#then the guys should have gotten yoinked over as well

[scrollsfromarebornrealm]

unexpected hitch (shadowbringers)

(takes place shortly before Ran’jit’s first meeting with the Exarch)

----------

The whole affair was giving him a bad taste in his mouth.  And as if fate had decided to simply make matters worse...

I couldn’t stop her!  She just went through--and came back with them!

"I warned you that trying to separate them would not end well.”  Urianger ground out.  The ‘them’ being Riven’s fellow Warriors of Light.  The success of the overall plan hinged on Riven being completely isolated from her sworn-brothers.  In fact, Urianger suspected that the senior Scions being pulled to the First and not them was no accident-despite what the Exarch claimed. The twins would believe his words, as would Thancred. Y'shtola was...well, Y'shtola. She'd immediately sensed the charade, and when she couldn't get any answers, she had left the Crystarium. But she would generally trust that he only had good intentions--and so everything had seemed to be going well...

And then as was her wont, Riven had set everything awry. When the Exarch had (finally) initially gotten a lock on her soul to transport her to the First, it had been in the midst of a major offensive between the Empire and the Eorzean Grand Alliance. Urianger wasn't fully aware of the details, but he'd partly eavesdropped on the talk between Riven and the Exarch after her summoning had finally been successful (somewhat).

Riven had been angry. And she had every right to be, but it had been a while since Urianger had seen her that worked up. Had the Exarch been his younger self, he would have wilted under the force of her rage. Urianger had to admit to a personal satisfaction as Riven unleashed months of pent-up anxiety for the well-being of her friends.

"Where are they now?"

Settling in. Though I expect another confrontation, more than likely from Bishop. I gave orders for them to have the same privileges as she does. I just know that'll set his suspicions off. The Exarch replied.  Urianger sighed.

"I will do my best, but I can make no promises." He said. "I know Riven will believe me. If she believes me, they will extend me the same grace. How much, depends on them individually."

Can you handle them if the need arises? Urianger was silent for several moments.

"...There may be no need." He finally said. "Bishop will be the most suspicious, but he has the heart of a true healer. He will be distracted by the pain and suffering of this world. Augustine and Reinhardt will have their hands full ensuring everyone's safety once Vauthry realizes Riven is a threat to him and his plans. Sebastian will more than likely take up the challenge to try and bring additional aetherical balance back to what remains of this realm." Urianger paused for several moments, them continued.

"And Riven will throw herself heart and soul into stopping the Lightwardens. Her brothers will be distracted, and by the time the corruption begins, she'll pass it off as stress." The words had a bitter taste on Urianger's tongue. So much could go wrong with this plan, but it was all they had. Once again he was using his trusted companions, his friends, like game-tokens on a board.

Please gods, do not let this end in her death! Everyone else was expendable, even the Exarch and him. Riven had to live, had to survive this ordeal. Even if it came with the loss of the Scions, of her beloved sworn-brothers...she had to live. Her continued existence and the breaking of the Lightwardens' hold on the First superseded all else. The Exarch was silent, perhaps considering Urianger’s words.

It will all work out in the end. He offered. But the platitude was weak, and both men knew it.  Too much hinged on this plan, this sheer desperate gamble.  Urianger had no doubts that if the scheme was threatened, the Exarch would become even more ruthless than he already was.

Let it not come to that, please!

“I assume once they are fully settled, you will send them here?”  There was no answer to the question, and Urianger frowned.

“Exarch?”

I have to go.  Something has come up--but yes.  I would advise that you start getting ready to receive guests.  And with that, the linkpearl signal cut out, leaving Urianger alone with his thoughts and guilt. 

[epersonae]

10 and 20 for the writer ask game ^_^

10. Best/funniest comment you’ve ever gotten on a fic?

The first thing I always think of is a comment from @thegreatzeldini on the very first chapter of for the benefit of all the broken hearts, specifically this which made me laugh so hard I almost cried:

BITCH TJIS IS HOW THE STEDE BLWOKKB IN THE KITCHEN STARTDX TOO AAAAHHHHHH

All of her comments are always golden, but that one, the sheer incoherence of it, the enthusiasm, as well as the fact that I thought really carefully about getting that parallel and to have it land so perfectly, I could not ask for anything better. Also just to be called BITCH in all caps lolololol :D

20. Hardest character to write/get the characterization correct for?

Ed in that fic specifically, because there's something very particular about that iteration of the character, I just remember it being a very delicate balancing act, trying to pull off writing a character who was the viewpoint character in the original but recreating him through the lens of my protagonist, trying to both stay true to and extrapolate this guy at the same time.

And honestly a little bit feeling like I was looking over my shoulder when @gaypiratebrainrot was betaing, because like, that's their guy that I'm yoinking and running off with, in a much more direct way than writing off of a canon where the creators aren't anybody I'm ever going to interact with directly. (It made me very aware of how much I care about getting a canon-compliant interpretation in my writing generally! Which should not have been a surprise to me, iirc at one point in my TAZ server my screen name was "Canon Queen", and yet.)

[thejellybeanboys]

Mmm there’s something pretty sus going on between Luis, Hoagie, and WilLiam. Sandwich and purple eyes sure did seem a little jelly when that other guy was mentioned. I’m guessing there’s a possible love rectangle going to transpire? 😮‍💨😱

(Music Sniffer: (/Command: isolate ask for @Muisc Sniffer)

Leroy: “ooooh I'm taking this one. Yoink! But uh yeah glad y'all noticed... cause it is the most freaking obvious thing in the world, I got no idea why any of them think they're good at hiding stuff...well actually Wil-Liam doesn't seem to care to hide it but still he's very cryptic about it--like he can't just say or act it upfront but I get it.”

Leroy: “Basically the deal is that Luis likes Chris, but art freak hasn't noticed it. Hoagie likes Luis but uh either Luis is oblivious to it or he does not care enough to acknowledge it. And Wil-Liam definitely likes Luis but...hmm, I don't know if Luis just straight up hates him too much to say anything about it or Luis is a dummy who thinks anything Wil says is (/j) and has no idea he's actually (/srs) because he's too angy all the time. I'm pretty sure Hoagie and Wil-Liam don't know yet that the other one likes Luis (somehow) cause I would have already gotten a rant dm by Hoagie about Wil-Liam by now.”

Leroy: “I mean I sure do hope it doesn't turn into a messy love triangle, it's already weird as it is, them all finding out the truth would just make things so unessaryily complicated. Two dudes fighting over the same dude but that dude is living in fantasy world where he thinks he can snag a popular; three-years-older walking paint rack. Like I think romance is overrated and we're all just dumb teens so why should I care, but Luis is my bro, so I do gotta be invested just this once. All i want really is for this to just blow over smoothly y'know? Luis gotta get rid of that crush cause no way him and Chris are ever gonna happen. Hoagers and Wil hopefully learn that maybe they're feelings won't get returned and it's best to just keep it to themelves forever?? Idk, I never know how that unrequited love crap works. But y'know let all these feelings become low-key and move past them like normal ppl do, but eh I guess none of us are normal people so probably not.”

Leroy: “And if ya tell me exactly why Wil-Liam and Hoagie like Luis... well yeah he might just appear like a walking talking insecure ego who's rude all the time to y'all, but he's still pretty cool, he can understands you in a deep level and even though he might say he doesn't care...he cares a lot. He's extremely passionate in what he wants to do and really wants to be seen for that, all of us here do. Also there's apparently just something he does to ppl whenever they get to know him, he has an effect, I joke at him that maybe that's what his weird half alien powers are but--no, I like to think that Luis can charm people without the use of weird Lexiconian shenanigans (it'll definitely make him feel better about himself if that's true). Hoags and Wil probably got their own mysterious reasons why they like my homeboy so much but I won't speculate further. I'm not that nosey like Codey.”

[starhaloequinox]

After-school ice cream

I completely forgot to post this here 

translations for some words~

Kuya - is often used on older men, usually cousins or brothers as a sign of respect.

Pwede - can we

Diba - right

sige wait lang - okay wait a moment

"Pardo, no." Kosma grips Pardo's hood with one hand and cradles Can in the other, the cat was fast asleep while its owner was running full speed while being stuck in one place.

"But Kosma, didn't you see how loaded that guy looked!? I gotta get in on this."

"....We have to go before Griseo starts worrying."

"Lil' Griseo will be fine, we'll pick her up from school...right after this deal!"

Kosma pauses for a moment, still holding on to Pardo's hood. "...Ah, wouldn't Aponia be upset if we came home later than she expected..?"

The name 'Aponia' made Pardo stop in her tracks, she looked Kosma right in the eye and said "Hey, how about we head now yeah? We don't wanna keep Lil' Griseo waiting now, do we?" With that she yoinks her hood out of Kosma's, Grabs the hand he used to hold her hood and races their way to Griseo's school.

"Griseo! we're here to pick you up!!" Pardo's voice boomed and echoed through the school halls, yet she was only by the entrance of the elementary gate.

"Shouldn't Griseo be out by now? we're at the right gate right? same one as the one we always go to?" She kept piling questions after questions, all were left unanswered as Kosma had approached the guard who was stationed there.

"...Excuse me, sir. Where are all the elementary students?"

"Well, you see you two came early, the kids don't come out until 3."

"...But, I thought it was already more than 3...." He mutters.

He looks at the clock in the lobby, and on the clock it wrote '1:38'

We were too early....

Kosma returns to Pardo’s side but wouldn't look her in the eye.

"Pardo...we should go and come back later..." he tugs at her hood again, placing himself behind her and making himself smaller as if hiding from something.

"ehhh...but we just got here."

“...”

"Pardo, look at the clock..."

"huh..? HUH!?"

around 20 or so minutes later

The pair were now sitting on a bench right outside of the elementary gate.

"So all this time I could've had time to wait..!" she whines to herself, slumping against the railing behind her.

"Even if you did, you would've started making a whole business on the street." He pointed out, an exasperated sigh could be heard from beside him.

"Hey, how about we explore the place! get to know Lil' Griseo's school grounds, y'know?" she said excitedly and without waiting for an answer from Kosma she runs over to the guard

"Kuya guard, pwede uh can we go inside and explore? We promise we’ll be good and not do anything stupid!"

"I'm sorry ma’am, but no one is allowed to go in without an ID or if the children are being excused."

"Please kuya, I don't wanna sit here for another hour, I need to do something!"

the pleads of Pardo could be heard from where Kosma sat, he sighed in defeat. he wanted her whines to stop and didn't want to bother the guard any longer so he taps her shoulder lightly and points to a spot behind him, quietly telling her to come and follow him this way, with a bow and a soft sorry to the guard they left for a while.

“Can, stay here.” the cat mewls and curls into a sleeping position on the bench they sat on.

His hands were shoved into his pockets, taking out two pieces of chocolate for both himself and pardo.

"Hey, where are we going?"

He doesn't answer her and continues forward, taking the lead and heading into an ice cream shop.

"Woah, I didn't know there was an ice cream shop around here! Kosma, money? What do you wanna order? I'll place it in for you!"

"...Rocky road, lots of it." He hands her money enough for a medium sized cup for himself.

"Alrighty, Hi, can I order..!"

Kosma sits in a vacant area close to the door and farther from the counter, swatting away any crumbs left over on the table, luckily the employees had gotten rid of any liquids left by the ice cream. He looks at the clock on the top of the door, it reads '2:12'. it took them a couple minutes to walk their way here, if they finish up quickly they'll be able to get back quickly.

"Kosma, here's your rocky road! you only handed me enough for a medium so i used some of my money to get you the really big one, you owe me."

"...really big one..?"

"yup, really big!"

Silence.

"...Pardo, I gave you enough for a medium because I wanted a medium..."

Silence.

"Ah..! W-Well... you still owe me..!" an embarrassed flush present on her face as she scooped ice cream into her mouth.

"...Whatever" he sighs, digging into his 26oz ice cream pint bucket.

A couple minutes had passed and the two still hadn't looked each other in the eye or made conversation, so in an attempt to make it less awkward he asked her "...what did you get?"

"Oh! Well, I got ube and queso!" she plonks her large 16oz pint down on the table.

"...I don't think I've heard of ube and queso before..."

"You see, they’re a popular flavor where I come from! They're both super good, here try some!" She shoves a spoonful of ube and queso into his face, waiting for him to open his mouth, he complies and the spoon is shoved gently(sort of hard) in his mouth.

He savors the flavor and chews the small chunks of cheese.

"It's good."

"Diba!! You get it!"

He looks down at his own pint.

I don't think I'm gonna be able to finish this now

"don't worry if you can't finish it now, we can finish it together on our way to Griseo and if we still have some left she can have some too!" sometimes Pardo could read his mind(or so to speak his face) causing him to jump every time he does.

She tells him that she was going to get another spoon for Griseo before leaving the table. Kosma starts cleaning up the table as they prepare to leave, he looks at the clock again and now it says ‘2:37’, which should be enough time to get back to the school. He picks up Pardo’s pint, closes it up and puts it into the plastic they had given along with their pints.

“Okay, I got more plastic spoons, you ready?”

He nods.

“Alright, let's go!” They head out the door and back to the school.

By the time they got there there were already kids playing in the lobby area. Some were playing tag, some were sitting while waiting for their guardian to pick them up, and some were drawing on the floor. One of those kids was Griseo, who sat at the very back of the lobby far from everyone else.

Cupping her hands around her mouth Pardo yells, “Griseo!!” The Girl in question looks up from her paper to see who was calling for her, she sees the two of them and stands up, picking up her drawing, shoves it into her bag and makes her way over to the entrance to greet the two.

“You came for me!” she says gleefully.

“Yeah we did kiddo, let's get going shall we? We got ice cream with us, want some?” she says, holding on to Griseo’s hand and intertwining their fingers together.

“Want!” she says, making grabby hands with her free hand towards the plastic bag Kosma’s holding. Can joins their group and greets Griseo first by rubbing on her leg.

“Sige wait lang, let's go sit somewhere first so we can nom on these properly.” she said as she led them somewhere with shade and a place to sit.

“This should be a good spot. Sit here Griseo, Kosma you go on the opposite side.'' She takes out Kosma’s pint and places it in the middle of the two, then hands both of them plastic spoons.

“Pardo, where will you sit?”

“Right here!” she plops herself down on the concrete floor in the middle of the two, cross legged and ready to eat. Kosma opens the pint to see it melting slowly.

“Oh no the ice cream..!”

“Quickly, munch!” Pardo exclaims and digs her spoon into the half melted rocky road ice cream, the two following right after.

“I want the marshmallows.”

“Here.” Kosma scoops some of the marshmallows that could be seen at the top onto Griseo’s side of the pint.

“You can have the ones on my side too!” she says and does the same as Kosma.

“Ah, thank you Pardo and Kosma.” She beams a big smile at the two then looks down at the marshmallows and picks them up with her hands.

“Griseo don't pick those up with your hands you’ll get yourself dirty, use the spoon Pardo gave you.” Kosma uses a wet wipe he keeps in his pocket to wipe Griseo’s stained hands and face.

“Okay, I'll do that next time.” patting her uniform’s skirt down for any dust

“Now that we’ve finished Kosma’s ice cream let's go home.” She stood up and dusted the back of her shorts and held out her hand to Griseo with the girl taking her hand and once again intertwining them together. Kosma had taken the pint and put it into a bin close by.

The girls join up with Kosma and head back home.

