#the fact that these two are not only on speaking terms but friends still boggles my mind

[incorrect-hs-quotes]

CC: Swearing is so unattractive 38(

CG: I’M ALREADY UNATTRACTIVE SO FUCK YOU

[seriouslysnape]

Miscommunication (pt.2)

James Potter x Remus Lupin x Sirius Black x Fem! Reader

Warnings: Language. Poly! relationship. 

A/N: Part 1 is here!

Word Count: 3,376

“But that doesn’t mean I don’t care about you.”

It had been three weeks since you had stormed out of the boys’ dorm in a scurry of anger. It had also been three weeks since you had touched, talked to, or even spared Sirius a passing glance. As far as you were concerned, he didn’t even exist. Despite your dramatic exit, Sirius was confident that you’d crack soon enough and come running back to him, begging for forgiveness. But the more time that passed, the more that he was beginning to realize that might not be the case.

In a general sense, life continued on as it always had. You walked through the Hogwarts’ corridors with the three Gryffindors, laughing at James’ jokes and blushing red under Remus’ kisses. You gave all your love and time to James and Remus, not offering Sirius a drop of your attention. 

He tried to ignore it. He tried to brush it off like it didn’t bother him and like it didn’t make a difference whether you were with him or not. His attempts to drown you out the way you had been drowning him out were successful at first, but it only took about a week for him to realize how much this was killing him.

In the mornings, you woke James or Remus up (depending on whose bed you slept in the night before) with bubbly kisses and sweet giggles, something that you had always done for all three of the boys’ wake up calls. Sirius had gone almost 23 days (but not like he was COUNTING or anything) since he had any kind of interaction with you.

No cuddles.

No hugs.

No kisses.

Nothing.

The whole situation put James and Remus into a bit of an awkward position. You were on great terms with the two of them, considering they hadn’t insulted you and invalidated your feelings right in your face. This was a difficult challenge to tackle, because they felt guilty for continuing to love up on you when Sirius wasn’t getting his usual share. This was a rather particular arrangement that had taken lots of trial and error to make the right adjustments. Now that the balance had been thrown off, the whole thing didn’t feel right.

James and Remus had both tried to convince you to talk things out with Sirius. They knew that deep down this wasn’t what you wanted, and things couldn’t go on like this forever. James and Remus knew Sirius better than anybody. They were fully aware that Sirius was regretting what he had done and was kicking himself for it...even if Sirius wouldn’t show it or admit to it. 

Sirius was beginning to lose precious sleep over this. He tossed and turned in his bed that had grown so lonely without you. His arms felt so empty not being wrapped around you, holding you snugly to his body. Suddenly, he didn’t have anyone to help him with his Potions homework or someone to remind him about his Transfiguration exam coming up. He didn’t have the girl that completed the complex puzzle that was Sirius Black. He felt so unfinished without you.

He missed you.

But his pride was winning out.

“How’s the brat today?” Sirius questioned dryly, not even looking up from his Herbology textbook in his lap.

“Sirius.” Remus and James echoed, clearly displeased at Sirius’ cold name for you.

Over the last three weeks, Sirius would ask about you when you weren’t around and he was alone with the boys. He would ask how you were doing, but what he really wanted to know was if you had said anything about him or given any indications that you were close to giving in. James and Remus were growing impatient with Sirius. They had tried to step back, allowing both yourself and Sirius to have time to allow your fog of frustration to air out. They had hoped that Sirius would come around to realize that he had been wrong in all kinds of ways, and you both could work it out on your own.

Between stepping all over your feelings like they were a sidewalk and calling you a bitch for being rightfully upset, Sirius had one too many strikeouts on his record.

“What? If she’s going to act like a child, then I’ll treat her like one.” Sirius growled.

James crossed his arms over his chest, leaning back in the chair that he was sitting in by the common room’s fireplace. Remus watched the two of them from over the rim of his cup that contained his favorite hot tea. 

“She’s hurt, Sirius. You hurt her,” James snarled, eyebrows furrowed in agitation, “I don’t blame her for not wanting to talk to you.”

“Did you not hear the things she said to me? She was totally out of line.” Sirius argued, his demeanor going rigid and his defensive mode kicking into high gear.

“Because you pushed her too hard,” Remus cut in, “She has every right to be upset.”

Sirius was shocked that they were taking your side over his. You were never allowed to speak to any of them the way you had talked to Sirius that day. You weren’t allowed to talk back, get an attitude, touch yourself without permission, as well as other rules that had been established early on in the relationship. They all took the rules very seriously, and the fact that James and Remus were brushing it off was mind boggling to Sirius.

“I didn’t push her at all. She caught an attitude with me.” Sirius remarked tossing his textbook aside.

“Because you don’t always treat her the way you should,” Remus snapped, “All she wanted was for you to listen and talk to her.” 

“Do I not already do enough for her? I walk her to class, I let her sleep with me, not to mention that I fuck her pretty much whenever she wants,” Sirius pointed out, “And now I’m still not doing enough?”

James shook his head, sighing harshly. He was disappointed that he still wasn’t getting it. 

“She’s our girl, Padfoot. She responds so well to Moony and me because she knows how much we love her,” James explained, “You’ve got to start treating her like you love her.”

Sirius’ hardened features went light at what James was saying. He looked between his two best friends, who were sharing matching expressions of urgency. Sirius felt a sickening feeling creeping into his stomach that he could feel all the way up into his throat. Had you gone this whole time thinking that he didn’t love you like the other two did?

“But...I do love her.” Sirius spoke, almost in a whisper.

James and Remus looked at one another briefly, a bit relieved that he was maybe starting to see clearly now.

“She doesn’t know that. You’re going to lose her for good if you don’t change some things, Pads.” Remus added once he saw that Sirius was beginning to have a serious breakthrough moment.

That surely got Sirius’ attention. That wasn’t something he wanted at all. It made his heart hurt even to think about possibly never being with you again. He had to fix this, no matter what he had to do or say.

He just hoped that it wasn’t too late.

The remorse and the contrition that he was feeling that had been building up in him over the last three weeks was finally seeping through the cracks of the surface. It was like a fire that just kept spreading and spreading until the only thing he could see were the hot, orange flames and black smoke that would suffocate him if he breathed in too hard. It was like a switch had flipped. He couldn’t stand it anymore. He didn’t care about his pride or his image or his dignity. 

He just wanted you back.

So, the boys began to devise a plan. Sirius admitted that he didn’t know how to even begin apologizing to you. He wasn’t great with apologies, considering that even the word ‘sorry’ probably had only fallen from his mouth only a couple of times in his life. This was going to take some calculation and planning to get it right. 

You had been doing a bang up job of ensuring that you weren’t ever alone with Sirius. You made sure that either James or Remus was by your side whenever you were in Sirius’ presence, to avoid being forced to speak to him. Remus and James were confident that they could get you two in a room alone together. That was the easy part. The hard part would fall to Sirius, which came down to the actual apology.

James and Remus knew you’d be suspicious if Sirius apologized first. You’d likely only think he was apologizing because he was touch starved and wanted sex, not because he cared about you and was terrified of losing you. In their eyes though, as long as he was honest and didn’t lose his cool, you’d be able to see his real intentions.

Remus had told you to meet him in their dorm, and that no one would be there until later in the day. That seemed pretty normal to you, so you didn’t even give it a second thought. The dorm was empty when you arrived, prompting you to slip out of your uniform and into one of Remus’ sweaters all while getting comfortable on his bed. Shortly after you were settled, the three boys congregated just outside the door, whispering in their semi-circle formation.

“You got this, mate. Just be normal and be honest,” James instructed, “I guarantee you that she’s missing you just as much.”

Sirius was nervous. Not because he didn’t know what to say or what to do, but because he had half convinced himself that you had already decided he wasn’t worth your time anymore. He couldn’t live with himself if he was the reason you had left him.

“We’ll be out here just in case you need us,” Remus piped up, “It’s gonna be fine, Pads.”

James and Remus gave Sirius reassuring grins as Sirius took a deep breath before turning the knob of the door. He entered the small dorm room, his heart fluttering when he saw you sitting on Remus’ mattress. Your head snapped up, your face full of delightful expectation for Remus, but it faded just as fast as it came when you saw it was Sirius. He definitely noticed, but tried not to take it to heart. Your eyes were locked in with his, and you could already tell something was up.

“Hey.” Sirius said plainly, and in a bit of a squeak.

“Hi.” You replied.

He was honestly surprised that you actually gave him an answer. He thought you might’ve ignored him completely. The joyous relief that he felt from you actually talking to him was almost enough to send him to his knees, pleading for you to give him another chance. 

His gaze did shift to the book that was placed next to you. It was your Herbology textbook, the same one that Sirius had been studying from earlier that day.

“Studying for Herbology?” Sirius asked, but obviously that wasn’t what he wanted to talk about.

“Yeah,” You answered, unsure of what exactly was happening, “I was just waiting for Remus.”

Sirius nodded, avoiding the sting that burned in his chest at the reminder that he hadn’t truly seen you in almost a month. You looked so comfortable in the large sweater and the blanket that was draped over your lap. Your hair was slightly messy from the breeze outside that you had walked through to get here. Your skin was glowing from the warmth of their room and the sudden interaction you were having with Sirius.

You looked perfect to him.

He knew he needed to say something now. He needed to kick start this conversation before things got awkward and weird. Although, he never minded silence as long as he had you to occupy his every thought. All the things that he had planned to say were abruptly wiped from his mind. He was going out on a limb here, totally about to wing this. He just had to go for it.

“Can I sit?” He questioned, referring to the slight open space next to you.

You nodded hesitantly, shifting over so he could have a little more room. He sat down just about a foot in front of you, both of you turning to face each other. James and Remus were just outside the door, their ears pressed up against the door to be sure they didn’t miss anything.

Sirius looked at you for a few moments, taking in your curious, attentive behavior. He took a breath, and spoke again, but it came out as more of a ramble.

“Baby, I know I’ve hurt your feelings. I didn’t want or mean to hurt your feelings, but sometimes I just say stupid shit and then I’m too proud to admit that I said something stupid and...” He trailed off when he realized that so far he wasn’t saying anything that you didn’t already know. 

This was yet another reminder that Sirius wasn’t a great talker. But he wanted to let you know the things that you didn’t already know. He wanted you to know that he was truly sorry. He was sorry for ever making you feel like you weren’t worth anything to him. 

He wanted you to know that you were his world.

“I miss you,” He began again, preparing for any possible reaction from you,  “I’m sorry for everything I said. I’m sorry that I hurt you...I never, ever wanted to do that.”

Your silence wasn’t because you weren’t believing what he was saying or because you didn’t want to listen. You were silent because you were floored that this was happening. Never in a million years did you think that you’d be sitting here listening to a real, heartfelt apology from Sirius Black. The thought of you leaving him had really scared him, and you could see it.

“I know I’m different from Moony and Prongs. They’re a bit better at this than I am,” He admitted, “But that doesn’t mean I don’t care about you.”

Truth be told, you weren’t really mad at Sirius anymore. You could never stay angry at him. Your whole avoid-Sirius-at-all-costs routine hadn’t exactly been a walk in the park for you either. There were several times where you were tempted to just let it go and forget about it. But now you were glad that you hadn’t done that, because you would’ve lost this opportunity to understand one another a little better.

“All I had wanted that day was to talk to you. I like talking to you,” You explained, “I just get frustrated when you don’t want to listen and the only thing you can think about is fucking me.”

Sirius sighed, his eyes diverting to his hands that were fiddling with the edge of the blanket in your lap. He had known that the other two boys were right, but hearing it come from you made him feel even more guilty.

“I know. I guess I’m just not good at talking. It’s not that I didn’t want to, it’s just...not what I’m good at. I’m sorry that I made you feel like you weren’t important,” Sirius confessed, “But I do love you. And I don’t want to go another day without you.”

Another silence filled the room, one that had Sirius’ heart pounding in his chest. He felt like his entire life was on the line. Like, his entire fate was resting on whatever you were going to say or do next. You had every right to get up and walk out and never speak to him again. He knew he had crossed so many lines so many times that it was a wonder you were still here. He just hoped that you’d give him another chance. He hoped that he deserved another chance.

You were starstruck. You were completely touched and moved by what he had said. Maybe it wasn’t the most flawless apology ever. Maybe it was a little rough around the edges with a couple of hiccups. But deep down it was true, honest, and pure. 

Just like the Sirius Black that you had come to love.

He didn’t have anything else to say, and he hoped that what he had said was enough. Your warm hand came to his face, his head lulling into your palm when you brought his worried eyes to look at you once more. 

“I love you. I promise you don’t have to go without me anymore.” You smiled, accepting his apology and offering your forgiveness.

All color returned to Sirius’ face, his shoulders relaxing and his chest releasing a bated breath. You captured his lips into a needy kiss, one that was nothing short of long awaited. Sirius’ hands came to the side of your neck, his blood pumping in his ears. He had missed this. 

He had missed you.

He was even more thrilled when you crawled over into his lap, his hands guiding your legs around him as he refused to let you go from his lips. Although, when the other two boys came bursting in, your hot make out session was forced to a halt. They came in as if they had no idea what was going on, fake surprised expressions plastered on their faces.

“Well, hello there.” James chided with a smirk.

“Did we miss something?” Remus asked.

You and Sirius only laughed, as the four of you crammed together on Remus’ bed. Sirius continued to pepper kisses wherever he could while you craned your head to look at James as he spoke.

“So, I guess the two of you got things worked out?” James acquired. 

“We sure did.” You smiled, giggling when Sirius’ kisses brushed against a particularly sensitive spot on your neck.

Your lips found his again, Sirius leaning you back onto the mattress and keeping secured there. When your breathing began to get heavy and your noises became a little hungrier, James and Remus announced their exit.

“Well, I suppose Prongs and I will leave you to it.” Remus winked.

Sirius broke the kiss only to respond, but that didn’t stop you from leaning upwards to suck on his pulse point, not even phased by what Remus had said.

“You two aren’t going to stick around?” Sirius wondered, groaning as your hips rolled into his quickly hardening dick through his pants.

James shrugged.

“We’ll let it slide this time,” He said triumphantly, ushering Remus out the door, “Besides, the two of you have some catching up to do.”

Sirius let out a guttural laugh as he took a moment to look down at you. You looked so beautiful sprawled out underneath him; your lips swollen from the kissing and your eyes blown with lustful expectation. He knew he’d never be able to take you for granted again.

“My pretty girl...” He mewled, “I love you. A million times over I’ll tell you that I love you.”

“I love you, Siri,” You hummed, swiping a loose piece of hair from his forehead, “Now make me cum the way I know you know how to.”

Sirius chuckled lowly at your boldness, his pupils dilating at the flush of arousal that sent through him. You knew better than to tell him how to run his show, but he knew this was a special occasion, so he didn’t mind taking an order or two. 

“Well, now, what happened to ‘sex doesn’t fix everything’?” Sirius joked.

“It doesn’t, but we already fixed what needed to be fixed by talking,” You smiled, “Now we just both get something we want.”

Sirius laughed out loud, continuing his shower of kisses and swiping your skirt off in one swift move, your body squirming with anticipation. He felt confident that things would be better now. He was more than thankful that he had another shot at this. He was happy he had you back, and the four of you could go back to normal.

And now things would be even better than before.

***

Tags: @justadreamyhufflepuff​ @satellitespidey​ @blackpinkdolan​ @gubleryum​ @gxtitobxby​ @risingtripletaurus​​

[melisa-may-taylor72]

QUEEN BEFORE QUEEN

THE 1960s RECORDINGS

➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖

PART 1:

BRIAN MAY, 1984 & THE LEFT HANDED MARRIAGE

JOHN S. STUART AND ANDY DAVIS DIG DEEP TO UNCOVER THE PREVIOUSLY UNDOCUMENTED AUDIO LEGACY OF ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST CHERISHED BANDS.

This month the beginning and end of Queen come together like the cosy ending of a contrived Hollywood drama. While fans wait with bated breath for the band’s final album, “Made In Heaven" — completed by Brian May, John Deacon and Roger Taylor with the aid of Freddie Mercury’s last demos — author Mark Hodkinson launches a new book in which, in greater detail than has ever been attempted before, delves into the pre-fame histories of Queen’s musical antecedents.

With previously unpublished photographs of Roger Taylor's the Reaction, John Deacon’s the Opposítion and even more impressively, Freddie Mercury’s Sour Milk Sea, ‘Queen The Early Years’ is a treat fans have waited too long to read. Coincidentally, six months ago, we commissioned Queen historian, John S. Stuart, to research the definitive article on the band’s pre-fame recordings, and as you’ll see, the results complement Hodkinson’s broader picture with hitherto undocumented details of Queen's 60s recordings.

We've touched on Larry Lurex and Smile before, of course, but the vinyl output of those two acts barely scratches the surface, so to speak: literally hours and hours of privately- recorded material of Freddie, Brian, John and Roger survive to this day — as evidenced by the recent discovery of the Reaction’s ‘In The Midnight Hour’ acetate ( see RC 191). So, while the rest of the world comes to terms with the fact that Queen’s recording career is effectively at an end, we unravel the untold history of four individuals' first tentative steps in front of the microphone, beginning with the 1960′s exploits of Brian May. Next month, we’ll embrace Smile, and John, Roger and Freddie's hidden amateur recordings; but first, 1984 and the Left Handed Marriage.

1984

Around late August, or early September 1963, as the Beatles celebrated the birth of Beatlemania with sessions for their “With The Beatles” LP at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios in North London, another rock legend was developing just around the geographical corner. In a semi-detached house in Feltham, Middlesex, electronics engineer Harold May began an 18-month task, helping his sixteen-year-...[ ]

[ ]...old son, Brian, to construct the world's most famous home-made guitar, the ‘Red Special'. In the mean time, Brian would have to be con­tent with thrashing away at the small Spanish acoustic his parents had bought him for his seventh birthday. (Brian evidently mislaid this childhood guitar shortly afterwards; and didn't see it again until 1991, when at a ‘reunion’ of former members of 1984, his schoolfriend and first musical collaborator, Dave Dilloway, returned it to him. Brian was so thrilled, that he featured the guitar in the video for Queen’s “Headlong" single).

By 1964, Brian and Dave Dilloway were already recording amateur duets together, and by linking up their two reel-to-reel tape docks, they discovered that they could lay down guitars on one machine, and perhaps bass, percussion and sometimes vocals on the other. Although the technique was crude, and despite the occasional disaster, the effect was often surprisingly good. One of the earliest tapes from these primitive recording sessions survives to this day, and features Brian belting out Bo Diddley’s eponymous R&B standard, "Bo Diddley".

“This is a mono quarter-inch, reel-to-reel I found buried among various other oddments from the era”,  recalls Dave Dilloway. “It certanly dates from before the formation of 1984. It was recorded in Brian’s back room in Feltham, with Brian on lead vocals and guitar, and myself on bass and drums. The track is basic, but Brian’s vocals are clear and recognisable. The guitar playing is fairly basic as well, but competent, without any real solos as such”.

“ This is the only tape in my collection of those double-track recordings. I’m unsure whether Brian himself has retained the tapes we made at the time, but I believe he usually ended up with the finished versions, so he may still heve them somewhere.”

 The duo also recorded four-track instru­mental cover versions of several Shadows tunes — “Apache”, “FBI”, "Wonderful Land” and "The Rise  And Fall Of Fingel Blunt” — as well as “Rambunkshush”, which they learned from the Shadows’ American counterparts, The Ventures.  Also on the same tape is their reading of Chet Atkins' “Windy And Warm".

 Yet another reel reveals an attempt at Cliff Richard’s "Bachelor Boy", on which Brian, once again, takes the lead vocal. Dave Dilloway's theory is probably correctt; May is known to have a meticulously catalogued personal collection of Queen (and pre-Queen) recordings and memorabilia, which almost certanlly contains unfathomable reels of similar early material.

In the autumn of 1964, Brian and Dave formed a rapidly-evolving band, through which many schoolmates passed, but which eventually settled with a line-up of bassist John 'Jag' Garnham, drummer Richard Thompson, and harmonica-playing vocalist Tim Staffell. After rejecting names such as the Mind Boggles and Bob Chappy & the Beetles, the quintet named themselves after George Orwell’s futuristic novel ‘1984’. Their look was far from sci-fi, however, and they happily adopted the classic, clean-cut beat- group look of the day: jackets, or in Brian's case a cardigan, and narrow trousers; and beat boots. Tim Staffell even acquired that year’s fashion accessory, a pork-pie hat.

The band rehearsed regularly at Chase Bridge Primary School Hall in Twickenham (located next to the rugby ground), and on the 28th October 1964, gave their first public performance at the nearby St. Mary’s Church Hall. It is believed that either one of the rehearsals, or the gig itself, was recorded, but unfortunately, no tape of this debut, perform­ance has survived the years. Although 1984 recorded almost all of their live concerts for their own critical appraisal, to save on the expense of new tape they often wiped over old reels once they’d listened to them. Nevertheless, evidence of Brian May playing live does survive from this period, and the earliest example dates from an unknown gig (Shepperton Rowing Club is the favoured consensus), recorded in late 1965. This wasn’t a 1984 performance, but rather an ad-hoc trio comprising Brian May on bass and vocals, Pete ‘Woolly’ Hammerton (a school friend of Brian’s) on guitar and vocals, and 1984's Richard Thompson on drums. The tape reveals the trio turning in versions of Martha & the Vandellas’ “Dancing In The Street", the Beatles' “Eight Days A Week”, “I’m Taking Her Home” — a song by the group Woolly later joined, the Others — and a brave attempt at the Who’s "My Generation".

The Others comprised older boys from Hampton School, who in October 1964 had issued a single of their abrasive reading of Bo Diddley’s “Oh Yeah", backed by “I’m Taking Her Home", on Fontana (TF 501). “That was good!" claims singer, Tim Staffell. “I’ve still got that record buried somewhere deep in my mind — I remember the singer, Paul Stewart's voice and the quality of the guitar sound. The Others were a pretty significant influence. Maybe not in terms of the music, more in the sense that they were already doing it, which proved it was possible."

As evidenced by the photograph included in this feature, the Others clearly had attitude, something which 1984, or Tim Staffell at least, could only aspire to “If I had tried to push 1984 in any direction," reveals Tim, “then that would have been it. Without hearing any of these tapes of our band — and I didn't even know they existed! — l’d say we probably sounded a lot safer than the Others. Mind you, they were different to us. Their guitar style was very much inspired by American R&B, whereas Brian’s never was. Brian was a unique guitar player: he was able to extemporise a much more original way than most guitar players could. I hope he’ll forgive me for saying so, but I never perceived him as having the dangerous image which was necessary at the time — the cardigan says it all!.

LIGHTWEIGHT

“In retrospect, 1984 was lightweight, a bit fluffy”  concedes Tim. “It was impossible not to be naively ambitious — that was part and parcel of it — and the primary motivation to do it was what we saw in the media as the end results of success. But I guess we were realistic about it — we were at school, after all. Also there was a good deal of pressure in the 60s from our parents, and the conser­vative generation, to conform."

Although a version of “I’m Taking Her Home” by 1984 was captured live on the Shepperton tape, and Brian occasionally guested with the Others on stage, it's worth stating once and for all that — despite the persistent rumours — he definitely doesn’t feature on "Oh Yeah".  In fact, Pete ‘Woolly' Hammerton doesn't even play on the record — he only joined the band formally later on.

In the autumn of 1965, leaving Hampton Grammar with no fewer than four 'A' Levels and ten ‘O’ levels, Brian enrolled at Imperial College in Kensington, London, to read physics and infra-red astronomy. Before breaking up for the Christmas holidays that year, he played the first in a series of gigs with 1984 at the college, a tradition he continued later with Smile, and in their formative days with Queen. Although the exact date of the event has long since been forgotten, a very poor- quality tape still exists of 1984‘s college debut. The set was a typical one, comprising the group’s broad blend of pop, R&B and soul covers, and included the following songs: “Cool Jerk" (originally by the Capitols), ‘Respect" (Otis Redding), "My Girl" (the Temptations), “Shake" (Sam Cooke), “Stepping Stone" (the Monkees), “You Keep Me Hanging On" (the Supremes), “Whatcha Gonna Do Ahout it" ( Small Faces), “Substitute” (the Who), “How Can It Be” (the B-side of the Birds’ final single, “No Good Without You Baby”), “Danc­ing In The Street", “Dream" (Everly Brothers) and the Small Faces’ "Sha La La La Lee".

“Our repertoire was a little too eclectic to have developed into any particular style” reckons Tim Staffell. “But the Small Faces were quite influential. When we were at school, the songs were dredged from all sorts of areas. I’d always liked rhythm’n’blues. Brian’s input would have been Beatles-orientated, Dave’s as well. Richard Thompson would have been more into R&B, and Jag didn't really have an agenda as far as songs were concerned. Because of the nature of the material we covered, our approach to the gigs was almost schoollboy cabaret. 1984 was not a dangerous, moody rock band! Which may have something to do with the way Queen evolved."

1984 oponed 1966 with a couple of gigs at the Thames Rowing CIub in Putney; and once again, a tape recorder was set up to document the group’s progress. Two reels from January that year exist: the first is dated the 15th, and features “Im A Loser” (the Beatles), “I Wish You Would" ( the Yardbirds), “I Feel Fine" (the Beatles), “Little Egypt" (the Coasters), "Lucille” (Little Richard), “Too Much Monkey Business" (Chuck Berry), "I Got My Mojo Working” (Muddy Waters), "WalkingThe Dog” ( Rufus Thomas) and “Heart Full Of Soul" (the Yardbirds).

The second, dated two weeks later (29th January), demonstrates the great variety and confidence of a band which consistently renewed its repertoire. The show began with Jimmy Reed’s  “Bright Lights, Big City", moving into the Cookies' “Chains" (popularised by the Beatles), “Walking The Dog", “Lucille", “Our Little Rendezvous" (Chuck Berry), “Jack O’ Diamonds" (Blind Lemon... (cont)

(cont) Jefferson, popularised by Lonnie Donegan), “I’ve Got My Mojo Working”, “Little Egypt" and Bo Diddley’s “I’m A Man”. The band’s finale was a versión of Sonny Boy Williamson’s "Bye Bye Bird".

For an amateur band with little real pretension towards stardom, or even a serious attempt at securing a recording contract, a staggering amount of live 1984 material has been preserved on tape. Dave Dilloway, for instance, is the guardian of a seven-inch reel-to-reel, which he says reveals either a very long performance or a compilation of various unknown dates.

Either way, the tape is divided into five distinct sections, which might make tedious reading, but is an invaluable reference: 1) “Route 66", (unknown instrumental), “I’m Taking Her Home", “Too Much Monkey Business’, “Yesterday" (featuring Brian May on lead vocals), “Walking The Dog", and “ Lucille"; 2) “Little Rendezvous", "Keep On Running”, “I Feel Fine”, “Walking The Dog”, “Jack O’ Diamonds", “High Heeled Sneakers", “I Want To Hold Your Hand", “I Got My Mojo Working*, and “I Should Have Known Better”; 3) “Little Rendezvous", “Jump Back Baby Jump Back", “I Feel Fine”, “Bye Bye Bird", “Little Egypt", “Crazy House". “Lucille”, “Oh Yeah”, “Heatwave”, “Too Much Monkey Business", “I Should Have Known Better", and “I Got My Mojo Working"; 4) “My Generation", “Little Egypt", “Dancing In The Street", “Whatcha Gonna Do About It", “I’m A Man", “Heatwave", “Lucille", and “Bye Bye Bird"; and 5) “Heart Full Of Soul", “Too Much Monkey Business”, “Something’s Got A Hold On Me", “Keep On Running", “My Generation", "Tired Of Waiting", “Bright Lights. Big City" and “Happy Hendrick’s Polka".

