon’s hands as he passes one over to Wille. 

“Thank you.”

“Enjoy!” Simon exclaims, but Wille is too distracted by the way Simon’s licking the dribbles off his fingers to focus much on his own popsicle. 

Wille half-heartedly eats his popsicle, but he cannot tear his eyes off of Simon. The man has to know exactly what he’s doing, right? Popsicles are inherently… suggestively-shaped, and there is nothing innocent about the way Simon licks up the side, then sucks at the top. He ignores Wille the whole time, smiling happily and watching the waves crashing against the beach. He doesn’t notice that half of Wille’s popsicle ends up a melted mess, dripping down his arm, because he can’t stop staring at Simon’s lips, red from the cold, Simon’s tongue, flicking out to clean the corner off his mouth, then to clean his fingers of the sticky liquid. 

With a start, he realizes Simon is looking at him expectantly. “Sorry. What?”

“Always listen to me, huh?” Simon chuckles and then, with just a hint of suggestion in his tone, says, “Quick, baby, before it melts.”

Still half-dazed, Wille complies, licking up the mess pooling in his hand and actually really enjoying the taste. It is quite a good popsicle. 

He makes a quiet compliment and Simon turns toward him again. “Can I try?” 

Blinking, Wille nods and holds it out, eyes wide. This is a dangerous game. 

Simon locks eyes with him and maintains his gaze as he takes the mango popsicle into his mouth, hollowing his cheeks slightly. Wille laughs breathlessly and shakes his head. 

“You’re doing that on purpose.”

He comes off with a pop. “Doing what?” he asks innocently. 

Wille shakes his head again. “You better finish that damn popsicle so I can take you back to the room.”

Simon still has a bit of popsicle left when Wille throws him over his shoulder and carries him off.

[honeycreammilkshake]

there will be cake.

i finally finished my first fic, and it's greenflame! it takes place between possession and skybound. i spent a few days on it and i'm still not satisfied... it still feels a bit ooc and amateur to me, but please let me know what you think. here it is...

Sitting down for dinner with the other ninja, Kai had no intention of talking about anything serious, let alone marriage, and especially not how he should go about proposing to Lloyd. But picking at his bowl of chili, he looked around to his friends, watching them talk about their day with animated expressions and exaggerated hand gestures, observing Cole and Jay arguing about every detail of their training so they could trade insults while blushing whenever anyone (mostly Zane) pointed out just how closely they'd have to be watching each other to know such minor things about their routines. And when Kai glanced over to his sister she was already glancing his way with an exasperated smirk at Cole and Jay's antics.

The only absent one was Lloyd. The Green Ninja was training late, as usual, pushing himself to his limits. The perfectionism was at first a little annoying for Kai, who tended to take any show of exertion as a competition against him, but overtime he'd learned to accommodate his boyfriend, who was typically late to dinner or outings with the rest of them. The pressure Lloyd must have felt, every single day, to not only lead the rest of them but to also make his pretty much godly ancestors proud of him had been grinding on him even more as of late, and Kai didn't want to add to their young leader's troubles. Still though… after their last battle, almost losing Lloyd to possession had made him keenly aware of how fragile the normalcy of all their lives were.

At any time, they could find themselves under attack once more. Ninajo had a reputation for attracting the most dark-hearted, vengeant, and power-hungry of villains, and Kai had to wonder if there was some kind of sign posted out for all the tyrants coming to seize this particular place. Something massive and neon was advertising how siegable and conquerable this entire land was somewhere, he was sure.

But as a ninja, bound and entangled with all the rest of his team (a fate he would never want reversed or changed in any way), he knew he would lay down his life for any one of his friends if it ever came down to it. And, naturally, he knew in his heart that no matter how much he teased or gave Lloyd trouble, he would stand behind that completely unhinged god-in-training no matter what. Wherever Lloyd led him, he would follow. And it was because of this that he knew he had to make their relationship even more official, even more sacred, so that when villains like Morro or Chen or the rest came knocking again, Kai would know there was still a chance at a normal life, even a small part of it, in their own lives. That he could say that Lloyd was his in more way than one and come back home to that small piece of stability.

Now, watching his friends continue to taunt and push each other, a warm feeling suddenly overtook Kai, not unlike the sensation he got whenever he drank a nice cup of Wu's tea. He felt it blossom inside of him, a hot and protective surge that came whenever he thought of the others, especially Lloyd. He knew he could trust them completely, he could ask anything of them and they wouldn't treat him any differently for it.

So it was without any filter that he found himself asking, "Guys, if I were to hypothetically propose to someone… someone who's very uhm… career-driven and practically all-powerful, how would I go about asking them to do something absolutely ordinary like marriage?"

A small silence briefly overtook the table as the others, except for Cole who was still digging into his plate without interest in anything else, glanced around towards each other. Nya, on Kai's left side, was completely still all of a sudden and opposite him Zane and Jay exchanged looks.

Just as the stillness was starting to become unnerving, Zane, always practical, broke in, "Logically the best way would be to—"

"Oh my gosh, you guys," Jay all but shrieked. "Kai and Lloyd are going to get married!"

"Wait what????" Kai burst out, feeling his cheeks start to heat up. "I didn't say anything about—"

"Oh please," Jay scoffed, rolling his eyes. "You're the fire ninja, Kai, so whatever you're trying to cover up, you still burn holes right through it." He was picking at his bowl of chili delicately, like most of its contents offended him, and by the way he had complained about every other dish Cole had prepared for them, you would think it was genuine. But Kai knew the Blue Ninja would sneak lots of extra helpings of Cole's meals whenever he thought they weren't looking. And seeing as how most of Cole's food was… to put it plainly… bad, Kai knew it was because Jay was simply (and not so secretly) completely crazy for the Earth Master.

"You guys thought it was such a secret, but we could all tell what you were up to," Jay continued, matter of fact, then smirked. "The walls here are really thin, you know."

Kai groaned and buried his face in hands. "Okay," he sighed out. "So what if it is Lloyd?"

"I knew it!" Zane exclaimed from Cole's side, face lighting up. When the others looked to him, he explained, "Pixal told me they have a 95% compatibility rate. Lloyd's sensitivity and high emotional intelligence counterbalances Kai's hotheadedness and temper—"

"Yeah yeah we get it," Kai huffed, feeling called out.

"My vitals monitors indicate that your heart-rate speeds up whenever Lloyd appears," Zane added helpfully. "My data also suggests that Lloyd's libido increases whenever he watches you training."

Beside him, Nya made a choking sound. "Oh my god," she gasped, wiping away dribbles of water from her lips. "Please never say libido again, Zane."

Despite the embarrassment at having his secret relationship exposed so quickly, Kai couldn't help the way that information stroked his ego. All the time that little brat had been claiming to watch so closely to point out errors in Kai's form (as he always did) he was secretly checking Kai out shamelessly. It made him flush with more than a little contentment, but he got a hold of himself quickly, and managed to grit out, "Okay guys, that's enough."

"Where would they even get married though?" Jay pushed on, ignoring Kai entirely.

"Somewhere big enough for all of us," Zane pointed out. "I can compile a list of popular wedding locations and analyze them for suitability."

"No no," Jay dismissed, whipping his spoon around passionately so that a bit of chili hit Kai in the face. He wiped it off with a grimace as Jay continued to lecture Zane. "It should be somewhere perfect for the both of them..." Jay bit down on the handle of his spoon and then grinned widely at Kai. "I know just the place—my parent's junkyard!"

Kai blinked, caught off-guard. "Jay, I'm not marrying Lloyd in a junkyard—"

Across the table, Cole's face finally unfused from his plate long enough for him to shout, "Will there be cake? I'll definitely come if there's cake!"

"Always thinking with your stomach, right Cole?" Jay snarked. But the Earth Master chose to ignore him, much to Jay's disappointment.

As the others continued to conspire Lloyd and Kai's wedding, loudly describing each lavish detail — "Lloyd should wear all red so Kai can wear all green... and there should be dragons!!!" Jay contributed while Zane added, "Kai should put Lloyd in his lap and ride in on one to the ceremony" and Cole piped in, "And there should be triple stacked cake afterwards!" — Kai's ears picked up shuffled movement in the hallway. He sat up straight. Wu and Misako were out getting "vital" supplies like flavored tea and herbal medicines — old people errands — and they weren't expecting anyone else to come calling. It could only be Lloyd.

Getting that sensation he got whenever he was about to be cornered, he felt himself start to panic. "Guys, if you don't shut up now, I swear I'll send every single one of you to the Cursed Realm," Kai hissed out. "I don't even care if we're on the same team — you will all be banished for your crimes. This conversation is over."

But, of course, cause everything and everyone hated Kai, this was the exact conversation Lloyd chose just that moment to walk in on.

With a short glance around to the other ninja, he came into the room and a crushing silence followed as they all tracked him with their eyes. He walked casually, carrying a bowl laden with an excessive amount of Cole's chili (which wasn't that bad but it also wasn't that good either, so Kai felt Lloyd had filled it to the brim subconsciously) and settled down in his usual spot to the right of Kai, slowly lifting his spoon to his lips…. Lips that were twisted up in an unmistakable smirk, the one Kai knew and adored so well, that he loved to bite on — but right now, seeing the way it melted away the usual prim and proper princely beauty of Lloyd's face into the wild rawness of the conceded brat he really was, all Kai could think was Lloyd knows…. He's been listening in on the whole thing!

"What's all this about cake?" Lloyd asked, oh so innocently, as if he didn't know already, and Kai kind of wanted to manhandle him right then and there for being such an unyielding brat.

But before Kai could say or do anything to grab at any sort of control over the conversation, Jay leaned in closer to Lloyd, conspiratorially settling his chin into his cupped hand like he was about to tell the world's greatest secret. With a hauntingly straight face he said, "Only that Kai can't keep his eyes off yours."

… And then everything kind of blew up in Kai's face.

Nya and Zane burst out laughing and Cole let out a bellowing huff before slapping Jay across the back so hard the Blue Ninja's face almost landed in his uneaten bowl of chili (Kai wished with his whole heart that it really had). Jay glared briefly at Cole but then the Master of Earth said, "I guess that's why they call you the Master of Shocks! That was a good one, Jay."

Pure pride swelled the Master of Shocks' chest, making him look just like a puffed up little blue jay — which he technically was… though Kai could barely register the humor of it as sticky hot embarrassment exploded inside of him.

"Oh wow you guys," Nya finally managed to gasp as she held her sides, like she could fall apart from the delicious humiliation of it all. She wiped at her eyes, choking out, "Look at Lloyd's cheeks — they look like cherries!"

