#the rose she planted is called a millie rose

[aimeedaisies]

Princess Anne, Patron of Livability, visiting Millie College Campus in Poole to mark its first year of welcoming students to the campus on 9th October 2023.

[malfoymanortings]

to be so lonely

REQUEST FROM @gxvrielle : George Weasley x Reader. I wanted the reader to be a muggle who is best friends with Hermione and attends her Wedding with Ron. She meets the Weasley Family and can't help but grow interested in George.

this one definitely got away from me. i had to cut it a bit short at the end, but if there’s interest for part two, i got yall!

hope this is what you wanted! or, at least suffices.

“Millie, you absolutely cannot tell anyone what I’m about to tell you.”

The summer heat was beating down on the two young girls. One had a wild, unruly bush of brown hair. The other, the smaller of the two, had her long brown hair pulled back in two neat ditch braids. They sat side by side on swings, their feet dragging them to a stop. Hermione Granger and Millie Wilkins had been friends since they were in diapers, and had no plans of changing that.

Millie nodded, her big green eyes staring doefully at Hermione. The tone of her friend's voice was different than usual, and it seemed to set off an alarm in the back of her head. She couldn’t help but feel that something was changing, shifting.

“Y’know how I can.. Do things that you can’t?” Hermione began, waiting until Millie nodded before continuing. “I’m a witch, Millie.”

It seemed as though Hermione was waiting for Millie to yell, maybe cower in fear, or even run away from her. The caution that was written all over the bright young girl's face almost made Millie laugh, were it not for her astonishment at the revelation Hermione laid down in front of her.

“A witch?” Millie repeated in hushed tones. “Like… like Cinderella’s godmother?”

Hermione nodded vigorously, her curls flopping about wildly. “Yes, exactly! Well, probably not exactly, but.. Close enough.”

Millie nodded, chewing her lip thoughtfully. “How d’you know?”

Hermione’s brown eyes glittered wildly, and she launched into an animated recount of a woman named Professor McGonagall, who had come to her home and explained that she was a witch. Hermione would be attending Hogwarts in the coming school year, a special school for witches and wizards. She would need to get special supplies, like a cauldron and even a wand, in a place called Diagon Alley, which was only available for magical folks to enter.

A hard lump seemed to have settled in Millie’s throat, as she realized that her only friend, her very best friend, nearly her sister, would no longer be with her in their next school year. It appeared that the only time she would get to see Hermione would be during the summer.

It appeared that her world had shifted around on its axis. It was a lonely feeling, even with Hermione right beside her.

Ever the intuitive child, Hermione seemed to catch onto what Millie was feeling.

“Oh, Millie, I asked if you could come with,” Hermione’s nose scrunched, and her mouth twisted down. “But she said you’re a muggle. Muggles can't come to Hogwarts.”

Millie’s heart twisted painfully, but she mustered a smile for her best friend. “Well, that just means you’re going to have to tell me all about it next summer. Oh! Maybe you could write me while you’re away!”

Hermione’s eyes glittered with excitement, and she launched into a detailed account of Owl Post, which is what magical folk used to send mail. Millie was almost able to forget that things were changing, as she felt herself get swept away in the excitement of the wizarding world that she herself would never be part of.

Hermione’s departure soon after was full of tears and many sleepless nights for Millie. She felt out of place without her best friend, and found it difficult to find her place in her new school. Hermione was supposed to be here, and it was hard for Millie to adjust without her. She constantly found herself daydreaming about the mysterious Hogwarts, and wished more than anything she was with Hermione.

Millie found herself drawn to the world of crystals and tarot cards around her fourteenth birthday, much to the amusement of Hermione. Millie soon became almost an expert on the subjects, and she felt more at ease having found her own kind of “magic”.

Summer rolled around once more, and Hermione had many stories to tell Millie of her new friends Ron and Harry. It appeared that Hermione had found her place at her new school, and Millie was happy for her, as long as she ignored the twinge she felt at her best friend's adventures. There was also an awful little cockroach, Draco Malfoy, who was utterly disgusting to Hermione. Millie vowed if she ever ran into Malfoy, she would punch him dead in his face.

Time seemed to move fast, after that summer. Millie found a place in her school, and made a few friends, although none of them were like Hermione. She still waited anxiously for summer to come, so she could drink in all the magic of Hermione’s new world.

Of course, good things don’t last forever. Their summers began to be cut short, as Hermione was whisked away to her new friends, and Millie still knew Hermione well enough to know that the witch was hiding things from her.

Summers passed, school years came, and soon, Millie found herself ready to move onto university. She hoped she would see Hermione, one last time, before she left, but she didn’t hold much hope. Hermione had shared very little of her new life, but what she did share wasn’t positive. There was a wizarding war going on, and her best friend was in the thick of it.

It was a sweltering hot day, and Millie found herself lounging on her front porch, swinging back and forth on the swing as she re-read Pride and Prejudice. She loved romance novels, although she herself hadn't experienced anything of the sort. Of course, Millie had plenty of suitors, but none of them were right for her. She always had a reason, and excuse, but truthfully, she didn’t want something mundane. She was still captivated by the world of magic, and no “muggle” had yet measured up to what she wanted.

She had grown alright with the idea that she would forever be alone.

“Hello, Millie.”

The porch swing had stopped moving as another person sat next to her. Millie would know that voice anywhere. She placed her bookmark in the book, and set it down next to her. Turning her head, she saw Hermione Granger giving her a wistful smile.

She wore a pink jumper, and worn jeans. Her hair was as wild as ever, pulled back in a low pony. A stark contrast from Millie, who had jean shorts and a tank top on, her hair neatly pulled into a braid.

“Hermione,” Millie smiled, taking her friend in a hug. “I’ve missed you.”

Hermione smiled sadly. “I’ve missed you too.”

Their hug lingered for a few seconds longer than usual. Millie had a sense of foreboding grasp her, and she looked at Hermione sharply.

“I get the feeling that this isn’t a usual, ‘home for the summer’, homecoming, hm?” Millie raised her eyebrows, chewing her lip out of habit.

Hermione laughed humorlessly, brushing a strand of hair out of her face. “It’s not, no.”

Millie nodded, and the two girls sat in silence for a moment, swinging back and forth on Millie’s porch swing.

“I’m going to University soon,” Millie said in the silence, running her fingers along the rough worn wood of the swing. “It's a few hours away from here. My parents aren’t too thrilled about me moving so far away, but it’s what I wanted. I got Valedictorian, as well, although I’m sure it would have gone to you if you would have been here.”

Hermione smiled wistfully, taking Millie’s hand in hers. “I don’t know, I think my competition would have beaten me.”

Millie shrugged, enjoying the feeling of Hermione’s hand in hers. “I guess we’ll never know.”

“Remember how I told you about the war?” Hermione blurted abruptly, barely waiting for Millie’s nod. “It’s gotten a lot worse. Harry, Ron, and I have to go into hiding. I don’t know.. I don’t know if I’ll get to see you again, so I wanted to come say goodbye. I can’t stay long.”

Millie closed her eyes, feeling her heart thud in her chest. This was what she had been afraid of. Leave it to Hermione to make friends with the face of the Wizarding War.

“Be safe, Hermione,” the words came out funny, her throat was closing. “If you can, when it’s safe… find me. Goodbye, Hermione Jean.”

Hermione smiled sadly, and pulled her in for one more hug. “Goodbye, Millie Rose.”

Millie took one last look at Hermione, and when she blinked, she was gone. In her place, was a photograph the two had taken last summer. Hermione and Millie had each other's arms thrown over their shoulders, smiling and laughing. To her shock, they actually moved.

She gingerly took the photograph, holding it tightly to her chest. This was the last memory she may have of her best friend, and it was magic.

A few years passed, and Millie had graduated from University. Although she hadn't heard from Hermione, she had never stopped thinking of her friend. The magical photograph of the two of them stayed on her dresser as always, and she grieved the loss of her best friend as though she had lost a sister. It certainly felt as though she had.

Millie was able to get a job in her chosen field, primary education, and she was due to start next week. She had her own flat in London, decorated to her liking with hints of magic and literature hidden throughout it. Throughout her home, there were crystals of all different kinds and shapes. They were comforting to her, even if they weren’t wizard magic.

Although she had many good things in her life, she still felt as though she was incomplete.

It was the middle of the night when she woke up to the sound of something crashing in her living room. Her heart thudded, and her blood ran cold. She slowly got out of bed, pulling on her robe. She cursed herself for not having any sort of weapon, and settled for a rather heavy candle she had been gifted for receiving her new job.

“Honestly, Ronald, this isn’t how I would have liked to enter her flat, breaking her plant all over the floor-”

“Oh really ‘Mione, because breaking into her flat at two in the morning is such a good idea itself-”

Millie stopped in her tracks. She would know that voice anywhere.

Rushing into her living room, she flipped on the lights. Hermione Granger stood in her living room, arguing with a tall ginger man.

“Hermione-” Millie sputtered, unable to find words.

“Millie,” Hermione rushed forward, smiling widely as she gathered her into a hug. “I’m so glad to see you.”

Millie held onto her tightly, relishing in the smell of vanilla and gardenias that the young witch always smelled of. Hermione pulled away, a warm smile still on her face. Millie took note of the changes the young witch had. There was a thin white line on her throat, similar to the ones Millie had on her thighs. There were a few more worry lines on Hermione’s face, and although she looked tired, she also looked.. Free.

“Alright, Hermione,” Millie gestured towards her couch and began making her way to the kitchen. “You and your friend make yourselves comfortable, I’ll put on the tea.”

When Millie re-entered the living room with her tea tray, Hermione and the ginger were both sitting on the couch. The ginger had Hermione’s hand in his, his thumb rubbing smooth circles over her skin. Millie’s eyes widened in understanding, as she realized this must be Ron Weasley, the ginger Hermione always pined over.

“Well, Ron, it appears you finally got your head on straight,” Millie sniffed, sitting down in an armchair. “Poor Hermione didn’t think you’d ever find your sense and make it official.”

Ron’s mouth dropped open in shock, and Hermione laughed rather loudly, covering her smile with her hands. Millie smirked, taking her cup of tea and dropping three sugars inside.

“Oh, Millie,” Hermione shook her head, fixing her own tea. “I’ve missed you.”

They stayed up well into early morning, as Hermione finally told her all of the details she had withheld over the years. Everything with Voldemort, Harry, the war. Millie learned so many things that she felt she had no more room for new knowledge. By the time Hermione was done relaying everything, Millie’s eyes were heavy and she couldn’t stifle her yawns any longer.

“Oh dear, I’ve been keeping you awake,” Hermione shook her head, standing up. She flicked her wrist, and their tea dishes were cleared away. “Before we go, there’s one more thing I’ve got to ask of you.”

Millie nodded, in astonishment of the overt display of magic Hermione had given her. She had never seen her do anything like that.

Hermione glanced over at Ron, who had been admiring her the entire time. A blush coated her pale face, and she shook her head slightly as she looked back at Millie.

“I’m getting married, Millie, and I would love for you to be there as one of my bridesmaids.”

Millie hadn’t been expecting that, although she should have. It made sense, the way she and Ron interacted. “Of course, Hermione. I would love to.”

Hermione smiled brightly, and handed her a card with details on it. “I’ll have one of Ron’s brothers come for you, when it's time.”

Millie narrowed her eyes, looking down at the card. “Hermione, this says your wedding is in two days.”

Hermione nodded, looking bashful. “Yes, it took me longer than I would have liked for me to find you. Your parents didn’t live in our old neighborhood anymore.”

“Yes, I convinced them to move,” Millie said softly. “I wasn’t sure if they would be safe with.. Everything.”

Hermione nodded knowingly, a sad smile on her face. “I understand if you can’t make it.”

Millie shook her head. “No, I’ll be there. Just… not much time to look for a dress..”

Hermione scoffed, shaking her head. “Oh, Millie, please. I have one for you.” with a flick of her wrist, Hermione produced a shimmering pale pink gown.

Millie’s eyes widened in shock again at the magic, and she gingerly took the garment from Hermione. It felt soft, silky, and she instantly fell in love with it. “Thank you, Hermione.”

Hermione smiled, and gave Millie one last hug. “One of Ron’s brothers will be here to bring you on Saturday.”

Millie felt that Saturday couldn’t come fast enough. She would finally get to see Hermione’s wizarding life.

Saturday arrived both quickly and slowly at the same time.

Millie wasn’t quite sure what to do with her hair, so she settled on leaving it down in soft curls. She knew Hermione, so she didn’t bother doing much more than natural makeup. The pale pink dress clung to her curves in a shimmery, silky fashion, the top cut in a v shape that exposed her ample chest. She absently wondered if perhaps Hermione had enlisted someone else to pick out the dresses, as the color and fabric was the only thing that shouted Hermione.

Then again, it wouldn’t be far fetched to assume the girl -woman- had changed during the years apart.

At a quarter to noon, Millie sat perched on the edge of her couch. All Hermione had said was that one of Ronald’s brothers would be arriving to get her, and that seemed to be all the explanation she was going to be given.

A sudden shuffling from her fireplace alerted her to someone’s presence, and her heart leapt to her throat as, with a crash of dust and a flash of green, someone stumbled out from the hearth.

Millie gasped loudly, quickly picking up the first thing she could find- an Obsidian crystal tower with a rather sharp point. She brandished it towards the man that had arrived from her fireplace, but slowly lowered it as the red hair registered him to be Ron’s brother.

“Millie, correct?”

Millie nodded, lowering her Obsidian tower back to where it had been. The man was shorter than Ron, and burly, with a few tattoos peeking out from the sleeves of his black shirt. “Charlie Weasley, here to escort you to the wedding of the century.”

“Erm, alright,” Millie took a moment to center herself, nervously grabbing at the Amethyst crystal that was ever present around her neck. “How will we be..”

She trailed off, and Charlie gave her a warm smile. He reminded her of a giant teddy bear, and she felt her reservations slide away. “We’ll apparate.”

The word and definition came out from the recesses of her mind, a long ago conversation a much more naive Hermione and Millie had shared together while the latter had been drinking in any mention of the Wizarding world she could get.

Millie nodded, and rather awkwardly took Charlie’s arm that he extended towards her. “Hold your breath.”

An uncomfortable pulling began at her navel, and it seemed as though the world began to whip past them in a nearly unbearable speed. She could feel herself get nauseous, and as she felt her stomach twist, it all stopped. She would have fallen to the ground, had it not been for Charlie’s arm around her shoulders.

“Millie!”

Said girl swallowed hard, trying to rid herself of nausea. Hermione was rushing towards her, her wild hair tamed and pinned up in an intricate updo, light makeup on her face, completely out of place with the worn flannel button up and jeans she wore. An utterly Hermione combination, Millie thought with a smile.

“Gotta say, ‘Mione, love the outfit,” Millie teased, swallowing away the last bit of nausea she felt. “You’re missing something blue, and something new, however.”

Hermione tsked good naturedly and drew Millie in for a hug, pulling way to examine her childhood friend with an awestruck look. “Millie, you look so… Beautiful.”

“Oh please,” Millie waved away the compliment, blushing. “It’s just makeup. You, on the other hand… Stunning.”

Hermione beamed brightly, a new glow seeming to emanate from her face. A giggle escaped her lips, and Millie couldn’t help but notice the brunette seemed.. Different. Although, she couldn’t put a finger on it.

“I’m going to go find Luminita,” Charlie told Hermione, his face softening at the mention of whoever that was. He turned to Millie and gave her a hug, much to her surprise. “Nice meeting you, Millie.”

The two girls watched the redhead go off, and Millie turned to Hermione.

“Luminita is Charlie’s wife,” Hermione replied, smiling. “They met while he was training Dragons.”

“Dragons?” Millie questioned, but before Hermione could answer, she was interrupted.

“‘Mione, where’d you go?”

The two brunettes turned to see an utterly gorgeous redhead walk out from the oddly shaped house behind them.

“That’s Ginny, Ron’s sister, and my best friend,” Hermione explained quickly, smiling at Millie, noticing the flinch the other girl had at Hermione’s description of the beautiful girl. “At least, my Hogwarts best friend.”

Millie nodded, shoving her feelings of inadequacies away for a different time, and instead exchanged greetings with the exuberant redhead with a dry sense of humor. As she walked back into the house with the pair, she found it was easy to be in company with Ginny. She didn’t make her feel any less than the two of them, even though Millie knew she would probably be the only muggle there.

The house was suddenly thrown into a flurry of activity, and Millie found herself meeting many of the people she had heard stories of nearly her entire childhood. Arthur and Molly, Harry, Neville, Luna, Bill, and countless others that she hadn't heard of. It appeared that Hermione had delegated Harry to the task of leading her about and introducing her, as Hermione had her wedding to prepare for.

“So, this is the Burrow,” Harry explained a bit lamely, his eyes trailing back on Ginny, who disappeared into another room, presumably to follow Hermione. “We’ve spent a lot of our time here.”

“Yes, Hermione told me about that,” Millie smiled fondly, brushing one of her curls behind her ear. “The Golden Trio. I was always so jealous.”

Harry gave her a soft smile. “I think we may have been a bit jealous of you. Ron especially. You got to know Hermione first, before she became the brightest witch of our age.”

“Well, it’s interesting to know this,” she gestured around wordlessly. “Hermione Jean as well. Overwhelming, of course, but I always was fascinated by magic.”

Harry opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by a voice she hadn't heard yet.

“Oi, Harry, Ron’s going barmy, can you come speak some sense to him?”

Harry looked at her regretfully, turning to the voice. “Course, George. Can you keep Millie company?”

“Ah, ‘Miones friend?” The tall ginger man walked towards them, his eyebrows quivering in interest. “Sure, mate. Just make sure my brother doesn’t bugger off.”

Harry clapped the man on the back, said goodbye to Millie, and hurried off to wherever Ron was.

Millie took that moment to look at the man before her, her eyes widening at how attractive he was. It was rare that a man caught her interest in such an intense way, but George was… different. She felt drawn to him, although she wasn’t quite sure why.

“Millie, right?” George questioned, his warm brown eyes staring at her green ones. His lips turned up in a smile. “I’m George. Ron’s older brother.”

“George…” Millie trailed off, the name pinging her memory. “Fred and George?”

The reaction that name gave George was instantaneous. His smile crumbled, replaced with a firm line. His fists clenched, and a muscle in his forehead twitched. It almost looked like he was going to be sick, and he squeezed his eyes shut.

“I-I’m sorry,” Millie rushed out, wanting to place a hand on his shoulder but unsure if that would be the right response. “Erm, so, you’re Ron’s older brother, yeah? You guys sure seem to have an awful lot of siblings.”

He still had his eyes shut, and showed no sign of relaxing. She tried again, and began rambling in a way that should have embarrassed her, in a way that she only did with Hermione.

“I always wanted siblings growing up,” she watched his face carefully, waiting for him to show some sign of relaxing. “I had Hermione, and she basically was my sister. We basically floated between each other's houses, y’know? But I still had wanted my own sibling, my blood sibling. My mum tried, miscarried a few times. I didn’t mind much, because I had Hermione. But then she left.”

George seemed to be relaxing, and had opened his eyes. They were haunted. He nodded, in a way to urge her to continue.

“She left for Hogwarts, but we still had summers together.” Millie swallowed hard. “Then things got more complicated because of the war stuff you guys had going on. I was always so jealous of her, the magical world she got to be part of… But honestly, with everything she went through, I feel like I may have been lucky, to have been spared all of that hardship. Did you know muggles have their own version of witches and magic?”