“These are all domestic quality, single microphone recordings of early-era 1984", reveals Dave Dilloway. “It's mostly bluesy material, with some soul and Beatles songs. While the quality is basic, the sound is intelligible, although there isn’t a large amount of identifiable Brian guitarwork. That came later in the band's history, when we included covers of Crearn and Hendrix. Brian's solo vocals on 'Yesterday' (on the first segment) are quite clear, however."

For much of 1966, the band carried on in a similar vein — Brian's and the others' college work permitting, of course. For Brian May and his unsigned, Twickenham-based covers band, the highlight of the following year, 1967, was undoubtedly the gig he secured via through his contacts at the college — supporting Jimi Hendrix at Imperial. The date was 13th May, the day after the release of Hendrix's debut, “Are You Experienced". Brian May idolised Hendrix to such an extent that he'd been nicknamed “Brimi" — a combination of the two guitarists' names—so although 1984 had seen him perform before, it goes without saying they were thrilled when backstage, they actually bumped into the ascending star as they filed past his dressing-room. It’s a familar story, but it's one worth repeating: Jimi enquired memorably, “Which way’s the stage, man?*.

BLOSSOMED

1984's act had certainly blossomed by this point. Their attire was now obligatory Swinging London — or Swinging Middlesex — fare: frilly shirts, Regency jackets, striped hipsters secured with a white belt, and hairtyles extending inexorably over the ears, and indeed the eyes. “Somewhere along the line, there was an external influence there", says Tim Staffell. “There was someone calling the shots. I don’t think all that was self-motivated. It’s something I’ve never been comfortable with, which explains why I split away from it early on — certainly from Smile onwards — because it was going that way; as indeed it ended up with Queen. It's fair enough, but that sort of flamboyance is just not me. I look fairly uncomfortable in the picture of the band from that period. My idea of a rock musician is one with hair down his back, a dirty pair of Levi's on, looking at the floor, thoroughly unconcerned with the visual and external trappings, playing the most extraordinary virtuoso guitar. That was my attitude."

Back in February 1967, Brian’s local paper, the ‘Middlesex Chronicle’ caught up with the band, and captured Tim Staffell in an equally decisive mood; although here, he was more enthusiastic about the latest trend. "Psychodelic music is certainly here to stay”~he claimed. "It makes more of music than mere sound, it makes it a whole and complete art form." Dave Dilloway, who also handled the group's light show, added: “We use everything in our act, including things like shaving foam, and plastic bricks we throw around”.

The ‘Chronicle’ was obviously impressed, and its reporter had this to say about a per­formance by what it called “one of the most foward-looking groups today". “Standards, like ‘Heatwave' receive a very original treatment, mostly due to the sounds that Brian coaxes out of his guitar. Jazz chords and electronic sounds add feeling and nuance to numbers that are often churned out wholesale. Using two bass drums for a fuller sound, Richard's drumming, combined with the full bass riffs of Dave and the steady (rhythm guitar) work of John, provides a firm basis for experiments in sound — an opportunity which is not wasted."

“To be quite honest with you, there’s more substance in the literary content there, than in the musical," laughs Tim Staffell. "If some­one genuinely thought that, then I'm surprised! Brian might have used a fuzz-box. but generally, it was au naturel. I remember in the Smile days, somebody wrote about ‘humming chords of wonder’, referring to my bass playing. The reality of it was that sometimes I did try and play chords on the bass guitar, which might have come out as a deep-throated roar, but actually sounded like a load of crap!"

“We did use to tickle about with a few lights, suggests Dave Dilloway, “but being a local band, money was tight and there wasn’t a fortune to spend on the band." As to 1984's psychodelic sound, Dave adds: “Brian did use a bit of fuzz, yes, and Pink Floyd influences and a bit of screaming guitar. He’d actually built a fuzz box into his guitar, which was fairly unique for the day, but typical Brian. If you look carefully at recent pictures of his “Red Special” you can see the fuzz switch taped over."

In September 1967, no doubt boosted by their praise — sincere or not — in the local press, the continuing evidence of their per­formance tapes and their recent Hendrix support slot, 1984 entered the local beats of a battle-of-the-bands competition at the Top...[ ]

...[ ] Rank Club in Croydon, just south of London. Effectively a promotion for Scotch tape, en­trance to the contest could only be secured via a demo recorded on a Scotch reel. 1984’s effort duly arrived in the form of a two-track master, featuring covers of Marvin Gaye's “Ain’t That Peculiar?" and the Everly Brothers’ “Crying ln The Rain" (on stage, both tracks were usually enhanced by characteristic Brian May guitar solos, but conservatism prevailed, and they were absent in this instance). A copy of this recording still survives, carefully guarded by the custodian of the 1984 archive. “This tape is a quarter-inch, mono reel-to-reel," re­calIs Dave Dilloway. “Tim took lead vocals on 'Ain't That Peculiar?’, and Tim and Brian duetted on ’Crying ln The Rain’. Brian's vocal style and tone can be clearly discerned, if one knows his voice. The songs were recorded in single takes, using a single microphone fed directly to the recorder. There was no mix facility so it has a ‘live' feel, a very good clean sound”. 

The mix was achieved using the old fashioned technique of microphone position and relative volume levels of the amplified Instruments. “As far as I am aware, only the one (master) copy of this tape exists.”

As has been well-documented, after two sets at the competition (one of which saw Brian, Dave, John Garnham and drummer Richard Thompson acting as the back-up band for a singer called Lisa Perez), 1984 won the contest, and walked away with a reel of blank tape (Scotch, of course) and an album each on the CBS label. (Tim took the top prize, Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sounds Of Silence", Brian had to make do with a Barbra Streisand LP, and Dave Dilloway became the proud owner of an album by Irish bandleader Tommy Makem!). More importantly, their demo tape was forwarded to the CBS A&R department for the national showdown, although, clearly, they didn’t win.

True to form, 1984's performance that evening was committed to tape — for an unpublished review by ‘Melody’ Maker, no less — but was probably erased shortly afterwards. The twenty-minute set consisted of the Everlys’ "So Sad", Hendrix’s “Stone Free”, Buddy Knox’s “She’s Gone" and Eddie Floyd's “Knock On Wood". After the gig, the band were invited by a visiting promotor to participate in the all-night gala event which has since gone down as one of the key gigs of the London underground scene: Christmas On Earth Continued, at London's Olympia Theatre, on December 23rd 1967. 1984 was the lowest pro­file act at this decidedly high-profile event, and after Jimi Hendrix, Traffic, Pink Floyd, the Herd, and Tyrannosaurus Rex had all taken to the stage, they only got to perform their humble set of covers at 5 o’clock in the morning. When Brian finally plugged in his ‘Red Special’, 1984 played a thirty-minute set to a very small, and less than enthusiastic, audience.

Also from 1967, and of far more interest, is 1984′s professionally-recorded Thames Television demo tape. During his first-year of study at Twickenham Technical College, Dave Dilloway had made friends with a number of technicians, or trainee technicians, at the Teddington-based ITV company which served the London area. The station had recently invested in new recording equipment, and rather than hire professional musicians at the usual union rate, in a set up similar to the first Queen sessions at the De Lane Lea studios, 1984 were let loose in the studio to record at their leisure. Dave Dilloway's carefully preserved tape still plays perfectly, and includes the following songs: "Hold On I’m Corning", “Knock On Wood“, “NSU", *How Can It Be”, two early run-throughs of the original May/ Staffell composition “Step On Me” (which eventually became the B- side to Smile's “Earth"), “Purple Haze", “Our Love Is Driftin* ”, and medleys of “Remember”/”Sweet Wine" and “Get Out My Life Woman”/ ”Satisfaction". The session ended with a run-through of "My Girl”.

AMALGAM

"What an extraordinary amalgam!" declares Tim Staffell today. “There’s Tamla, Cream, Hendrix, Lee Dorsey . . ‘Our Love Is Driftin' we’d have heard by Paul Butterfield. I’d forgotten there was such a large soul component in 1984!".

Dave Dilloway has the technical details: “This tape is the most re­cent, best and most representative of 1984 that I'm aware of. It is mono, but since it was made on good quality TV studio equipment and was carried out along the lines of a proper studio recording, with separately-mixed microphones for each source, it is remarkably good quality for its age. The material, except for ‘Step On Me', is aII cover versions, but as it dates from the late 1984 era, Brian’s playing is more prominent and effective, with his own style starting to show through. All the performances are competent — particularly Tim’s vocals and Brian's guitar; although the mix is a little heavy on John's rhythm guitar for some reason, probably the ‘ear’ of the recording engineer at the time. All tracks were laid down in one take, i.e., no overdubbing at all, so the sound is predominantly simple, as per our live versions."

And that was 1984′s swansong. In the spring of 1968, shortly afler the Thames recording, mainly due to the pressures of infrequent meetings and university studies — coupled with increasing musical differences — 1984 scaled down their operations drastically. Brian May left the band, and Tim Staffell took over on lead guitar for a while. A little later, Tim himself quit, leaving Dave Dilloway, John Garnham and Richard Thompson to rebuild the group, which soldiered on into the 70′s, content merely to play for fun. They all conceded that 1984 had been a good, solid, and popular local band, but that it didn’t have the necessary spark or originality to transform into a great one.

The Left Handed Marriage

ln the summer of 1965, in another corner of Hampton Grammar School, Brian May’s old friend Bill Richards (who had been a fleeting, early member of 1984 before it acquired its futuristic name), and his colleagues Jenny Hill (née Rusbridge), Henry Deval and Terry Goulds, formed a folk-rock band called the Left-Handed Marriage, named after an archaic form of marrying beneath oneself. By January 1967, the quartet had progressed to the point where they had issued their own privately-pressed album, “On The Right Side Of The Left Handed Marriage", which ran to just fifty copies (and, incidentally, has since acquired cult status among collectors, with a £600 price tag to match).

Although naturally familiar with the al­bum, Brian May as yet had not been involved with the band. That changed in March 1967, after Bill signed a twelve-month contract with EMI's music publishing company Ardmore & Beechwood — a deal secured through the efforts of Brian Henderson, a former member of Edinburgh beat outfit the Mark Five, and more recently, the bassist in Patrick Campbell- Lyons' 60′s psychodelic band, Nirvana. Bill approached Brian to help him create a “fuller" sound for the Left Handed Marriage, with a request to provide guitar and backing vocals on some recording sessions.

On the understanding that the project wouldn’t interfere with his commitment to 1984, Brian agreed. On 4th April 1967, he joined Jenny, Henry, Terry and Bill in AMC Sound, an amateur studio in Manor Road, Twickenham, to record four songs: “Give Me Time” (later changed to “I Need Time"), "She Was Once My Friend", “Sugar Lump Girl” and “Yours Sincerely” (which was basically “Give Me Time" backwards, with new lyrics pinched from the Russian author Pushkin).

The songs were all cleanly-recorded, melodic atempts at 1967 pop (despite the Left Handed Marriage's later classification, there's little actual folk music in evidence). “She Was Once My Friend" is the pick of the bunch, thanks to its Kinks-like structure — complete with Bill Richard's/ Ray Davies-soundalike vocal and, albeit way down in the mix, flashes of that distinctive Brian May 'Red Special’ guitar sound. Acetates of the AMC EP were cut, and the idea had been to release the songs as a commercial EP.  Instead, the set merely became the Left Handed Marriage’s first demo for their publishers, although it did lead to the offer to record at a more professional session — at EMI’s prestigious Abbey Road studios.

The Abbey Road session took place on 28th June 1967, when Left Handed Marriage were joined by Brian and 1984′s Dave Dilloway, who was drafted in to play bass. Two further tracks were cut: the reworked “I Need Time",...[ ]

...[ ] and a new song called “Appointment". At this stage, there was more talk of issuing a record, this time a single, and a release date of August was even discussed. This never materialised either, and again 7″ acetates are all that remain.

Although Ardmore & Beechwood were pleased with the results, they still thought the Left Handed Marriage could improve their sound even further, and on 31st July 1967, they booked the band into another studio, this time Regent Sound in central London. As Dave Dilloway was not available, another friend, John Frankel, was called upon to play bass and piano. The eight-track Regent Sound ma­chine was something of a technological marvel, and the session was flawlessly recorded, resulting in new versions of “I Need Time”, “She Was Once My Friend" (which also remixed and edited for the abandoned single), and "Appointment".

Despite the studio quality of the tape, Ardmore & Beechwood failed to place the songs with a record label, and like so many groups before and since, the Left Handed Marriage quietly disappeared from view. It was left to frontman Bill Richards belatedly to issue the fruits of this last session, when in February 1993, he tagged the three Regent Sound recordings — the final mix of “I Need Time”, the abridged version of “She Was Once A Friend Of Mine” and the final mix of “Appointment” — onto the end of “Crazy Chain”, a CD recorded by the reformed Left Handed Marriage, which itself was prompted by collector's interest in the group’s original 1967 LP,  “The Right Hand Side Of...” . Most of the master tapes for the LHM recordings featuring Brian May have Iong since disappeared along with the Regent Sound studio, and (with the exception of "She Was Once My Friend") the Richards/May collaborations on the CD were digitally remastered from acetates.

RECORD COLLECTOR Nº 195, NOVEMBER 1995

➡NEXT: ROGER TAYLOR’S REACTION 

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[juliainfinland]

So now, at the tender age of very-nearly-51, I'm a student again. Well, auditor.

A really nice friend (hi Doris *waves*) who's audited university classes for some years now and has had a lot of fun in the process decided to pay my auditor's tuition fee for this semester because she figured I'd have a lot of fun too (and she also figured that I wouldn't come up with the idea myself because where I live now the nearest university is a bit... not so easy to reach, and even if it were nearby I'd still be too broke).

So now I've signed up for four classes and one of them started today.

Turns out the professor (German guy in Germany) actually knows where my little Finnish town is located and he's even been here before! That was a nice surprise.

This class is a lecture series about the history of the Latin language and I still have to wrap my head around the fact that classical philologists have internet now. I'm ancient; in "my day" (early 1990s) only the computer scientists and us computational linguists and some of the engineering departments had internet access. (Well, there wasn't that much you could do on the internet back then anyway, at least compared to nowadays. But near-instantaneous communication with colleagues overseas through text-based forms of communication (e-mail or chat) and the possibility to upload your own research and download others' using protocols like FTP or Gopher would have certainly been of use to people from other departments than ours too! – Yes, I'm that old. I was on the 'net before HTML even existed outside CERN. But I digress.)

I'm attending this class through Teams; two of the others will be through Teams too, and the fourth one will apparently take place entirely through Moodle.

(If someone had told me back then (early 1990s) that this sort of thing would at all be possible... at a time when "amazing bandwidth" meant whatever you could squeeze out of copper wiring... I have hazy memories of kilobytes per second. In any case, not nearly enough for video conferencing and barely enough for downloading (or uploading) static images of what we'd call "decent size and resolution" today. Audio conferencing was possible, of course (said copper wires were telephone wires, after all). It was called a "conference call" and you had to submit an application for a conference circuit, stating your desired date and time, to the phone company in advance. (Not "your" phone company. There was only the one.) But video? Nope. But I digress again.)

(Gods, I feel old.)

And now I can video chat with classical philologists in Germany and the mind boggles.

Of course, right at the beginning of the lecture there was the usual linguistic fun that you always get when you have first- or second-year students of Latin in a linguistics (as opposed to philology) class. (Well, fun for people like me, who are slightly more advanced than first- or second-year students and also approach the whole thing from a general-linguistics perspective, meaning that I know fancy terms such as "split ergativity" or "in pausa". Neither of which have much application when discussing Latin, but still.)

(OK, on second thought, it wouldn't surprise me if pausa did come up at some point. *ponders*)

Prof: As we all know, Latin morphology is a lot more complicated than German morphology. Everyone: *groans* Me: ??? Me: *giggles* Prof: ... yeah, you speak Finnish, your nouns have 15 cases. Me: Have you ever looked at the Georgian language? Prof: *groans* Me: Yeah, me too.

🤣

(For non-linguists: Georgian morphology is notoriously complex. The nouns are pretty straightforward, but the verbs are... words fail me. Also, all those Consonant Clusters From Hell.)

Of course, he's in historical linguistics, and this is a class on historical linguistics, so he told us that when we look at all those inflectional irregularities in Latin from a historical perspective (all the way back to Proto-Indo-European if we must) they suddenly become a lot less irregular. I'm looking forward to that. (I already know that lots of irregularities suddenly become regular if you look back far enough, but my memories of PIE and of the historical phonology and morphology of the Italic languages is quite shaky (I can barely say "Manios med fhefhaked Numasioi") and I'm really looking forward to looking at the details again.)

Two of the other classes start next week. The fourth one is a summer class.

*fidgets*

[jungshookz]

plz jealous yoonji drabble for pride month

➺ pairing; min yoonji x reader

➺ genre; *clown nose honk*, roommate!taehyung pre-y/n so get ready to have all of your buttons pushed 

➺ wordcount: 2k

➺ what to expect; “you owe me seven more kisses when you get back.” 

➺ note; this was supposed to be a fun little drabble for pride month but miss yoonji is fashionably late as per usual!!! i’m so sorry for the delay!!!! yoonji follows her own schedule and never picks up any of my calls!!!! also this isn’t really a jealous drabble?? it’s kind of just a yoonji drabble?? but i hope u enjoy it nonetheless

                                   ➽───────────────❥

“vueff how many vrapefs are in my mouf.”

yoonji looks up from her phone when she feels you tap her forearm gently and almost immediately her shoulders droop when she sees your mouth stuffed to the briM with grapes

unfortunately this isn’t anything out of the ordinary

this is just another day of dating a complete idiot of a girlfriend

“someday, you’re going to choke when you do that.” she shakes her head, “and i might not be there to help you fish the grapes out of your throat.”

you roll your eyes before pointing to your mouth, “vueff!”

“what do i get out of this?” yoonji sighs as she props her cheek up against her fist, “besides the pure disappointment of knowing that i’m dating an absolute lunatic?”

“vou vet nuffing. now vueff!” you point to your overstuffed mouth enthusiastically

(there are eight grapes in your mouth)

alright

fine

she’ll play along

only because she knows you’ll keep insisting if she chooses to ignore you

yoonji leans forward to peek into your mouth and scowls when one of them plops out and bounces on the table

you grab it quickly and yoonji doesn’t get the chance to stop you before you shoVe it back into your mouth

“wh- that’s unhygienic, y/n! you don’t know what’s been on this table!” yoonji scolds and grabs her empty water cup before holding it under your mouth, “spit all of them out now before you choke.”

you shake your head stubbornly and yoonji’s right eye twitches

“y/n. now.” she shakes the cup and reaches over to grab your face but you quickly swat her hand away and yoonji resists the urge to stranGLE the crap out of you

“you in’t vueff yet.”

“god, fine- um, i don’t know, seven??”

the grapes plop out of your mouth and into the cup one by one but you keep one in your mouth on purpose before chewing quickly and swallowing (u didn’t think yoonji would notice but she definitely did)

“seven! you were right!” you grin and clap your hands together before wiping your mouth with the back of your hand

yoonji would find that endearing if she wasn’t holding a cup full of your drooly mouth grapes

“so do i get a prize?” she asks sarcastically as she sets the cup down and pushes it off to the side

“i can give you seven kisses for seven grapes.” you suggest as you lean on the table a little more

yoonji smiles slyly and begins to lean in as well, “you and i both know very well there were eight grapes in your mouth. don’t rip me off like that, woman.” she reaches over to take one of your hands in hers and-

“good afternoon, ladies.” the two of you turn to look up at whoever it is that decided noW would be a good time to interrupt and you force a friendly smile on your face when you see who it is

“taehyung! hi. can i help you with something?” you pull away from yoonji so that you can turn to look up at him and she lets out a little huff

she was about to get a boost of serotonin and it was just riPPED away from her because of whoever this guy is

“nah, nah. i just wanted to come over here and like, thank you for lending me a pencil in class the other day.” taehyung lets out a sigh before crossing his arms, “it was really cool of you to do that.” 

you raise a brow when you notice him flexing a little bit

he’s really trying

you can see the effort being exuded through his face

…he actually looks like he’s slightly constipated 

“oh! well… no problem! i’m always here to lend a hand.” you chirp before pressing your lips together

a moment of silence ticks by and you glance over at yoonji to see her glaring up at taehyung

“so did you need anything else?” you clear your throat before reaching up to scratch behind your ear

this is getting a little awkward and you’d just like to give your girlfriend the eight kisses she deserves without an audience

“well, yeah.” taehyung pokes his tongue against the inside of his cheek, “actually, this is probably going to sound so crazy, but... i was wondering if maybe you wanted to, like… come over to my place sometime.”

…?

what?

what is happening right now?

“to… to do wha- why would i want to go over to your place?” you narrow your eyes suspiciously and tilt your head

“well… you know.”

you know?

you do?

…

OH

ohhhhhhh

oh.

well, this is going to be awkward.

“what on god’s good green earth is happening?” yoonji asks under her breath and you resist to urge to laugh at the look of complete bewilderment on her face, “am i- does he see me? am i here right now?” she reaches down to pinch her own arm

“yeah. you know.” taehyung’s right eye drops in a sleazy wink and you feel your stomach turn, “i’m a good samaritan, you know? always happy to return favours.”

is this guy for real????

you lend him a pencil ONE time and suddenly he thinks that means you’re willing to sleep with him????

“well, uh, you know- you don’t have to return any favours. i mean, it was just a pencil!” you clear your throat, “really. it’s fine. next time, you can just lend me a pencil and we can call it even that way!”

“but, like-“ taehyung leans forward to rest both his palms on the surface of the table, “i’m really hot. and you’re pretty hot. so… think of this as us doing god a favour.”

“i actually spoke to god this morning and i can confirm that he does not see this as a favour whatsoever.” yoonji mutters, “in fact, i’m pretty sure it’s one of the seven sins-“

“miss, please,” taehyung interrupts yoonji by holding a finger out at her, “i’m sure you’re very nice and all but you’re not really my type. thank you, though.”

what the-

your eyes widen a little when he flicks his wrist at her before turning back to look at you

first of all he’s crazy because yoonji is literally everyone’s type

and second of all oOp-

“oh my goodness, i’m not?” yoonji gasps as she holds her hand over her mouth, “well, thank frickin’ god i’m not-“

“anyways, i’m… well, for lack of a better term, i guess i’m flattered by your offer…? but i’m actually in a relationship, so… no, i will not be going over to your place.” you shrug, “but i’m happy to continue to lend you pencils if you ever forget to bring one to class again.”

“…wait, who are you dating?” taehyung frowns, “is he, like, would he be down to let you off the hook this one time?”

you open your mouth to speak but yoonji holds a hand out before whiPPing her head around to finally look at taehyung for the first time, “what sewer did your slimy ass crawl out o-“

“the person i’m dating is literally right here.” you cross your arms before leaning back against your chair, “like, right here.”

taehyung pauses and you can practically hear the gears in his head working overtime in an effort to help him understand what you’re saying

and then his eyes soften as he reaches up to place a hand over his chest, “aw, baby… i’m flattered, but i’m really not a relationship kind of guy-“

oh my god

how THICK is his skull?!??

“no, no i- i don’t mean you, taehyung. that wasn’t me asking you to go steady-“ you point to yoonji who looks like she’s having the time of her life listening to all the idiotic things coming out of taehyung’s mouth, “i’m dating her. her name is yoonji. she is my girlfriend. i am dating yoonji. yoonji is my girlfriend.”

taehyung turns to look over at yoonji and she gives him a little wave

what?

you’re dating her?

but…

what????

“…but you dated jungkook last year?” taehyung reaches up to scratch the back of his neck, “so how… is this possible…?”

yoonji resists the urge to let out a screech of delight because this is just PURE entertainment

reality tv could never!!!!!

“i mean, this is fantastic!” yoonji snorts, “on this day, society has somehow progressed backwards-“

“that- yes, that’s true!” you chuckle awkwardly, “i… unfortunately, i was dating jungkook for a short period of time. but… i’m not dating him anymore! again, i’m dating-“

“me! she’s dating me.” yoonji chimes in and smiles sweetly when taehyung looks over at her like she’s a three-headed turtle

“but if you dated jungkook, who’s a guy… and now you’re dating yoongi-“

“-yoonji-“

“-who’s a girl… then… like… so you’re… gay? jungkook turned you gay??”

okay

well

you can confirm that there are actually no gears in taehyung’s noggin

it’s just… it’s all dust and cobwebs up there, you think.

“jungkook didn’t turn me g-“ you pause, “well, maybe a little- look, uh, the point is, i’m saying no to you because i have a girlfriend.”

“wait, so like-“ taehyung looks around quickly before leaning in again, “is this you guys lowkey inviting me for a threesome? because i’d be down even though your friend’s kind of scary-“

“you know what, i’m going to go and get a snack from the vending machine!” your chair screeches against the floor as you stand up quickly, “on behalf of you, i’m terminating this conversation. yoonji, you want anything?” you look over at her as you rummage through your pockets for some loose change

“all good, baby.” yoongi shakes her head as she continues to stare up at taehyung

it’s just so… fascinating…

the complete lack of common sense and basic awareness is truly mind-boggling!

she’d love to conduct some experiments on this doofus just to see what’s going on up there

“alright, well-“ you lean over the table and purse your lips

yoonji perks up before leaning in to give you a sweet little kiss, “you owe me seven more kisses when you get back.”

“nuh-uh, it’s six-!” you tease as you walk away from the table, “six!!!”

“seven!!!!”

the fond smile drops from yoonji’s face when she turns back to see taehyung still standing there looking like he’s trying to figure out the quadratic formula in his head

yoonji stares up at taehyung smugly when he looks down at her with a sad little frown, “that’s right. i’m the one who’s taking her home tonight. just let that settle in, little buddy.”  

“i just… don’t… she said no because…”

yoonji reaches over to grab your cup of drooly mouth grapes before raising it up for taehyung, “…grape? might make you feel better.”

an evil smile twitches at the corner of her mouth when taehyung pops one into his mouth

“yeah. eat the drooly grapes, pencil boy.”

help me help you make your wishes come tru (aka send me a request)

requested drabbles masterlist

[ourladylennon]

1/2) About Fraser, a couple of quotes that caught my eye:

"Robert represented to me freedom, freedom of speech, of view"

"The most formative influence for me was Robert Fraser. Obviously the other Beatles were very important but the most formative art influence was Robert. I expect people to die so I don’t feel a loss but there’s a vacuum where he used to be"

"The way Robert lived, which became the way I lived for a couple of years and which I now figure for a rather aristocratic way of life, would be that he’d ring early in the day and say, ‘What are we doing for dinner tonight?’