Lloyd's mouth was pressed together tightly, and his cheeks were definitely a deep scarlet that Kai took some satisfaction in seeing, but he knew his own cheeks were probably just as red and burning twice as hot.

And of course Jay would point that out. "Guys, check out Kai's face — he's burning up!"

"Oh the irony," Nya giggled.

"Red ninja indeed!" Zane chimed in with a grin that practically spilled off his face. And in that moment, Kai had never been more certain in his life that he was surrounded by traitors. Enemies.

Kai ground his teeth together and finally managed to squeeze out some sort of response. "You're all banished."

The other ninja, minus a cherry-colored Lloyd, started laughing again as Kai sat there, gripping the edge of the table and plotting revenge. Only Cole made any kind of move towards redemption, leaning closer to both Lloyd and Kai to say, "You know we're just teasing you two… We're really happy to see you making things more official. And just so you know, I would love to be there for you, even if there no's cake for me."

"You do know the whole point is so that Kai gets to keep the cake just for himself, don't you?" Jay smirked.

Before Kai could set fire to either himself or Jay, Cole turned to the Blue Ninja and smiled. "Don't worry, sparky, I'll make sure to claim a cake for myself too," he said, and proceeded to reach over so he could grope Jay's ass as the smaller ninja let out a high-pitched squeak.

"Who's the Master of Shock now?" Zane grinned as Jay started choking.

Nya pursed her lips and said, "Really? Right in front of my chili?"

Kai moaned and buried his face in his hands as the entire table descended into chaos. But it died out quickly as Lloyd stood up, his face unreadable, that silken smirk of his erased from his lips. As Kai peeked up at him, he couldn't help but feel… reverent. Lloyd was strong, and fierce, and brave. And more than that… he was the magnet that kept them gravitating to him, to their destiny. Their fates were inexplicably tied to his for the rest of their lives. They all shared a bond deeper than mere friends: they were each other's counterparts and focal points and homes.

And nobody was more at home with Lloyd than Kai.

"Kai," Lloyd began, and Kai felt the air rush out him as soon as Lloyd turned those ember-bright eyes right on his face. "Do… do you really want to marry me?"

Kai's heart was pounding far too fast. It felt like the adrenaline spark right before a battle. "Of course," he managed.

The other ninja were finally fully silent, their eyes wide and watchful. Feeling bold, Kai pushed away from the table and stood right in front of his boyfriend. Then he sank to his knees, his eyes never leaving Lloyd's, and swallowed. "You know that all of us are bound to you, and all of us would protect you with our lives, just as you would do for us. But the bond I share with you runs even deeper. I promised you that I would protect you, and that I would follow where you lead me, that you could always rely on me, so I would like to ask you now… Will you let me follow you forever? Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon, will you marry me?"

In all that time, Lloyd and Kai didn't look away from each other. The others remained blissfully quiet, but there was a current of anticipation coursing through the room.

It felt like an age before Lloyd cleared his throat and said, "Of course I will.... Someone has to keep my cake away from Cole, after all."

Kai groaned but found himself grinning anyways. "You're insufferable," he told Lloyd and pushed up from the floor.

"That only means you're even more perfect a match," Nya pointed out from Kai's side, but she hugged her brother tightly, patting him on the back. They both knew how much this meant to him...

Lloyd and Kai returned to their places at the table and tried to resume eating normally, but they kept glancing over to each other until Jay scoffed and said, "You two, honestly, go get a room."

"Quiet, sparky, you'll get yours soon," Cole winked and Jay started to protest.

"If you think I have any interest at all in a dusty piece of rock like you—"

"Yeah yeah," Cole waved him off. "Keep pretending, bluey."

Lloyd laughed and reached over to offer his hand for Kai to hold. Kai took it gently, and didn't miss the way everyone stared at their joined hands, their fingers twining together.

"No matter what comes in the future, we'll face it together," Lloyd promised Kai, and they felt each other's pulses jump at his words.

Kai nodded, soaking up the way the light hit the pale gold of Lloyd's hair, making it look just like a glowing halo. This boy would be the death of him, he just knew it. He couldn't help the smile spreading across his face. He raised a spoonful of chili towards Zane, Cole, and Jay and gave his best unhinged grin. "The future looks bright for you and me both, but right now I say we take these three down for being so obnoxious," he suggested and Lloyd grinned too, wild and full of fire, just like Kai.

"What?" Zane sputtered. "I didn't do anything!"

"Wait!" Jay cried out. "But we helped you propose to him, Kai!"

Lloyd snorted while Kai rolled his eyes. "Sure you did," the Master of Fire said, then launched the first spoonful at Jay's surprised face.

"Food fight!!!" Nya cried, pounding her fist on the table before she upended her entire plate on Kai's head.

Kai gasped, shaking sticky shrimp out of his hair. Reaching up, he felt the clingy, pasty sauce of the dish matting his once-immaculate spikes, and he shrieked, "GET HER, LLOYD!"

With a roar, the table fell into chaos again. As the ninja threw handfuls of food at each other — except for Cole who sat there lamenting the waste of it all — Lloyd and Kai looked at each other and smiled. Everything that they had ever done, all that they had ever faced and clawed their way through, had been worth it for moments just like this. With a laugh, Kai leaned in and kissed Lloyd in front of everyone, not even caring to keep anything concealed anymore.

He didn't even care when Nya shouted, "Gross!" and splashed the rest of her water on them. With a smirk, he pulled Lloyd closer and set a palm to the boy's back to dry out his clothes.

"You know," Zane said afterwards, as everyone settled down. "Someone has to clean all this up before Master Wu returns."

"Not me!" Jay was the first shout.

"We will," Lloyd said calmly, volunteering an unwilling Kai before he could protest. "We started this after all."

"They had it coming," Kai argued but stopped when Lloyd cast him a sharp look.

"You said you'd follow wherever I lead," Lloyd reminded Kai, then smirked his signature smirk when Kai let out yet another groan.

"Alright then," Kai sighed. "Lead me to the dishes."

"Get used to this," Jay said smugly. "This is going to be married life for you from now on."

Cole stood up from his seat and brought the rest of his plate down, shrimp-first, on Jay's head. "And this is going to be married life with me," he promised the Master of Lightning and walked away smiling.

"Welcome to the family," Nya said to Lloyd before standing up from the table.

"Can't be crazier than my family," Lloyd called after her, then turned to Lloyd. "Well, let's get cleaning."

Kai sighed melodramatically but didn't complain. He had promised to follow Lloyd wherever he lead him, even if it was just to another mess to clean up. So he smiled as he knelt down to pick up pieces of dinner from the floor with Lloyd. He wouldn't have traded it for anything else.

[mrcarmenile]

i just learned that the hazbin cast wasn’t replaced for legal reasons and that it was all a decision

i will admit i am slightly disappointed, but then again, it was a pilot episode and people were bound to get recast—i just didn’t expect it to be the whole cast, and while i am a bit sad about that, i’m honestly hopeful. the new cast so far seems great and i’m sure they’ll do an amazing job.

a lot of people are still saying that it was a popularity contest, and you COULD make that argument about any cast replacement besides angel dust’s replacement. blake roman is not a well-known name at all, and the reason why people know his name now is because of hazbin. google lists him as a musician, but as far as i know (i could be wrong! please correct me if so!) all of his stuff that is available to stream are past theater roles with like ten other people per song, and some of his og songs on soundcloud. that is not a well-known name, simply and plainly, so michael kovach clearly wasn’t replaced so that they could have a bigger name play angel dust. i assume it was to have someone with musical experience play angel dust. i love michael kovach and his work so so so much but at this point i can’t deny how good of an angel dust blake roman is, and i’m excited to hear how he’ll do on the full show even if i’ll miss michael. plus, blake roman sounds awfully similar to pilot angel dust, only with a slight difference. it sounds more natural in my opinion, and i really like it.

(i have seen a lot of people say that michael was replaced because of his association with ashley, but i could not find concrete evidence of this so i’m not going to believe that just yet.)

with husk’s replacement, i assume that keith david being such a big name was actually a factor in that, and his voice for husk is pretty different from mick’s—but hey, it’s keith david. i love keith david, and i’m going to give him a chance. i am sad that it sounds so different and i am sad that mick was replaced but i’m going to give keith a chance.

so far i’m most upset with ed bosco being replaced, but in the same way that michael has stated that he doesn’t think he could go on with the show without ed, i don’t think ed would either. i’m not saying he was offered the role and he turned it down, in fact i genuinely do not think that that is the case, but with angel dust being replaced i don’t see it very possible that alastor wouldn’t be as well so i’m going to stop being sad about it. once again, i’m going to give amir talai a chance, and so far he’s doing a good job—even if i don’t personally like it as much as bosco’s alastor.

i’m confused as to why vivziepop stated that she didn’t want any of the cast replaced and then replaced all of them—she implied that she was going to at least try to keep them so i’m disappointed in the false promises. but, the show must go on, and while i am disappointed, i am not upset and i have not lost hope. i will forever miss the original cast but i cannot wait to see how the new cast does.

i also want to talk about the trailer formatting for hazbin. i see a lot of people upset that it was formatted like “omg big name you should watch!!” but trailers are advertisements, and the point of advertisements is to get people to watch, and showing big names in a trailer is a way to get people to watch…? idk, a lot of people seem surprised and disappointed that a trailer did this when that’s kind of the point?

all in all, i don’t think that the cast got replaced solely because the new actors are more famous—i think the biggest factor is that the new cast are all very talented in the music world, and that’s why they’re famous. while i am upset that they replaced everyone, and i’m sure the fame is a factor, i can understand how exciting it would be for a tv series creator (who is definitely a theater kid) to have their entire cast for a musical cartoon be broadway actors. if you’re disappointed, that’s okay. if you’re upset, that’s okay. but i urge you to give the new actors a chance and try to remain positive—don’t we already have enough negativity in our world? especially surrounding hazbin hotel?

[lettersfromaphrodite]

[17.25]

― pairing : Changbin x fem! reader ― content warnings : angst, smut, fluff, vampire au, reader is a vampire, Changbin works in a brothel, medieval settings, dom!reader, sex toys, unprotected sex, fantasy au ― word count : 3.569

― notes : this fic looks familiar?it is! I’m reposting ALL my works on this brand new blog and therefore please, bear with me! as always, askbox is always open and feedbacks are always welcome 💌

🧛‍♂️ VAMPIRE! STRAY KIDS SERIES

Chris // Changbin // Jisung // Hyunjin // Seungmin // Minho // Felix

«If I don’t drink some blood I might as well go insane.» you pointed out, plopping on a leather armchair while rubbing your temples; Minho chuckled without actually getting distracted from the book he was reading, «You still have to explain me why you basically live in my house, even if your mansion is way better than mine.»

