#this was supposed to be a test for a more formal character sheet | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

ibijau · 4 years ago

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Price of Wishes / on AO3

Nie Huaisang tries to find a solution to his newest problem

The unexpected words ring loud into the room, shaking Nie Huaisang to his core. He gapes at Lan Xichen, eyes round and mouth open in shock, hardly able to breathe. The god looks down at the book, seeming mildly embarrassed, while Nie Huaisang manages to get himself under control.

"You can't read this particular style of characters?" he asks, all too hopeful. If that’s the problem, then with a little practice...

"I can't read at all," Lan Xichen announces, ruining Nie Huaisang’s fragile hope. "It didn't exist when I was alive. By the time it came up, I had started to decline as a god, and I was too busy surviving. Besides, I'd figured it was just a passing fad."

"You… just how old are you?" Nie Huaisang gasps, feeling nearly dizzy.

If Lan Xichen is so old that writing didn't exist when he'd been mortal… then he had to be born centuries ago, or even a dozen centuries, or more. His head spins trying to understand that length of time. Nie Huaisang’s own sect was founded only a few centuries ago, there are records of it. Even Gusu Lan and Qishan Wen, by far the oldest of the major sect, and older than most sects in general, are much younger than the invention of writing.

“I’m not quite sure my age,” Lan Xichen admits, frowning slightly as he tries to remember. “Keeping track of that hasn’t been a priority. I… I’m sorry. Is it really so inconvenient that I can’t read?”

Nie Huaisang wants to cry, and bursts out laughing instead, his voice high and hysterical. He brings his knees against his chest, trying to ground himself, while Lan Xichen watches him with ever growing concern.

“Inconvenient doesn’t even begin to cover it!” Nie Huaisang squeaks, desperately hugging his legs. “Gusu Lan is a sect of scholars! You’d be expected not just to know how to read, but to be exceptionally well-read, to know all the classics, to have a deep understanding of poetry…"

Nie Huaisang pauses, nearly breathless with horror. He didn't think to put these things on his list. His mind was so full of his stupid crush on Lan Wangji, it seemed so obvious it didn't need to be detailed, and now this is biting him in the ass.

Again.

"This is an absolute disaster," Nie Huaisang hisses. "We're going to be caught, and I’ll be in so much trouble, and then da-ge will hear about it and he’ll be furious, and he won’t keep your altar, and then what will happen to you? You’re nice, I don’t want you to die! But I also…" he gasps in horror. "Oh no, Lan Qiren is going to kill me if he figures out that I’ve…”

“I won’t let anyone harm you,” Lan Xichen earnestly interjects, setting aside the book to put his hands on Nie Huaisang’s shoulders, trying to comfort him. “I will protect you. What happened is my fault more than yours, I’m the one who misunderstood what you wanted.”

Nie Huaisang, whose laughter has turned into weak tears, pitiful nods. It says a lot about Lan Qiren and the terror he inspires that Nie Huaisang feels even a god might not be enough to protect him from the venerable teacher's wrath.

Then, realising something, he gasps.

“My list! How did you understand it if you can’t read?”

Lan Xichen’s hands move away. Instantly Nie Huaisang misses their weight on his shoulder, the slight warmth of them. It really had comforted him to be touched like that.

“I’m not sure how that was possible,” Lan Xichen says after taking a moment to consider this. “I don’t think I read it exactly. But you offered that list to me, and so I understood it, if that makes sense?”

Nie Huaisang’s tears stop, and he quickly wipes the lingering wetness from his face.

“Then maybe…”

Just as quickly as he fell into despair, Nie Huaisang's brain starts racing. There's got to be a solution. Already he can think of one… no, three things to test that could solve their problem. If this one doesn't work, then that one. Or maybe they could…

He stands up again, and goes through his qiankun pouch once more until he finds some blank paper and his ink. While a puzzled Lan Xichen watches, Nie Huaisang paints a quick portrait of the god, one that he would normally be ashamed to ever show anyone, but which is enough for his purpose. Then it’s just a matter of setting a piece of fabric on the nightstand, putting a candle there, installing this picture of the god, and making a first offering out of some candies Nie Huaisang has on him.

It’s not the best of altars, and any other god would surely be deeply offended by this, but surely Lan Xichen won’t mind.

“You really don’t need to pray to me right now,” Lan Xichen mumbles as he comes to stand besides him, sounding mortified.

“I do,” Nie Huaisang retorts, rushing to grab the discarded book of Lan rules and placing it on his improvised altar. “My lord, accept this humble offering,” he says in the most formal tone he’s capable of, putting the book on that improvised altar.

Nie Huaisang bows down before his little altar, then waits a moment before turning to look at Lan Xichen who appears more puzzled than ever.

“It didn’t work,” the god sighs. “Whatever you were trying to do, it didn’t work. I’m sorry.”

Nie Huaisang shrugs. “It’s fine, I didn’t really expect that to work,” he admits, going through his pouch again.

He's still panicking, but it's a productive sort of panic now so it's fine. Fear just makes him think faster, which is what they need right now. They only have three weeks to prepare, every instant counts.

“I’ll just try something else, until something does work. And I have a plan if nothing works, as well," Nie Huaisang explains with a grimace, "but it’ll involve more actual lying than I’d prefer, so it’s a last resort.”

Grabbing the book again, he opens it at random and copies the rule there onto a piece of paper. He tries to be more careful with this than he was with the portrait, trying to make the character nice and neat in spite of his trembling hands. Before the ink is even dry, he presents that new offering onto the altar, bowing before it and praying silently to Lan Xichen.

“Oh!” Lan Xichen gasps. “Have a strong will and anything can be achieved. Is that right?”

“It is!” Nie Huaisang exclaims with a grin. “And if you look at the paper, does it change something?”

Lan Xichen comes close to the altar, and picks the quickly scribbled piece of paper. There is a slight frown on his face as he inspects it, but he eventually nods.

“Now when I look at those characters, I can recognise them,” he admits, before sitting down to pick up the book and observe it as well. “Have a… strong… oh, the way you wrote that one is really different, so it’s harder to recognise. Then… anything… can be… yes, I think I can recognise them, once you’ve offered them to me. So I suppose if you were to offer me every character there is…”

“I’ll have to,” Nie Huaisang sighs, the initial joy of his discovery crushed as he realises the enormity of the task ahead of him.

That’s a few thousands characters to share, and Nie Huaisang knows he’s nowhere near as cultivated and well-read as a young master of Gusu Lan would be. He’ll have to do more tests, see how much his own understanding of characters is necessary if they are to be transmitted to Lan Xichen. And that won't solve the problem of all the books Lan Xichen should have read, books Nie Huaisang definitely doesn't have on hand right now.

“This is a nightmare. I don’t know if I can…” Nie Huaisang takes a deep breath, fighting a sob. “I don’t think I can. But we’re going to try anyway.”

He sighs again, and looks at Lan Xichen who seems so truly sorry that Nie Huaisang can’t even be angry at him. It's annoying, because it means he can only be angry at himself.

“And you’re also going to try to learn the normal way as well,” Nie Huaisang announces. “I’m going to find you a book to teach children, so you can study while we travel. It’s… we’re going to make this work." He hesitates, and looks up at the god. "We are, right?”

Lan Xichen doesn’t answer right away, as if seriously considering their chance of success. For some reason, and in spite of his anxiety, Nie Huaisang likes that better than if the god had immediately agreed. It makes it more meaningful when Lan Xichen finally nods.

“We will do our best,” Lan Xichen says. “I will learn all I can, and... If you believe in me, I know I can convince others that I am what you wish me to be. I will work hard to ensure I do not bring trouble for you.”

Nie Huaisang smiles weakly. He trusts Lan Xichen to try his best, which surprises him, considering they haven’t known each other very long. Nie Huaisang doesn’t think of himself as particularly trusting. Aside from his brother, his cousin Nie Zonghui, and Lan Wangji, he just can’t think of anyone in his life worth trusting. Those three, and now Lan Xichen too, never mind they have just now started being honest with each other.

Even though it is already late, Nie Huaisang decides to copy a few more rules for Lan Xichen to learn, this time starting from page one. No matter how many times he’s been forced to copy those stupid rules before, it’s the first time he’s paying so much attention to every word of them. He is careful to use his most legible style of writing, so Lan Xichen can learn the words properly, so he can recognise them more easily if he encounters them in another style. Lan Qiren would probably approve of his efforts, which would be funny if the situation weren’t so strange.

Nie Huaisang only manages to copy a dozen rules that night before he gets too tired to write properly. When he figures he won’t manage more than that, he places his sheets of paper in front of his improvised altar and offers them to Lan Xichen. The god recites the rules one by one, flawlessly, and even manages to read part of the next ones, since it touches on similar concepts. It is incredibly encouraging, Nie Huaisang decides, though with only three weeks ahead of them, they might still lack time to do everything.

It's fine. He has an idea for that, as long as they can get Lan Xichen to a certain level of familiarity with Gusu Lan's way. Nie Huaisang wants to start explaining that, but his god stops him.

“You must rest,” Lan Xichen advises, giving Nie Huaisang a critical look. “It has been a rather intense evening for you. Let’s go to bed, and see in the morning how to proceed next.”

Nie Huaisang nods sleepily. He should feel his modesty take offence at the idea of undressing in front of a near stranger, but he’s too exhausted to care. Anyway, Lan Xichen is so old he doesn’t really count, and also they might get married someday, and then it’ll be normal to undress like this, so Nie Huaisang doesn’t see why he should make a big deal of it.

That logic makes sense in his exhausted mind, but it can only go so far. Nie Huaisang, once in his under clothes, looks around to decide which bed to pick, only to realise with horror that there’s only a single bed in this room.

“I thought this was a room for two?” he gasps, feeling a little faint.

Lan Xichen, slowly divesting himself from the many, many layers he has to wear to pass as a Gusu Lan disciple, nods distractedly.

“It is a big bed, Nie gongzi,” Lan Xichen says. “we could fit three or four in there.”

It might be exhaustion, or it might be embarrassment, but Nie Huaisang feels a little faint. Sleeping in the same room as someone else was already big, but this is huge. The last time he’s slept in the same bed as someone else was…

It hasn’t happened since those first few months after his father’s death, when he had nightmares and couldn’t stand to be alone, terrified that his rageful father would return during the night and do something terrible. So it's been years, and at least Nie Huaisang was young back then, which excused the impropriety.

Maybe if Lan Xichen showed any trace of unease, Nie Huaisang would try to protest. But the god treats this situation as if it’s perfectly normal, and maybe it is for him. Maybe in the olden days, people just slept like that. Nie Huaisang thinks it’s something poor people do, but of course he wouldn’t really know. He is too tired to try to explain why it’s odd, anyway. If Lan Xichen thinks this is fine, then it’s probably fine. Gods are supposed to know what’s right and what’s wrong, don’t they?

If Lan Xichen doesn’t mind, Nie Huaisang will try not to mind either.

Before things can get a chance to get awkward, Nie Huaisang climbs in bed and curls up under the blanket, as close as possible to the edge of the mattress so there will be plenty of space between the two of them, for propriety. He then closes his eyes tightly, desperately trying not to notice when Lan Xichen comes to lay down next to him.

He fails in that endeavour.

Lan Xichen doesn’t lay particularly close to him, the way lovers do in certain books that Nie Huaisang isn’t supposed to own, but he isn’t particularly careful to keep distance between them either, as if this doesn’t mean anything to him.

Perhaps it doesn’t.

Nie Huaisang can’t help but curl a little tighter when he thinks just how much of a stranger the man in bed with him is. All Nie Huaisang knows for sure about Lan Xichen is the fact he had been lying to everybody, and would have lied to him as well if he could have gotten away with it.

Or would he? Lan Xichen said he wants them to be friends, that he doesn’t like feeling Nie Huaisang’s fear of him. Was that the truth, or another lie to fit with what the list demanded?

Maybe Nie Huaisang doesn't know anything at all about this god he’s going to help deceive everyone.

What he does know, then, is that he wants to trust Lan Xichen, even if it goes against all good sense. Lan Xichen hasn’t done anything to hurt him so far, has he? On the contrary, he has been kind, he allowed him to take refuge in his temple, granted him a wish so huge that Nie Huaisang hadn’t ever thought to actually ask for it, and now he’s trying his best to make Nie Huaisang comfortable and…

It’s not that Nie Huaisang has much to complain about. He knows he’s lucky, that he’s never lacked for anything, that his brother loves him, in his own manner. The Nie elders don’t like him too much, and he’s not close to any disciples, but he has a friend in Wangji, and he has his birds, so he’s not lonely, not really.

Not exactly.

He’s not lonely, but nobody has ever acted like being at his side was worth making an effort. Wangji just doesn't have anyone else, his brother can't go against blood, his birds are kept in cages. Nobody had much of a choice. Not until he met this odd god, who is ready to go to incredible extremes just to be around him.

A mean little voice in the back of Nie Huaisang’s head tells him that it’s just because Lan Xichen is so desperate for believers he’d latch onto anyone at all, that Lan Xichen is forced like all the others, but… but it’s still nice to have been the one who entered that temple, who made those offerings, who prayed to that abandoned altar, and thus became worthy of those efforts. At least, he hopes he’s worth it. He hopes Lan Xichen won’t regret choosing him. He hopes…

“You need to sleep,” Lan Xichen orders, shuffling closer, close enough to almost touch Nie Huaisang. “Is there a problem? Is the bed not comfortable? Are you cold?”

Nie Huaisang curls so tight on himself that his chin pokes the space between his knees. Briefly, a sill thought crosses his mind. If he says he’s cold, what will Lan Xichen do? Hug him for warmth like people do in stories? The idea makes him shivers, and he quickly shakes his head, because he’s terrified Lan Xichen would really do something like that, because it’s ridiculous how much he wants a hug right now. It’s been an awful, intense evening, and he’d give anything for a hug, but he’s sure he’d die of embarrassment if Lan Xichen were to hold him.

“If you’re nervous about this situation, we can always think of another way to deal with this,” Lan Xichen offers. “We’ll talk about it tomorrow if you like, but for now…”

Lan Xichen puts a hand on Nie Huaisang’s shoulder, seeking to offer comfort, or to calm him perhaps, but Nie Huaisang flinches so violently that he nearly falls off the bed.

The offending hand is immediately removed, and Nie Huaisang can feel the god’s eyes on him. He braces himself for questions, or accusations, or anything at all really. But Lan Xichen just sighs sadly, and moves away, closer to the other edge of the bed, and that’s the end of it.

Nie Huaisang curses himself. Of course even when something good happens, when someone tries to be nice to him, he has to ruin it.

Sighing as well, Nie Huaisang tries his best to fall asleep, while cursing himself for making things so awkward when clearly Lan Xichen is just being friendly. What else but friendly could he be, anyway? Even if he modelled himself after Nie Huaisang’s list, it’d be stupid to ever expect him to fall in love or anything. After all, Nie Huaisang knows he isn’t a very likeable person, or else his brother wouldn’t always be angry at him, and he wouldn’t have needed to invent a version of Lan Wangji that doesn't just tolerates him.

Likeable people don’t need a deal with a god to find someone to marry them.

And with that thought in mind, Nie Huaisang finally manages to drift to sleep.

When he wakes up in the morning, the other half of the bed is empty, and Nie Huaisang finds that he has been carefully tucked under the blanket. It must have happened recently, because he knows he moves a lot in his sleep, something his brother has complained about at length those few times they shared a bed.

Nie Huaisang knows he should get up, get dressed and grab some breakfast so they can continue their journey toward Gusu. He should do that, but instead he stays in bed as long as he can, enjoying the warmth of that blanket so meticulously wrapped around him, and pretends it means something even when he knows it doesn’t.

#xisang #nie huaisang #lan xichen #mo dao zu shi #mdzs #jau writes #xisang wishes au #I've had a rough week so nhs gets to have high anxiety and a small breakdown #as a treat

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what-the--curtains · 4 years ago

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Not a Piece of Art

Part 1/4 - A Grudge Like No Other

(Javier Peña x f!reader)

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Summary: You’re tasked with an impossible mission and an even more impossible partner to complete it with.