'Once I got to know Robert, a nice thing would be going to the gallery and helping install an exhibition. Just sit around and smoke a bit of pot while somebody else was installing the exhibition. Helping. Play a little music for him.’ 

"There were many good times in Robert’s flat. Through my Beatle connections I’d hire a 16mm projector for the evening […] and I started off with Wizard of Oz. Robert got into this, wow, and he’d get some art movies. We got a lot of Bruce Connors, showed a lot of that. It was a very exciting period."

The boy sounded smitten, didn't he? Maybe nothing physical happened, (Robert was allegedly into darker men) but it looks like Paul liked the idea of being "romanced" by this handsome and sophisticated guy. There was an undertone of cozy, easy intimacy between them. You can tell by the way Bob would call to plan what they'd do for dinner. How Paul would sit there playing music for his eyes only while someone else was installing the exhibition. It speaks volumes that someone as image oriented as Paul went to Paris with an openly gay man without caring what others would say. It suggests a deep connection. The story about their "netflix and chill" encounters in Robert's flat is so suggestive as well. Paul could've been anywhere and yet there he was watching Wizard of Oz with this dude. I'd say those encounters were not about Paul's love of cinema. He just wanted to be around Bob. They most likely drank, did drugs and in my opinion, fooled around a bit, for the fun of it. It sounds like a fantastic way to spend the time, 10/10 recommended.

Paul also had a strong relationship with Tara for the short time they knew each other. The fact he did LSD with him before the other Beatles implies a lot of trust. Tara was very responsible and sweet in that occasion, staying sober to look after Paul in case he had a bad trip. I loved that about him. He was really concerned about keeping Paul safe and giving him a good time. They always hung out when they had the chance and John really disliked the guy. Then there is Tara's Christmas trip to Liverpool. I'm aware he knew Paul's brother Mike first and they were friendly but there was such an air of "meet the parents" about this situation. I'm not entirely convinced they were physical but I could sense a romantic crush. Tara was married but as a beautiful society swan in the Rolling Stones' circle, I think he was quite open to experimentation.

part 2 and my answer below read line :)

2/2) Again, I would never call Paul bisexual but I do think he was more attracted to men in a romantic/platonical sense than people realize. He enjoyed immensely the attention and the company of some guys. He would open up emotionally with them, learn their craft and incorporate their habits in a way he rarely did with his women, not even Linda. It looks like Paul wouldn't unlock certain corners of his mind unless a man he was drawn to gave him that permission. This is probably why he associated Fraser with freedom.

John was the most important of all because in a way, Paul would've never discovered and accepted himself without him. He used to kill frogs and engage in unruly behavior as a child to repress that soft, romantic persona he would become so famous for. Meeting a charismatic, brilliant boy who appreciated that vulnerable side of him must've been exhilarating. As they became a songwriting team, they both started seeing creation as sex, a view they'd carry for the rest of their lives. It's telling that once Paul lost John permanently, he went looking for the next man to fall in love with. But not even Elvis Costello, Stevie Wonder or Michael Jackson were enough to fill that gap.

Which convinces me of the eroticism of his relationship with John. It was the one connection he didn't have with all the others (with the possible exception of Fraser) and this is why the collaborations would often end up somewhat unfulfilled. He might've loved them intellectually but the erotic element wasn't there and it made a difference in the results.

About McLennon, few people dispute they were in love with each other these days. But what are the odds that two people who felt so strongly about each other and had plenty of chances to consummate their feelings in a physical way not doing it? They would crash and burn within six months. It's all speculation because Paul won't tell us but I don't think it's that much of a radical idea. I think a lot of stuff will come out once Yoko passes away and Paul faces his own mortality.

P.S: juicy bit about Heather, I'm bummed that we don't get enough info about this period because of that divorce NDA.

//

Anon, you are a well-researched individual and I’m impressed. This was the first thing I read this morning it was like a morning newspaper lol, thanks.

I entirely see what you mean about intimate undertones. "Cozy” seems like a good word to describe the general feel. I *tried* reading up some more on their relationship and I get a sense that Paul in general had a great admiration for Robert and your right- has that element of creation which is so essential to Paul’s being and probably his attraction. Robert seems to have given him a different side of creating than John did: art. That clearly created a bond for them and had some impact. Like with the movies and projectors, yeah cool and all, but “an exciting period” goes a bit deeper than that for sure. He clearly learned a lot from him about art, but whose to say about what else? The way Paul talks seems like he really admired, respected and trusted the man at the very least (I am even reading this quote that seems to imply Paul and Robert did hallucinogenic drugs together unless I’m misreading? That’d be a big leap of trust just like with Tara which still boggles me).

It’s not too big of a stretch to think Paul did enjoy being romanced, in exactly the way you put it, by some guy who was “handsome and sophisticated” who he found to be interesting, different, above average, with a new exciting form of expression. And not romanced in the obvious sense; more so unassuming things like having an intimate understanding of art with one another, who felt his equal in terms of that area of art, who was putting in the effort of engaging with him, showing him something others hadn’t, being so willing to share with Paul and to open his mind. You can definitely be romanced in friendships too though so I’m not saying this is exclusively any one thing in particular, though I myself do sense an undercurrent of more-than-standard interest after reading some more. In a nutshell, pretty much what you said:

I do think he was more attracted to men in a romantic/platonical sense than people realize. He enjoyed immensely the attention and the company of some guys. He would open up emotionally with them, learn their craft and incorporate their habits in a way he rarely did with his women

I still don’t think he would ever connect the dots of what that meant or what it could mean. I think to him, it just was what it was.

With John specifically, yeah there’s just no question for me. To me, they are every bit of the lore and legend of what soul mates are made of. Fire & passion on all levels. No disrespect to any of their longterm relationships outside of each other, because they clearly had deep feelings for their other partners, but I sincerely don’t think it that it connected on every level like it did with John/Paul. But of course, I still fall on the side of thinking nothing sexual ever happened (for more reasons than one I could see why they wouldn’t have fooled around imo). With 67/68 being that turning point where they *did* crash and burn because perhaps someone tried something- words or other- or perhaps nothing happened and that could have precisely been the cracking point.

I do find it interesting that Paul’s hanging around with Robert was right around this tumultuous period of John and Paul’s relationship...kind of makes you think doesn’t it? Like does this have any influence on what happened in India sort of thing; John seeing Paul being good, close friends with a gay man. Could it have stirred something up for John? Made him see a possibility where he hadn’t before? Interesting to think about and which I hadn’t thought about before....

I genuinely hope that Paul shares anything important with us before he passes. He doesn’t owe us anything, but my god would I die to know everything that happened between them and everything they felt. 

[sakuratragedy]

Emperor’s Consort | Chapter 1

Fandom: Genshin Impact Pairing: Zhongli / Childe, #Zhongchi Tags: R18, A/B/O Dynamics, Royalty AU Summary: aka "Emperor's consort doesn't know the difference between being a concubine and being a consort" Tsaritsa wants her child to have a good life after serving her on the battlefield for so long, so she makes a deal with an old friend. In exchange for her military might, he will marry her son. Childe who has no formal omega training has to do his best to cover up the fact he has no idea what he's doing. Do your best to be a good omega Childe!

“If we are the last two left, I’ll give up and let you be the Tsar.”

“‘That is only if we are the last two standing. We need to think of who to take down first.”

She had her back against the wall, listening to her brothers through the slightly open door as they sharpened their weapons while whispering quietly amongst themselves. The sound of blade being polished against whetstone echoed through the room.

“Yelena’s strike is the fiercest. She should be dealt with first.” she hears her brothers when the blade lifts from the stone before another sharp sound is heard.

The succession rites to become the next Tsar hosted by her father started tomorrow. The Tsar was an old and terrible tyrant, taking eight wives and will be making his children slaughter each other for the sake of tradition. She hated him and his rancid smell, the same stench he used to command his court by exerting his alpha pheromones and bringing them to their knees. She especially hated when he would use her mother as a means to torment her. She would feel the spikes of rage and the flash of red in her vision when he would threaten to humiliate her mother in front of the court to get her to do what he wanted.

The succession rite was a chance to change all that. She could fix decades of ugly rituals, dismantle the corruption and burn it to the ground, raising a new court from its ashes. She'll get rid of the corruption with her own two hands.

If she survives the succession rite as the true heir.

First, she had to survive the night. She moved away from the wall, making sure her footsteps were light so her brothers would not hear her.

-

The dawn came quickly with few casualties. Two of her eight siblings were missing during the morning ceremony. It was right to assume her other siblings had started early by eliminating some competition before the rites. They were surrounded by spectators from the court, their mothers cry and sob as their children were cut down and their father, watching them with a smirk on his face.

She was fast, she had to be to survive the slaughter. While her brothers and sisters were stronger, she was swift to cut deep and fast at their necks before avoiding the rest of the fight.

As she held her dagger to her dear older brother’s neck, his words echoed through her ears.

“Yelena’s strike is the fiercest.”  

She hesitated for a split second when he smiled at her and closed his eyes, giving up the fight and giving in to his death.

“I’ll give up and let you be the Tsar.”

Perhaps he knew that she was there that night. She frowned. She swore for her brothers and for her mother that this ugly methods of succession would die along with them. She landed a swift killing strike to make his death painless before a booming laughter filled the court. Yelena got off her brother's corpse and turned to face her father behind her.

“Who would have thought.” she turned to her father, who had a smirk on his face, overlooking his five dead children and his sole heir bathed in the blood of her beloved.

“My littlest won the succession rites all on her own. It is as true as the court says,” her scowl deepens at his show of pride. “You do have my good traits.”

-

That night she killed the tyrant that was her father.

-

It had been 40 years since she was 15 and living the nightmares of her succession rites. The ghosts follow her as she burns away the old world for her new one. One where her children do not have to cry from the heartache of losing their families. For 40 years, she had destroyed her fathers empire and built it back up with her own hands the way that she desired. Everyone in Snezhnaya are her children, as long as they were born in this frosty land of ice and snow they would be cared for by her.

Her children always did say that she loved too much. She loved too hard and that made her soft.

She had never been married, but she had adopted 11 children from different family situations to be her official princes and princesses, her Harbingers as they liked to call themselves when they assisted her in her endeavours. The fights are long and tiresome but after 40 years of fighting for her ideal world she can finally rest peacefully with her family.

Unfortunately, she had spent the last 40 years hardening her 11 children for battlefields and life in shadows, so suddenly wanting to have a loving relationship with her children was less than fruitful. Especially with her older children, which was understandable since Pedrelino and Dottore had been with her longest and since they were young she hadn’t been treating them like children. They were forced to oversee missions from the shadows, travelling Teyvat for her and lengthy battles away from home, so she understands when they couldn’t receive her motherly love very well.

Her younger children however were very welcoming to her attempts at affection.

She sat on her throne, she watched her only daughter approach her along with two fatui skirmishers by her side.

“Your majesty.” La Signora did a low curtsy before her. She nodded and the two skirmishers dismissed themselves, leaving her and her daughter alone together.

“Signora. How was your trip to Mondstadt? I trust you had a wonderful time.”

“It was alright.” she glanced over to the side, making a face the Tsaritsa couldn’t really read, but she could guess that it was distaste. The reason for the distaste was unknown, but according to the intel that reached her ears before Signora did, it could have something to do with that mysterious traveller and that omega bard she had encountered in Mondstadt as she was leaving.

“I’m glad you’re home.” she started before hesitating, clearing her throat behind her fist before shyly admitting. “I’ve missed you.”

“I missed you too.” Signora responds shyly, her neck and ears flushing red clearly unused to the outright affection. The red flush made Signora look like a young maiden in the moment, you could have forgotten that she was one of the Tsaritsa’s coldest killers. The Tsaritsa smiled behind her hand at how cute her daughter could look before she decided to move on to other matters.

“Signora, an old friend of mine would like support from our military might regarding a ghost from his past.” she started with a serious voice as she leaned into her throne. Signora’s expression changed immediately to her usual stoic expression as she listened to her mother speak.

“Don’t support him.” she says sternly without hesitation. She understands why her daughter feels that way. A foreigner having control over their old and great military might unsupervised would be an unwise decision for both Snezhnaya and her old friend. While the Tsaritsa knows that her fatui agents have good independent action and work in a team, sending them to a foreign land two weeks away from Snezhnaya without supervision for a friend could turn dangerous.

“He is a dear friend and I owe him a favour.” she continues. “When Pedrelino was very young and I was rebuilding Snezhnaya, he lent me a hand in terms of investigation of the court. I feel the need to return the favour.”

Signora still looked against the action, but Yelena was determined to convince her daughter.

“We both know how I feel for those who have ghosts.”

“Your majesty, I’m stepping out of line when I say this but you love too hard and too deeply. It is my job to make sure you don’t get hurt and by making such a bold decision to send our agents for this person... It is just unreasonable, especially if they are unsupervised.” Signora has her hand on her hips as she borderline lectures the Tsaritsa.

“We could send a Harbinger if supervision is your concern?” Tsaritsa says as she avoids her gaze. She knows her daughter is glaring at her. She hears Signora give in by her sigh and her fingers rubbing at her temple.

“Who is your friend? Let me get Dottore to run a background- ”

“He is the emperor from Liyue.”

“Tartaglia spent a year in Liyue, didn’t he?” Signora said as she thought out loud. Perhaps they could send a portion of their military might if it is under the supervision of their youngest Harbinger.

Then again… it is Tartaglia they’re talking about.

“Yes. Tartaglia is familiar with foreign languages to a certain degree as well, is he not? Perhaps we could send him as a consort?”

“Mother.”

“Yes?”

“Did you say consort.”

“Yes.”

A long silence filled the throne room.

“Your majesty.” she let out another heavy sigh. “Harbingers are not marriageable. Especially Tartaglia.” Signora knows her mother is a kind hearted woman, but attempting to marry off Tartaglia as a favour to the Liyue emperor was mind boggling. Surely, Tartaglia was the only omega of their siblings, but he was still a Harbinger. A nasty, cold hearted killer with blood on his hands.

Not to mention his pheromones that smelled too strong of withered roses, a result from years on the battlefield fighting through his heats by literally fighting enemies, muddying his scent by surrounding himself with bloodshed. No high class alpha let alone an emperor would be in their right mind to want to mate with him.

“Do not say that Signora.” Signora’s posture straightened at the appearance of her stern voice, perhaps automatically out of fear or respect, or something between those lines. Regardless her daughter had reverted back to actively listening rather than roasting her brother.

“Tartaglia has worked hard for years for this country. Nevertheless, he is an omega forced to live like an alpha for years on the battlefield for me. Snezhnaya is entering an era of peace, I would like him to start living like his age.” Signora still looked against the suggestion of sending Tartaglia to be married. She understands that perhaps it would be troublesome for her as well, since they were close in age and she would essentially be losing her closest sibling.  

“I think this would be good for him.”

“Mother… Tartaglia has no formal omega training for a supposedly ‘high class omega’, considering he’s a prince. If the emperor takes a whiff of his scent, he’d be sent back in a crate to Snezhnaya like an animal.”

“There’s no harm in letting Tartaglia try his chances. If he turns out to be the emperor's concubine, it would not be too bad, would it?” she says softly. She watches as Signora’s expression softens as well at her tone.

“Alright. I’ll let Tartaglia know and make the preparations.”

“Thank you Signora.”

-

“Childe! Be reasonable!” Signora yells as she chases her half naked brother through the palace gardens, passing by agents and maids who were forced to avert their gaze in fear of being beheaded for looking at the prince half decent.

“Advert your eyes!” Signora points at the oncoming squadron who were heading in their direction. Their faces turn to all different directions to avoid seeing the prince and princess racing each other through the palace grounds.

“Childe!” she lets out a shrill scream as she continues to chase him.

“No! I’ll never marry! You can’t make me!” he jumps over mother’s marble fence and lands behind an unfortunate fatui agent, making him jump from the scare. It doesn’t phase Childe and he continues running. Signora looked down from where Childe jumped and looked at the heels she was wearing ‘ah… my 500 thousand mora heels...’ and decided against it.

“Don’t treat me like a fucking omega!” he sneers at her. She rolls her eyes. In her vision Childe is nothing more like a hissing kitten.

“News flash genius, you are an omega.” Signora managed to catch up to him and successfully cornered him in his room after a long chase outdoors that lasted approximately two hours and forty five minutes, not that she was counting to spite him later. Her angry pheromones leak and overpower Childe, bringing him to his knees. If he were in his prime state, he would be able to resist her pheromones without flinching, but this version of Childe had taken a short break from the battlefield and has started to enjoy living the life of a spoiled prince.

“I’ll make him kick me out in a week if you keep this up.” Childe gasps with his mouth before pinching his nose, trying not to breathe in too much of her scent.

Signora rolls her eyes at how dramatic her younger sibling is being. In a palace full of boys and her being the sole princess, she lives in a house of stubborn alphas. Somehow, Childe being the only non-alpha had caught their terrible personality traits.

“Get up off the floor we have to start going through basic training now.”

- “Ow!” Childe whines when Signora pushes the dildo into him. His ankle rested on one of her shoulders as she stood at the end of the bed, monitoring how much slick he produced.

“Come on, you’ve got to be better at producing slick than this .” she says with a mixture of disappointment and irritation. Firstly, she had to chase her brother through the gardens and now she was in charge of his training?

Well, she did promise the Tsaritsa that she would handle it. But it doesn’t mean she couldn’t complain about it.

“It’s not my fault. You don’t turn me on.” Childe mutters into his pillow below his head, crossing his arms across his torso. Signora smiles, irritated before pushing the dildo further in harder than she should have. He flinches violently before sitting up.

“Ow!”

“The Tsaritsa wants you to go to Liyue and play nice with the emperor, and you know that whatever mom says goes.” Signora ignores the high pitched whine that Childe makes when she gently pushes the dildo further into his cunt.

“Mom just wants to marry me off to some old geezer. Isn’t the emperor supposed to be a 40 year old man.”

“Don’t call her mom. Refer to her as ‘her majesty’.” “You literally just called her mom.”

Childe feels a knot form on the base of the dildo, expanding uncomfortably against him while hitting all the wrong places that made him uncomfortable. One particularly hard thrust caused him to flinch violently again, arching up against the bed in discomfort.

“Ow, ow, ow! ” He complains as Signora finishes pushing the knot into him.

“You’re such a crybaby. How are you going to withstand those dreadfully long hours of mating when you can’t even handle a fake knot.” she pushes his ankle off her shoulder and they fall limp onto the bed below them. She throws her hair behind her shoulder before moving across the room and sitting on the sofa in his room, lying herself across it as if she’s done some terribly hard task. Childe sits up to look at her, irritated at how dramatic she looks.

“Mom should have gotten you a proper trainer years ago rather than this ridiculous last minute coaching.”

“News flash genius .” Childe bites back at her. “I was away on the battlefield ever since her majesty adopted me as a Harbinger? How long has that been, hmm?” he taps his chin, ignoring the shiver that ran down his spine from feeling so much of the knot against him.

“One? Two? Three years?”

“So you’ve been away for six years. Big deal. All of us travel around for her majesty’s missions.”

“None of you alphas need whatever this ‘formal omega training’ is.” he makes air quotations with his fingers. “Cause none of you are omegas.” he glares at her. He knows she can feel the glare, but it's making him angry how easily she ignores him in favour of closing her eyes and sinking her head into the plush pillow on the sofa.

“Most high ranking omegas from across Teyvat go through formal omega training. It teaches you the basics from how to control your pheromones to the importance of heats and proper mating rituals.”

“I’m not most high ranking omegas, if you haven’t noticed.”

“You’re right.” Childe feels some sort of pride with being agreed with.

“You smell like smelly roses and you’re not soft or cute at all.” He made an unhappy noise at his sister. How typical of her, unable to compliment him at any time. He feels the knot soften inside of him and thinks that it was the perfect opportunity to work the dildo out of him before aiming for his sister's head. The dildo misses Signora by two inches before falling on the other side of the couch.

“Tartaglia!” the shrill scream echoed throughout the palace.

- The day he was sent away, the Tsaritsa and Signora stood out at the front gates to bid Childe goodbye. He kisses her majesty’s knuckles before meeting her eyes.

“I promise I’ll do well.”

The Tsaritsa smiles at him, gentle and motherly while a step further behind her Signora is glaring at him with all her might. The wind blows harshly, little flakes of snow sticking to Childe’s red hair. He smiles mimicking the gentle one she gave him.

“I know you will. Even if he does not choose you to be his mate, as long as you are happy,” she hesitates and bites her lip. She knows that she would be lying if she continued. “I will be happy.” she finishes.

In her heart she is hoping that it does not come down to that and that her old friend would treat her son right, but the possibilities are endless when it comes to Zhongli. If he was similar to her image of him when they were younger, he would still be an unpredictable enigma, coming and doing as he pleases like an outdoor cat. Then again, Tartaglia was a hurricane in a human shaped shell, with the ability to sweep everything in his path off their feet, dragging the air from their lungs with the chaos he’s capable of leaving in his wake.

“Even if you come home, I’ll take you with open arms.” she says softly, unsure if he heard her over the harsh blowing of the Snezhnaya wind. He turns back to look at his mother (and his sister who caught his eye, and looked away) and the palace he could be leaving for the rest of his life before he boards his carriage that would take him to the docks to board his ship to Liyue, this time with no predicted date of his return.

If he would even return. He was unsure.

The carriage left the front gates of the palace, but the Tsaritsa continued to watch until it was out of their sight.

“I wonder if it was a good idea to send Tartaglia.” she puts a gloved hand to her mouth and another on her stomach. “He has no formal omega training. I’m afraid if he were to lose out to any other potential omega the emperor had his eye on.”

‘I literally told you that.’ Signora thinks, but she gives her mother a sympathetic look and places a hand over her shoulder, pulling the Tsaritsa close to her body. Tsaritsa’s eyes widen in surprise as she feels herself being pulled closer to her daughter's body. Signora is taller than her and blankets herself over her mother, sharing their warmth. While she’s proud that her daughter isn’t as afraid of her as she was years ago, she’s still worried about Tartaglia.

“You worry too much, your majesty. He will be fine.” Signora says as she brings a gloved hand to the Tsaritsa’s back and strokes fondly, comforting her.

[xxtha-blog]

So apperently I wrote a oneshot fanfic and forgot about it for almost 2 years

And because it's comedy fucking gold, and also some quality post-comic Ace content, I thought I'd share it with you people here.

Without further adieu, may I present to you

A Casual Encounter With Ace

Ink knew very little of Ace. He had met him once, briefly, in the last moments before his AU disappeared into nothingness, Ace sneaking through the portal Dream had created and slipping away from the destruction of his own home like it was nothing more than an average Saturday. Ink barely had the chance to talk to him, didn’t even know his name, he just knew that there was a flamboyant top hat wearing skeleton that enjoyed stealing things and harassing Dream, prancing around the multiverse and causing chaos with no restrictions. Of course, Ink planned to catch him… eventually… if he hadn’t forgotten… multiple times. But it was Ace who seemed to catch him instead.

  Ink had been sitting in the snow, crouched behind the trees of Underswap, checking up on the stability of the timeline, when he heard a voice behind him. At first, he thought it was Blue, the only one who would know to look for him there, but the accent threw him off. Ink turned slowly, curious, and saw the black and red skeleton leaning against his staff behind him, smiling modestly as he surveyed the rest of the underground as Ink did.

  Ink paused for a second. “Hey– Don’t I know you…?” He tapped a pencil against his chin, working with all his might to remember.

  “Perhaps, dear sir, perhaps indeed, for I am quite popular, simply ask my wonderous fans, who may be reading this right now! Which does remind me, do you ever realize that we transcend not only drawings and comic books, but also code, writing, and animations. It’s quite crazy when you think about it, I mean, just look at you. What? One of the most popular characters in the entire fandom created by a mere teenager! Mind boggling and simply astounding, our existence, both of us in fact, relies only on two simple teenagers bringing us to life.” Ace talked mellifluously, his accent smooth and precise, as though someone had mashed together a French and British accent and added a gay flare to it. He talked incredibly fast, as though to confuse everyone with his slur of words, despite them not being slurred in the slightest.

  Ink stood up, brushing the snow off his sweater. “Wait a second!” He glanced up again his eyes widening. “Aren’t you that magician guy?!”

 Ace tilted his head, intrigued.

   “Aha!” Ink declared in triumph. “I finally found you!”

  “Magician guy is quite vague. And a guy, no, no, dear sir, not at all, I simply am I, an illusionist, a magician, a slight bit insane, but far saner than you, so I must ask for you to be a tad bit more specific for fear I may misinterpret what you wish to say and be unable to reply!” Ace spun his staff around, giving Ink a slight smirk.

  “You’re from that AU- Oh what was it.” Ink spun his hands through the air, churning his memory around. “Magicwhatever, Lucktale, Underchance, Chancyluck, Chance, Chance something, Chancetale-? CHANCETALE!” He put his hands on his hips proudly.

  “A dead name, no?” Ace raised his eye sockets into a quizzical expression.

  “I mean, yeah, but you’re still here, which means you’re screwing up timelines. Which means I gotta stop ya!” With a quick flip of his arm behind his head, Ink pulled his paintbrush out in front of him and pointed it towards Ace.

  “Stop me? Stop me! Oh, how wonderful!” Ace’s eyes lit up as he spun on his heel with glee.

  “You’re supposed to be worried,” Ink pointed out. “Like, oh no he’s going to catch me?! Whatever shall I do! And then I go, heck yeah I’m going to catch you! Because I’ve got a super cool paintbrush!”

  “I dare say you do not.”

  “What do you mean? My paintbrush is awesome, I mean just look at it–" he stopped. "Where’s my paintbrush?” Ink’s hands were empty, his fingers grasping at the cold air around them and nothing more. He wondered if his memory had lapsed again, but he could have sworn he had just been holding it. He reached back only to grasp at the air once more.

  Ace casually spun the paintbrush in his hands, still standing stationary a dozen or so feet away, studying the fine patterns on the metal clasps. “Quite a nice paintbrush, indeed, I do not disagree with that, however, you do not have it, therefore your statement was false.” Without another word, the paintbrush disappeared into thin air, and Ace merely tilted his top hat.

  Ink started to take things a little more seriously, his smile fading. He straightened. “This’ll be interesting.”

  “Oh, tis always interesting when I’m here! Just ask your dear friend Dream!”

  “We’re not really friends,” Ink said with a shrug. “He just happens to be useful sometimes.”

  “Oh my! What wonderful news we have here! I’ll be sure to keep it in mind to use against you so that I can slowly break apart your relationship until you are both mortal enemies in which case I can use your turmoil to my advantage!” He clasped his hands together, smiling softly, before adding, "If need be."

  Ink stared for a second. “You know if you really want to be evil, you shouldn’t announce what you’re going to do out loud.”