The question seemed to have caught George off guard, and he clenched his fists and relaxed slightly, save for a furrow in his brow. “Yeah, card tricks.”

Millie laughed, an edge of relief mixing in. “No, more than that. Some muggles think that with intent and manifestation, certain things can be achieved. There are special stones as well, called crystals, that can help with that. There's different herbs too, which reminds me of Herbology that Hermione told me about. Even Tarot cards, which is like a form of Divination.”

George seemed almost taken aback by the onslaught of info she threw at him, and he blinked slowly. “Am I to assume that you participate in.. that?”

He didn’t say it in a degrading way, but she still felt a bit defensive and cursed herself as she blushed. “I… I do, yes. I’m wearing a crystal right now, it’s a rose quartz.” She pointed out her necklace, holding it out.

George reached out and took the small stone in his large hands, scrutinizing it. “It doesn’t feel much different from any old rock. It’s pretty, I suppose. What is it supposed to do?”

A blush coated Millie’s cheeks once more. “Erm, well. It’s a love stone. It, um. Opens the heart and increases self acceptance, it brings peace.. Helps with transitions, too… It basically helps in all facets of love, intimate or friendship.”

George blinked again, a small smile gracing his lips. “Are you finding it hard to find love, Millie?”

This time it was her turn to be caught off guard, and she took a moment to answer. George let the necklace drop back to her chest, and she didn’t miss the way that his eyes lingered on her chest. A thrill ran down her spine.

“Most people bore me.” She decided it was the easiest explanation, looking up to meet his gaze.

“I’m far from boring.” The words left his lips quickly, his brown eyes not wavering from hers.

She felt it again, that shock of electricity that seemed to emanate from George Weasley. She examined his face, a strong jawline and nose, with wide lips. A smattering of freckles across his face seemed to sharpen his features, disappearing underneath the smartly fitted suit he wore. His shoulders were wide, strong, and he was at least a head and a half taller than her. Even through the suit, she could tell he was muscular. And his hands… They were large and had almost a musical feel to them. She wondered, for a moment, if he played any instruments, muggle or magical.

Unbeknownst to Millie, George was drinking her in the same way she had done to him. It had been a long time since anyone, much less a girl, had peaked his interest. It had been exactly two years, three months, and seventeen days, to be exact.

Millie was short, something that had always been attractive to him. She was deliciously curvy, with wide hips and an ample chest. He had always liked bigger girls, and Millie was… exactly his type. She had long honey hair that brushed past the middle of her back, that fell in wonderfully soft curls he had to resist reaching out to grasp.

Her dark green eyes were framed by long lashes that seemed to sweep her cheeks when she ducked her head in a blush. Her hands were small, and he wanted nothing more than to hold his up against hers to revel in the size difference. Her lips were plump and paired perfectly with her ski slope nose, and carved cheekbones. He wondered what it would feel like to have her neck between his hands… and he had to stop his train of thought there.

“Georgie, good, you’ve met Millie,” Ginny appeared out of nowhere, startling the two out of whatever trance they had been in. “You two are walking together. It’s time to start, let's get going.”

The two looked away from each other suddenly, following the whirlwind that was Ginny Weasley. Each time their hands brushed, it felt electric, and Millie had never, ever, felt this way with anyone before.

They joined the rest of the bridal party, and Millie squinted as she tried to recall everyone that was there. The sun warmed their skin nicely, and they all arranged themselves in line and began their procession into the aisle, where they would eagerly await the appearance of the bride and groom. George held his elbow out for Millie, and she nearly jumped at the feeling she got when her arm as their arms interlinked. From the way George seemed to flinch, she wondered if he had felt it too.

Ginny and Harry led the way, with George and Millie following. Next came Neville and Luna, then Bill and Fleur, Percy and Angelina being the final ones to walk the aisle. Charlie was officiating the wedding.

As the music started up, and Ron was led down the aisle by his father, Millie couldn’t help but wonder who, exactly, would give Hermione away. Her parents were in Australia, forever addled by the memory charm the young witch had been forced to throw upon them. She couldn’t imagine who Hermione picked to replace them.

Hermione wore a beautiful white gown that bore a striking resemblance to the one Millie recalled seeing Cinderella wear. It was a story she and Hermione had been captivated with growing up, and when Hermione and Millie caught eyes, Hermione gave her a wink, and Millie nearly laughed. Of course, Hermione would have gotten Cinderella’s gown for her wedding.

Millie didn’t recognize the person leading Hermione down the aisle, but she was a tall, slender, formidable old woman, who had an undeniable air of authority around her. She had a soft look on her face as she walked Hermione towards Ron, and Millie could have sworn there was a tear in the corner of her eye.

“Thank you, Minerva.” Milie just barely heard the words leave Hermione’s lips.

The woman, Minerva, gave Hermione a swift hug before returning to her seat. The ceremony began, and Millie found herself staring at the people around her. Everyone here… they were Hermione’s chosen family. It nearly took her breath away to finally see them for herself.

Her eyes kept wandering to George, and each time she looked at him, he was already looking at her.

The ceremony ended rather spectacularly, with cheers of joy and hollers breaking out around them. Ron wrapped Hermione up in his arms, kissing her like she was the last woman on Earth. Millie’s heart swelled for her best friend. She had finally gotten her happy ending. Hermione deserved it more than anyone Millie knew.

Magical folk definitely knew how to throw a party. The backyard of the Weasley’s burrow transformed into a reception area complete with a dance floor, music, fireworks, and plenty of drinks and food that Millie hadn’t heard of before. She mingled with the people she had met prior to the ceremony, aside from George. She wasn’t sure where he had gone. It seemed as though after the vows were said and done, he disappeared into the crowd.

After an hour or so, Millie found herself slightly overwhelmed and needed a break. She grabbed a bottle of Butterbeer, that of which Hermione assured her actually contained no alcohol, and she wandered off to the edge of the property. Away from the crowd of people, she leaned against a tree, taking a deep drink from the Butterbeer. It was surprisingly good, and she laughed as she almost felt irritated that Hermione had never shared this with her.

“What do you find so funny?”

Millie nearly jumped, looking up to see George in the tree above her. “Oh my goodness, I had no idea you were there!”

George jumped down, landing rather gracefully for someone of his height. “Seriously, what did you find so funny?”

Millie gestured to her drink. “Just thinking that this is pretty good, and how I’m almost irritated that Hermione never brought this home for me to try. With everything I had to miss out on, it feels like this could have been one thing I got to share with her.”

George laughed, although it appeared to be humorless. “There’s a lot of things I wish I could share with someone who is no longer here.”

Millie cocked her head at George, waiting for him to elaborate. He didn’t seem as though he was going to, until suddenly, he ran a hand down his face and pulled a wand out from his pocket. Flicking his wrist, he conjured up a swing that hung from the tree, reminiscent of the one she had at home. He sat down, and motioned for her to sit with him.

“Just let me get out what I have to get out, and then comment, alright?” George asked, waiting for Millie to nod. She did, and he continued.

“Fred was my twin brother. We did everything together, always have. Towards the return of Voldemort, we opened up our jokeshop. It was super successful, just as we thought. We fought against Voldemort with our family, we fought during the final war, and Freddie… Freddie didn’t make it. It's been two years, three months, and seventeen days without him, but sometimes I wake up and I feel like he’s still there with me, and I’ll rush to go tell him something, but then… he’s not there. And I remember it all over again. When things like this, a wedding, happens, it’s harder. Because Freddie should be here, giving a speech about how we tried to make Ron’s name a taboo, or how we gave him a fear of spiders by turning his teddy bear into one, or how we burned a hole in his tongue with an acid pop, or just… anything embarrassing, because that was our job. And now, without Freddie, it’s pointless. Everything feels pointless.”

Millie waited for George to continue, but it seemed he was done for now. She felt her heart twist for the redhead beside her, and she placed her hand over his.

“I’m so sorry, George,” she said sincerely, watching as George swallowed hard. “I can’t imagine how that feels. I wish that I had the right thing to say, but there really isn’t one. I could go on about how it wasn’t fair and it was senseless, but you already know that. I think all I can say is that you are incredibly strong and although I didn’t know Fred, I’m sure he’s proud of you for making it without him. He’ll be waiting for you, when it’s your time. And then you can tell him about all the havoc you caused without him.”

Again, George swallowed hard, and he turned to Millie with a sudden urgency on his face. He gently placed a hand on her cheek, brushing a curl out of her face. His gentle brush felt like fire on her skin. His eyes flicked from her lips to her eyes, almost like a question.

Millie leaned forward, shutting her eyes, feeling his lips connect with her own. It was like fire, she was almost surprised that there wasn’t a flurry of electricity around the two of them. She hadn’t felt anything like this before in her life, and she reached a hand up to tangle her hands in his wild red hair.

His own large hands roamed around her neck, and down to her sides, his thumb brushing against the side of her breast. She moaned softly in his mouth, surprising even herself. He trailed his hand down further, stopping to rest on her thigh, his fingers gently massaging her skin through her dress.

Their lips parted, and George rested his forehead against hers. Millie felt her head swimming, and took a steadying breath, breathing in the scent of cinnamon that seemed to come from George.

“I think,” George murmured softly, clearing his throat. He pulled away slightly, reaching one hand up to cup her cheek, the other still on her thigh. “I think I may have underestimated you, in a way.”

“How so?” Millie asked, her heart thudding in her throat. What could he mean by that?

“You’re going to be far more important to me than anyone has ever been.”

Before she could respond, George stood, and held a hand out to her. She took it, a bit unsure, and he pulled her up from the swing, keeping her hand in his.

“Care for a dance, beautiful?” He asked, a crooked grin on his face, and Millie broke into a smile as she nodded.

His hand felt so wonderful wrapped around hers.

The two re-entered the party, which had only slightly begun to die down. George and Millie found a place for the two to dance with, and continued conversation.

“So, that thing around your neck is a crystal?” George asked, twirling Millie around in a circle to the fast paced song Millie didn’t recognize.

Millie nodded. “There’s other ones, of course.”

“Like what?” George asked, a smile on his face. “Tell me your favorite.”

“If I had to choose one, it would be Amethyst,” Millie replied thoughtfully, blushing as George rested a hand on her hip. “Although, Smokey Quartz is a close second.”

“What do they do?”

“Well, Amethyst is a calming stone, and it just balances everything out. I usually wear it everyday, unless I feel compelled to wear a different one, which is rare,” Millie supplied. “Smokey Quartz helps get rid of negative energies, and helps with organization. I’m always so disorganized.”

“It’s a good thing I’m a fairly organized person,” George winked at her. “What are your plans for tonight?”

“Nothing beyond going home,” Millie replied sadly, reality seeping into the rather magical night she had had. “I start a new job on Monday.”

“What do you do for work?”

“I just got my teaching credentials, so I’ll be teaching primary come the school year,” Millie smiled, her face softening. “For the summer, I’ll be teaching early childhood.”

“Little kids?” George questioned, smiling when she nodded. “Well, perhaps sometime soon you could come by my jokeshop. In Diagon Alley.”

Millie nearly shouted with excitement. “I could go to Diagon Alley?”

George grinned, nodding. “I think I could arrange that.”

Millie hugged him tightly, not even thinking twice. George didn’t hesitate, he wrapped the shorter girl in his arms, vowing to himself that she would experience magic for the rest of his life.

[guessimjoiningthespidermanfandom]

Blessing in Disguise

Peter Parker x bisexual!reader

Peter Parker x fem!reader

Peter Parker x black!reader

Peter Parker x villain!reader

Warnings: Hospitals, Explosions, depictions of pain, allusions to mania and depression, self harm/unhealthy coping mechanisms, mentions of death and the dead, gambling, potential underage drinking, theft, guns, gun violence, depictions of bullet wounds, and drunk people. 

Word Count: 3.4k

Songs: All the kids are depressed- Jeremy Zucker, Everywhere- Chloe x Halle, Middle Child- J. Cole, She Knows- J. Cole, Breezeblocks- alt-J, Pussycat Doll-Flo Milli, It’s Been So Long- The Living Tombstone, Take me to Church- Hozier, Good Kid- Kendrick Lamar, Death of a Bachelor- Panic! At the Disco, Them Changes- Thundercat, Detention- Melanie Martinez, Recess- Melanie Martinez, Something for your M.I.N.D- Superorganism 

A/N: I actually hate this chapter because I feel like the writing doesn’t flow. I feel like it’s to jampacked with things that don’t do anything to push the story forward. Anyway I hope you still read it anyways. 

Series Masterlist   Previous Part   Next Part

I did the hand sign stating I’d stand. I knew I won for sure this time because I had a perfect hand of 21. The two other people playing against groaned as I was declared the winner yet again. 

Swiping the chips for the 3rd time since I’d been at the casino. I decided to take my wins and make my way to the bar that our “target” was residing. 

I had a hunch on where Carmen was but had no actual idea. I’d just text her. In the meantime I had this grown ass man to make a move on. 

I was like 97% sure I had the right guy anyway. I looked much older than usual tonight due to Carmen being a makeup goddess and I gotta say flirting can get you a long way. 

“Hey,” I spoke, sitting on the bar stool next to the man.

He looked up at me mumbling a quick hey.

“You expecting someone?” 

“Nope,” He popped the ‘p’ “What about you?”

“Same as you,”

“Now I don’t believe someone as beautiful as you is here alone,” He moved his arm that much closer to mine. I pushed out a smile and giggled. 

“I could say the same about you,” We made eye contact for a second “But no seriously, I’m just here with a girlfriend. It was my birthday yesterday but she wasn’t free so we came out today,” I lied. 

“How old did you turn?”

“Twenty Two,” He nodded seemingly content with the answer. 

“So you’re not around here are you?”

“Either you’re a genius or I’m just very bad at blending in, no I’m from New York,” 

“Ah, I have some friends in New York, which part?” 

“Harlem actually but I recently moved to Queens,” I lied again. 

“Oh I don’t many from those cities,”

“If we're being honest I don’t know many people from Queens either my life’s been more hectic ever since I moved,”

“I hear you,” He informed me, leaning on the small backing the stools had. 

We talked for about 15 more minutes, him explaining the switch between New York to Nevada. Then Carmen walked up to me and feigned drunkenness signaling she was done with her job. I made my way back. To the man who’s name I still hadn’t learned. 

“As much fun as I was having talking to you, my friend is way too drunk to be out in public so we should probably head back to the hotel.” I sat back on the barstool turning my legs towards the man batting my eyes 

“Could I possibly use your phone to call an Uber mine is dead?” 

“Yeah of course you can…” His sentence fizzed off at the end in place of where my name would be.

“Ciara,” I filled in “And you are?” 

“Jim” He started handing me the phone.

I used his phone for an entirely different reason than I’d claimed. The project Carmen had been working on was melting the wires together to fix the flash drive that works inside of phones. It hadn’t worked in years.

It took about a minute to duplicate the phone's data. I stuck the flash drive in my bra before going to give the phone back. 

Just as I started moving a loud argument broke out, by the drunk accents I could tell it would soon get violent. Seeing as I had many experiences with an aggressive drunk. I wasn’t going to take my chances and began turning towards the main exit.

 I heard the first shot echo followed by another. Soon everyone was shooting. Including Carmen who I think just wanted an excuse to shoot at people passing it off as “protecting her friends”. 

She was closer to the exit than I was so she slid me the gun and I was able to ward off anyone shooting in our general direction. Not for long though. A bullet lightly grazed my dominant arm’s shoulder; it still dug in enough to do some sweet damage. 

Fuck

What’s up with me? I haven’t been on my A game lately. 

We were also out of bullets. Mostly because we weren’t actually expecting to have to fucking shoot at people. I ducked back down behind the bar trying not to get caught on the broken glassware. 

“I think it would be a good time to do that thing?” I asked. 

She rolled her eyes 

“You know I hate doing it,”

“Well I’m literally bleeding out,” I dramatized pointing to my shoulder. “So if you want to get out of here not in body bags, do the thing,” 

“Alright, just this one time,” She begrudgingly made her way out from behind the bar and away from me. 

I covered my ears and closed my eyes as the glass around me rained down and the bar shook. I could slightly hear the cries from beneath my hands. Once she moved back over to me 

“See that wasn’t so bad, birdy,” I scrambled up to my feet ignoring the pull in my shoulder. 

I made my rounds grabbing Jim’s phone, cash, wallets, watches, and anything else that looked expensive from pockets and the ground. 

I stood awkwardly staring at my feet as I slid from side to side with my butt planted on my skateboard. 

“Hi,” I heard squinting my eyes looking up revealing a equally nervous looking Peter

“Hey,” I nodded at him. 

The conversation wasn’t as awkward as I thought it’d be he’d apparently asked Liz to prom and he said yes. Which I was definitely super happy about because why wouldn’t I be? 

Anyway who cares about that anyway. Props to Peter for not bringing up the whole ghosting everyone thing for like a week thing. Because if he didn’t bring it up I was going to act like it never happened. 

We talked about everything and anything. From favorite candies or colors to our beliefs about life after death. I’d found out his favorite candy were skittles, favorite color: red and that he was Jewish but not necessarily religious and didn’t believe in heaven or hell but he believed in the eternity of a soul. 

I’d told him that my favorite candy was F/C, my favorite color being pink and that I didn’t know what I believed in. I believed in a higher power but not that they were inherently good because of all the suffering on earth. I’d told him if they weren’t good and had abandoned us while alive. Why would they care or have any plan for us into the afterlife? I think that part is up to us, and what we believe. I’m trying not to think about death.

Then like clockwork he had to leave before 9 which is funny because it’s like he wasn’t even trying to hide his secret identity. He’d told me he lost the internship and normally his excuse to leave was the internship. 

I just guess that means he no longer has Stark’s backup. He only had it for a while anyway he’d be fine without it again. Actually when I think about it,  from his behavior he’d exhibited as Spiderman in the short few months I’d had the displeasure of knowing him as ‘Thorn’ he’d be weak. He was unconfident, relied on his tools far too much. Couldn’t see himself without the suit. So maybe he was really just going home. So he’d be fine. 

I’d also be fine. No matter how much it didn’t look like it at the moment. I’d be fine. I was always fine. I was fine without my mom, without Rose, without my dad, without Olivia and any one else I’d ever been stupid enough to get attached to. I’d bounce back. I always did. 

It’d taken Carmen much convincing to not sit around and babysit me 24/7 because of my shoulder. She was sure that I’d do something dumb and it would get infected. 

 I was sitting on MJ’s bed getting ready for homecoming. My neck jerked again as Bri attempted to detangle and braid my hair. 

If I hadn’t spiraled into the Vulture, Kingpin and SHIELD, rabbit hole I probably would have taken better care of myself and my hair. 

“Stop moving,” She tsked.

“Stop trying to rip my head off my neck,” I hissed back. 

Bri did my nails back when we were still at her house waiting for MJ to pick us up. She actually did pretty good. I think she would do great at a cosmetology school. She's pretty much into everything: hair, nails, makeup the whole nine yards. She did all of that for me. 

The make up was very simple, but I was still able to get my signature winged eyeliner. Winged eyeliner is something very dear to me mostly because Rose was the first to put me on it and I wore it everyday since. It kinda felt disrespectful to stop at this point.