Authors note: I have never not once seen narcos all I know if based on other fics I’ve read so pls be kind but let me know if anything’s wildly out of character! Also I’m aware forensics wasn’t a solid discipline (especially DNA fingerprinting) but we’re gonna pretend it is. Lemme know if you’d like to be tagged (or untagged) 😊

Tw: Mentions of fake parental death, swearing, mentions of sex

Word count: 4.1k

Tagged list: @agingerindenial @diogodxlot

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The morning sun radiates down on your shoulders as you lock the door to your apartment complex behind you. Despite the early hour it was already far too hot, but at least the humidity wouldn’t kick in until the afternoon. You’d been working in Colombia for a few months now, but the heat wasn’t something you’d ever get used to. You weren’t complaining, most days you preferred it to the frigid temperatures that painted your childhood. The frost bitten noses, wool socks and thick snow falls coating tree branches seemed all but a distant memory now. You’d settled on Columbia after your long time best friend Connie convinced you to take the universities offer. She had recently made the move down south and was eager to have you there with her.

She’d told you about the job and honestly, you wouldn’t be surprised if she had marched down to the university herself and dropped off your resume. She’d flown up to Brown and helped you pack up your life and then unpack it after your arrival to the terraced apartment Connie had picked out for you both to live in. It was a decent size and the balcony was south facing which gave you all day access to the sun. When you weren't working you spent your time out there soaking up the sun and watering the small garden you had been tending to since your arrival. Your days were primarily spent at the university working out the finer details of the forensics lab you were hired to set up. Your PhD in forensic anthropology has left you with various laboratory based skills, including DNA analysis, making you a coveted asset to the campus. Whilst in school you had also completed an art certificate which came in handy when facial reconstructions were needed.

After everything was in place you began running samples, processing unidentified remains by working on dental ID’s and facial reconstructions, as well as testing for drug residue. Despite being run by the University your job wasn’t as research based as you would have hoped with your work often falling under the DEA’s jurisdiction. You weren't involved in their day to day protocols. You mainly just ran the tests, or identified bodies recovered from the crime scene only conversing with them when it was absolutely necessary. Police work wasn’t in your wheelhouse, and it wasn’t a profession you supported or believed in.

Many faces passed through your workspace all demanding your utmost attention claiming their projects to be the most important. One frequent flyer through the lab was Steve Murphy, who Connie had met down in Miami a few years back. His relationship to your friend was the only reason you had bothered to make an effort with him. A friendship was established between the two of you faster than you had expected, due in part to his easy southern charm, but mainly because he and Connie evidently had feelings for eachother. You always found it easier to get along with men who weren't trying to get into your pants which was, unfortunately, a frequent occurrence in the male dominated discipline you worked in. There was only one flaw you could attribute to Steve, his work wife, the other half of the DEAs “dynamic duo”, agent Javier Peña. You’d never been formally introduced to the man, but his reputation preceded him. His was a face that also made frequent appearances in your lab but you'd never spoken more than three words to each other which was, probably for the best. You had what some might deem a confrontational personality and from what you understood Peña was, to put it nicely, an asshole.

He always came in sporting a more casual look and sunglasses which he kept on despite being indoors, a habit that drove you up the wall. He’d tap the file on the glass to get your attention always making you walk the five extra steps to get to him. You didn’t bother to look up when he passed the beige folders to you just grabbed the file from his hands and added it to the pile on your desk. He’d started attaching yellow sticky notes with “put a rush on” scrawled across them in impatient handwriting, as if his case was more important than the remains you were currently working on identifying. Not talking was a strategic move on your part, you’d heard he was quite the charmer when he needed something done, and you weren't going to let him get away with that. You ran this lab, not Javier Peña. Was your dismissal of him warranted? Maybe not, but your gut instinct was usually right and the rumour mill had painted Peña in a very specific manner. You weren't about to let yet another hot headed alpha male who took “too much male energy” to an entirely new level into your life.

Unfortunately, your knack for avoiding him became nearly impossible when you were called out to work on a crime scene. Despite your refusal to work in the field, the remains couldn’t be moved so you had to go to them. The site was just far enough away that a daily commute would have been tedious so you, along with the dynamic duo and your forensic team were booked into a nearby hotel. You weren't sure what you'd done in your past life to piss off the gods but somehow you’d ended up sandwiched between Steve and Peña. Steve wasn’t the issue, apart from the TV which you’d hear blare spanish dubbed reruns of Miami Vice between 4 and 8 PM, he was a quiet, considerate neighbour. Peña, on the other hand, was neither considerate or quiet particularly during the late hours of the night while you were trying to sleep. Sharing a wall with the agent proved to be an issue, so much so that by the third day just looking at him filled you with such intense rage that you'd given yourself lockjaw.

Every night without fail you laid awake as the exaggerated, bordering on ridiculous, moans coming from whoever he'd enticed into bed that night reverberated through your shared wall. You'd tried it all, earplugs, pillows so forcefully wrapped around your head you were essentially smothering yourself, but the sounds still permeated through the plaster and into your head. On the fourth night when you heard the talking start you knew what you had to do. You furiously wriggle free from your sheets and make your way out into the hallway. You walk one door over and inhale deeply before aggressively pounding your fist on the door.

“Hey” you say, through gritted teeth.

“Hey?” a slightly disheveled Steve murmurs eyes squirting into the hallway’s bright lights as his arms cross clumsily over his bare chest.

“Look I hate to ask but can I sleep on your couch, the walls are thin and...”

“And Peña has a thing for loud women '' he finishes for you, shoulders relaxing as he opens the door up for you “surprised you lasted this long, come in i'll grab you some pillows”

“Thanks for letting me sleep here, I think I may have killed him in the field tomorrow if I didn't get at least an hour of sleep. Also this isn’t some tactic to get you to bed so you can stop trying to cover your modesty” You say wiping your eyes, as Steve drops his arms to his side laughing.

“I know, believe me, besides i'm sure you're aware I’m only interested in one person.” So he did have a thing for Connie.

“You should go for it, I think she'd say yes” you offer, even in your sleep deprived state you were still a pretty solid wingwoman.

“You think?” His eyes light up, further cementing your belief that Steve, despite being friends with Peña, was a good guy.

“Thanks” you murmur as he hands you some pillows and a light sheet. It's not long before the AC’s quiet hum draws you into a deep sleep.

The alarm blaring out from Steve’s room pulls you from your dreaming state, groaning as you squeeze a pillow over your head. Why was it that you always felt worse after getting a good night's sleep? You briefly doze off again only waking as the smell of burnt toast convinces your brain that either a fire has started, or you were having a stroke.

“Tryna burn this place down?” you mumble, relaxing back into the couch cushions as you watch Steve scrape the burnt bits off into the garbage before buttering it and taking a bite.

“You think you got enough sleep to not kill my partner this morning?” he asks between mouthfuls.

“No, but I did get enough to realize if I killed him in the field there'd be witnesses” you remark pouring coffee into a cracked mug. “Thank you for letting me sleep here “

“Anytime, though Javi should be the one thanking me considering I basically saved his life. Lucky were leaving today or I’d have to put him into protective custody.”

“And I'll never have to hear him ever again” you say suddenly feeling a bit better. You were glad for Steve being so accommodating to your needs, especially considering he didn't really know you that well. “Well I should go get ready for the day ahead what it's supposed to be out?”

“A balmy 40” Steve offers, as he washes your cup up in the sink.

“Wow I should have packed my snow pants when I moved down here.” you dead pan, the delivery causing Steve to snort as you exit the room. As you exit, Javier opens his door kissing the woman he’d spent the night with one last time watching as she strides off down the hallway. You don’t see him, but he sees you. Specifically, he sees you leaving his partner's room, and in nothing more than an oversized t-shirt, he raised his eyebrows. Good for Steve from what he’d heard half the department had been trying to get your attention to no avail. Your head was always buried in paperwork and your ears were always donning headphones blocking out small talk, maybe he should take a page from your book. He didn’t say anything to Steve in the field, but he did watch you interact with one another. Paying specific attention to how you'd made Steve laugh while photographing the murder weapon. Javi watched as you meticulously gathered up a few finger bones that he'd overheard you saying would be used for DNA fingerprinting. He'd tried to talk to you a few times this trip, but the second he'd stepped in your direction he noticed your jaw clench and your body tense up, not wanting to upset you he decided it was best to back off. After getting what you need you packed up your things and headed back home, with no intentions of ever having to interact with Peña for more than 5 minutes ever again.

Several months later

Your lab was now contracted out full time by the DEA which meant you still got to do research but you didn’t have to teach any teenagers which was quite frankly a dream. Unfortunately, the contract meant you'd now be spending time in two male-dominated fields. The boys club offered little that would qualify as genuine friendship. Turns out the ones brave enough to approach you were only nice to you because they wanted to sleep with you. Something you’d found out after overhearing a less than true story about you from one of the guy’s you’d hooked up with. After that you’d stopped sleeping where you work and started looking elsewhere. Your few short lived romances were mainly found in dive bars only going home with people that had been thoroughly vetted (and vaguely threatened) by yourself, Connie and Steve. Who was now a relatively permanent fixture in your life after finally asking Connie out, and you really didn’t mind it. He was good to Connie and he never minded being excluded when you needed a girls' night without him. You also assumed the decrease in misogynistic talk amongst the agents was Steves doing, you made a mental note to thank him later, as you took another swig of the beer you’d been nursing for the past hour.

Steve was still inseparable from Peña and where he went Javi was sure to follow. Your inability to not become enraged by him meant you often found yourself leaving the room as soon as he showed up, subsequently cutting your Connie time in half. Devastating both you and her.

“You know he’s not really as insufferable as he acts” Connie states, Javi was due to show up any minute which meant it was just about time for you to leave.

“ You're not gonna sell me on this” you say, chewing on a stale nacho chip from food you’d ordered hours ago.

“Seriously, he's almost nice sometimes” your pointed look tells her to drop it. Connie was nothing if not resilient and you were constantly amazed by her. You don’t know how she worked as a nurse. You had a hard enough time with the dead, how she also dealt with the living as well was beyond you. She was a quantifiable saint which was probably why she saw the good in Peña.

“Remind me to never make you mad” Steve says.

“No one holds a grudge quite like her” Connie exclaims

“Awe you say the sweetest things about me” you retort after finishing the last of your beer.

“Alright well I’ve got an early morning shift so we should be heading out, tell Javi I say hi” Connie says kissing Steve before the two of you exit the bar.

“Are you really going to keep up this affront against Javi?” Connie asks, interlinking your arms together as you exit the bar.

“Yes, now please and can we stop talking about Peña even thinking about him gets me riled up”

“I thought you said you hated him” she teases causing you to roll your eyes.

“Please don't make me gag” you say pulling a face that causes you both to break into a giggle fit.

“What up her ass? Seriously, am I infectious or something?” Javi asks, slumping down across from Steve who's filling out paperwork at his desk.

“Well considering your history, probability is pretty high” Steve quips back earning him a thwack to the head with a folder you’d dropped on Peña’s desk earlier that morning.

“You know her, what's her deal, why does she hate me?”

“Everyone hates you Javi, it’s a fundamental part of your personality” Steve laughs.

Javier usually wasn’t one to concern himself with how others perceived him, but his work frequently overligned with yours and he figured his life would be made infinitely easier if he could get into your good books. Sure, at first his intrigue in getting to know you was purely physical. He knew looks aren't everything, but for what he wanted, they played a fundamental part. He wasn’t the only person to have noticed you the day you showed up, all eyes were on you as you walked through the DEA embassy for the first time. Your arrival had sparked a competitive energy amongst the men with the agents often vying over who got the honour of dropping off case files to you. A few were apparently even so lucky to have actually spent the night, at least that's what he’d overheard some agents proclaiming loudly, making him doubt their validity.

He’d cracked down on what some would call “locker room talk” when he thought you and Steve were sleeping together, after seeing you leave his room early that one morning. Though if Steve had been spending nights with you he’d never brought it up to Javi, and after he started dating Connie there never seemed a right time to ask about you, so he let it go. He’d gotten more proactive with stopping it once you’d been hired on full time. He’d upped his guard when he’d caught one trying to cop a feel of your ass the day you had been called in on your day off. You’d come in wearing a skirt shorter than what would be considered workplace appropriate gaining you more attention than usual. He noticed the guys hand drop down low, but any contact was stopped when Javi smashed the guys arm back into the wall behind him. In most cases a move like that would have earned him a swift punch to the face but a simple raise of his eyebrows was enough to get the pervert to sit back down.

Despite the scene playing out a few feet from you, you never noticed carrying on about your day as if nothing had happened, headphones on, paperwork in your arms and various scrawlings across your hand, reminders of meetings he knew you'd be late to anyways. He assumes your chronic lateness was a tactic to spend as little time around him as possible. Your hatred for him was palpable, he wondered if it was as obvious to everyone else as it was to him. He'd noticed how you would stand in meetings when the only seat available was next to him. It was starting to get to his ego. He wanted to know what he possibly could have done to be treated like the scum of the earth by you. He’d heard from Connie that you didn’t like cops, but you got on fine with Steve. Your lives continued on with minimal interaction until the day you were called into the head of the DEA’s office.

“Office now!” your boss shouts from the door. Fuck. What have you done now?

“Hey you need something?” you ask, lips parted and forehead wrinkled, feeling like a child who’d just been called to the principal's office. Your head snaps to the left when you feel eyes boring into you, eyes belonging to Peña. He shifts around in the chair to escape your violent gaze. You turn to Steve who's gazing up at the ceiling.

“I have the dental results here for the missing persons from the case last week, it’s a match, I know it's late but...”

“It's not that,” he gestures his hand to the chair beside Peña and you sit, placing the documents down on the table. Javi cranes his neck slightly, eyes darting over the various statistics strewn across the page surprised you were able to piece it all together.

“You have an art degree right?”

“I have an art certificate” you correct

“and you paint”

“A bit”

“She was featured in local galleries back in the States” Steve pipes up.

“ Good, we need you to go undercover” you snort before laughing aloud. Your amusement quickly fades when you realize no one else was laughing with you.

“Wait you're serious? You want me... to go undercover? I'm not an agent, I can’t use a gun, I don’t think I've even held one before” you say, tearing through all the excuses you could think of.

“You can shoot a bow and arrow,” Steve pipes up.

“Ya very different instrument Steve, also does Connie tell you everything about me” he shrugs his shoulders.

“You won’t need a gun anyways, you'll have a trained agent with you at all times.” Your boss reassures.

“No. No way! Im sorry but this… this is beyond the scope of my work and my skill set” you assert, not budging.

“You’ve been to crime scenes before, you’ve been in dangerous scenarios, excavated mass graves, we need you you’re the only one who can help with this”

“Why? You have multiple agents out there who would kill to go undercover, why me?” you push

“ Your background, and relative anonymity. There's been an increase in art dealing amongst the sicarios.”

“So what? Maybe they just really like art.” you offer

“Does anyone really like art” Peña pipes up

“ Yes, the whole world actually” you shoot back, successfully shutting him up.

“We think they're using convincing fakes to smuggle drugs without suspicion” Steve offered, helping to clear up the situation.

“Okay... then hire an art expert to go in and see if the paintings are real”

“We need you to test for residue on the paintings, and to recreate one in time for the next move”

“Okay im good, but I am not good enough to recreate a painting worth thousands of dollars.”

“From what I’ve seen you are,” Steve says further cementing your fate.

“What if I say no?” you ask, exhaling deeply.

“Then you're fired” Javier pipes up, once again causing your head to turn to him.

“And who, pray tell, made you judge, jury and executioner” you spit “last time I check Javier Peña wasn’t the one signing my paychecks”

“No, but I am, and you will do this” Your boss's backing of Peñas statement makes the smirk on his face even more aggravating.

“Fine, but just know I will be personally mentioning you all in my will so everyone knows exactly who got me killed, and I'm gonna want a raise, more vacation time and a new piece of lab equipment if I make it out alive. ”

“Fine” you smile feeling slightly vindicated.

“So what's my story? Who am I to have a million dollar painting in my possession?” you ask, as your boss pulls up a document on his computer.

“You’ll go by Melanie Alverez nee Smith, you were born in London England to parents Maria and Calvin who passed in a car accident four weeks after your nineteenth birthday”

“Shit” you mutter, thinking about your own parents who were very much alive.

“You dropped out of Oxford where you were undertaking a degree in chemistry and moved to New York where you began painting. You were a struggling artist for the first two years but received funding to attend Julliard. After graduation your first major piece was accepted by a local gallery and put up for auction. It sold for 10,000$. The buyer wanted to meet you after seeing your photo. He’d sent thousands of flowers to your gallery before showing up and asking you on a date.

“Must be nice” you murmur

“After a whirlwind romance you eloped and moved down to Columbia where you continue to work as an artist.”

“Alright easy enough, short live romance is a good call that can be used to explain why we don’t know certain information about each other.”

“You'll be staying here” A huge spanish style house appears on the screen. Its prestige was only overshadowed by the mansion looming over it from across the private beach. Must be the target's house, you think.