  “Evil? No, I’m not evil. Never in my wildest dreams would I ever consider myself to be evil, for that would mean I am profoundly immoral, and although I am profound, immoral I am not. I know precisely what is right and wrong, and good and bad, and have no trouble discerning between the two. I simply choose to do good and choose to do bad based on the situation and outcome it will provide me, and dear sir, it is quite a bore to be simply one or the other, is it not? I mean, you’re one to speak, think of the things you have done and the people you have hurt for your own benefit, quite chaotic indeed, but not evil. Few would call the fabulous Ink evil. Therefore I am not evil. I am just spontaneous, whether that be something pleasant or something disagreeable.”

  “You really do talk a lot,” Ink said, crossing his arms.

  “Tis a showman thing.”

  “Showman?”

  “Oh! Would you like to see a show?!”

  “Not really. I was in the middle of–”

  Ace clapped his hands together cutting Ink off, his staff forming between his palms as he pulled them apart. He twirled his staff like a baton before stamping it down into the snow and pulling his top hat off his head, taking a slight bow before beginning, “A magic show! For the fabulous Encre!”

  Ace began to perform his dazzling illusions. As real as reality, yet as mad as a dream. He swept up beside Ink and before Ink could say a word, slipped his scarf right over his head and turned it a kaleidoscope of brown butterflies. Ink went to protest, but a butterfly zipped over top of his mouth and turned into a brown piece of duct tape. The rest of the butterflies froze, falling to ice cubes on the ground before bursting into tiny glass shards that glimmered with little lights.

  “Butterflies were not meant for the underground! How unfortunate. The terms and conditions said nothing about turning to glass, however! Then again, I did not read them. Alas, now I must clean this all up.” Ace spun back around Ink, standing over top of the pile of glass shards.

  Ink shouted, but his words came out as muffled gibberish. He tried to pull the duct tape off, but it refused to budge. He waved his arms around, exasperated.

  “What’s that dear sir? You wish to see more magic tricks? Well, I wish to perform more as well!” Ace spread his arms out, the glass shards levitating off the ground around him before spinning into a small ball and transforming into a lightbulb above Ace's fingertips. He caught it out of the air, studying it closely, before looking back up at Ink.

  “I would put this above my head and say I do so happen to have an idea, but that would be terribly cliché, would it not?”

  “Mphfffff!”

  “I wholeheartedly agree! I’ll put it inside my mouth instead!”

  Ace slipped the lightbulb between his teeth, smiling deviously.

  “Now dear sir,” he said with zero hindrance, despite the lightbulb clamped between his teeth. “It is a well-known fact that when one puts a lightbulb inside their mouth, it shall go in quite fine and then never ever come out again in one piece! Today I am here to prove that theory wrong and promote the putting of light bulbs in your mouth everywhere!” Ace let out a small laugh before quickly inhaling the lightbulb.

  Ink’s eyes narrowed, giving up his attempts to talk through the duct tape.

  “Where ever has it gone? Ah! I know!” Ace reaches a hand inside his left eye socket and pulls the lightbulb into the place his heart-shaped pupil should have been.

  “And now to turn it on!”

  With a slight flick of his wrist, Ace summoned an egg out of midair, then cracked it against the nearest tree. From the cracked shell sprang a toaster, which Ace caught in his hands as though he had done this many a time. He quickly plugged the toaster into the tree and waited a few seconds, but nothing seemed to happen.

   Ink watched, both baffled and annoyed, only able to express his feelings through a few grunts and shakes of his head. Ink had seen many things over his life, AUs full of nothing but Sanses, characters made of watermelons, atrocious crossovers, but nothing quite as strange as this.

  “Oh, I see what I’m doing wrong! Forgive me, dear sir, I have never used a toaster in my life! I run solely off of white chocolate!” Ace unplugged the toaster from the tree and threw it as far as he could muster. “Farewell, dear toast maker. I shall miss thee.”

  He reached inside the small red pouch on his shirt, barely bigger than a golf ball, and pulled a full sized hair dryer.

  Why do you have a hairdryer?! Ink shouted, his eyes wide, but it simply came out as “Wff duh vu hvv a her dyr?!”

  “For this, dear sir, why else.” Ace put the end of the hairdryer up to his eye and turned it on. It wasn’t plugged into anything, the cord dangling around Ace's ankles. As the hairdryer whirred to life, the light bulb flickered on.

  Ace pulled the hair dryer away, making it disappear into a flurry of little pink sparkles before taking a long bow, one of his eyes now made of a little yellow glowing light bulb.

  Ink clapped sarcastically.

  “Why thank you! Thank you! Truly an amusing time we've had here today!” He pranced over to Ink, patting him on the head twice. When Ink tried to grab him, his entire vision spun around and he was suddenly facing the complete opposite direction.

  “Now, now, that’s no way to treat someone who just performed for you.”

  Ink turned on his heels, looking around for Ace, but he was nowhere to be seen. The piece of duct tape had vanished.

  “Farewell, dear Ink, until you wish for another magic show!”

  The voice came from nowhere and echoed throughout the trees before fading into nothingness. On the ground, there was a small paper card. Ink bent over and picked it up, flipping it open. Inside was a tiny brush, smaller than a thumbtack, taped to the inside of the card with a small heart and delicate cursive handwriting: I believe this belonged to you?

[yeosangs-horizon]

Shared Stars (Changkyun x Reader) Roommate! AU

Genre: Fluff -> Smut Word Count: 4.8k Member: I.M/Changkyun | Group: Monsta X Warnings: Heavy smut at the end! Slow burn from roommates to friends to lovers! 

You gazed over your newly posted ad for a roommate in your apartment. You had just begun to rent the place out and being a nearly broke college student, you knew that it was impossible for you to keep up with rent and get an education at the same time. If worst comes to worst, you’d have to have a roommate, and being the only supporter of your finances you had to resort to that. 

Your apartment has two bedrooms and one shared washroom which wasn’t an issue but you weren’t used to living with others besides your family, being an only child. Either way you’d have to learn to adapt one way or another as you are now an adult. You exited out of the web page that you had posted your ad and got up from your seat to continue about your day, hoping somebody would contact you soon.

After a couple hours of finishing some schoolwork, you heard your phone buzz and you instantly widened your eyes, excited but also anxious to check the notification. ‘Hi, is this (Y/N) I’m writing to? I’m very interested to take you up on your offer for a roommate. Please send me more info about it, thanks. -Changkyun’. You beamed up, knowing that your wallet may be saved pretty soon. 

You replied back quickly. ‘Hello yes this is me! Thanks for expressing interest! I have a copy of the lease and regulations if you would want to see them. If you wanted to meet somewhere I could bring a copy for you and we can go from there?’ You stretch your legs after sending the text message and decided to get up from your seat to make a cup of coffee. It was still fairly early in the morning and you didn’t have a class that day until late afternoon.

You were rummaging through your cabinets to find a coffee filter when you hear the notification ‘ding’ sound again. ‘Sure! Does this evening work for you at the bakery by your address?’ He included a pinpointed location on maps as well, how convenient. You replied, tapping your fingers against the device. ‘Yeah that’s cool by me. Is 5 pm alright?’ ‘Yes. See you then.’ You sighed in relief as you viewed his last text. You had no idea what to expect out of this entire situation and secretly hoped that he wasn’t just a serial killer or some creepy old man.

Some hours passed as you walked out of your last class for the day, rifling through your notebook to see what other assignments you had to complete before the next day. You pulled out your phone from your back pocket and glazed your eyes over the time displayed.. ‘4:43 pm’ You just remembered your appointment with your new potential roommate. You took long strides towards the street, apprehensive about possibly being late. 

You turned the corner at exactly 5:00 PM and saw the lit up sign of the bakery just a couple buildings down. You let out a breath and smiled, wanting to make a good first impression of yourself. You turned the handle to the establishment and saw a man sitting near some tables towards the corner of the shop. His black locks of hair illuminated from the dim lights of the bakery. He had a piercing gaze that was directed towards his phone and smooth soft skin. ‘Could this be him?’,you wondered silently. He was beautiful at first sight.

“Um are you Changkyun?” you anxiously called out. He turned his head and directed his attention towards you whilst nodding. “Is this (Y/N)?” you smiled and affirmed his question. “Nice to meet you! I have all the info you’ll need so don’t worry about a thing,” you reassured while shaking his hand in a professional matter. 

You laid out the lease agreement, regulations, terms, and all of the knick knacks that had to go hand in hand with renting property out. You gazed towards his milky brown eyes as he skimmed the words etched in black ink on the papers below you both. He looked up after he was finished reading and remarked,” Everything is easily to abide by. I’ll take your offer and be your new roommate.” 

You clasped your hands together, feeling excited. “Amazing! When will you be moving in?” He scrolled through his mobile calendar and looked back up at you. “Tomorrow night if that’s fine. I know it’s abrupt but honestly living in a two bedroom studio with six other guys is really overwhelming. As much as I appreciate them I’d love to have more space,” he mused. “Six others? That’s quite something, I welcome you to do so right away then!” you let out a chuckle as the two of you stood up from your seats.

“Just drop by tomorrow night, I’ll be home and I can give you the keys and help you get situated. See ya then new roomie!” you called out whilst walking back to your own place. You saw him wave at you while striding in the opposite direction with a small smile on his face. You turn the corner and trudged up the stairs to your home. ‘He is so attractive, there’s no way this is happening.’ Your mind was boggled as you recalled the past half hour that has happened. You were only a bit intimidated by him but you were very excited that he was going to be your new roommate. 

The following day breezed by as you attended your classes in the morning, stressing over the workload again and remembering that you had to rush home to clean up your space in order for Changkyun to move in that night. You wondered slightly about what he was doing at the moment. Your thoughts concluded as a box you moved slipped out of your hands and fell on your right foot. “Shit! We love a good clean up,” you mumbled arrogantly while picking up heavy objects again. 

Time seemed to fly by as you shoved all your excess boxes in the multiple array of closets you had in your apartment. You heard the doorbell ring whilst putting up the last decoration you had by your windowsill. You rushed towards the door and turned the knob to see Changkyun, just as expected. He was dressed in a white hoodie and shorts, and damn did he look adorable standing right before you.

“Welcome to your new home! I can help you carry your stuff inside if you’d like!” you offered with enthusiasm. He looked back at the suitcase and multiple array of bags he had and nodded. “That would be wonderful, thank you.” After a couple minutes of carrying his belongings inside towards the couch, you sat down and stared up at him. “Make yourself at home, because you are at home now! Before I show you where everything is, do you want a drink or something?” 

He shook his head while placing his hand up. “I’m fine thank you, it really does feel very homey in here,” he remarked. You stifled a laugh as you replied,” If only you saw it a couple hours before.” You bounced from the couch and headed toward your drawer where you pulled out a spare key you had, just for him. “Here’s your key, don’t lose it because I don’t have another one. As you can see here this is the kitchen, utensils and plates are in this general area and the cleaning supplies are near the sink and uh, the miscanelous stuff is kept here,” you pointed out, trying to be the most helpful guide you could have been.

He took in the words coming from your soft voice as he looked around his new abode. He gazed at you walking as you made your way towards the living room again and started to speak. “The TV and lounging area is here as you can see, feel free to watch as much TV as you’d like, I don’t use it too often anyway. And over there in the halls is where your bedroom and washroom area will be.”

He picked up his bags with the help of you and made it slowly into his new room. The clean scent hit his olfactory bulb as you set his items down on the floor. “Welcome to your room! Not much to say here but if you have a question about where things are and all I’m just in the room next door so literally just knock on the wall, or text me if you’re like that too,” you remarked. “The washroom is just the door we passed and there’s a couple spare cabinets I think there to keep your stuff if you wish to do so.” He nodded while sitting on the bed already provided by you and looked around where he was going to be spending the nights for a long time.

His moment of tranquility was interrupted when you spoke again. “I’ll be in the other room if you need me, I just have some work to finish,” you dismissed. “Wait (Y/N), I never asked but what year are you and what’s your major? Excuse my interrogation but I’m really just curious,” he perked up with interest. “Oh y’know just your average psych major here. I’m a second year actually, what about yourself? You seem like you’d still be attending university,” you remarked. “Yeah I am! Third year as a matter of fact. I’m a chemistry major and minoring in music with digital media as well. If you ever need help or anything I’m always here,” he smiled. 

“Thanks Changkyun! Now to be enslaved by my work for the next couple hours,” you called out laughing as you slipped into your own room. You felt a smile slowly tug at your lips as you sat down and pulled out your assignment log. He already had captivated your attention and not to mention your interests. He did seem a bit cold but it was to be expected as you just started talking to him about a day ago but your senses strongly emphasized that you could trust him. 

You stared down at your assignment log as you skimmed over the two essays you had to do and a worksheet you had to complete before the next day. You sighed as your stress flowed back into your veins. You started to skim the prompts of your essays before deciding that you had to get a coffee. You wormed your way out of your room before you felt your body crash into another physical figure. You looked up and was flustered after you had ran into your new roommate who just so happened to step out into the hall from the washroom. You jumped back, a little bit startled and nervously laughed out of habit. “Sorry! I was too zoned out and didn’t see you!” “It’s alright, don’t worry about it,” he softly spoke out while snaking his way past you towards his room. You felt your cheeks flush up as you realized that you had embarrassed yourself in front of your new roommate. You shake off the thought quickly as you turned towards the kitchen to make yourself a cup of coffee. 

The rest of the night consisted of you working for hours on your essay and sipping your coffee. The night slowly slipped away into day time as the sunlight gleamed straight through your sleeping figure and into your eyelids. You were awoken by a soft singing voice from the walls next to you as you realized that last night your new roommate moved in and you weren’t alone anymore. His voice was angelic, beautiful, ineffable. You were touched by his voice. He was practically flawless in every way. You shake off the thought as you perked up in bed and got ready for the rest of your day. 

----- 

The day seemed to mesh together as you experienced your new lifestyle with Changkyun. The first week he seemed pretty cold towards you. You hadn’t bonded emotionally or anything yet which was to be expected nor did he share too much of his past and information about himself with you. Eventually, you both started opening up to each other as you saw each other more often and the weekend approached. He asked if he could bring a couple of his friends over to hang out from his old place of residency and of course you obliged. You got to meet Minhyuk and Jooheon and those three together were total goofballs. 

You enjoyed their company a lot and began to understand Changkyun and his personality more. You didn’t have an emotional bond yet until that fateful night when you felt so distraught that it sent you into a spiral of whirling emotions that couldn’t have been stopped.

-----

It felt like your entire world was collapsing when the stress that you had felt accumulated drastically and looking at your grades, it seemed like you weren’t going to pass your maths class. On top of that, you really missed your family who was on the other side of the world and you missed your friends who you haven’t seen for what seemed like ages. You scrolled past the post of your old group hanging out and felt tears streak down your face. You were experiencing an anxiety attack, something you don’t get too often anymore compared to your days in high school. You stifled back tears and sniffled. 

Suddenly, you heard the door crack open as Changkyun stepped inside your room. You had told him he never needed to knock if he needed anything and to just come in because you were trying to be a very open person. He was only going in to ask you where the blender was kept but it seemed that now he had other priorities over that. “(Y/N), what’s wrong?” he inquired as he stepped closer towards you. You buried your head in between your knees, not knowing what to do or say as you had never been confronted during an anxiety attack. “Talk to me, I’ll listen to you until the end of time,” he comforted as he sat on your bed. You turned your head slightly, tears in your puffy red eyes as you had been crying for awhile. 

As a matter of fact, you normally suffered through these tough periods alone. You never had anybody to comfort you, being an only child and all and living alone, so it did feel odd to have someone who was willing to hear you out. Feeling weak and mentally exhausted, you slowly got up and sat next to him. Wanting physical comfort, you wrapped your arms around his figure for the first time and started to softly shed tears on your shoulder. His warm arms seemed to engulf you and make time stop. You felt your heart rate start to decrease as you sniffled and found your words to begin talking. “I’m sorry Changkyun, I just really miss my family and friends and it seems like they’ve all forgotten about me. I’m not doing the best with my schoolwork and it’s almost the end of the semester. I feel like a failure Changkyun,” you vented as your head remained down, staring at the floor. 

He gently stroked your back and wiped the tears from your eyes. “Listen (Y/N), from the time I’ve known you, I know you’re super hard working and you have to believe in yourself. You’re not going to fail, and y’know, your friends may be experiencing something but you’re living a completely new life here and probably encountering way more than they do. I know you miss them but you wouldn’t be here if you were stuck over there.” Changkyun was so glad to have met you and be in your life. Deep down inside, he already had started to develop feelings after the first couple of weeks of living with you. You embodied so much positivity and optimism, he needed that a lot of the time and you unknowingly brightened up his day. 

“Thank you Kyunnie,” you mumbled, not knowing you accidentally gave him a nickname during now of all times. He felt his chest pounding as he stared at your adorable form, leaning against his and the cute nickname that fell from your lips. He started to accept in that moment that he felt something more than just friendship for you. 

------

Another week or so passed after your break down. You and Changkyun seem closer than ever. You both started adjusting your schedules to one another, wanting to spend more time with each other. The sweet gestures he would do for you practically made your heart melt. You both also started incorporating weekend movie nights with each other, that resulted in you using your TV way more than ever. This weekend just so happened to be horror night, as it was Changkyun’s time to pick. 

You hated horror but would stick it out just for him. You both sat on the couch with comfy blankets draped over the two of you. The movie started to play as the dramatic intense sounds began to surface to life. You were already frightened as you looked up at Changkyun, his eyes intensely entranced into the screen. “Goddamn Kyunnie why did you have to chose this one? You know I absolutely despise clowns and jumpscares,” you mumbled while peeking once at awhile to the movie. 

You felt fear bubbling inside your stomach as another jumpscare lashed out at the both of you. His figure jolted as well, scaring you even more. You gravitated towards him and pretty soon, you were pressed up against his side and burying your head in his shoulder when an unpleasant scene showed up. As if on cue, the lights in your own apartment flickered and completely blackened and so did the TV. Your breath came to a halt as your heart rate quickened by the second. You had power outages before, but from the given atmosphere, it seemed like somebody was playing a prank on you two, and you hated it. You buried your head deep into Changkyun’s side as he held you tighter to him, also atmospherically frightened. 

“K-Kyunnie, I’m fucking terrified right now,” you whispered out, not wanting to look into the depths of your own living room. He tightened his arms around you as if to protect you. “It’s okay, I’m uh, sure the lights will come on, soon…” he trailed off. As if on cue yet again, your apartment lights flickered on and so did the TV. You jolted up out from his arms at that moment and declared,” Okay that’s it, no more for tonight. My heart is weak and I can’t take all of this!” You laughed at your own words and saw his face light up in a smile. 

You turned towards the darkness of your hallway and back at him. You were anxious to admit that you were scared and wanted company through the night. You were not a child but you had a faint heart. You slowly approached him with your head downs and cheeks flushed. “Can I uh, stay with you tonight. I’m… scared,” you confessed. Changkyun’s heart almost jumped out of his chest, he wanted you to himself and in his arms everyday, but was too afraid to confess. “Of course, we can be scared together,” he mused while looking up at you. 

You both made your way back into his room. You were already wearing comfy clothes and didn’t mind sleeping in them. As you slipped into Changkyun’s bed, you were shrouded by his scent and you instantaneously felt comforted. He as well got into bed shortly after you did. His arms snaked around your waist almost instinctively to protect you. You smiled and felt your heart beating quickly. You loved him at this point, but didn’t utter a word about it. Whatever happened in that moment, it felt so right. You were amazed at how close you two have gotten within the past two months of living together, and you felt true happiness in that moment. His slow breathing sent a comfort into the rhythmic atmosphere as you were taken into a deep slumber.

The following morning, you winced as you opened your eyes from the sunlight that you were so used to. You looked around, realizing that you were not even in your own room. A slight moment of confusion engulfed your cranium but you had quickly come to realize that you slept with Changkyun because you were terrified from the movie you two had watched the previous night. Your breath hitched as you couldn't’ believe that you had been so open about your emotions. You looked around for him but he was nowhere to be found. You rolled out of bed with your messy hair and headed towards the kitchen for a drink of water. You saw his figure turned towards the coffee maker and instantly the strong smell of espresso hit your sensory receptors. 

He seemed to have picked up on your presence as he turned around with a gentle smile, something that you loved seeing. “Good morning (Y/N), I hope you slept well. I uh, made some coffee for you. I thought that you’d like that....” he added while feeling a bit shy. Your face gleamed and lit up into a smile. “That’s so sweet Kyunnie, thank you,” you remarked while striding closer towards him. “Sorry about last night by the way, I don’t exactly know what I was thinking,” you apologized while looking a bit flustered. He shook his head as if to dismiss your thoughts. “Don’t worry about it, it was really nice,” he admitted. You felt yourself gravitate towards his form and wrap your arms around him as if to say ‘thank you’. He found himself doing the same while stroking his fingers through your luscious locks and his feelings for you blossoming even more. 

The fact that you two acted like a couple even though you weren’t was already enough for you. You didn’t want to confess and have a possibility of ruining the bond that you two have formed for so long. Sooner or later, if one of you didn’t, you probably had to get yourself to seeing as you didn’t want to wait any longer to officially be his.

-----

 It happened sooner as you would have thought, and in a way completely different as you would have thought. You were getting ready to shower one night and you had gotten so comfortable around your own home and Changkyun as well that you didn’t even bother to head to the washroom with a shirt on. You were just in your bra and panties as you made your way to the washroom. Changkyun had just gotten home as he passed you, just so happening to get a glimpse of you with barely anything on, heading into the washroom. 

He instantly felt his face flush and was thankful that you hadn’t seen him. He always thought that you were attractive and hot. Ever since you two shared intimate moments with each other, he fantasized about having you but of course you had no idea. He kept quiet to himself about personal details and his thoughts most of the time. He quickly headed towards his room and dropped his backpack off while laying on his bed. 

His thoughts kept replying the two seconds he caught a glimpse of you and felt a bulge start forming against his sweats. He could only imagine you in the shower as he started to rub himself with his palm against his pants. He started to softly let out grunts and moans as he thought of you over and over again. Eventually he shedded himself from his pants and palmed himself as he looked at the selfies that you sent him occasionally that he had saved. He pulled down his boxers as his erect cock sprung free, red in colour and dripping from his sensitive tip. He rubbed his finger on his own hard tip, wishing that it was you that was playing with him. He softly moaned your name out and continued doing so as he took hold of his shaft and stroked himself. He didn’t realize the shower water had turned off and still continued to gasp your name out while playing with himself. 

You thought you vaguely heard your name whilst wrapping a towel around your figure. You pushed into Changkyun’s room, wondering if he needed something. You were met with his figure lying on his bed with his hand on his leaky hard member. You gulped as your face flushed and felt heat pooling down to your core. You had imagined him like this before, but never imagined that you would see him in such a vulnerable position. His eyes lustfully stared into yours as he continued to move his hand up and down his rock hard cock. 

“I thought you called me Changkyun, I’ll uh, leave you in peace if you’d like…” you trailed off as he cut you off. “Wouldn’t you rather stay to help me?” he offered lustfully with an airy voice. In all honestly, you really did. You nodded as you dropped your towel, revealing yourself to him as he scooted back and allowed you to climb in between his legs. You lowered your mouth on his shaft as you licked the tip, stimulating him to bits and pieces. He moaned as he thrust into your mouth. You began to take his member whole and bobbed your head up and down his dick, taking it all in. You lifted your head up and began to suck on his tip, tasting his juices leaking out. He let out a soft moan of your name as you felt his cock twitching. You removed your mouth from his needy member. He felt the cold air hit his sensitive organ as your core was dripping and craved his touch second by second. 

“Can I ride you?” you asked lustfully while closing in on his mouth for a kiss. He nodded as your tongue slipped into his warm cavern as your lips interlocked with each other. You placed a hand on his member and directed it towards your wet hole. You lowered your hips and felt him penetrating you easily with how much arousal fluid you had collected while sucking him off. You felt him fully enter you and an immense amount of pleasure surged through your insides. You slowly rocked on him and found a medium paced that you both enjoyed. 

“Mm that’s it baby, you feel so damn good,” he mumbled with a deep voice that turned you on every time you heard it. You felt yourself being more aroused as his cock slipped in and out of you. You felt your core tighten as the wet sounds of your love making filled up the room. You meshed your lips into his again, craving his touch as he gently rubbed your perky breasts, stimulating you more. You felt your climax come quickly as your core started tightening on his cock. You slowed down your movements, taking every single inch of him in and grinded your hips against his. You fell into an orgasmic state as you moaned out,” Kyunnie, I’m gonna cum.” He stared up at you, and you looked breathtaking as you leaned your head back with him inside of you. He felt your walls pulsate against his throbbing member as you released onto him. The warm fluids surrounded his dick as he felt himself thrusting into you, overstimulating you at the same time. “Fuck (Y/N), I can’t hold back much longer,” he confessed while grinding his hips into yours. He reached his orgasm and bucked his hips forcefully into yours as he let himself release his seed into you. 

You both panted heavily as he went to go pull out of you. “W-wait. Can we stay like this, for a little bit longer?” You asked shyly as you stared down at his toned chest. “Y-yeah, I don’t mind,” he replied as he slowly came down from his high, moaning every couple of seconds from the over stimulation he felt from being inside of you. 

“I should’ve told you this a long time ago (Y/N), but I love you. With ever fiber of my being. I wanted you like this for so long. Please, be mine,” he confessed while staring up at your flushed being, taking in every single curve that he could see with his eyes. “I never thought you’d ask. I love you too, you weren’t the only one craving this Kyunnie,” you snickered as you leaned down. Your lips both interlocked again and it felt perfect. He was no longer your roommate, but your best friend and your lover. 

[vfdbaudelairefile13]

TRIGGER WARNING: we dive into serious topics as self harm, incest, pedophilia, and others. Although its vague and never explicit. I still give warning.

[Picture/icon credited to my sis @hongmoondescendant who made it for me for the discord.]

Okay. So I have kept quiet about this for a while. I, myself, have decided that I no longer can hold my tongue. Now I want to make this clear, this is aimed at nobody in particular. Several people come to my mind as I type this. This isn't a targeted attack...I am not here attacking any *one* person.

BUT...

That does NOT mean that I regret entirely what I am going to write. I'm not going to regret this at all, most likely. So warning...if you feel like I am talking about you or if you feel like I'm talking at you...

Let me start off by making one thing clear. That is not a problem for me...its a problem for you...about you. If you, in any way, feel as though I am talking directly to you or about you then YOU SHOULD REEVALUATE SOME LIFE CHOICES and if you need to SEEK PROFESSIONAL HELP.

Now... I have noticed more and more people actively shipping vile, abhorrent, and illegal ships. For those of you who arent clear on what I mean by that umbrella term 'illegal ships', it means ships that either involve pedophilia or incest.

Ships involving either of these two things are BAD. they should not be shipped and should not even qualify as ships. The fact that so many people are going around and promoting vile things like Violaf, Baudecest, and other variations of these pedophilic and incestuous ships is alarming, mind boggling, and disgusting.

There is NO good reason/excuse to ship pedophilia. I see a lot of people either claim that its a 'coping mechanism' or that it "does not matter because its fiction."

So, first off, stop. STOP CALLING THIS A COPING MECHANISM because its not. Its fucking not. Its not. Its not. Its not. Shipping a young teen with their abuser is NOT a coping mechanism.