The only thing left was the dress MJ had gifted me. Her mom bought her a dress but she still refused to wear dresses so she returned it for this one, she opted for a very nice pantsuit she already had. Then Bri's outfit of course matched her boyfriend’s. 

I’ve never really liked school dances they’re always so overhyped, but I go to them all anyways, because then I get in on all the drama. It helped me build up my arsenal of knowledge about everyone. 

I was sitting at one of the round tables near the entrance with MJ, Bri, and Olivia. We had a bottle of “Gatorade” open and out for anybody who wanted to drink it. I was about to drink from it when I saw Liz enter alone. 

I made my way over to her.

“Where’s Peter? I thought he asked you?” 

“I don’t even know he just ditched me,” She let out a deep breath. 

“Aw I’m sorry,” I wrapped my good arm around her shoulder.

 “Well don’t think about that asshole, you’re way out of his league anyway,” I assured her to which she let out a weak laugh. 

“Come sit with me and my friends,” 

 A girl with knockers dancing all along her head came up to before speaking 

“Why are you crying?” 

I sniffed pulling my head from my arms. 

“I miss my mom,” 

“I miss my mom sometimes but I like my grandma too,”

“Where’s your mom?” I asked.

“I don’t know my grandma says she’s sick,” She shrugged. “Where’s your mom?”

“Well my grandma says she’s in a better place now but I know that just means dead,” 

“Yeah my dad is dead too so I know what you mean, I’m Rose. What’s your name?”

“Y/N,” 

“Y/N, that's a pretty name,” She smiled. “You wanna come sit with me and my friends Y/N?”

“Y/N!”

I jumped a bit at the voice before matching it to MJ

“What?” I asked in a harsher tone then necessary.  

“Jeez sorry,” She reeled back “Someone is asking for you named Carmen. They said it’s important,” She waved her phone around. 

My face dropped and I hoped no one caught it. 

I grabbed the phone exiting the auditorium.

“Okay what’s up?” 

“You know Liz’s dad whatever her name is but yeah, He’s gonna rob that plane that’s moving everything from the Avengers tower,” She rushed

“What!?”

Holy shit 

That must be where Peter’s went. So he figured it out too. Kid’s smarter than I give him credit for.

“I’ll send you the location on your phone,”

“Why didn’t you just call me from there?”

“Because you never answer it,”

“True,” 

“Y/N?” She whispered.

“Yeah?” 

“Be careful,” 

“Always,” I smiled. 

I rushed out of the building not thinking about how I could get caught. Near the buses there was the new Shocker lying unconscious. 

I took the webshooter I found next to him. Then made a run for it. Stopping to hot wire the nearest car, I sped to one of the locations that I knew Vulture’s team kept their weapons at. I was throwing everything in the same pile. Getting ready to destroy them. 

Then the door creaked open.

I felt the bed dip as my brother sat next to me. 

“Are you coming?”

I pulled the cover off my face 

“Why should I?”

“Because you’ll regret it if you don’t,” 

“No I won’t leave me alone,” I pulled the cover back over my head. 

“You gotta eat something,” 

“No I don’t leave me alone,” 

“Y/N…”

I knew what he was going to say and I didn’t wanna hear it. 

“She would want you to eat something,”

“Fuck you! How would you ever know what she would've wanted? No one here knew her and now one will ever get the chance to again so just leave me alone,” 

“Y/N-“

“Don’t Y/N me, get the fuck out of my room,” He sat there for a second, stunned “NOW!” 

As soon as the door closed and I flipped back over

I was shaken back into the present only to find that I was pinned under the man who’d entered the room before I zoned out. He reached for the nearest weapon. I wasn’t sure exactly what it was. Which is rare. I have a whole weapons catalog in my brain. Unfortunately for him he couldn’t grab it without giving me leeway to get from underneath them. 

Unfortunately for me I put too much pressure on my arm in the seconds I took to grip my shoulder recuperating myself. The man had fired the weapon he had at the pile of weapons that I stumbled back towards. 

The weapons then emitted purple light before exploding leaving me caught under some wood and concrete as the ringing in my ears only got louder and louder.

The fire around me crackled loudly and I bit my lip.

The smoke was only getting more plentiful.

I started coughing which only got more and more painful.

When I came to myself, I wasn’t choking anymore and the fire around me had died down. I was able to push myself from underneath the rubble holding me down. Not without lots of pain though.

The dress I was wearing was torn completely, holes big enough to see what I was wearing underneath it already. 

So I just took it off.

It wasn’t like I was completely naked I was wearing boxers. Not like I haven’t left the house in a bra and shorts before. Also who gives a fuck I just almost died. 

It was like 35° but I wasn’t cold in the slightest. I was actually kind of hot.

If my phone was accurate the plane had already made it near the edge of Queens and Staten Island. Rushing there I was seconds late as I saw the plane crash after I saw two figures fighting along it. 

There was fire everywhere but I wasn’t thinking. I was just running because I couldn’t make out Peter’s shape and if he was dead- 

I swear to fucking God if he was dead. Not again. I couldn’t handle another death.

Peter was saying something. No, pleading as the Vulture stood tall with his wings still intact. He was talking about how it was a nice try and he doesn’t know what he’s messing with.

Peter might not but I knew what this was. I also knew I wasn’t letting him get away with it. 

The wings started producing visible waves of heat. Then it hit me, what Peter was trying to say. The wings were gonna blow.  I got a head start and lunged towards the man. The element of surprise was on my side. That was until he used the wings to lift himself off the ground. 

Now I was fine with parkour and other activities, but being lifted off the ground by someone else, someone who’d never interacted with me ever, is where I draw the line. Then Peter was shooting a web at the wings. To which Vulture dropped me to go after him.

Oh hell no.

“Give it up Peter,” He continued to get closer and closer as the webs were continuously cut through. 

You know how people say they see in red when they get angry? Well the opposite of that happens to me I just see black. Remembering very little to nothing.

Last thing I remembered was fire just fire. From my fingertips, arms, head. It destroyed the wings in seconds, before they had a chance to blow up on their own. 

Peter webbed up the man before moving out of my sight. 

How the fuck do you get fire coming from your body. 

 Literally what the actual fuck. 

I couldn’t breathe. 

That’s what it was, I was dying, I was probably in some coma and this was a weird hallucination my brain pushed out in its final moments.

Okay this is it. I was dying suffocating in some coma.

Or even worse this wasn’t a coma and I was going to die with my body lit on fire literally.

“Oh my God,” I gasped trying to get air into my lungs. 

I closed my eyes and when I opened them Peter was in front of me in a torn up ripoff suit. 

“Y/N,” He moved trying to catch my eye.

“Y/N, Y/N breathe…”

I couldn’t really process his words. My mind was clouded with fear, fear and anger. 

Before I knew it I was hitting my head so I wouldn’t hit anyone or anything else. It’d been a coping mechanism I used ever since I was 3. 

Peter reached for my arms reeling back after his hands came into contact with my boiling skin. 

“Y/N you have to calm down,” He moved in front of me.

I stopped moving my hands but it was still difficult to breathe.

The monitors beeped all around me and if I closed my eyes  and concentrated hard enough. I could convince myself they were birds. 

I could tell from the patter of the knock on the door that it was Rose. 

“Come in!” I called out.

She picked up the clipboard examining it. As she did every time she visited. Luckily for everyone there was no nurse she could bombard with questions and criticism. 

“How are you feeling?” She asked. 

“Itchy, like my guts are on fire,” 

To which she replied by singing the chorus to Girl on Fire. 

“Anyway,” she brought us back after our laughter. “I got you pizza today since I’m sure you’re tired of McDonald’s,”

“I don’t mind McDonald’s actually, anything is better than hospital food. Well actually, their chicken strips aren’t that bad,” 

She placed the box down on my lap. I lifted up the lid and was hit with the smell of the many herbs. I pat by my legs signaling she could sit down. She wiggled into the spot that the bar of the bed allowed. 

“What are we watching today?” 

“Uh…” I clicked on the TV “Vampire Diaries?,”

“That show is still going?

“Yeah, I don’t think it’ll ever end,” 

Somehow the show turned into us dancing around the cramped hospital room.

We spun like the ballerinas in the broken jewelry box I got from my mom. Arms flailing around. The air conditioner made a rattling noise and a half eaten pizza on the bed. The situation was probably extremely weird or unpleasant from any other perspective, but because it was her it was perfect. 

It was like the moment in rom coms where the camera zooms into the main characters dancing as the rest of the characters are put out of focus and they stare into each other’s eyes. I closed my eyes. 

When I opened them I saw Peter’s eyes above mine. 

His hands were immediately on my face making my look straight at him. 

“Are you okay?” He breathed out. 

I sat up feeling a pounding in my head and a pull in my lungs. I was met with the fact that I was definitely not on the ground. I was actually very far from the ground on some ride on the pier. My mouth was dry so it took me a minute to get the words out and when I did it hurt my throat.

“Yeah ’m okay jus’ tired,”

“Okay, well don’t go back to sleep because I think you have a concussion,” 

“You’re acting like I died or something, how long was I out dang,” I joked I always hated when things got too serious. 

“Uh probably...30 minutes? I don’t know I don’t have a watch,” He sniffed and that's when I realized he’d be crying. 

“Were you crying? I knew you cared about me,” I smiled “It was only a matter of time before you fell in love with me, I’m irresistible” 

He laughed weakly wiping his eyes “This isn’t funny,” 

I looked up at him and started uncontrollably giggling. Soon Peter was laughing too.

The moment was interrupted by a squad of police cars pulling up. I absolutely did not want to get down but my tired muscles betrayed me. I was extremely exhausted.  I literally could not move. I just had to go wherever Peter decided to take me. I honestly think I might have a few broken ribs. Nothing I haven’t dealt with before though. We stood off to the side watching as Vulture was stuffed into the back of one of the cars. 

“So Spiderman?” I smirked.

“Uh.. no?” He said as if he’s questioning himself. 

“It’s okay, I won’t tell anyone I’ve known for a while now,” I twisted my body to face him hissing as a sharp sting shot through my body “You're not very good at hiding it,”

“Hey!” He cried out “But seriously you can’t tell anyone,”

“I already said I wouldn’t, but if it makes you feel better I’ll pinky promise you, and everyone knows you can’t break a pinky promise,”

“Alright,” He sighed.

I tried to move closer again and was stopped by the pain in my sides. 

“Okay well, the offer still stands, you’re just gonna have to come over here,”

Taglist:

@tomdiddlyumptious

[thelibranarchives]

For @giucorreias Flufftober 2020 Day 3 prompt- Sunshine

'You've mellowed, Draco,' Pansy opined, taking a drag from the joint before passing it to Millie on her left. 'The Gryffindors have done their number on you.'

Draco Malfoy snorted. 'Nope,' he denied.

Blaise laughed, slapping his thigh. 'This,' he said in between bouts of laughter, 'is exactly what she meant. Normally, a stinging hex would have been your answer.'

'On the contrary,' Daphne said, picking the cigarette out of Millie's mouth. 'If the Gryffindors have had any influence on him, he would have physically tackled you both.'

'That's more like it,' Draco nodded.

Nobody said anything for a while. They were enjoying a very rare, much awaited and incredibly precious Slytherin-only gathering in a small clearing in the Forbidden Forest. It had been almost impossible to not have some Gryffindor hanging off their shoulders for two months now what with the lions accompanying them everywhere from showers to classes, but that day, Granger had Arithmancy for her afternoon class. Longbottom had volunteered to help Prof. Sprout weed out the greenhouses and Weasley and Potter had gone to Diagon to the joke shop. Ginevra and Lovegood were at the quidditch trials, which left the Slytherins with a golden opportunity.

Unlike rumours and speculations, the Forbidden Forest, had a cheerful air about it, though slightly dark with the thick canopy. The five of them sat in a circle under a bubble of protective charms, sharing a joint and blowing out smoky rings, or as in Pansy's case, trying to. An idle, and clearly out of place bird, was humming a sweet tune. There was the occasional rustling of leaves and the half growl and half bark of some as yet unencountered forest animal but Draco was relaxed.

Draco and Potter's dynamic had undoubtedly changed ever since Potter got that dragon lily tattoo on Halloween, even though Potter's behaviour towards him didn't. He still went to classes with Draco and sat next to him, partnering him in Charms, Potions and DADA. No one had mentioned anything about the tattoo in the two weeks since and Draco wasn't a fool to harbour hope that they didn't understand its significance too. He wasn't going to talk about it for as long as he could.

'Muggles celebrate Thanksgiving in November,' Blaise said, inhaling deeply. 'On the fourth Thursday, to be exact.'

'What is it for?' Millie's tone was curious.

'To be grateful to the good things or people that happened to them that year? Mother says Muggles cherish it a lot.'

'How's Maine? Is it suiting her?' Pansy asked.

'She says that's where she's going to settle down but that is what she said of Milan too so I wouldn't bet on it.'

Daphne's brows were furrowed. 'Why are you telling us about this Thanksgiving?' That girl was quick and sharp, no matter how clueless she sometimes acted to be.

'Well,' Blaise said, licking his lips, 'we should thank them too, don't you think?'

It had been easy for Draco to get a first edition copy of Rare Charms and Unique Spells for Granger, a chocolate frog card made in honour of Fred Weasley for Weasley and his sister and an assorted collection of Celestina Warbeck's classics for Longbottom, who loved them and transferred some of his admiration for her onto Blaise as well.

Pansy, Daphne and Millie had got some trinkets, rings and other accessories for all the girls while Blaise imported an Italian Bellflower plant for Neville. The purchases were all made through owl-post, from stores suggested by Narcissa Malfoy, under the name of Madame Zabini.

Draco curiously couldn't think of the best gift to Potter, though Potter was the one he knew the best out of everyone else. He decided he would ask Potter what he wanted but as the days passed, either Draco or Potter found themselves otherwise busy, to say more than "hey" to each other.

Draco sighed and shrugged. There was nothing he could do.

Thanksgiving dawned on them, abnormally cold and cloudy. Draco woke up late from a fitful sleep and didn't even have time to overthink if the atmosphere outside was setting the tone to what was to unfold that day.

Daphne had done that for him, however, whining every possible minute she could about how potentially disastrous the others could think their gifts were. Pansy and Blaise, in their attempts to find courage in liquor since they seemed to lack it in themselves, added to it after stumbling into the common room drunk, half an hour later than the time they had fixed.

Even then, Draco was glad when they had all assembled.

'So,' he began, fidgeting with his shirt, 'Blaise told us, technically it was Blaise's mother, that muggles celebrate Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November and well,' he gulped, ' well,' he licked his lips, 'we just..'

'Here are the gifts, bitches!' Pansy screamed, wand shooting confetti into the air as she twirled, tripped and fell over the neatly wrapped presents. 'Oops,' she said, grinning up at them with a dazed look in her eyes.

The stress of worrying his brains over the small surprise that lit up the faces of everyone present, finally melted away the stress beneath his skin. Draco wasn't even aware that he was beaming until Blaise knocked him on the shoulder, sloshed and swaying.

'You've become a sap, Draco,' he slurred.

'And you, a Hufflepuff,' Draco retorted, grinning wider, because yes, this group of unlikely people made each other smile to the maximum.

'I don't want to see all of your teeth, Draco.'

'I don't want to see you bouncing like a toddler either.'

'I'm in full control of myself, thanks.'

Draco had to give him a once over then. 'Yes, I can see that.'

'Are you two arguing over who is better at pretending to be the least affected by our reaction?' Lovegood's sweet voice wafted from behind them followed, an instant later, by her floral perfume and then a smacking kiss to their cheeks.

Weasley and his sister came up to them next, eyes shimmering. They held up Fred's chocolate frog card that read "one half of the only two who managed to set off fireworks in the Great Hall and literally got away with it." That had been Draco's personal addition. He would never forget Umbridge's horror at that.

'This,' Weasley choked.

'Means a lot,' Ginevra said, barely keeping it together. 'Excuse me,' she whispered and then she was exiting the common room, Draco's eyes trained on her till the door shut behind her.

When he turned back, he found Potter staring at him and he blushed, remembering that he hadn't got anything for him.

Potter held up the broom polish from Blaise and a few shirts from the girls as if to ask, 'you?'

'I didn't know what to get for you,' Draco mumbled, rocking on his heels. Behind Potter he spotted a radiant Granger hugging Weasley and talking his ear off about the book in her hand.

'If-' Draco said, glancing back at Potter, 'tell me what you want and I'll get it. For you.'

'Anything?' Potter asked, a small smile playing on his lips.

'Yes, anything.' Draco didn't know how his voice sounded so confident.

'Well,' Potter smirked, 'I want to see the sun, make the clouds go away.'

Draco thought for a while and smiled back. 'Be ready, then.'

Next morning found them both racing through the sky on their brooms at four am.

'Is this revenge, Malfoy?' Potter shouted when they landed on the hill, wet and shivering from the rain falling at Hogwarts.

'Why, scared Potter?' He called back.

'You wish!'

They sat next to each other on a boulder, Draco making them face a certain point in the sky.

'I can't see anything there,' Potter grunted.

'Not yet,' Draco murmured.

'Where are we anyway? Why isn't there snow here?'

'Shut up and watch, Potter.'

And watch they did as the sky lightened and the sun rose in a golden hue. Potter was dumbstruck.

Draco laughed at his expression, wrapping one arm around Potter's shoulder. It was instinctual but Draco had never initiated it before. He froze until Potter leaned into him, resting his head on Draco's shoulder.

'Do you know why I like the November sun?' He asked quietly. 'It shines brighter than in May. There's something about the warmth of the wintry sun, don't you think?' Potter looked up at him.

Draco's gaze was hooked onto the way the emerald orbs were reflecting the sunlight, brimming with satisfaction.

'Yes,' Draco whispered, not looking away. 'The sunshine is brighter.'

This is probably a bit here and there and I tried to make it not huge but 🤷🏻‍♀️

[angelfire115]

Part 33

Blitzo, Moxie and the others sat around their large conference table, thinking in silence. The air was stiff, the tension rose after each second. Blitzo: "So what are we gonna do about this?". Down at his hands sitting on the table was one Hell Spawn crunchy nugget, the most loved and delicious foods out of all of hell. It was the last piece apparently. Millie: "Well, we could split it up evenly, you know, share it between each of us". Moxxie smiled at his wife's sweet consideration while everyone looked at her like she was stupid.

Blitzo: "We could do that but I think some people might want more then others, anyway it's a tiny nugget and it won't give much to split it up". Loona: "WELL I WANT IT!". The angry hell hound slammed her fist on the table, shaking the wood. Blitzo: "Now, now, Loona we have to be fair, it should be obvious that I should have the whole piece". Everyone angrily scowled at his words. Millie: "What? How is that fair?". Blitzo changed to a very proper and self important pose, flicking his tail up. Blitzo: "Well because I'm the boss, it's only fair that I have more joy then all of you". He smiled a wide grin, showing of nearly as much teeth as another grinny demon we all know.

Moxxie: "Sir, I think there's more important matters then a simple nugget, matters like the giant crowd of rioters outside our door". In the distance, they could all hear the loud calls and shouts of angry demons down below. Blitzo: "How could something like that be more important then He'll Spawns delicious nuggets?". He said that with drool slowly coming out of his mouth.