“It was built by the target, he lives there with his fourth wife. He’s rich, sources claims from drug smuggling, they think he may even have direct links to Escobar

“Like, as in Pablo?” you ask, eyes widening.

“Apparently he’s his art dealer. We need you to go in and see what he knows, if it's not enough then test the paintings in their homes”

“And if they trace?”

“You'll give them the fake implemented with a tracking device so we can target its route.”

“Okay well I'd say easy enough but the threat of being murdered isn’t lost on me. Who's my husband anyways? Obviously he’s rich but did he tragically fall down the stairs and die, did I kill him?” you ask, smiling as Steve laughs.

“What?” you say looking up

“What...” you say as Steve refuses to meet your eyes as he chokes on his laugh.

“Well you haven’t killed him yet but I give it a week.” He responds.

“Who's my husband” you ask, again suddenly afraid and very aware that there were two men in this room, and one was currently laughing at you.

“Your lucky day sweetheart.” Your head turns comically slow to face Javi, the effect only causes Steve to snicker more.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” you whisper.

“This mission is anything, but a joke.” your boss interjects “If we can trace the arts movement it brings us one step closer to catching Escobar. I don’t know why there's animosity between you two and frankly I do not care. You two must work together. If you are to succeed you have to be believable. Study up on each others aliases the target hasn’t made it this far without being killed by being stupid. We’ve tried to get to him before with no success, he will be on high alert. You two will have to convince him, and his wife, that you’re sincere.”

#javi x reader #javi x you #javi x y/n #Peña x reader #Peña x you #javier pena x reader #Javier Peña x you #narcos fanfic #agent peña x reader #agent Peña x you #not a piece of art #part 1

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bbq-hawks-wings · 6 years ago

Note

I want to express an unpopular opinion. I hope for your understanding, because such things don't like to listen. Why does everyone think that Hawks is a bird? I couldn' fit my logical arguments into the askbox :( (about how he sits on a pole "like a bird", supposedly likes jewelry and so on). Even his quirk is called Fierce Wings, not a Hawk, not a Red Bird. Do you remember the names of the quirks of Hound Dog and Tsuyu-chan? We haven't evidence to believe that Hawks is behaves like a bird.

I do believe very much he’s a bird, and if you would let me friend, I would love to try and prove it to you because I think the evidence is overwhelming. I’ll make a TL;DR at the end but I’d really like to take the opportunity to perhaps teach others at least one method for literary analysis since it can be a really dry and boring subject to learn in school but is SO useful not only for getting good grades but getting into colleges as well as interpreting both entertainment and genuinely important information like the news, history, laws, and scientific papers. Using fiction - especially such a rich, engaging one like HeroAca - is a great way to try it out without the pressure of a grade. I don’t have the qualifications to teach in any formal capacity, but as a “peer” tutor I hope I can be helpful.

I’m going to put everything under the cut from here because this is going to get LONG, but I promise the TL;DR at the end will be very easy to read. If you liked this sort of unofficial tutorial please let me know. I’d love to help make “academic” skills like this more accessible for those who might benefit from it and enjoy it, but it doesn’t make sense to put in all that effort moving forward if I’m garbage at it.

Before we get too into things, I want to lay out a few notes to keep in mind as we go.

I will only be using the official translations from Viz’s Shonen Jump website when available. Fan translations are more than close enough to casually enjoy and follow the story, but professional translators are paid to know and get various nuances correct and some of the trickier cultural background behind certain phrases (for example, the phrase “where the rubber meets the road” might make zero sense in a foreign language if translated literally, so an equal cultural phrase should be used instead) that give more exact information. Rarely is this too important, but sometimes it helps, plus it supports the source material.

If you’ve followed my blog for a while you might know I’m very fond of doing this kind of thing in my spare time and that I’m a huge fan of YouTube channels like Game/Film Theory, Overly Sarcastic Productions, Extra Credits, and Wisecrack that do this kind of thing with popular media as well. If you like this sort of content, may I encourage you to check them out after this to see how else you can apply these kinds of analytical skills to things that aren’t homework.

My writing style tends to meander, but I do my best to cut out the fat and only include relevant information so even though there’s a lot of information here, please know that I’m trying to be thorough and explain things to the best of my ability. If I seem to go off on a tangent, I’m trying to set up or contextualize information to explain why it’s relevant and then come back to the point. In other words, please be patient and bear with me as I go.

Now, to start, I want to explain at least my method for analyzing a text/piece of media. There is a set order and number of steps to take, and it’s as follows:

Read the material all the way through.

Come up with a hypothesis about something you’ve noticed when reading it. (In this case, it’s “Is Hawks actually supposed to be a bird?”)

Collect as much relevant information as possible and test the evidence to see if it supports the hypothesis we’ve made.

Step back and look at everything again with those points in mind.

Determine if we were right or wrong with the evidence we have.

If we were wrong, go back to step 3 to figure out what fell apart and see if we need to go back to step 2.

If that sequence sounds familiar it’s because it’s the scientific method! Aha, didn’t think we’d be pulling science into all this, did you? Don’t worry, we won’t be putting numbers or formulas anywhere near this discussion - the scientific method is just a way we can observe something and test if what we thought about it is actually true; and it applies to almost everything we as humans can observe - from the laws of the universe, to arts and crafts, to philosophy and religion, and so on! When you think about it that way, whole new possibilities can open up for you when it comes to understanding how the world works.

So with that set let’s (finally) begin!

Steps 1 and 2 are already done. We’ve read the manga and want to prove that Hawks is a bird. (We’re going to try and prove he IS a bird because in the context of the series there’s a lot that *isn’t* a bird and less stuff that *is* which will make our job easier.) So now, we’re onto:

Step 3 - collect data and see what conclusions we can get just from our evidence.

Now, to pause again (I know, bear with me!) there’s a few different kinds of information and considerations we have to keep in mind as we collect. There are four kinds of information that are important to know about in order to determine if it’s good data that will help us with the testing phase in Step 4. The kinds of information to keep in mind are:

Explicit information - this is information that is directly spelled out for us. For example, Hawks says, “I like my coffee sweet.” and his character sheet says “Hawk’s favorite food is chicken.” That’s all there is to it, and it’s pretty hard to argue with. This is the easiest type of info to find.

Implicit information - this is info that isn’t directly spelled out but is noticeable either in the background or as actions, patterns, or behaviors that can be observed. For example, Hawks has mentioned in at least three very different places his concerns over people getting hurt while he tries to get in with the League:

Chapter 191 when confronting Dabi about the Nomu he says, “You said you’d release it in the factory on the coast, not in the middle of the damn city!”

Chapter 191 again in a flashback with the Hero Commission he asks, “What about the people who might be hurt while I’m infiltrating the League?”

Chapter 240 when discovering how much influence and power the League has gained, “If someone had taken down the League sooner, all those good citizens wouldn’t have had to die!”

Hawks never says in so many words, “I never want innocent people to get hurt under any circumstances!” but the pattern of behavior and concern is consistent enough to form a pattern and clue us in that this is a key part of his character to keep in mind.

Peripheral information - this is information that isn’t directly to do with Hawks or maybe even the series as a whole but is still relevant to keep in mind for his character and the questions we’re asking. This may include extra content that isn’t the “series” proper, but is still an official source like interviews with Horikoshi, etc. but it can go even further. For example, while we try to prove that he’s a bird, we should have some knowledge about what makes a bird a bird, some specific and notable birdlike habits/behaviors/features, etc. This is just to show how wide-ranging we need to cast our informational net.

Contextual information - this will be important when we get to Step 4, but it’s good to keep in mind now. This is when we compare evidence against the broader scope of the series and consider the circumstances under which we find the information. For example, if I told you, “Harry kicked a dog.” you might think “What a jerk! What decent person kicks a dog?”; but if I said, “Harry kicked a dog while trying to keep it from biting his kid.” suddenly it re-frames the story. “Is the kid ok? Why was that dog attacking? Harry put himself in danger to keep his kid safe - what a great dad!”

I’ll go chronologically to make it easier to follow my evidence as I gather and give references as to where I found that information. I’ll go through the manga first, and then any peripheral sources that are either direct informational companions to the series (like character books or bonus character information sheets) and interviews with Horikoshi. Please note the categories these details fall into may vary based on opinion/interpretation, but I did my best to list them out for reference.

Chapter 185 - Explicit Type: Feathered wings - regardless of the specifics of his quirk it’s undeniable his wings are made up of feathers which is a distinctly birdlike quality. There are many mythical creatures and even dinosaurs that also have feathered wings, but this is our first big piece of evidence.

Chapter 186 - Peripheral Type: Large appetite - birds have an incredibly fast metabolism because flying takes so much energy. They’re constantly eating. Plenty of young men are big eaters, but it was specifically pointed out and works towards our hypothesis so we’ll keep it in our back pocket for now.

Chapter 186 - Implicit/Peripheral Type: Fantastic vision - Hawks senses the Nomu coming before the audience even is able to make out what’s headed their way. It could be implied his wings caught it first, which might be the case, but he looks directly at the Nomu and brings Endeavor’s attention to it. Birds have fantastic long-range vision, especially birds of prey that mainly swoop in from high in the air to ambush highly perceptive prey. Also good to add to the pile.

Chapter 192 + Volume 20 Cover - Implicit/Peripheral type: Wears jewelry and bright colors - birds are well documented to be drawn to bright colors and are known for decorating their nests with trinkets. Scientists actually have to be careful when tagging birds with tracking bracelets because they can accidentally make him VASTLY more popular with the ladies by giving him a brightly colored band to the point they can’t resist him! Male birds are also known for having bright, colorful displays for attracting and wooing mates. While Hawks isn’t the only male character to wear jewelry in the series, he’s the only one (to my recollection) that wears as MUCH jewelry so often both during and outside of work. It may not be obvious, but the illustration on Volume 20 is actually an advertisement for his line of (presumably) luxury jewelry. In other words, Hawks on some level is synonymous with style and flair to the point he can make money by selling jewelry with his name on it.

Chapter 20 Volume Cover - Explicit Type: Hawk emblem on the watch face - If the name “Hawks” didn’t give it away, he’s very clearly trying to align himself with more avian qualities if his merch has bird motifs. In other words Hawk = “Hero Hawks” and “Hero Hawks” = bird.

Chapter 192, 244, clear file illustration - Peripheral Type: birdlike posture. Chapter 244 isn’t quite released yet on the official site as of writing this, but when Hawks swoops in and beats the kids to the punch apprehending the criminals trying to subdue Endeavor, his hands are clenched in a very talon-like manner similar to a swooping eagle. When walking with Endeavor in 192, he holds his resting hand in a similar fashion. On the clear file illustration he’s not only perched on his tippy toes in a pose that has been famously called “owling” (remember that trend/meme, y’all?) but his wings are slightly outstretched to catch the breeze to keep from falling over which a lot of birds can be seen doing when they don’t have great purchase on a surface in a place that’s a little windy. The fact that he seems to gravitate to high places like birds are often seen doing might also be a noteworthy indication.

Extra sources:

Hawks Shifuku: Horikoshi describes Hawks as a “bird person” and says that his initial design was based off of Takahiro from his old manga.

Takahiro’s design:

Current character design: The banner image on my blog was commissioned from a friend of mine who doesn’t follow the series. When I showed her reference images of Hawks, you know what she said? “Oh! His hair is feathers!” Even his eyebrows have that fluffy/scruffy texture to them that his hair has. The markings on his eyes can also be seen on him as a young child in Chapter 191 which means it isn’t makeup meant to tie in a theme or look. He has those dark, pointed eye markings like many birds do. So on some genetic level he resembles a bird.

Step 4: Testing our hypothesis with the gathered evidence.

There’s already a lot of compelling evidence that already closely aligns him to birds which is promising. However, to really prove our point we should try to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt he is a bird. To do that this time around I’m going to see how the series treats people with animal-based quirks and see if it’s consistent with the way Hawks is portrayed.

You bring up Hound Dog and Tsuyu, and they’re fantastic examples. Let’s start with Hound.

He’s pretty straight forward - he’s like a dog. He has a dog face, has dog-like tendencies, and dog-like abilities. Superpower: dog.

And in Tsuyu’s case - quirk: frog, just frog. She’s stated explicitly to have frog-like features, frog-like tendencies, have frog-like abilities, and even comes from a “froggy family.”

So with these two very explicitly animal-like characters the common theme seems to be “If they’re considered to be like a specific animal, they have to physically resemble that animal, act like that animal at times, and have abilities like that animal.” Let’s see if another animal-quirk character matches up and then put Hawks to the test.

Spinner’s quirk is Gecko. Based on our criteria, is he a gecko?

Does he look like a gecko, even vaguely?

Yes, he’s covered head to toe in scales, and his face is very lizard-like.

Does he occasionally act like a gecko?

Unclear. We haven’t really seen any evidence of this, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t. For the sake of our argument, we’ll just say no and move on.

Does he have gecko-like abilities?

Yes! Though most of his abilities are limited to things like being able to stick to walls, it’s still gecko-like in origin and qualifies.

Spinner hits clearly hits ⅔ criteria and our standards seem pretty consistent, so let’s see how Hawks stands up.

Does he look like a bird?

Not all of his features may explicitly scream “avian” at first, but upon closer observation and with his clear previous inspiration this is a resounding yes.

Does he act like a bird?

Many of the mannerisms and behaviors he displays can just be chalked up to him being a little eccentric, but with the sheer number of them that also parallel birds in some way this is also a pretty convincing yes.

Does he have bird-like abilities?

While most of the emphasis is on his wings and what they can do, it does seem that he not only possesses things like heightened senses which could be attributed to avian abilities but he also very much possess high intelligence and incredibly fast reaction times which birds are also known for.

Even if we only gave Hawks a “maybe/half a point” for those last two, he still meets the 2⁄3 that Spinner did. So we have another question to ask: Does a character have to have an explicitly named “animal” quirk to be considered to be/resemble a specific animal? Let’s look at Ojirou and Tokoyami for reference.

Ojirou’s quirk is just “tail,” but he’s been described by his peers and classmates as a monkey and does seem to share some more monkey-like features. It isn’t lumped in with his quirk because the only notable monkey-like quality he possesses is a tail. He doesn’t have fangs or an opposable toe - he just has a tail. For quirk classification as far as hero work goes, that’s the only important thing to note.

Tokoyami, on the other hand has an entire literal bird head, but nothing else. He has a beak, feathers, and even in illustrations of him as a baby he had fluffier feathers on his head. Even with only those details, he just screams “bird!” However, his quirk is classified as “Dark Shadow” because that’s what sets him apart for hero work.

Back at Hawks we see his quirk classified as “fierce wings” but like Ojirou and especially like Tokoyami, the emphasis on his wings is what sets his abilities as a hero apart. Otherwise, he’s just a guy who looks and acts a LOT like a bird.

But astute observers may have noticed I’ve left out a detail that’s more or less a nail in the coffin on the whole matter, so let me ask a question: Tsuyu in particular has something else of note that solidifies in our minds that she is, indeed, a frog - she explicitly calls herself a frog. Could we say the same about Hawks?

Chapter 199 - Explicit Type

Bingo. Hawks has known himself for as long as he’s been alive. He knows his habits, his impulses, his family/genes, and so on. If he calls himself a bird, are we going to call him a liar? In fact, he calls himself a bird not once, but twice!

That’s pretty much it. With the evidence stacked to that degree, I’d be hard pressed to NOT believe he’s a bird.

That was a long amount of text to get through, so if you’re here at the end thank you for sticking out with me to this point. I really appreciate it. This is more or less the process I use when analyzing anything and everything whether it be HeroAca related or not. Maybe it’ll help you if you’ve struggled with literary analysis, or at the very least I hope you got some enjoyment out of it.

TL;DR If Hawks looks like a bird, walks (acts) like a bird, is based on a bird (character), and calls himself a bird, he’s probably a bird.

#hawks bnha #bnha hawks #hawks #hawks mha #mha hawks #she writes #let's talk hawks #bnha meta #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #manga spoilers

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comicteaparty · 6 years ago

Text

October 19th-October 25th, 2019 Creator Babble Archive

The archive for the Creator Babble chat that occurred from October 19th, 2019 to October 25th, 2019. The chat focused on the following question:

Describe your design process for new characters. How do you go about it?

Holmeaa - working on WAYFINDERS

Ohooh it is my time! First I draw a bunch of quick drawings of body and face We are a small team, so then we had discussions, we knew how they looked in general, sallly had to be small with curls etc. Then when the body was chosen it was time to draw outfits. Since we are doing a whole world we had to find out about what kind of clothing generally people would wear, what accessories, what does nobels and rich wear, contra poor, what is religious garments. Then the faces had to be chosen and drawn again. Then when all elements was in place, it was time for colors. For Lani, I did like 30 different versions of colors, ans combination before we found the right one. For side characters there has been only a few sketches, and since we knew the whole class system with clothing, it was easier to pick and match compared to place in society. Then thinking about the role the person have in society. Next is designing scientist, and that's going to be fun!