I get that I havent lived the experiences you have. I get that everyone copes differently. Here's the thing though. YOU CANT CALL THAT A COPING MECHANISM AND ASSUME THE DEBATE IS OVER. Why? Well, heres why. [This next bit is a mix of me paraphrasing and going off of a BLOODY BRILLIANT analogy a friend of mine gave pertaining to this]: self harming. Some would call it a coping mechanism, right? I mean some people do it to 'cope'. But thats not healthy. At all. So just because you believe by throwing your unhealthy actions under the umbrella term 'coping mechanism' means that people wont continue to have an issue or 'pester' you about it. Thats not how this works.

And for those of you who try to further this argument saying that you have a therapist who actually recommends or encourages this behavior. I have only two things to say. 1. You have to be lying. Either to the ones who are trying to show you the error of your ways or you're lying to your therapist because 2. If you have told your therapist that you either promote or create content for pedophilia, and they have *encouraged* you to continue... they should lose their license to practice. Simple as that.

No one in their right mind would tell someone prone to cutting to continue to cut. They tend to show patients ACTUAL. HEALTHY coping mechanisms. No one in their right mind would encourage someone to continue to promote pedophilia. Lets be real.

Now to move on to that second argument...

See I was under the false pretenses that *everyone* CONDEMNS pedophilia but apparently if said pedophilia is with fictional characters people believe its okay to CONDONE that behavior and to that I say...

No. No. No. No. NO.

It is NOT only fiction. Fiction is a creation from reality. Reality effects fiction and vice versa.

People who create fiction, put their hearts, souls, and minds into it. They put themselves into it. They project on to characters and experiences. Fiction is just an extension to reality. So much of yourself goes into your fictional work. Thats why it is absolutely bogus to use the excuse that their fictional characters.

No. That fiction that youre writing...it is an extension of you. Some pieces of you.

That piece of art...you just drew? Thats an extension of you.

If you're drawing/writing things like *that*...would you be happy to tell someone 'this is an extension of myself.' [Quick side note: I am not saying that aspects of tough subjects like this one should never be found in art or literature. If done correctly, its compelling and becomes a topic piece for debate qnd conversation. If you present the vile act as vile...youre doing something right. If you present the vile act as good or try to romanticize it...THIS IS WHAT IM SAYING ABOUT ARE YOU HAPPY ABOUT THAT EXTENSION OF YOU.]

Crying out that the characters involved are fictional...doesnt make it less vile and abhorrent. Its still what it is. Pedophilia. [Or in some cases incest].

Point is: there is no excuse to ship pedophilia/incest. Theres no reason to. Theres no excuse.

If you do it to cope...youre not coping. Youre keeping yourself in a vicious unhealthy spiral. Please seek actual professional help. And if you have professional help that isnt aware of this 'coping mechanism'. Speak up. Talk to them. Let them guide you to an actual coping mechanism. Now if you have professional help who encourages or even recommends this. Find someone who actually knows what theyre talking about qnd then call whatever office you have to to get that therapist to lose their license to practice.

If you do it just to do it....

Well...

I have no words for you. Other than fuck off you nasty ass pedo.

[ask-garnet-n-ruby]

A Loving Christmas Gift

(A Christmas Special Story, Collabed alongside with my friend @vecnawrites Featuring Garnet and the Lovely Yang, Weiss, and Blake in a new AU of mine. I hope you all enjoy it.)

Another wonderful year had come and gone in the world of Remnant, and with Thanksgiving having long passed. The citizen within the Kingdom of Vale was beginning to settle into the mood of the Holiday Season. Families, friends, and lovers alike were out shopping; preparing for what would be a momentous occasion. Amongst them, a certain family a four was especially excited for the upcoming holiday.

“Yang, you got the rest of the  decorations for the living room?!” 

“Gimme a sec!” 

Inside a fairly a large manor, activity was in full swing as three ladies were hard at work. Decorating and setting their house for a wonderful Christmas. The ladies in question where none other than Yang Xiao Long, Blake Belladonna, and Weiss Schnee. Former Beacon Academy students, who long since graduated and had worked hard to become the respectable Huntresses they are today. The girls had been through many things and had stuck by each other through thick and thin. They had come a long way since their first meeting eight years ago. And if one were to ask how they saw one another. It would be a simple, but heartfelt answer; they weren’t mere friends…

They were family.

“I’m finally done with the hallways,” Weiss called out, stifling a grunt as she stepped into the living room. Only to look with astonishment at the current state. “Oh my…” 

The entirety of the living room looked beautiful; covered from top to bottom in Christmas decorations. Yang grinned, walking in with a box of finishing touches. “Nice huh?” 

“I must admit, you two did a splendid job.” Weiss found herself agreeing, as Blake jumped down from the latter. Dusting her hands to join Weiss and Yang at the results of their two hours of hard work. 

“Now all we need is a Christmas Tree, and it’ll be perfect,” Yang commented, no shortness of pride lost within her tone. Looking over to her partners, she asked, “Think he’ll like it?” 

That question immediately brought smiles to the other two ladies in the room. As they knew exactly whom Yang had been referring to; the fourth and final member within their small family. And someone who had managed to single-handedly change all of their lives for the better. 

Their beloved son: Garnet Rose

“Of course,” Was Weiss’ immediate answer. Out of all the holidays, Weiss had been looking forward to; Christmas had been the most highly anticipated for the Schnee Heiress. 

Blake nodding in agreement. “Definitely; he’s gonna be amazed by what he’ll see.” 

Yang brightened at the responses, thrilled that they had been sharing the same feeling she was in terms of their son. Thinking back; it had been a full 6 months since she and the others had first met the boy in question. Who would’ve thought a simple chance encounter at an orphanage during a simple community service, would spark the beginning to a life-changing decision. Not Yang, Weiss, or Blake; they would tell you that much. But neither one of them would complain about it, to them, Garnet had been a wonderful joy to have in their life. Something that they hadn’t been expecting to have this much of an impact on them.

Hearing the sounds of a car approaching, cut the blonde off from her thoughts. “That must be Garnet now.” She heard Weiss speak, already heading for the door before she and Blake could say anything. Blake chuckling in amusement as she followed her friend out of the room as well.

“Welp may as well go join them.” Muttered the Busty Blonde, setting the box down and heading to join the girls.

-X-

“Thanks again for giving me a lift Mrs. Goodwitch.” 

A pleasant chuckled left the lips of the mature blonde, glancing over to the teenage boy sitting in the passenger seat of her car. The two on their way to the boy’s home after he had spent the day hanging out with the blonde woman’s son. “It was my pleasure, Garnet. But please, call me Glynda; Mrs. Glynda makes me feel like my mother.” 

15-year-old Garnet Rose blinked before smiling and nodding. “Sure, Ms. Glynda.” He said before looking out to see the approaching mansion. 

Glynda honestly couldn’t help but feel the ironic amusement swelling inside her at the moment. If anyone had ever told her that at one point she would driving home a child to some of her former students from Beacon Academy. Or that said child was friends with her adopted son. She would’ve honestly laughed at the mere notion, and yet here she was. She had been thoroughly surprised when she had learned who the boy’s mother, or rather MOTHERS, were. And while had a few legitimate questions as to how all three of them came to wanting to adopt the boy all at the same time. Seeing the look of happiness expressed all over the 16-year old’s face, made it feel a bit inappropriate to ask them; at least for the time being, however. Still, to think three of her most rowdiest students, would end up becoming caring and nurturing parents; it was almost mind-boggling in a sense. Coming up to the entrance of the house, Glynda nodded to Garnet as the boy stepped out of the car. 

“Have a pleasant evening Garnet, give your mother’s my regards.” The blonde said through the windows. 

“You too, hope you and Domino have the same as well.” Garnet grinned; with that all said. Garnet waved as the car pulled away and drove off until he could barely see it in the distance. Turning on his heel, he trekked up the small staircase of the mansion and made to open the door until...

“MMPH?!”

“Hey, Heeey~ Welcome back.” 

The boy had not even gotten a chance to even touched the handle when the door suddenly flew open and he was pulled into a huge pair of breasts. Smothering and cutting off his circulation. “Mmph! MMMMPH!!!”

Yang chuckled as she held her precious son close, “You have fun at Domino’s today, sweetie?” 

“Yang! Release him at once!” Weiss demanded, both upset and concerned for the welfare of her son. 

“Aw, what’s the matter Weiss, jealous~” Yang grinned. 

“Of you suffocating our son?! Never!” 

“Oh please, we both know that if I didn’t grab Garnet first. You would’ve smothered him in a tighter bear hug than me.” Yang chuckled, rubbing Garnet’s head despite the boy comically flailing his arms. “You may not have tits like me and Blake, but that doesn’t mean you don’t trap our son in an iron grip. I swear me and Blake needed to get the jaws of life on you last time.” 

Weiss’ cheeks flushed at the joking jab at her but didn’t immediately reply back to the cheekily grinning blonde. Though she didn’t want to admit it, Yang did have a point with her comment. She has been rather infamous when it came to her affections towards the crimsonette. Something she truly couldn’t help, she always did have a weakness for cute things. It was primarily the reason she loved working with things. She knew that, and she knew that Yang knew that. But there was no way she was going to give the blonde the satisfaction of knowing that. 

So she just settled for folding her arms and turning away, “Hmph!” 

Chuckling at her friend’s response, Blake pried Garnet away from a surprised Yang. Dusting her son off, “You okay sweetie?” 

Gasping and finally happy for the much-needed air, Garnet nodded and looked up at Blake, “Y-Yeah, thanks, mom.” 

Blake smiled and rubbed Garnet on his head before Yang slung an arm over her shoulder. Grinning down at the boy in question. “Alright son, I want you to close your eyes for us. The girls and I got something to show you.”

Garnet blinked, “Eh?” He looked at the two confused, only to glance at Weiss as the woman gently placed her hands on his shoulders and gestured him towards the other room. 

“Just trust us and close your eyes.” 

Confused but willing to trust his mother’s word, Garnet nodded and shut his eyes tightly. Letting his mothers guide him to wherever they were leading him too. His curiosity growing from the soft giggles that were leaving the trio of women around him. It nearly made him want to open one of his eyes to take a peek, but he knew that his mom would catch him immediately. Fortunately, it felt as though he wouldn’t have to wait long as the group suddenly stopped walking. 

“Okay, open your eyes, honey.”

Silver-colored eyes opened and widened in shock, a gasp of astonishment leaving him before even realized it. Not even registering the look of joy and amusement from the surrounding Huntresses, as Garnet was staring at the completely decorated living room. Covered top to bottom traditional Christmas lights, stockings, ornaments and everything else until the broken moon. The crimsonette nearly dropped his bag, still speechless at the amazing display. 

“What do you think?” Weiss smiled towards her astonished son. 

“I-It’s… amazing…” Garnet managed to say, his mind suddenly going back to Christmas time when he was younger. 

Back when his parents had still been. . .

A pair of arms wrapped around his neck, ceasing the boy’s thoughts before they could continue anymore. Looking to seeing Yang being the culprit, the blonde had a tender smile on her face. 

“Hey, I know we can’t ever replace your folks. In fact, I don’t want us too,” She placed a hand on his head. “I just want you to know that we’ll be here from now on to make wonderful new memories from now on.” 

“Yang’s right,” Blake chimed in. “No matter what, don’t ever forget who brought you into this world. And no matter what, don’t ever forget who’s your caring family now.” 

“We love you, Garnet.” Weiss added lastly, “Now and always.” 

Garnet smiled, wiping the light tears that was pricking the corner of his eyes as he nodded and hugged Yang. Feeling Blake and Weiss surrounding him for a deep three-way Motherly Bear Hug.

-X-

Dinner had been a small but pleasant one for the family of four, light chatter going about talking about one’s day for the most part. The evening, however, took a turn for the interesting by the time it had been nearing bedtime for the boy. When he was suddenly approached by Yang. Who was harboring an odd smile on her face; something that made Garnet raise a brow at. 

“Um, Mom, is everything okay?” He asked, getting notable curious about her expression. 

“Everything is fine honey,” Yang assured, folding her arms under her breasts before waving her hand. “But can you do mommy a solid. Come to our room in about… oh, 10 minutes? There’s something me and your mothers want to show you.”

“Eh,” Garnet’s curiosity rose at the odd request, wondering just what could his mother want to show him at this time. Never the less though, he agreed, “Um sure?” He responded slowly. 

Yang smiled, completely pleased by the answers, “Perfect, 10 minutes now, and not a moment earlier, you hear me?” Not letting her son reply, the blonde had sauntered off, and if Garnet had been paying attention. He would’ve noticed the subtly sway in her hips as she walked off. 

Curious but patient, Garnet silently sat and waited until the appropriate time was up before making his way upstairs to his mothers’ shared bedroom. His mind constantly trying to figure out what it was that they could possibly want to show him. Upon reaching the door, he knocked on it gently, “Mom, it’s me, Garnet,” He called out, only to blink at the sound of… giggling being heard? 

“Come in~” Sang Yang’s voice in a surprisingly melodious tone. Making Garnet pause for a moment at the tone before shrugging it off and opening the door.

“I’m here,” He said entering the room slowly. “What did you-”

The rest of Garnet’s words immediately died in his mouth at the sight before him. There, sitting atop the middle bed, was his adoptive Mothers, Blake and Weiss. The two of them with a slight blush on their faces, posing seductively as they currently had on skimpy Santa-themed lingeries. 

Weiss’ outfit was a simple halter-like lingerie piece with a fur trim lining the edge, held together by a string bow know. Covering her breasts while her toned abs were left exposed, and a pair of red g-string underwear to go along with the ensemble. Which only helped to serve the amazing hips, thighs, and ass, the petite Schnee Heiress had on her. With her hair down, she had a Santa Claus hat sitting on top of her head, to help complete the entire look. 

Blake’s outfit, however, was totally different from Weiss’. Wearing a red two-piece outfit, complete with a fur-trimmed sleeveless hooded top. Barely reaching down to the underside of her chest, leaving her entire abs and stomach exposed; the top also sporting a cleavage window, with a bow tied at the front. Along with two protrudes at the top of the hood, allowing blake’s cat ears to freely wriggle about inside of them. She had on red boyshorts panties, showing off her iconic wonderful Bellabooty to the entire world. 

The two mothers were harboring a completely flustered look upon their faces, but despite the embarrassing position they were in. They didn’t look the least bit embarrassed or humiliated to be wearing their outfits. Too bad the same couldn’t be said before their loving son.

“M-M-MOM?!” He exclaimed with his voice taking a cute high-pitched, as he immediately covered his eyes with his hands, “W-What are you wearing?!”

“You early Christmas gift.”

At the sound of Yang’s voice, Garnet quickly turned his head over to his third mother. Like Weiss and Blake, the blonde was also dressed up in a sexy Santa-themed outfit. But surprisingly, her’s was more conservative in a sense compared to the former two. As Yang had on a red dress-like robe, with white Santa fur lining the neck, wrists, and very bottom of the outfit. The robe held closed by a Santa Claus belt buckle wrapped just underneath her breast. But despite the somewhat reserved appearance, the outfit itself did nothing to detract from the wide hips and huge bust that the blonde huntress had been known for, for most of her life. 

With the robe parting at the front, Garnet could see the white lacy panties that the blonde had on. Along with a pair of white thigh-high stockings. Completing the entire look. Garnet didn’t even realize how much he had been staring at the ladies in the room before his mind decided to snap back into reality. His gaze shooting downwards to the floor, finding it completely interesting all of a sudden. 

“W-What do you mean early Christmas Gift?” He asked, cursing himself for the slight stutter. 

“Exactly what I said,” Yang hummed with a giggle. “With the year coming to a close and you getting ready to spend your first Christmas with us. I thought why not make your first one, a memorable one? Something you can look back on for years to come?” 

“I-Isn’t this a little excessive?!” Garnet choked a bit, still keeping his head down and refusing to make eye contact with Yang. “Even though you say it’s supposed to be a gift…” 

“Hm~?” Yang tapped a finger against her cheek, a small grin forming on her face. “I’m not really seeing what the problem is; it’s not as if you haven’t seen us naked before.” The grin grew wider with Yang’s expression turning cheeky, “And it’s DEFINITELY not like you haven’t received ‘this’ type of gift from one of us before, either.”

The moment that statement was said, Blake and Weiss joined Garnet in the Ripe Tomato face club. It was the truth, something that was a well-guarded secret within the three mothers and sole-child of this adopted family. Was the sinful fact that Garnet had been rather… sexually active with all of his mothers. Something that occurred purely by accident once and by all rights SHOULD have been a one time mistake. But upon catching Garnet and Yang in the act that fateful day. A couple of things have been learned within the group. 

Weiss and Blake were more perverted than they ever admit. 

Yang’s slutty face, as she took their son’s dick from the back, was fucking hot. 

And as for Garnet. . . 

Well… let’s just say, not everything about him was as little as they initially thought.

Seeing that there was going to be no form of comment or rebuttal from her flustered baby boy. Yang took this chance to grab him and plop him on the bed; right in between the Schnee Heiress and Faunus Princess. Garnet himself momentarily stunned, didn’t have a chance to stop his as she yanked down his pants and show off his member to the trio of beauties before him. “MOM?!” 

A chuckle left the blonde’s lips at the sight Garnet’s ‘not-so-little’ Rose, stood tall and proud. Twitching occasionally, “Boy, for someone who supposedly doesn’t like his gift; your friend here seems to be telling us another story.” She ran a finger down the 16-inch monolithic length. It wasn’t long before the musk coming from the cock wafted through the air, hitting Yang’s nose with his intense smell. Nearly making the milf cave and pounce on the boy. 

“Oh man, if only,” She said softly, but slapped her cheeks and snapped out of her trance. “But alas, I’m not going to be the one servicing you first; that little privilege belongs to another.” 

As if on cue, Weiss took a deep breath and joined Yang, getting on her knees. The sight itself surprising Garnet, “W-Wait, what?” 

“The girls and I decided on the order on who would please you first.” Yang clarified, smirking as she put her hands on Weiss’ small shoulders. “And since you had came up with the team name ‘RWBY’ for our little family. What better way than going down the letters in the respective order.” 

Weiss didn’t say anything but gave a slight nod confirming everything Yang had just said. 

“Well now, come on~” She pushed Weiss into Garnet’s crotch. Her face rubbing against the hot member, “You don’t want to keep our son waiting now, do you?”

Weiss pouted and glared at the blonde sitting at the crimsonette’s side. “You’re enjoying this way too much.” Blake watched the interplay between the blonde and snowy-haired woman in amusement.

“Me? And exactly WHO was it that suggested we go out and buy some sexy lingerie outfits for Garnet to enjoy?” That quickly shut Weiss up. “EXAAACTLY.”

That little revelation surprised Garnet, “Wait, mother, you were the one who-”

“I-Ignore her!” Weiss said abruptly, her cheeks burning with embarrassment. “Yes,” Blake said, nodding her head solemnly, although the wicked smirk on her face said how much she was enjoying this, as well as getting a betrayed look from the Schnee.

“Blake! Why?!” The woman nearly shouted. 

“What, I see no reason to lie to our son. It’s the truth isn’t it?” Blake said with a playful shrug, “And besides, it wouldn’t be proper to set the example of it being okay to lie to those close to us.” She nuzzled against Garnet, “Isn’t that right, honey?” 

“Ah, um…” The boy just remained silently, opting to keep out of the little banter between the older huntresses. 

Mortification set into the petite Schnee, with no help coming from the rousing laughter from Yang. ‘Hate you, hate you both.’ Was the sole thought running through the Heiress mind. “Alright fine, I admit it. I suggested this when I learned we would be doing this for you. Happy?” 

Garnet’s dick twitching and hitting against Weiss’ chin lightly told everyone in the room what the boy thought of that.

“Seems like he does,” Yang giggled at the boy covering his face again. “But anyways, Weiss, you were about to start?” 

Sighing deeply, she took a breath and mentally prepared herself. Looking up at the 16 inches of raw intimidating dick before her; no matter how many times she looked at it. She still couldn’t believe something like this had been hiding within her son’s trousers this entire time. And the fact that her son had an innocent, almost baby-like face made this fact even more jarring. 

Still… ‘Better than her wasting her time on a certain Vasilias.’ Weiss didn’t care what any said, supposedly skilled or not. Four measly inches is not something one should brag about. At least it provided entertainment when Weiss spread that little rumor amongst her friends and the Huntsmen/women community. 

That aside, coming back to the main focus at hand, Weiss gently gripped the length in hand, her fingers barely wrapping around the cock as she began stroking him off gently. Her hand already feeling the heat pulsating against her palm; a silent gulp leaving the Schnee. Leaning in, she started kissing the tip of Garnet’s cock, working her way down slowly peppering the inches not occupied by her hand. While her other free hand made its way down his huge ballsack. Cupping them and giving a light massage as she fondled them. The double assault eliciting moans of pleasure from the teenage boy in question. 

Emboldened, Weiss decided to waste no time and get to the main event. Wrapping her soft lips around the tip of the length, the Schnee Huntress slowly descending down her son’s member. Inch after every thick girthy inch disappearing into the Heiress’ mouth. The sight itself almost like a magic trick with how easily the mother was able to take him without any problems. 

Hissing lightly, Garnet gripped the edge of the bed tightly, his body never getting enough whenever his mother pleased him with her mother. From her tiny mouth, down to her incredibly tight throat coiling around the length. He wanted to say something but choked on his own words. And preferred to just sit back let his mother take over. Weiss continued until she reached the very based of Garnet’s dick, anyone who was to catch a glimpse of her neck; would see how disfigured it was from the massive bulge. A testament to how endowed Garnet was. 

Steeling herself, and placing a hand one of Garnet’s thighs, she began bobbing up and down. Her pace starting out slowly, wanting to savor the taste of her child’s dick coating her mouth. Her tongue working eagerly, licking the underside of his cock; shuddering at the salty, but by no means unpleasant taste. Her thighs beginning to rub together unconsciously as she moved faster. The sounds of her slurps filling the air of the quiet room as Blake and Yang watched their friend worked Garnet’s shaft. 

“Heh, as usual, doesn’t take Weiss long getting into blowing Garnet,” Blake commented, no shortage of amusement in her tone. 

“Yeah, for someone who’s supposedly embarrassed being sexually intimate with someone younger than her. She has no problem letting her inner slut come out.” Yang chirped with a small laugh. 

A bulge pulsed under her left eye at the comments and was about to pull away to say something. But two hands, suddenly grabbing her head and forcing her back down to the base of the cock; robbed her of any chances of speaking. Light blue eyes widened before looking up to see a pleasure-riddled Garnet being the culprit of the abrupt action. The teen unable to hold himself back as he began to face fuck Weiss’ mouth himself; grunting to himself in exertion. Weiss for her part, while stunned, didn’t attempt to fight off or resist Garnet; in fact, it was something she had been secretly anticipating. 

One thing she had absolutely come to love during her time she’s had sex with Garnet; was her growing addiction to being face fucked by the young teenage boy. The sense of helplessness she felt whenever he grabbed her hair and skull, driving his cock as deep as he physically could into her tight little throat, turned her on more than anything else. Her hands were already in her panties, pumping two of her fingers into her heated, now soaked core. Moaning sluttily around the cock, no caring about Blake and Yang seeing this other side of her beginning to come out. Not that it really mattered as the two other milfs started playing with Garnet as well. 

Blake turning the boy’s head pulling him in for a kiss, her rough cat tongue playing Garnet’s regular one; the two battling for dominance. Whereas Yang reached down to cup and fondle Garnet’s unattended balls; having been abandoned by Weiss for her own stimulation. The blonde also took to teasing Garnet’s nipples, licking and softly biting the sensitive teat. Leaving Blake to pinch and rub the other one. The triple assault on his body overloaded Garnet’s brain, becoming too much for the teen to handle. Toes curling, Garnet yanked down and buried Weiss’ face into his crotch; breaking away from his kiss with Blake and grunted loudly. 

The Schnee Dust Heiress could feel her precious son’s hot sticky cum exploding into her mouth. The salty texture coating every inch of her tongue and throat, making her shudder; her eyes rolling into the back of her skull as she reached her climax as well. Her juices squirting intensely over her fingers and panties; coating the floor as well with her essence. The two remained the way they were for a few long moments before releasing his hold on Weiss. Letting the lithe figured woman free to pull up and gasp for air; coughing lightly as some excess of Garnet’s seed shot out on to her face. 

“S-So thick…” She uttered breathless, licking whatever she could with her tongue. Closing an eye, feeling Garnet’s jizz run down her face. “You must’ve been backed up quite a bit, huh sweetheart?” 

Garnet panted, his face flushed red; though whether it was from the orgasm or his mom’s comment, no one would know. 

Blake smirked and kissed Garnet on the back of his neck, “Don’t fade on us now sweetie,” She whispered softly. “I’m up next.” 

Pressing a quick kiss to Garnet’s lips, Blake turned and moved further up the bed, giving her ass a little wiggle as she looked over her shoulder, a smirk on her lips despite the redness of her cheeks. “Well, Kitten? Come and get your present!”

Blushing, Garnet shifted onto the bed, carefully reaching out and rubbing one of his three mother’s rears through the silky lingerie, making the cat-eared woman arch her rear up, pressing the bountiful flesh into his hands. “That’s it, Kitten…”

Garnet took a deep breath, hooking his fingers into her lingerie bottoms and slowly pulling them down, swallowing roughly and cock twitching as the wide expanse of Blake’s rear was pulled more and more into view. As he pulled them down her thighs, he blushed as he saw how damp the insides were and how wet her core was.

“No need to blush, baby boy…” Yang whispered from the sidelines. “That’s what you do to us…” Weiss squeaked as Yang’s hand invaded her panties and rubbed her slick core, gathering her dew and rubbing it around her clit as they watched.

Blake licked her lips. “Let me do something real quick, baby…” arching her hips up and gently rubbing her soaked core over her son’s sixteen-inch cock, making sure it was nice and slick for what she imagined. Shifting again after a few moments, she let that massive cock slip between the cheeks of her ass. “There you go...now, do what you like to do to mommy’s butt.” she murmured, remembering the first morning they had done this like yesterday.

Slowly, Garnet began to grind his slick shaft between Blake's half-moons, his hands cupping and playing with the soft, jiggly flesh. Both moaned deeply as the moved with and against each other. "That's it, baby boy…" Blake moaned, "You can be rough...you know I don't mind…"

Garnet grunted as he began to move faster and harder against his mother's rear, squeezing the plump cheeks tenderly. He knew that this was basically only foreplay for the main event: fucking his mother’s ass. The smaller, hornier part of him screamed at him to ram it in already. And plunder his mother’s Bellabooty, but he ignored it, knowing the more he held back, the greater the reward would be. 

After a few more minutes of rubbing his cock between the cheeks of Blake’s rear, Garnet finally lost his patience and pulled back, placing his tip against the small, dark pink pucker and beginning to press inwards.

Blake released a “Hnnnn…” as her rear started to be invaded, making herself relax and bear down, accepting her son’s long shaft inside her body, moaning as she felt him finally rest against her, hip to ass. “God, baby...have you somehow grown bigger?” she asked, rocking her hips and looking back at him, nibbling on her lower lip.