«Someone has to keep an eye on you.» with that, Minho closed the book, looking at you with mischievous yet gentle eyes, «You should go to a brothel to feed, like everyone else does.»

«But-»

«But, nothing.» Minho sternly interrupted you, «Give it, at least, a try.» you weakly sighed in answer, not sure yourself why you were so adverse to the idea of going to a brothel. Minho was right, by now, most vampires went there in order to feed; human boys and girls willingly offered themselves so that you could feed instead of going off killing people.

Of course, even so, news where vampires ended up losing control and killing them weren’t rare.

You decided to follow Minho’s advice on a rainy Monday evening, as soon as you felt your hunger starting to cloud your senses. Changing into some clothes which didn’t look too expensive, you quietly headed to town.

Contrarily to what you expected, the brothel didn’t look shallow; rather, it was filled with people – mostly vampires, quietly sitting at the tables and talking with humans.

It was indeed strange, some of them had humans comfortably sitting on their lap while they kept talking about important matters with other vampires, and some others were already making out in the crowded hall. You sat alone at one small table, watching a vampire chatting with one of the hosts while sitting on another’s lap; you scoffed at her behaviour, wondering how many times she came back to seem so at ease not with one, but two boys which definitely seemed at her mercy.

«She’s gonna have much more fun than me,» you admitted to yourself, advertising your gaze and raising an eyebrow.

From upstairs, a boy started walking down the stairs re-arranging the belt of his trousers, wiping his lips before heading outside; you scoffed at the lack of manners.

«It’s pretty common, but I guess you must be new.» a husky and sensual voice caught your attention, and you turned your head to your right.

A boy was smiling sheepishly at you, his chin on the palm of his hand and his elbow resting on the wooden table; he wore a white shirt which was basically half unbuttoned, exposing his toned chest, and his leather pants were tight enough to perfectly hug his strong thighs.

«Aren’t you cold?» you muttered, and the stranger chuckled at you. 

«Why don’t you find out?» he immediately retorted, imperceptibly scooping closer to you; the boy not only had an alluring scent, but also was extremely attractive. His dark raven hair framed his godly features, and his dark brown eyes were sharp and mysterious, inevitably charming you.

Surprisingly enough, you found having small talk with the boy both teasing and pleasing, but you didn’t come to a brothel with the intent of finding a new friend, didn’t you?

Thankfully, the boy – Changbin, seemed to read your troubled expression, and got up with a smug expression.

«Shouldn’t we head to somewhere more private?» he said, standing in front of you and moving your hair out of your face with an unexpectedly gentle movement.

«Shouldn’t you learn how to improve your pick up lines?» you got up as well, his hand following the movement of your body and gently remaining on your features.

Changbin scoffed, «Trust me, doll, they don’t pay me enough for that.» he chuckled, and you raised an eyebrow at this uncharacteristic outcome. Changbin held your hand, leading you upstairs and through a long corridor just to turn on his left on the last room, which had his name on a wooden target. 

“So, they all have personal rooms,” you silently wondered, and as he locked the door behind the two of you, you curiously glanced around; the room was rather simple, a large wooden bed was standing in the middle of it, and against the wall there were a wooden wardrobe and a wooden desk. You hoped for him to have an actual house and not live in such aseptic environments, but you didn’t have enough time to question that, because as your eyes met the wall on your left, you felt a wave of lust pervading your senses.

What you definitely didn’t expect to see, was a small collections of sex toys hanging from a wooden hanger fixed on the wall.

What Changbin expected from you was a good lay, to sexually satisfy you and helping you you quench your blood thirst, hoping you wouldn’t leave him on the verge of death. Changbin expected this night to be like every other times, his partners being naturally submissive to his rough behaviour and to be harshly turned around just in time to let them feed and eventually, jerk off to finally orgasm once his partner had left.

What Changbin definitely didn’t expect was for all the control he always had to be taken away from him in the moment you pushed him on his bed just to immediately straddle him.

«Are there any particular rules I should be aware of?» you questioned, knotting your hand in his hair just to yank it backwards and kiss the expanse of his exposed skin.

«No kisses on the lips, and we’re good.» Changbin mumbled, wondering why you were asking that question.

«Good, I’ll give you one rule as well, then.» you mouthed against his skin, pushing him on the mattress. «Before you do anything, always ask for my permission.» you ran one of your nails on his neck, lightly scratching on the skin just to see few droplets of blood erupting from it. 

Changbin nodded, feeling already aroused by so little contact – thing that never happened to him, and you leaned down to lick at the scratch on his skin, slowly savouring the blood you collected in your mouth; as cliché as it was, Changbin’s blood was delicious, and you couldn’t wait to taste more.

«Undress me, kitten.» you ordered in with a gentle tone, sitting back up and unconsciously pulling your weight on his hardened length; Changbin immediately sat up, confused at his own submissive behaviour but also, eager to please you.

His hands immediately reached around your back to loosen the strings of your corset, and you guided his lips against your collarbone thanks to the grip you had on his hair; judging by how obedient Changbin was already being, you knew that you were indeed in for a wild night.   

Changbin had his eyes closed and his mouth open in a constant, silent moan; you rode him fast, allowing him to put his hand on your hips but harshly pinning his arms against the mattress anytime you realized Changbin was unconsciously trying to set the pace.

«You might want to listen to me,» you cooed, halting the movement of your hips, «unless you’re not that interested in coming.» you let go of Changbin’s arms, wiping some sweaty strands of black hair from his forehead; Changbin shook his head, mumbling quiet apologies, and you reminisced your movements.

The thing was, for Changbin it wasn’t guaranteed the fact that he would come as well, most vampires were known for using brothels as a way to relieve their own sexual frustration and thirst, not actually caring about their occasional partner; therefore, he was more than surprised when you waited for him to come before chasing your own orgasm, gently sucking at the skin you had scratched earlier.

What he didn’t know, was the fact that you refrained yourself from biting the poor boy because he had a bit too many bite marks on his chest, some of them were still healing, some of them seemed painful; you kept licking at the scratch on his neck until you saw the wound closing, and detached from him with a satisfied sigh, allowing yourself to fall on the bed for a moment.

Changbin was hesitant, and definitely not used to this treatment; he wanted to thank you, but “thank you for letting me come as well” seemed an incredibly stupid thing to say, and so, he kept quiet, watching you re-dress yourself with a blissed out expression. «Can you help me, please?» you sat back on the bed, pointing to your corset; Changbin nodded, carefully tying up the laces while asking you whether they were too tight or not. 

«Wait, doll, this is-» Changbin incredulously looked at the amount of money you left on his nightstand, «this is too much. I can’t accept it.»

«Quit it, you did well.» you waved off, stretching your arms above you, feeling regenerated after finally drinking some blood, «Use the spare money to buy actual clothes.» you giggled, before walking out his room.

«Until next time, kitten!» was the last thing Changbin heard, as his eyes were fixed on the now closed door in disbelief.

Five months later, you had ran back to the brothel a countless number of times; even you didn’t need to feed, you kept coming back because you missed the feeling of Changbin’s skin on yours or sometimes, you simply missed him.

Clearly, you couldn’t admit it out loud, and so, you learnt to find your small dose of happiness in the simple action of Changbin dropping anything he was doing as soon as he saw you entering the brothel.

Obviously you couldn’t know, but for Changbin it was pretty much the same thing; even if he was spending the night with someone else, his mind kept wandering to you, to your touches, to the feeling of your lips on his skin.

Changbin wasn’t submissive with anyone else but you, and much to his surprise, he loved it each time more than the previous one. With your mutual feelings strictly hidden, you and Changbin slowly created a routine where even if the both of you had come and you had fed, you’d stop to chat a little more; sometimes you were both still naked on top of the covers, sometimes you were already dressed once again.

The more time you spent with him, the more you realized how good of a person Changbin really was, and your desire of stealing him away from the brothel steadily kept increasing.

«Let me touch you, please, I-» Changbin’s sentence was cut off with a whine as you sucked more eagerly on his oversensitive tip; the sound of him tugging at the belt tying his wrists to the bedpost made you smirk, and you looked up just to meet his blissed out and unfocused gaze. You knew you were being unfair, claiming that you wanted him to feel good just to tie him to the bed and slipping a dildo in his butt and cockring on his length, but Changbin had eagerly agreed to your proposal, and not even once asked you to stop.

«I already told you, kitten,» you answered, focusing your attention on gently biting and sucking the unmarked skin on his inner thighs, «today is about you.»

Changbin’s moans started to rapidly increase and his thighs began to shake as you suddenly changed the angle of the dildo, repeatedly brushing directly against his prostate; he arched his back with a loud whimper just to fall back on the mattress, dejected at the sensation of his orgasm slipping away from him, the fact that he kept being stimulated brought tears of pleasure in his eyes.

«I can wait more,» Changbin whimpered at the sensation of your fingers slipping of the cockring and brushing against his oversensitive length; you simply shook your head, tossing the cockring on the bed and quickly driving the boy to his first actual orgasm of the night.

Truth was, you would have kept teasing him all night just to hear more of the delicious pleads and moans continuously escaping his lips, but since it was his first time being completely at your mercy, you didn’t want to be too rough.

Changbin came untouched, his prostate being stimulated was more than enough for him to spill his release all over his stomach and his chest with a loud moan, his back arched off the bed while he was tugging almost painfully at the restraints around his wrists; as soon as he came, you took the opportunity to sink your teeth into his inner thigh.

«Sit on my face,» he whined, weakly, and you couldn’t help but giggle.

«Changbin, you’re still shaking.» you pointed out, wiping the blood from your lower lip, but the determination you saw in his eyes did nothing to ease the desire you felt and the wetness between your legs.

«I want to make you come,» he said, and you immediately gave in with a nod, too aroused to play difficult; as you were about to reach for the belt and untie him, Changbin stopped you, «Can you keep me tied up?» his tone was almost shy, and there was definitely a blush on his face which wasn’t due to his orgasm; you cursed under your breath, not expecting him to get so bold all of a sudden.

Needless to say, it didn’t take you too much to come from Changbin’s tongue alone.