Moxxies annoyance became more obvious, this annoying demon as his boss was too much to bare. Moxxie: "*Sigh* sir-". Before he could continue, the door suddenly rang, it was a surprise since no one should be able to get into the building since the front door was locked. Reason why, the rioters were still outside. Millie jumped up in enthusiasm, throwing her hand in the air. Millie: "Oh sir, I'll go answer that". She then made her way off the toward the door. Blitzo: "Alright but if it's one of those rioters, you know what to do with them". She agave a salute and wink to her boss followed by an air kiss to her husband, which he delighted himself in seeing from her.

She walked to the door, putting on her best smile and opened the door with enthusiasm. Millie: "Welcome to the I.M.P, how can I help you?". When she opened her eyes to see who it was she, her eyes shot wide open with fear. Standing in front of herztowerinf over her small size was none other than Alastor. He stood at the door, his smile plastered on his face looking at the small creature. Alastoe: "Hello there".

Millie ran into the conference room panting. She wasn't far from them but the shock caused her breathe to be taken away. Moxxie stood up in panic on seeing her while the other two stared in confusion. Millie: "The, the the the the, the ray-. The the ray-". Blitzo: "Come on Millie, don't speak like your disabled, you can speak properly". Moxxie walked over to his out of breath wife, holding her in his arms. Moxxie: "It's OK Millie, take a deep breath". Millie followed his instructions and took a deep breath in and out. Moxxie: "Ok, now, whats wrong?".Millie: "It's the, the... ITS THE RADIO DEMON!". Moxxie: "...what?".

Everyone stared at her in disbelief. They must of heard her wrong, the radio demon, why would he be here? Everyone poked their heads around the door, to their surprise he really was here, one of the most feared and powerful demons of hell, was standing in their building. Blitzo: "Do you know what he's here for?". Blitzo whispered as quietly as possible to the others, not wanting to let the terrifying being know of their presence.

Millie: "I don't know, I just welcomed him in and told him I'd get the boss for him". Blitzo side glared at her, probably annoyed thinking he'd want anything to do in this situation. Blitzo: "Alright, we can't just ignore this or we're all dead, someone needs to talk to him, Moxxie guess your up". Moxxie: "What?!". Before Moxxie could say anymore he was forcefully pushed into the room. He steadied his feet and straightened himself up. Now he was in front of the tall terrifying beast who stared him down with his signature smile.

Alastor: "Are you the owner and boss of this establishment?". Moxxie started swearing profusely his heart beat and believed in his mind this might be his last day alive. Moxxie: "W-well no, I'm not but-". Alastor: "Because I would like to talk to the owner of this place". Alastors' face contorted again, the symbols and dark static formed around his body. Before the situation could get worse, Blitzo showed himself. Blitzo: "Well hello there sir, my names Blitzo the owner and creator of I.M.P, how can I help you?". Alastors' murderous intent and horrifying figure disappeared in a flash from Blitzos voice.

He straightened himself up to turn to him, he glared at the Imp which he ignored. Moxxie however didn't look all that well but was relieved to see him before his untimely end. Blitzo signaled for him to leave which he took immediately. Once he turned the corner he dropped almost fainting from the heart attack he just had. Whilst that was happening, Blitzo put on his best smile and started a conversation with the demon. Alastor: "Well, I wanted to request a visit to the mortal world". Blitzo looked at him surprised, he didn't think even he would have any loose cannons but guess he did. Blitzo: "Of course, who do you want us to kill?"

Alastor: "Oh no, it's not someone to kill just some information I wanted to get from the living". Surprised again, Blitzo didn't understand what kind of information he wanted. Blitzo: "Um, well we don't usually do that but I guess we can make an exception, what is it you need?". Alastor: "Oh don't worry on it, I plan to go myself". Blitzo: "Uh, you want to go on your own?". Alastor nods his head as an answer. Blitzo: "I don't mean any disrespect sir but I'm not sure I could allow that".

Alastor: "And why is that?". Blitzo: "Well it just-". Alastor: "Of course you'll be awarded handsomely". This caught Blitzos' attention, a price from him could reach the millions. They'd be richer most nobles if this went well. Blitzo: "Really?". Alastor looked at the his scaly friend with certainty which Blitzo recognised. Blitzo walked towards the door, a huge smile on his face. Blitzo: "Give me a minute to discuss".

Blitzo grabbed all his friends for a group huddle, all of them were listening to the conversation. Loona: "I like what he's serving". Blitzo: "So do I, listen, if those goes out well we could milk this guy of all the wealth we can get, we'll be richer then we can even manage, what do you all think?". Everyone's smiles were wide with the definite yes except Moxxies'. Blitzo: "I don't think I like that face on you Moxxie, what could be on your mind that could always you from this? We'll be rich".

Moxxie: "I'm not sure sir, witnessing that dark side of him in person wasn't the best experience, I don't really trust this guy". Blitzo: "Come on Moxxie, your mothers back side probably would look worse and this isn't about trust it's about the money, sooner or later those rioters will be gone and we'll be filthy rich". He squeezed his companions in a hug, absolutely thrilled about it.

They all went together to speak to the tall demon. Blitzo: "So we all discussed and we'll accept your request". Alastor: "Excellent, now where may this portal be?". Millie: "Oh uh, this way sir". They all walked in a row towards the said portal, Blitzo at front, Alastor behind him and the other 3 behind them. At the end of the hall was a large door, on the other side was a nearly empty room. All except a table with skulls, strange plants and a giant book at the centre of it. On the ground in front of the table was a pentagram drawing with candles all around it.

Blitzo then signalled to his companions which they went straight to the pentagram lighting the candles. When all candles were lit the pentagram drawing burst into flames. Blitzo: "So, about that reward?". Alastor turned to him but realised what he said. Alastor: "Oh yes, name your price, it can be anything that is within my power of course". The words, "name your price", hit well with the others.

Blitzo thought for while to consider the options and make a reasonable price. Blitzo: "I say maybe, 50 million dollars?". Everyone's eyes almost popped out, that price is too much for even the rulers of hell. Alastor smiled in amusement, he wasn't very fazed by the price, which gave everyone some hope. Alastor: "Hmm, alright". Blitzo: ".....wait really?". Alastor: "Of course, like I said, a special request deserves a special reward but I will pay you after I'm back". Blitzo: "Of course, we'll be waiting".

Alastor approached the flaming portal, staring into its fire. Millie: "Don't worry about the flames, it's completely harmless". Alastor: "Oh don't worry my dear, that isn't what I'm thinking about". With one step, he was in the portal, he could see the flames engulf him but like the little demon said, it didn't hurt. He opened his eyes once more to see what was around him, it was the living world, he's never seen it this different. Time has flown by pretty fast in his case.

He wondered the streets, getting confused looks from passerbys' no one however feared him. Only looks that say, "What a weirdo?" but he ignored them all, it didn't matter to him what they thought all he could think was to figure something out. As he continued his walk he came upon a church. A place to worship god, to worship the good and clear the sins. Maybe this place will give him his answers.

He walked into the holy place, the air was a bit suffocating for him but nothing he couldn't handle. At the bed of the great hall stood a lady dressed in black wearing a necklace with a cross on it. She saw the man approach her and placed her best smile. Nun: "Hello, welcome to the St Louise Cathedral, is there something I can help you with?". Alastor looked to the young holy maid, trying to look as human as possible. Alastor: "Yes my dear, I've had a question for a while now and was hoping I could get answers here".

Nun: "Of course, ask away". Alastor: "I was wondering is there a way sinners or even demons could be redeemed?". The bun looked to the man, confused, she had never been asked something like this. Demons? What did he mean by that? Nun: "I'm sorry to say, I don't fully understand the question or at least know how to answer, but I'm sure our priest who watches this cathedral could answer".

Alastor twitched in annoyance, which he didn't show. He didn't want to stay here too long for his own good but he had no choice. He followed the young man to a room. There sat an old man, reading papers and wearing white robes. Priest: "Oh, sister Kaylee, is there something you need?". Sister Kaylee: "Not me father but a man here has a question he's been seeking answers for, he's hoping you could answer them". Priest: "Of course, what are your questions?". Alastor: "It may seem strange to ask but, is there a way sinners or demons could be redeemed?".

The priest was taken aback by this question. He maybe a man of holyness but he was still a human. Priest: "Hmm, that's a hard question to answer, what brang such a question to your mind?". Alastor thought for a moment but turned back to the holy man. Alastor: "Well, to be honest it isn't a question for myself per say, the love of my life asks this question everyday, she truly is one of a kind, thinking that demons could be redeemed and sent to heaven and we'll, I want to help her with this question". Priest smiled at the man in front of him, even sister Kaylee felt warm over his consideration for his love.

Priest: "Well, it's hard to say, when a sin is committed, there is a way of making your life right as you are alive but to become a demon because of that sin, it will be a lot harder of a task, not to say it's impossible but the fact of it, it will be a struggle". A moment of silence was then placed in front of all of them. Sister Kaylee: "May I intrude with a thought sir?".

The young lady stepped forward to him with the question. Priest: "Of course sister Kaylee, what is on your mind?". Sister Kaylee turned to Alastor to tell him. Sister Kaylee: "From what I know of sins, they can be redeemed through therapy, help from others, them changing their ways and rehabbing them, it maybe possible for it to be the same in regards to demons. Letting go of their ways of sin and instead trying to find the light and positive maybe a way, it is just a thought though but I hope it helps".

Alastor closed his eyes to think, the hotel is made as a rehab centre so it may work but he didn't exactly know the first thing on rehabbing, maybe he could investigate it. Alastor then perked up, turning his attention to the two in front of him. Alastor: "Thank you, I think I have a better idea now". They both smiled satisfied for him. Alastor: "I will take my leave then". Sister Kaylee: "I'll help you out". Alastor let her pass first. Alastor: "Thank you my dear". Sister Kaylee slightly blushed at his words, no ones ever spoken like that to her before, he old style he spoke in was kind of cute. Priest: "I'm glad I was able to help you good sir, hope you have a good day". Alastor: "Thank you". And with that he left the church lost in thought.

It's been his first time in a while being so proper and down to earth with people. Usually others of lower class wouldn't look at him, go near him or speak to him at all in hell. Those that were the same as him spoke in a sharp and demanding tones, making every word they spoke as if they want to shake the ground. He would do it too but in the place where he was, he had to lower that tone. They didn't even mind his looks, his sharp teeth, red eyes or eery presence. How strange humans can be? Of course it took a lot of self restraint to not let his demonic bloodlust take over. Blood would be everywhere in that church if it did lose control. He didn't want blood all over his suit when he went back to his love, now would he?

[jossisarose]

BASICS

Name: Joss Alex Rose

Alias: Joss , JossIsARose (Social Media)

Pronouns: They/Them & He/Him

Age: 29

Date of Birth: November 13th

Gender: Genderqueer (AFAB)

Sexual Preference: Queer

Occupation: Costume Designer and Professional Cosplayer

Personality

Positive

creative

driven

independent

Negative

fickle

withdrawn

jaded

FAMILY

People

Mom: Millie Rose

Twin: Marley Rose

Pets

Cat: Lena

PAST

Hometown: Plant City Middle of Bumfuck Nowhere, Florida

triggers: instance of misgendering and reference to Joss’s dead name early on, stalking, violence, rape, self harm, substance abuse

[dead name mention] Joss Rose wasn’t always who they are now. Once upon a different time, Joss was Jocelyn and “she” was troubled. Or so people liked to think. Born the youngest of a set of twins, to a single mother, Joss never really fit into gender norms, or societal norms, for that matter. Whether it was going without a bra until long after most girls started wearing one, a disinterest in anything outside of their art, or an increasingly morbid sense of humor, Joss was an outcast from day one. Small town life was often the bane of Joss’s existence.

As a child, Joss enjoyed Little Mermaid, but more importantly, Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea. Joss related to Melody on a level that they didn’t quite relate to Ariel. It sparked a love of all things mermaid, and all things Disney, in them and their art portrayed this. Their mother, Millie, taught them to sew and crochet, two activities that seemed to be the only “feminine” thing about their interests. They would alternate between drawing and painting to crochet and sewing, often designing their own clothes. They weren’t necessarily nerdy, but they had their loves. Mostly it was things like Harry Potter, Doctor Who, or other such media, but they also had a love of sports, predominantly hockey. They were a huge Tampa Bay Lightning fan and would often go to games when they had the chance. They were an excellent runner and ran track all throughout middle and high school.

However, in school they did often struggled with anything involving a majority of their body being seen by other people, but especially changing for PE and track. The idea of getting changed in front of other people unnerved them. It was when they felt most vulnerable, most exposed. It was also when they felt the least like themself. Seeing a female body under typically masculine clothing really hurt, but living in a small town, that was only known for a festival based on strawberries that often invited country and Christian musicians, being anything but straight and cisgender was asking for trouble. More trouble than Joss needed.

In high school, as their sense of self wavered further they withdrew into themself, their passion for costume design became even more apparent. They started cosplaying, attending conventions all over the state of Florida, as a way to be themself, without being themself. They tended to cosplay male characters, taking pride in their ability to pass a male, but refusing to think anything of it, in terms of how they felt. It was this that led them to find a college with a crafts department, where they could major in costume design.

They skipped eleventh grade and then received an early acceptance letter to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. With permission from their mother, and a number of legal officials, Joss took off. Moving from small town life, to big city, took Joss by surprise. They were in a place where people who weren’t straight and cisgender were more widely accepted, which made trying to find themself much easier. As a freshman, Joss began to experiment, with a lot of things. Between sexuality and gender identity, they found out a lot more about themself than they were ever expecting. This included the realization that they were trans.

For Joss, the idea of being anything but a female made perfect sense. They tried a lot of things over the next few years, in an attempt to figure out just who they were. They knew they didn’t identify fully as male, and definitely had no intentions to transition, but for the longest time couldn’t figure out just how they felt. Outside of gender being a completely social construct, they needed a label. It came in the form of the terms “genderqueer” and “non-binary” as well as the idea that there was an area between female and male. To Joss, being both agender and male made more sense and they quickly began to explore it as a full identity.

By the time Joss graduated, they had legally changed their name, going with a gender neutral name, as a way to alleviate the pressure from being misgendered, which quickly became a sore spot. Given their more feminine features, being called by male pronouns was a difficult thing to get across, especially given their decision to not transition. When they discovered the singular they as a pronoun, Joss jumped at the chance to use it. While it’s still hard to get people to use it, and they often encourage people to use male pronouns if unable to use it, the singular they felt right.

While in college, between balancing a job with the Pittsburgh CLO and cosplay commissions, their career as a cosplayer, youtuber, and twitch streamer took off. They won a number of cosplay contests and with their youtube channel they really became a household name in the Pittsburgh convention scene. Shortly after graduating from college they were a featured cosplayer on Syfy’s Heroes of Cosplay. They would then go on to be one of Twitch’s first partners and earn the money needed to move out to LA.

Once stationed in LA, Joss went headfirst into life as a streamer and cosplayer. Between winnings at cosplay contests, being invited as a guest to larger and larger conventions, their streaming, and their cosplay commissions, Joss was able to establish a life for themself. One that allowed them to take on international conventions and get their name even more known around the world. In 2015, they were invited as a guest to San Diego Comic Con, and took on a job as a costume designer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Thus sparking both their spot as a returning guest to SDCC, NYCC, and a job with DC as a costume designer for their films and consultant on their shows.

[stalking tw / violence tw] However, after a number of years in LA, Joss found themself overwhelmed by a growing fame that was starting to trouble them. They were more frequently recognized in public and with that came danger. Joss ended up being stalked repeatedly and it ended in a number of physical altercations and the cops being called. After over a year of court battles and a restraining order, Joss decided to leave LA. Their initial destination wasn’t Clover City, TN but they had someone who had commissioned a costume dress from them for some big pageant and was informed that the town could use someone with their talent. It was close to Nashville but just far enough that Joss didn’t think they’d have to worry about being recognized too often.

In the two years they’ve been in Clover City, Joss has flourished. They’ve done more work for the DCEU and found their place in the world again. Just famous enough to be recognized when they visit bigger cities for conventions but just the guy next door with the great sewing skills to everyone in town. The perfect balance they’d been missing in their life while in LA.

[rape tw / self harm tw / substance abuse tw] Under the seemingly perfect surface, however, Joss is starting to fall apart. While it’s been two years since they escaped the hell that was LA, Joss has only now started processing everything that happened to them. Including the fact that part of the court battles involved reliving multiple instances of rape. In trying to cope with it all, Joss has started being self destructive, both in the form of self medicating and self harm. Doing anything they can to stop the way their hands constantly shake and the nightmares that plague what sleep they get around their busy schedule.

Joss maintains various forms of social media that pertain directly to their career. Their twitch channel is often filled with in-cosplay gaming, cosplay building, and even live convention coverage. Their youtube channel is full of cosplay videos, tutorials on everything from how to sew to how to pack cosplays for conventions without breaking them, and everything in between.

When they’re not working, Joss spends their time running, watching hockey, hanging out in clubs, playing video games, or hanging out with their cat, Lena. They run at least one marathon a year, but typically more, and have even run the Boston and New York marathons. They have a giant comics collection and an annual pass for both Disneyland and Disney World. They’re also an avid swimmer.

CREDITS

Syfy’s Heroes of Cosplay (2013) - Cast Youtube (2014) - Hit 1 million subscribers Twitch (2014) - Became partner Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) - Costume Designer Wonder Woman (2017) - Costume Designer Birds of Prey: And the Fabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn (2020) - Costume Designer Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) - Costume Designer San Diego Comic Con (2015 - Present) - Featured Cosplay Guest New York Comic Con (2016 - Present) - Featured Cosplay Guest

APPEARANCE

General

Face Claim: Melissa Benoist

Eye Color: Blue

Hair Color: Brunet & Blond

Height: 5'8"

Biological Sex: Female

Gender Identity: Genderqueer

Gender Expression: Androgynous

Other

Tattoos: tbd

Scars: tbd

Piercings: Ears and Nose

Hair Cut/Style:

Joss typically wears their hair loose around their shoulders, but will occasionally pull it back into a braid or low ponytail.

Clothes/Style:

On a regular basis, tends to stick to more of a punk-lite style, mixing comfort with style. They enjoy wearing beanies, leather, and anything with studs. If they go out, they definitely tend to wear a lot of necklaces and/or bracelets. When it comes to formal wear, they really like suspenders and bowties.

Make Up:

While Joss doesn’t always wear anything more than concealer/foundation to correct for sitting in front of bright lights while on stream, they appreciate a good lipstick and are rarely seen without black nail polish, at least outside of cosplay.

[thatsnice13]

My entry in Lily Orchard’s writing contest, wish me luck!

Primrose hummed softly to herself as she made her way down the garden path. She loved her gardens more than almost anything. In the dozens of little flower beds along the path and around her little cottage, she had the answers to many of life's problems. She had roots that helped you sleep, grasses that calmed the nerves, berries that could be brewed into antidotes for the deadliest poisons… but alas there were no plants that grew gold pieces. The answer to the young herbalist’s problems would not be found here.

She sighed and sat on a stone bench next to a small pool she had for the growth of marshier plants. She saw her own troubled face looking up at her, plump and smudged with its usual layer of dirt, accented by short black hair, cut at a length that mud and leaves would be much harder to tangle in. “You little lady have a problem…” she said to her own reflection.

“Is it a problem I can help you two with?” A voice said from behind, making the short gardener jump.