“We’re a bit past 4.”

Pardo groans.

[butch-bakugo]

Yall wanna know something bat shit about this post I made almost a week ago about how it's stupid to constantly criticize kamala for having as good an opinion as one can have in the presidential running on palestine and be absolutely fucking glowing in every other important progressive catagory?

On that post, I used three phrases in the top line, specifically ones I heard all across the political spectrum about her from many different activists, news influencers and actual hosts of progressive news outlets. One that pops out as important in this is the last phrase "why is genocide not a deal breaker for you?". I'm not here to further explain the unnecessity and lack of context that comment makes, though it was a stupid comment that was more based in performative voting instead of harm-reduction voting. You see, the person I yoinked it from and some serious allegations that reveal some stupidity behind that just... Yum, pull the bidoofs law out into the open.

You see, that comment was made by a user on TikTok named Ebony warrior who is well known for calling out racists and racist videos, who talks about racism in comic books and cosplay scenes and other nerdy stuff and the importance of progressiveness and inclusivity in those spaces. He was a very handsome and very talented black man who made amazing cosplays and advocated for cosplaying whoever you want, even if you didn't match the skin tone of the character you were being. You see, he got his initial follower jump on TikTok criticizing modern warrior and his messy situation with another popular TikTok user and I'm not gonna get into it but let's just say he cheated on a white girl and she said she lost a child close to the cheating incident then it came out that she actually just had an abortion and didn't correct people when they assumed it was a miscarriage and she's trying to call their sex life "retrospective rape" because she didn't consent to sex with multiple partners because he was cheating around (with protection) then other white women came out and initially supported her and had similar stories but they backed off when she started using a suicide threat for clicks and attention and her false accusations of rape (cause that's not how rape works-) and now its 3 yrs later and she's still grifting on TikTok for attention and cut off all her hair and changes accents and personalities from video to video and then modern warrior (a mixed native man that not wp) got with another super controversial creator whose an openly colorist lightskinned mixed w/white black woman and they both waste their days telling mixed people they are white and saying being wp means ur not a poc anymore and its a whole fucking mess.

Back to Ebony warrior, he got caught up in a racism-originating smear campaign by another user mistaking him for another person but now we know this was used as a smoke screen, this man, has fully gotten caught going after very young women, constantly cheating on his ex wife and setting up abusive "bdsm" contracts and basically trying to take away his sub's consent. People have been trying for years to get him banned from cons cause he keeps being creepy towards female cosplayers and it's a whole mess. He literally abused his ex wife and when Facebook lit him up, he ran to Instagram and rebuilt and when the evidence of his shittiness spread there he ran to TikTok and just... now here it is again! As it should be! I bring this up because he was also screaming when people criticized his misinformation and vote-discouragement that " how dare you white people tell a black person how to feel about a black candidate" like bruh... He brings up his poc card constantly to justify his nonsense. It doesn't matter what shade you are when you're shitting out of your mouth, my guy.

All in all, the reason I bring this up is because this is not the first "progressive cishet man" whose over-critizied kamala and used Palestine to avoid people telling them that no matter how important this is, kamala is risk-reduction. She's the best possible candidate for us and you need to stop listening to these almost-fucking-psyop level liberals who are telling you kamala is inherently bad or straight up lying and saying she's a cop, she doesn't want a ceasefire, etc etc. She doesn't and they are either intentionally or unintentionally but ultimately still harmfully spreading misinformation and encouraging people not to vote. Go. VOTE.

And for clarity? Kamala wants a ceasefire. The video going around with her criticizing some pro-palestine protesters at her speaking event cuts off the fact she, afterwards, simply stated she was going to continue her speech and a ceasefire was one of the first things on her mind.

[sonicenvy]

it was as if my whining post summoned the ups guy lol. got the package from the UPS guy came with the package. some initial thoughts:

those people were right when they said that the hinges felt a little flimsy. that display assembly does bounce in a way that isn't uh.... good.

i already despise windows 11 and I've used for a grand total of 1 minute. take meeeeee back.

I'm not a huge fan of the touchpad, but that's not a deal breaker because i already own like 5 different mice. once you go mac on touchpads, you never go back. it's one of those hardware things that apple really has gotten right. obviously the pinnacle of apple touchpads in my mind is the glass touchpad that they had on the plastic body unibody macs. the responsivity on that is *chef's kiss*. The gesture responsivity on the macbook pro touchpads is also fantastic.

I quite like the keyboard, the glowing blue backlight is fun and the chicklet keys are well spaced.

the fans are somewhat loud, but uh being a person of many old computers i am used to that. i think they're also just loud because the computer has so many vents that really let you hear that.

why do all modern laptops ever seem to only have like 2 usb ports, trash. it has always been one of my big complaints about macbooks and apparently people making pcs copied apple's homework on that. you would think that with all the space they saved on one side of the computer by not having an optical drive they could stick some bonus port in there, but noooo. no modern computer manufacturer is going to do this. we can't have nice functional port laden computers like the dell latitude xps (2003).

not a huge fan of the location of the charging port on this thing. also magsafe chargers on mac are the bomb and everyone should do that so that no computer suffers the death of my samsung pc (2010-2014) via cord trip (by way of cat).

haven't had a chance to really play around with it yet because i've been trying to figure out how to make a restorable system image of my old system (now only a hard drive) because the backup that I did have of the system, uh, got corrupted rip.

i feel clever because i tricked my new pc into booting to my externally connected old hard drive, thus enabling me to access my old system. There was enough hardware that used generic drivers for this to work. Notably however, the wireless lan card drivers were not the same, so the computer couldn't connect to the internet because it didn't know that it had a wlan card, which lmaooooo. fortunately i am fairly tech savvy, so I found out that the good folks over at msi offered downloads of the hardware drivers in their computers (a+ to them), and downloaded this driver installer to my macbook. I then found a flash drive, erased it using diskutil and reformatted it FAT32 so windows could read it. I then copied the driver installer to this flash drive, plugged the flash drive into the computer, copied the driver installer to the downloads folder, uncompressed it and installed it. With that installed, I was able to retrieve the other missing drivers, and the date/time mismatch error resolved. After some regedits and other tweaks, it was time to start the back up

the first backup did not work, but I think that had more to do with the peripherals getting yoinked in a way they did not appreciate. Going for a take 2 on the backup using the windows 7 legacy backup and restore tool from control panel. hopefully this works overnight and does what I want it to do.

[churchyardgrim]

I, STRAHD: THE WAR AGAINST AZALIN by P.N. Elrod

[intro post]

OH GLORY OF GLORIES, SOMEONE COMPETENT 

going from the embarrassment that was Tower of Doom directly to this is a hell of an experience lemme tell you, one i can only describe as overwhelming relief

what makes matters even better is that, well, you remember that bit i complained about in King of the Dead? where they just kinda glossed over Azalin's whole half-century of cohabitation with everyone's favorite dracula? buckle up kiddies bc this whole book is about that

it's beautiful, it had me howling with laughter in a goddamn subaru dealership while my winter tires were getting changed over, everyone needs to read this immediately

so we open with Strahd being the most dramatic motherfucker in the grocery store, literally flinging himself off a mountain while howling his rage at the sky itself, bc Whoops, Tatyana's Dead Again

and then a week later he gets up off the ground like “ok i’m normal now”, and the book goes on to explain how he's gotten used to Barovia's still relatively new position in the mists. people do not leave. sometimes people enter! no one, not even the travelers, understand how this is done, and it pisses Strahd off. he is rattling the bars of his cage to be let out.

he has also made his famous deal with the Vistani, the only people who do have any degree of mobility between Barovia and the rest of the world; they enjoy a measure of safety from him and his agents, and in return act as his spies and limited servitors. he is also warned via a card reading that a powerful opposing figure approaches, and brings inevitable war

in any other story, this would be Our Designated Hero, Who Will Surely Triumph

i think by now you all can guess that this is not the case

and of course, a few years later, Strahd gets wind of Someone New harassing his nobles and making off with a rare magical book, to which he responds "excuse me, no, only i'm allowed to do that" and tracks the interloper to an abandoned manner house in the south of the country

it's at this point that i'd like to thank the author for the glorious image of Strahd getting just fuckign bug-zapped out of the air by the wards around this place so hard he hits a tree and straight up falls out of bat form. istg for all the work the game modules do to make Strahd into the ultimate big bad of the setting, unkillable and invincible, the man sure does spend a lot of time in these novels just getting the shit kicked out of him. it's beautiful and i want every minute of it framed on my wall. i wanna shove him in a locker and steal his lunch money.

anyway, as if the title of the goddamn book didn't give this away, this is where our buddy and pal Azalin Rex enters the scene! recently landed in Barovia, annoyed by literally everything but especially how he can't seem to memorize whatever spell's in that book he stole, damn thing must be broken i swear, and caked in so many illusions that it takes Strahd ten minutes to figure out there's Something going on under all that instagram contouring.

these two hit it off, well… less like a house on fire and more like a house being crushed by a glacier; icy and immovable and probably very worrisome to the neighbors down the street. they're instant bitchy exes, strangers to kismesises speedrun, they hate each other so much because they are so, so similar

Azalin is a king without a kingdom, prickly and a lil bit insecure and unsure of where he's landed and who this weird goth is and whether or not he should apply fireball directly to the problem yet. Strahd is 500% on edge, knowing full well that this is the fated necromancer he was warned about, and is in the process of sussing out exactly how worried he should be. the answer: very!

correctly surmising that this guy can turn him inside-out if he wanted to, and that Azalin is also a fellow Royal Personality and thus might feel motivated to cover his insecurities by yoinking rule of Barovia out from under Strahd's dainty lil goth boy boots, Strahd thinks very fast and manages to trap his new houseguest in a nonaggression pact of hospitality. Azalin is his guest, however unwillingly, and there are rules a guest and a host must observe with each other dammit.

and thus did two undead bastards become study buddies. neither of them like being stuck here, and Azalin doesn't have the distraction of hunting down the reincarnations of a girl he knew in high school. he's a better wizard than Strahd is at this point, too, of which Strahd is keenly aware, and between the two of them they're confident they can blow this popsicle stand within six months

they're there for forty years

to summarize a lot of slow-moving plot, Strahd does his new roomie the favor of restoring that old manner house he'd found him in into a proper wizard's lab, and by the time the renovations are finished Strahd wants Azalin out of he got damn house so fuckign badly, i love it

Azalin knows Strahd's nature well enough, but has managed to keep his own a secret in addition to his fun new curse of being unable to learn any new magic from this point forward. this manifests in the infuriating habit of having Strahd do a lot of the magical gruntwork with testing new escape spells, and good god it's like they're tenured professors arguing over whose turn it is to supervise the interns, it's delightful

eventually they make their first proper attempt, something something summer solstice, combining a translocation with a summoning, it's not important. what is important is it blows up spectacularly and is genuinely one of the funniest points in the book i shit you not

Strahd barely avoids getting atomized, employing the age-old tactic of Hiding Behind Something While The Fireworks Go Off, and when he finally picks himself back up and stops being crosseyed, he just looks at Azalin's desiccated husk of a body splatted across a wall and says "well fuck, that killed him extra dead didn't it"

and then when Azzie starts moving again Strahd briefly remembers what having a functioning lower intestine feels like bc "oh shit oh fuck he was like that the whole time, abort, ABORT, HE'S A FUCKMOTHERING LICH" and then just. plays dead.

he lies down on the goddamn floor and prays Azalin didn't notice that he saw him with his pants i mean illusions off.

i swear to you, dear reader, i had to put the book down and try to remember how to breathe for a solid twenty minutes

anyway Strahd's fakeout somehow works, and they immediately start bickering over whose fault this shitshow was, which provides more than enough cover for Strahd to Fuckign Book It and go triple his own magical defenses, and also have a delightful lil panic attack

i maintain that P.N. Elrod is butch as all hell, by virtue of no one but butches understand masculinity well enough to satirize it this beautifully. she manages to convey Strahd's "i'm not panicking, you're panicking" with this delightfully wry tone that i can't get enough of, and i fully intend to track down her other non-Ravenloft vampire novels once my brain loosens its vicegrip on this setting, bc by god i need more of her voice in my life

we're about halfway through now, and it's at this point that things start Happening in the wider world. namely, that there is suddenly a wider world for things to be Happening in. for about two hundred years at this point, Barovia has been totally isolated by the mists, and most ppl have just gotten used to this, barring a pair of geriatric wizards who keep trying to give spacetime what-for.

but now! all of a sudden! there's another country just. attached to the southwest end of Barovia like a malignant growth.

what's a local vampire lord to do? apparently commandeer a few of the refugees fleeing said new country to go show him where the fuck they came from, is what.

tragically Strahd still can't physically leave the bounds of his own country, mists or no mists, but he can mindcontrol a dude to go back in and have a look around for him. long story short, this new place is Forlorn and it is uhhhhh largely empty! just a bunch of weird magical mutants, and some hermits who aren't too jazzed about said weird magical mutants, and who all move into Barovia within a few months of the two nations sharing a border. 

this provides our two best buddies plenty of new study material, as do the next seven or so new countries that appear periodically like weird geographic parasites grafting themselves onto Barovia's decreasingly misty borders. Azalin can actually leave Barovia, which he's extremely smug about for the twelve minutes before Forlorn physically flings him back over the line in a pinwheel of stuffy robes and flailing knobbly legs, and boy i hope Strahd got a good knee-slapping laugh out of that bc god knows i sure did

the appearances of new lands culminates in Azalin's disappearance from Strahd's radar, and the emergence of his largest neighbor yet: Darkon. using his favorite remote-viewing magical scrying drone trick, Strahd starts sniffing around and is immediately yanked by the collar on a flash tour of the place, ending in the throne room of Castle Avernus, because if anyone knows how to cultivate an impression, it's Azalin Fucking Rex

yes after forty years of bumming around Strahd's backyard, Azalin has a shiny new gilded cage of his very own! congrats buddy, ur still stuck here like the rest of us. but at least ur not rubbing shoulders with that guy anymore.

unfortunately for Azalin's dramatic sense, Strahd is a) not physically there to intimidate, and b) an expert in the art of Not Being Impressed With Your Shit, so the dramatic tension lasts about five minutes before they're back to jabbing at each others' insecurities in the best long-distance shouting match i've ever seen

seriously they should televise this shit, sell tickets, they'd make a fortune

so far the titular War Against Azalin is less of a war and more of an Ongoing Domestic Dispute With Azalin, but the instant their bargain of hospitality is no longer required, that's when that forty year cold war goes real fucken hot

it's a bit of an anticlimax really. you'd think, being undead archmages, these two would fight like wizards and just hurl lightning and rocks and Spell Of Fuck You at each other over the borders, but instead they just… chuck some zombies at some dudes in armor and call it a day

military commander habits die hard i suppose

Strahd's in a bit of a genuine pickle actually, his noble caste have had two hundred years to get lazy and indolent, and he has to do a whole "I'll Make A Man Out Of You" montage to get them into fighting shape. but Azalin keeps handicapping himself by executing half his most effective lieutenants bc they don't agree with his pizza topping preferences or whatever, so Strahd gets to feel smug about being able to actually retain the loyalty of his people on his own

granted, it's not hard to be more charismatic than a bog mummy that got lost on a tour through the beef jerky factory, but still

we end on a narrow battle victory for Strahd, leaving Azalin to spend a few years rebuilding his forces out of corpses and whatever new talent he can scrape up, and having set the stage very effectively for the hundreds of years of conflict between Barovia and Darkon to come. the resentful roommates have become the viciously estranged exes, and nowhere in the dread domains will know peace ever again. 

tragically they will never really come to physical blows in the spectacular wizard fight way i really want them to, bc neither of them can leave their respective houses here, but u know what i think i can live with the kind of needlessly convoluted machinations guys like that come up with in order to fight proxy wars via soldiers and agents and all the tools of statecraft at their disposal. 

it's just. god i love this book. i love watching bitchy old men be bitchy at each other, i love how deep the world feels despite experiencing it through the viewpoints of two guys who have to share Ebeneezer Scrooge's allotment of goodwill, i love the tiny sprinklings of vampire horniness and lich avarice, i love it i love it i love it

absolutely track this book down if you can, or listen to the audiobook as it'll likely be a lot cheaper. if you need me i’ll be rereading Vampire of the Mists for old time’s sake, and also wallpapering my house in pdfs of the Ravenloft Gazetteers bc did u know there’s fuckign travelogues published for these places? with sneaky metaplot about Azalin and his many many kids i mean clones? holy shit yall.