Line up if the finished designs of the main(edited)

Face exploration

[IMAGE]

More final clothing design

[IMAGE]

Color exploration

[IMAGE]

spacerocketbunny

Oh damn I love all this! I never thought of actually mapping out all the different classes religious/ non religious formal/ casual etc. That's so smart! And these designs are so cute ahhhh

Holmeaa - working on WAYFINDERS

aaw thanks! It was very important for us that it was clear to see! Since the man Andrée is a nobel, and Sallly was part of a crime gang, and Lani is a tempelgirl, and we do have a lot of different social groups

The Q - working on WAYFINDERS

And their homeland is very northern/Viking inspired. I'm very excited to show the other country in the story, which has a much more Mediterranean flavor!

Also yes @Holmeaa - working on WAYFINDERS is super impressive!

Holmeaa - working on WAYFINDERS

Aaaaaaaw you are too sweet!

AntiBunny

Process? Not so much a process as an idea forms in my subconscious and then like Athena rises fully formed in armor from my head. After that they will go through a few revisions. Usually they get simplified a bit, I try to make them a bit more iconic, and easier to draw repeatedly of course.

In AntiBunny http://antibunny.net/ this resulted in some of the earlier character designs being a tad inconsistent, for instance a character in a T-Shirt interacting with a character in a long winter coat.

Since then I've been trying to come up with more consistent seasonal outfit designs. With Book 2 I think I've gotten a lot more consistent with the outfits all making it very clear that it's summer.

So short version is that it starts out with them forming organically from loose ideas, then getting refined and redesigned over time. Not exactly the most scientific approach I know.

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

For new major characters in Phantomarine (http://www.phantomarine.com/) I usually try to design a character and draw them at least 5 times before I have them show up in the comic. Their initial design usually pops into my head pretty quickly, but I do a bunch of test drawings to A) see what looks best and B) isolate things that might be difficult to replicate, and simplify them as much as I can. For new minor characters, my process is way more haphazard - and I’ll admit I fall back on a lot of similar face and body shapes when designing incidental crowd characters or random one-line characters.

But the area I’ve had the most fun jumping into - and didn’t expect to even try out - was costume design. I imagined my characters staying in their main outfits for the entire story, but was encouraged to design wardrobes for each, just as a fun exercise at first. And now, I see outfit-swaps as ways to get out of drawing ruts - and it’s more fun for the readers, too! Makes total sense that characters would switch clothes over a longer story, so when I started doing it, it was not only a “OF COURSE!” moment, but a huge relief in terms of being allowed to try new designs. I’m really looking forward to drawing my characters in all sorts of different ways now.(edited)

The Q - working on WAYFINDERS

THem color schemes though!

MJ Massey

I need to get better about this. I usually slap dash throw characters together, especially background characters, but based on their character traits, I have an idea of how I want them to look.

For my main characters, I start drawing them a couple times, mostly just doodles and then like a concept art or two to really get the hang of them, but I find that drawing them in the comic is what gets them under my fingers the best

Emily and Chester were the ones I designed first, as the two mains I wanted to make sure they would play off each other well. With Emily, the key thing was to make sure she wasn't too cute or attractive--she's supposed to be kind of plain looking and a little drab

Chester, in contrast, is soft and playful looking while Emily is more angular and sharp

Cronaj

For Whispers of the Past, my characters have gone through several redesigns over the years, as I spent time planning the comic, getting better at drawing, and discovering the deeper personalities of my characters. As it is my first comic, I wasn't very organized in my initial process. Since my art style is not very cartoony, I don't use the same stylistic cues to help the readers tell the characters apart, and instead, I rely on a lot of subtle features to tell them apart, such as Agatha's thick eyebrows and full lips:

Or Izrekiel's round under-eye, or his round face:

Some of these reference sheets are more complete than others, and some are older or newer depending on how much help I needed when adjusting each character's designs to my evolving style.

Desnik

I usually start with writing them before I totally know what they look like. Sometimes they wind up with props that I need to work into the design as the story gets rewritten.

Deo101 (Millennium)

For me I generally have a solid idea in my mind before I start drawing. I draw that idea, refine it a bit, and then I draw them about 10-100 more times, depending how much they'll show up. For background characters i pretty much design them right then and there, but for major and minor named characters, i need to get comfortable with them and really test how they react to things. I also will paint my main characters, because I find that forcing myself to fully realize what the character would look like realistically really helps me be more informed when I'm simplifying them later! I tend to focus pretty strongly on color, and tend to monochrome designs. There is also some research involved, where i make moodboards once i get the initial design down so I can refine things! A lot, i know.

#ctparchive #comics #webcomics #indie comics #comic chat #comic discussion #creator interview #comic creator interview #creator babble #comic tea party #ctp

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littlepurinsesu · 7 years ago

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Mystic Party

I previously made a post about the invitations, and in this post I’m going to literally go through everything I remember about the party while it’s still fresh in my mind! ;)

A bit of a warning that this will be one heck of a long and detailed post with lots of information and images and links! This post is also going to include a lot more of my personal experiences and feelings rather than the more neutral info dumping, because this event was so major and I’m treating this a bit like a “diary entry” for myself ^___^

I’ve used subheadings to organise everything so that you can skip what you don’t care about or just read the specific part you’re interested in. *If you only want to read about the Rika and Vanderwood Route, it’s in the “SPECIAL GUEST SUJIN RI” section!

But if you’re in for the whole experience, it’s gonna be a LONG ride. So buckle up and let’s go! ;)

ARRIVING

The party was held on 23rd August from 1pm to 4pm, on the 5th floor of a fancy place that’s usually reserved for wedding receptions and other formal occasions, so we were told to dress decently :) No need to go all-out and wear a formal gown or anything (though some people really did!), but you needed to be well-dressed xD Oh, and cosplays weren’t allowed!

Lining up to enter the banquet hall!

Once you get in, the staff members will verify your identity to make sure you’re the person registered (so strict!). They also ask you to draw a card with a character on it for the “game” and give you a bunch of forms/cards needed for later and an RFA paper bag with your gifts.

Lining up to have your identity verified and to collect all the prizes and information you’ll need. Hello there, V.

Each table has a character emoji, which is also the emoji printed on your seat number card. My card had Zen’s emoji (YASSS), and my seat was in the very front row and right at the edge.

Our table. (My seat is no. 16)

A good thing because I can see things clearly and eavesdrop on the hosts/staff members/cosplayers when they’re waiting to go onstage, but a bad thing because sometimes the official photographers and news journalists try to take pictures or film stuff and block my view >.<” (Yes, there were news journalists from actual TV broadcasting stations because the event was such a big deal! :O)

GAMES

The first 50 minutes were for people to arrive, settle, buy merch, and most importantly, do the little “game” thing they prepared.

Seat card with Zen’s sparkly emoji, form for if you want to buy merch, and the card that lists the rules of the game. (Forgot to take a close-up... >.<)

Basically there are five “official cosplayers” playing the RFA members. They’ll be on the stage, and you go to the character you drew at the beginning for a short “game”. If you pass/win the game, they’ll stamp your card, and you can then go and put your card into the box corresponding to your favourite character (not necessarily the one you played the game with). The boxes will be used for raffles later where they’ll draw out names for prizes or for people to go up onstage for more “intimate” character interactions.

People playing their game with the character they got.

If you win your game, you come and put your stamped card in one of these boxes!

The card I picked out was Jaehee’s. I won’t deny that I was a bit disappointed (I DO LOVE BAEHEE I JUST LOVE THE MEN MORE DON’T KILL ME PLEASE), but after reading the instruction card and going through the game, I’m kind of glad I got her xD All characters have different games (win at paper-scissors-rock against Jumin, correctly answer a random times table question from Seven, draw a card and hope your number is bigger than Zen’s, beat Yoosung at “seaweed paper-scissors-rock”, or correctly answer Jaehee’s question about a random RFA member’s eye colour). 707′s and Jaehee’s are the only ones that weren’t left up to chance and the questions were easy, so you’re pretty much guaranteed to pass. Also, the male characters were pretty... “touchy”? For the fanservice, if you get what I mean? Like they might put their hands on your waist or bend down and talk to you really “intimately” xD

There are a bunch of standees on the right side of the stage. You line up in front of the character you’ll be playing your game with, and when they’re done with a player, you’ll be called up for your turn.

You line up like this for your turn at the mini game (which I didn’t have to do ;D)

To be honest, the “interaction with the cosplayers” thing was the part I cared for the least before coming; these characters are 2D, and no matter how good the cosplayers are, I’d personally prefer to keep them 2D in my mind xD

But then the Jaehee cosplayer personally came down the stage and approached me to ask if I needed assistance! I have no idea why or how she was allowed to leave her post and come to me? Maybe because I looked very confused, since my Chinese isn’t SUPER GOOD and the staff member explained the game rules to me very quickly and concisely ^^;; And when Jaehee saw that my card had her emoji on it, she was like, “Oh, then you’ll be interacting with me!” and explained the rules of the game to me again more slowly. By then I was pretty much like, “Eh, may as well” xD I didn’t go up the “normal” way by lining up on the right in front of the standees, because Baehee was already with me, so she literally took my hand and walked back up on the stage with me from the left side ahahaha I’m special :P The cosplayer was really nice and had a “big sister” feel, so it really was kind of like how I imagined Jaehee to be ^^

This is only a small detail, but I found it quite interesting that the cosplayer didn’t touch me until I explicitly said “Okay” to the game/interaction. I guess maybe there really are people who are uncomfortable with doing lovey-dovey and touchy stuff with strangers (since the characters are just regular people cosplaying). I found it quite nice that they were careful to respect people’s boundaries and only proceeded to touch you in any way when you’ve explicitly said yes :)

The games take place on the stage, but everyone’s doing their own thing, so it’s not like anyone was watching. Anyway, after leading me onto the stage and her position/place, Jaehee asked me who my favourite character was. Obviously Saeran isn’t an option here, so I said 707. Then she goes, “Okay, I’m going to test you! Can you tell me the colour of 707′s eyes?” And I’m like “yellow” (man, is it gold or yellow), and since the 707 cosplayer wasn’t doing their game with someone at the time, Jaehee goes, “707, come here,” points to their eyes (coloured contacts LOL) and says, “Yes, yellow! Okay, you pass!” She then leads me to the side of the stage (we were meant to leave ourselves ajksfh;asj why is Jaehee so niceee) and tells a staff member that I passed so I get my card stamped.

Then you come to this box area, and after you’ve written your in-game name and phone number on the card, you’re asked to put it into the box corresponding to the character of your choice. I knew that putting it in 707′s box would be an unwise decision, since that box would be filled with cards and you’d get a lower chance of winning anything, but Zen, my next-favourite, is almost just as popular in Taiwan xD So I went ahead and shoved my card into the 707 box anyway ahaha :P (A decision I would later regret as I didn’t win a single thing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

The adorable emoji boxes! You put your stamped card into the box corresponding to your favourite character.

There were also a lot of small interactions between the cosplayers when they were idly waiting for their next player, and they were super in-character <3 Jumin brushed the huge paw-shaped cardboard sign he was holding against Zen’s hair and Zen literally flinched, patted down his hair, and turned around to glare at him xD Seven pulled at Yoosung’s suspenders and even stuck his head in to annoy and eavesdrop on Jumin when he was trying to have a serious conversation with Jaehee xD These cosplayers really know their characters well haha :D

FOOD

They also served food and drinks :) The highlight was obviously the original HONEY BUDDHA (TECHNICALLY “BUTTER”) CHIPS. I was pretty excited to finally try actual HBCs in real life, and I must say that the taste was... very oily and buttery? xD I mean, they are Honey Butter Chips, so I’m not sure what I was expecting, but the butter taste was a lot stronger than I thought it would be xD It’s nice, but I can’t imagine myself eating more than half a bag at once before I start feeling a bit gross/sick xD Seriously, how does Seven eat so much O___O

Finished my game with Baehee, and now settled with my juice and cake and Honey Buddha Chips.

OFFICIALLY STARTING

Waiting for the hosts to officially start the party!

The two hosts (more like MCs, but we all know that “MC” has a whole different meaning for MM fans, so I’m going to stick with “host” xD) are pretty popular among the Taiwanese MM fandom. They do weekly live streams/videos on the official Facebook page, where they talk about MM, upcoming events, joke around, and do raffles for MM merch. They’ve sort of become the unofficial “faces” of MM in Taiwan, and most of the Taiwanese MM fans (myself included) love them, so it was a real treat to see them in person! For this post, I’m going to call the female host “Cuby” and the male host “Fatty”, since that’s a direct translation of their Chinese nicknames (meaning “cube/square” and “fat”) and they’ve used these translations themselves at some point.

At 2pm, the lobby theme (“Mystic Chat”) finally stops playing and is replaced by Yoosung’s second theme, “Silly Smile Again”. Cuby goes onstage, talks a bit, and officially starts the party.

She then tells everyone that because this party is supposed to be “full of mysteries and surprises”, we should all check under our chairs! The chairs were covered in fancy silky fabric, so we had to dig under that. And SURPRISE! Each seat had a random sticker sheet stuck inside (the ones that come with the emoticon cushions), and it’s yours to keep! Cue intense screaming and fangirling throughout the whole room, to the point where the host had to put her mic down because she couldn’t talk over the screaming and she failed at getting us to calm down xD I got a 707 sticker sheet YASSSSS!!! (I could feel the envious stares of other people on my table hur hur nope not trading with any of you :P) And I just got the Ray stickers with my Ray emoticon cushion a few days ago ;___; Come with me, Saeyoung, I have your brother at home and I will reunite the two of you <3

The 707 stickers hidden under my chair!

After that, the opening video was played to signal the start of the party! I’ve watched that video countless times by now, but seeing it blasted through huge speakers and played on a giant screen gave me all the feels, and it was cute when Cuby cued everyone to sing along haha <3

The feelsssss ;___;

And when you think the next segment is officially starting, the lights dim again, the intro of the OP comes on once more, Cuby goes “Wth is going on?”, the big screen splits and opens, and Fatty enters with much fanfare, singing the Chinese version of the song xD

So much LOL (and yes, I will always snap a picture when Saeran shows up on the screen)

Cue everyone screaming and cheering for him (because this guy is so hilarious and therefore super popular). He even had a rose, which he threw to the girl sitting next to me. Guess I’m too close to the edge for him to bother reaching LOL

SPECIAL GUEST SUJIN RI (RIKA AND VANDERWOOD ROUTE INFO IN THIS SECTION)

They then played an exclusive video that featured all the VAs (minus Saeran, Rika, and Vanderwood), Han (the singer of the theme songs), some Cheritz staff members and Sujin Ri (founder of Cheritz and creator of Mystic Messenger) greeting and thanking Taiwanese fans. They’d teased that there would be a special guest coming to this party from Korea, and it was none other than Sujin Ri herself!!!

Sujin Ri in her adorable cherry dress <3

Sujin Ri is so cute! xD She spoke a bit of English, but most of her longer speeches and answers were in Korean, so she had a translator with her. The event planners had put together a list of questions that they knew everyone would be curious to know, and the hosts read out the questions one by one while Sujin Ri answered them onstage!

Q: “Why did you create this game? How did you come up with the script?” A: It was a long answer, but she basically said that she took a long break after her first two games and was wondering if she should continue. She then decided to make a mobile game, and wanted it to be more “relatable” for players, so came up with the idea of a messaging app! She also said something about how she really likes watching American shows and dramas, so a lot of her inspiration came from those. One of the hosts joked that American movies often have hackers, so maybe that’s why MM has a hacker (or two) :P

Q: Will there be a chance to release a Rika Route? A: She basically said something like (paraphrased), “The Taiwanese version hasn’t released V’s and Unknown’s stories yet, but they have been released in Korea [she didn’t say internationally, for some reason] and lots of Rika’s secrets were revealed. There will be more in the future, so please look forward to it.” The reactions were mixed, just like with the international fandom. Some people were frowning and shaking their heads, but there were definitely some people who cheered and clapped lol. Guess Rika is a controversial character in every country xD (Fatty revealed in the Facebook Live After Party that when he asked her, “Yes? Or no?” she replied, “Maybe!”) But yeah, her answer was vague and her words in no way confirm a Rika Route. But to me, just the fact that the party planners chose and put this question in the script seems to be a pretty clear indication that it’s probably going to happen...? Like, why tease something that isn’t going to be an actual thing? I dunno, maybe it’s just me reading too much into it and trying to be smart, so don’t quote me on an official confirmation for a Rika Route; I’m just relaying what I heard and sharing my own interpretation ^^;;

Q: Will there be a chance for the VAs to come to Taiwan? A: “Yes!” Short and sweet, so I take that as a sign that there might be more official MM events in Taiwan in the future! (My poor wallet...)