“Don’t do that Minnie!” She called out, turning to see the only thing she loved more than her garden leaning over her fence; her girlfriend Minerva. Minerva was well named because she truly looked like a goddess and Rose would fight anyone who said otherwise! She was about six foot tall with dark skin and deep red hair tied back in a long ponytail. She dressed in men’s pants and a blue tunic with a sword at her hip, her usual casual wear.

“Sorry Rosie.” The tall woman walked around to the garden gate, letting herself in, making her way over to the smaller girl, and sitting beside her, “What were you two talking about?” she asked, pointing to the pool with a smile.

Primrose froze up; trying her best to not let her lover know something was up. Of course, she failed at that instantly. Rose was a horrible liar, so she settled for telling her girlfriend part of the truth, not enough to let the secret out, but enough so Minnie wouldn’t worry and push her. “Just thinking about our anniversary tomorrow… You always outdo me and I never feel like I do enough.”

“My sweet flower, we’ve talked about this!” She effortlessly picked the smaller woman up from her seat and pulled her into her lap, so the warrior could cuddle the gardener from behind “Having you in my life is gift enough! You always worry too much about these things!”

Primrose sighed and smiled, allowing herself to be snuggled, head resting of Minerva’s chest. “I know… But I still want to do something nice for you… you spoil me so much and I…” she paused, seeing Minerva’s hand was blistered “Hun! What happened!”

“Nothing!” Minerva sat up quickly, hiding her hurt hand.

“Show me!” the smaller girl pounced, pulling the hand back into sight. “Did you burn yourself? Why would you hide this you beautiful idiot!” She cried out, gently holding the injured hand in one of her own and lightly smacking Minerva’s shoulder with the other.

The warrior blushed “I… uh… I was fighting a dragon, and… didn’t want you to worry about me…” Minerva wasn’t a very good liar either.

“…. You were trying to cook again weren’t you?” Rose said, looking her right in the eye.

She was quiet for a long moment before sighing in defeat “I was trying to surprise you with cookies and I forgot to use an oven-mit…”

Rose couldn’t help but smile. Her girlfriend was the sweetest idiot in the world and she was all hers! “You big goof.” She said, chuckling and kissing the injured hand “Come inside love. I have just the thing.”

Rose quickly ushered Millie into her home, not hearing any of her lover’s halfhearted protests as she was pushed and pulled into the two room house. The front was all workspace, full of many herbs, salves, and poultices for everything ailment you could think of, and a few you couldn’t. She grabbed a few leaves of an aloe plant, as well as some dryad’s hair and stone giant moss. Having all her ingredients, she led her love into the second room. Here was a bed, a small kitchen, and a simple wooden table with four small chairs.

The living quarters were sparsely furnished, but vibrant and colorful with vases of fresh cut flowers, enchanted so they would never wilt, and a painting on every wall. All the pictures were gifts from Minerva, hand painted with loving care, showing the house and the gardens at the four seasons. Rose smiled warmly, her eyes lingering on the painting of the spring gardens in bloom. This wasn’t much, but she was happy here... even if it was part of her problem… “Just sit down love, I’ll be right with you.” She said, busying herself with a mortar and pestle, grinding her ingredients together with a splash of cold water to activate the simple magic in this combination.

She almost dropped the mixture when she heard Minerva cry out from behind her. She turned to see the tall proud warrior standing on her chair to avoid a large black spider on the floor. “Rosie help! Get it away! Get it away! Is it poisonous?! Help!”

Rose tried her best not to laugh, but she couldn’t stop herself from smiling “Calm down darling. She isn’t poisonous. She’s just curious and lost.” Putting down the stone bowl, Primrose walked over and scooped up the offending spider in her bare hands. “Come on little friend. I know a place you will be much happier.” She blew a quick kiss to her love as she got down from the chair and carried the spider out to the garden, setting it in the middle of a rose bush. “There you go. Sorry about my girlfriend. Spiders are just a sore point for her, but you should be much happier out here. Lots of mosquitos this time of year.”

A moment later, Rose was back inside, finding Minerva still pale, but down from the chair, “You are the cutest thing I have ever seen,” Rose said, kissing her love gently on the forehead.

The warrior blushed hard, “That wasn’t cute, it was mortifying…”

“Nope! You! Are! Adorable!’ Rose punctuated every word with a kiss to boost her love’s spirits and make her smile. It worked and she got a laugh from the taller woman.

“Ok! Ok love, you win!” Minerva chuckled and pulled her plump angel into a tight embrace. “Oh what did I do to deserve you?”

“Asides from being beautiful, kind and a warm hearted softy? Not much.” Rose playfully poked Minnie in her side to get her to release her tight grip and went back to retrieve the medicine. She gently began spreading it over the blistered skin. Minerva sighed and relaxed in the way one does when a pain you hadn’t noticed was gone, only recognizing it in its absence. “Apart from the burn, did the cookies come out ok?”

Minerva smiled in her embarrassment, “Well… most of them were thrown to the floor when I dropped the pan, but two stuck to the metal. I tried one and meant to bring you the second…” Her blush deepened, “But I think it was for the best you didn’t get to taste it. I think I must have used salt instead of sugar…”

Primrose again tried not to laugh, “Oh you beautiful hot mess! I’m always so happy when I see these adorable flaws in the masterpiece!”

“Oh hush!” Minerva playfully poked Rose in her dimpled cheek.

“Oh no! The upper class is trying to silence me!” Rose cried out with overt sarcasm. She pretended to faint against her girlfriend, “Whatever is a poor innocent maiden to do! Trapped alone with a fearsome yet gorgeous brute! Completely at her mercy!” She opened one eye and smiled mischievously “... Nothing to stop her from, say… throwing me down onto the bed and having her way with me till I can’t walk right for days… hint hint…”

Minerva had to look away to hide her face at this very enthusiastic display. “Curse you weak mortal flesh!” The warrior maiden grumbled out before turning back to her love, “You little temptress! Do you have to get me all hot and bothered!?” she let out a sigh “Unfortunately darling, as much as I want make love with you till the sun turns cold… I can’t today! I’m sorry!” she whimpered a little, “I had just meant to stop in to say hello before going on duty tonight…”

Rose’s face fell in disappointment “You could have said that earlier!” She pouted gently, “...Well this stinks. We’re both horny now and neither of us is getting any… I feel like a straight couple during a fight…” She let out a sigh and kissed her love gently on the lips “Oh well… I suppose I knew I’d have nights like this when I started dating a soldier. Just tell aunt Skara that I’m annoyed with her for taking you from me, and be safe ok? I’m sure there won’t be any baking pans attacking tonight so you should be ok. I love you Minerva.” She smiled and kissed her again, wiping off the balm that had covered the redhead's hand with a moist cloth and smiling when she saw the blisters had already vanished in that short time of treatment.

“I love you too you little monster.” Minerva said with a chuckle. Flexing her healed hand, she stood up, lifting her diminutive love up in her arms, to kiss her and spin her around the room. Once done, she sat the smaller girl down on his chair and smiled sadly, “I’ll see you for date night tomorrow ok?”

Rose nodded and smiled, head spinning a little. “Ok. Be safe darling.”

With that Minerva blew her a kiss and slowly walked from the house. Once alone Primrose felt her mind returning to the contemplation that had started out in the garden… She loved that woman so much. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with her… and she barely had enough silver to afford a plain ring. No engraving and certainly no diamond… How could she propose with so little to offer?

She sighed and felt her spirits start to fall again. She didn’t want to be alone right now. She got up from the chair and quickly washed her face and hands. “Maybe grandma wants some company.” She said to herself as she grabbed a cloak and locked the doors before leaving the cottage. Outside dusk was falling and lights of the nearby town of Sailor’s Rest were starting to glow, but Primrose turned her back to the lights and faced the forest behind her home. She began to softly hum a tune as she made her way deeper into the woods. She had walked this trail hundreds of times in her life and she soon found her way to a house very much like her own with faint candle light coming through the windows.

She knocked at the door and felt her spirits rise to see a small willowy old elf waiting to great her. “Well Primrose my darling flower! Felt like giving an old fossil some company did ya? Come in my dear!” Her voice seemed to creak with a lilt of laughter just under the surface. She was about Primrose’s stature, but a thinner build. Though she looked to be 60 in human years, she was nearly 300.

Rose hugged her and smiled “Sorry if I’m bothering you Grandma.” She said, making her way into the very familiar home. Known to the town of Sailor’s Rest as ‘the white witch Flora’, Grandma’s house was covered in potions and talisman of varying purposes and strengths. She had taught Rose her most important lessons, and would have taught her more if the magic had been stronger in her blood. “Is Aunt Skara home?” She asked, though it was clear the elf’s most recent spouse was still out at the gate. Minerva was most likely going to relieve her.

“Nope. Just the two of us for now. I’m guessing your own gentle giant is busy on duty too?” The witch asked, casually waving her hand through the air to fill her teapot with instantly hot water, then waving it again to turn it to calming green tea blend, ready to drink.

“Yep.” Rose said simply, taking her usual seat at a very old stone table. While Grandma conjured up some scones, Primrose looked up above the gently crackling fireplace. Along the mantle were portraits of her past loves through her long life. A red haired dwarf woman, a sheepish and shy looking wood elf maiden, a tall, strong human woodsman, and finally Skara’s picture. Rose chuckled to herself, remembering the commotion caused when Flora had announced her intention to marry an Orc defector, but after about 15 years of living and fighting with the villagers, she had become loved by all, and not just the strange solitary elf. “I wanted to talk with you about something while both of our tall girls are busy.”

“Fire away dear. You know I love our talks.” She smiled, putting the tea and scones down before her.

“It’s… well… I want to propose to Minerva… But I can’t afford a diamond ring.”

Grandma sipped the tea and was quiet for a moment as if waiting for the rest of the problem “… And?” she asked when no explanation seemed to be coming.

Rose was surprised by the abruptness “Well… that’s what a woman expects when she is proposed to. I can’t do it without one.”

“Says who?” Flora sat up, as if preparing to fight someone who told their granddaughter what they could and couldn’t do.

“I… Well no one specifically grandma. That’s just how it’s done. Weren’t you given rings when you were proposed to?”

The elf laughed, eyes shining and smiling wide “My sweet child, don’t be silly. I proposed to them every time!”

“Really? Even Grandad?” She was genuinely surprised. She had never heard the story this way.

“Of course!” She counted off on her fingers. “Gonda I made us matching necklaces using the metal craft she taught me. Segune I wrote a song. Your grandpa did try to propose to me with a ring, but I beat him to it and got him a new sword I enchanted myself. And Skara and I essentially eloped, and we got matching tattoos to show our bond after the fact. There’s no one way to ask someone to marry you dear. The most important thing is that it is special to the person you love.”

Rose felt a little stunned by the realization, feeling like she had been very stupid up till then. “Something special for her…” she smiled as an idea came to her. “I think I know just the thing for Minnie. But I’ll need your help grandma.”

—————————————————————

After a long but uneventful night guarding her hometown from absolutely nothing, (The eastern gate had to deal with a thief trying to climb the walls, but no one else had gotten any excitement) Minerva had slept all day once she had gotten home. Her father knew not to disturb her after a late night and would have let her sleep the whole day through, but well into the afternoon her maid Alice gave her a gentle nudge.

“Wake up m’lady. You don’t want to keep your little flower waiting.” Alice said teasingly, opening the curtains to let in the light that was nearing twilight. Alice was a sweet girl and a good friend to Minerva. They’d known each other for years, and though Alice didn’t understand at first why the mayor’s daughter would date a poor gardener, she became one of their biggest supporters from the first time she saw how cute they were together. She only wished she could find a romance so sweet one day… She had her eye on the mayor’s secretary Jane, but didn’t even know if she liked girls… Alice helped get Minerva ready as she tried to think of a way to find out.

“Hey Minnie,” she asked, helping bush out the tall girl’s bed hair, “How did you know Rose liked girls?”

The warrior chuckled at the memory, yawning and stretching a little, “It wasn’t anything fancy. One day I knocked on her door to ask her permission to paint her gardens.”

“Oh? What did she say?” she asked, tying the long hair back in a ribbon.

“Not much. She just whispered ‘tall girl pretty’ and started at me for about a minute. It was pretty easy to guess she was interested after that.”

The maid laughed, getting a nice jacket set from the closet, “Well as cute as that is, it doesn’t help me much… I know I should just ask Jane if she’d want to go out, but I’m so nervous! She’s so focused on business that she’s never talked about boys or girls… With my luck she has a husband.”

“Hey come on you gay mess. Don’t give up hope.” Minnie said with a comforting hand on her friend’s shoulder. “Just talk to her. Talk to her about me and Rose to break the ice. Maybe you can get an idea of where she stands from that.”

Alice smiled, eyes shining a little “Oooo! Now that’s an idea Minnie! A lot better than any of my ideas… Big plans tonight with the little lady?”

“Well it is our anniversary. We recreate our first date this night every year, a picnic under the stars by candle light.” She sighed happily at the memories. After quickly checking her hair and clothes in the mirror, she grabbed a carefully wrapped package and a small basket. Taking a deep breath, she turned back to Alice “Well, I’m off. Good luck with Jane, Alice.”

The maid smiled nervously, “Do I really need to do it right now?”

“Of course you don’t if you don’t feel like you are ready… But I wouldn’t wait too long. I heard that one of the rangers has a crush on her too…”

“They what! I bet it’s that jerk Liam! He’s not good enough for her!” With the idea of her crush potentially being wooed by a lousy man galvanizing her resolve, the maid marched off to get a date before it was too late.

Minerva chuckled to herself as she made her way out of the house. None of the rangers had hinted any such thing, but she knew competition was just the push her friend needed.

A few moments later Minerva had arrived at their arranged meeting spot, a tree on a hill overlooking the river. The water was already starting to shine golden as the sun began to set. Being the first one here, Minerva set up the contents of her basket; a large blanket and a few cushions to sit on, a few bottles of their favorite mead, two glasses, and some cookies from the bakery. She had not been brave enough to try baking her own again after the salt incident. She hid her gift in the bottom of the now empty basket just as she heard Rose approaching.

“Hello my champion!” Primrose called, giving a cute little curtsy once she was in view with her own basket and a parcel under her arm. She smiled warmly and got down to the blanket to kiss her seated love. “How was the gate last night?” She asked, trying to stay casual, but she couldn’t help but feel the butterflies in her stomach as she thought of what was coming. She tried to distract from it a little bit by unpacking her basket of cold chicken, fresh bread, grapes and cheeses.

“Nothing special. Just a long slow night. Quiet is good for everyone around here even if it’s dull for me. Still it gives me time to day dream about you.” She playfully fed Rose a grape, “How was your night?”

“I was up pretty late too.” She said, snuggling up to Minerva so they could both watch the sun sink lower in the sky, “I went to see grandma for what I thought would be a little while, and before I knew it, the sun was up.”

“I go off to work under Skara and you go off for tea and gossip with Flora. It’s not a bad system for the four of us.” Minnie laughed, stroking her love’s hair. “Ready to open your present?”

Rose nodded, moving away so they were sitting across from each other. She moved her own package closer but didn’t hand it to Minerva just yet. She wanted to go second. “Ready!”

Minerva brought out her wrapped present and handed it to Primrose, leaning in to kiss her as it traded hands “Happy anniversary my darling.”

Rose blushed, feeling all warm and happy through her entire body as she began unwrapping the parcel. She wasn’t surprised to see another painting, but she was delighted to see the subject matter. It showed this very scene; the two of them laying together on this very hill, watching the distant sunset. Her smile widened seeing her small painted self in her best dress, stained with grass and mud, and Minerva’s riding jacket hanging to dry in a tree. “Our first date!” She said happily, remembering how she had overdressed to impress the strong red head and then Minnie had tripped and fallen in the river. The dress had been ruined in the attempt to get Minnie out of the water. They both had laughed, and neither of them had cared. It had been wonderful! “Oh I love it!” She cried out, gently setting it down to the blanket before hugging herself tightly to her warrior artist. She took a moment to enjoy the comfort and safety of the embrace before separating and presenting her own gift. “Happy anniversary love.” She said softly, hands trembling just a little.

Minerva noticed this but took the package. She smiled, already happy in the paper she was sure Rose had painted herself with beautiful, detailed red roses. So proud of her girlfriend’s work, she was careful not to tear the paper, but only to carefully unfold it. Inside she found a little wooden box containing a set of new brushes and jars of paints; red, yellow, blue, black, white and a 6th jar that seemed almost clear, each with runes painted along the glass.

Before Minerva could comment, Rosie felt the need to explain the paints in her nervous disposition. “I made the paint myself out of special mixtures of my plants. Grandma helped me with the runes. These paints will never dry, and the jars will never empty.” She reached in and held up the clear jar, “This one is extra special. It is bioluminescent. It will make any color glow and shine in low light… Look…” As she spoke, the sun had finished setting and the contents of the jar began to glow like the moon itself.

“Oh Rosie…” Minerva was fighting not to cry “This is the best gift I’ve ever had! I…” she froze as something caught her eye. The roses on the wrapping paper, that were red in the sunlight, were now glowing white in the growing darkness. “What’s this…” she said softly, observing the phenomenon.

“White roses….” Primrose said softly. “You know what white roses mean my love?”

Minerva looked up in time to see Rose get down on one knee. The warrior was speechless, tears of joy in her eyes as they met the gaze of her soul mate. Rose had reached into a pocket and held her hand up. It just hadn’t felt right without a ring of some sort. In her palm sat a daisy, enchanted never to wilt, and carefully tied into a simple ring, a miniscule daisy chain, the head of the flower in place of the jewel. “Minerva… Light of my entire world… I want to spend the rest of my life by your side. Will you marry me?”

She was quiet for a moment, overcome by joy. “Yes. Yes! A thousand times yes Primrose my love!” She cried out, throwing her arms around her dear one again, holding her tighter, never wanting to let her go. In that tight embrace the pair of them shed many a happy tear. Rose gently and carefully slipped the flower ring onto Minerva’s hand. No words needed to be said. All that mattered was that they had, and prepared to start the next chapter of their lives together…

[boreussia-durmmund]

Vanilla and Roses - Chapt. 6

Prologue Chapt. 1 Chapt. 2 Chapt. 3 Chapt. 4 Chapt. 5

If you want to be tagged please tell me! (Nvm just gonna tag if you seem to like it) As always feel free to reblog and comment as much as you want! I had like a hard weekend so gimme a little more appreciation if you can <3

Every day can feel like September

He thought about it for a while on the drive back home and then he made a decision. He called her.

MissVanilla and Roses picked up within a few seconds. Milli wanted to let it all break out, his words as a wave of the storm within him breaking in over her. The metaphor was bad the meaning honest.

His rage about her game burning in him.

“Hello, darling.” she answered her voice sweet and fulfilling.

Milli's heart just stopped for a second, every other feeling fading.

“Took you a while. Hope you are okay.”

This wasn't really a question but he had the right to answer.

“Quite okay, yeah.” He couldn't do it. Anger, confusion, hate, it all faded.

There was no way he could attack her with all that. It didn't make sense but he was used to that. Somebody had to drag him a long way before Milli got so angry he was ready to scream or shout at them.

“That's good. I was kinda worried well not really.

Anyway, I'm still in the city and I wanna do something so you wanna come? There's a cute bar not far from where I am right now.” Milli didn't know what to say.