[savnofilter]

Another Year Together

Todoroki x 『GN』Reader

↬ᴡᴀʀɴɪɴɢ(s): intoxication, mentions of partying too hard, injuries and cleaning said injuries, crack (?), fluff.

↬ᴡᴄ: 2.5k [10 mins].

↬ᴀ/ɴ: ahhhh i was bummed that i dont have any sfw shouto reqs *cough cough* send some- *cough cough* anyways so i made up a scenario of my own! i have more fluff ideas i'd love to put out but this may be the birthday fic or i'll post something else tonight if i can~ every time there needs to be a party, just know either mina or kaminari threw it. also its a little rushed because i wanted to get this out tonight and this is the longest sfw piece ive ever written. ;; pffft hopefully you all will love this as much as i loved writing it, happy birthday shouto!

"Stay still." Shouto muttered to you as you squirmed away from the harsh sting the disinfectant alcohol caused your bruised skin.

"Mmmnhmm... M' sorry." You utter haltingly, your leg jerking once more from the sudden sensation. You look up at him with puppy eyes, guilt-stricken as you have already broken your promise.

He stared at you for a few seconds before his gaze softened as you stuck out your bottom lip with a sorrowful look on your face. As he smooths the cloth over your exposed thighs, he softly sighs under his breath, expertly concealing the roll of his eyes. Todoroki was relieved that your reflexes were still in shape, the abuse of the liquor not interfering much with your cognition... at least not too much. 

You two shared the same birthday. He had no idea that celebrating your big day of turning 21 would've been so hectic. As many things between you and Todorooki, you guys took today as a competition. The day started with you both trying to one-up each other since Todoroki’s lucky day was yours as well. First, your day with a breakfast made by him -- with the assistance of Bakugo of course. You couldn’t help the warm swell in your heart at how much effort he had put into it but it wouldn’t top you! While you two interned at the same agency it was pretty easy to surprise him with a big B-Day lunch and an obnoxious bouquet.

“This is a little too much…” 

“There is no such thing as too much for you, Sho.”

Truthfully, he felt that way because he wanted to wow you as well. He was glad that today was a calm day concerning his patrol watch, giving him time to map up his day today and think about all the other miscellaneous thoughts that roamed his head. The painting he had saved for this momentous day sat in the back of his head as he patrolled the streets, the small accessory along with it sitting next to the rest of his pee-pee pouches making him grow nervous. I had kept the small item with him in fear of losing it, the last thing he needed was it to go missing under his watch.

You on the other handheld no qualms about goofing off for the day. Now, you weren’t entirely wasting away the day, you just simply knew how to let loose. With the great news you’d be staying in the office you had more than enough time to help plan and finalize Todoroki’s surprise birthday party. You bit your lip as you checked in with your longtime friend, Kaminari, to host the momentous occasion. Your mind was mostly occupied with the thought of the party and the small but significant present that you had in your desk draw. You and Todoroki had the same mind, the only thing setting you apart is you somehow being more… airhead than him. 

Impossible, right? Not at all. That’s how it explains why he was busy cleaning up your injuries.

After being sent home early you had taken him out to lunch for some soba and well, boba as a great lunch treat — simple enough. You both were full upon going back home, giving you two a few hours to snuggle up and nap to rejoice with the sleep you two had lost from over the time having part-time heroes. Holding back the excited news of the party was hard to do, the first thing you did when you woke up was jump up and usher him to get up as well.

“What -- why??” Shouto glared as he was forced to sit up, rubbing his eyes with the free hand that you didn’t use to pull him up.

“C’mooonn! I just have one more thing to show you for today!” You beam brightly. Your facial expression was as bright as ever like you hadn’t just slept for 4 hours before that. Everything in his body wanted to resist but he couldn’t as he wouldn’t bring himself to. It took but only an hour for the both of you to get ready, sending Kaminari a quick text to make sure that everything was set for sure. 

“Honey, I know this might sound a little odd but I need you to put this on.” You hand him the blindfold once you find him dressed and ready. You couldn’t help but grin at his confused face when he stares at the piece of fabric.

“I thought you said we were going out?” He asks mildly confused, taking it and putting it on anyway.

You paused and gave yourself a moment to think about his response, your cheeks feeling hot at the insinuation. Todoroki’s small giggle makes you feel better about your flustered words, rolling your eyes annoyed when he teased you like that. “Just hold onto my hand okay?” You instruct, hand coming up to hold him as an example. He nods his head as he follows your lead, more excited than what he led on.

The trip from your apartment down to your car didn’t take too long, the assistance of helping him not trip over his shoes harder than you thought. It was hard to keep back your laugh as he fumbled here and there, the most highlight of your experience was helping him in his care (like he usually did with you) and even buckling in his seat (not something he did for you). You were practically buzzing in your seat in excitement as you took off as soon as you were ready, the journey to his place not too far from your own. You bobbed your head to the music of the radio as you vibed along with the beats, fingers tapping the steering wheel as you mumbled the lyrics to whatever song played. Had it not been winter time in Japan you would’ve had the windows down, but you had to settle with the subtle and gentle breeze of the heaters on your skin instead.

“We’re here.” You announced your arrival. You used the keycard Kaminari had given you as the entrance to his apartment complex and zoomed-in irresponsibly. It was easy finding a parking space on the higher levels conveniently the same as his home. You hopped out and helped Todoroki out from his seat and helped him to the elevator. “Promise me to have fun, okay?” The question was simple enough, but your level of fun always exceeded his. 

The sentence made him turn in your direction with confusion heavy on the top of his head. You took out the key from your pocket and jiggled it into the lock. As soon as he was about to open his mouth you yoinked the blindfold off his eyes, the first thing his eyes seeing your cheerful grin and everyone popping up from their hiding places and throwing the decorations up that they held in their hands.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” 

Todoroki was taken back from the whole thing. How many people were there, the familiar faces, the decorations, and just overall effort that was put into this. He couldn’t help but look over at you with the same adoration he normally did when you looked the other way. He was greeted by so many of his friends and mutuals, the overwhelming amount of gifts that sat on the table, and the arrangement of food and drinks that sat up in the spacious room. In the back of his head, he knew he would have to keep an eye on you, and he was right.

The group had gathered to get some cake to get it out the way, the bonus of ice cream filling your tummy with happiness. As soon as you had finished your dessert plate, you declared everyone should loosen up; since no one objected, you went straight for shots. First, it was one, two, then it was two at once, then it was some straight from Mina’s belly button. You held no restraint at your alcohol intake, taking the immature opportunity to drink to your heart’s content. While you were liberal with your amount, Todoroki decided to take in practically none. The verses of your habits are almost amusing to watch like your two contrasting but similar personalities.

Later in the night when the mayhem had started. You and a few friends decided to dance on a few more dangerous surfaces, guaranteeing the sacrifice of one of them being Kaminari’s glass table. 

“Holy shit—” Mina quickly rushed to your side, the same drunken posture and smile on her face as she tried to help you up, careful not to get the same glass shards that scattered the floor. “Are you okay-?!”

“YO Y/N WILDING!” Denki tries helping you up too, the help of the duo helping you somewhat.

You stumbled to get up, the flashlight of other people’s phones making you weary. “I-I’m fine-” You managed to let out, standing as you tried to clear your head and drink the water handed towards you. Either the H2O in that cup gave you courage or you simply went crazy. “let’s go again!” 

Todoroki was left speechless upon watching you continue to party on, knowing damn well he'd have to stop you soon. He wasn’t one to attend parties, and most times when he did they always ended up like this. It seemed after your fall that the knock had given you a sign to calm down at least, deciding to drink more beverages that didn’t hold liquor in it. After some time he had managed to get you in his lap, holding you as he monitored your well-being. 

As much as your reckless behavior would have annoyed someone else, he found it almost endearing. Well… not really in the sense you were drinking yourself silly, but in the fact that you still had the spirit to keep up and party even after the effects of your last hour of madness. It wasn’t long till you had gotten comfortable in his arms you had successfully partied yourself to sleep. Todoroki was careful in lifting you, thanking everyone from attending before quietly slipping out from the apartment. 

He took a deep breath as he somehow managed to find your car, maneuvering to get you into the car and hopping in on his side to drive you home. Todoroki made sure to drive carefully in hopes that you wouldn’t barf all over his car that you had used to get there. The drive back was much quicker than when you two had headed up since it was practically dead at night and the streets empty. He liked drives like these. A part of him was sad that you weren’t awake for it.

Your boyfriend repeated the same process when he had pulled into your apartment complex, picking up your body and bringing you up to your shared home. He was dedicated to getting you situated, prepared to take care of you as much as he needed to. That’s how he found himself tending to your scrapes and bruises right now.

“You know I’m never going to let you drink again.” Shouto teases you, smirking lightly at your sad expression.

“You’d never!” You argued back with the same teasing tone, moving to cross your arms, stifling the pain as you did so.

Todoroki snorts at your dedication to hold up the act, nodding his head as he finished cleaning up your legs. “You’re right. But don’t expect me not to monitor you from now on.” 

A smile tugs at your lips at his words, uncrossing your arms. The lingering drunk feeling still played in how you thought and spoke but not managing to affect how effortless it was to talk to Shouto. You blushed when he picked up your hands, kissing the back of your hands as he spoke to you once again.

“I have a present for you.” He mutters against your skin, eyes trained on the fresh bandages before looking up at you. He wasn’t looking for an answer and he didn’t wait for one either. He hoped that you couldn’t tell that he was weary, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small velvet box. 

Your eyes widened at the realization of what he held in his hand, your heart beating faster as you sat up in your chair. “Sh-Sho?”

“It’s not what you think.” He responds almost defensively. Shouto bites his lip in anticipation, fiddling with the little box. “... it’s a promise ring,” Todoroki concludes. He felt like he had to explain himself for the slightly expensive jewelry. “If you don’t want it-”

You had engulfed him in a hug, pulling him tight against you as you had started to sob. You couldn’t think of words for how happy you were. The only thing that had taken over your body was actions. You nuzzled your face into his neck once his arms wrapped around your shaking your body. His hands soothingly rubbed your back, letting you get out what you wanted. He couldn’t help but laugh when you pull away with the most love-filled face he’d ever seen you make.

“You okay?”

“I’m perfect!” You hastily wiped your face with the help of Shouto, shakily laughing once he leaned into pepper your face with kisses. 

“I was afraid that I scared you,” Shouto admits. You shake your head as you grab his hands, placing his palms on your cheeks, appreciating his soft palms.

“No… your hands are really soft…” You mumble. Your mind went blank as you tried to remember the next line you were going to speak, pouting as you looked around for the answer. The shock of him handing you the ring has successfully shaken you into processing your brain a little better, the heavy impacts of your drinking still lingering on.

“Are you okay?” He asks, worried. You nod your head in affirmation. 

“A kiss could cheer me up.” You give him the same puppy eyes that you used before, weaponizing your cuteness to your advantage. He slightly cringed at the thought, hesitating before leaning in and placing a soft kiss against yours. He prepared himself to taste the alcohol against his lips. He pulled away once he deemed it ready, wiping his mouth and getting the ring he kept in his hand the whole day.

“I think you owe me by wearing the ring for making me kiss you.” He huffs, slipping the ring on your finger, his heart beating at the sound of your giggle.

“Nah you love me without the ring~”

“Yes, but I’d prefer you with it on.” He stands up and holds his hand out for you, taking you into his arms once again for the night and carrying you to your room. “For now get some rest, okay?” He sat you down on the bed and got you changed out of your clothes, sneaking in a few playful kisses here and there to make you laugh. Shouto’s main focus was just to get you situated to sleep peacefully for the night. 

“G’night, Sho…” You mutter to him as you got comfortable in the sheets. Although the returning soreness didn’t go away you had managed to close your eyes and get comfortable.

“Goodnight.” He watched you until you fell asleep before leaving the room to prepare for you the pain medication you’d need in the morning for your impending hangover. 

You never needed the promise ring to let you know he loved you; his actions always told you so.

[sif-the-tsunami]

A king meets his queen

Summary: Henry has a somewhat anonymous encounter with a Persephone cosplayer at a hotel bar.

Warnings, sleezy men, and smut. unprotected sex, oral sex for everyone 

rating 18+ smut below the cut

Word count: 3.3K

Texas in August was something no mere mortal should have to endure, and even though it was still sticky with humidity, the hotel bar was full of people milling around. The only way to really describe the heavy air near the Gulf Coast was to say that it was moist. Between the low buzz of conversation, the women on stage singing bluesy country songs, and the sweet and smokey bourbon took away the stresses of the day for the woman seated on a low leather sofa. She swayed to the rhythm of the acoustic guitars and the women singing cover songs.  There was a fun mix of people still wearing their costumed from the convention happening about two blocks away from the hotel she was staying in.

Long pink ringlets bounced as she enjoyed the steel guitars, her friends had gone back to their hotel room after they finished their drinks. The women still in their elaborate cosplay outfits were wonderful for people watching, even though she sat in her own. A floor length black gown hugs her body, with a deliciously low neckline and two teasing slits up to the tops of her thighs. Attached to the back was a thin cape that dragged behind her with delicate pink petals in swirling patterns. One the top of her perfectly pink hair was a tiara made of dark crystals with two little blue flowers on the right side. Noticing that her glass was empty, she decided to head to the bar for a new drink.

“Hello there princess Pinkie Pie, what are you drinking?” An eager blond man came up to her, blocking her access to the bar. “Let me get you another.”

“Hi, excuse me. Thank you, I’m fine.” She tried to move away.

“Come on, a beautiful woman like you shouldn’t be buying her own drinks.” He said a little too eagerly. He kept getting closer to her, looming over her even though she was wearing heels. “You are here by yourself, you need a little company.”

“I’m waiting for someone, thank you, again. I’m fine.” She looked down for a second so she wouldn’t step on her cape.

“Don’t be like that sweet thing, I would love to keep you company while you wait for your friend.” He put his hand on her upper arm and she yanked herself back. Before she could say anything a tall, dark haired man pushed himself between her and the blond man. He hovered his hand over her exposed shoulders as he made himself look as large as possible as he got her out of the way of the potential danger.