Q: Will there be plushie merchandise released in the future? A: Possibly! Again, not a direct confirmation, but just like with the Rika Route question, I take that as a pretty good sign that it might happen since they bothered to mention it! Dunno if it will be released internationally or be another Taiwan-only merch, though... (Either way, my wallet is crying again.)

Q: Please release LINE stickers with sound! A: “Good idea!” (in English!) Taiwanese people use the messaging app LINE a lot, and although there’s been two official MM sticker sets released, a lot of people have been wanting a version that has the characters’ voices (like how it is in the game).

Then they said there was time for ONE question from ONE fan in the audience, and a girl’s arm shot up so quickly that she was picked before I even had a chance to move my hand lmao xD But no worries, because it turns out that her question is exactly what I was going to ask! She takes the mic and speaks the holy words, “Will you consider making a Vanderwood Route?” CUE THE INSANE SCREAMS OF A BANQUET HALL-FULL OF THIRSTY MCS. INCLUDING ME. Seriously, the reaction was IMMEDIATE and the screams were RIDICULOUSLY LOUD. I hope the volume and intensity was enough to convince Sujin Ri that Vanderwood really is that popular and how much we really would love to have his route ;___; And her answer was basically (again, paraphrased), “Vanderwood wasn’t even meant to be an official character, but we ended up adding him into the game. I never expected him to get so popular, and since everyone loves him so much, I will take note of this and discuss with the company the possibility of making a route for him in the future.” NO OTHER WORDS NEEDED. EXCUSE ME WHILE I GO CRY TEARS OF JOY. THERE IS HOPE. And it’s even better because we now know for sure that the creator herself is the one who heard us and said those words ;___;

They then drew out some names for fans to go up and receive a gift and take a group photo with Sujin Ri. Two fans got a set of cards (game CGs) with the VAs’ autographs, and three fans got the official RFA badge set!

COSPLAYERS

So the official cosplayers had left the room after the games and were away during all this. After Sujin Ri left the stage and took her seat at her table, the hosts “officially” welcomed the cosplayers in for the first time!

(They’re just cosplayers and they’re actually all female, but for the purpose of this post, I’m just going to use the pronoun of the character they’re portraying and use the characters’ names as though they really are the character.)

They enter one by one with a rose and give it to a random fan. No chance for me because they entered through the aisle in the middle of the hall and I’m right at the edge at the front xD Jumin gave his rose normally, Jaehee didn’t give hers away (I’ll explain why later), Seven and Yoosung threw theirs to reach fans that were further back (still not far enough for me T_T), and Zen got down on his knee Zen-style and handed it to a lucky fan.

The RFA members (well, cosplayers) are formally introduced for the first time!

Once they’re all onstage, the members introduce themselves one by one (which was when I found out that they were all women as soon as they spoke xD) and answer some quick questions from the hosts. While it wasn’t top-notch acting or anything, the cosplayers were very much in character the whole time. The way they stood, their expressions, their manner of speech, their interactions with each other, everything was just like the character they were supposed to be, so props to them for that!

Jumin was asked why he didn’t bring Elizabeth the 3rd! Just as he was about to start talking, 707 cuts in and says, “Yeah, where’s Elly? Why didn’t you bring my Elly? She’s mine!” xD Jumin basically brushed him off (”She’s not yours!”) and said it’s because there’s a flu going around and he didn’t want her to get sick =^.^= The hosts kept jokingly begging him to please not purchase and merge their company with C&R xDDD Jumin also said that he’d like Zen to model for his cat food commercial, and the look on Zen’s face was priceless LOL xD (Zen said only if either the cat is put in plastic wrap or they just get a fake 3D cat instead xD)

Jaehee was asked why she still had her rose with her, and she said it’s because she wants to give it to Zen!!! It was super cute, and Yoosung and Seven were making love heart gestures behind them when she gave the rose to him xD But then Zen asked if he could give the rose to “one of the ladies down there” LOL WAY TO SHATTER BAEHEE’S HEART ZEN YOU AKSDJFHA;SKJ XDDD

Zen asking to give Jaehee’s rose to a fan. ZEN WHY XD

They chose a Jaehee fan from the crowd (a middle-aged man!!!) and Jaehee and Zen handed the rose to him together, which was really cute :) Jaehee also complained about her boss’ cat’s fur getting everywhere, that she was still using tape to get rid of them before coming in xD The hosts asked her if she realised her boss was standing right beside her, and she asked him for a raise. Jumin said, “For what you said just then, no.” xDDD They also asked her if she recommends any cafes. Jaehee said that while she enjoys Starbucks, the cafe she recommends is “The Who”, which is the one that has the MM collaboration going on right now lololol not-so-subtle advertising ;)

707 teased Fatty and said that he knows everything about him, and started listing his personal info, like his job, his height etc. But when he was about to reveal his weight, Fatty apologised for teasing and questioning “God Seven’s” abilities as a hacker and begged for forgiveness LOL xD

Yoosung was asked about his future plans, like whether or not he was planning to continue working for Jumin’s company. Yoosung said that rather than a career, he’s more interested in being a good husband ;) He wants to find a kind and pretty wife and have three kids, and even revealed the names he wants to give them xD (They’re all to do with stars, since Yoosung’s name means “Shooting Star” ^^) Such a cutie, and very Yoosung-like <3

Zen was last, and they asked him what he thought about Jumin LOL xD He admitted that he used to hate him, but now he thinks he’s actually a pretty nice guy ^^ The hosts then asked the two to “hug and make up” OMG. Cue the fangirl screams xD I feel like they know about the JuZen ship and are fueling it a bit xD Jumin walked towards Zen with his arms out, and Zen reluctantly went in for the hug xD They literally twirled around on the spot, with Zen keeping his hands OFF Jumin’s back despite having his arms around him, and the hug ended when Seven tried to put their heads together and make them kiss LOLLL. Seven and Yoosung were cheering and making love heart gestures (THEY SHIP IT), while Jaehee was filming it on her phone xD

JuZen huggles!!! (featuring shippy YooSeven and fangirl Jaehee)

After that, they basically had all the characters draw cards from those five emoji boxes, and the people chosen would go up onstage and draw a random ball with a number on it. Each number comes with some cheesy/romantic interaction (e.g. a romantic dance, holding hands and gazing into each other’s eyes for 10 seconds, a hug and a pat on the head, being fed Pocky etc.), and the player would then do this with their character while everyone watches in envy. I won’t upload any photos of these moments to respect the privacy of the fans, but I will and have cropped out YooSeven in the background mirroring the romantic moments with each other! It’s like they’re all aware of the fandom’s main ships and are fueling them xD

YooSeven dances and snuggles!!!

One of Seven’s fans picked out “being fed Pocky”, but being God Seven, he immediately said, “I don’t want any of that! *signals a staff member* Could you bring that over for me? The one I brought myself!” What else could he be talking about xD

707 awkwardly struggling to open a Honey Buddha Chip bag onstage xD

They also get to take a polaroid pic with the cosplayer at the end. And since Fatty is known to be really generous and is always “adding more” to raffles and games, he allowed like at least another 10 or so fans to be drawn for a polaroid with a character of their choice :)

And Jaehee herself also asked if she could have a polaroid with Zen! xD

Zen and Jaehee posing for a polaroid, featuring an unamused Jumin.

By the way, Cuby is a HUGE Jumin fangirl and she got a turn with the Jumin, too! xD

"Ju-Jumin... I... I’m willing to raise Elizabeth the 3rd with you—KYAAAAHHH~~~” (That’s exactly what she said ;D)

They then got Sujin Ri to come onstage again and draw more lucky winners who’ll receive the card set with the VAs’ autographs. Fatty also drew a bunch of people to win a Taiwan-exclusive cushion (or the space cushion for 707 because they ran out of his Taiwan cushions). Amazing that there were so many things drawn at random and I didn’t manage to get a single one LOLLL XD

I managed to snap a picture of the cosplayers as they were leaving the stage for a break. They literally walked right by me (because of the convenient position of my seat), and Jumin and Yoosung even waved and posed xD

CHARITY AUCTION

It was later revealed that a part of the money they raised for this party would be donated to an official animal protection association in Taiwan, just like how the RFA parties are for a good cause ^^ They even played a video about the association we were donating to (lots of sad and abandoned puppies ;___;) complete with “I Miss Happy Rika” as background music.

Additionally, they bring on three extra standees for auction, and all the money from the auction would be donated to charity, too! I love MM but I don’t want a standee LOL so I just sat back and watched xD They only had Yoosung, Jumin, and Zen, and I got a picture of the prices they were each sold for (all in NTD):

I’m still shook that the Zen standee was able to sell for NT$9900!!!!! That’s like... *throws it into Google to convert* $322-ish USD!!!!! Insane but also very impressive! :D (Wonder how much a 707 standee could have gone for if they offered one haha)

Sujin Ri was so happy, and said that they would be sending them some kind of official donator’s badge from Korea for contributing to a good cause <3 The host even said that it’s amazing and really beautiful how a simple mobile game can grow to the point where so many people come together and do things to make the world a better place ^^ <333

ENDING

After the auctions, the party came to an end ;___; They played “Like the Sun in the Sky” as the ED and listed all the people who helped to make the party happen. But then they said that “special thanks” go to the fans who attended, and literally typed out ALL of our names in the credits! <3 The hosts picked out random names to read, like “Thank you _____! Thank you _____!” including mine, so I guess that was the only thing I got picked for today LOL XD

Cuby reading out my name!

After that, they have an ending screen with the SNSplus and Cheritz logos, and when you think it’s all over, Fatty enters from the right of the screen (turns out to be a video) and tells us that they’re going to be releasing a big confetti ball to signify the end (one of those giant balls that explode and then confetti falls out).

A wild Fatty appears!

I was expecting a huge ball to explode in the middle of the hall or on the screen, but when the Fatty in the video says “GO!” instead we get “I just got your messages!” again. Turns out he TROLLED US, and instead, they played a self-made, absolutely hilarious and utterly stupid but amazing “music video” of Fatty himself singing the OP XDDD Needless to say, the entire room was a laughing MESS XDDDDD

(Not sure how interested the international fandom would be because Fatty really is more of a Taiwanese MM fandom favourite, but if you are, there will be a link at the end of this post with appropriate timestamps for anyone who would like to witness this... glorious mistake of a video xDDD)

They also ended the event by taking a big group photo together! I managed to get pretty close to the front because my seat was so close to the photo spot already xD

All hosts, cosplayers, important guests, and 150-ish attendees! (Credits to the official Taiwanese Mystic Messenger Facebook Page.)

PHOTO TIME

After that, they said that they would allow a few minuets for people to take pictures with cosplayers, with each other, of the venue, basically anything. But unlike almost everyone who immediately STAMPEDED to line up for the cosplayers (especially 707), I raced to look for Sujin Ri!!! There were quite a few other people going for her, too, and she was taking photos with fans and signing people’s merch and stuff. I was able to speak to her in English, and simply asked, “Can I please take a photo with you?” She was super nice, and so was her translator, who ended up taking all the pictures for everyone who lined up xD Before I left, she told me, “Thank you for playing!” Ahhh she’s so cute <333

Major fangirling!!! (Yes, that is me in the white dress. I have officially revealed my face >_<)

I then went and selfie-d with the two hosts (because why not? :D), and then selfie-d with the standees for a second time. Yes, I am literally more interested in standees than cosplayers... To me, the standees were more “like” the characters? They’re 2D anyway, so I prefer to keep them that way rather than pretending that a person who isn’t them, is xD

And even after I was done with the standees there was still time. On my way back to my seat to clean up my belongings, I literally JUST SO HAPPENED to walk past the place that was the end of 707′s line. At this point, I kinda thought to myself, “I already paid for this party and I’m literally already standing in the queue, so may as well.” xDDD I did end up taking a selfie with the 707 cosplayer! I even decided to just go with it and asked him for a hug, too, and he told me to be careful on my way home :) Two possible responses: “Awww what a nice cosplayer she is ^^” and “OMGGGG I TOOK A SELFIE WITH SEVEN AND HUGGED HIM AND HE TOLD ME TO BE CAREFUL ASD;KFJAHS;KJDA” May as well fully immerse myself in the experience and choose the latter ahahaha :P

After that, you were free to leave or make any final purchases at the merchandise section. The merch didn’t really appeal to me, so I only took pictures.

Cup holders and washi tape! They’re cute, but not really things I need or particularly want. I’m happy with just my Ray emoticon cushion and rubber keychain for now ^^

The RFA members are also standing at the exit and seeing everyone off!

Jumin even helped the fan who bid for his standee to bring it out of the hall. What a gentleman <3

Jumin waved goodbye to me as I was leaving, and 707 waved back when I turned for one last look ^^

GIFTS

I only really opened the paper bag once I got home, and inside were the gifts they promised!

The bag is huge!

You get a random big cookie with an RFA member’s face on it! I got a Jumin, and I would like to ask how anyone thinks I will be okay with eating this ;___;

My Juju cookie <3 You will eventually end up in my tummy ;~;

You also get a poster set that’s limited to this party only (there is no other way to get them)! I thought we would be getting one poster with all the characters, but no, they gave us five posters, one character each, separately :O

This is basically all the stuff I came home with haha <3

Overall, was it worth it? Yes, I think so ^^

The ticket was pretty expensive and the purchasing process was crazy and stressful, but I think it was worth the money and effort spent. The party was a lot more grand and fancy than I expected, and you could tell that they really did put a lot of effort into making it a really extravagant event. I did not come in expecting to meet Sujin Ri, and revealing that a lot of the money would be going to charity also made the party so much more meaningful <3 (I’m sure the RFA would be proud ;D) Of course, the experience would probably have been more unforgettable and rewarding if I had actually gotten drawn for just ONE of the many lucky draws they had LOL but I still had a great time and I’m just thankful that I got to attend such a fun and wonderful event <333

Not sure if they’ll be holding another one of these parties in other cities in Taiwan (or maybe in Hong Kong and Macau), but I’m pretty sure that this isn’t the last of these MM Taiwan events xD I hope my wallet can take it :P

Here is the official compilation video with footage from the party (featuring my embarrassing self being filmed selfie-ing with a 707 standee OH GOD WHY.) The caption on the video post also has a link to a Google Drive where you can look at some clearer photos taken by their staff members!

And here’s the “Mystic After Party” live video hosted by Cuby and Fatty. (Go to 2:20 [as in 2:20 REMAINING of the video, so about 40:35 minutes in] if you’re interested in watching Fatty’s music video xD Please imagine this video coming on with the shook-ness of a troll surprise when you’re expecting a confetti ball to pop out instead >.>)

If you’re still reading, I APPLAUD YOU :O LET’S BE FRIENDS! No, seriously, thank you for taking interest and reading until the end; I am so sorry that it’s so insanely long ^^;;

All posts on Mystic Messenger events in Taiwan can be found under my #mmtaiwan tag!

Check out my Saeran x MC fic: Waiting for Spring And my Choi Brothers fic: Of Roses and Resets

*All photos belong to me unless otherwise stated. Please do not repost without my permission!

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gambithq · 6 years ago

Photo

PORT DALGREN

Not quite the bustling metropolis that it once was, Port Dalgren is considered one of the most dangerous ports in Haelion, even though it lies along the calmest portions of the Rift. With a strong presence of black market activity, frequent pirate raids, and political unrest derived from an overly-complicated government that can’t seem to gain nearly as much influence as any of the many underworld rulers of the city, most respectable people have moved out of Dalgren in the past two decades, leaving it a haunted kind of place: homes standing empty and dilapidated, taverns filled only with the most unsavory of folk, and a tense uneasiness permeating the air no matter where you go.

Taxes on ships coming into and out of the city are high, citing the fact that geographically it is the safest port to dock in along with its proximity to Lodorwind, meaning that most imports to Dalgren are either rare items shipped by people unwilling to take the risk of docking anywhere less safe, or highly valuable items shipped by the überwealthy, willing and able to pay the extraneous docking tax.

Those sailors who are not pirates are often looking for further work around the town, a way to get themselves out of Dalgren once they’ve gotten in. Taverns are filled with the rumors and mutterings of the criminal underworld, making Dalgren an excellent place for those with criminal sensibilities to find short-term, well-paid work, and a haven for mercenaries, pickpockets, extortionists, and other kinds of thieves.