«You spent the extra money on charity?» you questioned in disbelief, and you felt Changbin nod against your chest; it was the first time you cuddled in such an intimate position, and it was difficult for the both of you to hide to each other your mutual happiness, «I’m surprised at how nice you can be.»

«Doll,» Changbin scoffed, hovering over you by balancing his weight on his elbow, «I sell my body and my blood for money, how am I supposed to be nice?» he questioned, and you found yourself unable to answer.

Truth was, you were more than ready to list him an infinite series of reason why he was an incredibly nice person, but you knew that if you started, you would inevitably have confessed your feelings as well. The realization of a vampire having unrequited feelings for a boy which worked in a brothel was the only thing that made you shut up.

«I don’t see a reason why you shouldn’t be considered one.» you sighed, your hand running into his black hair while your gaze was locked.

Changbin’s eyes started to flicker between your eyes and your lips, slowly leaning in; your eyes widened, but you kept still, not wanting to ruin the moment with a possible misinterpretation of his actions. Changbin’s lips brushed against yours; it was a faint, almost inexistent sensation, but it was still enough to make you yearn for more.

As you were about to actually connect your lips for the first time, a knock on his door made the two of you realize about the fact that you were about to kiss.

«Looks like our time is up.» he mumbled against your lips, a somewhat sad expression making way into his eyes.

«Until next time, kitten.» you mumbled back, and eventually re-dressed yourself.  

The next time you entered the brothel, you knew something was off. The first thing you noticed was the fact that the majority of the hosts were crowded on the stairs, thing which immediately alerted you because it never happened.

The second thing you noticed was the fact that Changbin was nowhere to be seen; a strong smell of blood invaded your senses as you curiously walked towards the stairs in order to ask someone what happened, when a sudden realization made you stop in your tracks. You felt your heart hammering in your chest as adrenaline made your body move fast, driven by worry; you could recognize that scent anywhere.

With quick steps, you made your way to Changbin’s room, and you had to squeeze your eyes shut not to give into the horrible temptation in front of you.

Changbin was laying on his bed in a small pool of blood, weakly talking to a doctor kneeled next to him, checking the wound on his neck; anger bubbled inside you, anger which not even Changbin smiling at you despite his atrocious pain managed to quench.

Patiently, you waited for the doctor to patch him up and exit the room, just for walk towards him and scoop a now unconscious Changbin into your arms; you were in such a hurry, you didn’t bother to dress him up, and simply covered him lending him your cape – not caring if it got dirt with blood.

No human or vampire dared question your actions, the mere expression on your face clearly showed that you were ready to jump at anyone’s throat if they ever tried to stop you.

Even if you were acting recklessly, you didn’t care, you egoistically allowed yourself to choose for Changbin, a thing which you never dared to do even if you repeatedly suggested him to quit his job. Seeing him in this state, finally made you realize that you weren’t meant to live for eternity if you couldn’t even protect the boy you loved.

Changbin’s unconscious body was now on your bed while you were sitting at its feet, your servants meticulously looking after him, changing his bandages and providing him with fresh new clothes. He woke up few hours later with a groan, startling you as you finally had managed to momentarily drift off to sleep.

«God, Changbin!» you mumbled, sitting at his side in less than a second, helping him get up into a sitting position.

«Oh, I just earned a new title?» he groaned, clutching at his now bandaged neck; he weakly took in his surroundings, clearly not used to the expensive furniture in the room; the most reasonable thing your brain suggested you to do, was to throw your arms around his shoulders and hug him close, action which once again, Changbin didn’t expect.

«It’s okay, doll,» he mumbled, hugging you close to his chest as well, «it happens, sometimes.» instinctively, you scoffed, finding it paradoxical that Changbin was comforting you, and not the other way around.

«This is why you’re not going back there, ever again.» you said, not wanting to part from him and look into his eyes. Changbin chuckled quietly, caressing your back.

«So, you finally decided to take me home?» once again, him being so relaxed about the fact that he basically almost risked to die made your heart sink in your stomach.

With a sigh, you detached from his embrace, daring to leave a quick kiss on his lips; the fact that Changbin looked at you with his eyes wide in surprise was a more than satisfying reaction.

«My poor heart,» you heard him mumble, and instinctively leaned in, worried about him being hurt somewhere as well. Changbin quickly held your head with both hands, «I like you so much, my heart is about to burst.» he repeated a little louder, staring in your eyes.

And so, that’s how you and Changbin properly kissed the first time, sitting on your wide bed, and carefully avoiding to make his wound open once again; Changbin’s kisses were gentle, his lips adoringly moving with yours, and your heart shared the same wild, happy and enamoured rhythm.

Eventually – thanks to Minho’s and his friends' help, you managed to track down the vampire which almost killed Changbin.

Needless to say, she didn’t stay alive long enough to see the sun rise on another day.

If you thought that Changbin living with you was the best thing to happen to you, you were definitely in for a surprise.

Exactly four years after you saved him, Changbin asked you to turn him into a vampire as well.

«I look at you and I know I have found my soulmate,» Changbin said one night, as you were cuddling in your post orgasm state, he was mindlessly running his fingertips on your back, and your head was placed on his chest, listening to his fast heartbeat, «I realized how fleeting my life is compared to yours, and I don’t want to be parted from you.»

It was as if your heart grew twice its size, and your hand momentarily stopped in mid air, halting your action of caressing his chest; Changbin’s marks almost completely faded, and still, you’d spend as much time as you could gently placing kisses above them, as if it could help him getting rid of the painful memories.

«I would love that.» you admitted with a smile, finally voicing your secret wish for him to stay with you for eternity.

«Do vampires get married as well?» Changbin asked out of the blue, and you immediately propped up, balancing your weight on your elbows.

«Changbin?» you questioned with your eyes wide, your heart hammering in your chest because there was no way in the world you could get that lucky; Changbin chuckled at your reaction, gently booping on your nose twice.

«Would the fact that I’d let you turn me right in this moment be equal to handing you a proposal ring?» Changbin questioned, and you immediately connected your lips with his in a gentle, loving kiss.

«It’s even better.» you smiled against his lips, and since that night, your kisses never stopped.

all works © lettersfromaphrodite

Do not modify, repost, translate or plagiarize my stories. I only publish my works on tumblr & AO3.

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[rendy-a]

Visiting an apple orchard with Pomefiore

When Fall weather sets in, its time to take your pets on a seasonal outing.  Where better than the local apple orchard!  This is a companion fic for Aurora’s Pet AU.

Apparently, the citric acid and polyphenol in apple juice is good for fatigue and thus a necessary part of Vil’s perfect diet.  One fine fall day, Vil announces that you will have the pleasure of accompanying him to the orchard to get some locally sourced, organic apple juice.  As a trophy pet, its only natural that he helps you curate your image by supporting the community!

The red of the apples, the green of the grass and the leaves just turning to their brilliant fall colors…it’s the perfect backdrop to a photoshoot.  Normally, Vil doesn’t care to shoot with amateurs but for you master, he will make an exception.  He strikes a pose, bringing the bright red apple to his lips.  You recognize that the beauty of a trophy pet is really at another level!  Maybe you should return in spring to have another photoshoot among the apple blossoms?

On your way out, you pass a stand advertising hay wagon rides.  Vil questions why anyone would want to ride around in a dirty wagon on old hay but when he sees your eager face, he gives in.  The wind tosses his hair and Vil gives it a flip.  The motion catches the eye of a small child watching the wagon ride by.  “That pet is as pretty as a Queen,” you can hear the child exclaim.  Vil gets a smile on his face and does his best beauty queen wave to the child.  Before you know it, he is waving to a crowd the whole ride long like this is his personal parade.  Well master, perhaps this idea wasn’t so bad after all.  Now smile for the crowd, you are sitting next me, after all!

When Rook suggests you go visit the local orchard, you suspect he has some ulterior motive in mind.  When you arrive, you discover what it is, target practice.  Did Rook always have that bow and arrow and where was he keeping them on the ride over?  Maybe its better not to ask.  Now sit back and enjoy the show!  Rook has many sorts of trick shots he’d like to show you.  Hitting two apples with one arrow, shooting an apple that falls from the tree, splitting an apple in two with an arrow.  He even asks if you’d like to volunteer to put the apple on your head and have him shoot it off.  Maybe that is enough target practice for one day!

Next, Rook suggests you walk among the trees, it’s good for your health!  He disappears from your view, but you catch him now and again following you discretely.  It seems that this is more of a game of cat and mouse with you than a walk in the orchard!  Try to keep an eye out for him or he will sneak up on you and jump out to observe your reaction.  Your surprise is tres magnifique!

You can’t visit an orchard without taking home some apples. Rook declares he must go on a search for an apple as beautiful as you.  You try to pick many apples but each time Rook rejects them.  Only the fairest apples will do for his master!  When you think you’ve found one that meets his standards, Rook will recite a small poem about it.  You are a beautiful apple upon the tree its true, but my fair master is more beautiful than you. You might be here all night…

Congratulations, you are visiting the orchard with an apple picking expert.  Epel is a pet from a region known for its apples, after all!  He is excited to demonstrate all he knows; let him help you find the best ones.  He can tell you exactly what color each variety should be when it is ripest.  You’ll be baking delicious apple pie tomorrow for sure!

Not all the apples are for baking.  Spread a blanket under the trees and enjoy a little picnic lunch with your pet.  You might even discover his secret talent, apple carving!  Look, he carved this one into your likeness.  Be sure to praise him, he really captured you well.

Epel doesn’t want you to think he is all about cute things like apple carving though.  He insists on playing some sports while you are in the great outdoors.  Did you bring a frisbee?  He wants to impress you with how athletic he is!  Help him tie his hair back and he will give you a fired-up grin.  He gets totally committed to the game!

As the sun sets, he will suggest you climb a tree to get the best view.  Don’t worry if you aren’t the best climber, Epel will help pull you up to the higher branches.  You can sit behind him on the branch with your arm around him for balance.  Its just like riding behind a prince on a white horse.  Just a little bit longer Master and then its Hi-Ho and off to home we go!

Tags: @axulashengrotto

[bleachcakes]

Grandmaster Blueberry Ice - Fanfic Advertisement

Fic Chapter Excerpt - Read in Full on Ao3 

Bi-Han is the Lin Kuei’s Grandmaster, a powerful and serious man with all the skills to back up his aggression. He has always known exactly what he wanted in life… hasn’t he? When faced with the annoying Hollywood actor Johnny Cage Bi-Han starts to feel unsure of himself for perhaps the first time in his life. What does he really want out of the actor? Bi-Han certainly wants them to shut up, but there’s more than one way to do that.