Garnet grinned slightly. “I will neither confirm nor deny that, mom.” he chuckled softly, savoring the tight heat that wrapped around every inch of his shaft, feeling some of Blake’s slick slide down his balls. “Relax, mom, I’m about to start…” he knew she wouldn’t relax, surprisingly, or perhaps not, Blake loved rough anal. Just like with Weiss and oral, it got the faunus beauty off harder than any other way he would usually fuck her.

True to Garnet’s thoughts, as he began to draw back, Blake tightened down as though not to let him leave. Pulling back until only his tip was till within her grasp, Garnet plunged down, getting a high-pitched “Mreow!” from the dark-haired faunus, cat ears twitching.

Garnet gave Blake a few moments before he began to pound into her, bringing his hips all the way back and then slamming them in, making a loud clap, clap, clap, as his hips met the older woman’s backside. Causing Blake to mewl and scream, burying herself into the pillow with a look of absolute joy on her face. Her toes curling tightly each time she felt his heavy balls slap against her sex. 

“Wow, look at him go…” Yang whispered proudly, still fingering her white-haired partner. Weiss moaned, nodding as she watched Garnet’s hips slam into Blake’s backside repeatedly, turning the creamy white flesh a bright pink in a short time.

Garnet took steady breaths as he pounded back and forth into the inviting backside before him, feeling it quiver and ripple around him as Blake shuddered heavily, moaning helplessly as she came hard. “Cumming already, mom?” he asked, his tone breathless as he picked up speed, taking care not to tap into his semblance. He wanted to be able to talk to her later, after all. “Don’t worry...I am...too!” he groaned loudly, bucking his hips hard several times against Blake as he began to cum, large spurts of his backed up seed spraying into her rear.

Blake moaned as liquid heat filled her backside. “That’s it, Kitten…” she moaned; feeling herself reach an orgasm as well. Her pussy quivering as her juices flowed out. “Let it all out…” she squeezed her ass around him, getting a stilted gasp from her son as he humped against her, releasing more and more spurts of cum until he was just lazily rocking back and forth against her. “That’s it, baby…”

With a gulped sigh, Garnet slid out of his mother, his cock miraculously still hard despite being milked greedily by the ass slut. Falling back, his head rested against a pair of soft bosoms and looking up at a grinning Yang staring back down at him. 

“You really laid into her, did ya?” She giggled, caressing his cheek as she looked at her twitching partner. “And you’re still hard despite it all.” 

Seeing that the bed was getting a little crowded, Yang decided to pick up Garnet and transfer him to another bed. “Hope you don’t mind if I borrow your bed, Blake.” 

The Faunus was so out of it, she could barely form a coherent sound. Weiss smiling comfortingly as she had the limp cat girl’s head resting in her lap. 

Taking her friend’s moans as a yes, Yang plopped the somewhat spent boy on his back. Taking the time to rest his head against the pillow before ridding his of his pajama pants entirely. Garnet tried to speak, but a finger to his lips cut him off. “Shh~ Just sit back, and let Mama Yang take care of the rest.” She whispered, undoing the buckle to her robe and setting it aside before shrugging the outfit off of her. 

There Garnet got to see his mother’s massive tits in all their glory. But instead of seeing a pair of pink-colored nipples exposed, they were covered in a pair of custom-made pasties. Designed to look like her son’s Burning Rose insignia, making the boy blushed deeply. “Not exactly festive for the holiday season. But I think it’s still meaningful nonetheless, don’t you agree?”

Garnet could only nod dumbly, his throat getting extremely dry from seeing the pasties being poked through by Yang’s erect nubs; showing him just how excited the woman was. Getting into position, Yang found herself face to face with the throbbing erection, covered in her friend’s and son’s saliva, cum and pussy juices. The smell was powerful, as it was intoxicating to the blonde. Unable to hold herself back; much like Weiss, she took the coated cock into her mouth. Happily cleaning off the mess that her friends had left behind in her wake. Until there was nothing but a nice sheen of her own saliva 

Bobbing her head fervently up and down, she swirled her tongue along the underside of the girthy length. Yang may not have had a tight throat as Weiss, but by no means was she lacking in skill. And unlike the petite heiress, she had something that would help in satisfying her cute little boy. Garnet third present for the evening; Yang’s large and supple tits. The object of desires of men and women alike; many had dreamed and fantasized about smothering themselves in those stacked bosom. Yet none had ever come close to being successful. 

Save for one lucky little boy, and his ‘not so little’ friend. 

Wrapping her soft mounds around her son’s sex, Yang momentarily allowed herself to be amazed at the cock easily sticking out of her breasts. No matter how many times she saw, it still astonished her just how easily he was able to perform this feat. Smiling, she started the steady rhythm of rubbing her breasts up and down. The slickness from her spit allowing her plump mounds to glide with relative ease. Planting a soft teasing kiss on the tip, each time it would poke out from her breasts. 

Garnet’s breath labored, hitching and panting from the soft pillows smothering his dick. It was truly one of the best things he had ever felt in his life, better than Blake’s ass or Weiss’ thighs. Though he would never truly say something like that out loud; he would never hear the end of it from all three of them. With a sound grunt, the cock twitched spastically, pre-leaking out from the tip in abundance. 

Yang blinked at the sudden action, “Oh sweetie, already about to cum so soon?” She chuckled humorously, alternating up and down between breasts. “Guess our little gifts for you this evening was a little much for you.” 

“Y-Yang. . .” The boy managed out. 

“Shh, it’s okay honey.” She quickly lapped up some of the pre, “Go ahead and cum anytime you want to. Don’t hold back for Mama.”

The gentle cooing was enough to coax Garnet over the edge. Bucking his hips, his entire cock erupted like a volcano. Shooting out and showering Yang in his thick hot seed. Coating the woman’s face and chest white, and while some of it got into her hair. Yang ultimately didn’t mind, since it was her son doing this. Which said a lot given how much she loved caring for her precious hair. Soon, the stiff cock started softening, letting out weakened spurts. Yet even as it went limp between Yang’s tits, the cock was still big even to still poke out of her chest with ease. 

‘This thing’s amazing, you have to say that much.’ Giggling, she licked the cum from her lips and anywhere she could reach. Running a finger above her brow to help her see. “I take you loved our little present, sweetie?” 

Garnet could only gulp and nod; without a doubt, this had been one of the best presents he had received from his mothers ever since being adopted. And considering all they had done for him, that spoke volumes. Yang smiled, climbing onto the bed and snuggling up next to her son. Weiss and Blake, who managed to gather what little strength she had, managed to join the pair in bed; cuddling all around the boy. Feeling himself spent and beginning to drift off, a long day of playing, and fooling around with his mothers, finally catching up to him. He heard some parting words coming from a grinning Yang. 

“Just wait, if you enjoyed this, you haven’t seen what we have in store for you on Christmas.” 

Garnet simple blushed, excited for what awaited him, Christmas Eve.

[thebestestboyo]

How Remus Started Working For Patton: Part Five And A Half

Master post

Since I am currently wracking my brain for ideas on the actual next chapter, I decided to write what happened when Roman had been dropped off at Logan's place! Enjoy!

Tw: Swearing

When Remus said he was dropping him at a friend place, he expected to be at some stripper's house, or at the apartment he and Virgil shared. He even wouldn't put it past him to just take him to work! (It had happened before, and while dull, was quiet enough to sleep under Remus's desk.)

But even so, he was most certainly unprepared to find himself at this impasse with the most gorgeous man he had ever met! Never mind the fact that he had that weird shield thing on his head and the house smelled vaguely of smoke.

Wait, did he himself even look decent?? Remus had just taken him directly from his apartment, he probably looked horrid!

"Apologies, my brother tends to whisk me to places at the most inopportune of moments, I doubt you'd actually want me here in the current state I'm in." Oh god this could have gone so much better if Remus had just let him fix his hair or something!

"While normally random men are not dropped off at my domicile for observation, you are Remus's brother it seems, so I can't blame you for showing up so spontaneously. Have you eaten anything yet? I still have some breakfast left over from earlier."

"Actually I just had coffee, but I don't want to intrude-"

This absolute Apollo of a man turned his head so fast to look Roman in the eye, that he wouldn't have been surprised if he heard his neck crack. "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and I would be damned if someone in my house didn't eat at least something."

"It's really no trouble-"

Oh my, he hadn't even gotten his name yet, and already he was being lead to the kitchen by Remus's friend, sat down at the counter.

"Do you harbor any allergies?"

"Mm, shellfish, but other than that, no."

"Noted. I presume eggs are satisfactory?"

"Yes please! Oh, where are my manners, I'm Roman." Shoot he had his back turned! Ro couldn't do that cool prince thing where he kissed his hand!

"Dr Logan Quinn. If I may ask, why would your brother feel the need to drop you off here? You appear perfectly capable of taking care of yourself, are you sick?"

"Most certainly not! I am in pristine health, he's just overreacting."

Glancing back at him, Logan gave him a once over, then turning back. "I see. Then the dark shadows under your eyes are simply runny eyeshadow?"

Roman let out a gasp, a hand flying to his chest. "As if I would wear black eyeshadow to bed! Or at all for that matter, it makes me look unkept."

"While I do not know your normal-" He rummaged in his pocket for a set of...flash cards? "-vibe, I would not expect your typical state to be pajamas and socks with sandals either. I just thought to ask."

"My dearest Logan, are you worried about me too?" Fluttering his eyelashes, he couldn't help but smile at his words.

"Merely curious as to why you're here. I wouldn't say I know you well enough to worry too quite yet. Perhaps a bit, but not as much given the circumstances."

"You wound me! I've known you for...about ten minutes and you don't feel the same way I do for you?"

"If how you feel is 'confused and slightly concerned' then I feel exactly the same way."

Letting out a laugh, Ro set his chin across his hands, smiling wider. "Not quite, intrepid scientist."

Logan set a plate down in front of him, before opening his fridge again, giving Ro an eyeful of some suspicious-looking vials. Was that...squid ink?

"...what's that look on your face?"

"Is that...is that the squid ink my brother used on our cousin's car?" Roman resorted to using his brother as a conversation? He must be very overworked, or he would have thought he was losing his touch! Who talks about their gremlin brother on their first meeting?

"I presume so, I am not aware of any other supplier of raw squid ink that Remus would frequently visit."

God why did Logan have to speak so eloquently? Roman was a mess and this was his first impression on this absolute stunner of a man? "Do you happen to have any other scientific-"

"You probably don't want to hear about them, they aren't all that interesting in the eyes of others."

"No, no really! I'd love to see some, I have no idea what the original experiment was for but I'd absolutely love to learn if you'd be willing to talk about it...?"

Ok maybe this wasn't so bad of an idea, judging by the way that the scientist's eyes lit up. "Well, squids have been known to change color to match their surroundings, both for protection and sneaking up on prey. I was researching what exactly causes their skin to do this, and if it can be replicated, as it is a trait we have also seen in octopus, chameleons-"

Roman's food long forgotten, he focused solely on him, not even minding that he didn't understand several of the words within Logan's sentences. It was mind boggling that he could even know so much and still had things to add to his theories and his experiments, hands gesturing rapidly as he explained.

"That's the only part of what I've discovered thus far- my apologies, I rambled again didn't I?" His face began to tint pink under his glasses, an absolutely beautiful sight to glimpse.

"Not at all! It was quite interesting as far as I could understand, even if I don't know all the terms you mentioned." Maybe not all hope was lost for them to become...friends? Lovers? Roman wasn't sure right now, his brain was sorta fuzzy from the effects of his coffee beginning to wear off. He needed to put more caffeine in it next time, even if the taste was horridly bitter.

"Well, that's-" He took out another flashcard, that looked like it had Remus's handwriting on it? "Quite groovy if I say so myself, if you'd like you could come see the squid I have in the tank?"

"I would be happy to gaze upon the subjects of your scientific endevors, but are those flashcards made by my brother...?" Goddammit he had to stop bringing his brother into this!

"Yes, he has helped me with slang and thought it best to write me up some examples and reminders."

"Some of those are probably not typical slang."

"Yes, I was actually wondering about that..."

"Here, if you'd like, I'll check over them for you just to make sure he didn't fill them all with innuendos or whatever."

After Logan remembered the importance of breakfast (making Roman eat the breakfast he had previously ignored) the two of them walked to the in-home lab that was set up, Ro amazed at all the squid, as well as all the dick jokes that his brother had written in his explainations of modern slang. No people did not use 'mood' to show that they were horny! Most of the time anyways.

As the caffeine eventually left his system, and Logan got back to work with Ro sitting down at a small desk near him, it wasn't before long till Roman was passed out facedown on the counter. He really needed a better sleep schedule. But at least the thump of his head let Logan know, otherwise he probably would have fallen out of his chair.

At the very least, his mind decided to take pity on him, for once not giving him nightmares, and instead, let him imagine him and Logan, at the aquarium gazing into an abyss of squid.

He should really thank Remus later.

[danganronpa-21]

It is very late and I thought of a question that I really want to ask so here goes: if the survivors of V3 were a part of the hopes peak saga, how do you think they would fit into the world of Danganronpa 21? I understand if you don’t want to answer this because it’s V3 related I’m sorry if it’s not a good question but I think it would be fun to imagine Shuichi, Maki, and Himiko trying to get accustomed to normal life along with the rest of the cast.

Hey, don’t worry! Your question’s just fine, and even if I’m not the biggest fan of V3, I’ll totally answer. I do like some of it, after all!

Shuichi, I think, would absolutely be Kyoko’s apprentice. That’s the number one spot I can see him in a Danganronpa 21 context. After all that he’s been through, he probably thinks that he might be able to do some good with his skills – even despite the feelings he’d had about the job in the past. Unfortunately, I think that means that on certain cases, he’s a bit of a glorified babysitter. Seiko is still the heiress of the Kirigiri family, after all. She needs to help out with cases sometimes as apart of her training.

His relationship to Kyoko is probably pretty weird. I would definitely say it’s in the way of “Kyoko cares about Shuichi, but Shuichi can’t tell”. Seeing someone younger than her, who had survived the same things she had, would probably make her feel a little like she needed to look out for him. I imagine Shuichi would feel somewhat uncomfortable around Kyoko’s cold demeanor, but would try his best to do a good job at her side. Being the one looking after her daughter would probably only add onto that pressure. Still, I think Shuichi would get along with Seiko well enough. She’s an intelligent little girl with a lot of confidence; if anything I imagine she’d be an encouraging presence for him. She’d probably be tugging him along all the time, so eager to work with him and prove to him what she’s capable of. She treats him like a friend and thus Shuichi quite likes her, although her general impishness and disobedience can sometimes make her a bit of a headache for him to deal with. 

Honestly, apart from those two, Shuichi probably isn’t close with so many of the others. Like everyone else in the world pretty much, he has no idea that the cast of SDR2 is even really still around. So his connection to them is nonexistent. As for the surviving THH cast, he’s sort of just… friendly. He’s probably only met most of them a couple times, if Kyoko invited him to a party of some kind as a colleague. The people I would say he likes most from this group are likely Aoi and Makoto, as they’re easy to talk to and are generally kind people. In turn, he finds Byakuya and Toko especially challenging to speak with, as Toko tends to assume she’s being insulted and Byakuya is still very much… himself. He doesn’t hold much of an opinion on Yasuhiro, despite his ear being talked off about OOPArts at some gatherings. 

Shuichi’s relationships with the children are also probably limited. He knows a lot about Kameyo and Junichi given that they are Seiko’s friends, and she talks about them a lot, but he’s never really seen so much of the kids themselves. When he’s around at one of those social gatherings, the kids are usually off playing somewhere. He doesn’t know and is not close with Sakura, Leon, Natsumi, or Phoenix at all; and he sort of knows Hope and Koichi. For those last two, it’s mostly on account of the fact that they’re Kyoko’s kids. He recognizes their faces from the pictures in his mentor’s office, and talks to them a little bit when they’re around. Definitely sees about of his own insecurity in Koichi, and feels soothed by Hope’s cheerful nature. Sometimes. Other times, it makes him think of Kaede and that just hurts.

______________________

As for Maki, I see her taking some time to reflect on some of the things that she felt during the killing game. If placed in a DR21 context, I could see her using her skills as some sort of peacekeeper. Not necessarily as an assassin, but she could absolutely use them to quell anyone who is trying to disturb the peace. Since the world wouldn’t snap back into a normal state just like that, I could see Maki helping manage despair uprisings in the areas that were struggling a little more to get back on their feet. She would be like a protector of the people, ensuring that those who lived in the harsher parts of the country (and in this specific case, Tokyo) could go about their lives safely and comfortably. Not exactly as a form of law enforcement, but really something along the lines of ensuring that eventually, the country would be able to get back on its feet. I should also note that I don’t see this as something done by Future Foundation. Almost like a civilian-made group, I’m thinking.

I don’t personally see Maki having many relationships with the other Survivors from Trigger Happy Havoc and Goodbye Despair. In terms of the Goodbye Despair cast, she’s likely kept in the dark (like so many others) about what happened with them and often finds herself more comfortable that way. She mostly just wants to deal with things as they come up, for that’s mostly the way she seems to have lived her life. From the Trigger Happy Havoc cast, I imagine she finds the most interaction with people like Kyoko and Byakuya. She interacts with Kyoko more due to the fact that she is frequently made to investigate the happenings in the parts of the city that Maki oversees. Since despair would still be pretty high in some areas, Maki definitely helps her out in getting the details of riots, assaults, murders, all that bad stuff. The two of them have a purely professional relationship, with both of them being pretty cold at first glance, but they admire one another for the work they put into their jobs. Kyoko is regarded by Maki as a respectable woman, while Kyoko regards Maki the same – but with a little added appreciation, as she’s a friend of Shuichi’s. Thus Maki maintains a bit more importance to the detective than she knows. 

As for Maki’s relationship with Byakuya, it’s mostly on account of the donations he makes to the relief efforts. While at first she is adamant about her disgust of him (what kind of man says he’s only providing money for aid to ensure that his own life is better?), she finds that she slowly grows to appreciate the contributions he makes to the relief effort. While not particularly caring, he is willing to pledge great sums of money to ensure that the city gets back to its former glory. And if funds are cut, she knows she can count on him to bust in saying that he somehow had some cash to spare – even when she knows he didn’t. 

I personally don’t see Maki having any relationships with the children of DR21. Maybe Seiko, if she were briefly brought upon a case, but I think Kyoko would be less likely to bring her daughter on certain cases in rough parts of town. Especially since, for awhile, child kidnappings in the name of despair were pretty common. 

______________________

I’m a little boggled on where I’d put Himiko in this timeline. Is it weird of me to say I’d put her somewhere working with children? I mean, a cute, talented magician in a world-in-recovery-post-apocalyptic timeline? She’d be a huge source of comfort for people, especially the little ones who were born into such a confusing and troubling time. I could totally see her being a performer who goes around to schools and businesses and all those places that are slowly returning to their former grace and just absolutely igniting them with joy. 

In this case, I think it probably earns her a bit of a reputation — so I think she does have a little more attention from some of the Survivors. Especially considering that out of the six of them, Toko is the only one who doesn’t have a child. I think she’d definitely earn some appreciation from Aoi, Kyoko and Makoto as morale boosters, and who knows, maybe she’d be scheduled to visit Hope’s Peak during its first couple years to cheer everyone up! I like to think that there could even be an aspiring Reserve Class magician who goes to ask her about some of her tricks. As for some of the other Survivors, though, I think Yasuhiro would be unusually mystified by half of the stuff Himiko does — and would come up with these weird theories to how it works. He’d only be right sometimes, but most of the time he’d just be throwing out random theories. I don’t think Himiko is terribly amused by them, and keeps insisting that all of it is just real magic. 

As for relationships with the children, I don’t know how well she’d know any of them. Probably just on a surface-level, I think. Acquaintance relationships at most. If she had a favourite amongst the kids, it would probably be Kameyo, as she’s inclined to wholeheartedly believe in things like magic and monsters. Kameyo would probably think that Himiko and her magic tricks are just like, the coolest thing ever and I imagine Himiko probably takes great pleasure in having someone who just so totally loves what she’s doing.

______________________

In a DR21 context, the survivors of V3 would probably each be finding their own way in the changing world. I think one thing’s for certain though, and that’s the fact that they choose to stay together. I sort of picture them with a crappy downtown Tokyo apartment that they share. It’s probably kind of shabby but it’s got two bedrooms and a working bathroom and kitchen, so they don’t mind too much about how it’s not the best. They probably take turns cooking meals for one another, and likely do the same for the household chores. After the events of their killing game, I don’t think they’re anywhere near to being entirely back on their feet yet -- but they’re getting a start, and that’s what matters most.

[darkobsidianquill]

Harry Potter and the Descent into Darkness

Chapter One

Summary: It's Harry's 4th year at Hogwarts and his name has just come out of the Goblet of Fire. Everyone has abandoned him and he feels utterly alone. Through an accident Harry and the piece of Voldemort's soul that resides inside him begin to interact and Harry slowly begins to change. He becomes stronger and more aware, and slowly grows aware of a more sinister course of events that has perpetuated his entire life.

Rated M for violence, torture, language, and some mild sexual situations.

Harry Potter and the Descent into Darkness

Harry was alone. He'd never felt so lost and alone in his life. Even when at the Dursley's when he was a young child, he hadn't felt this alone. At least then, alone was all he had ever experienced. He didn't have anything to compare it to. Now he had known friendship and knew what it felt like to have friends and confidants with whom he could trust. Having it all ripped away from him, and being submerged back into that abyss of solitude was crushing.

It was now November 3rd, but his problems had really started on October 31st. Terrible things always happened on Halloween. So of course, he had been wary. Experience had taught Harry to dread this day each year, but he had not seen this coming. Not by a long shot.

He was in his 4th year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and things had started out fine enough. Granted, the attack by Death Eaters at the Quidditch World Cup several weeks before the start of term had been a rather terrible experience, and then there were the foreboding dreams Harry had been having... but actual school had been great, so far. Even their Defense teacher was brilliant. Mad. But brilliant.

So when Harry's name had come shooting out of the Goblet of Fire, naming him one of the Tri-Wizard Champions, he had been stunned into a dumbfounded silence.

The entire school was convinced that he had cheated somehow. That he'd managed to find some way around Dumbledore's age line and had entered his name into the cup. More than that, his cheat had somehow screwed things up so badly that there were two champions chosen to represent Hogwarts when there was only supposed to be one.

The day after the champions were chosen, a reporter from the Daily Prophet named Rita Skeeter had come to interview the four of them. Her article was like a nuke of horror and embarrassment upon his life. It was utter rubbish and gossip drivel, of course, but that didn't stop people from believing it.

The entire school was against him. He was the attention seeking, cheating, liar, who still cried about his parents death sometimes at night, and had serious mental stability issues. But all of this would probably be within his ability to cope with – if it weren't for the abandonment of the two people he had trusted he could trust to always believe him.

Ron was angry. He didn't believe Harry for one minute when he told the redhead that he hadn't put his name into that cup. He was convinced that Harry had found a way around the age line and had entered his name without sharing the information with Ron. That Harry didn't want the added competition. That he didn't want to risk giving Ron the chance for glory of his own.

The stupid sodding git was just so jealous of Harry's fame that he was blind to the truth. The fact that he could honestly believe that Harry would want anything to do with 'eternal glory' stung hard. It showed that his friend really didn't know him much at all.

And then there was Hermione. Even she didn't believe him! She was angry at him for cheating. For doing something that had screwed up the tournament to make four champions instead of three, and she was angry at him for being so reckless that he would do something to put his life in danger. She was so angry that she couldn't see past the fury to listen to his insistence that he hadn't done it in the first place.

It was Saturday and he was hiding away in his dormitory. All of his dorm mates had left for breakfast. None of them bothering to 'wake' him, since none of them were speaking to him. Not that he wanted to go to breakfast anyway. He was sick of the stares and the whispers, and the open mocking from every damn Slytherin in the school.

He lay down in his bed, buried deep within the red quilts and shadowed beneath the heavy drawn curtains that surrounded his four-poster bed. He closed his eyes and tried to clear his mind of all the pain and loneliness he felt. The sense of utter abandonment filled him and he clenched his jaw, taking in sharp breaths through his nose as he tried to push it all away. Turn everything off. Shut everything out.

Nothingness.

He slowed his breathing and it was coming out in even, deep breaths now. He escaped deep into his mind in a way he hadn't done in years. He used to do this when he was shut away in the cupboard and trying not to cry because of something especially hurtful his relatives had said or done to him, but he had stopped doing it at some point.

As he retreated deeper and deeper into his mind he slowly began to recognize the place. It had been so long since he had done this. He'd utterly forgotten about it. The space was vast and formless. A large white expanse that had an ambiguous floor plane, and white walls surrounding an extremely large empty space. To one distant corner he noticed a cold, dark spot that he hadn't paid any attention to in so many years, that he had honestly forgotten that it was there at all. He examined the dark spot curiously for a moment. His memories of it were foggy and faded with time. It had been so long since he'd last paid this place any mind. He had honestly thought he had imagined the whole thing.

Yet as he thought about this isolated dark corner, he realized that it had always been there. It had always been with him, but it had been completely lost to his awareness for many many years. He remembered some long lost memory of being afraid of this cold dark spot inside himself. That he'd had some... reason why he was scared of it. In his youthful naivety he had thought it something horrible that needed to be shunned and hidden away, but he couldn't remember why.

He knew that at some point, a long time ago, he had begun to push it away though. That he had held it off through a great force of will. Like he had built up some great mental barrier around it to keep it away from him. To keep him separate from the scary dark spot in his mind.

Now that he was actually paying attention to it, he realized he was still doing it. It was like some sort of automatic defense mechanism now. It was just there. He just did it. It was always doing it. Surrounding the foggy dark corner was an invisible barrier, and he could feel that a lot of his magical power was going towards keeping it there. He wondered how much of his energy had been dedicated to constantly keeping this tiny thing pushed aside for so long.

He examined the dark spot with a speculative eye now. Wondering if there really was a good reason for him to have feared it, or if it was worth the expenditure of energy to keep pushing against the spot. It seemed rather innocuous to him now. Granted, it was cold over there.

His first experiments with approaching the dark spot were comparable to poking it with a long stick. Mentally prodding at it in short, quick gestures. Curiously watching for any sort of response. There was none.

He continued to examine and mentally 'approach' the darkness for some time after that, and found the closer he allowed himself to get to it, the warmer it felt. It wasn't really cold at all. And it felt oddly... comforting. It felt almost like a foreign presence, and yet it wasn't a presence that he felt any desire to expel.

He brushed up against it and felt warm and comforted. In his mindscape he imagined himself standing in the vast white room, and the dark spot was foggy and blurry, and yet it had substance. He stroked his hand against it hesitantly and he... he liked what he felt. It wasn't just a softness in his 'hand', but a shudder that ran through his whole body. A giddy tingle that made him smile his first real smile since the events of Halloween had come to pass.

He's automatic defenses had still been up this whole time. Caging the dark spot into it's own tiny corner, but he decided to lower them now. The dark thing didn't seem threatening at all. He wasn't afraid of it any longer, and saw no reason to exert any of his magical energy just to keep the thing cornered.