By day, Dalgren is filled with the sounds of ships docking, sailors arguing, and cargo being moved from ship to dock to ship again, but by night, the city comes alive, establishments lighting up with arcane electricity and magic seeping through the air as pirates and black marketeers test out their new goods.

THE SHIMMER

The Shimmer is the faction of Haelion’s black market known for dealing in powerful and often illegal magical artifacts. They are generally considered the most dangerous faction of the black market due to the fact that most high-ranking members of the Shimmer are accomplished mages. And Port Dalgren is widely considered to be their home base on Haelion: through illegal taxes and extortion, they control the flow of exotic magical goods in and out of the city from other ports and from northern Lolander, taking the best of the best for themselves and storing it in well-guarded warehouses around the city.

The Shimmer is dangerous because of its employment of advanced mages of all kinds, utilizing the value of magical talent in seeking out its leaders, guards, and runners. Its leader, Arshan Minah, is known to be a powerful and ruthless warlock, and has been known to show her face in Dalgren before; she believes that magic belongs to the common people rather than to the elite who can afford academies like the one at Lodorwind, and plans to horde and then distribute powerful magical artifacts to the common people -- likely, at an extortionate rate that will keep her in comfort the rest of her days.

OUT OF CHARACTER

From fellow travelers at a small inn a few days past Farthorpe, the Gambit overheard rumor of a stash of powerful magical items being moved through nearby Port Dalgren by one of the most powerful factions of Haelion’s black market, the Shimmer. Though Port Dalgren is a slightly southward detour from their intended path towards Lodorwind, they decided to look into it and see what they could find.

One new characters will be joining the party while the Gambit is stopped in Port Dalgren -- the Assassin, Zan Myrdo (played by Christine). Please welcome them, create bonds with them, and have your characters meet up with them during or outside of the heist.

Missions for the heist itself, as well as other missions in and around Port Dalgren can also be found below the cut. To claim a mission, please message the main and include the name of the character with whom you’ll be taking the mission. Port Dalgren missions should, to the best of your ability, wrap up around the 22nd of March, and heist threads should take priority over external missions, as they are all interconnected.

HEIST MISSIONS

The Gambit gathered intel from local rumors, taverns, and Nightjar and Ophelia’s stakeout of the area, and sat down to divvy up jobs and make a formal plan to get in, get the artifacts, and get out. the jobs needed to pull off the job without a hitch are below:

1. DISTRACT THE GUARDS. a small group of hired guards stands watch outside the warehouse, patrolling from point to point every half hour. distracting one guard and pulling them away from their post will give the others the half-hour window they need to disable traps, enter the warehouse, and get out, but that guard will need to be distracted and pulled from their post for the entirety of the half-hour window. ZAN & SYLVAR

2. DISABLE TRAPS. the warehouse is rigged with magical alarms of various kinds, most of them impossible to disable without seriously advanced magic, but managing to take down the alarm spell that surrounds the area and the glyph of warding on the back door will allow some of the party to get through the back door once it has been unlocked from the inside. after that, whatever other damage can be done to their alarm system to distract and confuse the Shimmer will help keep extra guards at bay for long enough to get in and get out. OPEN

3. GET INTO THE WAREHOUSE. the most direct path into the warehouse without bypassing any advanced locks or tripping any advanced traps is through the sewers -- once in, two people should be enough to unlock a back door from the inside, letting the rest of the Gambit through and into the warehouse to tackle the inside guard and get the artifacts. but beware: the sewers in the warehouse district of Port Dalgren are rumored to be full of monsters. NIGHTJAR & BREN

4. RAID THE VAULT. no one knows how the vault inside the warehouse is secured, so you’ll have to figure out how to get into the vault itself once your compatriots have gotten you inside. then, once you’ve made it into the vault, all that’s left is to steal as many of the magic items inside as you can manage and get out undetected. OPEN

OTHER MISSIONS

1. ASSESS THE ASSETS. The trouble with magical artifacts is that it can be difficult to tell -- particularly with the complicated ones -- what they do, and how dangerous they might be. Deep within the abandoned old suburbs of Dalgren lives a powerful wizard who specializes in safely assessing the magical capabilities of any item; someone will need to take the artifacts stolen from the Shimmer to them and have them evaluated -- and maybe do your best to sell off a few of the less-useful ones for extra tal as well. ( REWARD: up to 150 tal ) OPHELIA & JUNIPER

2. A TAVERN BRAWL. At the Crooked Cane Inn, rumor has it, a man has sat for well over five years, every night, insisting that whoever can beat him in a fight will be granted a powerful magical ability in return. What is the ability? No one knows. How strong a fighter is the man? No one can truly say. But one thing is for certain: the Crooked Cane’s patrons are always hoping for someone to take him up on his offer, and willing to gamble a fair amount of tal to see who will win. ( REWARD: 40 tal and a surprise reward ) OPEN

3. REDBEARD’S REVENGE. The infamous and terrifying pirate, Captain Redbeard of the pirate ship The Cruel Return is seeking vengeance on who he claims to be a “corrupt government official.” Though he won’t provide any more details, he is willing to provide a hefty reward for anyone willing to break in to the official’s manor and pin his flag to their sheets while they sleep to give them a scare in the night. ( REWARD: 60 tal ) ZAN & OPHELIA

4. THE POTIONEER’S ERRANDS. A renowned potion-maker known only as The Maestro is looking for someone to fetch him a few rare ingredients from various shops around town. As a master potion-maker he is working on some experimental potions, and has promised to make a potion that can do anything in the world for whoever is willing to fetch the ingredients. What’s the catch? Well, the ingredients he needs aren’t exactly the sort that can be bought -- each one must be stolen, swindled, or taken from unsuspecting people. ( REWARD: 60 tal or one potion of choice ) OPEN

5. A GOLIATH’S LOVE. Paavos Kanéth, the bouncer at the Gryphon’s Head Tavern near the docks, needs someone to deliver a letter to his lover, a pirate named Jack Fox who is supposed to be staying somewhere near the docks for the night. The problem is: no one has been able to find Jack Fox anywhere, and the Goliath bouncer has sworn vengeance on anyone who fails to deliver the letter for him. ( REWARD: 40 tal ) PHOENIX & ZAN

SHOP INVENTORY

if you would like to purchase any gear or supplies from the shops in Port Dalgren, message the main. as a port city, Port Dalgren is known for its access to exotic goods from the islands and Lolander, especially arcane components that are brought in to be taken north to Lodorwind. the following items are available (estimated prices listed):

rare herbs, spell components, or potion ingredients ( 20-75 tal )

cloak of silent stars ( 70 tal )

echo bottle ( 65 tal )

immovable rod ( 48 tal )

bloodweed ( 30 tal a vial)

serpent’s tears poison ( 40 tal a vial )

antitoxin ( 15 tal a vial )

spellbook ( 75 tal )

enchanted amulet or ring ( 45-150 tal )

#loc #dalgren

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lorirwritesfanfic · 7 years ago

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Random facts about old fics of mine

What a great tag! Thank you @kennaxval for including me in it 😊

I got a little wordy here hehe sorry, so I did a new post. You all should check the original one.

This blog was meant to be TRR MC's diary. The first chapters of To Know You series were written in 1st person, But when I started to work on Liam's POV and after reading many fics in 3rd person, somehow the idea of a diary got lost.

The first thing I did after a few days writing was a character sheet for Jade. I did the Enneagram Type test for her, it said she has the Enthusiast personality and under a lot of pressure, people with this type of personality develops eating disorders. I didn't plan to give her a mental illness, but I thought MC's behavior during TRR book 2 was a little unrealistic. I wanted her to have flaws and still manage to be great. So when I read Lady Di's bio, the eating disorder headcanons came up. I began to do some digging on my college textbooks, watched some videos, included some of my personal experiences with stress eating and that was it.

I love Liam but I don't like his stoic self. Because he seemed so at ease with MC telling her stories about his childhood, I thought about making him a little less formal when he's around Jade. So, in my stories, he makes jokes, he teases Jade and the outdoor kink is the most vanilla of his fetishes (lmao). He's a bit more overprotective too, and sometimes I made him cross lines I'm pretty sure canon Liam wouldn't.

I thought Hayden was way too perfect when I first played Perfect Match. But when MC found out he was a robot, it changed everything. I love AI fiction and the way Hayden goes from just another robot to a man discovering his abilities and himself and building a personality of his own was brilliant. I couldn't help but fall in love with him. And in my first PM fic, he jokes about the idea of being a perfect boyfriend and brags about the perks of being an android.

I didn't like Drake much in the beginning. But when @writtenbycandy became my beta reader, she used to ask me things like "what about Drake? Does Jade like him? How would he feel seeing Liam with Jade like that?" So I had this headcanon where he would offer to run away with MC and she would reject it and I thought about a way of giving him time to lick his wounds and get over her. That's how The Five Stages was born. Now that I write about him, I love Drake dearly, but my TRR MC's heart will always belong to Liam. Sorry, Drake 😢

I planned to write more about Leo, making a TRR x RoE crossover, but I had a terrible time with creative hibernation aka writer’s block and unfortunately his appearances were delayed for months, but I swear I'm working on it 😅

My Bloodbound fics weren't supposed to include Adrian as an LI. I'm not a huge fan of the whole ex-wives conversations with MC followed by sex scenes, but when I played a scene where he says he was friends with David Bowie, he won a place in my heart and my BB love triangle series came to life. What can I say? I love men with good music taste.

I'm in love with Desire and Decorum but I'm really insecure about my writing, especially because English isn't my native language. So when I wrote Heaven Sent Company for @choicesprompts , I thought it’d be easier to make it a modern AU. By the way, the prompt I chose was supposed to be an introduction to a TRR AU I have outlined since July, but Prince Hamid stole my heart and I think he deserves more fics, love and appreciation.

Tagging: @thequeenchoices @walkerisbae @barbaravalentino @hopefulmoonobject @littleblossom-18 @annekebbphotography

#random facts about old fics of mine #choices fanfiction

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spicynbachili1 · 7 years ago

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Overwatch Ashe Bob playable now on PTR

Overwatch‘s newest hero – Bandit boss Ashe – is now playable on the Public Take a look at Area. Whereas comparable in look to present cowboy McCree, Ashe seems to be to play a really completely different form of mid-range sport, and has some of the attention-grabbing final skills in Overwatch; she will be able to summon her right-hand robotic Bob onto the sphere. He gives cowl, fees at targets Reinhardt-style, or simply acts as an additional teammate for capturing or contesting targets. Being a gang chief means that you may let your underlings do the heavy lifting for you. Beneath, her official introduction video.

Ashe’s most important weapon is a lever-action rifle that may be fired semi-auto from the hip, or slower whereas aiming down the sights. Someway, aimed pictures additionally do extra harm, which isn’t fairly how weapons work however no matter – it’s additionally the cartoon space-future the place gorilla scientists are buddies with cockney time travellers. Her first potential is the Coach Gun – an enormous dumb shotgun which knocks targets again with large recoil, letting you pseudo-rocket-jump with it. Principally the Scout’s Pressure-A-Nature from Staff Fortress 2, which is the very best dumb shotgun this facet of Doom 2. I approve.

Her secondary potential is throwing dynamite. It’s a robust grenade kind assault which causes a little bit harm over time as properly (I suppose dynamite is extra fiery than explodey sooner or later), and will be detonated early by capturing it. Ideally when it’s in mid air for optimum fashion. Her final is summoning Bob. Or B.O.B, formally. Blizzard have hinted that it stands for ‘Large Omnic Butler’, however one significantly thirsty commenter on the character profile web page says that it ought to imply “Battery Operated Boytoy”. Yikes.

Bob is an enormous ol’ slab of beefy mustachioed metallic. Whereas not the quickest or smartest, he has a much more tangible presence than most final skills. He can cost the place directed, knocking targets round and solely stopping when some map geometry forces him to. As soon as stopped, he’ll begin plugging away at targets along with his arm-cannons. In all probability Bob’s most attention-grabbing trait is that he counts as a teammate for all goal functions, so you’ll be able to have him stand on an goal level when you cowl him along with your rifle. Possibly not as artistic as Wrecking Ball, however nonetheless a enjoyable twist.

If you happen to’re hankerin’ to affix Ashe’s Impasse gang, simply hearth up Battle.internet, flip over to your Overwatch web page and decide the Public Take a look at Area from the Area/Account drop-down menu. Blissful trails. And if you need a little bit extra data on her earlier than saddling up, test our her rap sheet on the official web page right here.

from SpicyNBAChili.com http://spicymoviechili.spicynbachili.com/overwatch-ashe-bob-playable-now-on-ptr/

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sassycassie-s-writing · 8 years ago

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The History Teacher

By: SassyShoulderAngel319

Fandom/Character(s): BBC’s Merlin/Merlin

Rating: PG

Original Idea: ??? It just kind of came to me.

Notes: (Masterlist)(About Me) Oh boy this is a long one, clocking in at about 2,700 words. As everyone knows I never post a word count unless it’s significantly longer than usual. ENJOY! XD

^^^^^

“Hey,” Mr. Emrys greeted tiredly, collapsing into the chair opposite me in the teachers’ lounge. “You alright?” I took a deep breath through my nose and sighed before taking a drink of water from my bottle as I puzzled how to answer.

“Yeah I’m okay. How about you?” I replied.

Mr. Emrys sighed too. “I’m alright I suppose. It’s just… no one cares about history. My students don’t listen to me. But to me history is the most important thing that matters.”

I reached across the table and patted his arm. “I know the feeling. They don’t care about English either.”

“But your students always get such high marks! How do you get them to listen?”

“I have to find a way to make it matter to them. I have to make sure they’re interested in what I’m trying to teach. I let them choose the topics they’re interested in and then we find literature that applies and also follows curriculum. I have them write their own stories in order to foster creativity and teach them more than how to pass the test. You have to make history matter to your students. Make them realise that it was every part of history that led them to this very moment and they owe history their existence,” I explained. Mr. Emrys stared at me for several seconds.

“Do you want to take over my classes?”

I laughed. “Nah. English is where I belong. Thanks for the offer though, Mr. Emrys.”

“Call me Merlin, please. We’ve worked together for years. No need to be formal.”

I raised one eyebrow but smiled. “Okay Merlin.”

The bell rang. Merlin and I sighed in unison and reluctantly stood up. As I moved to put my book back in my bag, my dark-haired coworker grabbed my wrist loosely. “Hey, so my flatmate and I are making homemade pizza tonight and we accidentally bought enough ingredients to feed three people instead of two. Would you care to join us?” Merlin asked.

I was a bit surprised. “S-sure!” I answered. “How about I bring dessert?”

He gave me his dorkiest grin—how could his students not want to pay attention to that adorable face?—and handed me a slip of paper with an address on it. “That sounds great! I’ll see you around six?”

“Six. Sounds like a plan!”

^^^^^

At six PM, I rolled up to the building that corresponded to the address I’d been given and went up the stairs till I reached the fourth floor. I knocked on the door—4C—and waited, catching my breath. I hated stairs. I should have taken the lift. My heart rate was stupidly high and my breathing too shallow for someone as young as I was.

After a moment, the door opened to a man I’d never met with blond hair and bright blue eyes. He had broad muscular shoulders and a rounder face than Merlin’s. His skin was tanner than Merlin’s too but his cheekbones and nose were red like he’d recently pulled his face out of a jet of steam. “Ah! Hello! You must be Merlin’s lady teacher friend! He told me you’d be joining us. I’m Arthur,” he introduced himself with a smile.

“Nice to meet you, Arthur,” I commented, giving my name in return and putting my hand out to shake.

Instead of taking my hand, he gripped my forearm and slightly jiggled it. I blinked, nonplussed, and cleared my throat.

Thankfully, I was saved by Merlin coming to the door as well. “You made it! Here, let me take that from you…” He took the special “cheesecake” and bag of toppings from my arm and retreated back into the kitchen to put it in the fridge. It wasn’t really a cheesecake, per se. My mum always made it when I was growing up—cream cheese, Cool Whip, and sugar mixed together and then poured into a graham cracker pie crust. Could be topped with caramel, chocolate syrup, strawberry jam, blueberries, cherries, anything really. I always made it as a dessert because it was easily customizable for any mouth.

“So, Merlin tells me you teach English,” Arthur remarked as we followed Merlin into the kitchen.

I nodded. “I do.”

“Do you enjoy it?”

“Yeah. When my students are interested and developing their own creativity and I get to see them grow as people… it’s a very rewarding feeling. I also teach a creative writing course for those who really enjoy writing,” I rambled. “Anyway. How can I help, Merlin?”