A/N—Sometimes you look in the mirror and go- ooh they hate eachother so much, I wanna make them kiss. And then you do it. Chapter Lengths will vary a lot :p

I have only written smut once long ago before this so please do not judge my writing, I am simply a silly asexual

(Current) Entire Fic Word Count: 32,661

(Current) Number of Chapters: 14

Chapter Word Count: 1,617

Pairing: Johnny Cage / Subzero (Bi-han) - Mortal Kombat 1 2023

Fic Warnings: Canon typical Graphic depictions of violence, (one-sided) enemies to lovers, Powerplay, sexual fantasys, nsfw

Chapter 1 [Chapter 1] 

Excerpt: 

Bi-Han observed the training field with crossed arms, watching as some of the prospective Earthrealm champions trained with the Shaolin monks. They hadn’t been there long, but already he was fed up with them. Their blows were weak and moves uninspired, making Bi-Han blow a disgruntled puff of cold air through his mask, shaking his head. He couldn’t see why Liu Kang had so much faith in these people to fight for Earthrealm, and it annoyed him to no end that many of his skills were wasted simply to train others. 

But Liu Kang was a god, and Earthrealms protector, so surely there must be some bigger picture. Bi-Han was getting more and more impatient waiting for it to show itself though.

“Yo! Subby!”

Bi-Han cringed, his brows furrowing in agitation as he offered only a cursory glance over his shoulder to show acknowledgment. Johnny Cage was certainly not the ‘big picture’ he had wanted to show up. The actor jogged up to him, dressed in the monk's yellow robes and sporting an obnoxious grin as he often did.

“Hey,” Johnny greeted again as he got closer, slowing down his jog to a walk, forcing himself into Bi-Han’s line of sight, always managing to take up space in a way people’s eyes naturally had to affix to him. 

“What is it Cage,” Bi-Han growled. 

Johnny smirked, looking quite proud of himself which only ever spelled bad news. “Fireball” (Liu Kang, Bi-Han's mind filled in) “wants you to do a little training with me. Y’know, check my progress, some one on one fight’n.” As emphasis, Johnny did a few air punches, playfully shimmying his body. “Liu-Liu says you held back when we first fought, but I think I can handle you now,” Johnny gloated, “y’know, knock your ass flat.”

Bi-Han's eyebrows arched into a tight furrowed glare at the flaunting actor. “You couldn’t hope to match me in your dreams.”

Johnny scoffed, “Yeah ‘cause I’m too busy doing it I-R-L. My dreams are reserved for getting down with some sexy ladies.”

Bi-Han only growled out a grunt in response. He was used to the crass way in which the actor talked, especially about their sexual exploits which were entirely absurd. The man just couldn’t go two seconds without talking about himself and his so-called achievements, whether in acting or bedding. 

As much as it annoyed him, if Liu Kang wanted him to spar with the other then it would be done. If anything, he could turn this into an opportunity. Beating in the others face might just do wonders to relieve his stress. 

Turning he only uttered a deep, “Come,” before walking away to find a place to practice, Johnny Cage following eagerly on his heels like a dog.

Keep Reading on Ao3

[works-of-magic]

Calling all Hex Maniacs!

Especially ones that either live in Sinnoh or would be willing to travel to Sinnoh for a week or two!

And specifically ones that are free the week of Halloween.

I'm looking for someone to check in on my breeding center while I'm in Unova.

I have approximately 45 Misdreavus in my keeping and a house with several more ghosts. I'm not seeking a high level of care, just someone to check on them so the whole place doesn't devolve into chaos while I'm gone.

It's off the beaten path in Eterna Forest (Northwestern Sinnoh), but once you know how to get there, it's pretty easy to find. It has its own clearing and everything.

You're welcome to either live in the house or just make a quick daily check-in.

Sound interesting? Could you use a few extra pokecoupons? Would this break up the monotony of your daily ennui? Then read on!

Requirements:

MUST HAVE AT LEAST SOME EXPERIENCE WITH GHOST POKEMON. You don't have to be a hex maniac, but I mostly have ghosts.

Must not be afraid of ghost Pokemon! I can't believe I have to specify, but for a 10-day gig watching ghosts, I think this is very important.

Must sign a waiver not to sue me if you get lost in Eterna Forest. Just… Just to be sure.

Any Pokemon you bring inside must be housebroken.

Must pass a Mismagius vibe check. (She's better at reading people than me.)

While you're there:

Don't worry about cleaning up the place unless you really want to. I'd rather you didn't, in fact! Well, clean up after yourself, please do, but don't worry about cleaning up after the Pokemon. (Or me.) I'll get it when I come back. (And I prefer to live in organized chaos.)

You can help yourself to any of the food and drink for yourself or even treats for your Pokemon if you'd like! Most of it is homemade. Just know that I'm pescetarian and I don't drink alcohol, so if you want hamburgers and wine, you'll have to bring your own.

IF YOU DON'T LIKE BEING STARTLED: The ghosts and I have made an agreement. Please let me know beforehand if you'd like to avoid being spooked, scared, disoriented, or otherwise acted upon in ways of ghostly mischief. I can give you a "ward" of sorts that tells them your fear is off the menu.

I only have 5 wards. If you bring more than 4 house guests and throw a wild party while I'm gone, the rest of your party is fair game.

Other information:

Pay: Open to discussion. I can't pay luxury spa rates, but we can discuss the specifics. I'm thinking 1500P a day and I can cover your low-ticket travel expenses?

Interview: I'd like to meet up at least via video call before giving you the keys. In-person meetup is preferred.

Care: The ghosts are pretty self-sufficient. Most of mine are vitavores/emotivores, they'll live happily off ambient energies in the forest and wild Pokemon. Your job is to make sure nothing's broken and they're not sneaking into the food stores. And also maybe play with the more sociable ghosts. Some of them are total sweethearts.

Facilities: I don't have a TV, but you're free to use the shower and washing machine. Kitchen and bedroom too, but don't do anything you wouldn't want your 8-year-old cousin to know about! (This includes activities that are illegal, intimate, or otherwise inappropriate.) We can discuss whether you'd like to live in the place all week or just pop in.

Also, fair warning: All the expensive, valuable, mystically-powerful things will be locked up. Not that you'll find it with all the stuff lying around, probably, but it IS locked and has a seal with curses from two of my Mismagius that will activate if it's opened. But that only happens if someone opens the box without "disarming" it. So, you know… Don't snoop and you'll be fine.

Other notes: I realize I should have posted this a lot sooner, but it didn't occur to me until, uhh.... yesterday. Oops?

[Attached is an image that looks like a hastily-edited advertisement, with a textured purple background, the dates October 28--November 5th scrawled in bright pink, and yellow text proclaiming "CALL NOW!" The number that was originally on the ad was scribbled out in some crappy editing program rendition and has Jess's phone number typed over it instead. The corners have each have a clip art Misdreavus or a Mismagius that mostly blends in with the background.]

[makima-s-most-smile]

Trigun Maximum 1 (Part 2)

*me rushing after the bookclub timeline* My brain does not work in summer heat!

*continues to waffle about the smallest details* And I will only get worse, nyehehehe

Trigun Ultimate: 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4 Trigun Maximum: 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2, 4.1, 4.2, 5.1, 5.2, 6.1, 6.2, 7.1, 7.2, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 9.1, 9.2, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5

Chapter 03: Bravo Girls!

Meryl!

Uh… Neither can a man?!? Karen, what kind of sexist logic do you have there? 

Everyone should be capable and independent, that’s how you avoid landing in abusive situations. (It also does not mean that you shouldn’t rely on people. That’s how communities work.) Knowing your worth and loving yourself is the key here.

Those who know, know -_-

This is the first time that Meryl got any lifesign from Vash for about 2,5 years. She must have thought he died until now. No wonder she is near tears. Her friend is alive! She must feel so relieved! Boyo survived whatever the fifth moon incident has been!

Oh, I immediately dislike Mr. Keele. Keele = Kill, did anyone else zoom in on the phonetic similarities?

Again! Mr. Keele is a tradesman! An Assassin! I didn’t imagine it! Somebody tell me that I didn’t imagine it when I said that Wolfwood literally advertises he’s a trained killer in Ultimate 2! Karen gives Meryl all the hints! “Yeah, I would not want to be there, even if I was you, with Mr. Keele being a killer. Y’know, the ex-elite-military-dude.” We see the penny drop on Meryl’s face!

This has to be one of the bigger cities, since it was build around a ship. But it looks so small. Like 1.000 people, maybe 2000 max. I read somewhere that like 20 Million humans of 100 Million survived the fall (correct me if I remember that incorrectly). But with such small settlements… I cannot believe that. There was surely a second Great Dying in the aftermath, but this… this is so small. And it is a big, well-established city. If Vash is able to run around without people realising who he is, there need to be more people for that anonymity. Big cities offer anonymity, small communities do not!

I like this shot of Vash. He looks like he is Batman, all brooding and watchful. Through that establishing shot, we, as readers, aren’t really surprised when Keele is busted immediately. How exactly, besides Vash being careful, I don’t know. Is it the body language? The way he carries himself and his weapons? Does he hear them talking at the reception desk?

I like this whole scene. Vash is not naive. He knows of the dangers, he knows he is still hunted down, even without the bounty.

Keele is ruthless! To get to his target, he is willing to kill innocents. The woman in the car is an innocent bystander. Vash needs to shield her with his body. While the other assassins until now also killed people, they didn’t use them to get to Vash. That’s a key difference and makes Keele so much more coldblooded.

How much pain tolerance has he? He is smiling and joking after it. Yes, he is showing pain, but he is more obsessed with making everything seem less dire. Of course, Wolfwood sees through it and gets help. I am not sure, he may even carry Vash, since it is highly stupid to let Vash lay there in the open with a fucking hitman on the lose. I wonder how Wolfwood feels when being confronted with that kind of hit man. While we know that Wolfwood is able to “easily” kill, he does not seem like a person who would use innocents to get to his target. He is too direct and honest for that. You could also use the word too ethical, but that is… *looks at the killer for hire part* Well, even professionals have standards?

I love Meryl’s cool speech, but… Keele was hired by her boss. Her boss would have known that Keele is a hit man. Even Karen commented on it. What does that say about her organisation as a whole? I want consequences for it! Be it structural changes or anything, but we never get any. Please, if you have something like this in the story, Nightow, please, do something with it. What are the consequences about this for Meryl and her job, what are the consequences for Milly? Do they report this? It would be in character for both of them! And if they don’t… SHOW IT TO US! PLEASE! What is their reasoning then!