He stopped the constant battle his magic had fought against the dark spot for the last however many years and felt as if an enormous weight was suddenly lifted from his shoulders. He gasped in surprise at the tremendous difference it had made, almost instantly. He couldn't believe how much of his magic had been going towards holding off the dark thing! It was insane!

He wondered suddenly if this was why he'd had such pathetic results in his classwork for the last three years. Had his practical spellwork been impeded by this battle his subconscious had fought with itself all his life?

Harry refocused on the dark thing again now to observe how it reacted to the sudden release of it's prison. It didn't seem to be doing much of anything, really. It was still there, and it still felt... nice to touch it. It hadn't suddenly grown or moved, or lashed out in any way. It still just sat there in his mind's eye, being rather innocuous. Harry wondered why in Merlin's name he had been afraid of the thing in the first place. He realized suddenly that it was probably some childish thing that had no real baring, and he had constructed this subconscious barrier through accidental magic and had held it up through instinct.

It was mind boggling to think that some subconscious accidental magic he'd done when he was only four or five may had been seriously holding him back in his magical education. It was almost disgusting.

He finally emerged out from his inner mind and sighed heavily as he finally acknowledged that he needed to get out of bed. Even if he avoided meals with the rest of the school, he still had homework that needed doing, and he couldn't neglect it any longer.

– –

It was... incredible. His mind was so clear. His magic was so easy to control and manipulate. He could feel it swirling around him, ebbing and flowing with powerful waves, crashing upon the magic that lie ingrained in the castle around him. He'd never felt so in-tune with magic before in his whole life!

He'd never realized just how much of his magic, and his sub-conscious had been dedicated to the task of fighting against the little dark spot, until he had stopped the battle. Now the magic was always right at his fingertips and everything responded so quickly and easily. His mind was so much clearer now too. He just understood what was written in the books, and what the teachers said. It made so much sense, and he was dumbfounded that he had gone so long just not getting it.

It was so obvious! How could he have gone so long without seeing the truth? Without understanding what it was he was doing?

Magical theory had always been just beyond his grasp. He could do the spells with enough practice, but he never really understood the how and why of the magics before. But he did now. He could see the magic. Feel it as it worked it's way around and through him. His magic worked with him so easily and the thrill of having such easy control of it was exhilarating.

The last week of classes had been such an incredible experience that it had actually managed to outweigh the mocking and the angry glares that followed him wherever he went.

Each night before he let sleep claim him, he had regulated his breathing and let his awareness slip deep into his mind so he could examine the dark spot some more. He wanted to keep track of any reaction it might have to no longer being fought against, and so far there had been... none. It remained the same shape and size and in the same spot, resting deep in the back of his mind.

Why on earth had he wasted so much energy and mental concentration, for so long on fighting this small dark spot in the back of his mind!

He wished he could remember what had caused his younger self to be so afraid of this thing.

He had gradually began to approach the dark spot more and more. His classwork and studies had proved to be great distractions, but he still felt horribly alone. Having his two best friends utterly shun him still stung horribly, but when he let himself approach the dark spot, the horrible ache would fade away. The dark spot filled some of the empty void with a foreign warmth and he would sigh with the slightest bit of contentment.

– –

Another few days passed. Hagrid had him come out into the forest under his invisibility cloak and had shown him the dragons. Madam Maxime had been there too, and on his way back to the castle, Harry had run across Igor Karkaroff, so there was no doubt that both Krum and Delacour knew about the dragons as well.

Harry doubted that anyone had bothered to warn Cedric about it.

That night, after seeing the dragons first hand, Harry had had a firecall with Sirius. His godfather warned Harry that Karkaroff was once a Death Eater. He also told Harry that he suspected that whoever put his name into the goblet of fire had done so in the hopes that Harry would end up dead.

People died in this tournament. There was a reason that only wizards of age were allowed to compete. Harry, only at the start of his fourth year, was wholly unprepared for the tasks he would have to face. He simply hadn't been studying magic long enough to have been introduced to even a fraction of the magics that his fellow champions had.

At that point, Harry was still in the process of being utterly horrified by the prospect of having to face off against an enormous dragon. Sirius had told him that he knew of a simple way to tackle one, but had been cut off when Harry heard someone coming down into the common room. They had had to end their firecall early, and Harry felt incredibly disappointed by this.

His disappointment shifted into bitter anger when he discovered that the person who had interrupted his call had been none other than Ron. The jealous, traitorous git who had once claimed to be his best mate.

He's just an attention-seeking glory hound.

All he ever wanted from me was to bask in the cast off light of the 'boy-who-lived'. Once he realized that he was just living in my shadow, he got angry and turned on me.

A little voice inside Harry's head remarked bitterly.

– –

Harry spent every free moment he could find in the next few days, researching dragons. The more he had read about them, the more he realized just how horrifyingly dangerous dragons were. Usually huge teams of wizards were responsible for restraining and subduing the enormous creatures. It took twenty wizards casting simultaneous stunners to actually knock one out.

He set the book he was reading down on his bedside table and lay back in the overstuffed covers and sighed heavily. It was late – probably sometime after midnight – and all of his dorm mates were asleep. He was stressed and quite honestly, really starting to freak out. The task was only a week away and he still had no idea what he was going to do.

He lay back on his pillow, closed his eyes, and escaped into his mindscape. He'd found that spending time near the dark spot calmed his frayed nerves in an oddly pleasant way. He liked being near it. Liked brushing his 'fingers' along it's surface. He'd even begun laying against it. Leaning into it like a giant cushion. It's warmth enveloped him in a wonderful way. It was like it saturated every frayed nerve and calmed them. He could think clearer after being inside his mindscape, and he felt energized and magically rejuvenated after spending time in close proximity to the dark spot.

He escaped to it again, just then, going directly so it and settling himself beside it, feeling it's warmth envelope him. He sighed happily as he relished the feeling of having something there with him. He couldn't quite explain it, but when he was with this small dark spot in his mind, he felt as if he were with someone else. Like he wasn't alone.

He sighed heavily again and without even deciding it do it, he began to speak. He rambled and talked on and on about what had been happening in his life and the stress and worry that filled him as he worried about the task.

He'd never actually done this before. Talking to... well, himself, really. As he thought about what he was doing, he knew, rationally, that it was pretty crazy, and yet he did it anyway. He just... he wanted someone to talk to, and even though he knew it was crazy, he really did feel like this little bit of darkness in his mental world of pure white, was a separate person from himself.

After what felt like a very long session of ranting and raving, Harry fell silent and was able to relax into the comforting presence. He felt cleansed, somehow. It felt good to vent. To let it all out. To finally tell someone, even if he were really just telling himself.

The dark presence that he lay against seemed to... shift suddenly. It was small, but Harry was keenly aware of the dark spot, and noticed any change in it instantly.

He stiffened and all of his senses went on alert as he mentally observed it for any and all changes.

The dark spot didn't change 'shape' or 'size', but the presence seemed to... embrace Harry, as he was leaning beside it. This was all mental, and any physical manifestation was purely imagined on Harry's part. Much of it didn't really have any sort of physical manifestation at all – it was all just impressions and feelings. But if Harry were to put some sort of physical descriptor to what changed, he would almost say that the presence had just pulled him into a hug.

Slowly, he relaxed into the calming sensation. The embrace continued and it soothed him in ways he could not possibly describe. Harry never liked to be touched much. He wasn't accustomed to physical contact. The only contact he ever got from the Dursley's was painful or just fundamentally negative. He had never been held or hugged before coming to Hogwarts. So even when someone tried to make physical contact with him now, he always shied away from it. He didn't know how to react, so he just escaped.

But this was different.

He felt no desire to pull away. No discomfort or uncertainty. He didn't feel awkward. There was no embarrassment or urge to get far away and return to his comfort zone. This was his comfort zone.

He let out a long, slow sigh, and felt a mountain of tension melt away with it. The presence wrapped him tighter and it was as if it were wrapping him up entirely and holding him close. He'd never felt more whole, and accepted in his whole life. He loved it. He never wanted it to end.

He wanted to hold the presence back and he found that he was. He and the dark presence held each other for a very long time while Harry's conscious mind lulled away into unconsciousness as he slid into sleep.

– –

The next morning he awoke with what he could only describe as an epiphany. Harry now knew exactly how to handle the dragon. It wasn't a single 'simple spell' so he knew that it wasn't the same thing that Sirius had been thinking of – nor would Sirius ever think to do what Harry was now planning to do. However, even if it had nothing to do with what his godfather had been about to suggest, he knew that his answer was probably a better one anyway. He was absolutely positive that it would work.

First, he needed to make sure he got either the Chinese Fireball, or the Green Welsh. He knew it would work much better on those two breeds than it would the Horntail or the Short-Snout. The Fireball would be the easiest. It would listen. Being an eastern liondragon, it would be able to understand the best. The trick now was to make sure that he got it.

Harry was so consumed with his eager planning for the task, that it was nearly a whole day later when he first thought to worry about where this sudden inspiration had come from.

He'd read so many texts on dragons over the past few days that the knowledge, and which book it had come from, had all bled together. He told himself that he must have read it from somewhere in all of those books, but the more he thought on it, the more he was sure that he hadn't.

In fact, as he continued his search now, he realized he couldn't find a single reference in any books on dragons, that said that a speaker of... of parseltongue would be able to communicate with one.

Where had the idea come from?

Was it just some idiotic dream, and he was basing all of his plans on something that wouldn't work?

But he was absolutely positive that it would. He just was. So he pressed through the wall of uncertainty and refocused on his current task.

Making sure he got the Fireball.

His job was made easier when he saw Ludo Bagman walking the grounds from the forest that afternoon. He quickly ran after the man and managed to find a quiet, out of the way, spot to talk with him. A voice in the back of Harry's head told him that this was probably 'cheating' but a surprisingly louder voice insisted that his priority was surviving, not winning. He didn't care what he had to do. He just wanted to make it through this alive.

He asked Bagman in as round-about a manner as he could, that if there were multiple things to choose from in the next task, what might be the method used to assign each of those things to a specific champion. Bagman quickly caught on to what Harry was doing, and, thanks to his gambling debts and his stakes in Harry's winning, he eagerly assisted.

It turned out that each contestant would have to reach into a bag and blindly pull out a miniaturized version of the dragon that they would then have to face.

Harry also discovered that, as the youngest of the four champions, he would have to choose last. This greatly complicated his efforts. He wasn't willing to rely on luck of the draw when his chances were only one out of four that he'd get the dragon he wanted.

That night he slipped into his mindscape and recounted his troubles and his concerns to the dark spot while he relaxed back into it's warm, comforting embrace. He could almost swear that it was responding to him from time to time. There weren't words or sounds, but there was the definite impression of feelings. Like it was sympathizing with his woes. Like it understood. It was like a mother, holding and rocking a child when he was scared and alone. And yet it was also like a good friend. Or a companion who understood you better than anyone else ever could. One who you could truly trust would always be there for you.

Harry couldn't explain why he felt the way he did. None of it could really be put into words that would make sense to anyone else. Despite the lack of logic, he had no desire to fight it. He felt better than he ever had before. His magic was stronger, and he felt more at one, and more comfortable with himself than he could ever remember feeling in his whole life.

The dark presence held him and calmed his frazzled nerves. It listened to his worries, and it added in little vibes of feeling here and there in a way that made Harry utterly convinced that it really was listening. If that made any sense at all... which he knew it didn't.

The next morning Harry woke with a wide grin. It spread across his face and he felt giddy. There was a strong urge to giggle... or maybe cackle. But a moment later he squashed it down and frowned slightly as he let his mind really analyze what he was now planning.

One some level, he knew it wasn't right. That it was... unfair, or something equally ridiculous. Stupid reasons for putting one's life on the line, honestly. He pushed these concerns away by reminding himself that there really would be no benefit at all to the other champions as to which dragon they ended up with. Harry was the only parselmouth in the bunch, and the only one who would benefit from getting the Fireball.

In fact, the fireball was one of the more dangerous of the bunch. The Horntail would be really dangerous too, in the physical sense. It was littered with painful, deadly, spikes, and Hagrid had made it sound like it had an exceptionally nasty disposition – but the range of it's fire breath was actually the smallest of the bunch. The Fireball had the widest and longest range and it wasn't 'fire breath' as much as it was a fiery molten liquid spray.

If he made sure that the other contestants didn't get the fireball, he was really doing them a favor. Really.

After lunch that day Harry followed Cedric Diggory out of the great hall after lunch. The popular Hufflepuff boy was always surrounded by other students – students wearing Potter Stinks badges – but Harry forced himself to push back his self-consciousness and approached the older boy.

"Potter? What's up?" Cedric asked, shooting several of his snickering friends looks that told them to shut up.

"We need to talk. It's important."

Cedric gave him a suspicious, hesitant look but finally nodded his head. He told his friends he'd be back in a minute and followed Harry to an empty classroom. Harry sucked in a deep breath, still unsure if he could pull this off. There was a war waging in his mind over the morality of what he was planning to do, and yet, strangely enough, the part of him fighting against it because he knew it was 'wrong' was surprisingly weak in it's protests. It was as if he were fighting against it only because he felt like he should be fighting it – not because he actually believed that it was wrong.

Harry turned to face the older Hufflepuff and put up a rather convincing nervous mask. His real nerves, however, left him almost the instant he committed to really doing it, and instead an excited glee filled the pit of his stomach. He was almost excited to see if he could really do this. If it would really work.

"Cedric, I wanted to warn you."

The older boy narrowed his eyes and the suspicion was back full force.

"I know what the first task is going to be," Harry said, giving the other boy a determined nod and looking directly into his pale gray eyes. He felt the magic swirling around him. It bent to his will effortlessly. He didn't even have to say any words! Not that he had any idea of what spells would allow a person to read someone's mind, anyway. He was doing this entirely on instinct. He really wasn't sure why he knew he could, but he just knew it would work. And it was so easy! Hell, he was barely clutching his wand! He slipped into the other boy's mind with ease and could feel thoughts and emotions swirling around him.

Cedric was eager and excited at the prospect of getting a heads up on what was coming, but he wondered why in Merlin's name, Harry would be telling him any such thing.

"The first task is dragons," Harry continued to say. The older boy was still entirely oblivious to Harry's presence in his mind. Harry had to fight hard against the smirk that tried to spread across his lips. This is too easy!

"Dragons!" Cedric exclaimed and his mind filled with panicked thoughts and images of enormous scaled beasts with sharp fangs and walls of fire.

"Yeah, they've got four of them. A Swedish Short-snout, a Hungarian Horntail, a Green Welsh, and a Chinese Fireball," as Harry spoke the last one he followed the thought in the older boy's mind and encircled it with the strongest sense of dread and loathing he could subtly muster in Cedric's mind. He encased the very thought of it with the strongest desire to avoid it at all costs.

Don't choose the Fireball.

Cedric's expression only showed his utter horror at the idea of fighting a dragon for a moment before he managed to master his face into a committed, if not still rather unnerved, mask. The Hufflepuff's thoughts weren't nearly so ordered or controlled. He was utterly panicking on the inside.

Cedric noted, for a split second, that it was odd that he should be so terrified of the Fireball, but he also knew that the Chinese dragons had insane range with their molten fire breath, and figured that was probably why.

"Why are you telling me this?" Cedric asked suddenly as the suspicion from earlier took hold of his thoughts again.

"When I saw them – the dragon's I mean – I saw Madam Maxime and Karkaroff out there too. If they know, their champions know. It was unfair for you to be the only one of the four of us who didn't know," Harry said with an innocent face and a simple one-shoulder shrug. Cedric looked surprised and mentally commented on how naive Harry was.

Harry had to fight hard against a smug grin.

Naive indeed. He mentally chuckled.

Eventually, Cedric accepted Harry's gesture and thanked him for the information. The two parted ways and Harry finally allowed the sly smirk to cross his face.

Just too easy.

– –

The next day Moody had held Harry after Defense class and it almost seemed as if the man were trying to subtly offer his assistance to Harry. He even went so far as to tell him that cheating was a part of the Tri-Wizard Tournament's historical past time. This mildly soothed some of Harry's conscious, but he was already dedicated enough to his plan that he'd mostly gotten over his moral concerns.

Moody asked Harry if he had a plan for how to tackle the task and actually seemed rather shocked when Harry insisted that he did, and said as much with a surprising amount of confidence.

Moody had looked at him curiously but finally nodded his head and let him go to his next class.

– –

Finding Krum alone was easy enough. The enormous Bulgarian-of-few-words spent a surprisingly large amount of time in the library. The trick was getting to him before his 'fan club' arrived to crowd him.

Harry had easily noted a pattern in what times the Durmstrang student showed up in the library, since Harry himself had been spending so much time in the place lately, and was there waiting for him the next afternoon. He cornered Krum almost instantly because he knew he didn't have any time to waste. He called up the magics around him, loosely gripped his wand in hand at his side and slipped into Krum's mind.

The Durmstrang student was immediately wary and his mind was filled with suspicion. Harry used basically the same story he had with Cedric – with a few necessary modifications. He knew Krum already knew about the dragons, but Krum didn't know that Harry knew that – Harry had been under his invisibility cloak when he saw Karkaroff in the forest. And since Krum didn't want to get his headmaster in trouble, he pretended like he hadn't already known.

After the briefest moment in his mind Krum seemed to notice that something was... off. He didn't know what it was, but he mentally registered that something felt strange. Harry kept his stay in Krum's mind very short, and looked around as little as possible so as not to draw attention to his presence.

Krum already had the desire to aim for the Short-snout or the Green, so Harry subtly pushed for the Short-Snout, while adding in the aversion to the Fireball. He also reduced Krum's aversion to the Horntail, and added in the thought that it wouldn't be so bad since it had the shortest range in it's fire.

He left the older boy none the wiser, and with an even more smug grin plastered across his face.

Getting to Fleur Delacour alone seemed an utterly impossible feat. She was always surrounded by a hoard of giggling French schoolgirls, and the group of them glared angry daggers at any boy who had the balls to approach them. Of course, most boys who approached the half-veela, did so as a heap of babbling incoherent hormonal idiocy, so the girls' irritation was clearly warranted.

The task was only one day away at this point and Harry was beginning to feel slightly desperate. He needed to get o Fleur. His chances in the first task were already drastically improved, but Fleur would still get to draw before him, and with his luck, she'd pick the damn Fireball and screw him over.

He had back-up plans, and was at least mildly confident that he could still survive the task with the other dragons... or at least, he really hoped so... but his chances were far, far better if he got the damn Fireball!

He'd spent every morning and evening inside his mind with the dark presence. It gave him strength and encouraged him. Whenever he was feeling hopeless it would make him feel better. It was as if it were somehow telling him that he was strong and that he could do it, even though it had no words to tell him with. He could feel his confidence growing with each visit, and each morning would wake feeling better and more self-assured than the last.

So that morning with only one day left till the task, after a wonderfully invigorating hour of relaxing inside his own mind, he got up out of bed with an eager skip to his step and made his way quickly out into the grounds. He'd seen the Beauxbatons girls out in this part of the grounds studying a lot, and hoped he'd get lucky and find her out here without having to run half-way around the school searching for her.

He grinned widely as he saw her sitting on the grassy lawn with several other girls in light-blue tailored robes. He strode up to the group of them with a confidence he never would have felt before tearing down the barrier he had used to fight against the dark presence. He had always been so shy and insecure. He was so ruddy happy that he didn't feel that way anymore. He was so sick of that person. That stupid, weak, little boy.

"Mademoiselle Delacour?" He asked with a confident, but calm smile. The girls sitting around Fleur all looked at him with a mixture of surprise, or annoyance. A quick sweep of the girls surface thoughts didn't help with most of them since they were thinking in French, but their emotions and mental imagery told Harry that they were upset at having their study session interrupted by some stupid little boy. But several were surprised at he had managed to come up to Fleur without being a blathering, simpering mess.

"Monsieur Potter?" she asked, raising a single curious eyebrow, but still giving him a rather hesitant and curious look.

"I'm terribly sorry to interrupt your study session, but I have something really important to tell you. It will only take a moment," he said in a sweet, polite tone and an innocent smile.

She narrowed her eyes, and all of her fellow study partners looked suspicious and surprised, but Fleur stood to her feet and joined him about twenty feet away by another tree. Harry was surprised to note how very little her veela aura was effecting him. He easily pushed past the minute effect of irrational desire and slight increase in lustful feelings and urges that her halfblood creature decent caused. He could acknowledge that she was a pretty enough girl, although certainly nothing dramatically greater than any of her friends, or any of the 'pretty' girls at Hogwarts. But he really didn't find himself attracted to her at all. She was just a girl.

He was already wielding his swirling magic with practice ease, and slipped deep into her mind without any effort. She already knew about the dragons, just as he had suspected, although she hadn't been familiar with the specific breeds of dragons they would have to face. Just like Krum, she acted as if she had no idea what the first task would involve, and was quite surprised and impressed with Harry's sense of what was 'right' and 'just'. Krum had simply thought Harry incredibly naive for sharing information, but Fleur thought him noble.

She had no sense of his presence in her mind, and it was an easy matter to plant a strong aversion to the Fireball in her subconscious.

Harry left her quickly and she returned to her school mates, looking back at the younger boy with a curious little grin. Harry couldn't help but look at her over his shoulder and give her a slightly cocky smirk. She rolled her eyes at him and returned to the group of excited, giggling girls.

– –

The task was scheduled for the following afternoon, but only classes from lunch onward were canceled, so Harry sat through charms class that morning in an impatient haze. A huge part of him just wanted to get it over wish. He was anxious and felt impatient. Another part of him was still terrified that his theory on how to tackle the task wouldn't work and that he was going to be fried alive

Despite his strange, inexplicable faith in the parselmagic he planned to use, Harry had also spent quite a bit of time researching fireproofing and shielding charms in the library as a back-up plan.

The class assignment that day in charms was to practice a summoning charm, and Harry had completed it perfectly on his first attempt and saw no point to spend the rest of the class trying to call things from across the room when he already knew he could and instead sat at his desk making every object in his bag fireproof.

The class was clearly struggling with the summoning spell, which Harry found mildly amusing. At the same time, he knew that if he'd tried to perform the spell a month earlier, he probably would have had just as hard a time with it. It truly was amazing how huge a difference it made, now that he wasn't fighting against the dark presence.

Hermione kept shooting him disapproving glares as he sat there silently tapping his wand on the various books, quills, and bound parchment that he'd pulled from his bag. He glanced over at her and glared right back at her.

He made eye contact long enough to discern that she thought he wasn't doing anything at all, and was ignoring the class assignment.

She didn't think he could do it. Thought he was incompetent.

She had no faith in his skills or abilities. Thought he was probably failing epically at all of his homework since she hadn't been there for the last month to do it for him.

Of course, she hadn't thought these things quite so literally, but it was obvious from the general feel and shape of her thoughts and feelings that that was basically what she thought of him. She masked some of her lack of faith in him with concern and the desire to help him better himself, but the fundamental foundation of her opinion of him was clear.

His scowl deepened and anger raged.

Her brow furrowed and it was clear she was confused by the emotions she saw boiling behind his bright emerald eyes.

Their eye contact was broken suddenly by Professor Flitwick coming over and asking Harry about his progress with the summoning spell.

Harry sighed in mild annoyance and turned his focus to one of the apples sitting on the teacher's desk at the front of the room. He pointed his wand and willed the apple to come to him. He didn't even bother to say the accio incantation. He didn't need to. The magic came to him with such ease, that actually bothering to verbalize the spell took more energy than was necessary.

Flitwick squeaked in excitement as he watched the small red fruit fly across the room and directly into Harry's outstretched hand. Harry glanced over at Hermione as he heard her gasp in shock and gave her a smug grin before refocusing on the excited little professor.

– –

Lunch was a subdued affair for him. A tiny, terrified, voice in the back of his head kept wondering if this was the last meal he would ever have, but a larger voice kept telling himself that he was overreacting and that he just needed to calm down and stay focused and he would survive this stupid task.

He forced himself to eat and avoided looking at any of the Gryffindors sitting around him, shooting him looks. Some looked concerned for him. Some annoyed. Harry didn't care. They were all arses as far as he was concerned and they could all go to hell. Their opinion of him didn't matter anyway.

Finally, Professor McGonagall came over to him and led him from the Great Hall, out of the school, across the grounds, and into a tent set up for the champions. The others were already there, and they all looked to be in various states of dread and terror. Fleur looked pale and was pacing back and forth furiously. Cedric looked green. Krum was standing to the side of the tent with his back facing them all and his shoulders hunched and filled with tension.

Harry let out an impatient huff and stood to the side and leaned against a table there.

It felt like ages had passed after that. During the long wait, they could hear all of the students and other spectators arriving and noisily making their way past the tent and entering the stands.

Rita Skeeter even tried to slip into the tent to interview them. Harry had glared at her angrily and was only a second away from hexing her and her photographer into oblivion when Krum yelled at her to get out.

Finally the headmasters and Ludo Bagman entered the tent and the specifics of the task was described to them.

Apparently the dragons were all nesting mothers. Harry wanted to groan at this information. They were going to be brutal and vicious! Each dragon had a nest placed at the far end of the stadium and inside that nest was a golden egg. The champions were to retrieve the golden egg without getting killed.

Great. Sounds easy. Harry thought, sarcastically.

So the task was to get past the dragon, not defeat it. That, at least, was a relief. Harry had doubted that he could actually kill the dragon with what he had come prepared with. Getting past it shouldn't be too hard.

The three headmasters and Crouch would be judges. They would award points to the champions based on how quickly they completed the task, the level and proficiency of spells they used, and several other minor factors, like doing all this without damaging the other eggs in the nest.

Harry worried for a moment how the headmasters would score his magical spell-use since he was going to be using parseltongue, but pushed the concern aside. He didn't give a damn about the blasted score. He was doing this to survive, not win. He had no interest in 'eternal glory' or the stupid prize money.

Finally Bagman pulled out a small pouch that was wriggling slightly, as if something alive was crawling around inside it.

One and a time, he had the four champions reach their hands down into the bag and pull out one of the objects. The objects, of course, were the miniaturized version of the dragons. The four breeds of dragon were easy to identify by touch, and Harry watched with glee as Cedric pulled out the Short-Snout, Fluer the Welsh Green, and then Krum the Horntail. They had all avoided the Fireball just as he had wanted.

He quickly had to muffle his grin and pull on a nervous mask as he reached his hand into the bag and pulled out the long, slender, wingless, serpentine dragon.

The fireball had a number '3' around it's neck, so he would go third. He sat in the tent and waited impatiently while Cedric went first, followed by Fleur. He could hear the commentary, but was trapped inside the tent during the actual events. From what he could discern from the commentary, Cedric had transfigured a large rock into a dog and used it to distract the dragon while he went for the egg. He had ended up getting burned in the process and was taken to the medical tent

Fleur attempted to charm her Welsh Green into something of a trance. The dragon wasn't completely subdued, however, and blasted Fleur with fire, setting her robes alight. It sounded like she hadn't gotten burned badly, but was taken to the medical tent anyway.

Finally it was Harry's turn. His heart was thrumming away madly in his chest. Adrenaline was coursing through his veins and he felt the excitement setting his magic alight around him. It was swirling and dancing and his very skin tingled with magical energy.