His heart wanted to shout yes and his brain wanted to hit him for it. This was fascinating him in a very strange way. Her self-confidence was outta this world and she didn't fake that. This was her, she just wanted to go to a bar with him right now. Nothing else, nothing more, nothing less. No worries, no thoughts.

“Okay, Milli, darling I know you probably won't drink but they have like smoothies or so for hipsters and fitness addicts like you. I need a drink... or more.

Maybe something to eat, I don't know if they have what you eat but just come we'll see.” She didn't even do a damn thing and he melted by her words or her voice or whatever.

The address was in his car navigation system about 15 minutes later and the worst thing about it, he wasn't even regretting it.

He spotted her while parking his car, she was waving at him once he left the car. Damn did she look good. Her hair messed up from the wind and her cheeks red from the cold.

“Hello, glad you came.” she was smiling brightly, honestly.

In this second he couldn't believe this girl ever wanted to play him dirty.

El took a few steps towards him and reached up to hug him, her hands were cold when they touched his neck and he wanted to warm her up, wanted to protect her.

Already being there she planted a kiss to his cheek, her hair smelled just the same way his bed smelled after she had lain there.

“I'm glad I did.”

“Sorry, darling, but I'm incredibly hungry so let's go inside.” Once again she wasn't asking for permission. El had the tendency to just inform him about what was about to happen to him.

Somehow Milli liked that, someone taking control.

Her fingertips found his and there was no resistance from him, he wanted this, wanted to warm her cold fingers. It just felt right like her hand was made to be held by his.

Everything just went its way, they sat down, ordered food, she smiled, he did, everything was fine.

El asked about work and training, Milli spilled out the best jokes and funniest moments, she laughed at the right moments just like the other night. There was this flow he just had to fall into and Milli did it without any worries.

There was no thought spent on asking her about the meaning of all this, why she was playing games because right now he was enjoying the game and it felt like they were in the same team.

Milli didn't even think about it before paying the bill for both of them. He was just raised this way. So somewhen past ten, they left the bar.

“Am I allowed to consider this a date now?” he asked happily.

Slowly but steadily he was more self-confident around her, she made it easy for him.

“I didn't plan it to be anything else.” Her smile showed that she had won, once again but he didn't mind.

“Then, what did you plan next sweetheart?” He reached out to put a strand of her hair behind her ear (just like every good romantical scene) and let his finger trace along her jawline, caressing her softly.

“We go to sleep...in separate beds.” she clarified.

Milli didn't even think about another possibility yet.

“I'll take you home.” No resistance from her, so Milli took El's hand and pulled her to the car.

On the drive home, she criticized his taste in music skipped half of his songs and laughed about Milli lipmouthing the words to Eye of the tiger after she decided to rather put on the radio.

Her laugh was filling his mind through the night, the way she gave him a small goodbye kiss to his lips before letting her head rest on his shoulder for a second. She thanked him and left the car. El was like a drug and he was head first into his way of becoming an addict.

@madtimer @the-place-to-sparkle @hopelessdreamer11 @be-your-own-anchorx @sergiosfc @eafay70 @maximillis @evie-pr @imaweirdobutyoulikeit @frommybeautifulmind @tamdxrm @draxler-babe @gwynnnnnnn @furiouscaseofastudent @xuglybeautyx @xtomanythoughtsx

[casliveblog]

Custom Toonami Block Week 109 Rundown

Kaguya-sama: Love is War: I’m still not entirely sure how to feel about this show, like comedy-wise it’s really funny but it’s supposed to have a romantic core and I kind of hate the relationship at the center, like these are still awful people and I’m not entirely convinced they even like each other and don’t just think they should be together because it’s an achievement neither of them have scored yet, like they seem like the kind of couple that would fight all the time because they like the high of fighting more than actually being affectionate and that’s just kind of dysfunctional for lack of a better word. Anyway for the actual plot we have a smartphone debate where Miyuki plasters an embarrassing picture of himself all over the internet to avoid the awkward question of asking a coworker for contact info… like how does the student council even function if they aren’t able to contact each other outside of school? This council is even worse than Milly Ashford’s and she sent a bunch of half-naked girls to capture a cat. Then the episode briefly becomes Team Aqua vs Team Magma in land vs sea which gets called off because Chika is a big titty goth gf and I’m fine with that, Chika’s still kind of the only one I actually like. And last but not least Miyuki fucking tells a guy to assault a girl to get her to like him, like I don’t know when becoming a pickup artist is the better alternative to being focused on your work and not dating but the whole kabedon fetish kinda has unfortunate implications sometimes, I know in Japan all the girls are like ‘omg it’s so romantic’ but if you did that in the States you would get maced.

Inuyasha: We finally meet Bankotsu and boy does his back hurt from fucking carrying the Band of Seven arc. He’s just such an affable yet evil motherfucker, like if Kenpachi Zaraki was on anger management meds. This episode mostly has him getting revenge on the people who killed him originally alone and fucks up normal humans for a while which isn’t all that impressive since normal humans are basically wet paper in this world but Bankotsu still makes it effective with just how relaxed he is while doing it. He also genuinely cares for the rest of the band and it’s around the time he comes in that you see how this random mismatch of monsters came together as a group which is kind of neat, there’s a lot of bad guy bands I could never see really working together but Bankotsu really ties the band of seven together. For now he still has the same power scaling issue as the rest of them since Inuyasha has a mountain-shattering Kamehameha sword but at least the guy can give him a good mirror match and even toys around with Koga for a while as Inuyasha and company are experimenting how close they can get to Mt. Hakurei without Miroku’s horny thoughts causing him to burst into flames. But still we get a good amount of cool fights from him and then he and Inuyasha finally meet and are ready to fight at the end of the episode, great introduction.

Yu Yu Hakusho: It’s the conclusion of Kurama vs Karasu and Yoko Kurama is basically Gaara but with plants at the moment since they respond to movement and surround him, Karasu gets dunked on by them and they start eating him but his mask falls off and he’s able to turn himself into a bomb and it turns out the plants didn’t eat much of him at all for sitting on him and chomping for like three whole minutes. He does the self-bomb thing again and blows out the walls on the stadium and knocks the Yoko right out of Kurama even though he’s supposed to have like ten more minutes for his transformation. Non-Yoko Kurama can’t even do a rose whip and has to throw hands with the dude who is literally made of bombs. He manages to do the ‘haha, death seed in your heart’ thing except Karasu’s like ‘this is shonen you can’t just do the same thing twice dude’ and pulls it out and makes Kurama swiss cheese with bombs everywhere. Turns out the death seed was a double feint and was just to make a wound near his heart so he could do a death summon of a blood-seeking plant which sounds basically like an instant win but I guess it’s blind as fuck because it doesn’t work unless you have an open wound very close to the opponent’s heart… my god Kurama’s moveset is just hyper-specific instant win plants. Kurama uses his life energy to sacrifice himself to summon the blood plant which gives Karasu the succ and he dies but Kurama lives anyway because his Yoko potion actually just has his base form part of Yoko’s energy for his fuel reserves each time and makes the transformation shorter. I always liked that reveal but I have no clue how the fuck it works like if Kurama still had more energy how did he not know? Like he couldn’t do the rose whip but could do the whole sacrifice thing without actually dying, I like to think he had enough in the tank to cover part of the plant and it still took a little of his lifespan off just not the whole life, and I also like to think he could’ve done the rose whip and it only exploded because he was actually STRONGER than he thought he was and was channeling too much energy into the rose based off his new base level after the potion and that’s why it exploded but that’s just fanwank on my end and you’re probably not supposed to think about it that much which I’ve noticed for a good handful of these Dark Tournament fights that either only would’ve worked under these exact scenarios or just don’t make much sense.  

Fate/Apocrypha: We start to get introduced to all the Black Servants and Masters, Fran’s Master is a nerdy simp, Chiron’s Master is a dainty wheelchair lady who says she’s ready to kill her brother if she gotta, Siegfired’s Master is just an asshole and Astolfo’s Master is a horny freak… which yeah, I mean it’s Astolfo so who wouldn’t be a horny freak. Also Dracula is there, not sure whose Servant he is but he’s there being all Emperor Palpatine and talking about eating babies and shit so that’ll probably be relevant. Also Mordred’s all ‘don’t call me a girl my dick’s bigger than yours’ and they meet up with Not!Shiro and Semiramis and Semi is just radiating Sus Energy like a motherfucker so they ditch her but she’s like “Hey we have a problem if Servants just start going off on their own” and five minutes later Shakespeare walks in and is like “Hey Spartacus just went off on his own” so yeah the Red Servants are kinda dumbasses. Lion dude and Mordred fight down the first wave of enemy mooks sent to test them and Not!Shiro tells Karna to go kill Jeanne which I think she’s used to priests trying to kill her so I dunno how well that’ll work.

Nisemonogatari: So this episode is basically three skits jumping around to the various girls in Kiyomi’s life (gonna go by his first name now since his sisters are more prominent). First stop is Nadeko’s place like we teased last episode and she is just fucking chucking as many hentai clichés at him as she can to hope he gets the message, like at some point it stops being weird fanservice and just becomes a joke about how obvious/awkward she’s being and how much he just doesn’t get it. After she’s done throwing herself at a brick wall they talk about how his sisters are trying to track down people throwing around curses like the snake curse and how Kiyomi’s little sisters are basically the power rangers and think there’s some kind of curse ring going around doing magical shit even though Nadeko’s the only one that got cursed because she fucked up the antidote real bad. He has to ditch her before things get very illegal and runs into his sister Karen who is basically Rock Lee if he was a preteen girl and she tells him it’ll all be over soon and not to worry, which doesn’t sound ominous at all. Last but certainly not least is the triumphant return of Best Girl Suruga as Kiyomi goes to help her clean her room but also she’s naked cause she’s like ‘well fuck it’s my room I’mma be naked’ and her grandma sees her naked and she’s like ‘well living’s been nice, guess I’ll just die’ and Kiyomi being the little shit he is wants to see best girl all depressed except she didn’t put clothes on because, you know, depressed, who wants to be depressed and clothed? But eventually she puts clothes on and Kiyomi tries to cheer her up by teasing her about being vanilla and Suruga’s like “Fuck you I’m not vanilla, I’m kinky as fuck, I’ll kink you right here right now motherfucker’ and it’s why she’s best girl.

Speed Grapher: This episode goes over Kagura’s situation leading up to the events of the last episode, it seems as if she lives in a trance, working as the Goddess for Suitengu’s club without any memories of it except nightmares of kissing the most gross old guys that would pay millions of dollars to kiss a half-naked girl in feathers and either die or get superpowers from it. Her mother is very abusive, fucking around with her stuff and gaslighting her about what she’s done as well as starving her because she’s all ‘how dare my daughter be a teenager while I’m getting older” which you, know, logic. Also Suitengu’s boning the mom and gives her a good elevator grope to start her day off. Kagura’s teacher is all ‘man I don’t care how rich and powerful your mom is I’m not gonna let her abuse you’ only for Kagura to come home and find her mom eating said teacher out in bed before her mom tells the teacher she can have as much money as she can carry home as long as she doesn’t put her clothes back on which leads to Kagura watching the woman who swore to protect her jog down the street naked with arms full of money. We also get a little glimpse at Suitengu who murders a dude because his kid stole $100 worth of the club money the dude had and he gives the kid the Itachi Uchiha speech of ‘yeah you prolly wanna kill me, so beat me at my own game’ but in his case his game is money instead of ninja eye magic. There’s something weirdly honest about how this anime deifies money like obviously having money doesn’t make you literally invincible, no one’s immune to just getting shanked but the insulation enough money can have does basically protect people from harm or meaningful criticism and it’s kind of neat seeing the power system of an anime just being rich assholes just like it is in the real world. Suitengu and Kagura talk for a bit and he thinks money is the only way to buy freedom even temporarily while obviously Kagura’s family’s money is what’s enslaving her. Also Kagura’s piano teacher is going all Yoshikage Kira and chopping off people’s arms, like idk if Kagura’s supposed to know her teacher is a handophile but she does mention the smell of hands rotting in the next room is distracting her and his house is decorated with statues of hands so he’s not exactly hiding it very well. Eventually Suitengu gives her her code word or whatever and she goes into her goddess trance thing to be part of the club where she ends up kissing Saiga from the first episode, hoping he can free her from this combination of parental abuse and economic hypnotism. Honestly this anime is kind of fucking ridiculous and everyone’s rich and horny and I kinda love it, it’s so fucking bizarre in a weirdly grounded way.  

Durararax2: This episode jumps around a lot and it’s a bit hard to track but I’ll try to remember all the big stuff. So Mikado’s back in town and is leader of the Yellow Scarves again for like the third time and tries to get Kadota’s group to jump ship from the Dollars to take the fuel out of Mikado’s evil plan to… beat up assholes, I still am not quite sure what’s so evil about it but I’m sure we’ll get there. Haruna’s father realizes she’s run away from home to join Izaya and is looking around for Dollars info and the Awakusu enforcer is having Izaya look into Mikado because he’s supposedly dating Anri and he doesn’t want her mixed up with anyone in a gang. Now Izaya already knows Mikado won’t quit the gang he formed and is now being Shark Batman for but says within a few days everyone will know all about Mikado so his evil plan must be coming soon. Aoba and Izumii meet up and apparently Izumii is a Dollar now too now that he’s out of prison for Aoba letting him take the fall for the whole Blue Squares plot against Saki. Aoba gives the whole spheal about needing Mikado to enhance the Blue Squares and why they wear sharks and stuff and someone (probably Izumii) runs over Kadota which pisses everyone off. Mikado is cautious about things but also is glad Kadota’s in the hospital presumably because he’ll be out of the way of whatever the big evil plan is coming up soon.

[thefairefolk-rp]

Welcome, Bella! Your app for Rosemary has been accepted!

OOC INFORMATION:

Name/Nickname: Bella or Bells

Age: 19

Preferred Pronouns: She/Her

Timezone: GM: -3

Activity and Availability: Generally, from 6pm to 11-12pm on evenings, but sometimes I can manage to enter early. (6-7)

Have you read the rules and FAQ? Yep, fairecode 

Desired Character: Rosemary Collins

Second Choice Character: I loved Kaya Pelt, Ingrid Faolan or any lady of the Wolf-clan because badass female warriors are totally my weakness.

What made you choose this character?: THE BABY-q, just kidding, sorry. I never played a character where being a mother is a major component of her plot, I also would love focusing on the parts of Rosemary not being a mother, still being considered practically a teenager girl who enjoyed riding horses, being rich and losing all these things. I’m very used to make my muses already powerful, so Rosemary’s plot would be a new thing for me to try.

Are there any changes you would like to make?: I totally understand Sophie Turner as Rosemary’s FC (She’s perfect), but I think she’s a little overused? I was thinking in changing her FC to Millie Brady maybe? I’m afraid of the players seeing Rose as something similar to Sansa. But this isn’t a super big problem, I don’t have any issues in using Sophie as Rose’s fc.

Questions/Comments: First, I would like to say that english isn’t my first language and I don’t have a lot of practice in writing it. I use Word and Hemingway to do a proofreading before posting anything, but I’ll make a few mistakes eventually. I’m super okay with people correcting my grammar errors, but I know that reading a text with too many mistakes can be annoying.

Now here is my questions!

If Oberon hates halflings and the Unseelie don’t have any qualms about killing babies, how Becan wasn’t killed right there? Because of the queen? Do you guys have any plans, suggestions or things you’d like to see in Rosemary’s and Becan’s plots? 

Writing Sample:

tw: non-consensual abortion attempt | tw: blood and violence | tw: subtle mention of “fluids” other than blood |

While gently wrapping Becan in one of the awkwardly sewed baby blankets, Rosemary’s only thoughts were how naive she was in underestimating the pain. The smell of body fluids and blood filled the room, but she was too tired to do more than clean herself and her baby, the afterpains still cramping her belly painfully. Someone, probably a nun would enter the room in suspicion of something wrong happening. Rosemary couldn’t just rest, if she slept, they would take her son from her hands just as quickly they tried to take him from her insides before. She could see his perfect little face even in the dim light, how her baby boy seemed more like a painting with that chunk of black hair and pretty white skin still reddish. The nuns would only see in his perfect something unnatural, proof of the father’s origin. The perfect excuse to kill an innocent baby.

Dragging her eyes from watching Becan’s sleepy movements, locking the fear and desperation in a dark room of her mind, Rosemary, rose slowly from the bloodied bed, making her way to the table she had previously moved to the door’s line of sight, using the furniture as support, afraid of her legs failing and falling. Rosemary gently set Becan onto the table, awkwardly bending to plant a kiss on his slightly wet forehead and taking the heavy oak crucifix. Limping toward the door, almost slipping in the heavy drops of blood that dripped from her. Finally reaching the door, Rosemary waited a few minutes while leaning against the wall next to the wood, her vision dizzy and fingertips cold. Knocking on the surfing, using her sore throat to call for help, Rosemary waited the nun, hoping that the door being open would hide her from being discovered.

The details of what happened are fine and fragile as strands of a spider web, some floating in her mind only to disappear when caught. Rosemary remembers the fear closing her chest, her only companion besides Becan, strangely she doesn’t remember the pain or weakness, butonly the way her body naturally moved towards the nun examining the bundle of white cloth that contained her child. The calmness of her mind while smacking the nun’s head with the crucifix, the horrible feeling of desperation while seeing the blood land on her baby.

Taking her son and firmly holding him against her chest, Rosemary forced her trembling fingers to steal the dangling keys. Rapidly walking the stone corridors, hiding in corners, the agonizing sensation of her weak body when she needed it most. The freshness of the air when finally stepping onto the grass, outside of the convent with screams and footsteps behind her. At least the nuns yielded when she entered the forest with a wailing newborn on her arms and sharp jewelry, picking her skin inside pockets sewed in her dress. Rosemary walked the forest slowly, agonizing when she had to kneel or crawl, feeding her baby while not allowing her body to rest, knowing that she’d give up if she stopped. Rosemary gave herself permission to cry, from the pain of her weakened body, fear of not knowing if she could reach safeness, of happiness from being free and holding her perfect child in her arms. Perhaps she’d die before reaching her destination, however, she had pockets full of gems and her own soul to secure Becan’s safety and happiness.

[awkward-radar-tech]

General Comfort

A/N: This is definitely a self comfort fic because I am currently experiencing the worst migraine I have ever had (so if there are mistakes I didn’t catch in my proofread I am sorry) and just want to be taken care of by a certain ginger general. Also @bad--bad--man you need some fluffy ginger daddy to help your sadness, prescribed by me and my kitties. Feel better soon. 💜💜

Hux checked outside of his quarters to make sure a certain Supreme Leader wasn't lurking around before he stepped into the hallway carrying a box covered in a cloth. He was on a very important mission and he wasn't going to let Ren get in his way. He needed to get himself and this package to your quarters as soon as possible. After not getting a response from you on all the messages he sent you on your day off yesterday, and you not showing up for duty today, he knew something was up. He remembered you saying you were kind of lightheaded the two days before your day off, and after consulting one of your friends, he concluded you had a migraine and a bad one if you weren't responding to messages. You have only been dating for five months, and he is constantly trying to find ways to prove to you that he cares about you. You have told him countless times that you know he cares, but he still doesn't believe it.