“Darling, I’m so sorry to keep you waiting,” The new man said leading her to the bar. “Are you alright?”

She peeked around the broad man, and the blond seemed to roll his eyes, walking away. Still not sure if she was safe, she nodded. She said a little louder than normal, “Yes, sweetheart. Its so nice for you to join me finally.”

“I’m sorry to intrude, I’m sure that you could have handled yourself but I thought it would have been safer for everyone if I got you away from him. He had been making some comment earlier that suggested he had anything other than good intentions.” The man’s voice was deep and reverberating like a cello. They waited for their turn with the bartender. His English accent made him stand out from the Texan locals. His dress pants and shirt were also heads and tails better looking than the rest of the room. He looked like he could be James Bond.

“He’s not the first guy to hassle me at a bar, he won’t be the last. I’m more upset that he called me Pinkie Pie than anything else. And thank you, I mean it, that was kind of you.”

“Anytime, truly, and Pinkie Pie, like the Little Pony?” The man asked, with a comical head tilt. He ordered himself a whiskey, and offered to get her a drink, she ordered herself another bourbon. He was clearly amused by her order.

“Yeah, I know right, nothing about this says kid’s cartoon.” She said, gesturing with her hands to her dress.

“No, if my nephews watched a cartoon with you in it, I would be very confused. Please, forgive my ignorance. Who are you dressed as?”

“Persephone, Goddess of Spring, Queen of the Underworld.” He handed her the glass of smokey amber liquor. She raised her glass in a small toast to him.

“Well, it is a pleasure to meet you, Your Highness. I’m He….” he was cut off when his companions eyes grew large.

“Oh shit, he’s coming back, do you mind walking with me?” She gently placed her hand on his forearm. He looked around and sure enough that other man seemed to be staring down the woman.

“Of course, Your Highness.” He said with an amused eyebrow lift. They moved to dark corner with a comfortable looking sofa. He sat down with his legs spread out comfortably, with a little hip wiggle once he was down.

“I’m not keeping you from anyone, am I?” Persephone asked her white knight.

“No, I am in town for the convention but by myself. You?”

“I have a bunch of girl friends with me for the con as well.” The two ended up chatting for a while, they laughed and bonded over books, video games and movies they both enjoyed. When their glasses were empty her new friend asked if she wanted another. He seemed to enjoy her company, and she was enjoying staring into his deep blue eyes. When the light hit just right, she could see a small spor of brown. She politely declined the whiskey, but asked for a tonic water with lime. During the few minutes that her well dressed friend was away, the blond man hovered closer. When he returned, handing her the water, Persephone leaned in closer to him.

“He’s coming near us again, do you mind that I’m in your bubble?”

He moved his arm around her shoulders, oh my lord he smells good, she thinks. She tentatively rested a hand on his knee. A careful glance around, the man still seemed to be hanging around the peripherals. “No, not at all. I’ve been enjoying our conversation. It’s been a while since I’ve just gotten to geek out with someone new.”

He leaned in closer to her and he put his other hand on hers. Anyone else looking at them would assume they were a cute couple on a date. “This is going to be really forward, but I’m going to ask you to kiss me, because our friend is still looking and I think that might really send the message home.”

He gulped and nodded, then kissed her as convincingly as he could. Every nerve in her body was suddenly on fire.  His kissing became more passionate. His hand went from her knee and started sliding toward her thigh.  He asked her, his voice husky, “Is this alright, little goddess?”

She nodded and then leaned back into him. Placing on hand on his beautiful face. She moaned into their kiss and bit his lower lip gently. They pulled apart for a moment, and the first thing out of her lips was “Do you want to get something to eat? I know of a place within walking distance if you want to try something fun.”

She was desperate to get to know him better, and she wanted to know him physically but she wouldn’t make it too easy for him. His pupils were blown out with lust, his heart was beating in his ears. He had to catch his breath just a little.

“I could eat...” He nods. They began to stand up. “Before we leave the hotel I want to go up to my room and grab my jacket, do you mind?”

“No, not at all.” He held her hand and led her out of the hotel bar.  He said a quiet word to the bouncer about the blond man and they moved out to the hallway. As they wait for the elevator to chime, the two start making out. The metallic doors open and she pulls him in with her. He pressed the button for his floor. He nuzzles his face into her neck, planting sweet kisses and nibbles gently where her shoulder and neck meet.

“Mmm.” he almost purred. “Since our introduction was interrupted, if you, my darling, are Persephone, I suppose you could just call me Hades.”

“Well that depends a little, do you plan on kidnapping me?” She half joked as he kissed her neck.

“No, my little goddess, but I will treat you like a queen tonight.” He whispered into her ear then nibbled on her her ear lobe.

He knelt down and scooped the woman up from under her bum, wrapping her legs around his waist then pinning her to the wall of the elevator. He slid a hand up one of the slits of her dress, seeing at the tops of her stocking clad legs was a garter belt with her silky panties over the straps.

“I think you put these on in the wrong order, Your Highness.” He chuckled.

“What? Put me down for a second. No. If I put my panties on under the belts, I couldn’t do this.” She said taking the undergarment off and holding them in her hand. Her Hades started to laugh more. She then looked at her panties in her hand and then back at him. “Oh… I see what you did there.”

The elevator door dinged saying they were on his floor. He yoinked her panties out of her hands and danced off the lift. She playfully chased after the man to his room door. He walked in, grabbed his coat and wallet from the room.

“We can always order in?” He suggests.

“Do you really want cold cheeseburgers?”

“No, not really.”

“Trust me, they have a chef’s plate that is absolutely phenomenal. We have all night, handsome, let’s enjoy each other’s company.” She said, biting her bottom lip hopefully. Her hands ached to hold him again, her lips burned to kiss him.

The well dressed man chuckled. “I suppose you are right. Let’s go get a bite to eat.”

Persephone leaned in the corner of the elevator, her companion leaned down and kissed her again. His touch was hungry and urgent.  He starts kissing her neck again and murmured “I think I want my dessert first.”

Her Hades knelt down in front of her, and started kissing the exposed parts of her thighs, gingerly lifting the center panel of her dress. Impossibly blue eyes looked up at her. “May I?”

She nodded, he began gently massaging, kissing and licking at her exposed sex. She moaned in bliss, enjoying his attention. He slid a finger into her sweet center and started coaxing pleasure out of her. “You taste so good. That’s right, my little goddess, come on my face.”

The elevator slowed down and chimed. He quickly adjusted her dress as the doors opened. She was still panting and gasping as she made eye contact with the older couple wanting to get on.

“Why yes, ma’am, I don’t think your ankle is sprained, however you need to be really careful with those shoes.” He said loudly, trying to cover up what they were doing.

“Uh, we’ll wait for the next one.” The older man said. And the doors closed. She looked down, and they started laughing. She leaned her head back and then he proceeded to worship at her alter. He moved one of her legs on top of his shoulder to give him better access. Before long her eyes were rolling back, grinding her hips against his face and tongue. He moved his tongue back and forth, occasionally swirling and lapping at her clit. He slid a second finger into her rhythmically thrusting his fingers inside of her as he sucked on her sensitive nub.

“Oh fuck, I’m going to come.” She laced her fingers through his hair as the wave of pleasure overwhelmed her.  He kissed her thigh that was on his shoulder. She gasped, holding onto the handles on the walls, trembling.

“Good girl.” Pulling her panties out of his pocket, he cleaned the arousal off of his face. “I can definitely go for something a little more filling now.”

“Is it too late to choose room service?” His Persephone asks, still out of breath. He stood up, and wrapped his arm around her to brace her.

“Oh no, Miss, we are going to this restaurant you hyped up. Although, if you keep being a good girl, little goddess, this is what is waiting for you.” He took her hand from the bar on the wall she was holding, and placed it on his erection. Her eyes grew wide as she felt how thick he was. “Don’t worry, sweetheart, I promise I know what I’m doing. I won’t hurt you.”

He adjusted himself as the elevator opened on the ground floor to make his discomfort less obvious. They walked across the street from the hotel to the restaurant, the dining room was lively. The hostess looked panicked over the excess of patrons.

“How many for your party?”

“Just two, ma’am.” Her Hades stated.

“We have one table available, it’s the chef’s table. Otherwise it will be a thirty minute wait.”

“Its fine with me if its alright with you,” His little goddess said to him.

Sitting at the chef table of the restaurant, the companions had to sit side by side, learning more about each other. Persephone insisted that they ordered the chef plate the came with a variety of meats, cheeses, mustard and little other tasty bites. There were deviled eggs with crispy pork belly bits and bacon wrapped sweet potato batons. The volume of the restaurant caused them to keep leaning in to hear the other person. The culinary team brought them freshly made pretzels to try with the mustard. They enjoyed a lovely meal, the food was delicious, the conversation never dulled. He would run his hands on the exposed skin of her leg closest to him. It was like they had been friends for years. When the check came, they play fought over who was going to pay. She practically begged their server in the name of feminism and equality to let her pay the bill.

“Let me pay for my mistakes.” She teased. “Besides, this was my idea.”

On the way out, with his smooth cello voice, he asked, “So, what made you want us to grab food? Aside from having a booze mop.”

The goddess of spring cosplayer lowered her head for a moment, pink curls falling forward, “I guess, I just didn’t want to be seen as being easy.”

“Oh no, darling.” he came up and rubbed his hands over arms. “You are a rare creature. I don’t think I’ve met anyone as warm as you have been. I understand if you are not up for returning with me to my room. However, I would appreciate it if you did.”

“I mean, if you still have an appetite. I know you had your dessert already.” She said with a wicked smile. He leaned in and kissed her ravenously. “Yes, I think that answers my question.”

Even though the sun had set hours ago, the air was still heavy with humidity. They made it into the hotel elevator with a new found urgency, unable to keep their hands off of each other. He kept his hand on the small of her back when they were in front of other guests but as soon as their small chamber was vacant, he groped and pawed at her. This had to have been the slowest elevator in the entire southwest. He whispered what he wanted to do to her once they reached his room as he nibbled and caressed her neck and exposed shoulders.

They made their way into his room, tugging and pulling off the other’s clothes. The coat jacket was thrown over his shoulder as they began exploring the other. His pink haired goddess unbuttoned the soft linen of his light blue shirt, looking upon the thick curly hair on his chest. She placed soft kisses on his chest as they exposed the freckles that laid in waiting under the fabric.  The shirt was removed, then his belt, he kicked off his dress shoes.

“I want to rip this dress off,” He said lustfully.

“You are going to have to, I’m sewn into it..” She raised an eyebrow.

“Hmm, but I can’t have you parading home in the buff. That is no way to treat the Queen of the Underworld, is it?” He pressed his fingertips gently into her hips as he pulled her to the couch. She was pulled onto his lap, throwing the center panel of her dress over her hip, exposing her sensuous core to him. He reached in between her legs again and started rubbing his thumb against her most sensitive part.

“I want you, my little goddess, my Persephone.” With his other hand, he placed his hand on the back of her neck to pull her down to kiss her again. She moved her hand to the button on his trousers. He took his hands away from her and pull down his pants and exposed himself to her. It was the thickest erection she had ever seen. “I know, sweet girl, I promise I wont hurt you. If you say we stop, we stop immediately.”

“It is really cute that you think you’ll hurt me, I’m not as delicate as I look.” She positioned herself to ease herself down on him. Her warmth overwhelmed him, once she stopped moving he grabbed her hips.

“Baby, you feel so good. Give me a second, you are going to make me cum.” He sounded like he was in pain. Gasping, he grabbed one of her breasts through her dress. “Shit, I promise that this isn’t how it usually is. Fuck, you feel so good.”

She squeezed herself on him and his jaw went slack. After a moment’s pause, they start moving slowly in unison. He groaned and gasped as she arched her back to let him in deeper. Their bodies complimented each other in ways they didn’t know could happen. He watched as her cheeks and chest became warm with her rising climax, coaxing his own out of him. She bucked against him as she succumbed to her orgasm. Her Hades started thrusting deeper and harder, he whimpered as his orgasm threatened to irrupt.

“Baby, I’m going to cum.” He whispers breathlessly. His little goddess moved off his lap quickly and positioned herself between his legs. She greedily put his cock in her mouth and begins to suck on the head of his cock while pumping her fist on his shaft.  “Oh fuck… oh fuck, I’m..”

She felt the pulsing as he came in her mouth. She swallowed every drop of him. Looking up at the quivering man, he twitched and trembled. He reached out for her to hold her and kiss her more. He wrapped his arms around her and held her, resting his head on hers. He lifted her hand and kissed the back of it.

“I swear to god that I last longer than that normally, but oh, little goddess, you fucking rub me the right way.” His voice trembled. “Stay the night with me. Let’s… lets do that again. Please? Besides, you can show me the best place to get breakfast.”

“I suppose, but I think we should finally introduce ourselves. Don’t you think?” She giggled.

 @littlewrenofrivia what do you think?

[the-big-nope]

Seeing a whole lotta posts about how someone needs to talk to Caduceus, how he’s going to crack at some point if it continues, and just wanted to throw my two cents out into the world about how while I agree that I’d love some more Caduceus focus and him opening up to the group, I really don’t think the urgency of a talk is as severe as some people make it out to be? Or at least I don’t think it’s going to happen, nor will it be imperative for Cad’s well-being that it happen, before a certain point. (I cannot speak to the coherency of this post, I just wanted to spit some musings out given all the Caduceus talk bouncing around the fandom).

For one, I’m highly skeptical that he’s ever going to crack in the way some people are imagining. This isn’t to say that Caduceus is as infallibly wise and unshakeable as he likes to appear. But a lot of people seem to be implying that that solidity of character is all an act or a coping mechanism, but that’s not entirely true. In a general sense, he is a steady person; no matter if some portion of that was a role he got slotted into, he is a calm individual, and even if there’s a part of him that tends to put aside his own needs in favor of being an anchor for other people, he’s not insecure enough in himself to ever end up in the kind of place that Scanlan did. If Caduceus ever did reach a bad place born of just this current trajectory, I think it would only ever manifest as these incorrect truths taking root in his worldview that wouldn’t be healthy, but something he would just lump along and not really pay attention to. So in the immediate sense, I highly doubt we’re ever going to see Caduceus ‘break’ or flounce away from the group for the reasons a lot of people are bringing up now. If, say, something terrible happened to his family or his home, or he had some major crisis with his faith, that’s the kind of thing I could see really getting to him and causing a visible crash; stuff from within seems to be something he can sit with much easier, even if he really shouldn’t.

As for the events on Rumblecusp and his recent bad luck, I just feel like that’s been a bit blown out of proportion. He fell into an ouch-bog a few times, which sucked but he was fine. Got a few of his personal items yoinked by Vokodo, but they were all gotten back in this episode. Got charmed toward Vokodo’s lair, but Beau and Caleb got him back almost immediately and no lasting harm was done. Strings of bummer luck like that sometimes just happen to these characters. Caleb was struggling in the Happy Fun Ball. Yasha got charmed multiple times on this island. Fjord was having a shitty string of combat luck between Rexxentrum and the Menagerie. You feel bad for the characters, and I would honestly love if they made a habit of patting each other on the back now and again during these strings, but I don’t think these kinds of things are enough to go shattering any of these guys. Adventuring can just be hard sometimes (Also, the meta of the cast experiencing these bouts of bad luck as just some bad dice rolls that are part of the game probably makes it much less of a deal for them than the fandom considers it). Plus, for Cad, whatever bad time he was having, you know he got a major pickup from his successful Divine Intervention. He puts so much stock in the Wildmother’s word and her assurances that he’s walking the right path, so whatever down feelings he was having beforehand have probably gotten majorly soothed with that vision and how much it contributed to their successful strategies in the Vokodo battle. I really don’t think he’s as distressed by this island as people make out.