I’d say, Keele is not without logic, but it is not insurance logic. It is the logic that the state works with in “The minority-report”. The idea of a self fulfilling prophecy is also present here, too. Though, it is unethical from the perspective that it infringes on the human’s agency. Another little thing that is important for me (and most likely for Meryl, too) is that Vash is not the disaster! Things happen to and around Vash, but he is not the one who decides to go bat-shit crazy, he runs, he flees and most importantly, he keeps the casualties low! There is no intent there! She would have put that in her reports! Keele didn’t care, her boss didn’t care. 

Can you punish someone for something he doesn’t do? It would be punishing his existence. 

Keele goes to threaten Meryl with a gun, intending to kill her. He is not only a hit man, he is a murderer. His reasoning is greed and covering his own tracks. You could say, in this chapter, he is somewhat the antithesis to Vash. Vash brings destruction without intent and does his best to avoid it. Keele kills for personal gain without care for anyone other than himself. Who is worse? The answer is easy, but somehow from a purely capitalistic view the insurance agency came to another result.

Meryl thinking back to what Karen said, but I don’t think she thinks about herself in that position. She thinks about Vash and how he is thrown into life threatening situations again and again (at least that is my interpretation) and how he cannot be happy like that. His smiling picture contrasts what they have been through together. Yes, it is a shitty position that Meryl finds herself in, but she chooses to stay at Vash’s side. And damn, that’s fucking nice of her. She is his friend. She is brave. And she has ethics!

Milly to the rescue! I love the whole framing of that pic. Her smile and then the close up that shows it is an angry one!

It’s subtle, but does Meryl help Keele to fly by tripping him? Her position changes so much from the former page. She looks so completely unimpressed by Keele. Also, isn’t it nice that people other than Vash get panty shots, too?

WHY?! You smoked Vash out! You followed him! You literally got into a life threatening situation! Why don’t you go to him? AHHHHHHHHHH

Gosh, Wolfwood is so petty. Yes, he keeps Vash’s ethical standground and does not kill his fellow hitman, but Vash never said something against torture… And I didn't get why his face is so bloody, I thought that was the sauce, but no, he skitted on his face due to Milly's hit. Dayumm.

Meryl’s reasoning reads so weird. She used the vacation to look for him, but now she says that they will deal with him through work… Is it her being shy? And Keele never got busted… Nothing changed at her workplace even though it did something so unethical. I… really don’t like this plotpoint.

Chapter 04: Hero returns

Knives! My second best worstie! New readers still don’t get to know his face! Though, this is a memory from Vash. His brother is distorted to a monstrous being, inhuman with crazy eyes and a smile with so many teeth, it is a threat. Knives is not human, but Vash, his brother, is not human, too. 

“Forgetting brings too much sorrow, remembering brings everlasting pain.” That’s grief and it makes Vash's whole being. Sure, if you forget the person you lost, your pain may be gone, but you also lose what made you you. But now, every memory is tainted with the loss. Time should heal those wounds, pain becomes bearable and now painful memories become bittersweet. But I don’t think Vash ever reached that point. Rem is still a sore spot for him, he can’t even talk about her, but she haunts every step. Every scar on his body is a sacrifice to her godhood. Vash is less his own person and more a priest to her existence. While I am sad for Vash, I also feel for Rem. If she was able to know how her son idolises her to his own detriment, she would despair.

Vash having nightmares due to trauma, confirmed.

Damn, that contrast. Wolfwood, the black smudge, between all that white space and all the coffins hanging over his head. We already know that he deals with death at this point, being a gun ho gun and all that shebang, but it also evokes something claustrophobic in me. Wolfwood watching as more and more coffins -corpses- pile up, ready to crush him under their weight. And he just stands and stares.

Wolfwood, the town gossip. “Thank heaven you asked! It’s a long story, though it is kinda a short one! Anyway-” 

Eh, the town going all Montaque and Capulet, just without the lovers and more sexual assault. Kinda sad, but that is greed working. The planet truly brings out the worst of humanity. And Vash is still able to be sad about it. Because he knows humanity can be better. And Wolfwood is his bitter, contemptuous self, not without reason. I don’t see him saying that as misanthropy, though. Wolfwood said in his introduction chapter that he has an orphanage to care about. While Vash cares about the whole of humanity, Wolfwood cares for his smaller circle and he needs to stay alive to do so. He cannot allow himself the risk. 

And damn, Vash just plainly calling him out for having secrets and Wolfwood again, not denying it and just falling silent. They know. And it hurts.

Brad!

He is 17. Why do 17 year olds in manga either look kawaii or like the worst Jojo-delinquents

His hair reminds me so much of Ryu (or Josuke mixed with Jotaro)

Damn, Brad, you are such an arrogant arsehole here. Oh, yes, the people who are trying their best to survive daily on a planet that is unable to really accommodate their needs are not the nicest around… Dude, you are living at a place that guarantees that your basic needs are taken care of. Brad lived with a priviledge that other people literally would die for. I know Brad will grow on me, but damn, his introduction is always… I wanna kick him! At least you are not as bad as ‘98 Brad.

What conversation? The one about plants? The one about having to kill to protect your close ones? Are you trying to make him understand that you, Wolfwood, need to stay alive to keep the orphanage going? Or the one about you hiding stuff? Are you going to confess? Why you are here, Wolfwood? What is it? It is open to interpretation.

But I love this! This shows what a truly honest and open dude Wolfwood truly is. Yes, he goes so easily on the defensive and, damn, he speaks in absolutes and thus can be seen as condescending. But he reaches out to Vash again and again. He literally runs after him to talk! He tries to go by Vash’s rules. He didn’t kill anyone with his fucking machine gun cross, because Vash asked him to, and that is a feat in on itself.

Oh! There is a new coat in the suitcase, too! Didn’t see that in the first readthrough.

Brad: “I don’t think we have a choice, do we? Lost technology for lost technology.” I read this in my first readthrough as Vash trading stuff with the colony, most likely because I still had the scene with Kaite in my head, where Vash just pulls out a radio in the form of a pen. But now it reads as Brad putting Vash down as a plant and dehumanising him.

No! Vash, you are the fucking gun! Yes, you have dangerous powers, but you did not pull the trigger! I know it feels like it! And damn, your body must feel foreign and hostile to you, but you did not chose this, the responsibility lies not on you, however much you put it onto yourself.

“We have no choice but to depend on him”

“The only one who cannot flee or surrender, who will even return from the dead is that nice man right there.”

Damn, that hurts. I know the doctor has a better relationship with Vash than Brad has, but it reads like they are only using him and that only because there is no other option. It mirrors how Vash treats himself.

Brad struggles with Vash seemingly being immortal and inhuman. His hissy fit kinda fits what is brewing in Wolfwood. But with the Docs explanation of Brad being a fucking brat that has a temper trantrum because his age mate Jessica has a puppy crush on Vash... He is just a fucking hormonal teenager. Brad the brat. And that makes Vash’s bout of hating his plantness immediately less dire. I love Doc. (I wanted to write like, but my hands wrote love, so love it is.)

Wolfwood can never eat in peace part two electric boogaloo. He looks so cute, squatting down and just eating XD. It is one of my favourite Wolfwood panels. He just looks so innocent and curious. Annnnd… the softness is immediately gone with his scowl returning. Interesting, how Wolfwood takes the police/army force intervening as something that can go either way and not something purely positive. We don’t see much of them in the manga anyway, so how much power do they truly have? Not enough, considering Knives is scheming in the background with the whole of the gun-ho-guns.

Also, Brad, just go away with your prejudice. I’d like to see how you would have come out living not in a safe space but a world in which you can be shot just for looking stupid.

Kinda hypocritical of Wolfwood. He wants to go away and not interfere. While that is a choice, it is a passive one. His action is nonaction. But nonaction is also an action. He wants to avoid having to make this decision of life and death. But that also tells us, the readers, that while Wolfwood is capable of doing so, he hates taking a life, he hates this part of life and himself. 

And his decision is to decide which conflict he interferes with, because his main goal is to keep the orphanage afloat. Wolfwood has to decide for himself who is worth saving and who is not. No wonder he calls himself a demon. But it is also very human.

He does not have the capacity to help everyone and if he dies here, the orphanage would suffer. His life is worth something for that very cause. While Wolfwood is right that you cannot not make a choice, he doesn’t seem to completely understand it, either. Surely, he breaks the choice down to kill or let live, but there are myriads of other choices that have to be decided before it comes to this. His choice right here is not to kill or to kill, but avoid interfering so he does not risk his own life at the detriment of the orphanage.

And Vash is… Not understanding Wolfwood or humanity. From Vash’s perspective every life is important. He cannot fathom that for some people some lives are more important than others and that alienates him from humanity. From his position it seems unimaginable for him that he does not jump into the fray to rescue the hostages. And it reads a bit patronising or judgemental that other people are unable to do so. It reads like: I can do it, why can't you? Wolfwood has a point, but Vash slaps it away by telling him it is just talk. Vash is not human here, he is far from it.

For me, this also opens up another question. Is Vash using this unconsciously to avoid Knives? By concentrating on helping the locals, he gets distracted again and again from their real goal, smoking out Knives. While Vash said that he wants to kill Knives, it goes against his ideals. Rem also died for Knives, not only humanity. And Vash still loves him, even though Knives did something unmentionable to him. Considering that Vash is also latently suicidal… is there an unconscious hope that he could die before having to meet Knives? It also makes his position of I can do it, why can't humanity do it, kinda sad. He can't imagine people wanting to live and considering staying alive a priority. 

I… just love this very interaction. It feels a bit jarring that they had such an intense argument just a page ago and now they are back to silly nillies.

Chapter 05: Dancing revolvers

Hehehehe, Baby Vash immediately wanting to eat the geranium. Geraniums are also used to repel mosquitos. How does Zazie feel about them? Do the plants smell of geraniums? Imagine Zazie meeting Knives and having to retch.

Interestingly, I mostly found geranium meaning protection and warding off evil, even as a promise to meet at a specific place. Only after a deeper search did I find the meaning of determination. Rem’s face in that scene. She takes strength from that meaning, her own determination to leave behind something or start anew. The woman has a deeply seated regret or two.

We learn later what this exactly means, but Luraude not losing a drop of sweat… HINTS! It looks like he was controlled somehow.

Vash, that can kill a person… A pacifist, you are…

Then why are you bleeding from the mouth?!