He made it to your quarters without a problem and entered his code. Your quarters were completely dark, so he was almost certain his thoughts were correct. He slowly walked through your quarters to reach your bedroom, and found you laying in bed just staring at the ceiling. He approached your bed and set down the box at the foot before reaching inside and pulling out one of the things from inside. Holding onto what he grabbed, he sat down closer to you head and softly spoke to you, “Hey, (y/n). I figured out you had a migraine so I brought you a nurse. Millie might not be a trained medical professional, but she is good at providing comfort.” He placed his cat at your side before grabbing your hand, “Also, I moved around my schedule so I can work from my datapad and will be staying here with you until you are better. I brought some medicine and tea and can order anything else you want, just let me know.”

You slowly turned your head towards your boyfriend and smiled the best you could manage, “Thank you Armie. Can you bring me some juice and medicine?”

“Sure thing, kitten.” He went out to your kitchenette and poured you a glass of your favorite juice that you always had plenty of, before returning and grabbing out the bottle of pills from the box. “Here you go. Do you need anything else right now?”

“Could you change out of your uniform and cuddle me please?”

“Of course, I'll be back in a moment.”

When he returned, the empty glass was on your nightstand and you had turned on your side and curled around Millicent, and had drifted off to sleep. Hux quietly grabbed his datapad and turned it off before crawling under the covers and spooning you. He planted soft kisses to the back of your hair and shoulders, careful not to disturb you.

“I love you (y/n). I hope you get better soon, I hate seeing you like this.”

He didn't notice his exhaustion or how drowsy he had gotten and was surprised when he woke up. He had turned to his back and you were curled into his side, using his chest as a pillow. Millie had moved to the foot of the bed, which he was alerted to by the sudden ambush of his foot after his big toe twitched. “Millie, stop that you're going to wake up (y/n) and she needs her sleep,” he whisper-yelled to the foot of the bed.

He was slightly startled when you mumbled into his chest, “Tige, honey, I've been awake for the past hour. I'm just comfortable like this and you were still sleeping.”

Hux began to softly run his fingers through your hair, “Oh okay. Do you need anything now that I'm awake, kitten?”

“Some water and medicine, please. And maybe something light and small to eat.”

“Right away, kitten.” He helped you lay on your back before getting up to retrieve what was requested.

He grabbed his datapad and turned it on while walking to the kitchenette. He made sure he got nothing urgent while pouring you a glass of water, and then ordered some food for the both of you before returning with the water and grabbing some medicine. After he handed you the items, he returned to the living room to wait for the food and work on some reports without the light of his datapad disturbing you. He tried his best to focus on what he was reading, but his mind kept wandering back to you. He hated seeing you in so much pain, he wanted to protect you from everything that could hurt you but he was helpless when in came to your own body attacking you. Although he has yet to tell you when you're awake, he loves you immensely. He loves everything about you, your smile, your laugh, the way your eyes sparkle when he looks into them, your caring soul that brought you to the ship as a nurse, and, most of all, the way you hold yourself with confidence in everything you do. He thought about how he should write down everything he loves about you to give to you when you feel better, but was unable to open a document to begin when a beep alerted him the the arrival of the food he ordered. He retrieved the food from the droid and brought you your plate before returning to the living room. He knew the sounds of him eating would be unpleasant for you, and he didn't want to cause you any unnecessary discomfort. He could still hear if you called for him, and you had Nurse Millicent, who was by your head purring when he delivered your food, that would come alert him if need be. While eating, he began his list of things he loves about you, that he decided he would splurge on and print it out on nice paper and put it in a notebook that you could add to. And he would tell you he loves you when he gave it to you.

Two days later

Hux was returning to your quarters after putting Millie back in her proper domain, carrying the album he had made and a bouquet of roses. He had written 3 pages worth of things he loves about you and they were inserted into the first plastic sheets in the book, and he decided to also include two photos you made him take about a month into dating and a few rather adorable photos of Millicent because you loved her just as much as he did. You were almost completely better now, only a light headache that was easily taken care of with a weak pain killer, and were heading back to work the next cycle. When he arrived at your door, he entered his code and walked in to find you on your couch instead of your bed like he had left you.

You immediately noticed the roses in his hand, “Armie, are those for me?!”

“Yes, my dear. And I also have another gift but I have to tell you something before I give it to you.”

“Okay. Here, come sit down babe,” you moved over and patted the spot you were just occupying.

Hux set the flowers on your coffee table and sat down, holding the album on his lap, “Okay, so, my beautiful (y/n), I have been wanting to tell you this for a couple of weeks now, but I wasn't sure if you were ready to hear it. But seeing you with that migraine made me realize I can't hide my feelings for you. I love you, (y/n), so, so much. And I am so lucky to have you,” he handed you the album, “This is an album I had made for you. I wrote out a list of everything I love about you, and included some photos you'll like. There are plenty of empty sheet protectors so you can add more things to it, and when you fill those up I will have another one made. I hope you like it.”

“Tige, I love you too. So much. Thank you for this, it means so much to me, I'm going to keep it in my nightstand and look at it all the time.” You leaned over and kissed Hux on the cheek and then sat back and looked at the album, “Hey baby, I'd love it if you read the list out loud to me.”

“Of course, kitten, anything for you.”

And so he read you the list, and then read it again just because. At some point you laid down, resting your head on his lap, so every few lines he would bend down and kiss you and tell you “I love you” and he just smiled knowing this is how he wants things to be forever.

[sussex-nature-lover]

Sunday 7th June 2020

A Fuzzy Warm Feeling. Day 76 of Lockdown UK

I think this is quite possibly the prettiest Blue Tit photo I’ve ever taken

and this, though a hard lesson for the little one, that not everything you can pick up is edible or useful. An important message for all foragers there. 

At this time of year we can see cuteness all around us. Big eyes, fluffiness, innocence and curiosity. This lamb was having a little nap in the sunshine. We stood watching it enjoy the warmth and the quiet and everything seemed that little bit better with the world.

With one brood successfully fledged, the House Sparrows who took on our side wall nest box are very busy, busy again.

And the Dunnocks who are so noisy when I can’t see them and so silent and unobtrusive when I can, have also been fledging. They like to hop around under the shrubs in the flower bed.

By far my favourite in the garden at the moment is Petal the smallest rabbit - so called because she’s identifiable by the white mark on her forehead and because of this photo.

She’s a daily visitor and as well as eating fallen petals from the Cistus, Oregano from a herb patch and other various plants, she’s fond of the odd weed and fallen leaves, which is a help, so her second nickname is The Helper.

After seeing her chomping away on some bramble leaves that I’d cut down and not gathered up, I did bring some fresh leaves that came down in the high winds and this morning she’s got the carrot peelings and ends of some celery that I’ve prepared to go in our evening meal tonight (it’s five hour leg of lamb with almost everything in one roasting pan)  She’s just run straight across my eye line right now but she hasn’t found her treat yet.

The other day I watched her smarten herself up. I should learn from her.

That little tongue...I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a rabbit’s tongue up to now.

Captain Blackbelly seems to have attracted a new lady friend to his harem and she’s very striking. Whereas most of the other girls are a more dull buff with hints of rose pink, her feathers are very obviously of a golden hue.She’s very beautiful.

Her mate, Millie, is still being super cute and following my Other Half. I kid you not she arrives, looks for food and if there isn’t any she’ll come and request. When she sees ‘The Man’ with his tub of corn, she follows behind to the seed tray or coconut shells and stands really close by. He’s made himself a regular job there as well as a little friend.

WEATHER WATCH: not looking very appealing to be honest

[ofstarsandvibranium]

Let It Be Known: Part 5 (Final)

Fandom: Star Wars

Pairing: Mob Boss Hux x Bakery Shop Owner!Reader

Summary: Next to the restaurant that well-known Mob Boss, Armitage Hux, frequents and owns, is your bakery shop. After a rather unfortunate occurence, Hux begins to frequent to your bakery more often.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

A/N: “So now we’ve come to the eeeennd of the roooaad.”

Kylo rushed you to the hospital. The car wasn’t even at a complete stop when Hux carried you out the car and to the emergency room. He was panicking and yelling for help.

Doctors and nurses ran up to him, “What happened?”

“Sh-She was shot. She’s lost a lot of blood already. Please!”

Two nurses came up with a gurney and Hux gently set you down. He was going to follow but a doctor stopped him, “I’m sorry, sir. You’ll have to wait out here.”

“W-Will she be alright?”

“We’ll do the best we can.” With that the doctor left him. He sat down in the waiting area looking down at his hands. They were covered in your blood. 

“Come on,” He heard Kylo say as he gripped Hux’s elbow and led him to the bathroom. 

Hux mindlessly began washing his hands watching your blood swirl down the drain. His adrenaline was finally settling and his emotions were running high. Out of nowhere, he began to sob. 

He turned off the water and gripped the edge of the counter. He didn’t care if Kylo watched him cry. He couldn’t hold it in. You were targeted because of him. 

“I shouldn’t have let it come to this. I was so foolish to think she wouldn’t get involved. Foolish to think I could’ve had something normal for once.” Kylo silently handed him some paper towels, “I should have listened to you, Ren.”

You were out during the process of the whole procedure. It didn’t take much time for the doctor to retrieve the bullet and stitch you back up. 

You woke up groggy and confused. Your shoulder still hurt and a blinding light made you groan. 

“You’re awake,” Kylo’s deep voice filled your ears. You looked to your right to see him leaning against the wall.

“Where’s Hux?”

“He went home to change. He’ll be back shortly. Told me to look after you.” Kylo said nonchalantly scrolling through his phone.

“Is he alright? Did he get hurt?”

“No.”

You nodded and sat up looking around the hospital room. It was very dull: plain white walls and a tv mounted in the top left corner, “So guys got shot up too, right?” Kylo nodded, “The guy who shot at me was probably with the guys that shot at you.”

“They’re with a gang separate from us and the Resistance.”

You nodded in understanding. The store quietly opened and Hux slipped through. He sighed with relief, “You’re awake.” He rushed to your side and kissed your head, “I’m so glad you’re okay. This is all my fault. I knew one day this was going to happen.”

“Armitage, please. We both knew it was a bound to happen. It’s my fault just as much it is yours.” You slipped your hand into his, “This doesn’t change anything. I still want to be with you.”

“But-”

You held your hand up to stop him, “No. You’re not pushing me away. You care about me, don’t you?”

“With all my heart, Y/N. That’s why this needs to end.” He pulled his hand away from yours, “I need to send you away.” He mumbled avoiding your gaze.

“Armitage...Armitage, you can’t.”

“I must!” He stood up and began to pace across the floor, “Do you think they’re done?! This is only the beginning! They’re not going to stop until you’re dead! And they want you dead because of me! Because I let myself get close to you! Because I let myself get weak!”

“Don’t I get a say in this?! You can’t just send me away like I’m nothing to you!”

“I’m sending you away because you’re everything to me!” Hux looked at Kylo, whom was still nonchalantly leaning against the wall watching the two of you, “I need you say because you’re everything to me, Y/N. You’re the only good thing I have in this life and I don’t want you to be tainted anymore. I’m trying to save you.”

“What about my bakery? What about Poe and Rey?”

“I’ve already spoken to them,” Hux muttered.

“You what?!”

“I told them everything. Us dating. The shooting. They weren’t happy, of course. Especially that Poe fellow. He gave me an ear full. It took a lot of convincing, but they realized how much I care for you. I’ve already hired some men to start rebuilding your shop. Poe and Rey will help with the process as well since they know how everything looked. In the mean time,” Hux sat at the edge of the bed, “I’m going to send you to mother’s back in my hometown. She’ll take care of you there.”

“And what about you?”

“I need to take care of this. Take care of the men who hurt you. I need to let them know I’m a force that can’t be reckoned with.”

You nodded and looked to Kylo, “Be a good guard dog and make sure he stays safe.”

Kylo’s lips twitched into a small smile, “When have I not?”

It’s been two months since you’ve first arrived to the small yet luxurious town of Arkanis. Hux’s mother was actually sweet. She told you of how because of her husband’s line of work, she had to raise Hux with a nanny. She couldn’t do it all by herself. Because of this, she hoped that he wouldn’t fall into the family business. Obviously, her hopes were crushed. But she knew deep down, he was still her sweet boy. And she was right. When Hux called her about you coming to stay with her for a while, he knew he was still her sweet boy.

You and Hux’ mother, or as she told you to call her, Eileen, got along swell. You showed her all of your baking recipes and she’s showed you her own. She often held small tea parties with her old girlfriends. You’d sit in and listen to them gossip. It was very interesting...until subject changed to you and Hux. They loved to tease you about him. When it started getting a little too raunchy, you immediately would pick up Hux’s childhood cat, Millie, and leave the room. Those older women were too much for you sometimes. 

You were in the kitchen when you heard an all too familiar voice say, “I do hope you’re not gossiping about me...again.” Millie jumped out of your arms and raced to her owner with you not far behind.

“Armitage!” You yelled as you launched yourself into his arms. 

Hux happily caught up and chuckled, “Hello, love.”

“I missed you. Hearing your voice or seeing your face through a phone isn’t the same.”

“I know. I missed you too.”

“Aaawww. Isn’t that a beautiful sight?” You heard Eileen say.

Hux let you go and nodded to his mother, “Mother. Ladies, excuse me, but I must speak with Y/N.” All the women nodded and shooed the both of you away. 

“So what’s happened? Is something wrong? How are Poe and Rey? Is the bakery finished?”

Hux chuckled again, “Slow down. Let me just relish in your beauty for a second, okay?”

You sighed as Hux just stared at you, “Okay. It’s a second! Answer my questions!” You whined.

“I assume you’ve been to the gardens already?”

“Yes, it’s my favorite place here.”

“I figured it’d be.” You hooked your arm with Hux’s and you both walked down to the garden. You began to walk through the small maze of plants and flowers, “To answer your questions, the bakery is finished. Poe and Rey have done a good job restoring it back to it’s warmth and loving atmosphere. The people responsible for hurting you have been dealt with. The Resistance and I became allies in running them out of town.”

“Wow. That’s big. What about your grandfather? I’m sure he didn’t take it lightly.”

“He couldn’t do anything about it.” All of his loyal men are long gone. His people were actually my people.”

You stopped in front of a yellow rose bush and lightly caressed the petals soft flower, “So you’re officially the head of the organization?” you asked without looking at Hux.

Hux shook his head, “No, Ren is.”

Your head snapped to look at him, “What? Armitage, you’ve worked so hard-”

“I know. Which is why I’ve decided to leave it behind.” Hux turned behind him and plucked a daisy from the bush. He turned back to you and slipped it into the crook of your hear, “I’ve decided to focus my attention on you. Y/N, forgive me if it’s still too soon, but I just wanted to let it be known that...I love you.”

You smiled up at him, “I love you too, Armitage.”

Hux smiled and kissed your hands, “Good, because you’ll be seeing me a lot more often now.”

You giggled, “I have no problem with that whatsoever.”

[insidethemagickingdomrpg]

Meet MARLEY EVANGELINE ROSE they’re 22 years of age, and work as a FACE CHARACTER playing the role of RAPUNZEL. She’s originally from PLANT CITY, FLORIDA and is AMIABLE, DEVOTED and COMPASSIONATE. But also SENSITIVE, QUIRKY and TOO TRUSTING.

SAY SOMETHING;

‘Hey little fighter, soon things will be brighter.’

TWEET TWEET;

@magicalmarley: Up for adventure with a side of bacon? Stop by Trattoria al Forno for a Bon Voyage Adventure Breakfast! #bringtheautographbooks

@magicalmarley: Please don’t call me “honey.” Or “princess.” I’m wearing a name tag for a reason. #grossfactor

@magicalmarley: You. Me. Netflix marathon tonight. I’ll bring the gummy bears. #girlsnightin

GETTING TO KNOW YOU;

From a young age and still today, Marley Evangeline Rose has always been a bleeding heart. Perhaps it was being raised by just her mother, along with her twin, but Marley has remained as gentle as she has strong through the years. Despite her initial bashfulness, she has no problem opening up to someone that she’s comfortable with. Marley always sought the advice of her mom, Millie, and knew even as a child that when she grew up, she wanted to aim for a better life. She didn’t have designer clothes like all of the other girls in school, or a father to tag along with for “take your daughter to work day,” but she had enough. She was happy, mostly. Although there were times that Marley wished her mom didn’t struggle and that they weren’t living paycheck to paycheck, she never felt angry about it. Her mother tried her best– even going so far as to sew in designer labels to their clothes in order to hide that they were bought from the local Goodwill, and working double jobs to keep dinner on the table. They were healthy and had a roof over their heads, and it sufficed. To this day, Marley embraces her former lifestyle and contributes it to her humble, down-to-earth attitude. She doesn’t take things for granted, and is a hard worker.

As a child, Marley had always been a dreamer. Raised in a small home with not a lot of toys to keep her occupied, she used the power of imagination to keep herself entertained. She could turn the simplest things into something exciting, and it served her well in school, where she particularly excelled in literature. Not that Marley ever expected to make a career of that, but it was a nice feeling, to be proud of something she could do. While intelligent, her grades sometimes were hit or miss. She easily let things affect them, especially emotions of tribulations; worrying about her mom, or her twin. She knew them well enough. They were a small family, but they were hers, and all she wanted to do was take care of the both of them. It was for this reason that the moment she turned sixteen, Marley got a job. It wasn’t much, but it at least gave them a little extra money. Working at the local movie theater as a ticket taker and concession attendee was nothing glamorous, but she kind of enjoyed it. Or at least the small paychecks when they came in. Still, it wasn’t enough.

College had always been a dream of Marley’s, because she knew it would lead to a better life in the long run. A more successful one. However, there was never any mention of her, and not wanting to push their luck, Marley let it go. She buckled down on her studies, hoping to land some kind of scholarship, but her own faults muddled any chances she had. As perfect as she tried to pretend she was on the surface, the truth was that Marley too had her own troubles. Never happy with the way she looked - mostly due to criticism of the mean, catty girls in school - she slipped into an eating disorder; bulimia. She hated herself for it, for wasting food that her mom had worked so hard to feed them with. She hated that instead of focusing on other issues, it was her own body image that won over. Marley knew she shouldn’t care what others thought of her, but she couldn’t help it. Finally she had control over one tiny faction of her life… and she even began to not care just how unhealthy it was. It came to the point that she could no longer work, and finished her senior year being home-schooled. Her saved paychecks went toward therapy; it was the only way she could afford it. Slowly, she began to get better as she watched just how difficult it was on her family; she never wanted to hurt them like that. Never again. However, her hope of a college scholarship was shattered.

Once she recovered and graduated, Marley let the dream go. There was no way she would be able to attend college, but she needed to redeem herself. Nothing could erase the guilt she felt, but she wanted to try. The first step was to find a job, but there wasn’t much available to a high school graduate with very little work experience. After several interviews, none of which she was hired, Marley decided to try substitute teaching. The pay wasn’t amazing, but it was better than going back to the movie theater, which long had turned into a dump. It felt more or less like a real job, where she had to dress professionally and got to help others. She even met her first real boyfriend; he was the history teacher in the building, and they’d instantly connected. It wasn’t that Marley had never found someone she wanted that type of relationship with, but he was the first she truly felt comfortable doing so with. They dated for a while and she let her guard down, even so much as revealing her history to him. However, this didn’t sit well with the guy, and it wasn’t long before he ended things. Humiliated and ashamed, Marley couldn’t bring herself to go back to that school. It was the longest sort-of-career she’d had, lasting a few years. She had to say goodbye to the students and faculty she’d grown to love.