Now, do I think he should receive a bit more attention than he does? Yeah, I actually do. I’d love a Cad check-in because he does do a lot for them, so an occasional tap on the shoulder and a conversation in thanks would be great. I totally get Caduceus fans who just want some more screen time for their fave. But when it comes to more serious talks, as most people seem to want...

The thing is, and some people have mentioned this before, Caduceus has yet to face much in the way of personal contention where it really matters to him: his family, his home, and his worldview. He’s only really had two sticking points when it comes to that, and the Nein actually have met him there and tried to help. The one time he was really feeling visibly down at the start of the pirate arc, he made it quite clear, and Jester and Nott did their best to talk with him and reassure him that he was on the right path and it was okay to feel a little overwhelmed. The second, where his fear about contacting his family who may or may not be okay came to light, the Nein did press him on that and immediately volunteered to follow him where he needed to go so he could find his family. In both cases, things turned out okay. Cad has yet to experience something that would really shake his steady foundations. Tal’s said it himself, Caduceus is a static person; his story isn’t centered on how he changes, but rather how Cad’s personal philosophies interact with the world around him. Whatever internal conflicts he has going on about his family, his long time separated from them, and his place in the Nein, those seem to be on a plateau without anything forcing his hand, and Caduceus himself probably isn’t going to see the need to address them until something major comes to a head and leaves him no choice. Once that time comes, I’m sure the Nein will be there to bat for him; they’re much better at checking in with each other in the middle of a crisis. Until that point, though, I don’t think even Cad is going to think to address anything else he’s got going on; the Nein because they’re better at damage control than early intervention, and Cad because he just won’t feel the need to. His inner conflicts will simmer, but they won’t disappear, and nor will they boil over, until he’s truly challenged where it counts. He’s gotten this far by believing in destiny and the Wildmother’s providence and it’s all seemed to work out, so why shake things up?

[chandelier-s-notebook]

Welcome to Chandelier does another fucking prompt list!!!!

And it’s in addition to consistent story uploads. Y’all gonna get something at 9am everyday of June, and something at a random time later in the afternoon.

This time I'm using @crowfootwrites' June List Day 1: Suit

*A note to Crow. Hello! I am an MCYT Writer. Feel free to stop by my tagging of your whenever you feel like it.

Set in a Villain AU created by @olde-scratch their original post

If anyone wants to be part of a taglist of the Villain AU, feel free to message me/send an ask.

Taglist: @sleepysnails

“Klupa” means “Bench” btw, I just tossed it through Google Translate.

-----------------------------

Hero Report

Page 1

Date: June 1st, 2021 Hero Reporting: Nightmare Patrol Time: 22:00 to 6:00

Had a run in with one of the Klupa boys, they were at the 24h Cupcakery on 6th street, and were harassing the employ, Nihachu, for something to eat. I spared Theseus twenty bucks and told them to keep the change. They even bought me a cupcake before I went on my way.

Does anybody know their real world identities yet? They look on the young side; I’d rather nothing bad happens to them. It hurts to see kids so young needing to resort to petty crime to survive.

I also bumped into SBI. They picked up their deposit left by 404 in the prior patrol. I managed to grab the briefcase, but the money was already taken and presumably dispersed among the men. I wasn’t able to apprehend them.

I got close to Burr but he let go of the briefcase to get away. And The Blade proceeded to smoke me, so I wasn’t able to give chase. But I was able to retrieve some of the money back, and they are one smoke bomb poorer.

The rest of the night was uneventful. I stopped a robbery on 9th Street.

[CONT]

- - -

Time: 21:30, May 31st, 2021

Tommy was having a good day. 404 had made good on his promise. He had left a briefcase with one million dollars in the homeless shelter’s food stores.

Tommy had watched 404 come in and leave it. The personal information Tubbo had managed to siphon was good enough blackmail to get them this. Ranboo hadn’t actually ever gotten a buyer lined up, but it was the threat that counts.

“How much are we leaving again?”

“Twenty-five hundred thousand.”

Tommy dropped to the floor once the coast was clear and unzipped his backpack. He separated out three quarters of the cash and left the briefcase right there.

“Do we have to leave it?” Ranboo asked over the frequency. “We could really use that money.”

“You know if we weren’t so charitable we wouldn’t need the extra cash.”

“Shut up man.”

“I’m just saying.” Tommy takes out a fresh smoke bomb, and places it next to the money. “Do you ever feel back for those guys?”

“Who? The Sleepy Bois? No not really.”

“But like. What did they ever do?”

“Nothing.”

“Exactly! Why do they get all the credit?”

“Because we’re orphaned high schoolers,” Tubbo said dryly. “Because if we aren’t even on the suspect list then we aren’t gonna get caught.”

“Okay,” Tommy relented. “But those are like, super incompetent, what’s our plan when they finally get caught?”

Silence washed over the comms as Tommy yoinked a bag of chips and got out of there.

“Is keeping the three of them out of jail even worth it?”

“Yes,” Tubbo said. “It’s worth it. Investing in their safety is beneficially to us.”

“Okay. I’ll meet you guys at the Cupcakery. Theseus out.”

 Time: 22:47, May 31st, 2021

Tubbo and Ranboo are in the Cupcakery on 6th Street when Tommy walks in knives out. “I want a French chocolate swirl lady!”

Niki took a moment to process the demand. Here she was having a lovely conversation with two of her most favourite late night customers, and now the third was threatening her with a knife. “Excuse me?”

“French chocolate swirl. Hand it over. I’m in the mood for some sweets. Don’t make me ask twice!”

Niki finally put her hands up. Tubbo and Ranboo were in their civilian clothing and played the part of worried shoppers. “Do you have money?” she asked, scared.

“I have a knife.”

And that was the moment a hero walked into the building.

Ah.

Tommy had spotted Nightmare on the way here.

“Theseus.”

Tommy whirled around. Backing into the counter, acting more scared than he actually was.

“What are you doing kid?” Nightmare asked exasperated.

“M’ not a kid!”

“Yeah yeah.” Nightmare was already reaching into the back pocket for his wallet. He took about a crisp twenty. “Put the knife away kid. Buy yourself the cupcake.”

“Oh.” Tommy reached out for the twenty; eyes shifting looking around for the trap. He had a 750k ransom in his backpack, and there was always a chance Nightmare had found them out. Even with the SBI decoy. He snatched the cash. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome kid. Stop harassing Niki here, and keep the change.”

“Yeah. Okay.”

Nightmare, clearly satisfied with his diffusion of the situation, nodded to Niki.

“Would you like a cupcake?”

“Excuse me?”

“Nevermind.”

“I mean if you’re offering.”

“Two French chocolate swirls please!”

Niki pulled out two cupcakes stiffly and took the twenty. She put them and the change on the counter.

Nightmare tipped an invisible hat to Niki before leaving. “Think you’re suit needs some dry cleaning Theseus.”

“Because I can afford it!” Tommy bantered back. The door bell rung as the hero left. “Oh of these days my comments are going to get me killed, I know. Shush Tubbo.” Tommy lowered his green bandana and took a bite of his cupcake. “Sorry for pulling a knife on you Niki.”

“It’s fine. I know you won’t hurt me.”

“What the fuck Tommy!”

“Oh shut up Tubbo. I had it under control.”

“You’re going to be our downfall,” Ranboo said.

“You guys are the ones telling Niki!”

“Yeah but it’s Niki.”

“Yeah Tommy. I’m just Niki.”

“You’re right that was rude. I’m sorry Niki.”

Niki took out a cloth and wiped Tommy’s crumbs away. “You boys get home. Isn’t it a school night?”

The three fourteen year olds groaned.

“Bye Niki.”

“Don’t get caught.”

Tommy handed Ranboo his backpack.

Tubbo and Ranboo packed their homework into Tubbo’s backpack and their loose stationary with the money in Ranboo’s. They waved to Niki and walked back to their shotty little apartment.

Tommy put his bandana over his mouth and nose, and readjusted his red blazer. He left through the front door back towards the trade cite. He was needed to save SBI’s assess from Nightmare.

He flicked his steel throwing cards around his hands. He hoped it’ll go well. He needed this to go well.

- - -

Time: 23:00, May 31st, 2021

Wilbur read the instructions he had written on the inside of this arm one more time. “There is a briefcase with 250k. Disperse it among the three of you. When Nightmare arrives at 23:15 for the meeting time of 0:00, hold the briefcase and run like hell. You should have the money on your person, don’t let him catch any of you and ditch the briefcase if need be.”

“I still don’t get how we managed to get this money,” Philza said on the way to the homeless shelter’s food storage facility.”

“Don’t question it.”

“But, like, it said it was a ransom for blackmail. We don’t have any blackmail on anybody.”

“Don’t question it.”

“Guys can you focus? We have a mission to accomplish.”

“Techno, you gotta admit that we’re shit.”

“We are shit. But Nightmare doesn’t know that. And I’m not turning down 250k.”

- - -

Time: 23:58, May 31st, 2021

Shit. Tommy had need to graze Nightmare’s ankle with his ace of clubs for Burr to escape.

Nightmare was clearly put out that he hadn’t been able to catch the SBI. He left the storage facility empty briefcase in hand, and clearly put out.

Nightmare bent down and picked up the throwing card from under an aisle.

If there was one thing Tommy hated the most out of this whole, pretend the SBI are the ones doing the things that the Klupa Boys are doing, it’s that Burr gets credit for Tommy’s amazing feats.

“In case either of you are awake and on comms. The SBI had a clean escape, but I’m down a card.”

- - -

[CONT]

Notes: The SBI are still at large and are a danger to the people of Braidingston. Be advised that they might still ask for more money depending on the contents of their information. Order French chocolate swirls from the Cupcakery on 6th Street at the next office party.

[authorialarcanist]

Monster Collector (Tales of Symphonia)

Summary: When Lloyd and Colette drag the party off to complete the Monster Book, Raine can't help but wonder about what her students are thinking.

Written for Colloyd Week 2021 Day 2: Sidequest.

Gen, crack.

—

“Lloyd, watch out!”

“Right!” Lloyd leapt out of the way of a hammer blow from a massive bear, forewarned just in time by Colette’s shout. “It’ll take more than that to beat me, you know! Hurricane Thrust!” Air burst out from his sword in every direction as he jabbed back at the bear, sending it stumbling away. “Thanks, Colette! It’s open now!”

“Right!” Colette darted forward, multicolored wings carrying her to her target before it could regain its balance, and plowed headfirst into its fuzzy stomach. Nonplussed by the impact, the monster closed its arms to catch the girl in a painful bear hug, only for Colette to raise one of her chakrams in celebration, leaving a deep gash in its face where it had leaned in. “Yay, I got something! Okay, Lloyd, that’s everything I can get from this one!”

Lloyd pumped his fist, and shouted “You two can finish it off now!”

Raine Sage, half-elf teacher and current world-saving tagalong, raised an eyebrow at her compatriot. Zelos shrugged back.

“I don’t get it any more than you do, but I guess we’re doing this! Get ready!”

“I suppose it’s just as well… Now!” Raine raised her staff above her, and light gathered around Tethe’Alla’s Chosen.

“Plasma Blade!” With a shout, Zelos charged at the bear sword-first. Raine’s magic propelled him easily into and past his target, causing it to collapse to the ground in pain. To add insult to injury, a bolt of lightning struck its prone form a moment later, bringing the battle to an end.

“Annnd… there we go! Colette, what did you get from it?” By the time Raine looked back at her students, Lloyd had already pulled out a red book and a pen, and was examining some sort of herb Colette was holding out to him. “Alright! That’s one more down!”

“That’s great, Lloyd!” Genis, Raine’s younger brother, ran up to Lloyd from where he’d been waiting in the back line. “Only… Does that mean you’re going to tell us what we’re actually doing here, now?”

“Hm?” Lloyd looked up from putting the finishing touches on the book. “What do you mean?”

“I mean here, Lloyd!” Genis splayed his arms wide, and gestured at the mountainous terrain around the group. “You dragged us to this random patch of mountain, and never told us why!”

“Oh! Right! Whoops, I forgot about that!” Lloyd scratched the back of his head sheepishly. “Well… Colette, why don’t you tell them?”

“Uh-huh!” Colette stepped forward with a wide smile. “See, when we were in Izoold the other day, I heard a rumor that there’ve been sightings of a reeeaaaally big doggy up in these mountains! Apparently it’s been scaring goatherds and stuff! And there’s only one more entry we haven’t filled up in the Monster List, so I thought maybe it was the one we’re missing!” Lloyd nodded along beside her, and held up the empty page in demonstration.

Raine gave her two students a flat look. “…Lloyd. Is that really why we’re here?”

“Yeah! I mean, it’s really close to done, so we wanted to fill in that last slot!”

Raine sighed. “I’m loath to say this, since you’re apparently invested in your schoolwork for once, but… is this really the time? Aren’t there more important things we should be doing right now?”

“Eh. Kratos can wait!” Lloyd waved his left hand dismissively. “I mean, he’s like a thousand years old or something, right? A couple days should be like a minute to him! We can go and break Origin’s Seal once we’ve finished up with this!”

Suddenly, everybody jumped at a loud crashing sound. They turned to the source, to see Presea standing over a felled tree. The trunk was now bridging a gap that led to the path further up the mountain. “…Getting the Eternal Sword, and reuniting the worlds. Is less urgent than filling an empty page…?”

“I mean, yeah!” Lloyd nodded without a trace of irony. “Who knows what this place’ll look like once we’ve reunited the worlds, right?”

“Uh-huh!” Colette quickly backed him up. “And anyways, once we go to meet Kratos, we’ll have to deal with—mmmph!” Lloyd quickly covered her mouth. The two shared a meaningful look before he let go. “…Um, whoops! Ignore that, hehe!”

“Alright, what are you two hiding from us? Annnd… yoink!” Taking advantage of the brief distraction, Zelos leaned over and snatched the Monster List out of Lloyd’s free hand.

“Wh- hey! Give that back!” Lloyd dove at Zelos, trying to grapple for the purloined book, but his face met the ground instead as the Chosen leapt out of the way.

“Let’s see, here… No. 234, Meredy… No. 235, Abyssion, man that guy was an asshole… No. 236, Z—“ Zelos cut off with a choking sound, all the blood draining from his face.

“Hmm? What is it, Zelos?” Raine walked to Zelos, intending to check the list herself.

“…Hey, Lloyd? Hunny? Bud?”

Lloyd gulped. “Y…yeah?”

“Why do Ihave an entry in the Monster List?”

“Ehe…heh…”

Raine leaned over Zelos’ shoulder. Sure enough, there it was: a little, surprisingly well-drawn, sketch of Zelos facing the reader with orange wings spread behind him. Located at the Final Seal… Strong against lightning and light elements… Drops… “Zelos, were you hiding a Mystic Symbol from us?”

“What? No!” Zelos dropped the book in a panic. “I haven’t got anything like that, promise!”