“You can roll out the dough for the three personal pizzas while Arthur opens the jar of sauce and I get out the rest of the toppings,” Merlin instructed.

I almost did exactly as instructed—I had to ask Merlin where the flour was first. “Can’t have the rolling pin getting stuck, now, can we?” I asked cheekily. Merlin laughed and Arthur chuckled quietly. Merlin handed me the container of flour. I lightly floured the rolling pin—and recoiled as Merlin sprinkled some of it playfully on the top of my head. “Oi!” I protested.

There was flour all over my hand—so I flicked some at him. It spackled his navy blue shirt with powdery snow. Merlin’s jaw dropped in indignation but amusement as I brushed the flour out of my hair.

“Hey,” Arthur warned, putting the jar of pizza sauce down on the counter and standing between me and my coworker. “We are not getting flour all over the floor!”

I couldn’t help but smirk a little, sorely tempted to flick some flour at him.

But Merlin killed the playful feeling. “Yes, Your Highness,” he replied. There was a level of sarcasm in his tone, but he was also being serious. I raised one eyebrow in surprise. Whenever I called someone “Your Highness” I was always being a completely sarcastic and impertinent girl. I’d never heard anyone call another person “Your Highness” seriously except in movies and shows that took place centuries ago.

Instead of dwelling on how bizarre that was, I went back to rolling out the dough for the pizzas.

Once Arthur popped the jar of sauce open, he handed out three spoons and we started to make our dinner. Merlin and I got ours together fairly quickly—I didn’t like toppings and Merlin only wanted pepperoni on his—but Arthur was struggling a bit.

Not only did he want to put on as many toppings as the not-particularly-wide surface area would allow, but he couldn’t quite get the sauce to spread out evenly.

Laughing, I took the spoon from his hand and slowly showed him how before passing it back. “Is this your first time making pizza at home?” I asked curiously. His cheekbones went red again and he turned away from me to finish the sauce.

“Yeah,” he admitted quietly.

I shrugged. “That’s fine. Don’t feel embarrassed. There’s always a first time for everything.”

He shot me a confused look that I pretended not to notice as I put my pizza and Merlin’s on a cookie sheet before sliding them into the oven so they could bake while Arthur finished making his. Merlin pulled a couple of glasses from a cupboard and asked what everyone wanted to drink. Arthur wanted some kind of soda I didn’t recognize, Merlin some lemonade, and I opted just for water. Merlin took the drinks into the lounge where the dining table was while I watched the pizzas so they didn’t burn and Arthur sat on the counter, still looking a bit embarrassed.

“No one’s ever said that to me before,” he remarked while Merlin was out of the room.

“Excuse me?” I wondered, not quite hearing.

“No one’s ever said something was fine just because it was the first time I’d done it.”

“Why’s that, if I may ask?”

“People’s expectations for me have always been so high. They expect me to do everything right the first time even if I have no idea what I’m doing.”

“Mm. That’s a lot of unnecessary pressure. That’s remarkably unfair to you.”

“What’s unfair?” Merlin asked loudly, barging back into the kitchen to see me sitting on the floor in front of the oven and his flatmate sitting on the counter. Arthur glanced at me. I turned my attention back to the oven. If he wanted to tell Merlin, that was up to him, not me. I didn’t know the guy. I didn’t know what Merlin did and didn’t know about his inner thoughts and feelings.

I wasn’t entirely sure Arthur even meant to tell me any of that.

“Just how high everyone’s expectations of me were growing up,” he replied casually.

I peeked over my shoulder. The tips of his ears turned pink.

“Anyway,” I exclaimed, standing up, changing the subject. “How else can I help?”

Merlin glanced around the kitchen. “Why don’t you take these into the lounge and set them on the table? Just to add to the ambiance?” He passed me two tall green taper candles in silver holders. I took them from him and slowly made my way out of the kitchen.

The lounge was cute. There were a few vinyl records in frames on the walls, a framed photo of Arthur and Merlin in medieval costumes—Arthur in chainmail and Merlin in a blue linen shirt, red neckerchief, and brown jacket with a bit of a bowl cut hairstyle so it must have been at least before I met him—a bookshelf with ancient books in it, a sofa and TV, and the dining table. I couldn’t help but smile. It looked exactly as I expected a lounge owned by Merlin Emrys would look.

As I was returning to the kitchen, I stopped in the hallway to listen to Merlin and Arthur’s conversation.

“—tell you like her. You don’t have to lie,” Arthur was teasing.

“So what if I do?” Merlin retorted. “It doesn’t matter. We’re too different.”

“How so? Since the moment I opened the door all I’ve noticed is how similar you are.”

“We’re from very different times, Arthur.”

“She doesn’t know that,” Arthur remarked sarcastically.

“No, but I do. And I don’t want to lie to her,” Merlin pressed.

“You lie to everyone every day. So do I. Why are you suddenly developing a desire for truth?”

“Because I like her. And there’s a difference between simply not telling someone something and outright lying to their face.”

“Good point. But hey, she’s nice and sweet and wiser than you’ll ever be. I’d say you’re not good enough for her, but I don’t feel like lying to your face. If she’s kind enough to help me make a pizza and wise enough to explain why I shouldn’t be embarrassed about having trouble with it in the first place, then I approve of you asking her out properly later. She might be good for you.”

I decided if I eavesdropped on their conversation much longer they’d realise I should have returned by then and come looking for me. So I stepped back into the kitchen. “Who’s good for who?” I asked casually.

“No one,” Merlin answered quickly, pulling our pizzas out of the oven and sliding Arthur’s in.

“Candles are on the table but you didn’t give me anything to light them, sorry,” I offered.

“Don’t worry. I’ll light ‘em,” Merlin commented, leaving the kitchen while I resumed my post of watching the pizza so it wouldn’t burn. Arthur sat on the floor next to me.

“What are you doing?”

“Do you want to eat a burnt pizza? They’re not as good as a not-burnt one, I can assure you,” I retorted playfully. Arthur gave me a critical eye, but he was smiling. He leaned over and nudged me in the shoulder.

“You and Merlin would make such a cute couple,” he remarked.

I choked on my own saliva in my surprise. “Wh-what?” I stuttered.

“You. Merlin. Should date,” Arthur repeated.

I stood up from the floor and wandered out of the kitchen back towards the lounge.

Merlin was just leaving it—and rammed right into me. He grabbed my shoulders to keep either of us from falling over and laughed. “Whoops! Sorry about that. I was just lost in thought and I didn’t see you and—”

“Don’t worry about it. No harm done. Arthur’s pizza is almost finished so we can get ready to eat.”

Merlin went back to the kitchen while I leaned against the wall of the lounge, thinking about what Arthur said and what I’d overheard between him and Merlin. Would we really make a cute couple? Would it be too awkward to date a fellow teacher who worked at the same school? Did I even like Merlin Emrys that way?

Well, I knew the answer to that last one.

Yeah… I’d had a mild crush on Mr. Emrys since he started teaching at our school only a year after I’d begun myself. He had such a deep knowledge of and passion for history. He cared so much about everything that had happened. He cared for his students as though they were his own children. He had such a good heart and so much love to give. I’d seen it when the headmaster of the school came down with the flu and Merlin had brought the man a thermos of homemade soup. He’d done the same for me when I’d caught a cold—and his soup was amazing. When I’d asked why is was so good, he’d joked, “Centuries of practice.”

The men joined me in the hallway with the pizzas and we sat down in the lounge. Arthur insisted I sit closest to Merlin because, “I’ve been putting up with him for years. Someone else’s turn.”

I accepted his teasing with a smile and sat at the head of the table with Merlin on my right against the wall and Arthur on my left with his back to the hipster lounge. “So, what’s the story behind the photo on the mantel?” I asked Merlin.

Both men’s cheeks turned pink. “We went to this Renaissance Fair and I dressed up as a knight and Merlin dressed up as a… I’m not sure, actually,” Arthur answered instead of Merlin.

Merlin nodded in agreement.

We laughed and talked as we ate our pizzas with the green tapers casting soft light on our faces. I found that I really enjoyed being around the two of them. They seemed to know each other well and I could tell they valued each other’s opinions more than anything. There was an easy rapport between them that I actually found I could fit into. I clicked with their senses of humour and could make them laugh with jokes that most of my friends wouldn’t find funny.

I went into the kitchen and brought out the dessert. “How big of a slice do you want and what do you want on it?” I asked. I got my answers for sizes, cut them out of the pie/cheesecake, and handed them out with their requests for toppings. Arthur wanted to try blueberries, Merlin caramel sauce with cherries, and I went with just plain chocolate sauce.

I sat back down and took a bite of my dessert with a rapturous smile. The men both made yummy sounds so I knew they liked it.

“Thank you two for letting me come tonight. This has been a lot of fun.”

“It’s our pleasure,” Arthur commented.

“Yeah. It’s been nice to have someone here to buffer comments from that dollop-head,” Merlin agreed, nodding at Arthur—who narrowed his eyes. He probably would have thrown something at the taller black-haired teacher, but Merlin’s eyes flicked to me and nothing happened.

“Well it’s been nice to have someone else be the subject of his surly retorts,” Arthur commented, nodding at Merlin.

We all laughed.

At the end of the evening, I gave Merlin a hug and Arthur a proper handshake before taking my leftovers out to my car. “Wait!” Merlin called out, running out of the building. I turned to see him bent over trying to catch his breath for a moment. Once he caught it, he stood up straight. “I really enjoyed tonight. Maybe next week we could go out to dinner and go to the aquarium or something?”

“Like a date?”

“… Yeah.”

I smiled. “Okay. It’s a date!”

#The History Teacher #Merlin #Merlin Imagine #Merlin FanFiction #BBC Merlin #BBC Merlin Imagine #BBC Merlin FanFiction #BBC's Merlin #BBC's Merlin Imagine #BBC's Merlin FanFiction #Merlin BBC #Merlin BBC Imagine #Merlin BBC FanFiction #featuring #Arthur #Arthur Pendragon #King Arthur #King Arthur Pendragon

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fantastic-fandom-imagines · 8 years ago

Text

Deal (John Laurens x Reader x Thomas Jefferson)

Fandom: Hamilton

Characters: John Laurens, Thomas Jefferson

Warnings: angst, fluff (somewhat??), cheating,

Words: 2095

You are formally invited to…

You narrowed your eyes at the paper in your hands and quickly threw it on the table in a blind rage. You. Thomas had the nerve to invite you to his wedding? Why would you even want to go, honestly? He had mocked you, fooled you. You felt like a complete and utter dunce in his presence, and he did nothing but antagonize you for the entirety of your relationship. Your fists tightened at your side. You pivoted and crossed your arms, closing your eyes for a moment to try to collect yourself. And her, the girl that took him from you…well, that eventually won his heart. You had to suppose it wasn’t exactly her fault. He hadn’t been the most faithful person in the past; you had no idea why you had expected that to suddenly change for you.

You paced back and forth in your apartment, your mind practically exploding. You had nearly forgotten how excruciating thinking about him was. You’d practically forced Thomas out of your mind long ago, not long after your relationship had ended, to avoid hurting yourself like this. You couldn’t believe his nerve. He invited you to his wedding. It was every nightmare you had imagined. It was every tear you had shed after finding the two of them on your bed with their bodies entangled under the sheets. It was the nights you couldn’t sleep because your mind was plagued with what-ifs and drowning in regret. Perhaps if you hadn’t gone on that week long business trip, or maybe you shouldn’t have begged him to watch a movie with you. No, no. It was over. You couldn’t keep thinking like that, it wasn’t good for you.

Should you even go?

Maybe it would do you good to go? There was a possibility that it would give you the closure that you so desperately needed. You missed him.

It pained you to say it, but you missed him so. Fucking. Much.

It was then that you realized exactly what you needed to do. You clenched your fist and swallowed the lump that was slowly building in your throat. You were going to stop the wedding. You were going to tell Thomas exactly how you felt, and damn it, he was going to listen whether he wanted to or not.

The weeks passed – weeks spent pacing in your apartment, arms crossed, your heart pounding with anxiety. Weeks spent having daily breakdowns. Weeks that passed so slowly they felt like months instead. Weeks spent reassuring yourself on the matter, reminding yourself that you had to do it to let go. Finally, after what seemed like forever, the date of the wedding arrived. You put on the black dress you had purchased about a week beforehand and spent as long as you could on your makeup. Thomas was going to regret what he did to you. If your words didn’t shoot him through the chest, then your looks would.

“Done,” you breathed as you took a small step away from the bathroom mirror to look yourself over. You had done pretty well if you did say so yourself.

You grabbed your phone – which had previously been laying face-down on the sink – and gasped. You were running late. Way too late. The service would probably be halfway done by the time you got to the church!

In a panic, you grabbed your purse and flew out of your apartment. The church was only a few blocks away; if you ran, you might have gotten there on time. Thankful that you had chosen to wear flats, you raced down the street, swerving between the pedestrians and hollering out apologies each time you collided with one. When you arrived at the church, the service had already started. You mentally cursed yourself and stood anxiously behind the closed doors. The service had already begun. You could hear the preacher droning on and on about the importance of “true love” and the “commitment that would be made between the lovely couple”. It made you sick to your stomach.

You gently placed your hand on the door, ready to burst through and force Thomas to listen to you, and to warn his bride about his ways. But you couldn’t bring yourself to. Your hands shook with nerves, and butterflies seemed to swarm around in your stomach. Can I really do this? You wondered. I… I shouldn’t be here, I should just go home. Nothing I do will change anything… or will it?”

You drew in a sharp breath and gently shook your head. No. You didn’t come all this way for nothing, dammit. You didn’t spend the entire night pacing in your room, playing through different scenarios in your mind just to stand behind those doors and let your one chance at closure slip through your fingers. You had to. You had to go in there, just as you had been planning for months, and give that Thomas Jefferson a piece of your mind.

“Do you, Alison, take this man as your lawfully wedded…”

Shit, it was now or never. Ignoring your heart pounding in your chest, you drew in a deep breath and threw open the sanctuary doors with a loud thud. “Stop the wedding!” You shouted, desperately trying to avoid looking toward the crowd, who had turned toward you with shocked expressions. You could hear the gasps and whispers around you. You kept your gaze low, working up your courage. “I can’t believe you- you – you bastard! After everything I did for you… for us. This is how you repay me? Cheating on me, and then sending me an invite for your wedding!? Do you know what I’ve been through since receiving this damn invite? After all that time, I thought I was finally over you! I didn’t have nightmares anymore, I didn’t cry myself to sleep, wondering what I did wrong. I got back in touch with my friends, and I was happy. But no. Because you sent me that damn invite and everything came flooding back to me,” you felt the tears begin to form, and you struggled to hold them back. Finally, you looked up to the front of the sanctuary. “Why would you do that to me, Thom-“

Oh.

Oh no.

That wasn’t Thomas Jefferson.

Your eyes widened and your breath hitched. You had just burst into a stranger’s wedding and started yelling at them. Shit, shit, shit, shit. What the hell?

The room went completely silent, every occupant staring at you in disbelief. No one said a word to you. Your heart raced, and you suddenly felt like throwing up. “Oh my God,” you muttered softly to yourself, “what have I done? God, I shouldn’t have come, I shouldn’t have- I’m so… oh my God.”

You looked up toward the groom apologetically. He was around average height, skinny. From what you could see, his face was covered in freckles, and he had dark curly hair which was pulled up into a neat ponytail. He glanced nervously between you and his bride, taking note of his bride’s infuriated expression. Then, he noted your panic-stricken expression. After a couple of moments, he stepped forward with a sigh.

“I’m so sorry, Marie, I shouldn’t have done that to you. You’re right. I was totally out of place for sending you that invitation and I’m sorry but… it got you here, didn’t it? I’ve been thinking lately, especially since I’m getting married, and… I needed to apologize to you. You didn’t deserve that – coming home and finding me with another woman. I, uh… I missed you. Us. I miss us. Before I continue with this, I need to know how you feel. Do you feel the same?”

Hang, on, what? Was he… was he playing along with this?

You glanced nervously between the guests, their mouths practically hanging open as they witnessed the drama unfold. Then, you gazed toward the groom and you saw him make a small, nervous gesture for you to speak up.

That sly man.

He did want you to play along.

“I- I… I’d be lying if I said no, honestly, but why not just visit me and try to-“

The man stepped down, away from the alter. He started walking toward you, shaking his head with a sigh. “I couldn’t bring myself to. I almost did – a lot, actually. Numerous times. I’d walk up to your door, but just before I knocked, I panicked. Every. Single. Time. I just ran away.”