After that heartbreak, Marley was in need of employment again. She’d finally managed an apartment of her own, but didn’t have enough money to skate by for very long without working. Always a lover of Disney, Marley got lucky when her food service experience landed her a job at Disney World, waiting tables at Trattoria al Forno at Disney’s Boardwalk Resort. After just a week of training the company recognized her hard work and enthusiasm. So, when she requested more hours they offered her a second job by extension, as a park assistant when she wasn’t working shifts at the restaurant. While it was a great way to save up fast, Marley could feel exhaustion creeping in with double duties. Not to mention she now has a new pup, Pluto, that she and Ryder picked out together to look after. There’s also the matter of wanting to spend more time with Ryder himself. The two became close instantly, and although Marley was wary of entering a relationship again, she’s starting to believe that Disney pixie dust has worked some magic on bringing them together. While nothing is official, it’s clear they both feel the same way. After hearing of an upcoming character breakfast at the restaurant including characters from Tangled and The Little Mermaid, Marley decided to audition for one of her favorite princesses, Rapunzel, and roped Ryder into joining her. She hadn’t expected to snag a part, but they both did. With a bit better pay and more appearances between the character breakfast and various meet and greets around the park, Marley was able to drop her other jobs and focus solely on being a face character. Another bonus is that it gives her more quality time with Ryder, whom she’s deemed a prince since they first met; now it’s a proven fact. As for the job itself, even if she’s barely just begun, already Marley is embracing her inner, adventurous princess and is enjoying a different side of interacting with the guests.

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE;

Ships: Ryley, Marley/Chemistry

Anti-ships: Marley/Females, Marley/No Chemistry

[littlefaerose]

saltus forest | early evening

“Thanks for taking me out on short notice, Mr. McTaggart.”

[’Please, call me Fischer.’

She tries her best not to chuckle at her guide’s first name as they make their way down the Path of Kind Souls. Even though the sun has not disappeared from the sky yet, she can see the faint glow of the stones beneath their feet.]

“Does anyone ever call you Fish?”

[’My friends called me that when I was attending NYADA. But it was always a little weird, since I wasn’t a water affinity. And I hated seafood.’]

“Don’t worry - I’m not fond of it either.”

[They walk along in silence for a moment before he speaks up again.

‘So Belladonna, huh?’

Marley flushes and nods, holding the pot close to her frame.]

“I need a safe place to put it. Where it can’t hurt anyone. And where no one can hurt it.”

[’We’ll have to go bit of a ways out, but I think I know a good spot for it,’ he nods, gesturing for her to follow. This is the nice thing about frequenting Saltus as often as she still does. She’s gotten to know the guides well enough to know which ones will help her if she needs it. Which ones will make impromptu trips through with her. Which ones will let her veer off the path if only for a few minutes. Fischer is one such guide, the same one who escorted her, Ryder, and Olivia to the old Fae circle to bury Millie’s mother plant.

It’s indeed a trek deep back into Saltus before they find a place for Marley to transplant the thriving Belladonna plant. She whispers to the plant to ‘make good choices’ once placed into the ground, then dusts the dirt off her palms as they start making their way back.

She hesitates and hangs back a bit as they start to pass by where the old Fae circle clearing is. Fischer seems to take notice and asks, ‘Do you want to go say hello?’

Her heart ticks a little bit faster at the prospect and she swallows hard. She can still see the hallucination of Millie in her mind, fresh as the very moment it happened just days before.

‘I can give you five minutes.’

That’s all the prompting she needs and she nods before leaving the path to weave her way through the trees shrouding the circle away from view.

The circle looks barren with the snow and frost packed on the ground, but she can spy the blooms peeking through. Just not as bright as they usually are. The ancient willow tree stands silent in the middle of it all. There’s no whispering or murmuring here today. She can’t decide if that’s a good or bad thing.

She finds the spot on the outskirts of the circle easily though, marked by smooth stone etched with an ‘M’ and an intricate rose carving. Taking in a breath, she kneels down in the snow, lips pursed against the thrumming of her heart in her throat.

She still can’t find words to speak, so she just stays there, laying a hand to the snow-packed ground for a long moment. She’s gone, she tries to remind herself, less harshly than Olivia did before. She’s in the ground. She’s not alive and walking around anywhere with advice to give you. Get over it.

Okay, maybe the last bit is harsh.

There’s a faint whistle from outside of the trees, and she knows that’s her cue from Fischer to get moving. She retracts her hand and stands back up, brushing the snow from her knees before leaving the clearing.

She misses the rustle of the trees and the pair of eyes watching her from the opposite end.]

[empressofnothing]

A Wraith's Work

This is something I wrote for a contest. It is the final draft but if any one you have constructive criticism I'd be happy to hear it! I guess a trigger warning can apply as there is a semi violent scene so take caution! Hope you all enjoy! -- According to Millie, fall in Virginia was the most whimsical time and place in the world. She believed in the impossible, and if you asked the young woman, in what season would the impossible be made possible, she would say autumn. She knew the impossible could be made possible with a dream and maybe some pliers. She just wasn’t expecting the impossible to find her that day. She breathed in air that smelled of dreams and decaying leaves. An array of red, yellow, and brown made nonsensical paintings on the ground. She stepped on the leaves, feeling a childish satisfaction when the plants gave way in a song of crinkles under her feet. She grinned, ready to run like the wind when she tripped on her untied shoelaces. She toppled to the dirt. “Aw, man!” she growled. It was difficult to tie her shoes alone. She tucked the unraveling shoelaces into the sides of the shoe. She was rising to her feet, knees on the ground and her hand in the dirt, when she saw the hound. Her body reacted to the horrifyingly familiar sight in a split second. Her chest constricted. Her heart pumped so fast she felt it was ready to burst forth from her flesh. In her mind, she heard malign growls ripping from a muscular black and brown chest and saw disgusting strands of saliva dripping from a wicked maw. While her mind was muddled with the violent memory, she could not tear her eyes off the hulking black dog. It was larger than any dog she’d ever seen—bigger even than the taxidermied wolves she’d seen. Its long legs rippled with muscles. The black fur was horribly matted and long. She kept still, praying to God that the hound would move on without seeing her. God was not with her on this day. The hound, agonizingly slow, turned its head. Millie sucked in a painful breath when she was met with its face. The hound’s eyes were red. They weren’t bright, they didn’t glow—they were the color of drying blood. Her mind cried out. Demon, it said. Run. She gained control of her body and scrambled back, scraping the skin on her hand to the point where she felt blood. The dog began to take steps toward her, watching her with his impossible eyes. Her back hit a tree stump. She opened her mouth in a soundless plea and shut her eyes. She felt the hound draw close—so close she could smell its breath; breath that smelled of rot and nightmares. Millie shielded her face with a trembling hand and waited. “You’re not supposed to be here.” • Millie burst into the garage, almost stumbling over one of her Dad’s model airplanes. She slammed the button and the garage door began to close. She stood there, regretting her decision to skip school for the first time in her life in order to hike and enjoy the day---escape the world she hated. But it had all gone wrong. She glanced at the clock. It was 4:15. Under it was a calendar for 1991. Her Dad hadn’t gotten one for the New Year yet, even with it being October already. She walked into the house, hoping her father wasn’t home. The smell of chili wafted from the kitchen. He was home. Thoughts of the hound buried but not forgotten, she tried to sneak past the kitchen. “Millicent?” Her father appeared from the kitchen doorway. He was an older man, shown by his whitening beard. His hands, large, black, and weathered, carried a bowl. An apron was tied around his bulky middle. He was a muscular man, but Millie knew he was a fragile soul. Loud sounds made him dizzy and harsh words made him sullen. Her father, gentle giant that he was, cried over worship music and gleefully played with the toddlers at the daycare he worked at. Millie knew his rage was nothing to fear as it was nonexistent. But she knew he loved her more than anything, and his worry was hard to look at. “Your school called,” he began. “They said you weren’t counted present for the eighth hour.” “Yeah…I, uh, went to the woods.” “Why would you do that?” He paused, looking grave. “You aren’t doing anything… bad--are you?” He seemed to struggle for words. “No! Of course not Dad!” “Good. I know no one here would hurt you, but you’ve never done this.” “And I won’t do it again. Skipping school wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Kind of boring,” she said, thinking of the hound’s red eyes. “Good, good. Would you like some dinner?” he offered, stretching out the bowl towards her, childish hope on his face. “Sure Dad.” • The hound did not appear again until two nights later. Millie had been punished by the school for ditching, but it was held in the library, where Millie searched for answers. All she found was a Sherlock Holmes story. Stereotypically---like out of a horror film---the night was foggy to the point of blindness. Millie was dressed in her pajamas, and was finishing up feeding her tarantula, a gargantuan creature by the name of “Big Joe.” She liked creepy crawly things. Maybe they could bite her, poison her, but they couldn’t maul her arm to the point of necessary amputation. Millie didn’t like dogs. They were big, loud, smelly, and some were mean. She had a dog once, a little beagle named Toby, but he was long gone. Nor was he there to protect her when the rabid Rottweiler latched his teeth into the flesh of her arm. Race car posters covered the walls of her room, and she was headed to reposition one of a blue Formula One when she heard it—the howl. She scrambled out of bed. Out the window, nothing could be seen but gray, and the black of the moonless sky. She didn’t know what compelled her to force open the window and climb out. She just did. She also didn’t know why she ended up behind the graveyard. If wasn’t so deep in her trance, she would have scoffed at how typical the night was turning out. There was more to this graveyard however. It was not what it seemed from the outside. In front, was the regular cemetery where those recently passed were buried. Behind, was a burial ground of the past. And not just a burial ground, an execution sight. Slaves who were unlucky enough to be caught in escape attempts were hung at this location and buried without markers or a funeral or any thought to the fate of their poor souls. She’d never been here. Her father had. A descendant of slaves, he believed it was important to know their people’s history and honor them. The fog was thick, almost blinding her to the tall trees around her, but not to those red eyes. “You,” she stammered. The hound watched her. They stood there, staring at the other for what seemed an eternity, before Millie felt she had the wits to speak once more. “Who are you?” she asked. The hound answered. “I’ve been called many things. Pestilence. War. Famine. Death. I’ve been called the Devil himself.” “Are you? The Devil, I mean.” “I could be, girl.” “My name is Millie.” “Your name is Millicent Abigail Green. You wish to race cars, and believe you someday will, despite your missing arm.” She grabbed the end of her right arm bashfully. “How do you know that?” “I know everything about everyone. And you were not supposed to see me in the woods.” “I…” “You are not marked. I do not understand why you saw me. And I, girl, understand everything.” For the first time, the dog’s voice betrayed a hint of emotion. Confused, and bordering on angered. Millie stood enraptured, fear flowing like blood throughout her body. “You’re not supposed to die,” the hound went on. “What?” she exclaimed. The hound slumped its shoulders and let out a faint breath that billowed white in the freezing air. When he spoke again, he sounded irritated. “I am here to claim a soul. You are not that soul.” Millie could not speak. “And I have no idea of what to do with you. I suppose I could leave you be, to wonder whether you have gone insane, no one believing your story—you scarcely believing it yourself.” He suddenly fell silent. “Then what will you do?” she asked. “I am bound by divine law to never harm a soul that is not marked for violent death.” “You’re a demon…” Millie whispered. “You could be right, you could be wrong. I could be a demon as well as I could be an angel.” “Well, what are you? I mean, what do you think you are?” The hound’s eyes flashed with something unintelligible. “I am everything, but I am nothing.” The hound, furrowing its brow as if confused at its own declare, turned and bounded into the woods, leaving Millie alone with the ghosts of violent histories and the encompassing fog. • Two days later, Millie sat on a colorful rug at the Rose Petal Daycare, watching her father play with a toddler girl. She was sketching in her notebook, a book filled with cars and spiders, a grim portrait of a black dog. “You be the mommy and I’ll be the daddy!” she heard the baby girl cry. “But I am a daddy,” her father said, laughing. “Well then, Ms. Madison can be the mommy!” Her father froze. “Sara…Ms. Madison left, remember?” he got out. “Oh...ok,” the girl said, faltering. Millie closed her sketchbook and walked to the bathroom, ignoring her father’s cry for her. She splashed water from the sink on her face and sucked in a heavy breath. Once she looked up, deep red eyes were staring at her. She screamed for a split second before throwing her hand over her mouth. The dog was closer to her than ever before and it took its toll on Millie, flashbacks to the rabid animal that took her arm running through her mind. “Your mother left you,” the hound said. Millie replied, trying not to sound pained, “Yes, she did. A year ago.” “Do you know why?” “No. Guess she got tired of us.” “I know. Would you like to?” “No.” “She seemed kind. She loved you, until she didn’t,” the hound observed, sounding confused. Millie asked why he sounded that way. “I understand the physical circumstance. I will never grasp fickle human emotions.” “And you never told me who was going to die,” Millie realized out loud. The dog sat back against the brick wall. “I cannot tell you. It is unnatural.” “Unnatural how?” “A human knowing the future can only bring about turmoil in your world.” “My world? Where are you from?” The hound answered. “Heaven. Hell. Purgatory, perhaps.” The hound’s face showed no emotion. He almost looked like a normal hound in that moment, despite his size and girth. He suddenly stood and began to walk towards her. Millie jerked and jumped back, slipping on water on the floor. She fell back and curled down on the floor, tears pricking at her eyes and her lips curling. The hound closed in and Millie buried her face in her knees. “I am sorry.” When she summoned the bravery to open her eyes, the hound was gone. • 1979 was the worst year of Millie’s life. Toby had been a good dog. When he was hit, Millie had been watching. She recalled the screech of the tires, a sudden agonized yelp, and most of all, her mother’s arms wrapping around her. They buried the poor mangled animal on her grandparent’s property. Though her memories of the happy little dog were fading, Millie still visited the grave from time to time. It was only two months later that the rabid dog took her arm. Though her father claimed responsibility, she knew that it was her fault. She shouldn’t have left Grandma and Grandpa’s house. She had wanted to go home; she was tired and bored. When she saw the dog, she was ecstatic (memories of Toby were still fresh then) and approached him. Her young naïve mind did not take heed of the feral look in his eyes. She went to pet him and the dog opened its dripping mouth and sunk its teeth into the lower part of her right arm and thrashed its head from side to side, ripping open her flesh. She screamed. She cried. Her anguished sounds were what alerted her father. She did not remember much after that, but she knew that somehow, someway, the dog had let go and her father had shot it. Her flesh was mangled and torn and she was losing blood in copious amounts. As she sank into unconsciousness in her grandfather’s arms, who had picked her up and was rushing her to his truck, she caught sight of red eyes in the trees. The doctors had apparently decided that the best course of action was to remove the mauled arm. Her wound was mostly near her wrist and the doctors took her right hand and a little bit of her arm. It would have been useless anyway, with its dead nerves and ripped tendons. Since that day, her heart leapt in terror at a lone bark, the hint of a sharp tooth, or even her neighbors walking their yellow lab puppy. She hated dogs. • Four days later, she asked her father why her mother had left. Madison Green had been kind, beautiful, and intelligent. When she left in the middle of the night, it had shocked the small community. Her father had chased after the car, yelling for her. Since that night, Jerome Green had been more vulnerable then he ever was before. “I don’t know, baby…it’s not worth thinking about. I don’t want you thinking about it, okay?” She had said yes, still thinking about it, and her father bid her goodbye and kissed her forehead, explaining that he had to grab milk from the corner store and that he would be back within twenty minutes. It had been a normal night enough. She watched television, fed Big Joe, and ate popcorn, hiding the evidence of her snack in the bottom of the trash can. She didn’t think much of the doorbell ringing. When she opened it, Officer David stood there. Upon hearing his words, Millie screamed. • The day of her father’s funeral came swiftly. Her grandparents hovered around her, as if they were terrified she would be taken from them the way their son had. It had been a robbery. Her father had tried to console the desperate man, only to be met with death. It was a horrible service. The music was too sad, the air was too cold, and the people were too sympathetic. And it lacked the presence of her mother, who hadn’t been found, despite the town’s attempts to find her and tell her that her husband had been murdered. After, Millie wandered into the forest, and sat down on the mulch. Twigs snapped and somebody sat next to her. She turned, and saw the hound’s dull red eyes. “You,” she said. “Millicent.” She and the dog stared at each other. “Why’d you have to do this?” Millie whispered. “It is my work.” Millie was silent, until she asked him the question she asked her father. “What happened to my mother?” The hound sighed. “Madison Green was contacted by an old lover, one from her school days. She was tired of her mundane life and went to him at his insistence. They are currently expecting their first child.” Millie pursed her lips and looked at the ground. “I thought she loved me,” she said quietly. “She does…but she does not.” Millie let out a nearly silent sob and then let herself go. She cried, she screamed, and she beat the ground with her fist. Sometime during this, the hound had moved closer, and when she came to, she was nuzzled into his muscular shoulder. “I think I know what you are,” she said to the hound. “And what do you think I am?” he asked softly. “You’re a wraith,” she told him. He was quiet. “I wish I was not.” Millie asked him another question which she knew the answer to. “I’m never going to be a racer, am I?” “No.” Millie rubbed her dripping nose on her black dress. “I think I’ve known that.” “But you will be something else, Millicent.” “What?” “I can’t tell you.” “Racing cars was my dream. I don’t know what I’ll do.” “Just because your dream is impossible, doesn’t mean you stop dreaming altogether,” the hound said quietly. Millie looked at him. He was looking at her with a strange look in his eyes. Wind blew through the trees. The cold burned her chapped nose and lips. Looking around, she realized they were at the slave graveyard, where they had their first conversation. “Do you have a name?” she asked him, as they sat on the graves of the dishonored men and women whose names were unremembered. “I was never given one.” Millie, her hands still wrapped in his fur, said, “How about Toby?” “You wish to name me after your annoying insect of a dog?” “Yes,” Millie answered without a second to spare. “I suppose if you wish,” Toby said, a glint of true happiness flashing through his face before he smothered it. “It is not a name fit for a wraith---for a monster.” Millie smiled. “I’ve always been fond of monsters.” She swore till the day she died that the hound smiled at this "I think I saw you. On the day I was mauled.” "I was there,” Toby confirmed. “You nearly died. I have…watched you since, though I never thought you would see me.” "Maybe God wanted me to see you.” "God. The gods. Perhaps the devil.” Millie laughed. His riddles bothered her no more. “Well, whoever’s out there wanted this,” she said to him. "I do not know who is out there,” he confessed. “But whoever they are, they are in possession of a nonsensical mind.” "Obviously, did you know that the light hitting us right now is thousands of years old? I mean, who even thinks of that?" They both looked up at the canopy of trees, where light was beginning to shine through the bare branches down onto their graveyard. "It does not make sense,” Toby said. "Maybe it’s not supposed to.” THE END -- This is a much more convoluted story than the word limit allowed, honestly. I wasn't given enough haha. In the end, I was trying to convey that the graveyard turned from a place of turmoil and grief to a place of happiness for Millie and the hound. I wasn't able to do all that I wanted to do in this, like delving into Madison's and Jerome's characters and relationships, and Millie's phobia of dogs, and the hound's character in general. The hound and Millie have a deeper relationship than what I was able to convey in this. And the town itself is a lot more supernatural in my head than in this. So this is just the bones of the story. It'll be a lot deeper if I revisit it someday. Thanks for reading!