“Hrm. Nevertheless, this is certainly odd. Lloyd…” Raine wheeled on her student, the righteous fury of a scorned teacher at her fingertips ready to be called. “Have you been writing fake entries to fill space…?”

“Wait! Hold on, Professor!” Colette stepped in front of Raine, shielding Lloyd from her wrath. “Lloyd hasn’t been cheating, I promise! It’s just… a reeeally long story, okay?”

Raine held Colette’s gaze for several long moments, but the girl didn’t seem to just be covering for Lloyd. Raine sighed. “Fine. But we’d better get an explanation once this is over, alright?”

“Ehehe…” Colette wilted and gave a sheepish smile. “A-anyways, let’s just keep going. We still need to find that doggy, right Lloyd?”

“R-right!” Lloyd, climbed back to his feet, and grabbed the Monster List from where it lay. “Come on, everybody! I’m pretty sure we’re almost there!”

Raine watched with a pensive expression as he clambered over the felled tree. Her students had changed a lot over the course of their journey, but… she wondered if they’d changed faster than she’d realized.

———

The group was resting at the peak of the mountain. After much searching, they’d at last found their errant beast; now, they were just waiting for Genis to prepare a meal to restore their energy.

Raine watched as Lloyd and Colette dance around, twirling each other by both hands and singing “Hun-dred per-cent! Hun-dred per-cent!”

Regal sat down next to her. “They certainly seem to be enjoying themselves.”

“Yes.” Raine nodded absent-mindedly. “For all that they’ve grown, I suppose they arestill children.”

“Hm.” The two sat and watched in silence for a moment before Regal spoke again. “You’re still thinking about what happened earlier, aren’t you?”

“I am,” Raine replied. “Did you notice? Those two are incredibly in sync when they fight, like they’ve been fighting together for years instead of months. And… Every so often, I’ve noticed them looking at each other and giggling, like there’s some secret that only they are privy to.”

“…” Regal raised his eyebrow. “…Are you certain they’re not just—“

“I thought that at first, too! But now, I’m not so certain. I just… I’m their teacher. It’s my job to notice and step in if they’ve gotten involved in something strange.”

“It’s a good impulse, Raine.” Regal awkwardly shifted his handcuffs so he could pat her on the shoulder. “But… those two have proven themselves time and again, right? That’s why we’re following them.” He met Raine’s eyes, a serious expression on his face. “As adults, it’s our shared responsibility to be there for them, yes. But it’s also our responsibility to recognize when they’re starting to spread their wings and fly without our help. It’s our responsibility to trust them, and give them space, when that time comes. Whatever those two know, I don’t believe they would ever use it for ill.”

“Perhaps you’re right.” Raine watched as the two in question grabbed Sheena and pulled her merrily into their dance. Whatever was going on there, they clearly still cared about all of their friends being happy. Maybe it was time to sit back, and simply have faith in them.

…Lloyd’s face, grinning sheepishly every time he’d gotten wrapped up in some prank or work-avoiding scheme gone awry, flashed in front of her eyes.

Alas. It seemed that the habits of a teacher would not so easily fade. “…And if they areusing the power of the Eternal Sword to transcend time and space in order to turn their homework in on time?”

Regal coughed. “Then that sounds like it would be a disciplinary question for their instructor to deal with. Mirage!”

Raine’s jaw dropped as Regal’s form rapidly vanished into the distance. What happened to their shared responsibility as adults? “Regal Bryant, you get back here this instant!”

[bunnyywritings]

awkward introductions

tsukishima kei x fem!reader

𝕡𝕣𝕖𝕧𝕚𝕠𝕦𝕤 - 𝕤𝕖𝕣𝕚𝕖𝕤 𝕞𝕒𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕥 - 𝕟𝕖𝕩𝕥

[a/n: he’s so pretty (つ◉益◉)つ since I’ve gotten new followers since then, just a quick psa, this is not part of the ‘maybe it’s fate’ (or the ‘uncle kei’) series, this is part of my first Tsukishima series ‘hollow words and misunderstandings’...anyways, here’s part 4 of the series! sorry for the wait, oh and I made his super soft here so uh enjoy! -yours truly, bunnyy -`ღ´-] 

Things were finally dying down, the boys getting some well needed time off after the Spring-High playoffs which meant more time for you to bother a certain blonde middle blocker.

“So since we’ve got no practice today...do you maybe wanna hang out?” You asked as you trailed behind his tall figure, weaving through the students in the hallways.

“Hmm sure.” He mumbled as he stopped at his shoe locker.

“Wait...really?” You almost did a double take. He looked at you with a raised eyebrow and a small smirk.

“Fine, I take it back.”

“No, no. I-uh I was just surprised that you agreed...that’s all.” You blushed as he chuckled and pulled his sneakers back on.

“Mhmm whatever you say. Now go put on your shoes before I leave without you.” Even if it was an empty threat, you wouldn’t put it passed him to actually leave so you hurried over to your locker and switched out your shoes. 

As the two of you walked side by side, you could feel his pinkie brush against yours before he gently hooked it around yours. This little action made your heart soar because Kei isn’t one for PDA, so even if it didn’t seem like much this was a big step out of his comfort zone. 

“So where should we go?” You swung your joined arms a bit as you guys made your way down the sidewalk. 

“Would you m-maybe want to come over?” 

You looked at his slightly blushed cheeks as he avoided eye contact with you, deciding to let him be, you nodded eagerly. 

“I’d love to, Kei.” 

So that’s what you did. The butterflies in your stomach were going wild at the thought of going to his home. As you arrived, he fished his key out of his bag and unlocked the front door. He let you in first and closed the door behind the both of you. The both of you sat down to take off your shoes. The butterflies did nothing but continue to flutter around because, from the looks of it, no one was home. 

“Here. You can use these.” He slid a pair of house slippers towards you. You thanked him and put them on before getting up and following him into the house. It was definitely what you had expected, neat and tidy. What you hadn’t expected was the volleyball net in the back courtyard.  “What’s this? I thought you didn’t care that much about volleyball?” You teased as you slid open the door and walked out onto the small ledge.  “It’s not mine. It’s my brother’s.” he leaned against the doorframe.  “oh. I didn’t know you had one.” He sighed and made his way over to a stray volleyball. 

“Yeah, I don’t talk about him much.” It sounded like a sensitive subject so you just let him be. “Come on.” He motioned to the other side of the net.  “Wow, even on your day off, you still want to practice.” You chuckled as you mad your way to the side opposite from him.  “Well I do remember this one annoying girl who yelled at me during our training camp and told me to start trying my hardest because I’d be screwed if I didn’t.” He tossed the volleyball in the air and served it. He chuckled at the deep scarlet that painted your cheeks as you bumped the ball over the net.

“I didn’t say it like that...” you pouted as the ball came over the net once more. “So what? You’re trying to woo me with your hard work to prove me wrong.” 

“I thought I already wooed you?” He caught the ball in his hands.

“Meh...” you shrugged, playfully crossing your arms. “I wouldn’t go as far to say that.”  “Oh yeah?”

Back inside, Akiteru had finally come home. He was kicking off his shoes when he noticed there were already two pairs at the door. Opening his mouth to call out to his brother, he was cut off by-

“Kei!” He was confused to hear that Kei had brought a girl over.

He quietly made his way over to the opened courtyard door and peeked out, eyes widening as he saw Kei grab the girl by the waist and hoist her over his shoulder. 

“Kei! Kei put me down!” She giggled. “I’m sorry! I take it back!”

“Hmm that wasn’t very convincing...” he chuckled as he continued to tickle her sides.  “No! No ple-” she choked out a laugh. “Please! I take it back! I was wooed by you, you won me over!” 

Satisfied with your answer, Tsukishima put you down. Once your feet were back on the ground, you slumped against him. Breath heavy as you recovered from his tickling. 

“You’re a jerk. You know that?” You playfully shoved his shoulder as you stood up straight.  “Hmm so I’ve been told...” he muttered as he leaned down, tilting your chin upwards. “But it doesn’t seem like you care much.” Your noses brushed.  “I don’t.” You tugged at his shirt collar and tugged him down so your lips finally met. Smiling into the kiss as he pulled you closer.  Then someone cleared their throat, causing the both of you to pull away. Both of you turned to the door and there stood a tall, blonde guy in volleyball shorts and a school t-shirt. 

“Sorry to interrupt.” He chuckled. “I thought I’d introduce myself.” Your cheeks suddenly grew very warm and you could just tell that they were red. “I’m Akiteru. Kei’s older brother.”  “N-nice to meet you. I’m (y/n). K-Kei’s uhm girlfriend.” You bowed formally, wishing that the earth would open up and just swallow you whole. 

“So you’re the reason why Kei’s been so different lately.” He had a teasing grin on his face as he watched his little brother try to hold back a blush.  “Oh...well it’s a good different I hope.” You awkwardly smiled back. You honestly had no idea what to do at this point, that was such a horrible way to meet for the first time. Just before anyone else could say anything, as a soft calling of ‘I’m home!’ echoed through the empty house. 

“Oooh mom’s home, wait till she hears about this. Mom!” Akiteru giggled childishly before running back into the house.  “Your mom doesn’t know you have girlfriend?!” You hissed quietly as Kei rubbed the bridge of his nose in annoyance. 

“...no. I hadn’t really gotten around to it.” The both of you stood in a stale silence for a bit. “Well, there’s no avoiding it now. Come on.”  “What?! We can definitely avoid it. I can uhm I can c-climb the f-fence or I can-” the look of disapproval on his face is what stopped your panicked ranting.  “Do you really not want to meet my mom?” He wasn’t upset or anything, just slightly concerned with how much you were panicking.  “Well no, that’s not it. I- I’m just not ready...what if she hates me?” He thought it was endearing that you wanted his mom to like you.

“That’s impossible.” he grabbed your hand and tugged you along. “Come on, she’ll love you.” your heart started to pound in your chest as he pulled you into the living room.  “What’s this about a guest Kei? You should’ve warned me, I would’ve had dinner ready.” You hid behind Kei as she spoke, peeking out just a bit.  “Sorry.” He turned and guided you in front of him, taking a deep breath. “Mom, this is my g-girlfriend, (y/n).” 

“It’s nice to meet you. I’m sorry for the sudden intrusion.” 

“Oh it’s no problem dear, it’s very nice to meet you. You’re staying for dinner, I hope.” Her kind smile was enough to calm your nerves. 

“If it’s not too much trouble but I’d like to help out, if you don’t mind. Not to sound too conceited but I’m not too bad in the kitchen.” You smiled hopefully.

“Well how could I turn down an offer like that.” She grinned, putting an arm around your shoulder and guiding you to the kitchen. “I hope you’re good with pork. I was hoping to try and make some tonkatsu.” 

“Not to brag or anything, but I’ve been told I make a pretty killer tonkatsu.”

He watched as you and his mother laughed together, cooking and whispering to each other. Akiteru could see the heart eyes that his little brother had for you.

Later on, all throughout dinner, you were doing great. It was like you were never nervous in the first place. You were charming, funny, and loveable. You talked to Akiteru about volleyball, to his mom about your dream university and your passion for baking things. Promising to share some recipies with her. But alas, it was getting late and you had to head home.

“It was great meeting you, thank you for the hospitality.” You bowed.

“Oh! No need to be so formal sweetie.” She tugged you into a hug. “Come by anytime.”

“Hopefully we’ll see you around more often.” You giggled at the not so subtle wink that Akiteru sent you before he also pulled you into a hug.

“Yes, yes, we’ll see her more often, she’s great, blah blah. Okay, bye.” And with that, Kei pulled you out to the porch.

“You know, that was so much-mmph!” He sealed your lips in a rather passionate kiss, hands cupping your jaw. The kiss was dizzying before a thumping on the window and a muffled voice reached our ears.

“I-see-you!” It was Akiteru before he was yoinked away from the window and the curtains were shut once more. Your giggles interrupted the kiss and Kei sighed, resting his forehead against yours.

“My mom really likes you...”

“So does Akiteru apparently.” You teased. “But all jokes aside, I really enjoyed my time with them. They’re pretty great.”

“Yeah...I guess they are.” He looked away, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. His eyes widening when you gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

“Good night Kei.” And you ran off.

“Text me when you get home idiot!” He called after you, a smile on his lips as you turned around mid run. He watched as you seemed to contemplate something. He squinted, seeing your lips move but not hearing anything. He frowned, shrugging and pointing to his ears.

“I said!” You shouted, “I LOVE YOU!”

He jogged over to you, “Are you crazy?! You’re gonna wake half the neighborhood!” He hissed.

There was a small silence before he pulled you into a hug, holding back a smile when he felt you snuggle into his chest. “I love you too, shrimp.”

His mother and older brother had been watching from the window, huge smiles on their faces as they witnessed the heart warming scene in front of them.

I guess it wasn’t a bad first impression after all.

[un0vian]

Hear me out, SSS Miraculous Ladybug AU?

oh man you guys have no idea how much I’ve thought about an au like this before

The anon is new, but this has been in the inbox for a while, I’m so sorry it’s taken me so long! Also this kind of takes a general understanding of the show to make any sense!

This is just a HUGE bundle of ideas lmao I’m sorry it’s so disorganized. I’ll put some of the doodles up here and put in a read more for all of my bullet points (I wrote almost 2K words for this hhhh)

No Pokémon in this AU, and I’m not clever enough to shape the Miraculous after any of them lol.

I think Lance being the Guardian of the Miraculous fits the most.

Lyra becomes the Ladybug Miraculous holder the same way Marinette does, by showing and acting upon her compassion towards someone in need (not the same exact way, considering Lance isn’t nearly as old as Master Fu; she probably saves an old man and Lance notices).

In this AU’s origins I think it would make sense that Giovanni and Silver just moved to Goldenrod from Kanto. Giovanni (obviously) was a part of the crime-world, but found out about the Miraculous and their power, got ahold of the Cat and Butterfly Miraculous, learned of the Ladybug Miraculous’ general location, then decided moving was a good idea. They move into a place like the Agreste mansion (Silver thinks the move is just random btw).

I would say Giovanni holds Silver to high standards like Gabriel does for Adrien. Giovanni has Silver play the Violin and Cello (READ FVAWA!!!), and was probably homeschooled in Kanto. I’ll also say he probably has basic self defense training.

To blend in, Silver becomes enrolled at the same school that Lyra, Kris, and Ethan attend.

Lyra, Kris, and Ethan always try to yoink the back two tables, and every new seating chart the three play Rock Paper Scissors, loser sits alone. Lyra loses and ends up at the table next to the other two with an empty seat.

Their teacher, Professor Elm (I mean, who else would it be?? There’s Oak ofc but eh), introduces Silver to the class and has him sit with Lyra. 

It’s obvious to Lyra that Silver is more socially reserved, but she introduces herself anyway.

Lyra moved from New Bark Town to Goldenrod City early in her childhood (Her and Ethan were childhood friends, Ethan moved to Goldenrod a little before Silver. Kris grew up in Goldenrod). I think it would be cool to keep the Bakery; Lyra’s mom would work there with Lyra helping out a lot.

I’m thinking Lyra could possibly be a model like Adrien, but wayyy on the DL in comparison. She has the right temperament for being in the spotlight (aka not being a flustered mess all the time), hence why she’s so well suited for the Miraculous.