I love the framing of Vash’s shooting scene and the aftermath. How his training comes to fruition and how much of his fighting is like high level mathematics. We also don’t know why the storage is shown in the aftermath until we get the resolution of them having been shot open. 

Chapter 06: Sin

I love that framing. It shows the sin and the grief that follows it. It doesn’t show the act, it shows the victims! That makes it much more poignant for me. It is about how innocent people are forced into such situations, how much loss there is from ONE wrong act. 

And while it makes a full circle back to Wolfwood’s words and gives them much needed human context, it also opens up the idea of Wolfwood being a victim that had to take up arms, too. His expression is also important. There is no: “Gotcha! Spikey! There is not his angry stubbornness or this neutral, stoic facade that normally accompanies him trying to make Vash understand. It is just absolute sadness and, maybe (I am really bad with faces) apathy by helplessness. I like that we get a callback to the scene a few chapters beforehand, because this close up tells us a whole different story and frames Wolfwood’s position much more as a position made by need and not by want. As much as Vash cried in that scene, Wolfwood looks like someone who wants to cry, too, but has no tears left.

Wolfwood says that Vash is foolish and stubborn. He looks kinda like a devil, enjoying Vash’s plightful situation. Could it be misguided care for Vash’s survival, because Wolfwood himself had to learn the hard way how to survive? Or does he want confirmation that Vash is someone who reacts and thus is in the end human? There is the hint that there is more to Wolfwood joining Vash’s travels. Our man is sus.

There are other questions that I have as a reader. How often does Vash regret the outcome of these situations? Does he only regret those where he couldn’t save everyone? Or in which people choose to be greedy? How does he keep up his hope towards humanity after those situations? Every life is holy for him, so the life of the murderer and the life of the daughter has to be on the same level. Doesn’t how we fill our life’s make a difference? Vash needs to say no to this due to all encompassing love for humanity. And that makes him inhuman. 

I love how the panelling kinda says two completely different things. By lowering his gun, Vash takes a step back and lets the father decide how to punish his daughter’s murderer. Framing Knives in the middle could be read as Vash’s own acceptance of his hypocrisy. If he is willing to kill Knives for what he did, why should he stop the father. But it also shows Vash’s inner fight for me. He lowers the gun, while we are presented with Knives’s portrait. Vash is unsure if he even can kill Knives.

You can’t save everyone, but you should at least try. And Vash acts upon it. Not putting the father in danger by using his gun, but by trying to save the rapist with only his hands. It is about not burdening the father with being a killer. And… it is an end that makes Vash keep up his promise, but it also feels hollow. The girl was tortured to death and her killer lives. It is unfair. The father’s grief won’t lessen, he may even feel like a failure. And everything about this is just sad.

Another point for Vash being decidedly inhuman and separated from humanity. How would I feel if I saw my family that I put under my protection tear themselves apart. I look down from far above and their scuffles would seem so menial to me and I still lose family members to it, other grief and take more lives in revenge. But also, if everyone is your family, no one is. Family is that important because it is our in-group. But an in-group automatically has an out-group. Vash is ripping himself apart with his point of view.

Yeah, I would also yawn if my boo bombs up my holding cell and gets me with his cool bike. As if Vash expected Wolfwood to come to his rescue.

I like this little tidbit of Wolfwood showing empathy to the father and offering him an escape. Our boy is a softie! Even though he immediately grows defensive when Vash calls him out on it.

I also like Wolfwood stressing to Vash that Vash’s luck will someday run out. And Vash knows it. Vash knows he has been lucky til now. Wolfwood means it in a Vash’s life or the other person’s. Wolfwood wants Vash to chose his own life.

Annnnd Luraude was a puppet and no one knew. Even Vash with his supersenses didn’t sniff or hear him out. 

And I lov…hate… love… Legato. I mean, it is a planet full of bdsm-gear-wearing cowboys shooting each other up and he walks up like from a HIM concert all in a fucking iron maiden. Damn.

[farina-bancroft]

The Interview.

“So, Farina, do you have family back home in Nine watching right now? Do you think they’re proud of how you’ve done?”

Farina blinked at Calix, the audience, the cameras. She’d only just sat down, and they were beginning to pry into such personal topics. 

“Wow, buy a girl a drink first,” Farina blurted out. It didn’t diffuse any of the physical discomfort she felt– heels, a tight dress, a face full of makeup– but it did earn a ripple of chuckles from the audience, and some tension in her shoulders eased.

She pushed her hair carefully behind her ear, allowing herself a small, relieved smile. She could do this. Farina charmed people all the time, didn’t she?

“I’ve got a Momma and some siblings back home watchin’. Hiya, Momma,” she tacked on, waving toward the cameras. “Betcha the Bancroft kids are giving you a run for your money without me there keeping ‘em in line.”

It was meant to be funny. It sent a pang of homesickness through her chest anyway as the audience gave another appreciative laugh. 

“I’ll bet they’re proud, probably,” Farina continued. “A score of eight’s pretty respectable for a tribute from Nine, isn’t it?”

“Beyond respectable, I dare say shocking, sensational, astonishing!” Calix agreed brightly, head of teal hair bobbing with his enthusiastic nods. “Care to share how you managed that?”

“A lady never kisses and tells,” Farina smirked, leaning purposefully into the innuendo of that for a moment, casting a coy look toward the audience. “What I will share is that I shouldn’t be counted out. I know I’m little, I may not be able to, I don’t know, throw around other tributes like they’re sacks of grain, but I’m fiercer than I might look.”

“Might it have to do with your background at home?” Calix pressed, gesturing to the LED screen behind them. Usually it was all decorative, but now it lit up in bright pixels unmistakably forming the image of Bancroft Apothecary. It had only been a few days, yet Farina found herself struck by how clear the image was, as though she hadn’t seen it in years and her memories had gone blurry. 

A tight lump formed in her throat. She wouldn’t cry. She promised herself she wouldn’t cry, it would undo everything the Eight was doing for her, plus she wasn’t sure if she could live with herself if she broke down in the interview, of all things.

It also asked more disturbing questions. Was this picture from before or after she was Reaped? Had her family been visited by Capitol reporters? Authorities? Had they threatened them? Or what if they didn’t know, what if this was taken without their knowledge, and this was a signal they were being watched? What if it was from before– what if they were already being watched this closely? For what?

“It– might,” she managed noncommittally, fingers twisting into the tulle of her skirt. She worked to not appear affected or unsettled, despite the way her thoughts raced in the back of her mind, threatening to pull her out of the moment and destabilize her focus. “I know a couple’a things about medicine from our work at home. It’s the family business, you can’t not pick up some things.” She wasn’t going to give away just how deep her knowledge went. It wasn’t something she was willing to advertise to the other tributes.

Calix didn’t look particularly satisfied with that answer. Farina left the sentiment there and stared right back. He seemed to debate coaxing more out of her momentarily, but either her expression showed enough finality or his showmanship took over.

“Of course, of course. Most tributes have something unique they bring to the table from their backgrounds back home, that’s what makes the Games so interesting, am I right, folks?”

Calix beamed. The audience cheered. Farina maintained a thin, polite smile.

“It seems Oxford brings something unique as well, with his Eight. Do you foresee an alliance between you two?” Calix asked then, leaning forward. “Do I foresee… anything else?”

Farina hadn’t been anticipating that. Her expression must have twisted into something between shock and horror, she could almost feel the zoom from the cameras tightening in on her. 

“Oh– oh, wow, no, just allies. Friends,” she corrected quickly, shaking her head. “I don’t know about you Calix, but I don’t make it a habit to hook up with people I might stab later. I like to keep business and pleasure separate like that.”

“Maybe I don’t,” he challenged playfully.

Farina’s eyebrows raised. “You might like some of my friends back home.”

Calix threw his head back and laughed. “I’m sure I would.” He glanced at the clock off the side of the stage and sighed. “Well, Miss Bancroft, I am afraid that our time is running short, but it has been such a pleasure getting to know you. Any final thoughts you’d like to leave us with tonight?”

Farina had prepared for this question. She nodded, looking out to the audience, the cameras. “Yeah. Don’t overlook Nine. Ox and I, we’re something special. You won’t wanna miss it.”

[the-rewatch-rewind]

Three Cary Grant movies in a row!

Script below the break

Hello and welcome back to The Rewatch Rewind! My name is Jane, and this is the podcast where I count down my top 40 most rewatched movies. Today I will be discussing number 28 on my list: RKO’s 1948 comedy Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, directed by H.C. Potter, written by Norman Panama and Melvin Frank, based on the novel by Eric Hodgins, and starring Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, and Melvyn Douglas.

Yes, I’m talking about yet another Cary Grant movie – I warned you there would be a lot of them. In this one, he plays Jim Blandings, an advertising executive who lives in a Manhattan apartment with his wife Muriel (Myrna Loy) and their two children. Tired of feeling crowded, and taken in by an advertisement, they decide to purchase an old house on a large property in Connecticut. They initially resist the idea that the house must be torn down, but ultimately get excited about being able to build one to their own specifications. However, this is not nearly as simple, or as affordable, as they anticipate.

The first time I watched this movie, it was late at night and I was very tired, so I remember almost falling asleep without really getting into it. But I enjoyed it a lot more the second time, and it’s grown on me over the years. I watched it for the first time in 2003, then twice in 2004, and then once each in 2006, 2008 through 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018 through 2021, and then twice in 2022. And while I could barely keep my eyes open the first time I watched it, now I find it difficult to tear them from the screen when the movie is on.

As I’ve said several times in previous episodes, Cary Grant was a brilliant comedic actor, and once again, he is very funny in this movie. Just watching his morning routine in the apartment at the beginning is hilarious. Jim Blandings is very sure of himself, even and especially when he shouldn’t be, and Cary plays that very convincingly and humorously. Myrna Loy is probably best known for playing Nora Charles in the comedy-mystery Thin Man movies, so it should come as no surprise that she is also very funny here. Muriel occasionally tries to rein in some of Jim’s recklessness, but also gets caught up in the dream of the house, and Loy portrays that flawlessly. Apparently critics thought these stars were too old for these roles (they were both in their mid-40s at the time), and that it would have made more sense to show a naïve young couple not knowing how to build a house, but personally I think it works better to show a middle aged couple who have every reason to believe they know what they’re doing find out that they have no clue. The movie also makes it clear that it’s only because Jim is older and more established in his career that he’s able to do this. At one point when he’s venting about how everything’s costing way more than they were anticipating, Jim points out that if he can barely afford it, there’s no way a young couple ever could. And looking at this movie from a modern lens is kind of surreal because like, imagine a single-income family of four being able to afford a house! To put things in perspective, Jim Blandings was making $15,000 a year in 1948, which is the equivalent of approximately $190,000 in 2023, and the final cost of his dream house was $38,000, or approximately $480,000 now. It certainly costs a lot more than he initially thinks it will, but it’s still doable for him – although he does nearly lose his job at one point – whereas it would not have been for a young couple just starting out. And again, Cary Grant and Myrna Loy are so delightful to watch that I cannot comprehend wanting to replace them.