His name was called and he made his way out into the rocky stadium.

At first glance, he couldn't see the dragon anywhere, but he could feel it's strong magical presence just around a rocky bend and decided to quickly cast the fireproofing spells on his clothing before the dragon became aware of his presence.

A few intricate wand movements over himself and the silent magics were cast. Next he conjured an invisible magical shield and attached it to his left forearm so he could hold it up and shield his face if necessary. The magic surged through him with such ease that it made him feel giddy and almost lightheaded with eager anticipation. He was almost surprised to find just how excited he felt at that moment to see if he could really pull this off.

Finally, feeling as prepared as he could, he began to climb cautiously around the rocks. He came around the bend and heard a great threatening hissing sound fill the air. It was a strange sound. He understood words within those hisses but they they were distorted slightly. Almost like hearing someone speak English with a thick accent.

MY eggs. Protect. Must defend. Disgusting humans. Taking my eggs from me. They'll pay. Fire. Burning fire. Insolent puny creatures. Defiant. Ignorant.

Harry came into the dragon's sight and it roared in anger. It was a split second from spewing a fountain of molten fiery liquid at him when he yelled out. §STOP!§ he called out in a powerful commanding voice and laced with a surge of persuasion magic.

The beast froze, stunned and pulled back, eying him cautiously.

He began to walk, cautiously along the rocky pass, always facing it and never breaking eye contact with it. It hissed angrily and curled it's body into a defensive position as he inched it's way closer to the nest. It was hissing angry words at him, telling him that the nest was HER'S and that she wouldn't allow anyone to harm her eggs.

§I do not wish to harm your eggs!§ He said in that same, loud, commanding tone that left no room to doubt his words. §One of the eggs within your clutch is an impostor! It is not one of your eggs. It threatens your young! It will hatch first and then smash all of your eggs to destroy it's competition! I am here to aid you. I will take the impostor egg.§

§You will not touch my eggs!§ the beast hissed back.

§I will not. You're eggs will remain untouched!§ Harry called out loudly. He was still making his way closer and closer to the nest. §YOU WILL NOT HARM ME! YOU WILL PULL BACK!§ Harry commanded again, and the magic surged around the words and ensnared the dragon. It hissed loudly in protest and shook it's head, but it began to walk backwards, leaving more and more space between it and Harry.

Harry was distinctly aware of the total and utter silence of the stands around him. Even Bagman's commentary had ceased. His display had clearly stunned the audience, but he wasn't going to care about that. Everyone already hated him, and the students and teachers of Hogwarts were already aware that he was a parselmouth.

Harry made his way to the nest, slowly and steadily, never once turning away from the dragon or breaking eye contact. The beast was clearly struggling against the command and was watching him carefully for any signs that he might harm her eggs.

Harry reached out towards the nest and the dragon arched and crouched menacingly. Harry hissed angrily as the display of aggression and the dragon began to back down again. His hand touched the golden egg and he carefully scooped it up.

Still with the same slow caution that he'd used in approaching the nest, he began to climb back away from it. The dragon was still tensed, but it was able to identify that the golden egg he carried was, in fact, not one of hers, so she did not fight the commands holding her and let him pass. He got a decent enough distance away and hissed that she could return to her nest. She did so quickly, coiling her long curvy body around the nest defensively and snarling angrily at the stands of people elevated above the outside of the stadium.

Finally confident that he was in the clear, he raced away and back to the start and through the exit.

It took a moment, but the stands erupted into cheers and Ludo Bagman finally resumed his commentary, exclaiming over Harry's surprising performance.

– –

Reaction to his performance had been mixed. Dumbledore, apparently, didn't approve of him using parseltongue in such a public setting, but didn't voice his disapproval openly, but rather though those annoying subtle indirect hints he always seemed to use.

He had also given Harry a 9.0 in his score, while Madam Maxime and Karkaroff had both given him perfect 10's. Crouch gave him a 9.5. Harry found it amusing that the two competitors had actually given him a perfect score when his own headmaster had deducted points for publicly using a 'dark' skill – even if it was to keep from being eaten or burned alive.

Nice. Harry scoffed bitterly. Neither Maxime or Karkaroff had ended up giving any of the other competitors, besides their own, perfect 10s, so Harry felt rather pleased with his performance.

After the scores were awarded and the champions were finally allowed to leave the tent and head back to the castle, Moody walked with Harry and questioned him about the performance.

"You mean you didn't know?" Harry responded, rather surprised that the defense teacher had no idea that Harry was a parselmouth.

"How the devil would I have known something like that?" the grizzled old auror asked indignantly.

"Oh... well, I just figured Dumbledore would have told you... I mean, he did tell you about the basilisk in my second year, right?"

"Basilisk!" Moody exclaimed in confused shock.

Harry gaped at the man. "He didn't tell you!" He couldn't believe that Dumbledore hadn't told the defense teacher about it, but perhaps Dumbledore avoided telling his prospective defense teachers about the miserable events that lead to any of the previous teacher's departures from the position.

"Tell me what, Potter?"

"In my second year I discovered the Chamber of Secrets beneath the school. One of the students was being possessed by this evil old artifact and it was controlling her in an attempt to kill the muggleborns. She ended up down in the chamber while the artifact tried to possess her body and drain all of her magic.

"I had realized that year that I'm a parselmouth, and it was because of that, that I was able to get down into the chamber. There was a giant basilisk down there and I... well, I killed it. But all year long I'd heard it hissing as it crawled through the pipes and secret passages of the castle. Always hissing angry things, and I was the only one who could hear and understand it."

Moody was staring at Harry with surprised shock, and the utterly stunned expression was odd to see on the older wizard's scarred features.

It took a few minutes of continued walking towards the castle for Moody to shake himself from his stupor and speak again.

"That was still reckless of you, Potter," he said, finally.

"Huh? What was?"

"Using parseltongue in front of all those people. Reckless, I say!"

"How so?" Harry asked, confused.

"Not many people are going to take kindly to you being a parselmouth."

Harry scowled. "Hell if I care. I already have the whole blasted world hating me. Everyone in the school, third year and up, already knew I'm a parselmouth."

"Maybe, but they had clearly forgotten about it. You just threw a big flashing reminder in their faces. Parseltongue is a dark art, Potter. People won't take too kindly to the idea of their savior practicing something like that."

"Pfft. Like I care. I never volunteered to be their ruddy savior."

Moody narrowed his eyes and gave Harry a speculative look. "It doesn't bother you? That you used something considered dark to win?"

"I did what I had to to survive!" Harry argued defensively. "Besides, I hardly see how it's dark. So I can speak to snakes. Big deal. Magic is about intent and how you use it. Light and dark is relative. If I had to use dark arts to survive, then so be it. It's better than ending up as dragon food, and that magic just comes to me so naturally. It's easy and..." Harry said but froze as soon as the words were out of his mouth and looked over at his defense teacher hesitantly – worried, suddenly, that the man wouldn't approve of what he'd just said.

Oddly enough, the corner's of Moody's mouth were turned up in a wry, approving grin. The old man nodded and quickly changed the subject for Harry's sake. He was grateful.

[fatchange]

How to Talk to a Climate Change Denier

I love the winter season. The cool crisp air, the misty mornings, my warm bed. The problem is that winter is becoming a thing of the past, as our planet faces neverending summers. As I write this post, the Antarctic is 65º F (18.33º C). This is the hottest temperature ever recorded. As a mother, it's tough to accept what my kids will face. At this point we need ALL HANDS ON DECK. We have less than 10 years to slow down the cataclysmic effects of climate change. So how do we talk to climate change deniers and win them over?

Despite all of the evidence, there are people who don't believe human activity (burning of fossil fuels, which creates excessive greenhouse gas) causes of climate change. They're at our dinner tables, at work, at school, and on Facebook. They're our friends, family, acquaintances, pastors, coworkers, or teachers. They may share our concerns about extreme weather events, but they don't accept the science of climate change.

We Need All Hands on Deck.

They come up with the strangest reasons why climate change isn't happening or it's a hoax. Some extremists believe it's a plot by the Illuminati to depopulate the earth. A close relative of mine believes that the governments of the world are secretly geo-engineering extreme weather events to lower the population. Here are a few of the statements I've heard.

"The weather changes all the time. There's no way to predict if the earth will continue to warm."

"Human history is a few thousand years, the world is billions of years old, we can't possibly know the weather patterns from thousands of years ago."

"The scientists claimed the earth was cooling in the 1970s, now they say it's warming."

"The earth is in a natural cycle of warming. Humans have no control over it and we can't do anything about it."

"The sun is getting warmer and producing more heat, thereby heating the earth more."

"The magnetic poles are changing, which increases the heat."

"Only God can change the climate. The end times are near."

RELATED CONTENT: 13 Things We Can Do Today About Climate Change.

Yes, these are REAL responses I've personally received when discussing the realities of climate change. There's a reason why these statements exist. Similar to the tobacco industry in the mid-20th century, the oil and gas industry came up with plan to seed doubt about the causes of climate change and they were very successful.

We are all products of our environment and the communities we live in. I'm not better than anyone else. I just woke up from 'The Matrix' a little earlier. We're dealing with a misinformation campaign on a massive scale, such as forming "scientific" advisory committees, writing papers, utilizing conservative media to deliver talking points, and buying off lawmakers.

How to Talk to a Climate Change Denier (and win them over)

1. Don't Insult Them

...because they don't believe the causes of climate change.

If you want to convince someone of your point, don't insult their intelligence, talk down to them, or call them names. Insulting someone will immediately put them on the defensive (and rightfully so). Psychologists have determined that our brains interpret humiliation as physical pain. This is a profound point. If we are publicly called out and told "YOU'RE WRONG" our brains react as though we are in physical pain. From an evolutionary perspective, humans along with other species instinctively avoid pain.

Humans are hard-wired to double down on our own point or run away even if we're wrong because admitting that we are wrong hurts. You can apply this to many other things, like politics, medical decisions, and conspiracy theories.

If We Are Called Out Publicly Our Brains React as Though We Are in Physical Pain.

That doesn't mean we can't speak truth to misconception. We can and we should. We can speak in an assertive, tactful manner that doesn't denigrate or humiliate, yet shows our authority to speak on this subject.

RELATED CONTENT: See how to Lower Your Household Emissions Instantly

2. Stick to the Facts

Present Climate Change Data.

Learn the basics of the causes of climate change, climate change data, and greenhouse gas emissions. Here are the facts about climate change from NASA, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and the scientific community:

Skeptics are correct with regard to human history, but they are not correct with regard to measurement. Central Greenland ice-core records provide paleoclimatic temperatures dating back hundreds of thousands of years.

"Scientists have evaluated all-natural forcings and factors capable of driving the Earth's climate to change, including orbital (Milankovitch) and solar forcings, and it is only when the anthropogenic forcing is included that the observed modern warming can be explained."

"Scientists have also quantified the warming caused by human activities since preindustrial times and compared that to natural temperature forcings."

"The Earth's climate only changes in response to warming or cooling forcings. No known natural forcing fits the fingerprints of observed warming except anthropogenic greenhouse gases."

"Changes in the sun's output falling on the Earth from 1750-2011 are about 0.05 Watts/meter squared. By comparison, human activities from 1750-2011 warm the Earth by about 2.83 Watts/meter squared (AR5, WG1, Chapter 8, section 8.3.2, p. 676)."

"What this means is that the warming driven by the GHGs (greenhouse gasses) coming from the human burning of fossil fuels since 1750 is over 50 times greater than the slight extra warming coming from the Sun itself over that same time interval. Models use the physics of our world with data from empirical measurements and scientific observations serving as initial starting parameters."

"CLIMATE CHANGE IS A FACT, BASED ON DATA AND EQUATIONS. It’s science (not politics). The human-causation of the current observed warming over the past half-century is well-documented and well-established and is uncontroversial in a scientific sense."

"In comparison, there has never been a period in the last 2,000 years when temperature changes have been remotely as fast and extensive as in recent decades. The difference between the two is stark. By the mid-20th Century, global temperatures had exceeded those of the Medieval Warm Period and global temperatures have significantly warmed even more, since."

"The effects of global warming on the timescale of human lifetimes are irreversible, are happening now and will continue to worsen in decades to come: 'The removal of human-emitted CO2 from the atmosphere by natural processes will take a few hundred thousand years (high confidence). Depending on the RCP scenario considered, about 15 to 40% of emitted CO2 will remain in the atmosphere longer than 1,000 years. This very long time required by sinks to remove anthropogenic CO2 makes climate change caused by elevated CO2 irreversible on human time scale. {Box 6.1}'”

"But it IS stoppable. Recent public discussions of '12 years' (now 10 years) point to having a limited window before some of the worst effects of global warming and climate change become locked-in. In reality, the effects are a continuum and many things like ice sheet mass losses and subsequent sea-level rise will still occur for centuries and millennia to come, due to the human burning of fossil fuels to date. But just as when you're in a well that the stoppage of digging makes the well stop getting deeper, so too is it true that time yet remains to make a difference, for those generations yet to come."

RELATED CONTENT: Learn how to conduct a Household Environmental Audit.

3. Make it Personal

Connect the realities of climate change to their daily lives.

Stop posting pictures of polar bears. It's sad, but the unfortunate truth is that discussing the plight of the most climate-vulnerable animals, like polar bears, does not have the effect we intend it to. So what does have an effect?

The Australian wildfires were horrific. The sight of wildfires destroying an entire continent resonated with people because it was PERSONAL. Seeing people running toward the beach for sanctuary with red skies in the background was PERSONAL. Watching kind souls rescue koalas from burning alive was PERSONAL. People lost their homes and their lives. One billion animals were lost. That figure is mind-boggling. I still can't fathom it.

People Losing Their Homes is Personal.

In the United States, midwesterners are experiencing historic floods, 20-year rains are happening every year, some areas are in severe drought, the southeast is getting hurricanes no one has ever seen before. This is real and it's happening right now.

Lastly, the elephant in the room is PHYTOPLANKTON. Phytoplankton produce about 60% of the planet's oxygen. There's already some indication that warming oceans are killing phytoplankton. What happens when 60% of our oxygen goes? It won't be sea-level rise that kills us. It will be oxygen deprivation. THAT'S PERSONAL.

4. Accept Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive dissonance is real y'all and we all have it.

So what is cognitive dissonance? It's a psychological theory first investigated by Leon Festinger. Festinger discovered that people are prone to have "conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviors" to reduce their own discomfort. In simple terms, we know something intellectually, but we reduce the importance of that belief to relieve our psyche. We find ways to justify behaviors, instead of acknowledging it.

The Scientific Community Needs to Communicate More Than Just Science.

We all do it, to various degrees. We don't exercise when we know we should, we smoke, we lie, we buy $5 shirts made in sweatshops, we buy meat from animals kept and slaughtered cruelly, we buy SUVs despite the environmental cost.

Our own death is the ultimate cognitive dissonance. We all know that we're going to die, but we don't want to acknowledge it. YES, I JUST WENT THERE. It's uncomfortable right?

So what does cognitive dissonance and climate change have in common? We know that 90%+ of scientists agree that climate change is happening and the causes of climate change are from human activity. The remaining scientists who dispute climate change typically work for the oil and gas industry. Yet, depending on one's belief system they will doubt this consensus.

A 2012 study suggested that the scientific community needs to communicate more than "scientific evidence." "It also has to create a climate of deliberations in which no group perceives that accepting any piece of evidence is akin to betrayal of their cultural group.”

5. Find What You Agree On

Even if someone cannot be convinced about the causes of climate change, they typically do agree on something.

Our current culture is TOO disposable. Remind people of how our grandparents lived (minus the racism and sexism of course). My grandmother cleaned up messes with cloth towels, put bread in the freezer, and mended her clothes. Most people can relate to this and agree that reusables are better than disposables.

People have an idealized view of what life used to be like in the mid-20th century. Before the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) was created, pollution was legal. You can see these vintage photos of what the United States looked like before pollution was regulated. It's important to remind people that the good ole' days weren't necessarily good.

EVERYONE wants clean water, clean air, and good food to eat. THIS IS COMMON GROUND.

Remind people of what their children and grandchildren will face when they're gone. We all want our children to have a better life than we did.

Appeal to their religious or intellectual beliefs. As a Christian, I believe God has charged us to be good stewards of his creation. This is a value that people from various backgrounds share.

RELATED CONTENT: Learn How To Go Zero Waste When You're Broke.

6. Discuss What They Can Do as Individuals for Climate Change Mitigation

When someone talks about systemic change (change on governmental or corporate levels) people's eyes glaze over. In public administration, climate change is what's known as a "wicked problem." Theorists Horst Rittel and Melvin M. Webber first used the term "wicked problem" to refer to problems that were unsolvable, hard to define, unique, lack criteria. The list goes on. Thnk world peace, hunger, poverty, and now...climate change.

People want to know WHAT THEY CAN DO as individuals to help. We can control our behavior as individuals easier than we can solve "wicked problems." Ultimately the only way we will slow down climate change will be at the governmental level through voting for climate-friendly candidates, running for offices ourselves, and supporting policies for renewable energy.

However, getting people to acknowledge their part in the climate crisis is the first step to systemic change. Listed below are 16 things we as individuals can do to mitigate climate change.

The biggest thing people can do is VOTE. Vote for candidates who will fight for environmental protections (regardless of affiliation). Did you know that many environmentalists don't vote? If you are privileged enough to live in a democracy please VOTE and donate to a politician who will fight against climate change.

CONSUME LESS. "72% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from household decisions, including mobility (especially using cars and planes), diet (especially meat and dairy consumption), and housing (heating and cooling, and electricity consumption)." --Guardian 06/29/2019

EAT LESS BEFF & DAIRY. "Meat and dairy with other agricultural practices, such as fertilizer, and land-use changes, such as deforestation and soil disruption"...generate more greenhouse gas emissions than the entire European Union. --Forbes 04/04/2019

FLY LESS. "A one-way flight across the Atlantic from New York City to London emits one ton of carbon dioxide per passenger. Aviation emits about 860 million metric tons of carbon dioxide every year, or about 2 percent of total global greenhouse gas emissions." --Vox 09/27/2019

PLANT A GARDEN. During World War II they had victory gardens. Throughout history people have had potager (kitchen) gardens on small patches of dirt, in a pot on their window sill, or on their porch. Growing your own food (however small) will lower your disposable plastic waste.

LISTEN TO INDIGENOUS VOICES. Indigenous people were the first environmentalists. All over the planet they are fighting against the fossil fuel industry. From the Amazon to the Australian outback to Standing Rock to Hawaii. Support indigenous voices on social media and donate (no amount is too small) to help their cause (which is your cause too). Visit Indigenous Environmental Network.

WATCH OUT FOR GREENWASHING AND SAVE YOUR MONEY. Biodegradable products are problematic. There is a distinct difference between biodegradable and compostable. Compostable means an organic product can be broken down in the environment when exposed to certain factors and oxygen flow.

DRIVE LESS. "A typical passenger vehicle emits about 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year." Combine errands to make car trips more efficient. Remove excess weight from your car and use cruise control. --US EPA

MANAGE YOUR FOOD WASTE. If food waste was a country it would be the 3rd largest greenhouse gas emitter on the planet. One-third of all food produced in the world for human consumption never reaches the consumer’s table. Learn how to manage your leftovers properly with some tips from the U.S. EPA. Here is a food waste tool kit to help lower your food waste in your home and community. If you have space to compost consider learning about composting.

SAY NO TO FAST FASHION. "The apparel and footwear industries together account for more than 8% of global climate impact, greater than all international airline flights and maritime shipping trips combined." Buy secondhand clothing or from ethical/fair trade manufacturers. --CBS News 04/19/2019

JOIN A BUY NOTHING OR GIVE AND TAKE FACEBOOK GROUP. A buy nothing group is a hyper-local group focused exclusively on the barter economy. Members give secondhand items away or receive them. ⁣The Buy Nothing Project has local chapters all over the world. Visit buynothingproject.org.

ADOPT ENERGY EFFICIENCY MEASURES. Energy efficiency is the cheapest and easiest way to lower emissions because saving energy is more efficient than making new energy. Change your 5 most used light bulbs with ENERGY STAR models. Learn all about adopting energy efficiency measures here.

DIVEST YOUR FUNDS FROM OIL & GAS COMPANIES. This may be a tough sell to a climate change denier, but give it a go anyway! Oil and gas companies are the biggest polluters in the world. Many are investor-owned. These corporations have known about climate change for decades. Yet they have funded and promoted climate change denialism. Go to gofossilfree.org to learn how to divest your funds.

LOWER DISPOSABLE PLASTIC USAGE. Recycling isn't on this list for a reason. Recycling is a failed concept that gives consumers a false sense of security. Most disposable plastic thrown in the recycling bin is never recycled. Instead of recycling, lower your disposable plastic usage. "Plastic contributes to greenhouse gas emissions at every stage of its lifecycle." --Guardian 05/15/2019

GO ZERO WASTE. Don't let the title fool you, there is no such thing as zero waste. Even the most ardent zero wasters produce waste. Zero waste is about conscious consumption and lowering your individual waste stream. It is an old concept and the way people lived for centuries before consumerism exploded in the mid-20th century.

REFUSE, REDUCE, REUSE, REPAIR, REPURPOSE, ROT, and RECYCLE. The first mantra of zero waste is to refuse. Is there something you have been purchasing that can be purchased in sustainable packaging, can you make it yourself, or go without it? CARDBOARD and ALUMINUM are typically better than plastic.

Compost food scraps. Organic material in landfills creates methane, which is a greenhouse gas. If you don't have access to composting, plan out your meals by inventorying your pantry, refrigerator, and freezer.

7. Discuss the Positives

Renewable energy can bring jobs and economic prosperity.

Depending on someone's circumstance, they may have different motivations and ways of helping the cause. Finding what motivates people is key. I would highly recommend the books 'Switch' and 'Microtrends.' 'Switch' explains how we can make dramatic changes to our communities with little to no resources or authority, by "directing the Rider, motivating the Elephant, and shaping the Path."

Direct the Rider - The Rider is our RATIONAL SIDE. Motivate the Elephant - The Elephant is our EMOTIONAL SIDE. Shape the Path - BUILD A PATH TO SUCCESS.

We need to have a vision of the future to promote it to others. What do people want? A peaceful life, with prosperity, and safety. If we can have renewable energy for the same price as fossil fuels isn't that a great idea? Windmills, solar panels, carbon sequestration, and biomass are the future. Clean energy needs workers. Clean energy can bring prosperity to areas hit hard by plant closures.

It's hard to think about prosperity when basic needs aren't being met. Rent is too high, food is expensive, and they don't have healthcare or are underinsured. Supporting policies that benefit working people such as access to affordable healthcare, parental leave, and livable wages will help people envision a better future for their lives and their children. It's hard to focus on climate change when you're behind on your bills and living hand to mouth.

I hope you've enjoyed the 7 Ways to Talk to a Climate Change Denier. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please share with me in the comments or on Instagram.

Ready to Join me on this journey? If you'd like access to exclusive content, please sign up for my zero waste newsletter. If you'd like to keep up to date on new posts or Follow my blog with Bloglovin

[love-the-aftertaste]

I accidentally wrote a friend a novel on what has been happening with with the US impeachment story over the last 60 or so hours, and I put enough work into it I thought I would share it here as well. This was written on Friday, September 27th @ 7:24am:

Hey, so last week there was news that Trump had made a promise to a foreign leader over the phone that was so concerning someone in the intelligence community filed an official whistleblower complaint that was deems both “credible and urgent” by Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) and trump appointee, Michael Atkinson, that the Trump administration refused to turn over to Congress, despite the fact Congress is supposed to be a co-equal branch of government that has as constitutional responsibility to check and balance the power of the president and thus is legally entitled to see that complaint.

And then in light of the fact Trump kept stonewalling Congress, this Tuesday, Speak of the House, Nancy Pelosi finally grew a pair and announced the House was launching a formal impeachment investigation into the president, even tho TTrump had already announced he would release the transcript of the call with the president of Ukraine (who turned out to be the aforementioned foreign leader) and everyone was freaking out that Pelosi had overplayed her hand bc what if the transcript was released and was not as damning as everyone thought it would be, especially since we all knew it would be edited to show trump in the best possible light...

And then the next day (Wednesday morning) the White House did release, not a call transcript, but what is called a "tel-con memo" i.e., a telephone communication memo, which is essentially the notes someone wrote down real fast either while the call was happening or immediately after. AND IT WAS THAT BAD. In it, Trump explicitly states "I want you to do us a favor tho" after lecturing the Ukrainian president about how much aid (money) we give them and how much aid they do not give us. And then Trump goes on to tell the Ukraine president to work with Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General Bill Barr and also to look into Crowdstrike which is this crazy conspiracy theory the Pesident of the Free World apparently actually believes. But most importantly, Trump also directly asked the Ukraine president to look into Joe Biden and his son for a different conspiracy theory.

And then the declassified whistleblower complaint was delivered to Congress finally Wednesday night, even though it wasnt released to the public until Thursday morning and then like an hour later, the (acting) Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Joseph Mcguire, got in front of the House for about 3/3.5 hours of questioning about his role in this whole mess, during which he tried to play Bob Mueller and just dodge most of the questions, but he did admit several important points, including but not limited to, he thought the whistleblower was acting in good faith and that he thought the greatest threat to the USA was election interference...

And now hardcore Republicans like Mitch McConnell, Devin Nunes, and John Ratcliffe, are trying to pretend that Trump did nothing wrong and that the whistleblower complaint is only "hearsay" which is a legal term that DOES NOT apply to investigations, so i literally just do not understand if they dont know the law or are just trying to mislead the public, or probably some combination of both. But also, it is critical to remember that Trump and his attorney have both multiple times admitted on TV and via that tel-con memo to asking a foreign power (Ukraine) to investigate a political rival, which in and of itself is impeachable conduct.

More moderate Republicans are still towing the party line however they are trying to spin the story as "Trump did something bad but its not impeachable" and usually the reason they cite is there was no quid-pro-quo, i.e., trump did not literally say if you do this for me, i will give you foreign aid money" but two things: 1) there doesnt need to be a quid-pro-quo, the fact that he asked is enough, and 2) at the time of the phone call, trump was already withholding foreign aid money from Ukraine and both from the timing of the call and from the language in the tel-con, it seems as if there was a quid-pro-quo anyway.

Democrats on the other hand have finally, finally united on this and now more than 218 (the necessary number of votes to impeach) of them support impeachment, or at least support and impeachment inquiry.

Also Trump has gone from begging to be impeached under the presumption impeachment would help him get reelected, to likening the whistleblower and whoever talked to the whistleblower to spies and treason and suggested we handle them the way we used to treat spies in the old days "back when we were smart" which is to say, Trump would like to have the whistleblower executed. Meanwhile, the New York fucking Times have been doing their level best to out the identity of the whistleblower, which is just so irresponsible it is mind-boggling.

Oh and Giuliani seems to honestly think former Vice President and Presidential Candidate Joe Biden is trying to kill him since he keeps yelling at anyone who will listen that he (Giuliani) needs whistleblower protection, despite the fact he did not blow the whistle on anything or anyone unless the "whistle" is a euphemism for Trump’s dick.