Her passion is writing! Writing poems, speeches, music, all of it. And she enjoys public speaking. She’ll pull out a notebook (or just type on her phone like a sane person) whenever she gets a new idea.

Lyra sings and plays the synth. She plays songs she writes sometimes!

Tikki helps Lyra a lot with her worries about being a Superhero, and is great at giving suggestions and ideas of what Lyra should write if she has a block. Basically usual Tikki being great.

When the first Akuma appeared, Lyra found her Miraculous the same way Marinette did. The difference is when Tikki appeared she was less fearful, and learned about de-evilizing Akumas from the start.

When Ladybug showsed up to stop the Akuma there was no other support. She was able to defeat the Akuma, but damn, what a workout.

Hear me out here, what if there wasn’t an umbrella scene? I’d rather have their feelings for each other grow over time as Silver begins to doubt his father’s reasons for needing the Ladybug Miraculous and reflects on his actions. Besides, Lyra having feelings for Silver in the beginning would be kinda cringe 😬 (@Marinette in the PV smh)

The first Akuma was Giovanni’s way of testing the waters, and confirms that the Ladybug Miraculous is in Goldenrod. The night afterwards he approaches Silver with the Cat Miraculous. Giovanni explains that he needs the Ladybug Miraculous along with the Cat Miraculous to bring Silver’s mother back (which is total bullshit, all he wants is power), and offers him the Miraculous.

And about Silver’s mother; I know there’s a theory about Ariana being his mom, but in this AU (and in general, really) I HC his mother being kindhearted and not part of the mob ahah. (Also same sitch as Adrien’s mom in this AU)

Silver is apprehensive towards the “offer”, but can he really say no? And he does want to see his mom again. So he accepts. Giovanni barely hides the vile smirk on his face and throws in a “I’m proud of you, son” for good measure :/

From then on, Cat Noir shows up to battle Ladybug after an Akuma is de-evilized.

Plagg is somewhere between neutral and good. He’ll (not-so) subtly suggest that Silver should join Ladybug, and point out how much of a dick Giovanni is… but he won’t actively try to stop him because he can’t really do anything about it anyways. Plagg supposes he’ll just have to be patient. And he teases Silver about anything and everything, and his reactions are priceless.

Already having no partner to rely on during Akuma battles, Ladybug is most definitely tired out and has far too many close calls in her battles with Cat Noir. Lyra vents about this to Tikki, and worries about being unable to contact the guardian and request more help.

Lance realizes his mistake after a particularly nasty fight when a stroke of luck saves Ladybug from de-transforming. He introduces himself right after that fight, and apologizes for his oversight.

At this moment I don’t know if it would make more sense to introduce only one more Miraculous holder or two, and if they should be permanent or temporary. I’ll put down my bare-bones ideas for the Miraculous holders anyways.

Ethan - Fox Miraculous, Kris - Turtle Miraculous. I see Kris suiting the Turtle Miraculous because she waits for the right moment instead of jumping right in. I see her as being a great protector compared to Ethan.

Sheesh this is already super long any I haven’t really gotten to the SSS portion 

Slow burn like the show, but in this case neither has a crush for a whiiiile. That part is quite different from the show, but the context is not the same.

Eventually there’s a semblance of a friendship between Lyra and Silver. They got close through sitting at the same table in class and working on different projects together. They also find they both share a love of music.

Anyways, Lyra gets really excited about their friendship and prattles on about it to Tikki.

“Wow, it almost sounds like you like him!”

“Whaaaaat? No!!! He’s just a friend, Tikki!” (Nice Adrien impression, Lyra 😃)

Along the way Silver begins questioning Giovanni’s reasons more and more, but it’s difficult for him to decide whether to keep fighting Ladybug or not because of all the things that could happen. 

Eventually Plagg sits him down and is like:

“You don’t want to fight Ladybug.”

“Right.”

“You have a friend (Lyra) who has made it clear to you that you are welcome in their home, so you would have somewhere to stay if Gio-bitch kicks you out.”

“Right.”

“Ladybug may not trust you at first, but if you explain yourself she may begin to understand, and the act of switching sides paves the path to redemption.”

“Right.”

“So SWITCH SIDES.”

“OH. OKAY.”

Then there’s the ol’ switcheroo. During the worst Akuma yet (with Kris and Ethan helping as heroes), Cat Noir is able to get close to the Akuma and Cataclysms the Akumatized object. He flees immediately, thinking it better to show loyalty in small increments pffff

It’s a HUGE shocker to Giovanni. And Ladybug for that matter. Silver already packed a bag and had his violin ready to go, he grabs his things and doesn’t bother staying. He’s a little pissed Giovanni didn’t even try to stop him.

At this point Lyra and Silver like each other, but neither know how the other feels. Silver feels SO awkward about showing up at the Bakery with his stuff and almost turns around when Lyra’s mom (who had a bad vibe about Giovanni in the first place) spots him.

“Do you need a place to stay?”

“...No.”

“You’re lying. Tell me what happened.”

Silver reluctantly explains that he couldn’t stand staying there anymore, and that he had had enough of his father’s shit. So he left.

Lyra’s mom is a bit iffy on letting him stay. Without enough context it seems like Silver is just angry with Giovanni. Silver can tell she doesn’t understand and tries to explain the situation more.

“I… betrayed him. In a way. I’m sure he doesn’t want to see me around for a while.” “I understand. Feel free to stay the night, but you should talk to your father about whatever’s going on tomorrow. If he doesn’t let you back in you’re welcome to stay.”

Lyra shows up moments after, very confused. Her mom explains the gist to her and leaves them alone to talk.

Tikki overhears Silver explain the situation with a bit more detail and becomes suspicious. If Giovanni was Hawkmoth and Silver was Cat Noir, this situation would make a lot of sense. And Silver has the same hair color as Cat Noir (Lyra is obviously none the wiser because Adrien and Marinette be like that). Tikki doesn’t draw solid conclusions (it’s very easily just a coincidence) but she takes a mental note.

I think that’s where I’ll leave it. I’m already delving into so much plot skdjfbfb Anyways here’s a bunch of bonus drawings for sticking til the end!

[jay-cult]

Static and Stars: Episode 1 - Jay Day

Index

Jay and Nya haven’t been on a date in like... ever. So when they finally do go out on their own, some unexpected memories catch up with them.

AUTHOR’S NOTES:   Hey guys! At long last, S&S continues. I hope it hypes you up just like it does me! I was planning this for OC Day when I realized that it actually didn’t have any of my OCs in it (yet) so I’m happy to throw it out now.   This episode is quite guiltily Jaya-centered but PLEASE understand that it will be the only one. I laid out my plan for this fan season and I liked it, so I’m following through with having it kick off like this. This is a Jay fan season. Not a Jaya fan season. Thank you!

-

  A patronizing BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! rang out beside Jay.

  He groaned and sat up, hair messily flying all over his face. He slammed his hand onto where the sound was coming from, but found he slapped the smooth surface of his phone. He let out another grunt while the alarm was still judging him.

  He shot out a small current through his fingertips and the beeping stopped. Right… he forgot. They weren’t in the Bounty anymore.

  Jay climbed out of his sleeping bag and looked to his right, where Kai, who had just awoken, was trying to quickly rearrange his bed hair. Further past him, Cole was still sound asleep.

  Kai noticed that he was still as a rock and, mid-hair-fixation, kicked him hard.

  “Ow! Dad! Fine, I’ll get ready for dance practice-“ Cole jerked awake and then looked at Kai scorningly.

  “This sucks,” Kai groaned. He plunged his arms into his “hygiene” kit and pulled out a hairbrush, some cologne, and a bit of blush fell out.

  Jay stood up (while making sure his plushie stayed safely tucked in his sleeping bag) and smiled. “Aw come on guys, it’s not that bad!” He said, stretching.

  “Whatever you say,” Cole sighed, tying his hair up in a bun.

  In full pajamas, Jay exited the tent. Outside it was full sunlight, with shadows of leaves dappling the ground. He gazed at Ninjago City in the distance; it looked so much quieter from the outskirts.

  Zane was already outside making a meal for breakfast. He slept outside. Jay didn’t see the appeal, but he said that it was better for him to be out with the stars and one with the (mild) wilderness.

  “Good morning, Jay.” He smiled with ease. “You should really wash those gloves.”

  He took a look at his hands. “Funny coming from you, ya barely change your clothes,” he playfully argued, knowing already it was a useless excuse. Zane sat there in full gi wear and looked up.

  “I do not have the rather disgusting human body which pollutes cloth,” he responded simply.

  “Any updates on how the monastery is going?” Jay asked, changing the subject.

  “Indeed!” He flipped a pancake with a spatula. There was a whole contraption set up so that Zane could do his thing, even outside. “I have been notified that it is going smoothly.”

  Jay nodded. He sat on a cushioned log. “I’m still so glad it’s over.”

  “The First Realm was certainly a tiring event.”

  “Yeah, and Garmadon… that fight was insane, huh?” Jay scratched his head. He was grateful that even with this makeshift living situation, they could rest.

  “You don’t even know the half of it.”

  The two ninja looked up. Nya was strutting toward them, tying up her hair casually. Unlike Jay, she had already gotten dressed.

  “Nya!” Jay brightened up, even more energized from the sight of his girlfriend. The morning sun made her look quite phenomenal. She sat down by him, very close, physically. Zane’s (literal) inner timer dinged, and he stood up. “Breakfast is ready!”

  At that moment both Kai and Cole rushed out of the tent, still very unready. Kai’s hair was half-done, his arm through just one sleeve of his jacket, and he was still pulling up his pants. Cole had yet to do much. He was just running out with his pajama pants on, and… that was it.

  “What were you guys doing?” Jay asked.

  “Shut up,” Kai said immediately, his eyes suddenly very focused on the pancakes that were now out and ready.

  They all sat in their eating area on the cushioned logs in their circle beside Zane’s cooking tools and contraptions. It was a very average day, at least, for one where they had to camp together without a strong shelter and where they had nobody to fight anymore. But there were obviously some things missing.

  Nya turned to Jay. “Well,” she shrugged, “Lloyd and Wu are off on their things.”

  “As they have been for a while, making their own camp in Misako’s space,” Kai interjected, eyes narrowed. “Meanwhile we have to make it out here, in the wild, the cold-”

  She ignored him. “And we have nothing going on, finally. So.. well… we haven’t really done much recently. And you were off in the realm for…. A while.”

  Jay swallowed a chunk of bacon. “Right! How long exactly has it been since we’ve done something, just you and me, that didn’t involve snake venom or the fate of the world?”

  She looked at her paper plate of food, thinking. “Like. Never?”

  “Yeah.” He chewed more, a bit unbelieving. They’d only ever done fun things with at least one person from the team or when a villain was on their tail. Or if it was work or training.

  “We have never really had a normal date, like, at all, have we?” She looked straight at him, making her point.

  “Okay, today is perfect!” Jay finished the last of his meal happily.

  “Alright, you guys, calm down,” Kai stood up, smirking. “I know that must mean you’re all very new to this, so if you’d like to ask the master-”

  And then Cole just straight up picked Kai up. He just yoinked him from off the ground and slung him over his shoulder. He turned toward the pair, genuinely smiling. “Hahah, he’s one to talk. Come on buddy.” As he carried him back to the tent, Kai let out yells of protest, but it was nothing against Cole’s strong hold.

  Zane smiled. “You enjoyed your meal, I hope?”

  “Breakfast was great, Zane,” Nya commented, laughing.

  “I guess this means we’ll finally have a day all to ourselves,” Jay winked, standing up. “I’ll devote this day to being Nya Day.”

  She winked back. “And I, Jay Day.”

  “Let me just go put on my clothes first.”

 -

  The wind of the mountains blew fresh through the couple’s hair. Jay had dug through his bag to try and salvage what he could of the nicest clothes in there and had just barely scraped out a clean look. He’d stepped back outside, surprised to find Nya in a brand new, somewhat formal outfit.

    “Oh,” she had said, reddening a bit. “Maybe I should go get that other stuff back on.”

    “No! No,” he’d interjected immediately. “You look really nice.”

    Now they were climbing down the rocky side of a steep mountain that led down to Ninjago City from their camp. Or, well, they weren’t exactly- their hybrid elemental dragon guided them down slowly, walking so as to not be easily detected.

    “Where are we going?” Jay asked from his spot behind Nya, who had the reins.

    She glanced at her boyfriend quickly with a sly smile. “You’ll see.”

    Jay grinned and kept his silence for a little while. But inside his thoughts were racing quite a bit. He felt tense and nervous- and not because of the date. It was all so familiar. Too familiar. Sitting behind Nya, holding onto her... the feeling of the dragon’s spine beneath him and the thrum, thrum of what was the dragon walking but what his brain turned into the panicked beat of wings. His thoughts wandered through that old experience and he wanted it to stop. But he decided not to say anything.

    At the edge of the city they, to Jay’s relief, put away the use of their dragon and grabbed a ride from a surprisingly mellow fan who was happy to provide service to the “folks who’d saved the city’s ass more than once.” Nya whispered the destination into his ear and he chuckled. “Well y’all enjoy your time, n’.”

    “Shut your eyes, boltbrain,” Nya pleaded, trying to hold back a laugh.

    “I wanna see, though,” Jay whined with a smile, trying to swat her hands away. She was reaching from her spot in the passenger seat of the car.

    He (eventually) complied and they stepped out onto what felt like some concrete. Jay heard the car drive away.

    “Okay,” Nya giggled, sounding slightly embarrassed. “You can look.”

    Light flew into his eyes as he shot them open. He blinked a few times and observed the building in front of him. It was a fairly average-looking concrete building on the outside, but the windows were plastered with 80s-themed patterns, stickers, and paint. He gazed up at the sign that marked the building, which read in bright neon letters, “Ninjago Roller Rink.”

    He turned to his girlfriend with a shy smirk. “Nya, what is this?”

    “Okay, okay, so. It looks a bit run down. But I remember that you were into roller skating as a kid. So I just thought-“

    He pulled her into a tight hug, his excitement growing. “This is awesome! Let’s go!”

    He tried to rush to the door, but Nya got there first and held it open for him. “Ladies first,” she said.

    “Ha-ha,” he joked, unable to hide his grin. They stepped confidently into the building.

    The floor, cheap carpet with an 80s pattern, stretched out beneath them. There were party tables all around them, broken up by counters on the side of the right wall selling the snacks and roller blades. And on their left down a ramp, in all its glory, was the large wooden rink with a disco ball hanging above it. Popular 80s music played but it was barely heard among the conversations of the many people in the building.

    The couple got stares as they entered, but they were too excited to care too much. They rented their skates and set off towards the rink.

    They stepped out onto the floor and the rink suddenly cleared. Bunches of people crowded around the edges to watch two ninja in fancy clothes do normal people stuff.

    While Jay eased on Nya stepped on immediately, and almost fell to the floor but grabbed hold of the edge just in time. She looked surprised.

    “You’ve never done this before, huh?” Jay questioned, sympathetic.

    She shook her head, blushing. “I didn’t know it was that difficult.”

    “Well it’s not, once you learn. Here, let me show you.” He held out his hand.

    She grunted but took hold of it.

    A scene flashed in Jay’s brain. He was forced to remember. The rooftops of the tall, wide building of the city stretched before him, and he felt a feeling of dread, the intrusive thought that this was where it started. He dropped her hand suddenly.