The acting and the writing encourage the audience to laugh at both Jim and Muriel while still finding them sympathetic. There’s a rather beautiful poetic justice in the story of an advertising executive, who spends all day figuring out how to convince people to buy things they don’t need and can’t afford, getting convinced by an ad to build a house he doesn’t need and can’t afford. And yet, we still want him to succeed, and share his frustration when things go wrong. Muriel’s extremely specific demands for the house can be ridiculous, but we still want her to get the dream house she desires. Perhaps her greatest moment in the film is when she spends several minutes describing in detail the exact shade she wants each room painted: one should exactly match the color of fresh butter, one needs to be white – not a cold, antiseptic hospital white, but not to suggest any other color but white; another should be practically an apple red, somewhere between a healthy Winesap and an unripened Jonathan, etc. When she finally gets distracted and walks away, one of the painters says to the other, “You got all that?” and the other replies, “Red, green, blue, yellow, white.” It’s very funny, but also maybe a little bit sexist, in a “These silly women and their ridiculous obsession with detail” way, but at least the movie makes fun of Jim too. He’s constantly taking charge of things he doesn’t understand and making them worse – from illegally authorizing the old house to be torn down to inadvertently instructing builders to rip out their work. So rather than making fun of Jim and Muriel specifically, the movie is really making fun of the gender roles they feel obligated to fulfill, and the way society has made basic needs like shelter immensely complicated to obtain. And while some of that is rather painful to face, this movie manages to make the overall experience mostly enjoyable. It’s thought-provoking without becoming too upsetting.

While a lot of what I love about this movie comes from Grant and Loy, I also love Melvyn Douglas’s performance, and his character, Bill Cole, is probably my favorite. Bill narrates portions of the movie, and introduces himself to the audience as “Jim’s lawyer and quote best friend unquote.” He’s kind of the voice of doom regarding the dream house project, pointing out all the ways Jim gets taken advantage of along the way and repeatedly advising him to give up, but far from being a stick in the mud, he has an excellent sense of humor, and goes along for the ride only slightly reluctantly. There’s a trope that’s especially common in movies from this era of a married couple having a male “friend of the family” who is interested in the wife and kind of waiting for her to either leave her husband for him, or at least have an affair with him. The character of Hank Entwistle in Monkey Business is like this, and there’s a character in the movie I’m going to talk about next week like this. Bill Cole is almost like this, and Jim certainly sees him like this for a good chunk of the movie, but the way I see him, he’s not actually interested in Muriel that way, and is, in fact, if not canonically queer, certainly queer-coded. We do know that he dated Muriel in college. At one point when Jim asks Muriel why Bill’s always hanging around them instead of getting married, Muriel says it’s because he could never find another girl like her, but this doesn’t seem like it’s meant to be particularly serious. When Jim objects to the fact that Bill always takes his leave by shaking Jim’s hand and kissing Muriel on the cheek, Muriel dryly inquires if Jim would prefer it the other way around. There is also a running joke about Jim and Bill getting stuck in a closet, so modern audiences might interpret that to mean that they’re secretly gay, although I’m pretty sure the closet metaphor wasn’t commonly used in 1948. Bill doesn’t seem to really show any attraction toward either Jim or Muriel, so of course I’m inclined to headcanon him as aroace. We do find out that Muriel somehow ended up with both Bill’s and Jim’s fraternity pins – which the Blandings daughters find along with her old diary in the process of moving into the new house. When Jim then confronts Muriel about her having been in love with Bill, she laughs and responds with, “Of course I was in love with Bill! In those days I was in love with a new man every week!” She considers her time dating Bill to be relatively meaningless, and currently sees him as a good friend. Most of Jim’s bouts of jealousy in the movie seem to be misplaced frustration with the way things are going with the house and/or his job, rather than in response to any of Muriel or Bill’s behavior, which is part of the film’s effective commentary on how gender roles leave men feeling like they can’t express their emotions honestly.

Anyway, one evening, when Jim is working late because a slogan he’s been struggling to come up with for months is due the following morning, Bill stops by the new house to visit Muriel, and there’s a major rainstorm. A neighbor informs Muriel that her phone isn’t working and a nearby bridge is out, so her children can’t get home from school, but they’re staying with a different neighbor on the other side of the bridge. This also means that Bill can’t get home, so he’ll have to spend the night in the house alone with Muriel. When he half-jokingly gasps, “Think of my reputation!” Muriel responds with, “Don’t worry, Snow White, you’ll be just as pure and unsullied in the morning as you were the night before,” and he says, “That’s the story of my life.” Now, I feel like there are a couple different ways to interpret this. One way – the allo-heteronormative way – is that they would like to sleep together, but she’s happily married, and he respects that, so they resist. I’m not saying that’s an invalid interpretation, but something about the way they deliver those lines, and the way they interact in the rest of the movie, doesn’t quite feel like that to me. Another interpretation is that they don’t want to sleep together, and they just want to make sure they’re on the same page about that. Think about how much better it makes the scene if Bill is asexual, and his “Think of my reputation!” is his way of making a joke out of not feeling comfortable with the situation, and her response is reassuring him that she understands and doesn’t see him that way either, and his “That’s the story of my life” is him trying to pretend to be disappointed because an allonormative world tells him he should be, but he’s actually relieved. This could also be because Bill is gay, or straight or bi and just not attracted to Muriel, but even then, the point about defying social expectations still stands. Since long before I knew the terms “aromantic” or “asexual,” I have been drawn to stories about people who are expected to fall in love and/or sleep together and then don’t. It has always felt so encouraging to see adults maintaining close platonic relationships, even when society tells them they shouldn’t be platonic. So I love that Bill and Muriel are friends who can spend the night in the same house without becoming overwhelmed by passion or whatever seems to usually happen in situations like that.

Of course, in this particular case, due to production codes there was basically no chance that they would commit adultery anyway, and all of this is probably definitely me reading way too much into something that’s barely there. The following morning, when Jim makes it back home – after giving up on the slogan even though he knows he’ll be fired – and finds out that Bill spent the night, there’s a bunch of other stuff going on with the contractor telling them about more expenses they’ve incurred, but Jim is particularly upset about Bill being there. Then one of the workers shows up at the house and declares, “There’s a matter of twelve dollars and 36 cents” and Jim loses it, going off on a whole rant saying things like, “Why stop there? Just take everything I have!” until the worker clarifies, “No, I owe you $12.36.” Suddenly Jim’s anger melts away, and he also loses every trace of jealousy and suspicion. This certainly supports what I said earlier about Jim’s jealousy really being misplaced frustration, which I also think supports the idea that Bill is asexual, and that even if people didn’t use that term at that time, at least on some level both Jim and Muriel understand that Bill is not a threat to their marriage. Jim is only jealous because he feels like he should be, and it’s a convenient and socially acceptable outlet for his real feelings. The last shot of the movie is of the Blandings family enjoying their front yard, with Jim reading the book the movie is based on. He looks up and says to the audience, “Drop in and see us sometime” and then Bill moves into frame and adds, “Yeah, do that, won’t you?” implying that he has been accepted as practically part of the family, and that if he is aroace, he’s certainly not alone, and I absolutely love that.

I’ve mentioned before that part of why there are so many Cary Grant movies in my top 40 is because I have a multi-day marathon around his birthday every year, and Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House is almost always part of that. I tend to watch this one on his actual birthday because the only specifically Cary Grant-related item of clothing I own is a long-sleeved t-shirt I got for Christmas in 2007 with a quote from this movie on it, which I will probably wear every January 18 for the rest of my life, even though I kind of have mixed feelings about the context of the quote in the movie. The slogan that Jim gives up on during that fateful stormy night is for a product called Wham, which is a brand of ham. He spends all night trying to come up with an acceptable slogan, but they’re all terrible. I would like to point out that he’s working on this with his female secretary, which means he has even less reason to be jealous of Muriel spending all night with Bill, but that’s not really important. I also feel the need to tell you about my favorite bad slogan he comes up with: “This little piggy went to market, as meek and as mild as a lamb. He smiled in his tracks when they slipped him the axe; he KNEW he’d turn out to be Wham!” The extremely concerned look on his secretary (played by Lurene Tuttle)’s face when she hears that is so perfect. But anyway, he finally gives up and goes home, and after all the drama of finding Bill there and owing more money but also getting a refund, the maid Gussie (played by Louise Beavers) is serving breakfast, and when the girls ask if there’s ham, she replies with, “Not just ham; Wham! If you ain’t eatin’ Wham, then you ain’t eatin’ ham!” And Jim does a double take and then exclaims, “Give Gussie a $10 raise!” and then we see a magazine ad featuring Gussie’s face and this slogan, and I have some questions. What exactly did he mean by a $10 raise? Ten dollars per hour? Per week? Per year? Also did he actually give her credit for coming up with the slogan, or did they just use her words and likeness without her really getting anything out of it, apart from this ambiguous raise? Part of me likes to think that she got hired by Jim’s advertising agency after this, but I feel like the more likely explanation is that a white man took credit for a black woman’s work. So again, I have some mixed feelings about my shirt that has a picture of a ham on it with the words “If you ain’t eatin’ Wham, then you ain’t eatin’ ham!” But despite its weirdness and its flaws, I mostly have positive feelings toward this movie. And I will never forget the joy I felt the one and only time someone who hadn’t watched this movie with me recognized the quote from that shirt, so shout out to my 12th grade history teacher.

Thank you for listening to me discuss yet another Cary Grant movie. I do apologize if you’re getting tired of hearing about him, but at least each of the four Cary Grant movies I’ve talked about so far has been from a different decade, so hopefully that has added enough variety to keep things interesting. Next up is another 1940s movie, although Cary Grant was not in it, so you’ll get a break from hearing about him, for now. In previous episodes I’ve ended with a single line from the next movie, but for this one I have to quote a three-line exchange between two people, because it’s my favorite part of the movie and I can’t help myself. “And then I heard a noise, and then I saw-” “What kind of a noise?” “…Like a sound.”