When the man got close enough, he placed his hands on your shoulder, and leaned forward. Then, he began to whisper.

“Listen,” he said quietly, “I uh… I really don’t want to go through with this wedding, and you showing up… you’re proof that miracles happen. Just… work with me here, please. My name is John – John Laurens.”

“John,” you gasped in shock, testing the name out for yourself. “You really feel that way?”

“I always have, Marie. What I did… it was a mistake that never should have happened. I was young, and I was unbelievably stupid. I’m so sorry. Please, give me another chance?”

You ignored the gasps from the guests, and the bride’s screech of “excuse me?” Instead, you focused on the man in front of you – John. He stared at you, his arms open, his eyes begging for your response.

“I… John, I don’t know. What you did, it hurt so bad. And your bride? How is she going to feel about this? I couldn’t imagine putting anyone through what I went through-“

John shook his head. “No, as much as I hate to admit it, she’ll be fine. Better off without me, actually.”

“John, I-“

“Do you love me?”

You paused for effect, before sighing and nodding your head. “With all my heart. You know I do, and I always have. But…”

John grabbed you around the waist and pulled you close, holding you tightly as if he had known you forever. Hesitantly, you returned the embrace. Your heart swelled, and you felt much more calm in his arms. How? You’d only just met him. Damn. He’s good.

“Run away with me.” He said quickly, “Just… come with me. We can start over, we can try again. We’ll know what could’ve happened if I hadn’t been such a selfish-“

“JOHN!?”

John quickly released you from the embrace and turned to see his bride storming toward him. “What the hell, John? I thought you loved me?! What the hell are you doing? This is our wedding!”

You took a step back, and John made sure to stay between the two of you. He walked toward the woman and wiped one of her stray tears before muttering an apology. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered, “but I can’t do this. I… I shouldn’t have asked you to do this, not when I wasn’t ready-“

SLAP! You cringed, hearing her hand collide with John’s cheek. Jesus, that had to hurt.

“Okay, okay, I deserved that-“

“Get out.” The woman glared at the two of you, “If you want to be together so badly, then get the hell out of my sight. I love you, John Laurens. I gave you my heart, and you threw it away. I can’t fucking believe you.”

Without another word, the woman took off her heels, picked up the bottom of her dress, and ran through the door – most likely to her dressing room. You felt your heart break for her, and had to stop yourself from going to her.

“Well, my love… let’s go.” John gave you a sympathetic smile, probably trying to keep himself from running to her aide as well. You shrugged. John gently grabbed your hand and led you out of the church and down the street. Once the two of you were outside, he dropped your hand and began to profusely thank you for barging into his wedding.

“I was hoping something would happen,” he smiled, “Thank you so much. I don’t know how to make it up to you. I thought I loved her, but for the past few weeks she’s been awful. She yelled at me for the smallest things – forgetting butter at the store, or taking more than a minute to respond to her texts. I don’t know. But I didn’t want to go through with that, and then you showed up and I knew I had the chance to-“

You shook your head. “John, stop rambling. Just… get lunch with me sometime. Then we’ll call it even.”

“Deal.”

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hurricanerin · 8 years ago

Text

I’m Slipping Under Ch. 5

Ch. 5 It’s In the Air

Summary: That one time Loki joined the Mile High Club. (Or became President of.)

Author: Hurricanerin

Character/Pairing: Loki/OFC

Genre: Straight up smut plus a little adventure

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Dubious Consent

---

It really, truly did enter her mind to put up more of a struggle, to perhaps test some self-defense maneuvers she’d seen on TV. But then the damn man had to go and grab her hips, dragging her closer to him until he could sufficiently grind his hardening bulge against her hot, wet core.

“The more you struggle, the harder I get,” he breathed into her ear, his hot breath puffing against her face.

---

Moving the next day was painful. Simply existing hurt. The King (more or less) had taken her twice more during the night.

At some point he’d left, and Annalise spent the remainder of the flight to curled in bed.

Honestly, she didn’t want to see him at all. She was too confused right now. What kind of asshole comes at the hands of a maniacal, self-appointed dictator? She did.

When he wasn’t awful, she kind of liked him. He just happened to be awful a lot.

A male cleared his voice from the doorway, causing her to throw the covers over her head in a panic. She so didn’t have energy to deal with him right now.

Maybe he’d believe her body turned into a surplus of lumpy pillows overnight.

She heard a faint, muffled voice, but when the sheets weren’t rudely ripped from her grasp she decided her intruder was most likely not the King. Cautiously she peaked from beneath her refuge, relieved to see the voice belonged to one of Loki’s agents. He neared the bed and offered her a bottle of water and extended an open palm.

“Er, these are for you, ma’am.”

Sleepily Anna fumbled for the Motrin capsules and twisted the cap off the bottle, swallowing the pills with a few mouthfuls of water.

“Thank you,” she mumbled tiredly.

The occasional hangover from nights out weren’t unfamiliar. Physical, full-body sex hangovers as a result from spending the night with a god were.

“His Majesty is requesting your presence.”

“I have no clothes. I’m not getting out of this bed.”

“Um,” the agent shifted awkwardly. “He said under no circumstances are you permitted to refuse.”

“Yeah, I bet he said that,” she muttered. “Fine. Whatever.”

When she climbed out of bed nude, she didn’t bother to tell the guard to turn around. Her modesty was shot. She dragged the sheet off the mattress and wound it around her middle. Pieces of her dress littered the floor. She shook her head. Kicking them away in irritation, she didn’t bother looking for her shoes because she was pretty sure they were still in Germany.

Literally she had no clothes. No bag, no phone. Nothing.

Out in the main area of the plane, the King was back on the satellite phone, issuing orders to someone somewhere. When he saw her, he turned, still holding the phone to his ear. His eyes roamed over her body appreciatively and she reflexively clutched her sheet tighter and glared. Ending the call, he handed the phone off to the agent and nodded dismissively. With a wave of his hand, produced a platter of steaming breakfast food on the table before them. Annalise was too hungry to bother with a mocking remark about his powers.

She poured herself a glass of orange juice and dug into an omelet.

Abruptly, Loki launched into conversation.

"Explain Midgardian marriage customs to me, I don’t understand this God. There is no one in Asgard with that name.”

Rubbing her temples, Annalise counted to ten. Why were they taking about weddings?

She snorted to herself. Loki would be a total bridezilla.

Loki began repeating the question, only to be cut off by Annalise.

“I don’t know what time it is, but it’s too early to have this conversation.”

The look Loki shot at her was not pleasant. He took a calming breath of his own and tried again.

“Barton inferred that a traditional... Judeo-Christian ceremony would be best received by the planet.”

Annalise really, really, really didn’t want to ask who was getting married. However, despite the limited amount of time she’d spent with him, she knew he’d keep going on and on without realizing she was clueless unless she spoke up. The problem was that she really didn’t want to know. Her question was reluctant, as if she were a mother asking a small child why the family pet is wearing Mommy’s lipstick.

“Loki, who is getting married?”

Loki paused, reaching across the table for her glass and taking a sip of juice. Not meeting her gaze, he idly stroked his glowing scepter. She had a feeling he was making a point to remind her just how much power he wielded.

“Cross breeding is the surest way to secure my throne. I need to get you with child immediately, and I understand humans value children born in wedlock more than those that aren’t.”

“Oh my God, it’s really too early to have this conversation! What the hell!”

Loki smirked with an aggravating air of self satisfaction.

Her brows rose of their own volition. She was so afraid she’d miss some kind of indicator that he was joking that she couldn’t blink. Her eyes watered.

“You… You aren’t even done taking over the world! There’s nothing to rule! You ju--.”

“Enough. I’m being extremely generous. You could always spend the rest of your days in chains, my peach.” His smile was absolutely sinister.

Her glare was icy, but she was too stunned to back it up with a scathing remark. Her mouth was so dry she couldn’t swallow.

“Because I’d happily arrange that. I’d keep you nude and leashed, like those dogs your kind are so find of, and at my side always. My little human pet.”

She was torn between whining and spitting in rage.

“Loki, you saw that I was ineffective at Stuttgart last night. If this is really what you need to do, if you want to conquer Earth, you need a diplomat, not a commercial liaison at your side.”

“You please me. You’re stubborn, but not unintelligent. Once you submit to me, you’ll make a becoming queen.”

Despite her sheet-dress, Annalise managed to wrestle her knees to her chest, resting her heels on the edge of her chair cushion.

This was not a man that understood the word “no.” Like, it wasn’t even in his seemingly extensive vocabulary. She sighed, buttering a piece of toast. It was probably wisest to let this issue go for now. Except for the pregnancy part. She needed to get to a pharmacy ASAP as soon as they landed. She realized she didn’t know where they were going.

“Where are we flying to?”

“The City of New York.”

“We’re going to New York City?”

“That’s what I said,” he said warily, as if repeating himself were taxing.

She fought the urge to roll her eyes.

“Right, sorry. Why are we going there?”

“To conquer it.”

Annalise almost spit out her bite of toast.

“You’re going to take New York City?”

She smirked. “You and what army?”

“The Chitauri.”

It took a moment for his serious expression and words to register for her smile to fall. Her stomach turned to lead as she realize he was being earnest. Oh, God. Of course he had an army.

She peered into her cup. The orange juice was no longer sufficient. She needed a damn Screwdriver.

Anxiously her fingers drummed on the table surface as she thought. What was the best way to get through to a megalomaniac? What part of him was she supposed to appeal to?

“Loki,” she began.

An agent passed through the room and the god narrowed his eyes at her.

It took her a moment, but once she realized her mistake she corrected herself.

“My King.” The formal title she uttered wasn’t completely without sarcasm.

“Good girl. Continue.”

“New York City… it’s not some citadel with walls and moats and castles. It’s just a city, like Stuttgart was. You can’t conquer it.”

Loki chuckled and shook his head like she was the most naïve being on the face of the Earth.

“Don’t worry yourself with logistics, little peach. I’ll take care of that.”

Annalise yelped as he stood unexpectedly and pulled her from the chair, slipping his fingers between the tightly wound sheet and her breast, and tugged.

“And in return, you’ll take care of me,” he purred.

The King intentionally distracted her with the slight, and while she was preparing to glare and retort, the sheet fluttered to the floor and she was yanked flush against his hard body. Without her heels, her lack of height was emphasized as her nose barely reached his sternum. She braced her hands on his upper abdominals.

…rock solid, warm, rippling abdominals. Distracted, she found her palms roaming up against his pecs, admiring the sheer might his body wielded.

Ugh. If only power weren’t such a turn on.

As her hands wandered in absent minded fascination, she felt his laugh rumble in his chest.

“You’re so easy to please, kitten.”

Annalise scowled at him. She was irritated, mostly because he was right. Angrily she pushed away in an attempt to put distance between them, but Loki, with his long damn arms, grabbed and lifted her like a child, placing her squarely atop of the table.

“The more you struggle, the harder I get,” he breathed into her ear, his hot breath puffing against her face.

Successfully she bit back a whimper—which clearly would’ve only spurred him on—so that was definitely a win. But all her work was for naught when she let out a delirious moan as he worked his cock from his pants and ran the head along the length of her slit, slicked with her own wetness and his precum, and rubbed teasing circles around her clit. This time a whimper escaped from between her lips, much to her dismay. Unable to hold herself up, she reached for him, grateful that he allowed her to cling to his shoulders.

The delicious pressure in her lower belly began commandeering her brain, that toe curling, throbbing sensation preventing her from thinking effectively. All she could do was feel. Annalise had to grit her teeth to keep from thrusting her hips against him. How did he make her feel so wonton and goddamn needy so fast? She could feel the slick on her thighs.

“Fuck,” he growled, pumping his fist over his length, “You’re always ready for me. Is all of this just from being in my presence? Is that really all it takes, my little peach?”

Digging her nails into the skin of his shoulders she tried to push him away in an effort to close her thighs, but he merely forced her legs further apart and pushed her onto her back.

He liked this even better. He could see her breasts rising and falling rapidly with each pant.

This girl was a most delectable toy, as far as humans go.

By the time she realized Loki’s intent, he had already slithered an arm beneath each bent knee, it was too late. When he slammed into her, she shrieked. The noise was a culmination of pleasure, embarrassment and pain; she was still tender and swollen from the night before. The girl turned her face to the side so she didn’t have to watch the dark satisfaction in his eyes as he fucked her.

He sighed, but didn’t miss a beat.

“Don’t be angry sweet one, I love it. You feel so.” Thrust. “Fucking.” Thrust. “Good.” Thrust. “Annalise.”

Her name on his lips ruined her. That, and the fact that his thumb was circling her clit at an agonizingly slow pace. Facing him once more, her eyes flitted to his as her jaw slowly fell open. She saw stars. Though her vision blurred with each pump of his hips, she caught sight of his mouth when he took his lip between his teeth in concentration.

He’d kissed her before, but when he had, they’d been harsh, dominating kisses to soothe his own nerves as he claimed her body. Her body seemed to appease him. It may turn the man into a complete animal, but a comforted animal. She looked at him, aching for a kiss or something that resembled intimacy so didn’t feel so much like his whore. Let her pretend she wasn’t just a pair of warm thighs for him to bury himself between.

Later she would blame the intensity and angle of his damn thrusts, which were quickly transitioning from painful to very, very enjoyable, for her lapse in brain function. In a rare show of utter vulnerability, she whimpered.

"Kiss me?”

Loki narrowed his eyes and searched her face, looking for what, she was unsure.

When she realized what she’d asked aloud, she clapped a hand over her mouth in disgrace. He already thought her pathetic. If she didn’t remind him of her worth, he could very well kill her. He most definitely didn’t want a simpering child.

When his thrusts ceased, Annalise tried to climb off the table, so ashamed by her request that she couldn’t look him in the eye. Loki never left the warmth of her sweet cunt ,he simply pulled her back to him and positioned her legs around his waist, making sure her ankles hooked behind his back. Apparently too far gone for verbal communication, Loki simply slipped a nimble hand behind her neck and used the other to hoist her up by her waist. His lips claimed hers with a ferocity she’d never felt from him before. She knew she was very, very foolish for even thinking it, but perhaps he craved connection too? Mouths pressed together firmly, they both groaned. Loki’s lips had always felt amazing against hers. Like he was drinking her in, consuming her kiss by kiss with no intention of returning her.

Their mouths slipped and slid and Anna lost track of her own movements. Had she been more aware, she would have realized that she met each of his thrusts with one of her own, and that the clapping noise her subconscious noted was the product of skin hitting skin. Her heels dug into his rear and her hips swung desperately at his.

In clinging to one another, neither had a free hand, but Loki’s pelvis was hitting her clit just right, and his cock kept rubbing along that illusive little spot inside her. Annalise’s thrusts became irregular as her mind closed down and her body took over. She found herself clinging to him once more, her face buried against his shoulder as she begged him to fuck her harder. Loki obliged with a growl, sending her keening over the edge with a shrieked curse. Normally one to tease a second orgasm out of his companion (for the simple sake of his own ego, not her pleasure) Loki could no longer hold back and lost control, his hips pistoning against hers, her fluttering, constricting walls coaxing an intense orgasm of his own as he shot his seed deep into her core.

Both clung to the other for several moments, until Annalise unhooked her shaking legs and lowered her thighs to the table. The King surprised her when he took her lips once more, stealing her breath. Gripping her neck, he forced her mouth against his, sucking hungrily at her tongue. He nipped her lower lip before allowing her free as she gasped for air, her breasts heaving pleasantly against his chest.

The longer they held one another post-orgasm, the more Annalise realized the entire plane just heard Loki fuck the living daylights out of her. She’d never be able to look any of the agents in the eye again. Ever. She was also reminded of the fact that she was still very, very nude. Squirming from his grasp she reached for her sheet, only to be scooped up by Loki and carried back to their room.

“We will sleep now. Then I will provide you with clothing and we’ll discuss Midgardian marriage customs at length.”

Letting her slide to the floor, he peeled the comforter of the bed (which had been considerately remade during their tryst) and ushered her under the covers. To her surprise, he climbed in after her and pulled her back against his front, possessively tucking an arm around her waist.

In truth, as her orgasm indicated, Annalise enjoyed sex with Loki. She loved the way he made her feel when he was inside her: Attractive, feminine, and powerful. Helpless at times, but at others very powerful. It was just that the majority of the time she felt like a dull, ignorant, and insignificant pest that apparently has no say in an inter-planetary marriage and birthing an heir to a god she was pretty sure wasn’t sane by Earth’s standards.

#loki fanfic #tom hiddleston loki #loki fanfiction #loki #lok #ao3feed

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