    “Jay? Are you okay?” Nya asked, worried.

    He took her hand again quickly. “Yeah,” he lied. “Just a little nervous, I guess.”

    He took her along the walls of the rink, guiding her with his words. But all the while, he was wondering what had happened. It’s not like it was the first time they’d held hands, of course. So why get so heavily reminded of that now? He was fooling himself. He knew the answer. None of the other ninja were around. Just like… he shook his head. No, stop Jay, you’re literally on a date, he told himself.

    They were eventually off of the walls together, rolling slowly and steadily around the rink. Since it was empty, there was no need to go in the required circles, so they freely went where was best.

    “Alright,” he said gently. “I’m gonna let go now.”

    She looked at him, panicked. “Wait! Don’t!”

    Jay gave her a serious look. “I’m going to, okay? Are you ready?”

    She paused for a second and then nodded.

    “You sure?”

    She nodded again.

    “Go!”

    With a gasp from the crowds, they let go together and Nya rolled ahead. She picked up her pace as they cheered, feeling confident, and then promptly lost her balance and fell down in a tangle of girl, skates and kimono.

    “Nya!”

    She punched the ground. “This is never going to work!”

    Jay frowned. “Don’t say that, you’re doing real good! Look,” he brightened up a bit, “next time I’ll wait until you really want to do it yourself.”

    Reluctantly, she nodded, and took his outstretched hand again. As he pulled her up the music turned to a certain kind of song. An incredibly sappy, incredibly overly fitting song.

    “Oh.” As Jay scratched the back of his head, getting all red, the crowds murmured in wondrous anticipation. He looked around and saw the guy behind the counter put his phone down with a wink. “I guess this isn’t really what you expected,” he told her nervously.

    “It’s cool,” she shrugged, smiling. “Besides, I wanna show you off.”

    He chuckled. “I wanna show me off, too.”

    And then it became perfect.

    Nya picked up the skating incredibly quickly and was able to do very well by herself after just a few seconds. They rejoined at certain points and laughed. When he caught gazes from the crowd, Jay did some age-old skating tricks from way back, rousing several cheers. He always looked back at Nya wherever she was, who was always sporting a proud smile. It was foolish. It was childish. It was fantastic.

    But their finish wasn’t as strong at all.

    They met up towards the end of the song and started to feel something deep in the memories of their bones. Deep in their roller dance, they didn’t think and posed in a way they’d done before- in a fight. Like an instinct of feel-good thrill, they posed, and Jay suddenly gripped his head and fell to the floor.

    It was dark and they were on top of a shining tower. Maybe they might’ve been able to hear the sounds of the black ocean, just maybe, if not for the cries and shouts of leader-blinded, bloodthirsty pirates. They were back to back, their swords drawn, fighting off the swarms of their enemies that no longer even existed within their realm. Jay thought of the lighthouse and this time he couldn’t stop.

    “Jay!” Nya gasped, and the crowd let out shouts of concern. He was brought back to reality with their noise- somehow not hers. He was breathing heavily, still on the dirty wooden floor.

    “I can’t…” he was almost okay when the music switched to something that bored into his brain. He’d never heard it before but it was saying things that couldn’t be unheard.

    “We’re alone together, in a familiar place.”

    He couldn’t stand it.

    “Waves beat upon the rocks and moonbeams shine upon your face.”

    It was pop and terrible but it still existed, and as Jay continued to fall in and out of reality he felt himself being hoisted from the floor by someone strong. “Let’s get you some water… ‘SM, this music… c’mon, Jay…”

    Nya was leading him out of the rink and back onto the carpet, and in her hold he found himself back in the roller rink’s building- but not completely. She sat him down at one of the tables and left him staring at the ground for a moment. When she returned she put an opened bottle of chilled water right in front of him, and wearily, he took a few sips.

    A teenage girl from the crowds, who were now mostly filtering back onto the roller rink, shuffled up to them shyly. “Is the blue ninja okay?” She asked.

    “Yes,” Nya snapped, which quickly sent the girl scuttling away.

    “Better?” She asked, her voice edged with worry. Jay nodded. She sighed, smiling in relief. “That’s good.”

    “Oh, but I ruined it…” he groaned, staring at the top of the table.

    “Ruined what?” She asked, confused.

    “Our date…”

    Nya gave his hair a ruffle. “No ya didn’t. Let’s go talk about this over some lunch.”

-

    Twenty minutes later they were ordering their favorite dishes from Chen’s Noodle House. They sat along the edge of the kitchen and a familiar face decided to pop into their conversation.

    “I think I know what happened,” Nya answered after said familiar face asked.

    “Oh, what then?” Pushed Skylor, leaning in.

    “I just can’t get it out of my brain. Now that we decided to do something on our own, I guess,” Jay frowned, feeling absolutely terrible.

    “What?”

    “It’s difficult to explain,” Nya said quickly, before Skylor delved too deep into speculation.

    The redhead left for a brief moment to grab their food, and returned looking excited for a tale.

    Jay picked around at his noodles. “You’re not gonna believe me, but it’s a different timeline. That only Nya and I remember, I think. It involves a lot of evil pirates, and everyone being trapped in a sword, and Ninjago being in the sky. You were part of my ninja replacements,” Skylor gave him a weird look as he was mid sentence, “and Nya even…”

    He paused and dropped his chopsticks back in the tub. Nya stopped eating suddenly, and looked down, feeling sick.

    “Nya what?”

    “Nothing important,” Nya said, trying to force another bite of food into her mouth.

    “Well, hm,” said Skylor, looking a little put off, “sounds like you guys need to somehow sort this out.”

    “Yeah,” Jay stared at his food. “I know. You’re right. We have to stop pretending like it never happened. We have to think about it. Sort out all the lost… stuff from it.” He reached into a pocket to pull out his wallet, but Nya was there first, holding her card out to Skylor with a smile.

    She shook her head. “Today’s on me, ya crazy lovebirds. I just hope things are okay for you from now on.”

“Thanks,” said Jay with an exasperated sigh. “You’re a life-saver, Skylor.”

    “Well, where do we start, then?” Nya asked when Skylor left them, looking at Jay with some nervousness.

    He narrowed his eyes and gave one of his eyes a rub. “The lighthouse.”

[dolphin-enthusiast]

Part 11. Is long, my dudes. ALSO MY POOL IS FILLING UP!! But another warning, a weed Joke.

“WHAT DO WE DO,DAMMIT!! What should I do?!” ”Chill, Okuyasu quit watching and get over here we can’t leave them alone at a time like this.” “Wait, why are you so calm?! YOU’D BE THE FIRST TO PANICK AND SHE’S TARGETING YOU TOO!!!” “Oh, I look calm, I’m just keeping the anxiety attack on the inside.” “You know, at first I was happy, no other girls liked me before.” “I feel you, I feel you deeply and my feelings I can feel deeply.” Then Koichi just plans to tell her off “Koichi, are you braindead? From someone that’s been confessed like 7 times each day, it won’t end well.” “She’s right, she won’t stop easily! She’s the kind of person that can weave 2 sweaters in a single night, that’ll make her more determined!” “Hey, did you guys know Sky’s Puertorican-Mexican?” “Huh? A combination like that exists?” “Why does she look Korean?” “To be honest myself, I don’t know. The real question is how did SHE know I’m Puertorican-Mexican.” “Can you speak Puertorican?” “Okuyasu, you fucking dumbass, México and Puerto Rico speak Spanish- WE’RE GETTING OFF TOPIC!!” “Right!- Wait, is that right? I can’t tell her off?” “Right, don’t try to convince her now. Don’t make her use her hair stand. You need to make her hate you too, make you seem like the most boring and bad people in the school.” “Guys, as a psychic,I don’t recommend that-” then they formulate a plan “Wait, how do we make a girl like Sky, the most boring person ever? I mean, her entire life could be made into a drama. And she gave Yukako her own phone number.” “What if we don’t and I ignore her like I do with everyone else-” Then they continue “How about we tell her a giant lie about Sky too, like, She’s completely straight! Or if she’s a slob-” “I give up.” Then they continue and Koichi shows them his English test “-This is the english text we just took. I can’t study like this!” “16... That’s really low. Even I can do better than this. Mine’s 32.” “Really? I got a 96. If it weren’t for the fact that I ran out of time I would’ve gotten 100. I think I’ll also ruin my life as well. I got a 69.420 in Japanese. I can’t afford to ruin what I spent raising so much.” “Listen Koichi!Do what we tell you! Sky, I love you, survive.” “Well damn, if you put it that way, I guess I will.”

Yukako was making her way down the streets . “HEY, THAT KOICHI HIROSE IS VERY DIRTY!!” “HE LOOKS NORMAL!! I CAN’T BELIEVE HE DOES THINGS LIKE THAT!!” “AND THAT SKY-CHANYEOL GUADALUPE!!” “I CAN’T BELIEVE SHE COMES FROM A PLACE LIKE THAT!! SHE MUST BE SECRETLY A THUG!!” “Hey, is she looking that way? And why is there a trashcan here ?” “No, but I’m sure she can hear us, let’s continue. And I don’t know. Go with it I guess.” “THAT KOICHI REALLY STEALS?!” “YEAH!! HE TOLD ME HIMSELF!!” “NO DIGNITY!” “AND DOES SKY REALLY LIKE BLOWING THINGS UP?!” “YEAH!! WHERE SHE COMES FROM SHE DID IT A LOT, SHE CAN MAKE A BOMB OUT OF THIN AIR!!” Then they continue with Koichi’s insults. Then, Okuyasu says “I HEARD THAT SKY DOESN’T DATE BECAUSE ALL OF HER PSYCHOPATHIC EXES WERE BLOWN UP!!” “REALLY? DID SHE HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH THAT?!?” “SHE DENIES IT, BUT SHE LOOKED PROUD!!” “WE SHOULD CUT TIES WITH THEM!! SHE’S INSANE AND HE HAS NO FUTURE!” She leaves. *Pop*

I come out of the trashcan. “Wait, you were here all along?” “Yes, and the part about insane hurt a little. You didn’t have to go there. I mean, you’re not wrong, but still, you didn’t have to go there.” “Can you predict that our plan work.” I do the thing. “It didn’t work, she’s gonna kidnap us.” “Maybe your vision was wrong.” “I SURE HOPE SO.”

At my boi Koichi’s.

“Josuke and Okuyasu made it sound so easy... I’m so tired. Maybe I was too nervous. Let’s hope tomorrow she’ll forget about us.” He was talking, I was shaking. He falls asleep and has a nightmare. “Wake up, Koichi. Wake the fuck up,Koichi!!” “W-What’s wrong?” Yukako is outside the window “Y-Your friends are saying bad things about you!! But don’t worry I’m here to perfect you. I’m taking you with me.” She sees our English tests, my Japanese quiz and a bottle of nitroglycerin. “One more centimetre.” “Huh, what’s wrong, love?” “One more centimetre and that bottle would’ve fallen off the table.” Koichi just goes: “What would’ve happened if it fell off?” “That bottle of nitroglycerin would’ve fallen, gotten shocked from impact and exploded. There’s enough in that bottle to obliterate the entire room.” “That’s why I’m here, to fix you!” And she kidnaps us.

In a house, near the edge of Duwang.

There we were tied up to a chair. My stand, was close to hatching, and I was sending an SOS to Jotaro.

... And building a bomb with my feet just in case. You never know wjen

“You must be hungry guys!”

‘Koichi, act natural.’ ‘Wait, did you just send me a message with your mind?!’ ‘Yes, don’t question it. Just play along with it.’

“Hey, Shawty? We wanted to ask you something.” “What?” “Last night, about the hair, what was that about?” “You guys saw it for the first time so you just be a little scared..” she explains about how it was Keicho, an arrow and so on. “Do you mayhaps know someone else with that ability?” “Not sure, now come sit here, you need to have a balanced diet to become perfect people!”

‘Koichi, I made a bomb while she was cooking, I hid the detonator of the bomb in a safe box, push it back so she doesn’t notice.’ ‘How? Your psychic abilities helped you see that it would work?’ ‘No, I quite literally make stuff in my sleep. It just happened to be bomb this time.’ ‘Ok!’ He slides the bomb back. “Can we eat? I need to take my pills after eating.” “Can we??!” “NOT NOW,GUYS!! Koichi, 16 on your English test? And Sky, really? 69.420?” “Listen, I may not be that person to do jokes that I don’t fully understand. But it said 420. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity to do a weed joke and I needed to use it.” “So you smoke?!!” “No, I see the people who get high do stupid things everyday I leave my apartment with my do- WHERE’S IGGY?!” “BARK!” “Thank God...” “Anyways, I said it last night, those scores are too low in my standards, Koichi, even if you’re not that smart, that score is too low, and Sky-” *click* *Dorime, Interimo Adapare,Dorime-* “I know that Japanese is not even close to your native language but you have a manga, it’s not even finished yet! How are you so bad at it?” “First, How did you know I was writing another part? And second, YOU KNOW I’M BOTH DYSLEXIC AND DYSGRAPHIC!! I TRY BUT I SUCK!” “I think we should study while we eat.” She pulls out the boxes and asks Koichi. “Prince often sings about 'funky music', but what is the definition of 'funk'? A) Crazy music B) Groovy music or C) Smooth music?” “B!” “Correct! Now for Sky! How many strokes takes to write the word 湖 (Lake)? A) 15 B) 12 or C) 10?” “B.” “Great!You guys got boiled eggs!” ‘Dammit, I hate those.’ ‘How did you know the answer of yours? You don’t even know how to write your name correctly.’ ‘ I didn’t. I knew that if you were correct with your answer, she wouldn’t expect for me to guess it was in the same place. I do every character with as many strokes I need. I write everything kinda connected, Spanish and Japanese are far from similar.’ “ I’ll take the shell off. Do you guys want salt or soy sauce?” ‘She seems happy! We need to escape as soon as we get the chance!’ “If you guessed A, you’d have to eat erasers!” ‘Fuck, it’s real.’ “C is soap.” ‘Oh hell naw.’ Then she goes to the next one. Koichi bout to get it. “And for Sky, the strokes for, ( 愛 )love. A) 11 ,B) 9, or C) 13. Koichi guesses from her face, I think about it. “C!” “ Koichi, did you guess by looking at my face?” “What about Sky?!” “Did YOU guess by my face,Guadalupe?” “NO, I GUESSED BECAUSE IT LOOKED LIKE IT HAD THE SAME NUMBER OF STROKES LIKE LAKE BUT I NOTICED ONE MORE STROKE!!” “She thought about it! “ And she gives him the choice from bamboo or corn syrup. And tries to force feed him. “GET THE BOMB!!” And we try to get it to run.

(What I hear every time I run after I make my mum mad.)

“YOU’RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE!!” “FINE!!! I ACCEPT THAT FOR NOW, BUT MY BOMB!!” “WHAT WERE YOU DOING WITH A BOMB!!” “I BUILT IT IN MY SLEEP OK?!? I DON’T REMEMBER HOW I BUILT THIS ONE!! THAT’S WHY I NEED IT!!” Yadayadaya , we try to escape Yukako reveals that the house is owned by a CEO in Tokyo and since no one will know until summer, we’ll have plenty of time to 'make progress'. Yayadaya, we get to the door, in what year did Columbus discovered the new world?’ “Do you know the answer?” “No, I forgot, she yoinked my head real hard.”

Part 12. Soon